Page 99 of Lies That Bleed
He reached out and grasped the top of my shoulder, forcing me to look up at him, and I was startled by what I saw in his blue eyes. “But someone you love dies,” he said, and I froze, dread sinking into my bones.
“Who?” I asked, my heart practically beating out of my chest.
He shook his head. “I don’t know but… I saw you sobbing with a body on the floor behind you. It was blurry—hard to explain—but it can only mean one thing.” He looked away, as if he couldn’t meet my eyes. It must be hard to see me like that in the future. Like watching one of those films they projected at the park on the weekends.
Sobbing?That didn’t sound like me. I’d purposelyhardened my emotions so that I would never be affected in that way. I didn’t care about many people, and the few I did were safe. Tetra was home. The triplets were on their way to the country.
Unless it was him? Would Kohen dying cause me to sob?
The very thought made my heart seize in my chest, and I realized in that moment that I had allowed myself to fall for him. Much deeper than I ever should have permitted. Now there was no way back from it.
“We gotta go,” Kohen said, gripping the reins of his dragon.
I nodded, peering over at him. How had we gone from kissing an hour ago to riding into battle with each other now?
Stars have mercy on us.
I mounted Liana and we took off into the night and headed for the training center, which I was dismayed to see was now on fire.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
It was chaos. I’d sat in many war council meetings with my father this year to learn how things worked, and they’d given detailed reports of battles along our borders. But never had I seen it in person. Fire, smoke, arrows, swords, bodies, blood, screaming, creatures tearing into each other. Death. So much death.
The attack must have happened the moment my father stepped onto campus, because it was already far along. Imperial soldiers raced across the lawn, shooting arrows up at the sky, where I saw over a dozen flying Talanagi—dragons, griffins, a winged horse, a winged lion, creatures that I didn’t even have names for. It was incredible and terrifying all at once.
Some of these Talanagi were carrying large baskets in their talons the size of cars, and inside of thosebaskets were Luskin soldiers wearing their red uniforms.So that’s how they did it.
Before Kohen and I could do anything, they lowered the baskets to the ground and the soldiers scattered like ants. My father was in the center of the campus lawn, slashing through the Luskin intruders with his sword as Zuri ripped out their throats.
Would he be angry if he knew I was here? He had called for all Fleet to report to campus. But somehow I knew that didn’t mean me. That he’d want his successor and daughter safe. But I couldn’t just sit here and allow this attack to happen.
“Anika!” Kohen shouted down below, and my attention was drawn to the ground. Anika was still in her beautiful dress from the ball with Alek, Dev, and others in tow. They held swords and fanned out along the campus with their creatures, joining the battle without question. I was just glad that Tetra was not among them.
‘Let’s help them out,’I told Liana, and she beelined it for the flying creatures on the field. They had dropped the soldiers off in the baskets and were now taking to the skies with their bonded riders. Liana flew closer to a cluster of them and breathed a stream of fire as I pulled out my bolt shooter from where it was clipped on her harness. A couple of the riders fell off their creatures, aflame, and ran away, but some of the creatures were uninjured and now gunning for us. Liana flew higher, pulling them away from thecampus. I had nine bolts loaded, and I fired in rapid succession at the wings and necks of the dragon, griffin, and flying lion that were now coming for me. My aim was true, and two of the creatures lost their ability to fly, with three serrated bolts embedded in their wings.
But the red-scaled dragon with its blond female rider was evading my every blow. There was a crest embroidered on her jacket but I wasn’t close enough to see what it was. It was some official seal, likely designating her as a commander of some sort.
She raised her fist and I prepared for her to throw fire or an energy blast or something. It took me a second to realize I could no longer breathe. The wind was being sucked from my lungs as Liana dove away from her and flew in another direction to put distance between us. When we got about a hundred yards away from her, I gasped for air, feeling Liana doing the same beneath me, her ribcage widening under my thighs.
Holy crap.The red dragon rider could manipulate the very air in my lungs!
Then that feeling was back, like I couldn’t breathe, and I peered behind me to see the psycho grinning ear to ear as her red dragon raced through the sky after us with half a dozen Talanagi in tow. Liana turned her head and breathed a stream of fire, but the red dragon was too fast.
I pulled for my own fire power, but without being able to breathe, it was hard to concentrate. Liana waserratically flying every which way to lose her, but the red dragon rider was on us like glue.
‘Thrall her or we are both going down—and you may not come back,’Liana told me as black dots danced at the edges of my vision.
I hadn’t ever wanted to use that again.
Where the hell was Kohen? Alek’s hawk? Everyone else?
I saw then, in the distance, behind the goons chasing us, that there were a dozen more flying Luska fighters, all riding Talanagi and chasing down Kohen as he tried to reach me. How did they have so many?
Power built in my core, like an electric zapping along my skin, as Liana began to lose altitude. Without oxygen, she was growing weak, and couldn’t outrun this red dragon rider and her team. There were too many Talanagi. They were so fast and powerful. We were woefully unprepared.
I felt like I was going to lose consciousness any second, and the power inside of me snapped.
