Page 21 of Court of Dragons and Twilight

I know the sentiment is shared by all of my mates, even Emrys, who today is coming home. I won’t accept another ending to this test. Aphrodite sent word last night after the mating ceremony that the test would begin for me this morning at dawn. None of us slept or even attempted to. I trained with Gray, ate with Lysander and Arden, and oversaw our people with Terrin. Literally anything but attempting to sleep, when today is everything. We win or lose, and the other way, everything stops.

Arden, Lysander and Grayson are on my other side, and we are waiting for the sun to rise above the horizon and shine through the balcony of a clearing to the west of the castle. “Ididn’t tell you something, something I learnt from Matron.” I feel the weight of their gazes on mine. “She can see in the future. I don’t know how exactly it works, but she told me that I’d have twin boys. That we would take them trick-or-treating on Earth, something I always loved to do with Phobos. That is the future we’re fighting for. When we step through this, Cronus is going to send his army out and defeat Aphrodite. The dragons have bent to Terrin, and his brother has returned to his lands to heal from the mental damage Aphrodite has done. It will take time to defeat an army that large, but the dragons of the West are on our side. When Cronus and my grandmother, along with Phobos, attack, the dragons will turn on Aphrodite’s army too. They’ll be attacked on either side. This is the last stand of the Spirit Court, and my court behind me will lead.” Behind me stands Hope and Xandry, Arty and Kian, Livia and Jinks, along with a few Twilight priests, who are opening portals to the Water Court for healers.

“We will be free, along with all our people in every court,” Arden adds in. “We have to beat her, kill her today, and get Emrys back along with the other hostages. Their safety is our goal.”

Lysander claps his hands. “Kill some gods and then we can work on impregnating our mate. I love this plan.”

My cheeks burn, and my eyes shoot to Lysander. Arden only high-fives him, and I shake my head at them both. Grayson’s deep laugh echoes loudly, and his hand tightens in mine as he leans down. “Behave because the idea of trying to get you pregnant is making me hard, and you can tell me all about our future later on.”

Warmness spreads through me. “I will.”

I’m still nervous, but I hold my head high as I walk through the portal with my mates. My kings. We’re all matching with thin black armour that is designed to fend off any elementalattack but also is good for effortless movement, like running. My magical sword is clipped to my back, and each of my kings is wearing a variety of clothing and weapons that makes them more impressive than usual. My mouth went dry when I saw them earlier, and I’m sure all the extra fluids in my body went right between my legs. The mate bond is still humming in my blood, and it makes me want them endlessly. I look behind me once to see that my court is watching us go. Each of them bows their heads, and it’s the last I see of the Spirit Court, of my home, before the portal slams shut behind us.

The howling wind of the Air Court greets. It’s a haunting song that sounds like it carries the ghosts of all the dead. It sends a chill straight down my spine, long before I see Aphrodite and Emrys. He looks worse, just so much worse. His skin’s pale, almost grey, and it reminds me of ash in colour. There’s nothing bright about him right now. His eyes are glowing, burning red, but they’re flickering every so often. My heart races when I see that. Is Ares winning or is Emrys?

He’s sitting on the throne, one that Emrys used to sit proudly in. But now he looks like a broken king, destroyed from the inside out, and it tears me apart to see him like that. I remind myself this will be over soon. I tell myself that Ares will get the fuck out of his body, and I will get my air king back. I have to drag my eyes over to Aphrodite, and looking at her just fills me with a burning anger. She’s not wearing her usual dresses now; instead, she’s wearing a tight, dark red suit that sticks to her curves, with a low dip in her chest. Her long blonde hair is down, and I very much look forward to yanking the strands of it out as I slowly kill her. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to kill someone as much as I do her. I’ve had enough. “Where’s the final test?” I ask coldly, my voice carrying on the wind.

“Pretty crowns,” Aphrodite coos, “but they won’t save you. Your men can stay here. This is a test for women. Come.”

I look into each one of my mates’ eyes, wishing we could communicate through our bond again. It would make this moment so much easier. I know they don’t want to let me go. Grayson’s hand tightens in mine before he is the first to let me go. His voice is a whisper for my ears only. “The only reason I can let you go right now is because I love you beyond all the fear. All of you. Go.”

“Kill her.” Lysander offers his advice. “And fuck, come out with her blood all over you. I don’t care, but she dies.”

Arden nods in agreement. “Come back alive, princess.”

Terrin simply kisses the side of my head, like he can’t find the words, and I don’t need them from him right now. “If I don’t come back out of there alive, kill Ares. Make sure they are both stopped, as she isn’t coming out.” Leaving my mates is more difficult than I thought it would be, but I only have to drift my eyes to Emrys to know it’s worth it.

I reluctantly step through with her into an ancient, half-broken stadium with pillars stretched far away up in the dark sky. It smells like sand and people, and I’m not sure where we are. The air is humid but a little cold, and it’s loud. Wherever we are, there is traffic near and a lot of people. Even though it’s night, light shines down from electrical lanterns. Aphrodite waves around, dust picking up at her feet. “These are the long lost remnants of where I used to live. For a long time, your people worshipped me, and they would have done anything for me. And you, who have lived on this planet for so long, are here to kill me. Ironic.”

“I suppose it will be ironic when you die here today.” I draw out thewhen.

