Page 22 of Court of Dragons and Twilight

I find the next door another twenty metres away in the water. It’s easy enough to get us there and step into the air test next. This one is a bit more complicated. It’s a massive tree spread high up in the air, but the tree is full of snakes. The same snakes from the first test, but some of them are massive. Aphrodite went all out to stop me. Such a shame I won’t be climbing that. I’m missing two more people, Soph’s friends, so I’ll have to search for them on the way up. I still remember the pain from those snakes’ teeth sinking into my body, and I hope the hostage here hasn’t been bitten. “Both of you, stand close.”

“We don’t even know who you are and?—”

“I’m Queen Ellelin of Ayiolyn, which is a world of dragons. I grew up on Earth and I’m trying to get us all out alive. If you want to die, then just stay here with the snakes. Want to live? Come close and don’t move,” I cut him off.

Soph touches his arm. “Think of your boyfriend. I’m thinking of mine, and we can do this. I think she is helping us.”

He still doesn’t look like he trusts me, but he comes closer with Soph. I lean down, making the ground around me shake before breaking away like a rock. I use my air powers to raise it straight up in the air and my earth gifts to hold it firmly together against the pressure. I don’t need to climb the tree at all. I find another woman in a heap of black clothes and vibrant green hair, just about to be eaten by the snakes, and I use vines to wrap around her waist, yanking her onto the rocks. Soph hugs her immediately as I lift us up higher and higher. She’s crying somuch I can’t understand a word she’s saying, but I know I don’t want to stay here for too much longer.

I land on top of the tree, in front of the door to the air test. This test has a tornado right in the middle of a clearing, and there is nothing but sand for miles. The new girl, who I think is called Molly, begins to scream. “No, no, no, no! I don’t want to die!”

I glance at them and make a dragon out of shadows right underneath us. She loses it more, and I don’t blame her. I meet Soph’s eyes, the only reasonable one of them all. “Hold on.”

She nods and does as I ask. The sooner I get them back to Earth, the quicker they will stop screaming. My shadow dragon spreads out far, and I realise I don’t feel a drain on my power at all. Making a shadow dragon barely makes me flinch now. With a smile, one I hope Aphrodite can see, I fly us straight towards the fast grey tornado. I use my air powers to calm it, so the wind doesn’t attack us as I fly straight over the top and down the centre with my screaming new friends. In the centre of the tornado is my last hostage to rescue. She’s unconscious, and the moment I land, they all run to her. The other door is right behind her. The last one.

I yank it open, seeing the man picking her up with Soph and Molly’s help to carry her after me. There is nothing but darkness waiting for me, and I know Aphrodite never expected me to get this far. This was the end. There’s nothing here to attack me. I hold my hand out, and the door straight back to the arena opens in front of me. Aphrodite is shaking her head in disbelief, her mouth parted as I step through, the people coming in after me and running away. Not that I blame them. At least they got a free holiday to Greece.

“How did you do that?!” she roars at me, red power spinning out of her hands. I use the earth gifts to wrap around her ankles and hold her in place for me. The air whips around me as fireand water spirals out of my hands, taking on the shapes of dragons and running across the floor to her. She screams, her powers doing nothing against mine. “I won the test.” I slowly walk to her. “I warned you about what was going to happen. I am Queen Ellelin, and you are no longer welcome in my world.” I tug my sword from the clip at my back, and I plunge it straight through her chest, straight through her black bitter heart, just like I promised to do. I don’t think death has ever felt as rewarding as it does right now. I watch her choke.

“Beautiful,” the creepy sword whispers. That’s enough of the sword for now. She shakes, grabbing onto the blade, cutting into her palms, but I pull it out, sliding it back into the holder. She collapses onto the dirt, blood spilling around her and into her hair.

“I don’t have the humanity in me to sit down here with you while you die. You deserve to die alone on Earth and be forgotten. Just another unnamed dead for them to bury in silence.” I raise my hand and make a portal to the Air Court. “Goodbye, Aphrodite.”

Her scream is the last thing I hear as I step through the portal, and moments later, I feel my mates and the bond back. It was her spell that stopped us, and now…I just need Emrys back. My heart is in my chest as I see Emrys first. He’s holding my mother tightly, his hands around her neck, and she is grabbing the hand to pull it off with no luck. Gray’s sister is in a cage right on the edge of the rock, the air barely holding it up using Emrys’s power. I put my hands behind my back and make a ledge under the cage to catch the cage and make sure it doesn’t fall when he no doubt lets go. A drowning man grabs anything and anyone to take with him. Ares is not taking another person from us. “I won the test. You have to get out, Ares.”

