Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(98)

Yes, we need to take them out. Just be careful. They fight dirty.

My stomach twisted with the gruesome fight, and surprise punched me in the gut. Hundreds of Druman swarmed through the ranks of humans. Men from Verald and Gemond mixed with the silver-haired Phaetyn as they battled.

Let’s end this.

Of course, Khosana.

Tyrrik twisted, and I followed suit, angling toward the battle below. The stench of smoke and fire grew, burning wood, metal, and . . . flesh. Screams mixed with the clash of steel, the chaos beating mercilessly against my ears, growing in intensity the closer we came to the mêlée.

Look at that group of Druman to the left, Tyrrik said, sounding a mite too pleased about seeing them clustered in a convenient group for execution. I’ll blast them. There’s a contingency of Azuli behind them. If you land there and put your tail to good use, I’ll mete punishment to the mules.

I glided past him, catching the glowing heat in his chest out of the corner of my eyes. A moment later, he bellowed and then spewed liquid-blue death on my father’s progeny.

I landed, my legs colliding to the earth, and roared at the humans siding with Draedyn. Enemy. I swung my spiked tail through the clustered groups of men, not pausing as I stomped my way deeper and deeper into their ranks to administer justice. Men screamed as I sliced through their paltry armor. Like hay ready for harvest, the Azulis fell under my wrath.

My deafening roar carried across the plain, and suddenly, the ground reverberated with the pounding steps of a mass of humanity. A giant troop of young men crested the horizon, shaking their weapons in the air, and I grinned wide and toothy as I recognized the assassins at their head. These soldiers were the young men returned from the emperor’s offshore battle. They were here to help us!

I batted away a small number of the persistent Azulis. Ahead, a shimmering golden web reappeared, and I chuffed, recognizing Lani’s shield. Everyone was here.

I continued my advance, confident that Tyrrik had my back. My triumph radiated through our bond, and his bounced back to me.

Whatever plan Draedyn had no longer mattered. I surged forward, knowing the scales of justice had tipped our way. To my left, the assassins and our young men from Verald and Gemond washed over the few remaining Azulis as they fought for freedom.

Surrender. Their chant tickled my ears, the song of Draedyn’s defeat thrumming through my veins.

But where is Draedyn? Until my father was dead, the war still raged.

Up ahead, Tyrrik replied. In the center of his minions.

I turned to see where my mate was looking, and my breath caught. A Druman loomed behind Tyrrik, wielding a dagger dripping with silver. Tyrrik! Behind you!

The Druman swung his dagger downward in a slow arc. And sliced through my mate.

Blistering pain stabbed through our bond, and my vision wavered. Tyrrik? I gasped. Frozen, panic pressed from all sides as I felt the poison course through his body. I screamed, Tyrrik!

I reached through our bond as desperation flooded me. I screamed his name over and over. Phaetyn poison pumped through him, carried by his bloodstream to kill him. I screeched and lashed my tail wide as I spun in a circle, leveling everyone within reach. I crouched and then bounded into the air as I extended my wings, pumping as hard as I could.

Tyrrik’s pain consumed me, yanking me to him. I tried to focus through the blinding panic. Tyrrik needed me to focus. Hold on, my love, I begged him.

At the bottom of the valley laid my mate, right where Azule met with Draedyn’s lands. Throughout the area, only small skirmishes remained. The army might think the battle was won. How wrong they were.

There. In the center of a mixed cluster of Phaetyn and humans were three Drae. In a blur I could barely decipher, my mind absorbed the scene. Tyrrik and Draedyn were in their human forms. And one of the female Drae lay still in the dirt. The once vibrant amethyst color of her scales was now gray and ashy. The lack of movement from her rib cage indicated the end of her suffering, and as I drew near, the coppery tang of blood wafted into the air from the gaping wound on her side. Druman surrounded her body, their weapons dripping with her blood.

They were killing my kin. And yet, despite what I knew through my bond, that my mate was dying, a small part of me hoped I was wrong, that only this female had been slaughtered and not the other half of me.

Three Phaetyn were on the ground . . . Two of the three silver-haired healers lay prone and unmoving, their skin sliced to ribbons and their heads twisted at an unnatural angle. Kamini knelt between her two dead compatriots, her face buried in her hands as her small frame shook with her sobs.

I didn’t care. If my mate was safe, I would’ve felt grief on their behalf. But my heart lay torn and exposed on the ground, and as my gaze fell to Tyrrik, what was left of me disappeared.

In front of Kamini was my mate, his back riddled with small blades.

High in the sky, my vision tunneled, a strangulated groan escaped through my snout, and I swept closer, vicious determination filling me. He would not die.

I would save my love.

I had to save him.

The closer I flew, the more the crowd funneled in. As if they believe that by closing ranks, they could prevent my landing. I bellowed in warning, but the group refused to heed my caution. Red crept in on the edges of my vision and then flooded my every sense. I barreled forward, pulling up at the last second.

Only one thing could have stopped me in that moment. How had Draedyn known?

Terror squeezed my heart. Dyter stood in the midst of the cluster and, next to him, the Verald servant he’d disappeared with, clinging to his arm. Behind Dyter, a Druman hovered, holding a knife to my oldest friend’s throat.