You have to stop the other Drae first, Ryn! Tyrrik shouted. We’re nearly there. Just delay them.
The emerald-green power licked the sky in every direction, filling me with a heavy weight. Who could compete with such raw power? I was eighteen, thousands of years younger than Draedyn with thousands of years less experience. And yet I was the first of my kind, the most powerful Drae as I’d told Zakai, and the only one who could do this. If I failed, we would all perish.
I dropped my external Phaetyn veil, pointless against Kamini anyway, and then unravelled half of the lapis Drae bands from around my head and slapped my green Phaeytn mojo alongside them, merging the powers as tightly as I could.
Without pausing to think, I blasted the interwoven force at each female in rapid succession. For the first three, I did okay. I even braced for the rebound flare of Draedyn’s energy as before. I caught an image from Tyrrik of three more of the Drae toppling from the sky. Screeching, I funnelled all of my might through the band of his control around the remaining three, but the last flare of Draedyn’s power was tailored to resist my efforts.
I can’t get through, I called to Tyrrik.
Keep trying. I’m flying ahead.
No! I screamed at him, fear clawing at my heart. We stay together.
I could feel his answer, but before I could respond, shock stunned me. Through his eyes, I watched a turquoise Drae rise from within the rebels’ ranks.
It’s my aunt, I choked as emotion overwhelmed me. My Aunt Ryn.
Untangling a strand of my powers, I threw them like a net to cover my aunt who was circling above Draedyn. The net settled around her just in time, and then Draedyn and I were both locked in two battles. Not only did I need to keep my aunt’s mind free as she attacked him to give the rebels a fighting chance, but Draedyn and I fought for power over the remaining Drae still under his control.
Draedyn unleashed a second bout of white-hot fire on Lani’s shield, the crackle of power singeing the air.
Despair flooded me as the green power swallowed her gold veil, and then the Phaetyn barrier began to shrink, exposing more and more of our army.
I glanced up just as my aunt dove.
I wasn’t sure whether I felt Tyrrik holding his breath or if the tension inside was all mine as I did the same.
Aunt Ryn closed the gap, plummeting toward the emperor, and I pounded against his control of the female Drae, gaining an inch.
Draedyn cut off his flame and twisted in a circle in the air, whipping his spiked tail high and wide.
A vice squeezed my chest, and I screeched aloud as his tail connected with my aunt’s head. She rolled upside down over his back, her wings scraping over his ridged spine, and then she toppled, plummeting to the hard ground.
I couldn’t waste the opportunity she’d given us. I threw everything I had into breaking his hold. Triumph surged from within as I felt his grip loosening on one of the Drae, feeding my confidence and my power. She fell and then a second. I couldn’t fathom how my aunt’s move had distracted him so much, yet I refused to let that distract me as I drilled my powers at the last barrier, shattering the final ring of control on the female Drae.
Ryn, Tyrrik said. Your aunt took the Phaetyn from Draedyn. Kamini and the children are no longer on his back.
Yep, that would’ve distracted him.
I grinned at my mate, but my breath caught as I faced the massive green Drae before us. Draedyn was monstrous, and my stomach turned.
You did it, my love. You freed them.
I hoped my mate was right, but I was too fearful to share his elation. I cast my powers to the eleven females, checking first that they were unconscious and no longer a danger. Unwilling to risk them joining the battle again, I wove a thin layer of my powers around each, hoping it would be sufficient to give me a warning, even if the barrier couldn’t keep Draedyn out entirely. My aunt was still conscious. I darted a look at her and saw her fighting the three Druman who’d held Kamini and the children at knife point.
I hate Druman, Tyrrik said. He blew out a breath of flame, torching the Druman farthest from the Phaetyn.
It was all the help we could give her. We’d have to rely on my aunt and Kamini to kill the others.
What’s our plan? I asked. I’d felt him assembling a strategy as I freed the females.
Draedyn unleashed another jet at the army, and my heart wrenched with the cries and screams as the rebels caught in the flame disintegrated into ash, their lives over in a single breath. Druman attacked the front lines of Phaetyn, and roots burst from the ground, spearing the Druman on the spot. Swords and arrows and spears coated in golden Phaetyn blood flew through the air at the mules.
As I watched, a catapult launched from our side at the Druman, and countless throwing stars dipped with Phaetyn blood soared through the air, killing the Drae side of any Druman they scratched.
The plan is that I attack him physically and you attack him mentally, Tyrrik said in a rush. Get your Phaetyn veil up again.
I did so in a second.
Keep it around me if you can, he said. It gives me an advantage against him.
I will, I said, my heart thundering. My mate was about to go into battle, and I so desperately wanted to tell him no, to go in myself, to force him away south to where we could hide.
But we’d both made the decision to fight. To be here with those we loved.
We were in this.
I’ll need you to watch my energy levels, he added as the remaining distance closed with awful finality.
I will, I said firmly. And I’ll attack his mind. As best I can. This was it. Fear coated my insides.
Ryn, Tyrrik whispered as my father turned to face our attack.
Draedyn’s emerald scales and sword-like fangs glinted in the morning sun.
Tyrrik’s determination was set, but his nervousness leaked through our bond too. I love you more than my life.
My heart shattered; to hear him say such things felt like accepting failure. I couldn’t bear to hear it. This talk of love and lives when we were here on the cusp of losing everything we’d fought so hard to achieve. Without Tyrrik, I had no love, I had no life. My future was with him.
Always with him.
He knew that. He would feel my anguish, my pain, just as I felt his. But his courage to act in spite of fear made me love him more. And so I told him simply, I love you. You are my mate, my soul, my life. You are my future.
I banked sharply to the right, peeling away from Tyrrik’s side, diving to a position from afar, and hearing dreadful twin roars at my back and the whining groan of talons and fangs locked in battle.
37
I didn’t dare speak to Tyrrik, only sending images of Draedyn’s spiked tale when I thought my mate might not see it coming. Draedyn was a third larger than Tyrrik, but my Phaetyn power gave Tyrrik an advantage. While Draedyn could see through my veil because of our familial bond, like Tyrrik before we fully mated, judging by my father’s delayed reactions, he was having trouble. Keeping the veil completely over Tyrrik with his constant unpredictable movement was impossible, so Draedyn was still attacking, but we’d evened the playing field. I hoped.
Now, I planned to tip it in our favor. I couldn’t spare a thought for what was happening below, despite the cacophony of battle. I could hear them, but every ounce of my attention was finely attuned to the person who meant the most to me. I could only see, feel, think of the danger to my mate.
Circling around the fighting Drae, I flooded my mind with Phaetyn power and then coiled my Drae and Phaetyn tendrils as before.
This time, I aimed for my father.
I’d never attacked him. As I blasted beam after beam of my power at him, I felt like I was slamming my energy against a brick wall, and I realized with stone-cold certainty the enormity of our task.