Page 33 of Lies That Bind
We all froze, and I heard it: the snap of a twig to our right.
Ever so carefully, I reached up to pull my blade and held out my free palm with the other. Kohen did the same, and fire began to build his palm as he suspended it there, waiting to attack.
It could just be another unbonded creature. We were in the Wilds, so it was teeming with them.
Jade moved then, tucking herself into a roll and hitting the ground just as a knife whizzed past where she was.
“Get her out of here!” Jade yelled and popped up, running into the woods as Kohen shot a ball of fire in the direction of where the knife had come from.
My heart hammered in my chest at the sight of Captain Jade disappearing into the forest. Kohen and Finn were now the only two left. They each hooked a hand under my elbow and guided me into a thick outcrop of trees. We ran in complete silence, other than the sound of our shoes pounding on the forest floor. A mere hundred feet away from us, I could hear Jade fighting an unseen intruder. Grunts, metal clangs, and fists hitting skin reached my ears, but we kept moving southeast. It felt wrong to run away from a fight, but I was empress now. If I was killed, it made Valor empress at fourteen. That was unheard of. There were protocols in place for a young heir, but they were less than ideal. Valor was still reeling from my father’s death. She wasn’t ready for this.
No, we had to keep going.
Jade knew what she signed up for. But even as I said it, I wondered if I could sneak away and help her. To use the thrall to subdue her attacker.
Yeah, right.
Then Jade would tell the Imperial Fleet, and I’d be hanging from a tree by morning.
I shook my head to dislodge the wild thoughts running through it. The mission had been a success, which was great, but I was naïve to think that we’d all just get home safely.
As the moments ticked by, we ran in the eerie pinkish-orange light the fire sky gave off. We were completely silent, slowly inching our way towards the Wall. It was all going according to plan when the breath was suddenly taken from my lungs. My lungs cinched in my chest, and I clawed at my throat as panic washed over me.
Red dragon rider.
I heard Kohen and Finn sputter for breath. We all skidded to a stop and faced each other. They beat on their chests in confusion, and I glanced upward, watching the red dragon circle above us. The Luskin rider with the blonde hair peered down at me, hovering twenty feet above, wearing a sadistic grin.
Without Liana or Onyx, we couldn’t reach her.
Panic seized me as I found my lungs frozen, and Kohen peered at me with alarm. He aimed a fireball at her, but she dodged it easily, laughing as she coasted to the right on her dragon.
Finn threw a blade up at her, but it didn’t reach, and I knew what needed to be done. We couldn’t run away, not without oxygen. She was forcing me to use my hidden power.
I’d done it before in front of her. Maybe she wasn’t sure and wanted to see me do it again. Either way, she was surely toying with us.
“This is for killing my father,” she screamed down at me, lowering herself a little more, but still out of reach.
Her father? I didn’t know who her father was.
Finn fell to his knees. Black dots danced at the edges of my vision. I didn’t want to do this. I glanced at Kohen, whose lips were purple, and he just nodded to me once.
Dammit.
Pulling for that power within me, I threw out my hand.‘Stop!’I thought, but never said out loud. The word was an action, and it flew from me in a physical force. The silver cord soared frommy hand and wrapped around the red rider’s head. Precious oxygen returned to our lungs as we gasped for air.
“I knew it!” she said as she peered down at me with wonder.
“I’m not done,” I growled between ragged breaths. “Jump,” I said, out loud this time, pushing my power. A little white glowing bead ran the length of the cord and rushed into her. She shook her head in panic, rearing her dragon to escape, but once the bead hit her head, she leaped off of her dragon and landed on both legs. From thirty feet away, I heard the bones snap. Her wails of agony cut into the night.
“That was formyfather, for Nikhil, for all of Riverine,” I told her.
“Holy shit!” Finn screamed. “You can… you just… that’sforbidden.”
Oh crap. What was I thinking?
I snapped my head in Finn’s direction at the same time Kohen lunged for him.
Finn was wide-eyed, pale, and ashen. He ran, and Kohen took off after him.
