Page 21 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

Emeris flew through the dark clouds that seemed to only get darker by the minute. The cool wind picked up. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it would soon. Marlena sat quietly behind me, looking in awe of the views. She fiddled with her hands nervously.

“Shay,” I called to her once Emeris’s wings had stopped beating, and we smoothed out into a glide.

“Yeah?”

“Did Emeris ever have another name?” I asked.

“No, why?”

“Because Baetos didn’t tell me his name, I just gave him one I liked, and I’m assuming their parents would give them names, right? Can’t they communicate with each other?” I asked.

“No and yes. They can communicate with each other, but dragons are animals. Although extremely intelligent and loyal to their kind, most don’t have names unless we give them.

Draken is the exception. He is a dragon shifter.

He had parents that named him. Dragons are like birds.

They have their young, train them to fly, and then they’re on their own.

In a few weeks, Baetos will be a fledgling.

He’ll be out from under his mother’s wing and be ready to be on his own. ”

“But he still seems small,” I said, glancing back toward Magni as if I could see him through the storm brewing.

“He’ll be double the size he is now in a few weeks, maybe even triple. Dragons grow faster than normal.”

“I wonder if I’ll recognize him if I ever see him again . . . ?”

Shay glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

“I’m sure that you will,” she said right as thunder clapped and rumbled through the sky and rain poured from the thick, heavy clouds. Shay opened her arms and let the rain soak into her very soul as we soared. The thunder rolled again, but this time it was different—louder?

Blinding light shot through the clouds from beneath us, and Shay had to bank hard to the left. Marlena and I both lost our holds from the sudden change in direction. I gripped onto Emeris’s side. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw it—Valla and her warships.

“Hold on!” I shouted to Marlena, who had grabbed onto my leg and was desperately trying to not look down into the raging, dark depths of Draynua below.

Everything was slick from the rain. I tried to use my bending to grip better but couldn’t keep my hold.

Another wave of sharp white lightning shot through the clouds, causing Emeris to bank again, and my grip slipped.

For a brief moment, I felt weightless, but then Shay grabbed onto my hand, and I heard a pop.

It wasn’t my shoulder; it was Shay’s as she tried her best to hold onto me and Marlena as her dragon did her best to dodge Valla’s lightning.

Shay growled through her pain as she tried to haul us back up just as another bolt shot through the sky, skimming Emeris’s wing. The beast roared as she moved harshly to dodge the next one.

I couldn’t let Shay or Emeris get hurt, especially not when Shay had a child on the way. Her journey was only starting. I wouldn’t let Valla take her. She needed to leave.

“Shay, let me go. Get to the rebellion! Get out of here!” I shouted over the pouring rain. Loose strands of my hair dripped and stuck to the sides of my face.

“No! I won’t leave you,” she cried out, and I shook my head.

“You don’t have a choice! I’ll survive. They want me alive. They don’t care about your life. I won’t let them take you,” I said, and she shook her head, not letting go. “Tell Ace I love him and I’ll see him soon,” I said, and she gripped my hand harder.

“No, Emelyn! No, no!” she shouted as I released my hand completely and my fingers slowly slipped from her grasp.

“Nooo!” Her voice echoed over the wind as I free-fell with Marlena. I grabbed on to her.

“Use your bending to have the water catch you,” I shouted to her, and she nodded with terrified eyes.

The outline of eight warships came into view along with the rough waters of Draynua as our bodies plummeted into the sea.

I kicked my feet and moved my arms and bent the water to push Marlena and me to the surface.

I gasped for breath as a bright orange ball came in my direction. Fire.

Shit.

I didn’t have time to think. I used my bending to shoot Marlena through the water away from me as I shot the other direction, avoiding the fire all together. But another ball came, and another and another and another. I didn’t have time to retaliate.

I was forcefully thrust back into the moment when I’d believed Shay and Draken would defeat me, and my power surged with excitement in my chest as if it recognized that we had no intention of sparing these individuals’ lives.

As if it were hungry for the blood of those that disturbed this world.

My mind went quiet for a moment as I steadied my breathing and let the light take over.

My body buzzed with power as it flowed through me, and water wrapped around my waist and shot me into the skies.

I rose taller than the warships as the water lifted me.

With a single wave of my hand, a burst of wind came from me and sliced into the side of one warship.

Soldiers began jumping overboard from the sinking hunk of metal.

The enormous waves made the warships teeter, rocking them back and forth as I went to attack the next one.

Water exploded from underneath it, shooting it far into the skies before it landed on its top in the water and slowly began to smoke and sink below the dark waters.

I went for the third ship, but suddenly blinding pain coursed through my body, burning through my veins.

Lightning.

Valla had sent lightning through the water.

Marlena.

She was the only person I was worried about.

Could it have killed her? My body burned as my light faded from me and I fell into the depths of Draynua.

The grogginess of my mind was overwhelming.

My power no longer stirred. It went silent in my chest. I didn’t know how to keep it awake. I didn’t know how to give it all of me.

Long moments passed, and I thought this would be my end, left to be swallowed by the element I loved most. Suddenly, large hands grabbed me on either side and hauled me out of the water, leashing my wrists in iron chains.

Any power I had left fell away from me, and nausea tore through me from the sudden feel of everything being gone.

The Fire Fae soldier carried me by the irons, up the latter to the large deck of his warship, throwing me down on the cold black metal.

I coughed and opened my eyes to see a set of boots a few feet in front of me in my line of sight.

I looked up enough to see Valla looking down at me, her victorious grin dripping with satisfaction.

“Take her to her cell,” she demanded, and two soldiers hauled me to my feet. It wouldn’t do me any good to fight, but I did with every step, and then I paused.

“Marlena,” I whispered in disbelief as I saw a Fire Fae soldier wrap a quilt around her shoulders shortly after he’d pulled her from the waters. I looked her over because I was certain they had to have had her in chains, too. But the overwhelming sickness only twisted in my gut further.

No chains.

She wasn’t their prisoner.

She had been working for them the whole time.

She was still Ember’s Soothsayer.

What hurt the most about betrayal was that you would expect it from your enemies, but never from those who meant something to you.

I lunged for her as the soldiers dragged me by her, grabbing the front of her clothes. I yanked her close to me.

“I will kill you for this.” My words were whispered venom, and I meant every one. She’d betrayed me, betrayed Shay—the ones who had become family to me. I would gladly watch her bleed, regardless of the pain it would bring me because of her resemblance to Willow.

Willow was dead. And so was the woman who spent years running from her grief.

“I know, child,” she whispered back. “I’m sorry. I had no choice.” I watched the warring emotions stirring in her eyes. She was conflicted, but it didn’t matter. She’d made her bed, and now she would have to lie in it and I would have to pay the price.

The soldiers tried to pull me away, but before they did, I threw my head forward, hearing the crunch of Marlena’s nose as she whimpered from the sudden surge of pain. Blood slipped through her hands as she cradled her face.

“There’s always a choice,” I spat as the soldiers dragged me away.