All the men took that as their cue to dive in from whatever hand signal Cullen had given them. They charged the evil empress just as she turned back into her dragon. With their wings spread, Bain and Cullen flew upward for Alasdair and Fergus to attack from below. All over their horns and scales glistened in perspiration from all the fighting we had already done. Just like our former nights this week, we fought with everything we had. It was my turn to slay the dragon.
26
Cullen
The exertion of energy it took to fan my wings proved to be more difficult than I had ever thought before. Without growing up with wings, we hadn’t had the time to normalize them in our attacks. We all felt as though we were lugging around an extra two hundred pounds that our wings had to magically lift.
Well they proved they could, but it was still hard to manage and balance while trying not to get torn to shreds by a dragon. The room we were in was almost four stories tall, and I could only imagine that Morrigan had it built to fit her full frame. Looking around was almost sad because we could tell she had no life outside of this. She literally lived in this room and never ventured out of it unless she had to take something for power. Watching through the eyes of her minions, she stayed put.
Bain and I worked together to confuse the dragon as Fergus and Alasdair took her from her sides. Cian was still in the center, wrapped in her magic to not move because he was the one she wanted out of all of us. We were all a little weary of what Morrigan wanted from him, but we learned Cian would never give it to her from what she did. Between being the demise of his family and giving him that nasty scar on his face, the dark prince never viewed her as anything but an enemy.
Briar finally snuck out from behind the couch as we tried to keep Morrigan preoccupied to not notice the princess. Through the window, we could hear our people fighting outside in a way that told us they had heard the king’s cry. Fergus did that without us knowing, but I was proud of him for asking them to join us. I was too prideful from their previous spite, but we would’ve failed without them. We all felt honored and humbled that they were finally recognizing us, helping ensure the future of our world. If we succeeded today, I knew they’d see us as the champions who were more than capable of taking their fathers’ thrones.
Diving in, I went straight for Morrigan’s eye to keep her line of sight busy on me. Before I could stab it with my sword, her taloned arm reached up and smacked me away. My wings were able to stop me from having an impact against the wall, but I had to hurry back to keep fighting. Bain attempted the same thing as Briar got closer and closer.
Once the princess got between her legs, Alasdair was there to hold her by her armpits to raise her up. He carried her high in order to get her to a level where the dagger’s blow would hurt the dragon, but Morrigan caught their scent before she could plunge the dagger into her chest. I saw the moment Morrigan geared up to release her toxic magic from her mouth against them. “Alasdair!”
I flapped my wings to get there faster, but it wasn’t fast enough as her hazardous magic spewed all over the two of them. Her talons smacked them away, forcing them to hit the wall on the other side of the room from me. Alasdair wasn’t moving the closer I got to the two of them. Fergus kept Morrigan’s attention on them to give me time to aid. Alasdair had held Briar in a way that insured she wouldn’t get hurt when he hit the wall with his back.
Her concern was rampant as she began shaking his shoulder to stir his consciousness. Her ears and nose were bleeding right before her eyes began trickling tears of blood, telling me that Morrigan’s magic was slowly killing her from the inside. Having a closer look at the prince of summer, I found his body doing the same thing. Blood even began to form around his nail beds as though there was nothing within him stopping it from clotting to save him. If that were the case, the hit to his back was about to cause a lot more damage than we had time to fix.
Grabbing Briar’s dagger, I forcibly shoved it in her hands for her to recall what we were doing. She weakened by the minute, so I had to get her to her feet before it was too late. The only hope I had at this point was that by killing Morrigan or putting her to sleep, her magic wouldn’t be able to affect them anymore. It was the same hope we had for the animals, so I held the torpid dagger with Briar, keeping it between us for her to fixate on. “If you don’t do this now, he’s as good as dead.”
Her lower lip began to tremble, but she gave me a curt nod in understanding just as her eyes began to hollow with a gray circling them, spreading over her faster than we had time to deal with.
“Throw me,” she commanded of me.
“What?”
“We don’t have time,” she stated. “Cullen, I’m growing weaker by the second. If we don’t finish this now, I won’t be able to at all.”
“Then maybe you don’t need to do it alone,” I said without any other thoughts for the idea going through my mind. Keeping her on my side, my arm laced around her waist. My other arm helped her hold the dagger before us as I took flight with her in my hold. Morrigan had her back to us from the things Bain and Fergus did to keep her attention, so I didn’t hesitate to plunge it into the center of her back where her shoulder blades were. Briar’s essence lit up the dagger just as it always did, but this caused something else to happen once it dove into Morrigan.
The light disappeared first inside the black body of the beast. Briar never let go as her hand hung from the neighboring scale. I kept her barricaded against Morrigan’s back as my wings flapped just a little to keep us up. There was a mild pulsing that began below the surface of the scales, vibrating as a glow began to take Morrigan from the inside out.
We all bore witness to the different sight this was versus what had happened to the animals outside of her Kingdom. Briar cried out in pain as though the dagger began to burn her, but she never let the handle go while the magic initiated, working against Morrigan. That’s when we knew it was functioning.
The dragon roared in agony as though it never knew such pain. I had no doubt that Morrigan didn’t know it because she served it rather than received it.
Briar’s hand tried gripping the dagger firmly as she faded more and more from what Morrigan had done to her and Alasdair. Just as the blade began lighting up within Morrigan, that same light began to travel up Briar’s arm. It did so in a way that told me it hurt her, but there was nothing I could do about it. I’d give anything for it to be me in her place, but Áine told me it had to be this way.
I could only help the champion complete her mission in ending Morrigan’s reign, so I repositioned my hand over hers to keep the blade steady inside of Morrigan. There were no words to be shared as the dragon soon turned back into the woman who had claimed the lives of too many. We could see the scared look on her face once she realized what was happening. Morrigan feared not existing more than the rest of us because she never had to put her life on the line for something that was more important, like we were.
When the two women were standing upright, I never let go of Briar, holding her up by her hips with my arm around her waist. Fergus and Bain had gone to aid Alasdair. Cian was finally freed from Morrigan’s magic because it began to dwindle inside of her.
Briar’s body began to glow as though she was becoming something else, an embodiment of Áine’s and Philip’s light magic. I wasn’t the only one to take notice as the girl with golden hair soon had glowing golden skin. Morrigan’s pale flesh began to gray as the dagger forced the remaining magic out of her.
“What have you done to me?” Her worry was needed for herself, but none of us had a thing to reply.
Part of me expected Briar to slay Morrigan in the honor of Philip, but the princess didn’t say anything. She held the knife still long enough to end her enemy. There was nothing else to really do as Cian stepped on the other side of Briar to help hold her up. Together, we reminded her that she would never be alone. We were a team.
It took several minutes for the magic to fully pull from within Morrigan, but she finally passed out right when a light exploded all around us.
We were forced to fly back a few feet, but it didn’t hurt us like the dragon had. At our feet, Morrigan lay in a way that told us she wouldn’t be getting back up.
With the rise and fall of her chest, we could see that she was now placed under the sleeping curse of the torpid dagger. Briar had done more than what Áine told me she would. The dagger still sat in her grasp after we had been forced away from the witch who took everything from us.
Magical lines began to tread out of Morrigan’s body, creating little wisps that began to go downward. We knew this was the magic being restored to the core of our world, so we sat and watched as it all slowly began to replenish itself.