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Then Malvolia’s horse shot into the sky, and my mate and the others followed after her, their wings beating down on us and displacing the air. Marius tried to shield me, though I swatted his wings away. I wanted to watch Derrick go. The last time I’d lost sight of a mate, I hadn’t seen him for almost twenty-four years. My heart imploded, turning to ash in the wind the further they flew away from us.
The aerial army flew over the Windhaven battlements and across the ocean before turning for the Caldarian border. But an enraged war cry ricocheted like cannon fire as a black blur streaked across the sky. Rays from the setting sun painted the figure in shades of fire, making it look like a backward comet.
The blur streaked past Malvolia’s horse first. The horse let out a terrified neigh before it was suddenly silenced. Its head tumbled in one direction, its body in the other. My sister’s screams rent the air as she fell into the raging northern waves.
That black blur cut through the line of mages like a flaming arrow, and blood sprayed across the sky. Ravini scattered like frightened birds, and my stomach lurched into my throat as I lost track of Derrick.
But then my world came to a standstill as I saw him tumbling toward the water, his wings in tatters.
No. No. No!
I spun on Marius. “Go get him!”
I’m sorry, darling, he projected as he reached for me. I promised I’d keep you safe.
Damn him! I backed away and transformed into a winged mage in the blink of an eye. Though I couldn’t produce flame, I could fly to Derrick. Ignoring Marius’s cries to come back, I jumped off the battlements and flew straight for the ocean, tucking my wings behind me and diving for my mate like a bird of prey. I snatched him out of the water moments before a wave was about to smash him against the rocky cliffside, crying out while heaving his water-logged body into the air.
But then Marius was there, grabbing onto Derrick’s arm and helping me balance the weight. I heard someone cry out directly above us, and blood splattered down on our heads as a demonic scream rang out. We barely missed the decapitated fire mage who plummeted past us.
After we pulled Derrick onto the battlements, I shifted back into my true form, my teeth chattering as the northern wind assailed me in my wet, shredded clothes. Marius signaled a healer, and I sucked in a scream while looking down at Derrick, who had been slashed from stomach to sternum, his guts partially hanging out. I resisted the urge to vomit as I checked his wrist for a pulse. It was there, albeit faint.
Chaos descended upon the battlements, mages trying to fire at the blur with cannons and ballistae. A mage stumbled beside us, dropping my sister before he fell to his knees, vomiting up blood and water. My sister let out a moan, her head lolling to one side as she cried out for Mortimus, and I felt not a single stirring in my heart for her suffering.
A green witch rushed toward us, but then Marius fell on top of me, shielding me as a black blur flew dangerously close to our heads, its war cry filling my skull like a clap of thunder.
I looked up in time as the blur slowed, landing a few paces away from us on the battlements. It stumbled as if it had lost its footing, and it took a moment for me to make sense of what I was seeing. A wyvern with glowing red eyes, but not just any wyvern, for I remembered its missing tail the day we’d found its dead body floating in the water. Tari’s wyvern. What unholy necromancy was this?
And sitting on top of the beast was Fachnan. No, not Fachnan. An undead version of him with gray skin, one demon-red eye and one empty socket, part of his top lip missing, revealing decaying teeth, and veins that looked like raging tributaries protruding from his forehead and neck. Most importantly, he and his demon wyvern were oozing blood from burn marks on their arms and wings, which meant the fire mages had struck them.
We locked eyes, and a bone-numbing chill swept through me when he smiled, recognition flashing in his serpent’s gleam. Then the beast lurched into the air again, slashing at mages who tried to hit him with their fire, dropping them like birds striking leaded glass.
“Retreat!” I cried. “Retreat to the temple!” I motioned toward the purple banners of Kyan’s Temple in the distance. I wasn’t sure if the priestesses would welcome us, but I didn’t care. We had no choice.
Marius scooped Derrick into his arms. “What about your sister?”
“I don’t care!” I shifted back into a fire mage and jumped into the sky, keeping a wary eye on the black blur slaughtering our mages. This was all Malvolia’s fault for refusing to heed my warnings. She could freeze to death on the battlements for all I cared. Right now, my focus was getting Derrick to a healer while praying we survived the night.
Chapter Seventeen
Flora
I’d no idea what to expect when we landed on top of the temple, a wide, flat space that could easily accommodate several dragons. I was prepared to beg, plead, and even fight the guards if they refused to give us shelter. I shifted back into my original body, not caring that my gown was in tatters and covered in Derrick’s blood. My knees wobbled in relief when I saw Lady Cassandra, formerly Queen Ariadne Celsus, urgently waving us forward while holding open a heavy metal stairwell door.
I dug my fingers into Marius’s arm, pointing toward Cassandra. “There!”
I clung to him while we moved forward, trying not to get trampled in the rush. I mouthed my thanks to Cassandra as we passed by, and she handed off the door to another witch while leading us down the stairs. Then she pressed on a hidden door within a wall on the landing, ushering us forward while everyone else continued down the stairs.
“I will bring him to our best green witch,” she said, motioning toward Derrick, whose color had drained from his face. I feared we were too late, though I dared not voice it aloud. I couldn’t lose my mate. I couldn’t.
“Thank you, Cassandra.” I worked hard to push out the words through a mouth drier than dirt and a throat constricted with emotion.
“And the queen,” a burly voice said behind us.
I looked over my shoulder, scowling when I noticed Malvolia’s lover followed after us, my limp sister in his arms.
“Of course,” Cassandra said, flashing a tight smile.
Cassandra brought us to a small but comfortable bedchamber with a wide bed that took up most of the room, then she waved a witch in a light purple robe forward. I remembered all temple witches wore a varying shade of purple, so it was hard to tell their magical skills, but as soon as the witch sat down, green magic flowing from her fingertips, I knew that she was my mate’s last hope. I swiped tears from my eyes while sitting at the end of bed. If only Tari was with us. She would heal her father in a matter of moments.
