Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
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.
Chapter Sixty-One
The Truth
“Well, this is obnoxious,” Kerrigan said on a sigh.
The trap was familiar. It had been used by Bastian at the coup to hold the dragons back. He’d seized the ones in the aerie and then kept the council dragons out of the fight by caging them. He’d played the same trick on Kerrigan.
Fordham crossed his arms over his muscled chest and waited. She felt warmth down the bond and a whispered, “As if they could keep us.”
A smirk came to her face at his arrogance. Oh, how she loved it.
“Thank you so much for joining us today, Kerrigan,” Bastian said, holding his hands wide. “It’s always a good day when the prey walks into my trap.”
“I bet it is,” Kerrigan said. “You’ve been walking prey into traps for a while, huh?”
He narrowed his eyes at those words. Almost like he could hear the underpinnings of what she was really saying through it all, but then his face cleared, and the facade returned.
“Yes, well, you have done a spectacular job so far with this little rebellion.”
“You really think so?” she asked. “I’ve always wanted your approval.”
Bastian cleared her throat. “As entertaining as your insubordination is, it pleases me that we can end this the way that we started it.”
“With lies?”
“Justice.”
She snorted. “Oh, that’s rich. You think that you can still hand out justice. Your hands are so red that you’ll never get the blood out from under your nails. There is no amount of justice that could be served to cleanse the world of what you’ve done.”