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CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
There wasn’t much time to digest what had happened or what Keella had shared. Only seconds after the guards took Ione to her chambers to rest during her awakening, I felt that same sudden surge of restless, anxious energy I had experienced before.
At the veranda’s edge, my grip tightened on Ash’s hand, my other reflexively going to my stomach. “Kolis.”
A pulse of eather whipped through Ash’s eyes, and Nektas quickly joined us. “You feel him?”
“Not as strongly as before,” I told him. “But I think he’s waking up.”
Shadows appeared down his throat, swirling up the sides. “Then we must hurry.” Mist seeped from the stone, churning around our legs as he pulled me to his side. “Remember what we talked about, liessa.”
“I remember,” I said, leaning into his chest as he placed a hand on Nektas’s shoulder. “You will take the lead.”
“Let’s see how long that lasts,” Nektas remarked.
As the mist thickened and rose around us, Ash lowered his mouth to mine. His kiss was fierce and demanding in the seconds it took us to shadowstep to the Callasta Isles, causing my breath to hitch and heat to pool low in my stomach. I was smiling as the mist scattered.
Ash had shadowstepped us inside the Rise, near the main entrance of the sprawling one-level palace. I caught a quick glimpse of our surroundings. Red and white wildflowers bloomed among the knee-high grass. Heavy curtains of moss hung from tree branches that stretched like intertwined arms over wide pathways. Ivy covered the trunks of trees and spread along the walkway, cracking the stone beneath our booted feet and smothering the wall in the distance, revealing only glimpses of the dark red stone of the Rise. There was a surprising beauty in the untamed courtyard, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Veses had intended for her land to remain like this or if it had become like this due to neglect.
A warning shout pierced the air, drawing my gaze to our right. A group of half a dozen guards adorned in red and gold jerked to a sudden stop as they walked along a path.
Ash spun, placing me between him and Nektas as absolute chaos erupted.
A fair-haired guard rushed forward, drawing a shadowstone dagger.
“Idiot,” growled Nektas as Ash unsheathed a shadowstone sword.
Ash caught the guard’s arm, cracking the bone. The man’s yelp was silenced as Ash sliced the god’s head from his shoulders. My chest throbbed with the echo of death, and I knew this was only the start.
There were only two less idiotic guards in the group of six. Their faces paled, and they spun on their heels, ru
Out of the corner of my eye, a wave of shimmery silver light swept over Nektas as he shifted. The sound of pounding boots echoed through the courtyard as Nektas’s claws dug into the stone. His head snapped out, massive jaws opening. He caught the closest guard around the chest, his sharp teeth piercing armor and bone as he shook his head, tearing the guard in two.
My lip curled as my palms warmed. “Was that necessary?”
No. Nektas drew his horned head back. Blood seeped down his scales. But it was fun.
“Our ideas of fun couldn’t be more different.” I turned to the doors, willing them to open.
Metal ground together, then snapped as the locks broke. Ash whirled, his sword clashing with another as the heavy shadowstone doors swung open. He planted a boot in the guard’s chest, caving in the bone as he threw out his left hand. Strands of shadowy eather laced with silver fu
The urge to do something about that—to steal them from death’s grip—was there, but I was able to fight the pull.
My gaze flickered over the interior of the palace, and I nearly tripped as I stalked toward the steps. I couldn’t be seeing what I thought I was. I squinted, my upper lip curling as I stared at the watercolor paintings adorning the ceiling of the grand entryway.
They were paintings of Veses.
Naked Veses.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
“I guess you’re seeing her artwork,” Ash said, snapping a guard’s neck. “Interesting choice, eh?”
I snorted. “Interesting, indeed.” Shaking my head, I stalked toward the wide steps just as guards rushed from the trees and poured out of the halls inside the palace.
“I would not run in this direction if I were you,” I said as I started up the stairs.
They didn’t.
One of Nektas’s wings swept over my head as he swung around, slamming his tail into the guards. Several of them hit the trees with bone-sickening crunches. A few went through them.
Nektas stretched his neck out, a deep growl vibrating the frills around his neck. Smoke wafted from his nostrils as his jaws stretched open.
The air crackled as a fu
As the flames receded, the once-red-washed walls were painted with sooty fingers. I glanced up, smirking when I saw that the ceiling was a charred mess.
“Nice work,” I told Nektas, stepping over the smoldering remnants of swords and shields.
Nektas made a low, chuffing sound, but a sudden roar of anger ended his amusement. I looked back to see him retreating from the entryway, his onyx and gray scales shimmering under the sunlight. A flash of gold scales blotted out the sun.
