Page 94 of Wrath of the Dragons (Fear the Flames #2)

Chapter Seventy-one

Cayden

No.

No.

Elowen has never fallen, but she is now.

She tumbles through the air with her hand outstretched to Sorin who flies faster than I’ve ever seen him as arrows protrude from his wings.

The other dragons flock to her, but they’re too far away to catch her before she hits the ground.

Her torn saddle straps hang around her waist in scraps.

I don’t know what happened. One moment she was flying back on Sorin, and the next she was falling.

Darkness rumbles beneath my skin as I watch the woman I love fall to her death.

I need to reach her. I need to help her.

Sorin extends his claw and manages to wrap his talons around her, but they’re too close to the ground.

He curls his body around Elowen and levels out his wings, but all it does is slow them slightly before they crash through the treetops of the forest beside the battlefield.

A battle cry climbs up my throat and a red haze coats my vision.

I swing my blades, fighting without precision or mercy, and leave a massacre in my wake.

I barrel through the lines, fighting my way to the trees in a violent frenzy.

I’ll take on the whole fucking army with my bare hands.

I’ll rip them apart limb from limb and leave them clawing their way through the mud.

Desperation lights the fire within me and rage like no other breathes life into it. I’ll cleave this world in two before I let anyone take her from me.

I break through and my blood-covered chest heaves as I sheathe one of the blades on my back, keeping the other in my hand as I run into the woods. I ordered General Gryffin to mount Koa when he was wounded, and I’m wholeheartedly regretting that decision now.

“Elowen!” I shout. “ELOWEN!”

Sorin hums, and I follow the sound, sprinting over rocks and vaulting over fallen trees. Steam rises from the pools of Sorin’s blood along the forest floor, melting the snow. Elowen lays beside him, stroking a shaking hand down his scales.

“My baby,” she murmurs. “You’re okay, my baby.”

Sorin’s not mortally wounded, though arrows pierce his wings and wounds puncture his neck…but Elowen.

“HEALER!” I shout over my shoulder, ripping off my helmet and gauntlets.

“Cayden,” Elowen rasps, blood trickling from the corner of her lips as she turns to face me.

My heart sinks further. She’s pale. She’s so fucking pale and her hands are covered in her own blood. “Hello, my love.”

I drop to my knees beside her, my stomach rolling while taking in the three arrows made of glowing green metal piercing her ribs. Pulling them out could injure her further, but that poison… oh gods.

“Garrick is dead, but I don’t think I killed Nykeem.” She cringes in pain. “His eyes weren’t white when I saw him, so I think another mage controlled his wyvern.”

I don’t care. I don’t fucking care about anything. “I’m so proud of you,” I gently state, taking her into my arms. She groans weakly and settles her head in the crook of my arm. “I’m going to get you help. You just have to hang on until I get us back to camp, all right? You’re okay.”

“Cayden,” she says my name again, blinking through the mist coating her eyes. “I’m a healer. I know when a wound can’t be mended, even if they weren’t made with this poison.”

I try to lift her, but she cries out, and I sink to my knees again. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I don’t want to hurt you.” I turn over my shoulder again. “I WILL KILL EVERY LAST HEALER IF SOMEONE DOESN’T STEP FORWARD!”

“Cayden—”

“You’re fine,” I rush out. “You’re going to be fine. Stop talking to me like you’re going to die.”

I can’t fathom a world without her when she is my world. Her heartbeats are the only thing keeping it turning. I tighten my hands on her, watching her pulse and kissing her forehead as a healer makes it to the forest and kneels on Elowen’s other side.

“I had to save Sorin,” she whispers. “I couldn’t let him die. I couldn’t leave him. I’m”—she inhales sharply—“so sorry.”

I shake my head, speaking through my tight throat. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

I’m being as gentle with her as I possibly can, but my emotions rage within me. I feel helpless, watching a mage from the fire cult press her glowing hands into Elowen, but they fade and flicker without removing the arrows.

Please don’t take her, I pray. Please don’t take her away from me. I know she’s too good for this world but let her stay in it.

“Why isn’t your magic working?” I growl.

“Nykeem made the arrows, and I can’t heal a poison I can’t identify,” the woman whimpers with teary eyes on Elowen. “And I can’t remove the arrows without killing her.”

“Then find someone who fucking can!”

