Page 142 of A Reign of Roses
I turned to Briar and blinked slowly. I had understood her but…my mind was fogged. Too much horror—
Like she was an oracle, or her very words conjured him, a lethaldragon’s roar cut through the panic already clutching the castle. A roar and the pound of many beating wings.
I stumbled out the front doors. Two Onyx guards and Briar followed behind me. I craned my neck up. There, in the skies—amid a beautiful, clear morning like fresh running water—was Kane.
And all of the mercenaries.
All of them.
A celestial battle. No…aslaughter.
More mercenaries than I thought Lazarus had. Amelia…She’d been right. They’d usedmypower—
My shoulders itched and rippled and I shut my eyes tightly and begged the Stones.
Shift, shift—
I thought of Dagan. Of how much he’d want to see me take flight.
But I couldn’t focus against the gruesome sounds of Kane’s anguish as they tore at him. My concentration, fracturing as he breathed fire and clawed to no avail. His animalisticwhines.Like rusted nails through my insides.
There were too many of them.
“Go get Griffin,” I ordered the guards behind me. He was the only one who could shift.“Go!”
Two Onyx men took off running.
“We have to get you inside,” another urged.
But I wasn’t moving. Not when Kane was up therealone, wings beating against talons and beaks and tongues twined in fire. Each blow that crested across his chest, his tail, sent volleys of pain through my own body.
“Call to him,” Briar said beside me.
“He’ll never retreat,” I bit through gritted teeth. “Not when he knows he’d lead them back to Shadowhold.”
He’d allow himself to be ripped to shreds up there before he’d bring the mercenaries into his own keep. The agony at the thought—I nearly collapsed.
“That’s thepoint.”
Despite the caws and roaring, I cut my eyes to Briar’s violet ones. “What are you saying?”
“He knowsyou.Knows you would never put his keep in danger. If you call to him he’ll know you’ve planned something. I’ll take care of the rest.”
When I squinted back up into the skies a hydra had just ripped one of its several sets of teeth through Kane’s hind leg. He howled in pain, kicking forcefully and sending the creature careening down—it landed with a thud somewhere in the Shadow Woods.
Only more mercenaries swarmed in its place.
“KANE!”
I screamed for him until I tasted blood.
Until I saw his predatory gaze cut down to me.
“KANE!” I called again, motioning for him to come back to the keep. Waving my hands in the air. Then I ran back into the castle, praying I’d placed my faith in the right witch.
The sound was like a swarm of locusts. All those mercenaries, barreling toward the keep, charging after Kane, a symphony of winged assassins.
Faster, faster, faster—
