Blake, bruised and bleeding from several scratches on his arms, didn’t argue. Instead, he stepped into the circle of guards around them and allowed Drake and Menion to close the gap he’d left. Drake could feel him watching them for a few moments, obviously making sure they could handle things, before he swooped down and pulled Kira up into his arms as if she weighed little more than a ragdoll.
Drake didn’t need to look back over his shoulder to know his brother had taken to the sky. He felt the surge of wing wind as his brother bolted upward with their mate held firmly in his arms.
The tide was turned quickly, and Drake howled with triumph as he and Menion knocked away guard after guard. Keeping to his earlier promise, he tried not to take the life of any man he could spare, and soon most of their enemies were slumped on the deck or crawling away on their knees. Blake’s guards zeroed in around Drake and Menion, who’d turned to stand back-to-back during the fight, and suddenly it was all over. The sounds of battle grew silent, and were replaced by the moans and groans of broken and bleeding men.
“Get your filthy hands off me!”
The words coming from behind him caused Drake to look around just in time to see King Dunston being jabbed in the back of the leg with the pommel of a sword, guards forcing him to his knees with his hands pinned behind his back.
“I am a king!” he yelled at them, “You cannot lay hands upon a king!”
“You are not their king,” Drake pointed out to him, even as he began to cross the deck toward the forgotten kingdom’s lord. Blake’s guards parted to let him through, and he didn’t need to look to know that Menion was following.
Dunston simply glared at Drake with disgust and hatred. When the king spat at his boots, Drake struggled against the urge to break his nose with the pommel of his sword. Instead, he sheathed his sword and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at the king for a few moments before he turned to Menion, “What do you want to do with him?”
“My son has no right to do anything with me!” Dunston snarled. At a gesture from Drake, one of the guards slammed a fist into the side of the king’s head.
“You don’t seem to realize the danger you’re in right now,” Drake said, slow and menacing. He dropped down into a crouch before Dunston so he could stare into the fallen king’s eyes as he added, “You are defeated, King Dunston, you have no more power here.”
Dunston seemed to growl deep in his throat, and he parted his lips as though he was about to snap something derogatory at the Autumn King, but he was quickly cut off by Menion, who announced, “I shall escort my father home.”
Shocked, Drake turned his gaze to look at the prince. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The thought of leaving Kira for even a few hours made him feel sick. How could Menion even consider leaving her for the time it would take to get to an isle that was so far away it had been forgotten by all who lived in the five fae kingdoms? The look on Menion’s face suggested he knew exactly what Drake was thinking.
“I don’t trust my father not to try and come for Kira again,” Menion sighed, and a grim expression fell upon his face as he added, “And I have to return home to say goodbye to my mother.”
“But the tears,” Drake reminded the prince, “they might cure her.”
Even before he’d finished, Menion was shaking his head and the moment he had, the prince gestured at his side where the arrow wound had been, “How do you think you were healed? The tears are gone.”
Drake’s stomach instantly twisted with guilt. The knowledge that Kira had sacrificed Menion’s mother for him made him feel sick. Had he had the choice, he would’ve sacrificed himself for an innocent.
“Because of you, my wife will die!” Dunston snarled. Drake flinched at the king’s words, and shock flashed through him as Menion stepped past him and aimed a fist at his father’s face.
“My mother will die because of you!” Menion corrected his father. “You gave the order to shoot.”
Although Drake knew that Menion was right, it didn’t make him feel any better. Just knowing a woman was going to die so that he could live made him feel worse than he’d ever felt before.
“Have my father escorted down below deck and bind him,” Menion instructed Blake’s guards, who were still holding his father, “and don’t take an eye off him. He’s too cunning for his own good.”
The guards glanced at Drake as if they were looking for confirmation, and when Drake nodded, they began to follow Menion’s instructions. Menion then turned to the guards of his father, those who were still able to stand, and added, “You would all do well to remember that I have no problem raising my sword against you if you force my hand.”
Each man lowered his gaze, bowing to the prince as though he’d suddenly been made their ruler.
“Those of my brother’s men who are not too badly injured will go with you,” Drake stated, looking around for Balerion. The captain of the guard appeared, and nodded his approval of Drake’s words.
“Thank you, King Drake,” Menion replied, and for the first time, Drake actually felt as though the prince respected him. Straightening up, Drake placed a hand on Menion’s shoulder, and squeezed when the prince laid a hand on his shoulder in return.
“You’d better return safely, or Kira will have my guts for garters,” he pointed out with a half-smile. Menion smiled sadly at the mention of their beautiful mate, and Drake knew it was taking all the young prince’s willpower to do his duty.
“I will return,” Menion assured him.
Chapter 19 - Kira
The oracle refused to leave the clifftop. She pulled the cloak Blake had thrown around her shoulders tight around herself as she gazed out over the crashing waves. Her ice-blonde hair was tugged this way and that by the changing winds and the bitter cold nipped at the tip of her nose, yet she stood shivering, unwilling to leave, no matter how much Blake tried to persuade her.
“I won’t go until Drake and Menion return safely,” she’d insisted, and so Blake simply stood at her side, his arm wrapped around her, and his wings braced to protect them both from the wind.
“They will come,” Blake had insisted, but when they saw a single fae flying toward them on the horizon, Kira felt her heart drop into her stomach.