Page 158 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

But Azul’s flock…

Well, fuck me.

Those eagles swarm across the broken catapults and wooden crates, wrapping their powerful talons around the wooden monstrosities and wrenching them up into the air.

Within seconds, the eagle swarm is fully airborne again, every one of them carrying some part of a weapon, many of the pieces large enough to weigh the eagles down, but up the birds determinedly rise, their strong wings beating hard.

I’m close enough to Kaiba now that I can make out his features as he lifts his horn and blows another command, one he initiated some time ago. This command tells our warriors to attack the fae, not their animals.

A fucking handy order right now.

The warriors immediately concentrate their fire across the ground and into the air behind the eagles, creating fiery barriers to stop any Iron Fae from giving chase, including burning a barrage of arrows a legion of Iron Fae let loose at the eagles.

Not a single eagle falls or burns.

As I leap from my serpent’s back and onto the tower top, Azul’s second shriek sounds. The saddled eagles shake off their riders, darting and ducking and soaring after Azul’s flock.

Within seconds, they’ve joined Azul, and all of them soar away into the distance.

I don’t know where Azul intends to take Hadrian’s weapons, but I’m happy to see the back of them.

“Kaiba.” I quickly rise from my crouch. Now that I’m here, I can forewarn him about my plan to hand him the throne. I won’t be able to give him much time to process this change, but at least he’ll have some notice.

He’s already hurrying toward me while the group of ten Ember warriors mobilize behind him.

My forehead creases when fire flares around the men’s hands and they rapidly fan out around the tower top, their sights set firmly on me.

“Maxim.” Kaiba’s voice is low and urgent as he reaches me, his gaze flickering to my serpent, who circles the air behind me. “You can’t be here.”

I register my name as a warning. Maxim. Incredibly rare for Kaiba to call me that. “What are you⁠—?”

“Go,” he says beneath his breath, his hands gripping my shoulders as he pushes me backward. “You have to go.”

What the fuck?

The fact that Kaiba would risk touching me stuns me. He’s lucky I didn’t burn his hands off just now.

The men prowling behind him weave plumes of fire across the air as they stalk toward me, a hostile approach like no Ember warrior has made toward me before.

Do they wish for death?

I’m about to rebuke them when one of them snarls. “Fucking Blood Fae.”

A sickening rush of blood fills my ears and my vision blurs.

Fuck…

The warriors’ spoken threats increase as they loom behind Kaiba, their words a blur, and I make out only one, who says, “I’d rather become ash in the sand than breathe the same air as a Blood Fae.”

How did they find out? How? When even I don’t fully believe it yet?

Kaiba’s face is pale, his fists hovering inches from my chest. “I can’t fucking stop them, but I’ll look after Zenaida and your Mothers. Go, Maxim.”

If it weren’t for Kaiba standing in their way, I’m certain these men would have attacked me already. And killed themselves in the process. That they haven’t turned on Kaiba gives me a shred of hope.

As I prepare to leap off the tower’s edge, I raise my voice. “My mother was a Blood Fae. She abandoned me when I was a baby. She was not Zenaida’s mother and she is not among the women who were forced to raise me and suffered the insult of being called my ‘Mothers.’”

I don’t know if these men will believe me. Maybe I’ve made things worse, but I had to try.