But I didn’t have a chance to find a way out.
Ocnolog rose from the smoke, Yazmin grinning wildly from her place between his horns. The smog swirled around us as his wings beat a ferocious gust in our direction, and Onyx did everything in his power to simply hold his ground. But I could feel his muscles giving. The slight loosening of knots as his wings started to shift.
“Let her go.”
Onyx rolled and gave a definitive hard shake. And the next thing I knew I was falling. Plummeting through the fog and screaming at the top of my lungs as the sky rushed past me. My breaths came hard and fast. This couldn’t be the end. I hadn’t saved Lendria. I hadn’t righted the wrongs the Wilheimians had committed against my people. I hadn’tlivedwith Noc like we’d promised. Tears bisected my cheeks as the wind screeched by my ears. I’d finally careened out of the black cloud and was now heading straight for the hard, unforgiving earth.
There wasn’t a beast I could summon to get me out of this. Most of them were already fighting in the battle below, and even then, Onyx was the only one that could support my weight.
Onyx.My tears thickened. I’d gone through so much to tame him. My journey started with him. Everything good in my life had happened because I’d sought him out. Because he was the beast that I needed. Because his faith in me had proven my innocence to the Charmers and my devotion to my creatures.
I would never see him again.
Gathering the last of my breath, I screamed as loud as I could. “Onyx!”
The ground rushed toward me. The soldiers below were becoming terrifyingly clear, their features more defined. The beasts, and Raven and Gaige and Noc and—
A thunderous roar broke through the howl of the wind. And then I saw him. My beloved beast. Wings pinned to his back in a dive, he sped toward me. But he wasn’t alone. Behind him, an enraged Ocnolog also dove at breakneck speed, gathering fire in his belly and preparing to bury us in flames.
The clang of swords crashing against one another was close now. The cries louder, the ground closer. I didn’t dare close my eyes. Didn’t look to my demise, either, but instead stared at my beast. If I was going to die, then the last thing I wanted to see was him. The very creature who’d put me on this path and changed my life forever.
Onyx roared again and then suddenly he was there, snaking between me and the earth. I slammed into his back and he faltered for a moment before steadying himself and pulling sharply up, just in time. Relief crashed into me, and I let out a broken sob as I buried my face in his neck.
“You came.” How he’d overcome Ocnolog’s dragon speak I didn’t know. But he’d saved me once again.
Fury colored Ocnolog’s bellowing cry, and then fire rained around us. Onyx cut left and right, avoiding most of the flames, but his final maneuver wasn’t quite fast enough. Scalding fire burned along our left side, eating away at his wing and causing my flesh to sizzle beneath my armor. Agony arced through me, and I screamed at the same time Onyx yowled. We crashed into the earth and rolled across the grass, squelching the fire but not the pain.
The world slipped out from under me. “Onyx,” I managed, inching closer to him along the scorched ground. His answering cry was soft. Too soft. I ripped off my armor, eager to get the searing metal off my skin even if it left me exposed. We’d landed behind the battling armies, but close enough that I could still hear them. And yet they were still so far out of reach. The ground shook as Ocnolog landed a few feet away. His claws left canyons in the field, and his monstrous wings flared wide, casting my world in shadow. He beat them once, and the following gust knocked the wind out of my lungs before racing out over the plains. Rearing back, he snarled to reveal endless rows of sharpened teeth and a jaw capable of swallowing a Laharock whole.
Yazmin gripped his horns tight and leaned forward.“I’m tired of your games.”Again, the voice somehow came from both of them. Her words were a strange amalgamation of her and the beast. Just how much control did she really have? There was a twitch to Ocnolog’s muscles, an obvious shudder as he forced himself to look where she gazed.
Scrambling to my knees, I crawled along the earth to put myself between Ocnolog and Onyx. “Yazmin, stop this. If you keep this up, there won’t be anything left but ash.”
I gestured wide, wincing against the pain coursing through my side. The open plains outside Wilheim were burnt to a crisp. The very ground smoldered with heat, and there was no mistaking the heavy aroma of blood in the air. Atop the back of Ocnolog, she’d turned the thriving grasslands into a wasteland of death and decay.
It was horrifying. And yet…the burden of the crown, of wanting to protect your people at all costs, was something I understood in my core. But she’d turned to dark magic to do so, and it’d cost her more than she probably knew. Wynn had changed the moment he’d started dabbling in those spells. No matter how good his intentions had once been, there was no mistaking the corruption that followed.
As I looked upon Yazmin now, I knew the same could be said for her. But maybe she didn’t have to suffer the same fate. Maybe there was still time.
“Please, think of your people,” I tried, forcing myself to stand.
“My people?”Her sharp voice grated along my skin.“My people turned on me. They didn’t believe in me. Even though I’d been right all along.”
“I know.”
She kept right on going as if I’d never spoken.“And when I asked them to go to war, they rebuked me. But you?”Even from atop Ocnolog’s head, I could see the rage in her glare.“They listened to you.”
“I’m sorry, Yazmin. I’m sorry they didn’t listen, thatIdidn’t listen. But I’m listening now.” I took a few careful steps forward. “Celeste wouldn’t want this. You have to know that.”
“Do not speak that name!”Her voice trembled with fury, this time filled with so much raw heat and anger that I couldn’t detect Yazmin’s influence at all. Ocnolog stretched his neck high.“She should never have shared her power with you. That was a sacred bond between her and us beasts. You are not worthy to wield her magic.”
Yazmin’s face faltered, and she tightened her grip on Ocnolog. He didn’t seem to notice.
“Why? We love our beasts with everything we have.” While before I’d tried to appeal to Yazmin, this time I spoke only to Ocnolog. No matter that he was somehow connected to her, no matter that he’d destroyed so many already with his rage and fire. “Just as Celeste loved you.”
“Silence!”he roared. He swiveled his head toward the battle.“Come to me. Leave your Charmers behind. They do not deserve your devotion.”
The dragon speak was so thick I could practically taste it. I jerked my head toward the battle between us and Varek’s army, and my stomach plummeted to my feet. The beasts had halted in their attacks and were now looking our way. One by one, they stalked toward us, completely unaware of the battle they were leaving behind. Charmers shouted at their beloved creatures, tear-filled cries screeching through the air. Not one of the beasts responded. They just continued to saunter forward until they formed a wall at my back. Dangerous, threatening growls filled the air as they targeted their wary gazes on me. Only Onyx remained in control, and he forced himself to stand between them and me. Ears pinned against his skull, he roared a challenge.