She looks at me then, her eyes filled with so much dread that I already know what’s coming before she says it. “Nobody can.”

“Portal the mage who healed me. I’ll do the same ritual.”

“Go,” Elowen whispers, tilting her head to face the mage as the other four dragons surround us, calling out to their rider.

“Don’t take a fucking step away. Heal my wife.” I press her closer to me without moving the arrows. “DO SOMETHING! Please, I’ll give anything, I will be in your debt eternally, just fix her.”

“I wish I could.” Tears stream down her face as she clasps Elowen’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“She can’t do anything.” Elowen chokes, and the mage runs away when I face Elowen again, pushing her hair behind her ear. “And the soul bond can be used only once.”

“Send Nyrinn and Zale,” I shout after the mage’s retreating form. My frustration breaks through my tone. “Why would you waste it on me?”

She gives me a half smile, more blood trailing down the corner of her lip. No. No. Fuck. It needs to stop. “Saving you could never be a waste.”

“You didn’t save me. If you die it will all have been a waste. I won’t stay in this world without you.”

“Zale can’t heal the poison,” she whispers. “He can only heal what he can identify.”

I yell through clenched teeth like a wounded animal, setting her down gently to unsheathe a knife from my thigh.

Though I hate hurting her, I slice open her palms and do the same to mine, not even feeling the bite of steel.

I clasp our hands together as she did before performing the ritual, but nothing happens.

There’s no force locking our flesh together.

“It’s not going to work,” she says softly.

“El, my love.” Tears begin sliding down my cheeks. I didn’t even think I was capable of crying anymore. “Please don’t leave me.”

“You remember what I said at our wedding? I will wait for you in every lifetime, Cayden Veles. I’ll see you again, and I’ll love you again.”

“No, you won’t.” My tears worsen, dotting her cheeks with rivers of sorrow as I cradle her in my arms again.

“I won’t get this lucky again, so you have to stay here with me.

” She laughs, but it’s weak, and strained, and all wrong.

“We’re going to have our future together just like we talked about last night.

I’m going to smother you with gowns and pastries and books, and we’re going to have boring days together. ”

She nods, the corners of her lips rising as her brows knot. “Keep talking.”

“We can have a cottage in the mountains and the sea just for us. I know how overwhelmed you get when surrounded by people, so we can go there to escape court. We’ll be happy, just the two of us, and if you decide you want to have children, I’ll pull myself together to be good to them and do right by you, but I need at least a decade with you before anyone else joins the picture.

I’ll give you anything you want, angel, you just have to stay with me.

I don’t care what my life looks like as long as you’re in it. That’s all I need.”

Life leaks out of the woman who has always been so full of it as she stares up at me with stars in her eyes.

“I know you think yourself unworthy of me, but I need you to know that I could never love anyone the way I love you.” Nyrinn runs through the trees with Braxton and another soldier at her side, the general falling to his knees when he sees the wounded queen in my arms, removing his helmet to press it against his chest.

The other soldier mirrors his actions, but it’s different for Braxton.

He was the first soldier to step forward and swear himself to Elowen after she was attacked in Ladislava.

He was the only soldier who stepped forward to address the way Ailliard treated her.

Braxton never had children, and though Elowen is a grown woman, I think guarding her fulfilled some part of him.

Elowen continues even after Nyrinn kneels beside her, keeping her eyes on mine. “Never doubt that I wanted everything with you. I’d have spent my life proving you’re worthy in all the ways you think you’re not.”

I cradle her face, kissing her forehead again. “Shh, love. Save your breaths.”

We’ll have it all.

We’ll have everything.

Nyrinn does her best to keep the emotion off her face, but her shaking hands give away everything.

“What have you gotten yourself into this time, my girl?” she asks, gently.

“At least I’m far away from your pretty floors.”

Nyrinn offers a strained smile, wrapping her hands around the first arrow, and looking at me with a tortured expression. “We have to try.”

I bite my tongue, knowing this will be excruciating for Elowen, but I can’t let her die.

I don’t know where Zale is, I don’t even know if he’s alive.

Nyrinn pulls a heap of fabric from her pack, and I lean Elowen against Sorin’s cheek.

Elowen looks around to all her dragons, her eyes glowing gold as her lips quiver and she sucks in a shuddering breath.

“Stop saying goodbye,” I command.

“I have to.”

