Leon arrived then, swinging his blade in the air at them as he leapt over her, landing before her feet. Zaela’s eyes widened as she looked up at General Vern while he worked to protect her.
One soldier succumbed to one of the swipes of his blade, falling to the ground with a scream cut short—the other two backed up a step as they beheld him.
“Not her daughter! You willnotharm her.” He lunged then, his words leaving him in a triumphant bellow.
Then two more arrived, and then another…and another. A moment later, Leon was surrounded by endless enemy soldiers as he continued to push them as far away from her as possible.
When I reached Zaela, I hauled her to her feet—my gaze meeting Leon's as he turned towards us, still engaged in the fight now thirty feet away.
My lips parted as our eyes remained on one another while everything around me slowed, knowing—dreading—what I knew in my gut would happen next.
Zaela lashed around in my hold, her screams filling my ears as she watched Leon lead them away from us.
Leon was a proud man and a strong warrior. He had lived the life of a combat general who was forced to watch all of his friends perish on the battlefield, dying with honor. Yet, he was also a man who lived long enough to know the love of a good woman—a woman whose daughter he now knowingly sacrificedhimself for so she could live.
“No!” Zaela cried in my arms, snapping me from my stupor as we watched our enemy’s blades plunge into his flesh.
“Get her out of here!” he roared at me right before he fell to his knees in the dirt.
Blinding rage consumed me. My hold on Zaela fell, and her wrath mirrored my own as I locked eyes with Gage as he crept up on Leon’s murderers from behind them.
With a mirrored battle cry, the three of us lifted our blades and charged at those who had just killed our general.
And we ended them all.
Kellan
I stood atop the cliffs beyond Castle Isla, and my entire body was riddled with stab wounds, making it difficult to breathe. My injuries weren’t healing nearly as quickly as I needed them to, and it pissed me the fuck off.
I let out a roar of fury into the smoke-filled sky. How the fuck had I let her get the upper hand on meagain? And this time, she nearly killed me.
The bitchjumpedonto my wyvern—she free-fell through the air and landed on top of us, blade out. I hated that I had to give her credit for the brave stupidity that worked in her favor.
My gaze moved from the sea, still riddled with blood-stained warships, to the battlefield that raged on beyond the gates and then to my beast.
My hand went to above my right lung, where the worst of the stab wounds were. When I lifted my hand, it was drenched in my own blood.
“Fuck!” I bellowed into the sky.
I felt the piercing stare of my wyvern's red gaze as it eagerly waited for my command. “Let’s fucking end this.”
I pushed through the agony of my wounds as I stormed up to him and climbed onto his back. Once ordered, the beast took off into the sky, barreling towards the armies that continued to fight for their lives.
Bodies were piling everywhere, their outlines clear even from the sky. “Let’s have a little fun, shall we?” I said to myself and then ordered the wyvern to send a blaze of hellfire down to the terrain.
Screams sounded from all sides, bodies flailing as they ran in all directions, engulfed in flames.
We landed in the center of the chaos; the roar of the other wyvern sounded in the far distance, from where it was defending the healers’ tent. That’s what I should’ve blown up from the sky when I had the chance, if only just to piss her off.
“Adler!” My name was called to me over the deafening sounds of war, and my gaze snapped in its direction—only to land on the most perfect fucking gift I could have imagined. Elianna’shusband.
A growl rumbled through my chest as my nostrils flared. The moronic man was sizing up my wyvern, blade held high, as I sat upon its back, staring down at him.
The man was bloodied and beaten, covered in the gore of my soldiers. My lip snarled as my mount dug the tipped claws of its wings into the terrain and let out a deafening screech at him—the force of it blowing his hair back and causing his steps to falter. However, the fucker continued to move toward me, unphased.
“How about you fucking come down here and fight me, man to man?” he taunted me with a blood-stained grin.
I smiled down at him, giving him one that matched. “How about I just turn you to ash where you stand and then find your wife and do the same to her?”
