All the riders were standing in a straight line in the middle of the pit, waiting for something…
King Elion rose. “Initiates. We respect the Moon Gods and their choices. The thirty of you were not deemed worthy of the Vinculum bond. May your souls be worthy when you meet Dahes.”
“When you meet Dahes…” I mouthed, then realization dawned on me. No—he was going to kill them all…
A reverberation sounded before the sinking suns were blocked by clouds. No. Not clouds—a white dragon.
“That’s a Crepito,” Cash said over the loud rattle. “They’re the only species of dragons that make the noise—” He didn’t need to say it. There was no denying the rattle that was shakingmy bones. “—they rattle.”
The sound was jostling and only grew as the dragon slowly descended from the sky. Then, the projection shifted. We were no longer looking at the thirty initiates down in the pit, but the projection user was staring up toward King Elion’s balcony, and although I probably could have seen better if I just looked at the balcony myself, my eyes were glued to the projection.
I watched as Arrik jumped off the balcony and landed perfectly in the middle of the dragon’s back. The rattling stopped the instant he was on and I could do nothing but watch as it tucked its wings before swooping down toward the pit.
“Suns,” I cursed. “The dragon’s going to burn them…” It brought me back to the first night of the Vargothi when I spent what felt like hours watching that girl slowly burn, only now there were thirty of them…
“No,” Cash said, interrupting my thoughts. “The dragon isn’t going to burn them.” Before I could relax, his next words hit me like a brick. “Hael’s going to kill them.”
Hael.
The name rang through my ears, but I couldn’t process it.
Even as I watched Arrik jump off the Crepito’s back and land perfectly in front of the initiates.
Even as I watched him unsheath the blade at his back.
Even as I watched him move down the line, stabbing each initiate through the heart.
One after another after another—until all thirty riders were bleeding out in the pit.
It happened so fast. One clean strike for each failed rider. The tip of his sword finding its mark every time.
No one fought him. No one tried to run. They all just waited for him to stab them…
It wasn’t until the dirt was painted red and all thirty bodies were lifeless, piled atop one another that he resheathed his sword, not bothering to wipe the blood off of it. He turned without uttering a single word before jumping back onto his dragon. The Crepito let out a lowrattle before it roared, everyone’s hands simultaneously grabbing at their ears to drown out the shrill.
White flashed in my vision as the dragon soared upward, then out of view.
“No,” I might have staggered backward. “That’s Arrik.” I turned toward Cash, my voice rising a couple of octaves. “That was Arrik?”
“Yeah,” Cash nodded. “Hael Arrik.”
“This is the end of the Vargothi,” King Elion boasted, but I couldn’t stop staring up at the suns, even as my eyes burned and tears poured down my cheeks from the brightness. I kept gaping up at the endless blue sky like I’d still be able to see him, even though the dragon was long gone… “Tonight we have the Imassura, but tomorrow we celebrate this triumph as a kingdom to honor our forty-two newest drakin recruits.”
Cheers went up in the stands, but I couldn’t move—could barely think.
I finally found out who Hael was.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brothel
MAGNOLIA
Iwasn’t paying attention as Cash led me out of the Dome—but I should have been. I was still so shocked that Arrik was really Hael.
I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the rider who brought me into Viven was the same rider I would eventually have to sneak out. Dahes only said I had to figure out his weaknesses, but I knew better than to assume someone else would get him out when the time came for it.
There was no one else.
