Page 92 of ColdIron
Four surviving demons abandoned the train and fled across the plain toward the DarkVeil. The heirs and Spartans leapt from the slowing train and gave chase. I jumped off too.
A roar split the sky. A dragon of black and gold rose above us, wingspan so vast it blotted out the churning clouds. The downdraft flattened scrub grass and nearly took me off my feet. Drakken had shifted from the roof of the train.
Staggering sight. Always was. But I didn’t have time to admire it. I kept reminding myself: both the man and the dragon were assholes.
I followed the chase on foot. Flat terrain. Cracked earth. Skeletons of pre-Rupture buildings. The DarkVeil filled the horizon ahead.
Frost caught up, breathing ragged.
“Let them handle it, Max. You don’t need to run like your life depends on it.”
“I like to see things through.”
“You’re making my life hard, cadet.” He panted.
“You’ll get over it, Major.”
The dragon dove. Fire poured from its jaws and hit a fleeing demon. The demon kept running even as it crumbled into ash. The wind scattered the pieces before they touched dirt.
Note to self: Drakken’s elemental fire couldn’t kill high-caste demons. But dragon-form fire could. Different source. Different magnitude.
“Take one alive!” Aelindor called, still leading the chase.
The Fae prince could run, each stride eating ground with centuries of practice. Even sprinting, he looked like he was gliding.
Caspian flicked his wrist. A dozen runed death cards sailed in a lethal fan and struck a hairless demon in rapid succession, each detonating on impact. The demon yowled and crashed to the dirt, skidding half a dozen feet.
“Got one!”
The demon rolled onto its back, a dagger already in its claws.
“Watch out!” I shouted out a warning.
The demon stared at me and grinned. “Princess.” Its voice slithered in an ancient demonic tongue. “They’ll come for you. Now we’ve found you.”
Again, I understood it perfectly.
My heart rammed into my ribcage. My palms went cold and clammy. I was no princess. But I couldn’tdiscredit the creature in me. What if itwasa demon princess? The true heir?
Hot shit.That was why it was hiding in me. It was being hunted!
I had to kill that demon before it could reveal more. Before it outed me. Not to protect the creature inside. Self-preservation.
I raised the Coldiron arrow to strike. But the demon dragged the blade across its own throat. The grin stayed fixed as the light left its red eyes.
Aelindor caught a short-horned demon seconds later and tackled it from behind. The demon drove its own claw through its chest and went limp in the Fae prince’s grip.
The enemies refused to be taken alive.
The last two sprinted for the DarkVeil. One bellowed a command. A massive hellhound phased into existence, its jaws trailing smoke. Both demons scrambled onto its back. The hellhound dashed into the Veil, crossed the threshold, and vanished.
In the distance, two army jeeps and a military transport raced toward us across the plain.
35
MAX
“You’re late to the party, Captain Carroway,” Drakken told the reinforcement leader as she saluted the heirs.
