Shadow Wings (The Darkest Drae Book 2)(25)

From the shadowed entrance came yet another woman, though this one had layers of beaded necklaces covering her bare chest. She looked as bad as the rest of the emaciated females, but the way she carried herself indicated rank.

The unconscious woman was dropped inside the ring of rocks, and the leader held her hands high, addressing her horde in a clipped language I couldn’t understand. My nostrils twitched at the thin scent of the women's sweat and adrenaline; their overpowering smell was evident from where I soared.

Let’s go, Ryn. Panic laced Tyrrik’s words, snapping me from my transfixed stupor. Then he added, Please. He began to circle me, his dark Drae eyes wide, and in their depths, I could not only see, but feel, his alarm. His wings beat the air. His tail thrashed in warning.

If he thought I was leaving now, he had another thing coming. Gemondians weren’t cute mining dwarfs as I’d thought; they were terrifying. If the people were like this, what was the king like?

Tell me what’s happening. I batted him with my tail, but he dodged and continued in his tight circles, inching us away from the colony of Gemondians. Tell me what they’re going to do. I could guess they weren’t dragging her to an infirmary. Are they going to kill her?

Please, Princess. I’ll tell you everything, but please . . .

Because your track record is so great. The community disappeared behind a ridge of dark rock, and the ravine and its inhabitants disappeared from view as we approached the gold dome. Through the Phaetyn energy, there were trees, but vision wasn’t the only heightened sense I now possessed.

I inhaled, grimacing at the taint of smoke. So many scents, but one smell overpowered the rest. The scent of searing meat tickled my nostrils, and I gagged. Holy-freakin’-Drae. My stomach roiled as understanding punched me. They were eating her.

My mind blanked, my concentration evaporated, and my energy snapped as coherent thought fled my mind.

Tyrrik, I called through our connection as spots filled my vision. Something was happening. I couldn’t feel my energy. My wings weren’t working.

I tumbled from the sky, roaring in panic.

The wind battered my limp limbs, and my roar became a bellow of pain. My heart stopped, skipping as I looked at my hands. My Phaetyn hands.

“Tyrrik,” I screamed, my voice disappearing into the rushing air.

A splitting roar filled the air. I plummeted toward the rocks below, sensing Tyrrik’s energy blasting toward me as he dove alongside and then catapulted below me.

I shrieked as my body slammed into solid stone. My vision spotted black again, and the pulse of agony made my head spin. The breath whooshed from my lungs, and I retched. A fraction of a second later, I blinked in the darkness. Another fraction later, I understood. I was in Tyrrik’s claws. I hadn’t hit stone . . . he’d caught me. I sagged into the flesh of his palm just as he crashed into the ground. He’d been too close to the ground to stop his trajectory. Holy pancakes.

He screeched beneath me, fire shooting from his Drae mouth into the sky, wings caught between his body and the rocks. One second, I was in his black scaly palm, and the next, I was lying on top of Lord Tyrrik. He gasped, and I scurried off, my mind blank with shock.

“I’m s-sorry,” I said, teeth chattering as I backed away from Tyrrik’s prostrate form. “I’m so, so . . .”

No. No, no, no. I blinked, trying to clear my tunneled vision. I stared at Tyrrik; my chest hollowed out, and a buzzing filled my ears, numbing my lips and rooting me to the spot. I sucked in a breath, but the air disappeared, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

We’d landed a few hundred meters from a lush forest, with golden filaments of energy shrouding the woods, except between us and the trees sat a thick barrier of jutting, stone spikes. Tyrrik lay impaled on a spike on the very edge of the barrier.

I rushed to his side and dropped to my knees as I stared at the jagged piece of rock protruding from above his right breast. I swallowed the sob working its way up my throat and hovered, my hands trembling above the injury. “What have I done?”

Tyrrik gasped again, the wet sucking sound enough to shake me from my stupor.

“Bloody, bloody . . . Tyrrik, what do I do? What . . . ?” My mind refused to catch up. How had this happened? Rocks shouldn’t be . . . they shouldn’t go through a Drae’s chest like that. We were invincible. “Do I pull it out? Do I pull you off?”

His eyes were glassy and unfocused as he continued to gasp with ragged soggy breaths. Stars above. He was drowning in his own blood. The thought of him dying like this, dying at all, threatened to tip me over the edge.

“I’m so sorry, Tyrrik.” I ran my hand over his face, brushing his lips with my fingertips. I circled so I stood at his head and scooped my hands under the back of his shoulders.

The shard of stone was not even two feet tall. I could do this. I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

I took a deep breath, and with another whispered apology, I heaved with all my strength. The sickening sound of blood and tearing flesh was all I could hear, and I whimpered.

The blood in his mouth gargled as he wailed. The muscles in his neck tightened, his eyes flooded black, and a moment later, his body went limp. His eyes rolled back in his head, showing only white.

My heart clenched, and I dug my fingers into him as my palms grew slick with sweat. Tears streamed unchecked from my eyes, dripping onto Tyrrik’s pale face.