“No!” I cried, my voice desperate and breaking. “Nox, faster!”
My wyvern tucked his wings in closer to his sides, sending us shooting toward the ground at terrifying speeds, but we were too late to stop Kellan’s ordered attack.
The red-gazed wyvern unleashed a fiery blaze down toward the land, right atop our soldiers.
I was screaming. Words weren’t coming out of me, but only sounds and cries of fury and horror as I watched the flames fan out over a quarter of the battlefield.
Assuming my own screams were drowning out those of the ones being burned alive, tears streamed down my soot-covered cheeks. But as the flames cleared, my eyes flared.
The blaze was met with power—pure, blinding sorcery, as a golden light slipped back into a silver-haired witch that watched us from the ground below, my mate standing next to her.
“YES!” I roared as I pumped my fist in the air, causing the saddle to slip further off of Nox from accidentally releasing my hold on it.
Both Kellan’s mount and Nox pulled up right before slamming into the terrain, our beasts racing only feet above the chaos of battle.
He turned back to face me, our eyes meeting once more, and I could have sworn I heard his scoff of annoyance over the rushing winds.
My vision was fixated on him. A pure obsidian haze blocked out everything else that surrounded us, and I knew it wasn’t from the smoke from our wyverns’ flames—but from my wrath.
My mate was down there. Myhusbandwas right where Kellan placed the attack. He would’ve been consumed by the blaze that was unleashed upon them if it wasn’t for Veli and her shield of power.
As if ordered, Nox sped through the skies as Kellan’s mount pulled upwards, sending us soaring toward the sea that rested at Isla’s opposite end.
Nox snapped at the beast’s tail, his countless rows of dagger-sharp teeth sinking into the flesh beneath its scales. The shriek of pain it let out echoed over the city, but my only reaction was to hit them while we could.
“Ignystae!” I bellowed, and Nox answered by sending a helix of flames licking up the wyvern’s tail and scorching Kellan’s back.
His anguished screams filled the air, and my eyes remained locked on him, burning with fury. A twisted grin tugged at the corners of my lips as the sound reached my ears.
He swatted at his back, desperately trying to put out the embers that continued to burn.
My mind raced as we continued to chase them, knowing that at some point, Nox’s flames would run out. It wasn’t a matter of if but of when. And the knowledge of that wasboth terrifying and valuable. If I ordered him to unleash everything he had, and they escaped the blaze, we would be left vulnerable, and it would doom us.
Keep your wits about you. Lukas’ old warning played in my mind. They threatened to paralyze me, but I had to listen to them. I had to be smart if I was to be deserving of my crown.
I growled as his mount made it over the sea, dipping its tail that had remained ablaze into the water, extinguishing what had remained of our attack.
Our wyverns weaved through the empty, blood-stained ships, where my eyes caught the sirens lingering beneath some of the vessels and in the distance perched on jagged rocks.
As we glided out over the sea, he circled back to the city, aiming for the castle. We caught up by cutting across the open sky beneath them.
“What’s the matter, Kellan?” I called over the winds, and his furious gaze snapped to mine. “Crew caught in a siren song?” I taunted him with a wink.
He chuckled. The psychopathchuckledat my words right before reaching into his boot and whipping a dagger in my direction. His beast veered left, gliding away from us as I barely dodged the blade by slamming my chest down onto Nox’s back.
“Motherfucker.” I growled. “Get him!” Nox took off as commanded, barreling after them over the city.
We rapidly flew around Castle Isla as we weaved between its stone towers, high in the sky. The wind howled around us, carrying the scent of burning embers and spilled blood. The other beast twisted and looped, attempting to evadethe oncoming barrage of flame Nox sent without my permission.
“Nox, no!” I screeched.
Kellan’s mount circled up one of the east towers, and we followed in a relentless dance. His wyvern’s jaw snapped at me, and I foolishly released my hold on Nox’s fin—our saddle began sliding down his body, bringing me with it.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I gasped in horror as the saddle completely slid over his side, Kellan’s beast still snapping at me and my own, as the booming beat of several wings threatened to make me deaf. One of the clawed tips of Nox’s wings sank into the other’s chest, and he used the forceful momentum to shoot us higher in the sky and our enemy back down to the ground, hundreds of feet below.
Finally, I released my hold on the ruined saddle and used all the force of my body to heave myself back up onto Nox’s back, but my grip slipped. Suddenly, I was free-falling in the open air.
