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In desperation, I lifted my head to the domed glass ceiling and roared—a soul-shattering sound like nothing I had ever uttered before, that seemed to fill the entire Feasting Hall with my despair and doom. It was an expression of my hopeless state—my fear for my loved ones and my desire to keep them safe all rolled into an ear-splitting sound that seemed to come from my very heart.
And then, to my surprise, somewhere from outside the high glass ceiling, another roar answered me.
97
Kaitlyn
I looked up in amazement only to see the beautiful stained-glass window depicting a dragon shatter with a deafening crash. In place of the red dragon on the sky-blue field, a black dragon appeared. Black with a blood-red sheen to his scales, I saw, and knew at once who it must be.
Saint’s Drake was the biggest I had ever seen—even bigger than Ari’s father’s scarlet and gold-toned beast. Its roar was deafening and its glowing red eyes—like two live coals—rolled madly in its head. It was clear it wasn’t completely in its right mind, the way Ari’s Drake always was—but it certainly knew who the enemy was.
It dived right at the older Sanchez, who saw what was coming for him too late. He started to shift but since he couldn’t change in a fraction of a second like Ari could, he had barely begun to sprout a snout when Saint’s Blood Drake bit him in half. I thought he would eat the top half of Sanchez, but he spit it to one side disdainfully, like a man eating sunflower seeds spitting out a shell.
Sasha Sanchez let out a blood-curdling scream as she watched the bottom half of her husband fall to its knees and then slowly topple over, squirting a gaudy spray of blood all over the white marble floor. It might have been better if she hadn’t drawn attention to herself, though. The Blood Drake picked her up almost delicately in one taloned forehand and brought her up to its enormous face.
Sasha continued screaming and then began to beat at the enormous blunt nose of the Blood Drake, shouting orders all the while.
“Let me go, you cabron, you! I am a noblewoman of the highest house in the land! And I’m going to be queen! So let me go! Let me go!”
The Blood Drake studied her, his head cocked to one side in an almost thoughtful attitude while it considered her tantrum. Then, with the delicacy of a chocolate connoisseur nibbling just the corner of a chocolate bar, he brought her to his enormous, fang-filled mouth and neatly bit off her head.
He tossed the body away like a doll he was bored of and spat the head with its long, dark hair in the other direction. Then he turned to face Pedro Sanchez’s gray-green Drake, which wasn’t even half his size.
Pedro’s Drake was clearly looking for revenge, but he didn’t get it. He tried flaming at the other Drake, but his fire was weak—that was easy to see. It didn’t even singe the scales of the Blood Drake’s chest where it made contact.
In reply, the Blood Drake’s jaws stretched wide and a great gout of flame so hot that I could feel it across the room, suddenly shot out and enveloped the smaller beast.
Pedro’s Drake yipped like a wounded dog as his scales went from gray-green to burnt-back. He backed away, whimpering but the Blood Drake had already turned his attention to the other traitor Drakes in the room.
All the Chamberlains had all turned by now, making the room feel even more crowded. And adding to the numbers of huge, scaly beasts in the room were the Drakes that were pouring in through the shattered glass ceiling. Clearly Saint had brought reinforcements—Drakes from the Western Province where Ari’s uncle ruled, no doubt. That was why he had left me so suddenly—to go get help.
Now it was the traitors who were outnumbered and fights were breaking out everywhere. Gouts of flame were shooting in every direction and giant beasts were slashing at each other with foot-long talons and baring their knife-like teeth in challenge. Bellowing roars and black smoke filled the air.
Things were getting really dangerous and dicey for the people stuck in human form down on the ground. I looked for Ari again and saw that he was struggling with the manacles that still bound him. Not six inches from his head, the long spine of a Drake’s tail passed right by, close enough to ruffle his hair.
My heart jumped up into my throat—God, that had been too close! I had to get to him!
Now that nobody was holding on to the magical chains binding me, I was finally able to shrug them off. The one around my neck was the hardest, I finally managed to unwind it and leave it like a discarded necklace on the floor beside me. Then, feeling immensely lighter, I began edging my way around the angry, growling, fire-breathing Drakes as I made my way to Ari.
