Page 28 of Court of Dragons and Ashes

“You must be in the cages below the throne room. It’s a place where people are taken who have betrayed the court,” Arden explains. “The air pressure is low there, and there are cages that slowly drain the rest of the air out until…” He pauses. “You need to move, Elle. Find him.”

“I know, but I can’t see!” I shout back. “She seems to have a real thing about these kinds of places. Why exactly do you have them again?”

Lysander fills my mind like water, the sheer opposite to Arden’s fire. “Calm, Elle. Focus. It’s a cage with a series of locks, but the top one opens it. It’s not a maze, it should be quite straightforward to find your way. Small steps. Terrin claimed Emrys was your mate too, right?”

“Yes,” I whisper, moving across the wall, clinging to it like it might save me from suddenly falling off. The dress blows around my legs in the breeze, the soft fabric clinging to me.

“I could always find you. I could always sense you near,” Lysander tells me.

“Same. Your existence was a mirror to my own, even without the bond in place,” Arden agrees with Lysander. “Trust yourself and find him.”

Easier said than done. They aren’t blind, in a place that hurts to breathe, walking a ledge. “What if I fall?”

“You won’t,” Lysander vows. The trust between us all falls like ashes from a fire, slow and steady. “We trust you. We know you?—”

The wind howls and whips around me, and every breath burns my throat, my lungs. Silence. I can’t hear them anymore. Our connection is just gone. Aphrodite must have figured out a way to cut them off from me. Emrys needs me.

I can find him. If anyone can find him, it’s me. Emrys, who reads books and holds me when I’m scared. Emrys, who took me flying, made me laugh in my worst moments, and is alwaysthere for me with no questions asked. Emrys, the kindest dragon shifter king. He can’t die in this place, waiting for me. I close my eyes and try to feel for him, feel for that part of me that loves him. I scream in frustration when nothing happens. I can’t make it snap into place. “For fuck’s sake, someone help me! Gods, someone needs to help me!”

My scream isn’t answered, and any bit of panic I tried to bury comes rushing to the surface. If I don’t move, he’s going to die. If I move, there’s a very good chance I die. I already know my answer as my foot steps forward. Dying is better than doing nothing and being a coward. I’m Princess fucking Ellelin of the mighty Spirit Court, and I will not be a coward.

Every step makes my body shake, and I keep moving, careful not to step off the end of the ledge. Every step feels wobbly on the gritty rock as I walk forward, hoping and praying I’m going the right way by just following my instincts. Everything is just one giant pit of air and rock walls. I keep breathing in and out. It’s so cold. My skin is prickling all over. The gown isn’t keeping me warm in this place. The Air Court is my least favourite, I’ve decided.

I walk straight forward, hoping and praying that I’m going to find this cage, knowing his time is running out. I turn around a corner where the whistling wind sounds less strong, and I swear I almost hear Emrys. My heart pounds. “Emrys?”

I’m sure it was him. He shouted at me. I might be going mad, it might not be him, but I keep walking forward, faster this time. Faster even when I know there’s a chance I could slip straight off into the air. “Ellelin!” Emrys whispers, sounding louder this time, and hope makes my body feel on fire. He sounds breathless, like there isn’t much time left.

I slam face-first into some thick metal bars, and I wince, tasting blood in my mouth. “Emrys, is that you? I’m coming, I have a key!”

“Ellelin, you’re really here,” he manages to say. “Unlock the cage at the top.”

I search for the lock, reaching as high as I can get on my tiptoes. “Where’s the latch?” I say more to myself, and Emrys doesn’t answer me. My fingertips just about touch the door lock, and I lift the key, trying to push it in. I realise it needs to be upside down, and I turn it, finally getting the key in. With a click, the door opens and my vision comes back as I fall through the cage, right in front of Emrys. My Emrys, the handsome, kind air king, who took me flying above the castle when I felt trapped in a cage. Emrys, who stole my heart so easily, with words and protection he so effortlessly gave me. Emrys…who I didn’t get to in time. The world stops, slowing to a whistle in the wind, as I see Emrys on the ground, completely unconscious. Still, like a frozen statue of a mighty king. “No!” I scream. I feel nothing but pure dread sink straight into my soul, sickness rising in my throat as I rush to him. I roll him onto his back, watching his chest for a second. He’s not breathing.

HIS CHEST ISN’T MOVING. HE ISN’T BREATHING. NO. NO. NO. NO. NOT HIM. NOT ONE OF MY DRAGON KINGS.

“Emrys!” I scream, jumping on him and starting CPR. I don’t even know how to do it right; I failed the class at school, but I have to try something. I push down on his chest again and again, hoping it’s enough. Tears fall down my face, dropping into his pale face as time slips by, no matter how much I beg for it to stop. “Emrys. Emrys, please no. Emrys, don’t you dare die on me. I can’t…please don’t die. Don’t die!” I scream, my powers returning in a wave. My shadow dragon forms under Emrys and me, lifting us both up in the air. “Lysander. I have to get to Lysander. He can heal him.”

I command my shadow dragon to fly above, out of the prison, breaking it apart with my shadows. We fly up in the air and around the rock before landing back in the Air Court throneroom. I leave Emrys’s body in a pool of shadows as I stand up. “Lysander!”

My scream just echoes, and I realise I can’t feel him nearby. He’s far away, but I can’t sense where. Too far. I reach for Emrys, ready to make a portal out of here and to the Water Court for someone to heal him, when Aphrodite’s laugh reaches me and her red magic wraps around me, launching me across the throne room and dumping me on the stone in front of her. She laughs at me. “You failed the test, and your heart is breaking. So sad.”

“No, I didn’t!” I scream, crawling to my feet. “He is not dead.”

She waves a hand at me, rising. “It doesn’t matter. We only needed to go to each court to retrieve something to open portals to every world.” She looks to the side where Ares is waiting with the staff. The top of the staff has four crystals on it, one for each court, and they are glowing. I wipe my tears away. “What is that?”

Ares spins it. “It will open a portal to a world we’ve wanted to return to for a while, where the gods were born. Lapetus. Where wolves think they’re gods. Where the gods bound themselves, their souls, to wolf shifters to try to live forever. We don’t have any intention of doing that, but ruling what is left of that world would be better than ruling the carcasses of here. We’ll come back, of course, when we have more power.”

Ares slams his power straight at me. The test doesn’t protect me this time, but my shadows come up in a wall, pushing his magic to the side. He’s strong, knocking me back a few steps and pushing on the limit of my power. I look behind me at Emrys, who is still not moving. He can’t be dead. I refuse to believe it. A portal opens to the side, and Arty steps out. Her eyes widen as she looks at us all. “Stop, mother, father. That’s enough. Just go to your world and don’t come back.”

“Where are they?” I demand.

“Haven’t you lost enough?” Aphrodite questions. “We tested the staff with your kings. You could say they are not in this world anymore. I left you the air king, but that’s a shame. Dead king.”

“He’s not gone!” I scream at her. “He’s not.” I desperately look at Arty, who is near Emrys. “Get him to the Water Court. GO!”

“She won’t,” Aphrodite coos. “She isn’t powerful enough to make a portal. She used a drop of my magic left in a device to make a one-way portal here.”

Hopelessness threatens to sink me onto my knees. “Love is delusional, just like you are, my daughter. Come with us to this world, and we will forgive you.”

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