Series: Lords of Rathe Series by Meagan Brandy
Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Gifted scream, but I keep running.
They think I killed the King? The King?!
What the actual fuck?!
A loud zap sounds and then pain explodes down my spine.
“Ah!” I cry out, my back bowing as warmth runs down the length of it, telling me I’m bleeding, but I keep running, cutting around the giant silver fountain and head back for the gardens.
As I come around the corner, a wall of fire rages before me and I jolt back.
“Stand down, traitor!”
My head whips over my shoulder to find several Gifted not far behind.
My skin heats from the lick of the flames, and I screw my face up.
“Okay, Gift, whatever you are. You better fucking come through again.”
I bolt forward.
There are screams and shouts and one of them is my own as I run right into the inferno, eyes squeezed closed and braced for pain, but when my skin doesn't melt from my bones, I open my eyes to find a sheet of ice covering me.
I book it, escaping the fire and when I look back, the flames evaporate into nothing.
A man with long golden hair and a long blue cloak throws his hands to the sky and lightning booms above.
I keep running, the wall just fifteen feet ahead.
Come on, come on, I chant over and over.
And then my body lurches forward, my face slamming onto the concrete ground with a hard crack.
I groan, pushing up on my palms, blood pouring from somewhere on my face. “Fuck,” I grunt, trying to stand, but my feet won't move.
Gasping, I look back.
Red rings glow around my ankles, tightening until I scream into the air. This time, I do smell the scent of burning flesh.
I look to find the entire Ministry, the chosen, and the others who are here to witness the courtship filling the yard.
“You can’t die here.” I whisper to myself, but as the words leave me, I feel the words I spoke. I feel them somewhere deep inside me as if I've spoken them to someone else and that someone is listening.
Suddenly, thick bands of black smoke breach the walls of the fortress, billowing down and spanning out over the group.
“It’s Royal magic!”
“Demonic smoke!”
“Silence! The Queen is among us. It comes to protect her from that monster!”
Fuck! I'm dead.
This is it.
The living, demented smoke flies toward me, submerging and I hold my breath, clenching my eyes closed. I wait for it to shock me, to strangle and bring my worst nightmare to life. Tears spring into my eyes as I say a silent goodbye to Ben, wishing I wasn’t away from him for so long before my last moments.
Knight...
My throat closes when his name whispers across my mind and I don’t know why. I hardly know him, and he was never going to be mine anyway.
As the first tear slips down my cheek, it’s swiped away with a soft, satin-like touch. Slowly, my eyes open and that thick, dark smoke they said that came to protect their Queen brushes over my skin like the hand of a lover. It's light and tender and as it whirls around my feet, the red burning bands spark before turning to ash. The Royal magic, as they called it, cocoons me in a pillow of darkness. A giant, protective cloud.
I’m carried into the skies, and the smoke thins just as we reach the edge of the wall, revealing my face to the Gifted below.
They gasp, shout, and scream, each recoiling. Someone throws a barrier up between them and me as they shout words in our language of origin, but I don’t know what they’re saying. I'm not sure what they see as they look at me, but the horror on their faces isn’t missed.
I can imagine it’s a sight.
No part of me feels like me.
I feel... stronger. Bigger.
I feel fucking freed.
Like the me I was supposed to be.
Like the me the fates intended for me to be.
“She’s … ascended,” someone says.
The smoke carries me higher, above them all.
Above the fortress until I'm standing on a pillow of blackness, the stars within reach.
The Queen breaks from behind the barrier, her being brimming with rage, but then her eyes widen ... just as my body is flipped upside down.
My ass lands on something hard, and a little shriek leaves me when I realize I'm sitting on a leather saddle … on the back of a fucking dragon!
I lean back, but it whips its head around, green eyes narrowing. He huffs and I jolt and I swear he—it has to be a he, right? —rolls his eyes.
Like a pilot avoiding turbulence, the dragon drops down a solid ten feet, so for a few moments I’m free-falling, before landing on the saddle once more.
“Okay!” I scream at the bratty ass dragon, reaching out for the straps. I wrap them around my fists, holding on for dear fucking life. No sooner do I have them does he point his nose and fucking soar.