SAKALA
I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t second guess myself. Faced between my fear of falling and Fane’s death, it wasn’t a choice at all. My inner draken didn’t argue, but instead melded with me as we worked together to control every move and twitch of my body as I dove after Fane. Mate! MATE! I didn’t even fully process that I was free-falling through the air until a few seconds later: a wingless, flightless draken diving into the void of death. The hordes of demons waited below. If the fall didn’t kill us, they surely would.
And yet, even now, I didn’t let out a distress call.
Above me, the king cried out an unintelligible string of words, too faint to hear as I fell faster and faster toward Fane. I focused on pointing my body downward to make myself as streamlined as possible. Quickly, I gained on him, his limp body splayed as it fell through the air.
We crashed hard together as I dug my claws into his skin. I didn’t care if I left marks now. As long as I saved his life like he’d saved mine. A flare of magick shot through my body as the king stopped screaming and the clamps around my wings fell off.
Crying with hope and renewed purpose, I flared my wings high, screaming in pain as white-hot agony burned through the damaged and abused muscles that hadn’t spread themselves or stretched in over a week. I refused to let my wings break and forced them to stay open. Failure was not an option. Our descent slowed rapidly, but not quickly enough. The ground rose to meet us, slowly enough that we wouldn’t die, but quickly enough that every bone in our bodies might break instead.
“Wings!” I screamed at no one, near my breaking point as my bones and muscles cried out in agony. We careened toward the ground, wildly out of control. Refusing to give up, I dug deep and spread my wings even further, knowing logically I couldn’t support my weight and Fane’s. Muscle and sinew stretched and stretched–any moment the delicate bones would snap, tendons would rip, and we’d plunge to our deaths.
But not yet.
Amazingly, my wings held. Fane gasped out loud as he came to consciousness in midair. We caught an updraft and we slowed further, sweat running into my eyes as I struggled to support both our bodies at the same time.
And impossibly, I did.
As the ground reached up to meet us, Fane stared in awe. I followed his gaze over my shoulder, noting the rippling muscles on my back, new and different from the silhouette I was used to seeing of myself. Had they been there this whole time? My wing joints looked thicker and stronger as well—then it hit me.
The wing clamps.
I’d been carrying them around all week, subtly improving my strength and forcing my muscles to grow. I was strong enough to carry both of us because of the unintentional weight training of the clamps.
I barked out a laugh of disbelief.
BAM.
We hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of both of us as we rolled and came to a stop. Blinding pain hit my temple, followed by a spurt of wetness. Fane crawled to my side and leaned over me, tears dripping down his cheeks. He was careful so that the arrow sticking through him didn’t poke me. The thought was ridiculous.
“My little proud warrior. Still no distress call?”
Blood pooled underneath him, his breaths coming in shallow pants. He needed to get back up to the drakens, or he’d die. I might die.
“ ‘S bad, isn’t it?” he asked me, frowning at his wound. My tongue felt hot and swollen in my mouth, making it impossible to answer. I crawled to my knees and pushed him back down, able to see the silhouettes of the entire demon army only a few hundred yards from us.
I glanced up in distress. The battlements seemed a life away, and no one would be foolish enough to fly down here after us; it would be a suicide mission.
No. I refused to accept that we would die here. Not after everything Fane had sacrificed. Not after how far we’d come. And especially not after I had finally realized what a mature, caring draken he could be. I hadn’t realized how strong my feelings were for him until he’d fallen over the wall, my love for him instantly trumping all fear and anxiety. How could I have not made the choice to leap after him?
Fane’s eyes closed, his hand going limp in mine. Utter terror pulsed through me like I’d never felt before—not even when I’d vaulted over the side of the battlements after him, free falling with no wings. I was never one to call for help—I’d never needed it. Letting out a distress call was what a weak female who couldn’t protect herself did, someone who needed a male. I swore I would never do it, perhaps not even on pain of death. So far in my life, I’d held to that promise admirably.
But things had changed. It was too much. Fane was bleeding out in front of me, and though I’d kept both of us from dying on impact, he had taken the brunt of the fall, as always. It wasn’t fair that he had turned from my childhood nemesis into this … this … mature, caring draken who put me before his own well-being. It wasn’t fair that I admired him for how much he’d grown up in the past week, staying by my side and supporting me.
