Page 65 of Brutal Fae King
“Dralis—”
He pulls his sword back, and crackling power shimmers up and down his sword. I thrust my palm forward, and a magical shield blocks his attack. Once I look back up, he’s gone.
I blink and extend my awareness around me—I sense his aura behind me, pulling back.
I spin, holding my blade up in a block. His sword clashes against mine, and Dralis then pulls back and thrusts toward me. I beat my wings hard and fly above him. I can see him recoiling from how hard he thrust forward.
Now would be the time to strike.
Except… I hesitate. As the time comes and passes, all I do is put some distance between him and me.
Damn it,damn it!What was the point of trying to be the Cruel King when I can’t even strike the one person I have to?!
As he readies himself again, a sneer breaks his expression:“You’re a coward, Vicmar!”
He charges toward me, and I brace myself. As he gets close, he swings his sword in a horizontal strike. I hit my bladeand parry it away. I thrust a kick into his chest, and he freefalls for a moment before swooping back toward me. He dives like a hawk, and a glint of blade flickers over my eye. I swing up my own sword instinctively. Metal clangs, but pain scatters over my forehead. I cry out. I flap my wings and force myself backward. Blood red fills my vision, and I blink, clearing the sanguine out of my eye. Dralis is coming toward me. I swing blindly, and my blade meets resistance. My brother screams. But I see a gleam of movement in front of my gaze.
Pain bursts through my stomach, a blinding white-hot agony, cracking up and down my body. Shuddering up and down my spine. Everything spins. I’m screaming. Blood pours down my legs. Weightlessness begins to take me; my wings can’t carry me anymore.
I’m falling. Screaming. I can barely see, but I open my eyes. Dralis flies over me, watching me fall with a smirk on his face. He draws back his sword and aims it down. Just as it looks like he’s about to drop it, acrashechoes through the skies. There’s a flash over my vision. A few moments later, aboomdeafens me.
Dralis is falling. He’s arched in pain, starting to fall through the air. Then, another one. I see it better, forcing my eyes open this time. It’s a lightning bolt. It targets Dralis, cracking into his body. This time, when it hits, he goes plummeting.
More lightning strikes. More screaming around me.
But it’s all fading… Fading…
It disappears as I continue to fall.
Chapter 21 - Ebelor
I sprint out of the tent and straight into the battlefield. There are more soldiers here than I can comprehend. Ahead of me, there’s Eyston Keep, but it seems to be surrounded by some kind of purple dome. The enemy army is pounding at it—throwing spears, shooting arrows, even throwing fireballs and javelins of ice. It sends ripples through the forcefield, but that’s all.
So I… I’m trapped outside… Damn it!
A clang of metal-on-metal hits above my head. My face snaps up to see them. The two dark fae whizz around each other in the sky. They’re so fast that I can barely keep track of which one is which—if they weren’t in different colored armor, then I would have no idea.
I see Vicmar catch Dralis’s blow, and Vicmar swings his blade in return, and I see the lightest gush of blood.
But then Dralis surges forward with his own sword. I see the blade sinking into Vicmar’s stomach, bursting through the other side in an explosion of red.
“NO!”I howl.
They can’t hear me. I know what I have to do.
I suck in a deep breath and try to reach my powers sitting inside me.Channel it… I am its conduit.My powers coil inside me, feeling like cobras waiting for my orders.
I hold my arm over my head. Dralis is flying still, watching Vicmar fall.
You smug bastard…
I aim my hand at him.Him. Directly for him.
My powers wrap around my arm, traveling up toward my palm. Then, I force it out.
KRA-BOOOM.
The lightning bursts out and hits Dralis. I see him arch and scream, and he starts dropping. I force out another bolt of lightning, and the second time it hits, he drops from the sky like a struck insect. I can’t follow Dralis—I need to keep my eye on Vicmar. He’s close to the ground now.