“Ash!” I shouted.
He whipped around, looking to the sky as shadowy tendrils swirled around him. A sudden burst of intense silvery fire poured from the sky, devouring the trees and guards belonging to the draken’s own Court.
Moving with lightning speed, Ash crossed the distance between us as Nektas reared back, snarling. The golden draken descended through the smoke with the swiftness of a thunderclap. Nektas’s massive body took to the air in a powerful leap. The two crashed above, a maelstrom of claws and silver fire.
Ash had started past me, but I hesitated, my eyes glued to the two draken. Nektas caught the other draken with claws as sharp as swords.
“He’ll be okay,” Ash assured me, touching my lower back. “I promise you.”
His confidence calmed enough of my concern that I could turn away. My gaze briefly met his. His eyes were pools of resolve, mirroring what I felt inside.
“She could be anywhere,” he said as we walked through the whirling smoke.
We didn’t have time to search the whole damn palace. I closed my eyes for a fraction of a heartbeat. Where is Veses? The skin behind my left ear tingled as I saw… “A room of mirrors and glass.”
“Her bedchamber,” he growled.
My narrowed gaze cut to him. “I’m going to save my rage over you knowing what her bedchamber looks like so I can take it out on her.”
“It’s been decades since I crossed that threshold,” he said as we entered a hall untouched by fire. There were more naked paintings of Veses engaged in all kinds of shenanigans with various men and women. “That was when I considered her a friend.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself. I’m just being irrationally jealous,” I admitted, tensing as I heard more guards approaching.
Gripping the hilt of my dagger, I focused on the mouth of the hall, where it split. “Incoming.”
Slipping past me, Ash swooped down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. Despite his lips being cool, my skin warmed and tingled from the brief, sweet touch.
“I can taste the bite of your fear,” Ash said to the guards. His voice was somehow soft yet loud in the same breath and achingly cold as his head tilted slightly to the side. There was a shadowy half-smile on his lips as he sca
I kept a close eye on them, fully prepared to unleash the eather ramping up inside me if I so much as thought I saw a finger twitch.
Ash tipped his head back more. “All of you have a choice to make. Step aside and live.” His smile spread, as cold as the wind whipping through the hall. “Or refuse and die for the Primal who is too cowardly to show her face.”
“Why,” I said as the guards remained in front of us, “did I just find that so incredibly hot?”
“Naughty, liessa,” he murmured, his gaze trained on the guards.
We gave them one more moment, not a second longer. I could still feel Veses. We wouldn’t give her time to leave her Court, something I was surprised she hadn’t done already.
Ash sighed. “So be it.”
He became a blur as he shot forward, meeting the guards head-on. Distant roars shook the palace walls.
It took everything in me to hang back, watching Ash move with lethal grace. I should be right beside him, carving the path to Veses. But hand-to-hand combat was possibly the riskiest thing I could undertake while pregnant. Even if I deflected every blow, punches and kicks would slip by. My love for the babes was greater than my need to prove myself.
Arcs of pulsing energy extended from Ash’s hands, striking down guards with terrifying and awe-inspiring precision. Chestplates and armor buckled. Bones snapped. Guards crumpled, their life force extinguished as swiftly as a snuffed candle.
The palace walls suddenly shook with a force like a mountain crashing into it. The lights overhead flickered wildly, and plumes of dust fell. A stream of fiery eather sliced through the hall we’d just come from, followed by a high-pitched shriek of pain.
“Careful!” Ash yelled in warning.
I gasped as the wind caught the fall of shimmery blood, spraying it in every direction. I shadowstepped back, knocking into Ash as a few drops splashed against the calves of my boots. Tiny holes immediately formed. I hissed, gritting my teeth as the blood burned my skin.
“Fuck.” Ash snared me around the waist, lifting me off my feet. “You okay?”
“Yes.” I gripped his arm with one hand. “It’s not that bad—”
The golden draken crashed through the ceiling several feet away, sending large chunks of stone flying. Ash swore, darting to the side with me in his arms. And not a moment too soon. A chunk of red stone nearly the size of a draken’s head slammed into the wall behind where we had just been standing. My chin jerked up to see Nektas veering back up into the air as another draken with honey-brown scales erupted from the clouds. I looked down to see a nude male lying in the rubble, his body bloody and broken. I knew he was dead. I’d felt it the moment the blood hit the air. I still winced.
“What a waste,” I murmured.