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A deep chuckle echoed in their minds at the strong middle finger. His armor groaned as he pivoted, turning back to the wall.

Shadows crept along the ground around the legion’s boots. The sky shifted into dark clouds of shadows, snuffing out sunlight and the fiery glow from the city, transforming the mountain into a moonless night.

Terrified, echoed whispers filled the air:

“The Savage Prince.”

“Clearly my reputation precedes me. If you wish to remain existing, open the gates and stand aside. I do not ask twice, and my patience wears thin.”

Garrik, archers are moving in the trees.Jade’s horse swung around and paced the front line, motioning with her hand. Instantly, riders fanned out, nocking arrows and aiming at the shadows in the forest.

They were surrounded.

And yet, he mercilessly smiled.

The front gates burst open.

Rushing from the burning city, twenty armed males with swords drawn stood. “We’re prepared to defend our own. Turn away, or the first arrow will be through your heart, Savage Prince.”

Garrik leaned forward, resting a forearm on the saddle horn. “It isamusinghow you believe you can threaten me. My legion will slaughter you all before you cower a breath. You will accomplish nothing but find yourselves killed, and then I will take pleasure in ripping apart your families simply for wasting my time.”

But the brown-eyed prick did not stand down. “Kill him!” At the last word, the male thrust his fist high. Arrows flew, pointed at the Savage Prince. From the trees, hundreds of arrows cleavedthrough the air, aimed at awaiting Dragons … at his Shadow Order.

Alora wrenched a breath behind him. His heart leapt at the sound.

Nobody blinked. Nobody moved.

Only Garrik’s face melted into Death Incarnate.

Arrows from the trees shattered against an invisible barrier. Thirty arrows instantly misted into dust among Smokeshadows and littered the dirt inches before embedding into his face. Into Alora and Jade’s.

Garrik sat, seemingly unphased by the treasonous act. He straightened in his saddle, face stiff, brushing dust and metal fragments from his lap.

By the cover of a stone-cold face, his malicious, unrecognizable voice growled like thunder, rattling everyone’s bones. “It is an act of war to attack Elysian royalty.” With the swing of his leg, Garrik slammed into the dirt, trembling the ground, and wrenched his sword from his side. “You have exhausted my patience.” Smokeshadows swirled around him in a frenzy, turning him into an abyss of night. “My mercy ends here.”

From his shoulders, down the rippling planes of his muscled, armored arms, and out from black veined hands, a storm of Smokeshadows surged.

Then he was gone.

Along with a hundred of his Dragons.

In pillars of whirling smoke and clouds of ash, fifty scattered shadows appeared. Arms wrapped around every chest and shoulder, the sharp edges of Dragon’s blades laid across the necks of each Alynthian guardsmen—even the younglings.

Metal clanged with each drop of a weapon in surrender atop the wall and outside the gates. Male and females dressed in thesame ilk were shoved from the trees by Dragon shadows, forced to their knees in surrender.

A squealing scream pierced the air before Brown-eyes shrieked in a dooming fall. His body thudded to the ground in a cloud of dust below the wall. Another shadow stepped from the wall’s edge and plunged down.

Shadows exploded across the dirt as Garrik’s boots slammed beside the male, shaking the ground. He crouched, arms resting on bent knees as he scanned the male’s face.

“Please.” Terror-filled eyes. Tone of horror. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “Don’t kill me.”

How he loved to watch cowards beg.

“I fucking warned you.” With a relentless grip, Garrik pulled Brown-eyes by the back of his tunic collar, dragging him out into the space between the gates and his front line. “It would seem you need made an example of.” The male struggled on his hands and feet as the Savage Prince’s voice roared, “Each one of you will see exactly what disobeying me results in.”

Black veins bulging at his anger, Garrik whipped his arm with full strength, hurling Brown-eyes down onto his face.

Think about what you’re doing. This isn’t you!There was an intensity in Alora’s concentration, fists balled on her thighs as she sat.