Page 65 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

With every strike, Azul’s beak chips through the freeze and hits my armor, making that metallic sound I heard.

Another figure appears behind Cassia, leaning in. “Antony.”

“Victor?”

His tall frame blocks out even more of the light, the scarred side of his face in shadows. “I’m here.”

“You were supposed to run. You should be in the mountains⁠—”

A final crack sounds and the constriction lifts from my left side.

Victor reaches for me. “Can you stand on your own?”

I try to heave myself upright, but I manage only to slip to the side in an ungainly heap, the breath wheezing from my chest.

My damn heart. My frozen limbs.

“That’s a no,” Victor mutters. “Not surprising after two days buried in ice.”

It’s been two days? Some fucking snowstorm. If we had the Ember Kingdom’s burning sun, this frost would never have lasted so long.

“Right,” Victor says. “Up you go.”

I prepare for my brother to hoist me over his shoulder, but he and Cassia dart backward, clearing the space around me.

Azul moves in a flash, beating his wings and launching himself into the air, catching me in one of his talons on his way up.

Fucking fuck!

A second later, I’m airborne and rising higher into the sky.

Below me, the orchard is a mess of broken branches and scattered fruit. Blocks of ice have hardened around some of the trees.

From the sky, I make out Cassia and Victor racing toward eagles before they rise into the sky after me, quickly soaring upward.

My poisoned heart plummets as I search the ground for what I’m certain will be the bodies of my warriors, but I don’t see another soul.

I don’t know what happened to them, but Thyra would tell me to have hope.

That’s difficult when the pressure on my back increases with every moment I’m gripped in Azul’s talon, and I feel like my body is about to snap in two.

A moment later, Victor’s bird soars up beneath us.

Azul quickly lowers his flight path and within moments, the two birds are flying in sync, at which Victor stands up on his bird’s back.

He reaches up for me while Azul slowly opens his talon, releasing me into Victor’s hold.

“Bury your pride, big brother,” Victor calls over the wind as he grips me tightly and slides me down onto his eagle’s back in front of himself.

I can’t quell my frustration at the weakness of my limbs, snarling through my chipped helmet. “You know I can fucking levitate, right?”

“I guessed as much.” Victor adjusts his hold on me, knowing exactly where to grip me so the armored plates I’m wearing don’t tear off mid-flight. After all, he designed this armor. “Accept the help, brother.”

I fight the slump of my shoulders. “What happened to my warriors? We were heading east when the storm hit.”

Victor’s tone is soothing as he lifts his hand from my chest to gesture ahead of us. “See for yourself.”

Far in the distance, I make out a flock of eagles, all soaring east like we are. “They’re alive.”