Page 94 of The Forsaken Heir

AURELIUS

I watched the proceedings below from deep in the clouds.

With my enhanced hearing and vision, I might as well have been standing right there with Elle and the thing that wore my face.

One by one, the Hikshil stepped forward and tested it, but I barely paid attention to that.

As I bobbed up and down in the clouds, doing my best to stay hidden, I kept glancing back.

Eventually, high in the air, I spotted the tiny dots of approaching dragons. Octavius and I had ordered my security to remain behind until we got a good head start.

My dragon purred happily as I dipped below the ground to get a better look at the ground.

What I saw nearly made me forget to flap my wings.

The shock of it was worse than seeing my exact duplicate come strolling out of the tent a few minutes before.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked down over a thousand feet below as the thing that looked like me writhed and twisted, tearing away the outer facade until some monstrous snake-like creature revealed itself, opening its massive jaws to reveal huge fangs glistening in the sunlight.

It threw back its head, and a screech of fury erupted from its mouth.

I knew this creature. I’d heard stories of them as a child, and Dad even had a story of one of our ancestors succumbing to one during an exploration of ancient Japan nearly two thousand years ago. A nāga. They were supposed to have been eliminated in the Fae Wars over a millennium ago.

Turning, I found my men, almost upon me, I gave a single barking cry to them, furled my wings, and dove toward the ground. Understanding my command, the reinforcements dived along with me. All six of us sped toward the ground below, where chaos was unfolding.

The nāga thrashed about and turned its baleful eyes upon my friends.

The beast was at least fifty feet long and five or six feet thick.

Whatever magic it had used to hide itself in a form as small as my body was even more impressive than my ability to shift.

It was the stuff of nightmares come to life.

Bastien’s forces gathered behind him, at least fifty strong.

The other shifters in attendance were in disarray, some moving to join Bastien, others backing away, unsure what to do.

With my forces, fighting off fifty wolves in the open would be achievable, but difficult.

There were too many innocents around to use fire—otherwise the odds would be better.

The problem was that goddamned monster down there.

Unleashing a battle cry, I opened my mouth, revealing my serrated teeth.

The scream caught the attention of the nāga , and it rose up like a cobra.

Its blocky, scaled head snapped forward as I descended.

Fast as lightning, it struck, but I tilted to the side at the last second.

Its jaws clacked together on empty space, and I managed to drag my rear claws down its back before swooping down to land.

It cried out in pain and rage, and the moment my feet hit the ground, the battle commenced in earnest. Within seconds, dozens of men and women had shifted, and there were massive wolves coming at me from all sides, snapping and biting at my feet.

My men landed around me, and I spotted Vince, Rasp, and Octavius shifting, moving forward to guard Delphine and Elle.

The nāga spun around, green-black blood oozing from the wound on its back.

It leveled its ancient eyes on me. The fury and hunger there sent a spike of fear through me, but I pushed it aside and leaped forward, claws extended and jaws open.

It struck again, moving with a shocking speed for something so large.

It clamped its teeth around my foreleg. Had the creature been venomous, I’d have been done for, but thankfully, all it had were wicked sharp fangs that managed to punch through my thick dragonhide.

I bellowed in pain and slashed at the side of its neck with my free claws.

Even as I fought to free my leg, I noticed the bright red and green flashes of magic as the Hikshil took to the battlefield.

The other fae who’d come to watch joined them, obviously seeing Bastien for the psychopath he was.

The group waded into the fight, helping us drive back the wolves and other shifters.

If a human had stumbled upon this, their minds would most likely have melted at the sight of magic, dragons, monsters, and werewolves.

Taking a chance, I opened my mouth and breathed a fire into the nāga’s face.

The blistering flames did little to harm the monster’s tough hide, but it got the thing to release my arm.

I sank my claws into the softer flesh of its chest and stomach.

My talons dug beneath the thin scales, and more of that putrid blood spurted out.

Before I could dig in further and try to disembowel the fucking thing, it lashed its heavy tail around, sweeping my legs from beneath me.

Screeching in surprise, I slammed to the ground.

