Page 144 of Wrath of the Dragons
“ELOWEN!” Finnian bellows, running through the tree line. He throws his helmet to the side, his bow too, nearly falling over himself as he rushes to get closer to his best friend. He collapses beside Nyrinn, tears running through the blood on his cheeks. “What happened? Why isn’t anyone using magic to heal her? ZALE!” he shouts desperately. “ZALE!”
“Fi”—she chokes—“nny.”
“I’m here, darling.” He looks to Nyrinn, who prepares to pull out the second arrow. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“We can’t leave them inside her!”
“There’s too much blood!”
Elowen’s head lolls on Sorin’s scales, and I pull it up, locking my gaze on her glazed irises. “I”—she chokes on more blood—“l-love…”
Her words drop, and her eyes cloud over. She’s not looking at me anymore. No.No. “Elowen.” I slap my hand against her cheek. “ELOWEN!”
Tears continue spilling from my eyes, but I don’t move to wipe them as I take her in my arms again. Elowen hates when I let her go during the night, even if it’s just for a few moments. She told me it’s the only time she feels safe enough to rest.
“Come back,” I beg, my voice hoarse from screaming.
Finnian screams and punches the ground, cursing every god who took Elowen from this world. The dragons wail so sharply, tearing apart the forest and bathing it in flames as they take to the skies to circle their rider. The woman whose soul called to them and brought them into this world. It’s like they’re screaming in hopes that Elowen will find them again to remedy their pain as she always did. Sorin nudges her leg, pleading for her to wake up, and moves on to her hand, trying to place it on his snout, but it falls away.
“Come on, El.” I rock her body back and forth. “Show me those pretty eyes, angel. Please. Don’t leave me.”
She doesn’t move, her empty eyes staring at the skies she once flew in. “Breathe, my love, please breathe.” I pat her cheek more and jostle her in my arms. “ELOWEN!”
She can’t be gone.
This isn’t real.
I press my head to her blood-covered chest, but there’s no heartbeat.
Claws rake through my heart and lungs. I can’t fucking breathe. Everything hurts. I thought I knew what it was to be angry before, butit’s nothing compared to this. I’ve never known pain until this moment. I cannot endure whatever this feeling is. I will not survive it, and what would even be the point?
We were so close to the life we wanted. She was so close to getting the life she deserved…and she’s just gone, and everything good within me has been taken with her.
I rear my head back and scream. The ground rumbles beneath me as icy rage continues to pound through me. It’s not hot, as one would think, it’s cold like death. My agony awakens something in me, awakens something in the world surrounding me, and every shadow in the forest moves to cling to me. They wrap around my arms like snakes and hold Elowen’s body to mine, like the darkness of the world clings to the light as it leaves.
My power is spawned from suffering and forged in rage. Elowen was right, and she’s not even here to see it. In the back of my mind, I can hear her triumphant laughter, but it’s so far away. I lost everything, and now I want to take everything. I have nothing left, not a shred of humanity or happiness, and the darkness fills the empty shell of my living corpse.
Nykeem did this.
He took her from me, and not a single shield will save him from my wrath.
There is not a corner of this world he can cower in because I will lurk in every shadow, ready to strike.
Elowen doesn’t need me to hold her right now; she needs me to avenge her.
I kiss Elowen’s forehead one more time, whispering my vow against her skin. “For you, my love, I will break the world.”
Chapter
Seventy-two
Cayden
I draw my blades again asthe shadows create a wall at my back and circle the steel, stepping through the tree line as a shell of the man who entered it. I died with my wife, and all that’s left is the need for vengeance. As it did on our wedding, the moon overtakes the sun and plunges the world into darkness. Maybe even the sky mourns Elowen, knowing she will never mount her dragons and fly through it again. Her laughter will never caress the moon. Her smile will never be lit by the stars.
Elowen took everything that made me human when her soul left her body, creating a void for power to fill. I sense everything, the water in the earth and in the bodies of the soldiers around me. I see the darkness within them, and I want to kill them all.
I don’t simply crave death.
