Not all the taigas retreated, though. From the far end of the army, Fairy and Broomstick pushed their way up the road to Sora and Daemon.
“Spirit, are you okay?” Fairy asked, shoving aside the last of the taigas, despite their appalled scowls that she would blatantly ignore the councilmembers’ orders to retreat. “We thought you were going to die when you and Virtuoso fell off the Citadel’s wall. And, Wolf, you’re . . . a wolf.”
Daemon laughed so deeply, it vibrated through his body and through Sora’s. She held more tightly to his fur.
“What, exactly, happened?” Broomstick asked.
“I think he’s the missing wolf from the sky,” Sora said.
Fairy ran her fingers through the fur behind Daemon’s ears. “A demigod, huh? Sexy.”
He leaned into her touch and growled in a content, low rumble.
Sora flinched. But then she reminded herself that she didn’t have a claim on Daemon, not like that. And she never would. They were geminas.
Because of that, she tried to act like everything between them was the same as it had always been, though it felt like wading upriver in a storm. “Wow,” Sora said, rolling her eyes affectionately at Fairy. “You’re still a flirt, even in the middle of a war.”
“It’s evidence of good character that I’m consistent,” she said.
Daemon nudged Fairy playfully with his nose.
Sora looked away. She had to think about something else. “Come on, we should probably catch up with the rest of the taigas.”
But then a voice boomed from the top of the hill. “Did you think it would be that easy to walk away from me?”
“Prince Gin.” Sora paled.
Suddenly, the road beneath them roiled and broke open. It roared as more spears of bloodstone shot out of the ground, like thousands of dragon talons. One of the claws knocked Daemon into the air. Sora screamed and clung to his back.
He righted himself before they hit the ground, and they darted into the sky.
Beneath them, the path that had once led to Rose Palace continued to rip itself asunder. More talons pierced through the earth. Some speared straight through unfortunate taigas. Others closed around them and lifted them ten stories off the ground, trapping the soldiers in prisons of stone dragon claws. Those who were trapped tried fruitlessly to smash the claws or pry them apart as the talons curled together, the spaces between narrowing to close the prisoners in.
“Wolf! Help!” Fairy teetered at the top of one of the talons. She held Broomstick by the back of his tunic, but the fabric was slipping. If she lost her grip, he would fall into the stone claws’ clutches.
“Hang on,” Daemon shouted.
Sora pressed herself flat onto his neck and clamped her legs to his sides. They dove straight down. Blue light streaked behind them. The wind shrieked in Sora’s ears.
As they descended, new claws shot out of the ground and tried to snatch them from the air. Daemon swerved.
“Crow’s eye!” Sora clung to his fur as they dodged in and out.
“I can’t hold Broomstick much longer!” Fairy shouted. The talon she perched on began to close toward the others, threatening to impale her on another claw.
“Go now!” Sora yelled into Daemon’s ear.
He darted out of reach of another stone claw and streaked toward Fairy and Broomstick again.
Sora held out her hand.
Broomstick reached.
Their fingers met and locked. “Let go!” Sora said to Fairy.
She released Broomstick, and Sora swung him up onto Daemon’s back. They flew up and away from the claws.
“Are you all right?” Sora asked.
Broomstick nodded, securing himself into Daemon’s blue fur. “We have to go back for Fairy.”
“Already on it.” Daemon looped around and dove down again.
“My dear taigas,” Prince Gin’s voice projected from his bloodstone castle to the soldiers captured below. “Your empress is dead. I am the ruler of Kichona now, which means the Society answers to me.”
“Hurry!” Sora said. “He’s going to hypnotize everyone!”
Daemon growled and flew faster. Sparks flew in Sora’s face, briefly burning as they bounced off her skin.
They neared the dragon’s claw. Sora stretched her arm out again, and Broomstick held her waist to help keep her on Daemon’s back.
“Fairy! Give me your hand!”
Fairy climbed up onto the talon, trying to keep her balance as it shook her, attempting to jostle her into the cage of taiga prisoners in its palm below.
Daemon swooped down. Sora reached. Fairy jumped.
Another stone claw shot up out of nowhere. “Stars!” Daemon jerked out of the way at the last second, changing their trajectory.
Fairy was left with no one to catch her.
“Wolf!” she screamed. She began to fall toward the ground.
The blue light around him exploded, sparking and buzzing so brightly, Sora and Broomstick had to shield their eyes.
He flew at the speed of lightning, sound falling behind them, and snatched Fairy out of the air with his teeth.
It wasn’t until they were high up in the sky, out of the reach of the stone claws, that Sora realized they were all safe.
“Oh gods,” Fairy said, her breaths fast and shallow.
“Literally,” Sora said of Daemon. She reached down for her roommate, and together, she and Broomstick pulled Fairy onto Daemon’s back.
Below them, Prince Gin’s voice rumbled as he continued to address the taigas. “Bow to your new emperor.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Daemon growled. The blue around him flashed like an electric storm.
In the stone claws, though, a hush rolled through the taiga ranks, like a tumbleweed blowing through a deserted town. One by one, the soldiers inside the talon prisons fell to their knees, stretched their arms forward, and lay prostrate on the stone floor. “Long live Emperor Gin, ruler of all of Kichona!”
Sora braced herself for the warm, campfire comfort of Prince Gin’s hypnosis. She watched Fairy and Broomstick too for that familiar, contented glaze in their eyes that infected everyone under the Dragon Prince’s spell.
But it didn’t get to them. Daemon’s electricity sparked ferociously blue around them like a shield. It was similar to the orbs some of the ryuu had used, but even better—this was the magic of a demigod.
Still, it didn’t help the others. “The Society is gone,” Broomstick said sadly. “There’s only the four of us left.”
They all stared helplessly at the taigas below, whose minds had been stolen from them. From Bullfrog, the most opinionated councilmember, to the young Level 8s who had joined in the fight. Their free will had been brainwashed away. And now the Dragon Prince controlled an entire magical army.
As if on cue, Prince Gin emerged from inside the bloodstone castle, onto the large balcony of the tallest spire. “My loyal ryuu, the day I’ve dreamed of my entire life has finally come. Today, we begin our quest to make Kichona the greatest empire in history. Zomuri will give our island a paradise and immortality that, until now, has only existed in mythology. My dear ryuu, I promise that if we fight together, we will be rewarded. We will achieve the Evermore.”
Cheers broke out from the dragon claws, and from the existing ryuu lined up around the castle.