She laughs, shaking her hair off her shoulder. “The problem with Earth, and what I always found was a real issue, was those beating hearts inside the humans. That moral compass in your souls. You won’t let people die, and that is exactly what willget you killed today.” She is smug and confident. Maybe in her shoes, I would be too when I had no idea what I was facing. She waves her hand, and five doors appear. Literal stone doors with metal knobs stand in the middle of the stadium. The doors are all slightly different because they have a symbol etched into the stone on them. Fire, water, earth, air and darkness. The crests of the courts. “You will begin with the fire element because you loved him first. Then water, and so on. Darkness is left for last. Your task is to get through and survive each element within a limited timeframe of an hour. Sounds simple enough. You should thank me.”

“Like fuck would I ever thank you,” I snarl. Her comment about my heart and about my morals makes me think there’s going to be people in there who are going to stop me from going through and make me want to save them. I will save them. Having a heart is not a weakness. “And overall, fuck you.” I walk to the door with the fire symbol on it. “It turns out in all the years that you’ve been alive, you’ve still not figured out that you’re pointless.” I turn the handle of the door. Pure heat blasts at me from the other side. I look back at Aphrodite, and I swear she sees me for the first time. She sees the Queen of Ayiolyn, who will stop at nothing to save this world from her. “When I come out the other side of this, the first thing I’m doing is running my sword straight through your black heart to send you to hell. Ares will follow.”

“We will see,” she smugly replies. Fuck her. I step in and slam the door shut behind me. A small cavern stretches out with a cliff edge hanging over blistering fires. The fires are so hot they’re burning blue, not red. There’s a series of tiny pillar steps with enormous gaps between them leading all the way across on the other side, and there are three different paths. One straight across and one to the left. The path to the right is broken beyond repair and not usable. The stone door with the water crest on itis on the other side of the cavern where the paths meet, waiting for me.

“Help!” a female voice screams. Following the shout, I spot the outline of a woman sitting on the path to the left. There are more steps towards her too, but they are far smaller and far between. Fire, like a waterfall of it, is flicking all the way around her in a circle. It’s getting closer to her by the second. She’s screaming and crying, catching ablaze in places. I can only make out she is blonde.

“I’m coming to help!” I shout at her. What Aphrodite doesn’t know, and what she’s stupid enough not to have realised, is that I don’t just have my shadow powers now. I pull water from the wall, using my powers to sense a deep ravine not far away. Grayson’s powers make it easy to make a gap in the rock and lead it this way. Cold water bursts from the wall, enough of it that it soon pours out into streams, putting out the fire below, washing the waterfall of fire away into steam and ash. I jump over the rocks one by one, easy enough now that the flames aren’t licking the edges of them, and get to her. I smile at the scared woman and offer her my hand. She must be about my age, and her accent is definitely British. “You’re safe.”

“What’s going on? Where are you from? Why are you dressed like a queen with a crown?” she splutters. “Was that magic? Is magic real?”

She keeps going, and I let her blurt a million questions out before she bursts into a hysterical crying spell that I’m clueless how to stop. “I’m Ellelin, what is your name?”

“Soph,” she sobs. “From Blackpool. I work in the arcades on the pier, and I…well, I saw something glowing and suddenly I was here. I was with three others, my friends and our manager!”

“Let’s get you back to Blackpool, then, come on.” I help her stand and I know she doesn’t trust me, but I hope she at least follows. I use Gray’s earth power to make the path morestructured, making a long path all the way across to the other door. The water symbol glows blue, and Soph looks terrified. Her jeans are burnt around her ankles, and parts of her pink crop top are black. “Stay close and you will live. If you run away, I’m not chasing you.”

I mean, I likely would save her life, but I’m not telling her that. If she was the reason I could fail these tests, I’d leave here for Emrys’s back. It’s selfish, but it’s true. My mates come first, and they always will do. Soph still follows behind me through the door, and it slams shut behind me. I’m not too surprised to see that we’re underwater in some kind of bubble, barely holding the air in, and it is bubbling at the edges. There are sharks, thousands of them, angrily swimming fast and quick around us. I can barely make out anything through them. Pulling air from the surface of the sea high above, I slam it into the bubble until it is solid. Soph starts crying loudly, wrapping her arms around her legs. “I hate sharks!”

“That makes two of us,” I mutter. Aphrodite chose this test to break me, and she won’t win. Maybe with just my shadow powers, I might not have been able to save myself in here. The matron and Emrys were right. I needed the others. Lysander is king of the sea and all its creatures. I am his queen, and I can do this. I close my eyes, blocking everything out, and reach farther. I tell the sharks to leave. One word echoed from my mind into theirs. When I open my eyes, they are all gone.

The sea is glittering and clear underneath the surface, and right near the top in another one of these spheres of air that is slowly shrinking is a man. I move our air through the water, straight to him, before we crash into him. Our air bubble merges with him like I suspected it would.

“Who the fuck are you, and can you get me out of here?” he shouts.

“Don’t shout at me, and calm down!” I warn him. He’s a small bald man in a suit. The manager, I’d guess. His accent tells me he’s from London without needing him to say. “Just stay close and you’ll survive this.” He goes to Soph’s side, and she talks softly with him. He must be a good manager and not a sleazeball like my old one was.

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