Instantly, a group of half-shifted wolves and bears attacked me.

They clawed and bit at me, digging at my scales and skin.

One bear sank its teeth into my face, trying for my eyes.

Swatting at them with my wings, I managed to knock two off their feet.

The bear attacking my head stumbled, and I made him pay for it with his life, biting down on his side and nearly severing him in two.

Kicking out with my back legs, I struck the final attacker in the chest, feeling his ribs and sternum crack as he was flung fifty yards away.

I roared in pain as the nāga lunged forward and bit deep into my stomach. Blood welled around its jaws, but the real problem was how fast it was. Before I could react, it yanked me forward, twirling its full length tight around me.

Shock and fear jolted through me as I found myself in the most dangerous position I could imagine—being crushed to death by a gigantic snake creature.

Even as I tried to think of some sort of defense, the muscles contracted, crushing me, forcing the air from my lungs.

I couldn’t even draw a breath to try and breathe out fire.

My front and back claws were useless, pinned at my sides by the muscles that might as well have been steel bands.

Thrashing my head, I looked around for someone to help.

My reinforcements were knee-deep in fighting off wolves, bears, panthers, and moose shifters.

On the other side of the field, I saw Delphine’s wolf clawing and biting at attackers who tried to flank the Hikshil and other fae.

Vince was ripping a pair of werewolves from Rasp’s back, both men in their half-shifted forms. That was when I realized I’d lost sight of Elle.

Fear for myself vanished. I wasn’t important.

I had to save her. She was somewhere in this hell, and I had to do something.

Even as my vision went gray and my lungs screamed for air, I looked down, forcing my neck to bend under the strain of constriction. Rage flowed through me. I would not allow this thing to beat me. Not when the woman I loved needed me.

With every ounce of my remaining strength, I opened my jaws, and clamped them down on the only part of the nāga I could reach.

The powerful muscles in my jaw flexed, creaked, and rippled as I forced everything I had left into the attack.

My lungs burned for air, my vision dimmed, and my ribs cracked.

Thunderbolts of pain burst through my chest as the bones snapped under the onslaught of the thing’s serpentine body.

I clamped down hard, using my agony as fuel for my attack.

My jaws throbbed and cramped as I willed them to crush the creature.

Then, with a thunderous pop, my teeth tore through flesh.

A massive hunk of muscle and skin came free in my mouth.

The blood tasted like rotten flesh and sulfur.

The nāga screeched in pain and loosened its grip on me.

Sucking in a breath, I clawed at it, pushing it away before it could crush me again.

The beast thrashed about, blood spurting from the wound.

Taking my opening, I leapt upon the monstrosity and raked my front claws along its face, shredding the eyeballs and its lips into a bloody mass of pulp.

The creature thrashed about, snapping its teeth at me, trying to latch on to something it couldn’t see. All around me, the sounds of battle roared, and I was desperate to be done with this damned thing and find Elle.

Not wanting to give it even a second to recover, I lunged forward, clamping my jaws on the soft flesh beneath its jaw.

The massive snake thing bucked and tried to hiss, but it could get no sound out.

The fucking thing was strong as hell. It pulled me back and forth as it tried to throw me off, and icy, agonizing pain shot through my damaged ribs.

With my mouth clamped on him, the chance of anyone innocent being burned was almost nothing. Inhaling deeply through my nostrils, I activated the biological mechanism deep in my chest and throat that ignited and fed the fire within me and breathed out.

The fire burst out of my mouth. The beast let out a yowl that was almost feline in its pitch, and from the periphery of my vision, I watched its yellow eyes go wide with shock, horror, and agony as my flames seared, then melted its skin.

Releasing every ounce of fire I had within me, the blast of flame punched through the tough hide and spurted down the thing’s gullet, filling its entire body with a white-hot inferno.

It gave one final twist, then stilled. An instant later, its eyes burst apart as tongues of flame started from the sockets.

I released the monster, and it collapsed into charred remains.

For a few brief seconds, I looked down on the beast and wondered at the fact that I’d defeated it.