Page 137

“Argh!” Idris bellowed, throwing up his glowing palms. Flames detonated against the base of the sacred tree. The explosion tossed me like a ragdoll, ripping me from Victor’s embrace.

Pain jolted through my hip and spine, my body colliding with the floor. Smoke scorched my lungs. My arms shook as I shoved myself up, coughing through the haze. “Victor?” I croaked.

A ragged groan answered from across the chamber. “Flarking dragon.”

Relief crashed into me. My mate was alive.

Victor pushed himself up, golden energy flickering around his hands. His gaze found mine, sharp and commanding even through the chaos.

“Go, Runa,” he rasped. “Help your people.” His eyes snapped back to Idris, who was already rising, fire licking at his robes. “Idris is mine.”

Before I could voice a protest, two bodies plummeted from the heavens, slamming to the ground with a sickening crack of bone and a string of muttered curses.

I jerked around, my breath hitching as I took in the groaning figures. “Kronk? Drazen?”

If they were free, Idris must truly be injured—giving Victor another chance to end this.

Scrambling to my feet, I rushed to my brothers’ sides, my pulse hammering. Both were awake, shifting gingerly but alive. Thank the goddess—because there was no way I could carry them.

Drazen’s ruddy face was drawn with exhaustion and streaked with bruises. “How do I look? They didn’t damage my best feature, did they?” He glided a blood-crusted hand along one of his horns.

“Like bula dung,” I said, bottom lip wavering, attempting to smile.

Kronk groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face and wincing. Across his forehead was a spiderwebbed crack. “Flark, but that hurts. Bastards tried to split my skull open. Almost succeeded.” Despite his injuries, he was lucid—and would heal. Relief flooded my chest.

“I could have told them that was impossible.” I grazed my fingers along his granite jaw. “Your head is too thick.”

A thunderous roar split the air, shaking the walls. Idris’s battle cry was a sound I knew too well, one that clawed its way from the darkest corners of my past—the same cry he’d unleashed the night he murdered my parents and stole my sister away.

Dread twisted in my gut as my gaze snapped back to where the false king had fallen. Idris was on his feet once more. His clothing was scorched. Blisters bubbled over his exposed skin, and yet his eyes burned with relentless fury.

Victor stood opposite him, bloodied and bruised but unbroken. Golden eyes blazing, Carcerem’s rightful ruler bared his fangs in defiance. A shiver ran down my spine as he threw back his head and roared—a primal, earth-shaking challenge that sent a pulse of power rippling through the air.

Then, with predatory resolve, he charged.

The two collided, locked in a storm of blows, each strike splitting the air and shaking the castle’s foundations. Every impact reverberated like a thunderclap, their movements a clash of raw, unrelenting power. Idris, realizing he was losing his advantage, fought with the fury of a raging tempest—wild, relentless, and unyielding. Meanwhile, Victor countered with razor-sharp precision, weaving through attacks and striking fast and true, like wind slicing through steel.

The brothers fought to the death. Only one would emerge from this battle. It was a fight I longed to watch but didn’t dare let distract me.

“Let’s get out of here before they bring the place down on us,” Drazen groaned.

Claws raked at my center, tugging. I glanced at the sacred arbor. Bronze leaves dropped from its trembling limbs in a cascade. Their intricate webbing caught fire, turning into glowing embers and floating away. The craggy roots trembled below the mighty trunk, pulsing, then fading. Pulsing. Fading.

This wasn’t Idris’s doing. Something was seriously wrong with the tree.

I patted Drazen’s chest. “You and Kronk, help the villagers if you’re able. There’s something I need to do.”

Drazen frowned but knew better than to waste his breath arguing with me. “Fine, but keep your head down.”

Raelynn. I’d had little time to warn her before the dragon struck. Where was she?

I scrambled up the side of the dais, crawling over the pulsing roots on my stomach lest a stray blast from the battling kings take my head off. On the backside of the arbor, I spotted a ragged scrap of lace.

“Raelynn!”

I scrambled to where she rested, her limbs splayed at odd angles. Smoke wafted from her scorched dress and blistered skin. She’d taken a deadly hit from the dragon’s furious blast.

I carefully grasped her hand, and she peered up at me, scanning my visage.