Page 116 of Knightfall
I tried to fight it. But my limbs moved separately from my mind. They moved as though they were tugged by invisible strings. They were slightly jerky, like puppet limbs. I was tugged up onto the railing by those strings. I struggled with my massive ball gown. I nearly slipped and tumbled twice.
Hands wrapped around my waist and lifted me into place. Large hands. Ryan’s hands.
“Take your hands off her,” Abbas commanded.
Ryan slowly removed his hands, once he was sure I had my balance.
“Don’t!” Connor whispered. I don’t know if he was begging me not to jump or begging Abbas not to make me.
I tried to lift my hand. I couldn’t. I tried again, swallowing down bile. I tried a finger. I couldn’t move anything. My body felt separate from me. As if there was a thick barrier of bandages between my brain and my limbs. I was still inside. But I couldn’t break out. I was trapped.
If Abbas bid me to jump I’d have no choice. I knew it. I felt the surety of it. I had no control. Even though I tried to fight it, I had no control.
I kept my gaze firmly ahead, though my stomach churned. I cared less about my death than the death of the men behind me, the knights who’d saved my kingdom when I’d run away as a melodramatic teenager. Their faces flashed through my mind as the dragon grew close enough for me to see the orange-red color of his eyes. Connor. Ryan. Declan. Quinn.
Can you hear me?Quinn’s voice cut through the gauze surrounding my body and penetrated my mind.
Yes!I shouted internally in my relief. I could still reach someone. Someone knew I was still there, buried inside a spell.
Abbas leaned forward at that moment, stroking my ankle as the dragon approached the capital city, Marscha. “Your Majesty, I am so eager to see how you defend your kingdom. Raise your hands.”
My hands flew up of their own accord, making me lose my balance. I tilted forward. The cobblestones of the courtyard leered at me. I felt myself tilt through the air.
Ryan’s arm snaked out and grabbed my waist; he was the only reason I didn’t fall to my death. He didn’t let me go this time.
Abbas didn’t seem at all disturbed by the near-loss of his puppet. His next command was smooth and even. “Blast that dragon with peace power until you’ve ended it or it has ended you.”
He let go of my ankle as my hands started to emit a green burst of peace power. My wrists ripped open, blood trickled down my arms.
Fear bubbled up from my stomach and filled my mouth; I was drowning in it.
Ryan let go of me and I tilted forward again; I was as frozen as a porcelain doll, still blasting peace power from my hands as I fell—two sets of arms pulled me out of the air. Declan and Connor tried to pull me down from the railing, but my body wouldn’t allow it. Abbas had ordered it. And so they helped me balance on it.
I heard a thump behind me. I hoped that Ryan had smashed Abbas into the stones so hard the other man’s brain littered the floor.
Quinn’s voice sounded inside my head.Ryan says you have one minute to come up with a plan, or he’s going to spank you.
Was that Abbas? Did he knock him out? I need a gargoyle. I need to leave—
Smack!The hit didn’t do much to penetrate my ball gown. But it shocked me as my body rocked forward in Connor and Declan’s arms.
I was planning dammit! I was planning.
Leaving isn’t an option, Dove. You need a plan for all of us.
Declan’s the planner. Sard! Can’t he just… I dunno, transform the dragon into a rabbit?
Quinn went silent for a minute. The hands around my waist shifted. Declan’s left.
“I’ve never used my power on sentient things,” Declan said.
“Test it on Abbas,” Ryan ordered.
“Well, he’s knocked out, so he’s not really sentient,” Declan pondered.
“Just do it,” Connor yelled. “That thing’s almost here!”
The screams had started in the capital, as people on the streets spotted the monster. As it grew closer, its colossal size became more and more apparent. The dragon’s black wings stretched as wide as two houses. Smoke curled out of its nostrils. It opened its mouth and I could see the red-hot glow—
