Shadow Wings (The Darkest Drae Book 2)(60)

My temper flared, and I knew when I saw the Phaetyn king, I wouldn’t be able to keep it together. Not as a Phaetyn. “Did you hear that?” I snapped, but Dyter shook his head. I must have my Drae senses on high alert. “You need to get out of here now. You and Tyrrik.”

Dyter grabbed something from under his bed, scooped a couple of things up from the floor, and slung his pack over his shoulder. “I’m going to need your help. I can’t carry the Drae alone.”

I snorted, walked back around Tyrrik’s bed, and swept everything off the sole table. I picked it up and heaved it across the room. The thick piece of furniture crashed into the window, shattering the glass on impact and sailing out into the clearing outside.

I gestured at the gaping hole, and Dyter shook his head.

“I guess we’re not trying to be stealthy about our exit?”

A menacing rumble filled my chest as I listened to Kamoi and Kaelan’s fighting in the hall. “I’m not done here yet. They tried to kill Tyrrik, and they’ve been bleeding him so they could kill the rebel Phaetyn with poisoned blades.”

I broke away the shards of glass on the bottom of the frame with a slice of my talons. “Get out now.”

Dyter didn’t argue, clambering over the sill to the outside porch. I covered Tyrrik with a blanket and picked him up, my heart breaking at his limpness. I passed him to Dyter, who grunted.

“I can’t carry him, Rynnie. Pass me another blanket from the bed.”

I yanked the top blanket off and tossed it through the window, spinning back as Kaelan burst into the room.

“You,” he shouted. His eyes were wild, his fair skin mottled with rage. “Look what you’ve done.”

Behind the Phaetyn king stood his mate, Alani, her eyes burning with hatred. Behind them over a dozen soldiers in purple aketons held spears and swords at the ready.

“Get him out of here,” I growled at Dyter, my anger boiling back to the surface. I stepped in front of the Phaetyn king to block Dyter and Tyrrik from view. “What I’ve done? You betrayed—”

“You were never welcome here,” Alani screamed. “You shouldn’t even exist. You’re an abomination.”

The heavy dragging sound continued out on the porch, and I hoped Dyter would get them off before—

“Kill her!” Alani screeched.

And, at the same time, her mate bellowed, “Kill them all!”

My vision changed, the colors becoming sharper. I rolled my neck as my body began to expand; a ripple ran through me as my scales grew to accommodate my Drae. I roared, letting instinct take over, and the room exploded as I shifted into Drae.

Pieces of quartz and wood blasted out, exploding high into the forest as I burst through the ceiling into the night, the darkness, my friend.

The air reeked of blood and death and betrayal.

I stretched my neck as I cleared the shards of glittering quartz and broken wood off my massive body. I stomped on the ground as I bellowed in rage. I swung my neck wide, crashing the side of my head through the walls of the queen’s house, roaring in fury.

Kaelen threw a piece of rubble off himself and then scrambled to uncover his mate. He choked at her pulverized form. Black webs had snaked through her broken body, and her open wounds were easy victims to Tyrrik’s blood dripping from the rubble with the basins flung and overturned.

Kaelen struggled to his feet, and above, the golden filaments of ancestral power protecting the Phaetyn from the emperor, dissolved into the darkness.

“You killed my mate!” His face filled with horror as he tipped his head to the sky. “You’ve brought down the barrier—”

I whipped my tail, lashing it across his torso. He was thrown across his dead queen, landing with a cry of pain. Using my talons, I swept at the rubble and the dipped weapons mixed in, launching them at the Phaetyn King.

A knife sliced the back of his raised hand. He stared in horror as black darkened his skin, oozing outward from the wound. His gaze lifted to mine, and I lowered myself to his level and licked my fangs. I would not be a victim to the schemes of the Phaetyn, and I would not allow them to steal from me, manipulate me, or hurt me again. I would protect my friends.

Once Kaelan was dead, I roared again, announcing throughout the entirety of Zivost I was Drae. The remaining Phaetyn had gathered when I burst out of the ceiling of the quartz house, but now, they fled. I watched them go, and then, using my tail, I laid the entire Pink House to waste. If I could breathe fire, I would’ve burned it to ash.

I turned and spotted Dyter at the edge of the trees behind me, eyes wide as he stood over Tyrrik’s unconscious body. He’d managed to drag him a fair way on the blanket. I lumbered toward them, pausing to remind any Phaetyn within the sound of my voice I was done playing games.

Shh, Khosana.

I yelped in surprise, an odd rumbling in my throat. Tyrrik? My heart pounded, and his voice shattered through my Drae form. Only a few seconds later, I stood on top of the rubble in my Phaetyn form.

“Tyrrik,” I screamed, running toward the trees.

Dyter moved out of the way, but when I got to Tyrrik, he was still unconscious. I thought of our mental barrier, but I’d not had any wall up when I changed, and I didn’t have one up now. He’d spoken; I was sure of it. I ran my hand over his chest as I whispered, “Please Tyrrik, don’t leave me.”