“She made the test with you and she’s dead now. I am not doing anything she agreed when you’ve killed her. You want himout? Make me!” he screams at me. My mates come close to me, and I lift my head. He is breaking a magical bond, a promise, and there is always a cost to that. I just didn’t expect magic to take its price straight away. It does. Red, violent magic-like pulses start flowing out of Emrys’s chest and tearing up the ground at his feet. My mother screams and he throws her to the side, her head smacking on the ground, and she passes out. Emrys screams and roars, holding his hands over his chest like he can hold in the soul. I want to run to him, but I can’t get close, not with the magic throwing me around. Ares laughs. “When my soul is free from this body, I will take another and another. I will never be stopped. I am endless and there is no one who can take my soul and kill me.”

I scream as his power slams into me, and the air becomes tight as it disappears around us. We all fall to our knees, gasping for air, and I reach for Grayson first as he stares at me, desperate to save me too. Terrin, Arden and Lysander are crawling to me even when they are going pale, even when every breath hurts. Ares is going to suffocate us long before he leaves Emrys and then takes one of our bodies. We can’t stop him. I want to scream but nothing comes out.

Light shines and I roll onto my back, looking over as a new portal appears. Arty and Kian walk through it, hand in hand, and they aren’t affected by the power. It bounces off them, disappearing altogether, and Arty’s eyes are glowing like diamonds, her hair bouncing around her shoulders. They walk between us, almost like the magic can’t touch them, like it’s siphoning itself into Arty. It’s her power. She leans down in front of me, and she kisses my cheek. “You were the sister I always wanted, and this is my choice. Don’t you dare cry for me and maybe, maybe you can tell your family one day about your best friend who…who loved you.”

That sounded like a goodbye. I can’t speak, I can’t breathe. I reach for her, trying to grab her hand and stop this. I don’t know what she is doing, but she is not saying goodbye to me. I sob as she looks at me with tear-soaked eyes and rises off her feet. “It was always meant to be like this. I was their downfall. Ares created his own ending with me.”

Kian leans down to say something to Lysander, touching his head for a moment. I don’t know what it is; I don’t know what he says, but whatever it is, I feel it from Lysander. A slam of emotion, a mixture of grief, shock and pure denial. Arty and Kian walk together straight up to Ares, and they take his hand. Ares shakes his head, trying to rip his hands from them, but neither of them let go. “Go to hell, dad.”

Red light slams into both of their bodies, and it shines through their veins, bursting out of their bodies as Emrys is drained of Ares once and for all. Emrys collapses on the floor. The light swirls around them both, red and violent evil, but they hold each other as it stops. The world goes darker than it’s ever felt. Everything stops as Artemis and Prince Kian die together for Ayiolyn.

CHAPTER 14

There’s silence, where not even the wind dares to make a sound, where nothing moves as I look at what has just happened, and I can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel real to me, and I blink like it might make it all stop. Like they all might get up and this isn’t real. The denial makes me feel sick to my stomach, and pain slams into my heart. Kian and Arty have collapsed together, their bodies entwined in each other’s on the floor, and both of them are pale, still. Emrys is behind them, looking just as pale and just as dead.

Emrys.

I can’t feel him. Panic floods my system as I realise I can’t feel him. I thought…I thought the bond would kick into place. Grayson looks right at me before he runs for his sister, and I finally make myself move even if I don’t feel connected to my body from the shock. Lysander moves with me, both of us running to the group. He grabs his brother, and I find my mate, hating the fact he doesn’t move.

“Kian, don’t you fucking do this to me! WAKE UP!” Lysander roars, storm clouds bursting across the sky and rain pouring down on all of us. Drenching us to the bone. Lysander sends water all over Kian’s body, but it doesn’t glow, it doesn’t healhim. It can’t, because there is nothing to heal anymore. Lysander has lost his brother, and I lost my best friend.

Arden looks down at Lysander. “I’m so sorry. They used their souls, their very essence, to kill Ares, and nothing short of that would have worked. They killed a god and paid the ultimate price for it.”

“Like fuck did they!” Lysander snaps, grabbing Kian’s shirt. “Please, you’re my brother. I can’t fix the court like you told me to without you! You can’t fucking die! You can’t die!” Thunder backs his shout, but Kian doesn’t move. Arden kneels next to Arty, closing her eyes and folding her hands across her stomach. He makes sure not to move Arty too far from Kian, so their bodies are still touching. It’s how it should be. I can’t believe they are gone. My hands tighten on Emrys.

I tear my eyes away from Emrys to Lysander. “Lysander, please look at me.”

Lysander is beyond reason. Terrin and Grayson stand by me, and they are silent. I know what they are going to say, and I won’t hear it. I can’t hear them say Emrys is gone.

“None of them are breathing, Elle.” Terrin kneels next to me. “I’m sorry?—”

“NO!” I roar, gripping Emrys to me, my heart breaking even if I won’t accept it. “Lysander, please. I need you to check Emrys.”

---