“Guards! Kill them all!” the king ordered, his voice booming as he climbed back to his feet.
‘Keep the guards away,’ I sent. ‘I’ll handle the king. They’ll need to also keep the Fae here subdued, so it shouldn’t be as bad as it could be.’
Fingers crossed on that. The moment, the dragon guards turned their backs to the Fae, I had a feeling true chaos was going to erupt.
Their agreement was quick as I released my magic at the king, while at the same time, opening up my connection with my mates, so they could draw on my power. The last couple of days had taught us how to form a connection so that they had access to me but still left me open to fight with all my abilities.
I shot lightning at the king just as he straightened up, glaring at me with a thunderous look. He moved faster than I thought possible and dodged the attack.
His wings snapped out, and the king flew a couple feet off the ground. Then, he dove toward me. I barely had to time to avoid him slamming into me, but I still failed avoid his tail. It slammed against my back, feeling like a whip as it left scorching pain across my back.
“You are nothing but a whelp,” the king snarled at me. He was right behind me when he said that. I barely had time to erect a barrier before his hit landed.
King Laskis stumbled back from the force of the barrier.
‘Right!’Philit sent.
On instinct, I raised a magical wall between Philit and his right side. Arrows hit the barrier and for a moment, nothing happened. The arrows hung in the middle of the air but then zoomed back to where they’d come from. Something else we’d worked tirelessly to learn. We learned on the second day that I could make barriers around my mates. Not around others, just my mates since I was directly connected to them
I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back the grief of not doing the same for Landers.
Not now. Not here. Focus.
Cries of pain filled the air as the arrows found some of their marks. The king didn’t care as he came at me again, the old façade fading. He still had the graying beard, but some of his wrinkles had smoothed out. Even the holes in his wings had disappeared. There was a brighter golden shine to the scales along his body and through his wings too.
If he was intimidating before, then now he overwhelmed me. Instinct wanted me to kneel before him, to surrender.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek until blood filled my mouth, clearing my head. I shook off that instinct, used my magic to lift some of the surrounding weapons, and then threw them at him. His wings snapped out, and he spun fast. The weapons hit against his blockade and flew away.
I blinked in surprise, trying to wrap my head around what he could do, but then Zilon’s voice snapped me out of it:
‘Behind you!’
I barely got the barrier up as two dragon guards swung swords down hard toward his back while he tried to fight off the two already in front of him. The two guards flew back, their weapons falling from their hands as they landed on their asses.
‘Tanja, to the left,’ Philit warned.
Unable to go at her completely, I created an easier barrier, one for her to pound against instead of one powerful enough to reflect energies and injure her. Tanja’s arrows bounced softly off the barrier, landing uselessly on the ground.
The air around me whipped, and I realized it’d been too long. While it had taken maybe five seconds to do the two barriers, it was enough time for the king now to be on top of me.
Swearing rang through my head as he slammed into me. He kept flying until we smashed into a wall. I grunted as my body took the full brunt of damage. It felt like bones inside of me were cracking.
“This ends now!” King Laskis’s voice rang out, making the walls shudder. “Stop or I will remove her head from her body.”
“I don’t think so,” a smooth voice said, low and all too close to us. It was more like a whisper.
King Laskis whipped his head to the right, eyes wide as he stared into Neyil’s gaze.
“Y-you!” The king’s face grew red with pure fury. “How?”
Neyil only grinned before he grabbed the king’s arm and twisted. I dropped to the floor, coughing as Neyil made use of King Laskis’s surprise and threw him. Hard.
The king flew through a pillar, destroying it before smashing into a wall. Where my first attack had only caused cracks in a pillar, Neyil’s left rubble and destruction. The air grew hazy from all the debris kicked up around us.
Neyil had finally dropped his disguise and looked like he was ready to destroy the dragon king.
30