Page 59 of Queen of Legends and Lies (Dragons of Tirene #4)

Chapter Forty-Seven

Sweet, innocent Rose, reduced to a shambling husk. Her rosy cheeks are ashen, covered in eyril-soaked mud. Her once cherubic face is twisted into a rictus snarl. And the vacant black of night has replaced those sweet blue eyes.

Despair carves a hole in my heart.

“No,” I choke.

The horde of corrupted pours in just as quickly as before.

They fill nearly half the cavern. I have to end this before they overwhelm me. Before Narc rises and dooms us all.

But Rose…

I can’t abandon her to this fate. Can’t consign an innocent child to oblivion, no matter the cost. Agnar and Quinn would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.

Pulse thundering, I create a spinning shield of blazing earth, wind, water, and fire. It scorches the air, driving back the corrupted. Buying me precious seconds to think.

How can I stop them, save Rose, and still destroy Narc?

I can no longer pretend that the corrupted are only obstacles.

They’re people. People trapped in their own bodies while the drachen use them as pawns.

Swallowing my heart, I sprint to meet the corrupted hurtling toward me.

Explosive mist lashes from my palms, scouring the earth and making the footing soft and slippery. Their black bodies sprout shiny tendrils that act as extra appendages to keep them upright and agile.

What fresh horror is this?

Still, I carve a path through the writhing bodies, fighting my way to Rose. No matter what, I have to reach her. Have to save her.

“I’m coming, sweetheart. Hold on!”

Fear skewering my gut, I launch myself at the girl, magic surging through my veins. She braces herself, moving into a defensive position as if she were a trained fighter.

But then, somehow, a drachen is in front of her, protecting Rose from me. From healing her.

If the situation wasn’t so fucked up, I’d laugh at the irony.

The drachen rears up, a nightmare given form. Oily shadows swirl and congeal, resolving into razorlike talons and gnashing fangs. Like the corrupted people who sprouted extra limbs to keep moving, this drachen’s using itself to buff Rose’s small frame in a physical fight.

I lash out with searing ribbons of flame. “Get away from her!”

But the creature shrugs off my fire like drops of rain.

Gods, it’s so much stronger than the others I’ve faced.

The eyril must be feeding them somehow, making them more powerful. Or their increased strength correlates to their proximity to Narc. Either way, I can’t get past its defenses.

With fury and desperation warring inside me, I dart forward, trying to outflank the drachen. Even with the monsters stronger now, my tears might still purge the corruption, if I only had time to muster a few up and rescue Rose. Dodging drachen and the corrupted, I finally reach the altar.

But it’s not the altar I care about. Not yet. Not until I save Rose.

A flailing talon catches my arm, lancing me with a fiery sting. Gritting my teeth against the sudden pain, I keep my attention trained on the girl. “Rose, come to me. It’s Lark. Get away from the drachen!”

But there’s no recognition in those coal black eyes.

Only deadness.

She darts away.

When I try to follow, her drachen protector lunges for me, teeth gnashing and claws extending.

I dance away, narrowly evading its grasp. The drachen presses its advantage, forcing me from the altar. More corrupted close in, flanked by countless drachen. I’m wasting too much time and attention on Rose.

And I’m surrounded.

Anger and hopelessness course through me. I need to break through, to get back to the altar.

But if I do that, I risk hurting Rose.

My throat aches, and my dry eyes burn. Still no tears.

A torrent of determination burns away my despair. No. I won’t give up on her. Won’t abandon this child to darkness. That doesn’t mean I have to relinquish my main mission.

If I continue waiting—if I manage to get myself killed or corrupted—thousands of people will die. Narc will come back to life. It’s only a matter of time.

Gritting my teeth, I tap into the wellspring of magic within. I may not be able to free her, but I can protect her. And destroy the drachen at the same time.

Then I’ll deal with Narc.

Twin spirals of flame and air burst from my palms, whirling a protective cocoon around Rose. The surrounding drachen recoil, hissing in fury. Inside the barrier, she scratches and claws, trying to get out.

“Hold on, Rose!” I shout over the roar of the flames even though I know she can’t hear me within the confines of her corruption. “I’ve got you!”

The fire doesn’t touch her, held at bay by the shimmering air shield I’ve woven. But it’s a temporary solution at best.

I need to finish this.

Closing my eyes, I reach for the magic again. This time, I weave threads of earth into the mix, adding the solid strength of stone and soil. It settles around me like armor, like a second skin of impenetrable rock. Then I expand that power outward.

