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I have no idea how the Shadow King managed this. The dragon would need an incredible power source, and I can’t think of any that could bring him here. But what I do know, the king has thrown everything he has at us. If we survive this battle, he will be left weak. It will give us an opportunity.
But first we have to survive.
“Dragon!” I shout at the others.
There’s a chorus of shouts as the other men scream the word, warning everyone in our army of the coming danger. At any other time, this would be the moment we retreated, but we don’t have that luxury now. Even though these creatures and the dragon can’t get far from the Void, with enemies all around us, neither can we.
Besides the fact that if we run, they’ll simply plant the shards, and we’ll have lost.
As the dragon draws closer, Onyx is behind me. He’s trying his best to wrap up Dusk, to stop the bleeding, but I can see the fear in his face. My brother is in trouble.
“We need to get him to cover, where the dragon can’t reach him,” I mouth, unable to sign with my sword in one hand.
Onyx nods and puts his arm around my brother's back.
“You’re going to be okay,” I tell Dusk.
He doesn’t respond and the pain in his face says he can’t.
The shadow dragon is already too close. I hold out my sword, taking deep breaths, knowing that my sword will do next to no damage against a creature that powerful. When…when I see something that makes my blood run cold. Someone is on the dragon’s back.
The Shadow King himself.
Someone shouts, “The Shadow King!”
If there was fear before, it’s a thousand times worse now. I half expect to see my men running in the face of the king and his dragon, but to my amazement, they don’t. If anything, my men close in closer to me, still fighting, trying to offer their would-be king support.
The smoke dragon lowers to the ground not far from us, on the other end of the clearing. The king climbs off his back, hitting the ground. His clothes are all black, as they’ve always been, but his cape moves about him in a way that’s both creepy and frightening. It reminds me that once upon a time this man was a shadow beast like us, but now he’s something else, something terrifying.
The smoke dragon shields the king with its wings, taking arrows and bullets that mean nothing to him. His wings temporarily hide the king from us until the attack stops. And then, the massive creature lifts its wings and lets out a roar that shakes the air around us.
The king raises his hand and the shadow beasts fighting for him stop, moving away from their opponents, then bow their heads. My own men seem to struggle against the need to bow themselves, but I’m proud of them when they don’t. They simply stop fighting, staring, waiting.
He walks toward me, toward Onyx and Dusk. And he smiles. “Your brother is injured.” He cocks a brow, glancing from me to him. “It looks bad.”
“It is,” I say.
For some reason, my treacherous heart wants to see any sign of concern in his face. Anything to signal that the man I loved, the man I admired once upon a time, is still somewhere in there.
But I see nothing.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” I tell him, again some small part of me hoping to see a soul somewhere inside this terrible man.
He tilts his head, still smiling. “I thought you loved battle.”
Battle, yes, but nothing like this. Not my brother gravely injured behind me and shadow beasts fighting shadow beasts. He knows this. He knows everything about me.
Or at least he did, once upon a time.
“You like it too,” I challenge right back.
“I do.” He wags his eyebrows. “But I don’t love battling my sons.”
Sons.Does he even still see us as his sons? Because no father could hurt their children the way he’d hurt us. No father could watch his son in pain and smile.
“Then stop.” The words leave my lips before I can contain them.
If my father wanted to stop, he’d had a million times before this to do so. And he hadn’t.
