Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(70)

Bloody drak. I’ll do my best to protect you, Ryn, but we don’t know how far that part of our mate bond travels.

Right. He’d already said that. I’d flown over an hour by now, but being fully mated had to help our bonds stretch. Giving voice to my itching curiosity, I added casually, How are things there?

Wet. An image flashed through my bond. Dark water rippled as far as I could see. Tyrrik raised his head, and in the distance, at least a dozen boats sailed, clustered together in the water appearing black with the backlight of the dying sun.

My jaw dropped open. You’ve almost caught up to them? I thought it would take more time to collect the others before you could leave.

Promise you won’t turn around?

I snorted with disgust, the sound coming out of my Drae snout as a chuffing noise. Yes, I promise to not turn around. Lani and Zakai need to be informed, too. I’m not going to abandon them.

We lost Dilowa and Gairome. Zarad’s gone, too, but I think he’s still alive.

What? I replied dully. Lost, how?

They’re dead, my love.

Images flashed through his mind, memories of earlier in the day. Dilowa whispering an idea to the group about the man she’d met the night before. The twin assassins and Tyrrik arguing with Zarad, and the prince storming off with Gairome. I’d seen that happen.

The boats left at dawn. The twins found out about an hour before you awoke. The vessels are carrying young men from Verald and Gemond. The boats were about a quarter full. Zarad and Gairome wanted to talk with the harbormaster themselves. They thought with the emperor in the throne room, they could move around undetected, but they didn’t come back.

Dilowa?

She left to talk with Prince Marb, Mily’s brother, but didn’t come back. Nielub, Niemoj, and I got out of the castle just after you. Do you remember that platform outside?

He showed me a mental picture of the courtyard and the raised platform near where we’d landed on arrival. Before he could block it, another image seeped through. Not just an image, a memory.

The distance was significant, and I could only see the details because Tyrrik had partially shifted to use his Drae eyes. A crowd of Azulis surrounded the platform, dressed in clothes not quite sheer. This group reminded me of the people in the outer corridors leading up to the wild orgy.

Queen Mily stood on the platform, wide-eyed and whole, her insides still in, although her dress was shredded and saturated with blood. Marb, Dilowa, and half a dozen other people stood near the former queen.

Draedyn flapped his wings overhead, the massive Drae shifting in the air to land on the platform in his coarse tunic. The afternoon sun bathed the entire courtyard in golden hues, but the prisoners paled.

Mily shook so hard as Draedyn approached that she appeared to be having a seizure. She fell to her knees before him, her head bowed.

My heart pounded with dread as my mind reeled with confusion. I watched my father disembowel her this morning. How was she still alive? And whole?

Draedyn’s angular features didn’t change. He wasn’t smiling or frowning, but his narrowed eyes gleamed. He brought his arm back as if he was about to slap the queen, but his digits shifted as he moved, and the razor-sharp talon sliced through her neck. Her eyes widened and mouth opened as her head fell to the platform’s edge and bounced into the crowd.

Tyrrik had looked up then because I saw Draedyn smile and bring his talon to his lips.

My stomach heaved again, and I begged my mate, No more.

Tyrrik broke my connection to his memories just as Draedyn approached Marb. I’m sorry.

Was it that fast for all of them?

No. He forced Kamini to heal Marb and Dilowa several times before he finally ended it for them.

Draedyn must’ve had Kamini heal Mily, too. My heart ached for my Phaetyn friend. I’m not sure I can tell Lani.

Don’t. It’s not your trauma to share. Lani isn’t ignorant of Draedyn’s cruelty.

I wasn’t so sure, but I wasn’t going to worry about it right now. A weight tugged at my heart and pressed on my shoulders. They’d all been alive this morning. So much could change in the blink of an eye. What if we don’t win, Tyrrik?

We’d gone into Azule anticipating their allegiance for the final battle against Draedyn. First the weird party, and then Draedyn’s presence and waking in the closet. Kamini and Kamoi had been with him, and I didn’t pay enough attention to defending myself. Now, the Azule kingdom had a different ruler, set on the throne by Draedyn, and more than half of the group we’d gone with was dead. We should have never entered that place.

My throat was tight with sadness and bitterness choking me. I’d had a bad feeling from the get go. The Azulis’ insanity, Dyter’s disappearance. Why hadn’t I listened to my instincts and never gone inside? Or forced everyone to leave when we all saw what the people of the Azule kingdom were like? People of that level of baseness, so comfortable in Draedyn’s realm, couldn’t be trusted.

It’s not your fault, Ryn.

He was flying over a freakin’ ocean and reassuring me.

I could have done more, I said. I should’ve done more.

You are doing more.

I didn’t reply. He had a point, and that made me feel marginally better. But then Boyra’s words reared in my memory, telling me I was only doing more to try and lessen the guilt I had for killing more people. I forced the doubt away; I had a job to do. Feeling guilty was a luxury I didn’t have time for. The army should be close. I’ll work on this end.