Page 66 of The Last Dragon King
My wings buckled under the strain as I flapped them like a madwoman, gaining a few feet. The army was under us now, aiming up at us with arrows.
We’re all dead!
I couldn’t get us high enough, I was too slow, I—
An arrow whizzed right past my face and I screamed.
Regina let go of me with one of her hands, aiming at the approaching men with bows.
“No!” she yelled, an unholy look of ferocity coming across her face. Raising her hand, a stream of beautiful deadly orange fire burst from her palm and saturated the men below.
Screams filled the night, then thethwipof arrows cut into the sky. Pain suddenly laced into my right arm and I cried out, losing my grip on Cal for a half second. He slipped down but scrambled to hold on at the last second. I twisted to look at the source of my pain to find an arrow lodged in my right shoulder. Blood trickled down my arm and onto Cal’s hands. I flapped my wings madly but we were still barely fifteen feet off the ground.
My shoulder burned like Hades but I kept going, ignoring the numbness in my fingers. I just needed to get over the wall. It was twice as high as I was flying so I pumped my wings with everything I had.
But it was too difficult. We lost altitude, falling a few feet, and I started to whimper.
‘Help me. I can’t get over the wall,’I called to Drae as panic flooded my system. I was going to drop Cal any second.
“I’m trying!” I said and then looked down into Cal’s and Regina’s panicked expressions.
Regina looked over at Cal then, watching him slip down my arm, and then glanced up at me. “Get the king home and have an heir. Save our people, Arwen. That’s an order!”
Have an heir? Why was she talking about that at a time like th—?
“NO!” The blood-curdling scream ripped from my throat as she let go of my left hand and dropped down into the fray. Cal frantically reached over and grabbed my other arm, shifting his weight to relieve my injured shoulder.
I peered down in shock as Regina pulled out her blade and then spit a stream of fire, trying to fight her way through the twenty men attacking her.
No!Not like this. It couldn’t end like this.
“Regina!” A stone sank in my gut as I immediately started to lower myself and help my beloved commander, but before I could do anything she was gored by half a dozen arrows in seconds. As if that weren’t enough, a Nightfall soldier walked up and took her head clean off. Unbridled rage and wild grief filled me with equal measure, one not making enough room for the other as they smashed about within my body.
Cal squeezed my arm. “No! It will all be in vain. Get us over that wall. The king hasn’t come back to help, which means he’s hurt.”
Cal’s urging shook me from my grief. The king was hurt? Why hadn’t he come back to help us, or responded to me?
I watched Regina fall forward, and my entire body flinched and went numb. It was all I needed to see to know that if I didn’t get us out of here right now, we were both dead. I flapped my wings wildly, holding Cal mostly with my good arm, and soared up and over the fence now that my load was lighter. I made for the outcrop of trees that held our saddles, and hoped the king was there as well.
Regina… my idol, my mentor, the leader of the King’s Drayken…
Dead.
I couldn’t process it, it didn’t feel real. I prayed that I would wake up any moment and find out that Joslyn’s and Regina’s death were some sick nightmare.
The moment we got to the trees, I knew something was wrong. Drae was on his hands and knees, heaving up the contents of his dinner.
I landed awkwardly, tripping over my dangling feet but relieved to finally let go of Cal’s weight on my injured arm.
“What’s wro—?” Nausea washed over me as a cold sweat broke out over my body.
Drae stood, and I noticed that he too had been hit by an arrow. Grazed was more like it. His arm had a slight line of blood on the side.
“Regina’s… dead,” I said, blinking rapidly as everything blurred.
What is happening?Was losing Regina and Joslyn in the same night too much grief for my heart to bare? I felt like I was dying.
The king stomped forward, grasped the tip of the arrow in my shoulder, and yanked. I tried to scream but he covered my mouth so that I merely wailed into his salty fingers.