It wasn’t fair that I realized I loved him back right as he lay dying in the hot sand, unconscious as our blood mixed on the ground. If I could have, I would have mated him right then and there just to save his life.
But I couldn’t do that now. It was too late. There was only one recourse left.
I crouched over him and let out the loudest, most gut-wrenching distress call I could.
I screamed.
I screamed and raged, the distress call ripping out of my throat and tearing up my vocal chords. Chaotic, uncontrolled magick burst out of me in torrents, similar to a drakling who couldn’t control their emotions, but much, much worse.
The demons were shrieking and calling out in their own language, pointing and charging. It would only take a minute before they were upon us. The first wave recoiled when they got within a few yards of me, my screams and magick forcing them to their knees.
I couldn’t stop screaming. It was as though I’d bottled up my fear and frustration my entire life, and now that the dam had burst, there was no repairing it until all the water had rushed out. Blood burst from underneath my scales until I bled everywhere, the hot pain only a minor inconvenience to the agony in my heart.
Shadows fell over me and I hissed and flashed my fangs, flaring my wings high to hide Fane from view. I couldn’t tell the difference between friend or foe. My screams hurt my ears, but I didn’t stop. I wasn’t able to. The putrid scent of sick, white magick invaded my senses, and I only stopped screaming long enough to dry-heave next to Fane. The demons were twenty feet away. Ten feet away. Five. I hunkered down and curled myself over Fane, wrapping my wings around us both, and prepared to use them as a shield. I couldn’t scream forever.
Three feet. One.
Wind whipped around my head as a dozen figures swooped down on brooms, yelling and gesturing wildly with their arms. The entire first battalion of demons fell backwards into the second, causing the entire horde to stumble.
Dimly, I was aware of the drakens above us, diving next behind the witches over the cliff in formation. In front of us, the demon horde fell as the drakens cut them down after the witches knocked them off their feet. Like rabid animals, they kept pushing forward toward their deaths, salivating as they scented my out-of-control magick in the air. Draken warriors shot over my head, yelling war cries as they met the demon forces head on, ripping and tearing and separating heads from bodies.
I sobbed openly as the king landed in front of me, his own turquoise wings flared high to shield both of us. It was over; the races had formed an alliance to combat the demon forces and save us. Fane would be taken care of. He would live. I didn’t care about the pain pulsing from my nerves. Blood stained the dusty ground, but already the king had slit his wrist and was pushing it at Fane’s lips, forcing him to drink. I cried in relief as Fane’s fangs sunk down into his father’s wrist and drank deeply.
He would make it. That was all that mattered. He’d done too much already; he’d sacrificed too much. I deserved my pain. I deserved my suffering.
My claws dug into the dirt as I flattened my head against Fane’s chest, reassured by the steady beating of his heart. A witch flew by overhead, her silver hair streaming behind her. Astrid?!
“He isn’t healing! Why the fuck isn’t he healing?” the king screamed to no one. My brow furrowed. What?
“Why’d you stop screaming? Direct your magick at them!” A witch distracted me, pointing directly at the line of encroaching demons. Fear warred again with my anxiety before I pushed it away. I’d accidentally had an entire royal court eating out of my hand once before. What could I do to a demon army if I tried?
I dove and ducked around King Fane and screamed again, this time letting all of my rage and frustration stream out. The first ten lines of demons went down like the ground shook beneath them, falling and stumbling into each other like drunkards. The drakens and witches easily cut them down.
Above me, Astrid screeched in victory.
Behind me, other drakens and a few air witches descended, streaming forward to join the fight. My sense of purpose renewed as I screamed and screamed, knocking down lines of demons left and right to keep them from reaching Fane. The ground turned black as it soaked in the blood all around me, witch and draken battle cries mingling with the screams of the dying demons.
The king was bent behind me, hopefully healing his son.
It was actually going to be alright. I just had to keep the demons away. I had to keep fighting.
I wasn’t sure how long I kept it up, but eventually, I realized Fane was gone. Had the witches or other drakens taken him to safety? King Vasil put a hand on my shoulder, and I whipped around, a trill of magick escaping me. He winced, but pushed on.
“That is enough. It’s time to go.”
I opened my mouth to direct my magick to him. No one could tell me what to do! I missed the blur on a broomstick with silver hair that streaked behind me and knocked me out cold.
“There, that should make it easier,” Astrid’s voice called out.
It was the last thing I heard before everything went black.