“Kate!”
I spun around. Julie limped toward me, her hair caked with blood. Behind her, Derek in warrior form snarled, his left arm hanging from his body at an awkward angle.
“Kate!” Julie reached me and thrust a glowing ruby into my hands. I grabbed it. Magic bit at me with hot jaws. An anchor was right. The damn thing weighed fifty pounds. The weight of it threatened to yank me off my feet. The ruby pulled on me as if it were trying to suck out my soul. It wanted to go back to its realm. It required it, and if I let it, it would pull me right into it.
I thrust it into my armor, over my right hip, where I’d made an enclosure just for it.
“I have it!” I screamed. “Now! We have to do it now!”
Above me Neig let out a horrible screech.
Curran ran up next to me. Half of his body smoked, the fur gone, his skin bubbling from the heat. He rolled and launched himself at Neig. I took a running start, caught his wing, and let it carry me up with him. Neig’s scaled back loomed before me.
Second time had to be the charm, because I wouldn’t get a shot for a third.
I jumped. The air whistled by me, and then I was on Neig’s scaled back. I dashed up it, sliding forward to his head.
Curran had locked his jaws on Neig’s neck and was chewing through it. Neig flailed, trying to get his clawed foot up against Curran and rip himself free, but my father held him in place.
Neig rolled his head, trying to shake Curran off. A torrent of flames burst from his mouth. The ground yawned at me. Adora vanished in the fire.
No. No, no, no, no . . .
The flames vanished. A charred body knelt on one knee in the dirt, her katana caught in her hand. A soldier brushed by her, and she fell over on her side.
Dead. Adora was dead. Neig had killed her.
There was so much pain it was ripping me apart. I screamed and scrambled up, over Neig’s massive neck, over his horns, up onto his head and face. Two huge eyes, blazing with amber, focused on me for a fraction of a second. I raised my blood swords and plunged them into Neig’s eyes. The amber liquid splashed me, hot and magic.
The dragon howled, shaking his head, trying to knock me loose, but I clung to my blades.
“DIE!” I screamed, feeding magic into my swords. “DIE, DIE, DIE!”
Neig shrieked and tore free of my father’s restraints, shooting up into the sky. Wind tore at me. I held on to my swords, the massive body beneath me trembling and shaking. We climbed up and up and up, higher and higher toward the clouds.
“You have killed me, Daughter of Nimrod,” the dragon whispered. “But I’ll take you with me.”
We plummeted to the ground. The battlefield rushed at us at a dizzying speed.
This is it.
A dark shape surged from the ground and thrust itself under Neig—Curran trying to slow the dragon’s fall—but Neig was too heavy.
Hands grabbed my shoulders and jerked me up, ripping me and Sarrat free. Suddenly I was flying and Neig was still plunging down, my other sword still in his left eye socket. Above me Teddy Jo soared on his midnight wings.
Curran twisted clear. Neig’s enormous body hit the ground, bouncing once. The mighty dragon’s head dropped and lay still. Neig the Legend was dead.
Teddy Jo swooped down. My feet touched the grass. He let go and I rolled clear and up onto my feet.
Curran had collapsed next to the dragon. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. Ice-cold fear gripped me. Around us the battle still raged.
“DAUGHTER.”
I turned. My father was looking at me from the height of his chariot, and his face was mournful. Behind him his troops stood in a wall, rows and rows of people in tactical armor.
“Don’t do it,” I told him. “Don’t, Father.”
His voice rolled through the battlefield. “Surrender, my daughter.”
He’d betrayed me. I’d known he would. I had expected it, but it hurt so much.
“Don’t,” I asked him. “Please don’t.”
“Surrender and I will let your people live.”
“How can you do this? You’re my father!”
“It’s for your own good.”
“No. It’s only for you.”
Hugh burst through the ranks. Behind him, the Iron Dogs parted Neig’s troops like they were water, and I saw Elara. She glowed with white: her dress, her skin, her hair all snow-white, one color blazing with power. She didn’t feel human.
She opened her arms. I heard a chant floating above the battlefield. The Covens were channeling their power. It hit Elara from the back and burst out of her as a beam of pure white. The beam hit my father. He gasped, spinning toward her. The magic impaled him like a spear.
His troops surged around him and fell on the Iron Dogs.
The beam intensified, so white it was hard to look at. My father staggered. His face relaxed. His eyes glazed over.
We almost had him. Almost. Just a little bit more. Sleep. Please, Dad, for the sake of all of us. Just go to sleep.
Magic surged out of him, blocking the beam.
Elara screamed.
Not enough. The witches weren’t enough.
Slowly, ever so slowly, my father straightened, his face shaking with effort, and thrust one hand against the beam.
He would win and then there was no hope for Atlanta and Conlan.
Julie sprinted between the fighting bodies, her sword raised above her head.
I felt the magic inside my father snap, blocking Elara’s beam. If Julie attacked him now, he would kill her. He would squash her like a gnat.
He would kill my kid.
I saw Julie’s arm roll back as if in slow motion, as she prepared for a jump.
If she touched my father, she would die. I had to stop her. I had to . . .
The muscles of her legs tensed, about to send her into the air.
No!
“Stop!” I snarled, sinking magic into the command.
I felt the precise moment my will crushed Julie’s. She crumbled in mid-leap and fell to the ground.
Oh no. What have I done?
Blood-red light burst out of my father. Elara stumbled back. The white beam died. He turned to me. “Did you honestly think that would stop me, foolish child?”
There were twenty yards between us and a wave of his soldiers behind him. I wouldn’t be able to get to him. They would swarm me and then he would hit me with his magic, and it would all be over. He could hold me in stasis until his troops secured me.
The ruby stirred in my armor, as if alive.
The ruby.
It was my only chance.
“SURRENDER, IN-SHINAR. TAKE YOUR PLACE.”
I love you, Curran. I love you, my son. I love you both more than anything. I love you, Julie. There is no way out.
I raised Sarrat and stabbed myself.
My father screamed.
I felt the blood rush out of me and twisted the blade. There we go. I’d cut the abdominal aorta. Death would be quick.
I dropped to my knees, pulled the ruby out of my armor, cradled it, and fell on my side. My father’s face swung into view. He was weeping.
“Why? Why?” He pulled me to him, cradling my head in his arms. “You had everything, Blossom. Why?”
His face was turning gray. His fingers shook. He cried out. I felt his magic fighting for his life, hungry, looking for any source to feed itself. I knew that hunger. It was blinding. He would grab at any magic just to keep himself alive, and I had a source of magic handy.