Page 2 of Court of Dragons and Twilight

The doors slam open next to the portal, and an army of literally dead skeletons start clicketing their way through the main hall to the portal. Queen Mai’s eyes are widened slightly, but she doesn’t show any reaction to using the staff or the army. She is very powerful to hold that staff so easily, but as I look closer, I see her wolves glowing the same colour, and they are all tense. They are sharing their power with her to control it.

I walk over to her and bow my head. Her eyes glow and she smiles once. “We won’t be back to this world, and no one ever will. Have an everlasting, peaceful future, Queen Mairin of the Wolves.”

I don’t look back as I join Cronus and walk with his army into the world of dragons.

CHAPTER 1

Fire burns across the cloudy night sky like a comet, and I can do nothing but watch as it burns. It burns and spits flames, the fire endless and so bright it hurts to look at even for a moment, but I lie on the battlefield, and I do not move. I don’t dare pull my eyes away as I watch dragons fall from the skies, as I see my people die before they really even got to live. I see my mate standing in the ash and smoke, but his eyes are not the same anymore. Emrys is gone… Did I follow his soul to death?

“You’re not dying while I still breathe, my mate.”

Lysander’s command is sharp, demanding as he always is, but each drop of his voice is filled with worry, and it pulls me from my daydream, or day nightmare. I force my tired eyes open for him, seeing my water king mate covered in blood and ash, burns and soot from head to toe. He is concentrating, and it takes me a moment to realise he is focused on me. Healing me. I nearly cough on the thick smoke in the air of our bedroom, even with the windows closed and the castle humming a song of death through the air. Lysander speaks out loud to whoever else is in the room. “She’s awake, Arden.” He might have been speakingout loud the first time to me. I don’t know. Everything feels so strange to me.

“Thank fuck.” Arden’s weight dips the bed on my other side, and he cups my cheek with his hand that’s black with ash. “Princess, you… What happened out there?”

“We should never have left her alone,” Lysander snarls at Arden.

Arden is calm on the outside, but he feels like a fiery tornado through the bond. “She wasn’t alone, and she was ambushed. We never could have known the tsar had powers or sided with Aphrodite.” Arden looks at me once more, and his fiery red eyes are filled with the fire I feel from him. “I’m sorry, Elle. Fuck, we…I messed up. Are you alright? When you’re ready, we need you to tell me where Emrys is, because he isn’t here. I got a hint of his scent near where we found you, but he wasn’t there.”

My heart feels like it’s racing harder and harder the more I think about Emrys… How do I tell them? What do I even say?

“Give her a second,” Lysander growls before helping me sit up on the bed with Arden’s help too. Every bit of movement hurts, and I didn’t realise how injured I was from the fall until I moved. My throat is burning and sore, even with Lysander’s healing, as I clear it a few times. Lysander touches my neck, pure water flowing around his hand and my throat. “We found you alone and nearly dead, Elle. I nearly fucking lost you, and I want to know exactly who tried to stop you from breathing.”

“Emrys,” I croak. Lysander drops his hand in shock, and Arden’s eyes actually glow red. Like flames. “He…he isn’t Emrys anymore.”

Arden throws his head back. “What exactly happened? Emrys would rather die than hurt you…but he did this?”

I nod, remembering the feeling of not being able to breathe, of how all the air in the world had just vanished for me. I really thought I was going to die, and I don’t know why Ares didn’tkill me. A dragon roar outside has me shooting my eyes to the window. Arden strokes my hand. “Everything’s secure, Elle. The ward is back up, and that’s your people out there. We’ve killed anybody else that was inside, but the rest of the army is outside the ward. Terrin tells me we have a lot of injuries, but we have portals open to the Water Court, and healers are rushing in, guided by Kian.”

“Grayson?” I need to see him. After Emrys…I need my mates. I feel Terrin in the skies just outside the castle, but his thoughts are quiet to me. He hasn’t blocked me out well enough, because I feel the waves of pure guilt coming off him. He is blaming himself for all of this.

“Gray is helping out in the field, and you can reach for him?—”

Arden pauses when I shake my head. “I can’t. Since I’ve woken up, the bond is silent. Can you reach me?”

They both focus on me, but when I hear nothing, I’m certain it’s the same. I can sort of feel them, what they are feeling, but not connect to them anymore. Something is messing with our bond, and I’d bet money on it that Ares has done it.

“Fuck, how is that possible?” Lysander snaps at Arden.

“How the fuck would I know?” Arden is tense.

I burst into tears, and it stops them both. I put my hand up to stop them both from reaching for me. If I let them hold me, I won’t get the words out. “Ares fully took over Emrys with Aphrodite’s help. She knew and planned all of Ares’s death. She wanted an elemental king’s body, and I don’t know if there’s anything left of Emrys at all now.” I can barely get the truth out through my tears. “There’s nothing when I feel for him. I don’t feel the bond or anything from him. Nothing!” I start rambling over my words. “I’ve lost him. I’ve—” Arden pulls me to him even when I fight, and Lysander wraps his arms around my back, holding me tight as I scream and cry, as the bitter taste of regret and horror of losing Emrys floods my mouth.

I don’t know how long passes before I stop crying enough to hear what Arden is saying. “He’s not gone. Look at me, princess.” He cups my cheek and turns my head up. “Emrys is not gone, just taken over, and we will fix him. There is no world where we give up on the air king. Don’t give up on us, princess. Not now, not ever. We are your dragon kings, your elements, and we fly with you.”

Closing my eyes, I rest my forehead on Arden’s shoulder. “He was scared. I felt the moment that Ares took over him, and Emrys was scared. I couldn’t help him.”

Lysander brushes my hair over my shoulder, the black and purple waves flowing down my back. “He was scared for you. Not himself. Emrys always put you first from the moment he fell in love with you. He will fight Ares with everything he has, and so will we. None of us are going to give up until his body is actually dead, and he’s not dead yet.”

Grayson comes in, his shoulders dropping when he sees me between Lysander and Arden, and the mess I’m in. Seeing Grayson just makes me cry more, like seeing him releases the final dam on the emotions I’ve been trying to hold in. He walks over, picking me up out of Lysander and Arden, and hugging me tightly. “Ellelin, it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s not,” I whisper before Lysander tells him everything about Emrys. Only when he is done does Grayson make a sound. A growl, echoing deep from his chest, and it reminds me of a dragon roar. “Fuck Ares. Fuck the gods. I’m so fucking done with them.” Grayson puts me on the bed. “Don’t you fucking dare let them break you, Ellelin. You are the Queen of Ayiolyn and our mate. Wipe the tears away, rest and sleep, eat, and then we make a plan. The gods don’t claim this world…you do with us at your side.”

“Don’t be a dick?—”

I stop Arden. “No, Gray’s right.” I let out a frustrated sigh. Maybe I needed some tough love, because I need to find the fire in my chest, the one my grandmother and uncle taught me how to burn. “I am the granddaughter of a goddess, the daughter of a king of dragons, and the mate to five dragons. I am not weak, and I am not giving up. We’ll get Emrys back and then kill Aphrodite.”

“Murder is a plan I can get on board with,” Lysander adds, and he makes my lips twitch.

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