Terra’s feathered wing lowered beside me, and I smiled at her, accepting her invitation.
I’d like to say that we flew back to the Blazelands, but that was not at all what I experienced. As we advanced in the sky, the seven territories seemed to mix with the Gods, all distances vanishing, until we arrived at the Crimson Fortress merely a blink later.
The Sky Gods weren’t just the celestial elements, they were the very essence of this world, and everything reacted to them.
My hands fisted along Terra’s feathers when the devastation before us became clear. Midnight and Knight’s bodies were strewn along the base of the volcano, while Quinn and Imogen lay near them in a merging pool of blood, unmoving. Across from them, Harper held Elijah’s limp body in her arms, her screams echoing in the air.
Blood-stained bodies of warriors and sentries alike crowded the battlefield, almost replicating the mass graves of the Outlands, where so many of ours had never been recovered. Ripped and broken, the forms of three Possessed Dragons were embedded onto the earth from the force of their fall, and still more fell from the sky when we approached. Skylar and Venom crashed against the black mountain, blood spewing from his abdomen but he managed to hold on. Right under them, a bloodied Arlo shook Edward’s body near the edge of the battle, trying to bring him back. Two of Lachlan’s possessed men were left behind them, the Dragons seeming to have ripped each other to pieces.
The haunting sight caused agony to rupture my heart open, seeping into the four gods.
King Ezra had been right. It took great death for Caelisium to fall, and it would take great death for it to rise once more.
“Aaah!” Evanna’s scream sliced through my being, and my head snapped down to find Star crashing too, her unmoving body crushing Evie’s leg and pinning her to the ground. Another scream left her, cries mixing with the sound while she anxiously pushed at her unconscious soulmate to get free.
Evanna’s tears fell not only from the pain of her broken leg, or her injured soulmate, but from all our brothers and sisters now dead in the battleground.
The Warlock King marched towards her, deadly magic churning between his hands.
Fear and rage should have gripped my being. Desperation should have captured me whole at the sight. Instead, flames of purpose and courage ignited my every cell, flowing freely from Terra, Ignis, Glacies, and Aqua into my soul.
I jumped off Terra’s neck just as Aqua’s waves reached the battle, sweeping over everyone at once. The sentries’ bodies sank among the swirling currents, the same bringing our Skyborne warriors afloat, both dead and alive. Dragons bodies rose among the waves as well.
Extending my arms as I glided down, my magic called to everything I had lost. The Dragon Crown effortlessly emerged from the waters below, flying up to my hand. The sword followed, my fingers gripping its hilt fiercely the moment it reached me.
Glacies’ chilled fog climbed the sides of the Volcanoes, rising in the air to instantly engulf the remaining possessed Dragons, halting their attack, and freeing ours from the wrath the Warlock forced upon them.
“He’s still alive! Braxton is alive!” Charlotte shouted from somewhere nearby when I landed on the blackened earth. She was dragging Harvey’s limp body out of the waters. Charlotte appeared hurt and drenched but enduring.
“You should be dead!” the Warlock King bellowed, seeming completely deranged.
His current state said Evie had made it her mission to give him absolute hell while I was away, and I approved. His hands shifted from her twisting form, as she fought to set her leg free, to me—his swirling power ready to be unleashed.
“Almost there, Baby…” My gaze conveyed to my queen a second before my full attention fell on the Warlock.
As I advanced towards him, the chest plate and cloak returned to me, settling on my body while I slid the sword back into the scabbard at my hip. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Raithian. I’m still alive, I just went to get a few of my friends.”
Only then did Raithian noticed something had changed. His gaze lift to the sky, seeing the Sky Gods surround the Blazelands, each of their powers overcoming the land and his forces.
For the first time, raw fear visibly captured his being.
“It cannot be,” he panted, glancing down at me while horror joined the party. “The Four Cursed Dragons are gone. They were gone… How, how did you manage this?!”
“I am the rightful king.” My answer was simple, but far truer than he could ever imagine—still, it fueled the rage in him.
The massive force meant for Evanna, burst towards me instead. I crossed my arms when it reached me, absorbing it whole, then uncrossed them, sending every ounce of lethal power back to him.
It crashed against his chest, blowing him backwards in the air, and over the mote, until he slammed against the curtain wall. Green energy swayed when he fell to the cobblestone walkway below, blood seeping from his nose, ears, and sliced temple.
“You will never win!” he roared, pushing himself up. “I am going to—"
New threads of lava shot towards him when I thrust my glowing hands in his direction, but he vanished into green fog before they could reach him. The lava splashed against the stone, sizzling, and sliding down the wall.
Coward.
As the rampant waves returned to Aqua’s essence behind us, leaving lifeless bodies in their aftermath, I turned my attention to Evanna and rushed towards her.
Using my Dragon strength, I lifted Star’s neck off her leg and set her free. “It’s okay, Baby. I’m here.”
Evie’s hands cupped my cheeks, her eyes trying to decipher if I was real. “When I couldn’t find you, I thought you were go—”
My stolen kiss swallowed her sob, erasing the fear that gripped her after not seeing me anymore during the fight, and giving her relief.
“I thought I was gone too,” I confessed, gripping her hands in mine, “but I’m here. And I found my four Dragons.”
Her gaze followed mine to the sky. “The Sky Gods!” she gasped, trying to turn her body for a better look, but a cry erupted from her when the pain flared with her movement.
“Shhh. You are okay,” I promised, placing my hand on her leg, and sending my healing energy into her. Evie claimed my lips again, needing to feel me as much as I needed her.
“Star,” she whispered once it was done, tears gleaming in her eyes, but even from where I knelt, I could see Star’s chest tremble with her shallow breathing.
She wasn’t gone. Not yet.
Planting both hands on her neck, I began our energy exchange, giving Star as much as possible without hindering myself. I still had a Warlock to find. “She’s alive and well on her way to healing, but I can’t give her everything now. I’ll come back to her.”
“I know,” Evanna whispered, standing. Placing a kiss on her soulmate’s neck, she caressed her soothingly. “We’ll be back for you, girl. You are not alone.” When Evie’s eyes returned to mine, her pain awakened in my chest. “So many of ours are dead, Brax.”
Pulling her into my embrace, I held her fiercely, feeling her arms wrap around my neck. For a moment, we clung to each other, sharing the loss while Ignis’ embers began to set the sidelines and the sentries’ drowned bodies on fire, cleansing the land.