Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
He turned to me, his eyes glowing purple, and thundered, “Inside!” before the studs of his shirt went flying as he pulled it off.
He didn’t bother with his trousers before he put his hands to the balustrade, leaped over it, and the slap of his dragon wings extending hit me like a physical thing.
His dragon soared over the rushing, frenzied beings rushing frantically toward the Palace.
The king’s dragon followed Aleksei’s.
Timothee’s dragon followed the king’s.
And I stood still and staring in the direction of where they were heading.
Because I could not believe the sight that met my eyes.
Trolls.
Chapter 44
Stream
I stood fixed to the spot, even as someone tugged on my arm desperately, and I heard Queen Calisa demand, “Laura! In the Palace! Now!”
But I couldn’t move.
I could only stare as Tanyn, Cormac and Bainon all leapt over the balustrade like we weren’t a story up, and in the Palace garden, shifters shifted, sparks of witch, conjuror and fae magic flew, blazes of dragon fire rained down, and flashes of demons and vampires raced, all of this lanced by screams of terror and shrieks of pain.
Catastrophic pandemonium was playing out in front of me.
But no matter what they threw at them, nothing touched the trolls.
They were even immune to dragon fire.
Gods.
How could it be?
Trolls.
“Laura!” Aleece screeched right in my ear.
But I was watching a golden-brown bear I knew had to be Sirk tear across the garden. He barreled into a troll who had hold of a female. The troll went off balance, dropped her, and Sirk reared up and slashed with his mighty claws at its chest.
His claws did not perforate the troll skin.
However, the troll backhanded Sirk so hard, he flew ten feet in the air and twenty feet across the garden, landing on grass and skidding uncontrollably into a bed a of flowers.
That was when I heard a familiar dragon’s roar and watched in terror as Aleksei divebombed the troll who struck Sirk.
He got too close to the ground and two trolls jumped on their mighty legs into the air, clasping him around his neck, just as another one caught his tail and swung it. Off balance, Aleksei lost control and went crashing to the ground.
NO!
My beast thudded violently in my chest.
“Unzip me,” I demanded.
“What? Laura get inside!” Aleece replied on a shout.
I looked to her, and the instant I did, she reared back.
“Unzip me!” I screamed.
She unzipped me, my heavy gown fell away, I jumped out of it, raced to the balustrade, went as if to dive headfirst over it, and she burst from me.
She glided low, listing and banking to avoid the grasp of troll hands.
When she got close, Aleksei’s creature was already on his hind feet, sending trolls flying with tail, wings, and he clamped one in his maw, biting down, and three bits of bloodied, ravaged dead troll fell to the turf when he opened his jaw.
She dove into the troll who’d had his tail, and she heard Aleksei’s creature’s roar, but it didn’t stop her.
She caught the troll in her jaw in mid-flight, ascended, and even as the creature struggled in her mouth, beat at her snout with his fists, she soared over the sea, faster, farther, faster, higher, faster, and then she dropped him.
A ferocious, unearthly wail escaping the troll’s mouth as, limbs flailing, he fell to the depths from a height that would likely shatter his bones on impact with the water, but even if it didn’t, he was in a place no creature could swim back.
She turned and he was there, sending a line of infuriated amethyst dragon fire over her head.
And then she did something she’d never done.
She opened her mouth, and a stream of white-hot flame streaked out, aimed well below his magnificent body.
His wings flapped back, exposing his claws and breast. He bellowed, but she ignored his surprised fury and beat a tattoo back to the Palace.
He soared into place beside her.
By the time they returned, the defense bots had been unleashed, and the flashes of laser beams coming straight from the ends of their limbs were downing trolls all over the west gardens.
He bumped her and tried to guide her, but she ignored him, so he had no choice but to allow them to fall into sync, releasing distraction streams of dragon fire in aid of still-battling shifters, demons, fae, vampires and witches.
And he dispatched another two trolls by divebombing (to her fury) in order to capture them, severing them in his teeth and fangs: one who’d cornered a fighting female fae, and another who looked to be besting a male demon.
They circled and blasted, Timothee’s blue and black beast and the king’s fierce golden dragon with its amber eyes took their wings until it came clear the defense bots had it in hand, and Aleksei’s creature guided us to the courtyard.