Shifting its shape, I form the front into a point, a wedge to push through the assembled mass.

I’m wreathed in a glittering aura of flame, air, and earth. Both corrupted and drachen hiss and attempt to attack, but the elemental power repels them.

Now they’re getting between me and the shield around Rose.

I can’t lose sight of her.

With renewed determination, I weave through the mass. Everyone and everything that hits my shield burns, human flesh and drachen limbs alike.

I try not to look at their faces.

Try not to see their deaths.

But death surrounds me.

“Just a little longer, Rose! I’ll keep you safe.” Our shields line up, the screaming, slavering obstacles between us pushed aside.

Desperate and working off gut instinct, I reach out. Intuition guides me as my hand slides through both shields, grabs little Rose, and pulls her into an embrace.

Empty, her barrier implodes, scattering burning fragments everywhere.

Rose fights me, biting and scratching. But even bolstered by the corruption, she’s too small and weak to cause me real harm. I hug her tight to my leather-clad body before wrapping her in a cocoon of earth and ice.

Alannah’s repeated directions on what it means to be a queen echo in my mind.

According to her, it’s better for all of them to die than for me to fail. As disgusting and selfish as it sounds, I can’t let the human puppets slow me down. If I do, I put everyone in Tirene and all the other kingdoms at risk.

But if I can reach Narc’s body and destroy it, anyone who survives will be set free.

Swallowing the bile bubbling up my throat, I lash out with the force of all four elements combined.

Destruction fills the cavern with swirls of fire, lava, burning steam, and blasts of hot air.

Outside my shield, death dances. Magic eradicates everything, even the dirt around me.

Before me, an oval shape roughly the height of a man catches the light of my flames.

I freeze, my heart stuttering.

More drachen and corrupted surge forward with renewed fury. I push onward, Rose still clutched to my chest.

The lights wink out, plunging the tunnel into total blackness. I falter as fear scorches my throat.

Then, slowly, my fire begins to shine again.

I step closer, spreading my flames to banish the shadows. Immediately, I wish I hadn’t.

Narc.

In all his unholy glory.

His giant body is covered in reforming flesh and tendons, oozing and knitting together in a macabre patchwork. Through the inky black masses of drachen, I watch in horror as muscle and sinew crawl over bare bones.

Like a body decomposing in reverse.

The drachen’s talon! Terror seizes my breath as I peer down at my injured arm. The wound is streaked with blood that’s just starting to coagulate. It must’ve been dripping while I was saving Rose. The blood must have stained the altar and touched Narc’s bones.

It’s resurrecting him.

Horror stabs me.

I did this.

My mind fights to deny the reality of what I’m seeing.

One eye, now fully formed, with a strange purple-blue iris, blinks and narrows in on me. His rotted tongue protrudes from a half-formed mouth, flopping obscenely as he slouches down and laps up blood from one of the fallen corrupted.

More blood and small chunks of flesh line the altar. More corrupted are scooping up the missed pieces of humans and drachen to toss into his maw.

Feeding him… even as he consumes them .

Narc reanimates before my very eyes.

And it’s the most grotesque thing I’ve ever witnessed.

My grip on Rose tightens. It’d be better for her to die with me than continue this false life as a puppet of destruction and madness. Better a clean death than to feed her to this monster. Still, neither of those options are ideal.

With a scream of rage and defiance, I lash out again.

Fire explodes from inside me in a blistering wave, filling the cavern with lava and searing-hot air. The flames roar past my shield. Fiery blasts incinerate the drachen and the corrupted. The very rock around us sizzles…and explodes.

But it’s not enough.

Even amplified by the magical merge, my fire can’t touch Narc. He continues to regenerate, muscles and organs and skin flowing over his frame like wax.

And through all this, Rose struggles against me, shrieking like an otherworldly creature. Not like the sweet little girl I know and love.

I try to hold her angry little arms in place without causing her any pain.

“Please!” I beg, though I don’t know who in the hells I’m talking to. The gods? The universe? Anyone who might be listening? “Please, help me! Help me save her.”

But all I hear in response is the roar of the flames and the wet, squelching sounds of Narc as his skin crawls and stretches like rubber over bones and organs and bloody muscle.

I’ve failed. And now everyone—all of humanity—will pay the price.

My fire gutters, dimming to embers as hopelessness floods my veins. I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough, not powerful enough.

What was I thinking, challenging a god?

I’m nothing.

No one.

But then, deep inside me, something stirs.

A spark.

A glimmer.