Page 69 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Sixty

The Shadow-Jump

Wynter

“Left,” Dozan roared.

Wynter shot shadows like daggers at the chest of the rider. His assault bounced uselessly off Dozan’s amulet-powered shield. The rider clutched his chest and then toppled off the dragon, falling toward the city below.

“Two ahead. One behind,” Dozan said, twisted in his seat. “I’ll take the one behind.”

“I’m going to jump for the right.”

He didn’t even tense at the suggestion. That was the beauty of Dozan Rook. He never thought any of her dangerous ideas were too far.

“Take two jumps” was all he said before coming to his feet on Dyta’s back.

Dyta had complained about carrying both of their weight. She was a medium-size dragon and wasn’t typically good for it. But she had sniffed Dozan before the battle and put her face in his, and he hadn’t blinked.

She had narrowed her eyes and said, “He smells like you.”

Then she’d suggested Dozan try one of those bonds through the amulet on her.

It turned out it didn’t work exactly the same as her bond.

Wynter had made hers the same as the old bonds, but Dozan had no such limitations.

The amulet made it so that he could speak mind to mind with Dyta and convey his thoughts, but it didn’t bond him in the same way.

These new crux bonds were so much more flexible than the old ones.

So Dyta didn’t balk when Dozan took over the lead and Wynter jumped from her back to the other dragon. Wynter snapped the first woman’s neck, shoving her body off the back of the dragon, and then jumped again before the dragon could try to force her off.

The second woman was ready for Wynter. She’d risen to her feet, brandishing a wicked-looking knife as Wynter landed on her dragon’s back. Wynter disarmed her with ease and then nearly lost her feet as the dragon dove for the ground.

“Shit,” she cried, scrambling onto the dragon’s back for leverage.

“For the Society,” the female roared.

Her knife landed in Wynter’s hand, buried to the hilt. Wynter couldn’t suppress her own scream of pain. She pulled her hand back, and that was all the enemy needed as the dragon lifted again, sending Wynter tumbling from her seat.

She could see Dozan had finished with the rider behind them. He whipped around as he watched her fall. But she couldn’t shadow-jump to her dragon. The pain was too severe and the distance too confusing through the blinding ache.

Wynter grasped the knife, counted one, two …and then yanked it free, letting it tumble to the city below. Her vision was red with raging pain as blood flowed freely from the wound.

Dyta was already spiraling downward, flapping relentlessly to get to her. Wynter wasn’t sure she was close enough. And if she could just get the pain under control, she could jump.

Dozan’s hand reached out.

Closer, closer, closer.

“Come on!” he yelled.

At the last second, his hand wrapped around her wrist, jerking her upward as Dyta leveled out. The movement ripped her shoulder out of its socket, but it was nothing compared to her hand.

“I got you,” Dozan said, hauling her back onto Dyta’s back.

“Too close,” Dyta growled.

“Sorry,” Wynter said, cradling her hand.

“You need a healer, but Amond is too far away.”

“I’ll make do.”

“Wynter…”

“Leave it,” she told Dozan.

And then a yell like she had never heard radiated across the battlefield.

Wynter could just make out the shape of a man, holding a woman to his chest.

“Roake and Audria,” Dozan noted.

“How are your eyes keener than mine?” she asked as Dyta got closer to the battle.

“I’m more familiar with them than you are,” Dozan said.

“Audria is…”

Wynter couldn’t finish the thought, even though she knew it to be the case. And Roake was raging, but who had killed her? Was he regretting his own actions?

As they angled toward him, Dozan put his hand on her shoulder. “Look.”

Wynter shot him a confused look, but she had been so focused on Roake, she hadn’t seen what he was doing. Pulling up rocks of every size and shape from the surrounding area. Hundreds, maybe thousands of rocks were now under his control. He’d brought them up and to him in his grief.

“Gods,” she hissed.

Because the next second, he released them.

Rocks were hurled across the battlefield, ripping through dragons’ wings, knocking into their exposed underbellies, pushing the riders off their backs. They were indiscriminate. Both friend and foe were caught in the cross fire. It was devastating to witness.

It was only with Dyta’s evasive movements that they managed to avoid the biggest rocks. Still, pebbles struck them by the dozen, leaving bruises and blood in their wake.

“He’s going to kill everyone,” Wynter cried as another rock hit her in the forehead.

“Not if we stop him.”

He was right.

Audria’s death had unhinged Roake. And he was going to make everyone pay for it.

There was no reasoning with him. No bringing him back from the brink.

He was already there. He’d completely lost it.

If they didn’t stop him, he would use up his magic until it burned out…

and take as many other people as he could with him in the process.

Dozan pulled her back against him and pressed a hurried kiss to her lips.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He smirked. “I love you too.”

Then Wynter ignored the pain in her hand and the pounding of her heart and made her final jump.

She landed on the back of Evien, directly behind where Roake held Audria’s lifeless body.

“She’s gone,” Wynter said.

Roake was frozen in place though. He didn’t even acknowledge her existence.

“And I’m sorry.”

Then she dragged her blade across his throat.

The rocks all fell at once back toward the earth. Screams from the city meant that they’d hit people who were out on the streets, but it was better than them killing all the dragons and riders in the skies.

“Take them down, Evien.” Wynter patted her back twice as she laid Roake down next to Audria.

In the stillness of the battle, Dyta flew to Evien’s side, and Wynter was easily able to leap back to her own dragon. The devastation of Roake’s assault had already been done. Both sides had seen casualties.

In the wake of his death, the Society line broke.