Page 53 of Destined Dawn

Have I been a fool? Clinging on to Pip despite my aunt’s warning, failing to make all of us as powerful as we could be by claiming Spencer completely as my own. Will we fall now because of my stubbornness?

Beside me Tristan grunts and grits his teeth, straining with all his might, his magic streaming from his hands.

On my other side, Spencer’s form flickers and flutters, sometimes appearing more beast and sometimes more human.

But despite our efforts, despite the considerable force of our magic, it isn’t enough. Their magic gains on us, creeping ever closer and closer, pushing ours back into retreat.

“There are too many of them,” Stone grunts, anxious eyes flashing to Azlan.

“No!” Azlan shouts, finding more magic from somewhere, and for a moment it appears to work, our combined magic lunges forward against the assault, sending theirs backward. It only lasts a moment, though, and then we’re ceding ground again.

“Barone,” Azlan shouts, “grab Rhianna and get the hell out of here. Now!”

“Don’t you even think about it,” I spit, glaring at Renzo. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving anyone.”

“He’s going to kill us,” Azlan says.

“If one of us falls,” I say, “we all do.”

I don’t know about any prophecy. I’m not sure I even understand fate. But what I do know more than anythingelse is we were meant to be together. Living while they are not would kill me anyway.

“Fuck, little rabbit,” Renzo tuts, “can’t you ever do as you’re told?”

I shake my head defiantly. “And don’t you think about knocking me out because–”

“Here!” Renzo says, reaching into his pocket as he continues to blast chaotic, erratic magic with the others. He pulls out the knife, tossing it towards me. It spins and twists in the air and the handle lands firmly in my palm as if it were seeking me out.

“What am I meant to do with this?” I ask, even as the metal hums invitingly against my skin.

“Don’t know, just had a feeling it might help,” Barone says, as the opposing magic inches closer to us.

I stare down at the knife, run my thumb over the engraving and then on instinct I fling it towards the Lord Protector and his supporters.

The knife soars through the air into the chaos of magic and hangs there suspended, caught between the two forces. I hold my breath expecting something, anything.

Nothing happens. Nothing at all.

If that was meant to save us, it didn’t work.

I’m tired, my magic waning.

Do we keep fighting to the end? Or do we surrender and accept our fate?

Several thoughts flash through my mind at once; several memories too, all of it in a rush like a wave hitting me.

I come from a line of women who never gave up, who kept fighting, and that is what I will do.

I smile to myself. I gave it a good try. I lasted on the run far longer than Stone ever gave me credit for. I’ve donethings some people could only dream of. Soaring on the back of a dragon for one.

It’s as that last thought somersaults through my mind and the knife glows in the flow of magic that I hear her. High above us in the sky, somewhere lost beyond the clouds. The whistle so faint I wonder if my desperate mind imagines it.

But then I hear it again, a second time.

I meet Renzo’s eyes and he glances upwards.

Yes,I think in my mind,yes, come, please come.

And she does, swooping down through the clouds, her vast size whipping away my breath. The knife radiates with light, reflecting off her golden scales and everything stops and stares. The magicals, the magic, the very air we are breathing. Everything stops to stare at her in wonder, and the knife tumbles to the ground.