I take the fabric from Nyrinn, balling it up tightly and pressing my arm across Elowen’s chest to keep her from thrashing. “I have to make this as quick and clean as possible,” Nyrinn says. “Cayden will press the fabric to try to stop the bleeding, but we need to get these arrows out of you.”

“Mhmm,” Elowen mumbles, her blinks growing slower as does her pulse.

Nyrinn sucks in a sharp breath, wrapping both hands around one of the arrows. I press my lips to the side of Elowen’s head, murmuring against it, “I’ve got you, angel. It’s my turn to heal you and you’ll be back to tormenting me in no time.”

“Tell Finnian I love him,” she says.

Nyrinn rips the arrow free, and Elowen screams through the blood gurgling up her throat, spilling down her chin. I press the wad of fabric against the open wound but there’s so much blood. Too much blood.

It coats my hands until I can’t see my skin.

The dragons cry out, their screams mingling with her agony.

“I’m so sorry, my love. Just hold on for me a bit longer.”

“ELOWEN!” Finnian bellows, running through the tree line.

He throws his helmet to the side, his bow too, nearly falling over himself as he rushes to get closer to his best friend.

He collapses beside Nyrinn, tears running through the blood on his cheeks.

“What happened? Why isn’t anyone using magic to heal her? ZALE!” he shouts desperately. “ZALE!”

“Fi”—she chokes—“nny.”

“I’m here, darling.” He looks to Nyrinn, who prepares to pull out the second arrow. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“We can’t leave them inside her!”

“There’s too much blood!”

Elowen’s head lolls on Sorin’s scales, and I pull it up, locking my gaze on her glazed irises. “I”—she chokes on more blood—“l-love…”

Her words drop, and her eyes cloud over. She’s not looking at me anymore. No. No . “Elowen.” I slap my hand against her cheek. “ELOWEN!”

Tears continue spilling from my eyes, but I don’t move to wipe them as I take her in my arms again. Elowen hates when I let her go during the night, even if it’s just for a few moments. She told me it’s the only time she feels safe enough to rest.

“Come back,” I beg, my voice hoarse from screaming.

Finnian screams and punches the ground, cursing every god who took Elowen from this world.

The dragons wail so sharply, tearing apart the forest and bathing it in flames as they take to the skies to circle their rider.

The woman whose soul called to them and brought them into this world.

It’s like they’re screaming in hopes that Elowen will find them again to remedy their pain as she always did.

Sorin nudges her leg, pleading for her to wake up, and moves on to her hand, trying to place it on his snout, but it falls away.

“Come on, El.” I rock her body back and forth. “Show me those pretty eyes, angel. Please. Don’t leave me.”

She doesn’t move, her empty eyes staring at the skies she once flew in. “Breathe, my love, please breathe.” I pat her cheek more and jostle her in my arms. “ELOWEN!”

She can’t be gone.

This isn’t real.

I press my head to her blood-covered chest, but there’s no heartbeat.

Claws rake through my heart and lungs. I can’t fucking breathe.

Everything hurts. I thought I knew what it was to be angry before, but it’s nothing compared to this.

I’ve never known pain until this moment.

I cannot endure whatever this feeling is.

I will not survive it, and what would even be the point?

We were so close to the life we wanted. She was so close to getting the life she deserved…and she’s just gone, and everything good within me has been taken with her.

I rear my head back and scream. The ground rumbles beneath me as icy rage continues to pound through me.

It’s not hot, as one would think, it’s cold like death.

My agony awakens something in me, awakens something in the world surrounding me, and every shadow in the forest moves to cling to me.

They wrap around my arms like snakes and hold Elowen’s body to mine, like the darkness of the world clings to the light as it leaves.

My power is spawned from suffering and forged in rage.

Elowen was right, and she’s not even here to see it.

In the back of my mind, I can hear her triumphant laughter, but it’s so far away.

I lost everything, and now I want to take everything.

I have nothing left, not a shred of humanity or happiness, and the darkness fills the empty shell of my living corpse.

Nykeem did this.

He took her from me, and not a single shield will save him from my wrath.

There is not a corner of this world he can cower in because I will lurk in every shadow, ready to strike.

Elowen doesn’t need me to hold her right now; she needs me to avenge her.

I kiss Elowen’s forehead one more time, whispering my vow against her skin. “For you, my love, I will break the world.”