Kai Drakon's Arc

Chapter 28 of 30

Kai's blood pooled on the palace steps. Seraphina knelt beside him, one hand hovering over the wound, the other still raised toward the sealed doors. Her face was calm, but her hands shook. Kai understood. She could heal him or hold off her sister's power. Not both. Obsidian crouched over him, blunt and armored, the fairy soldier who had marched silent beside them for two days. He pressed his glove against the gash to slow the bleeding. "He won't last," Obsidian said. His voice was flat and cold, the way he spoke to everyone but the woman he loved. "You have to choose." Seraphina did not answer. She stared at the doors, then at Kai's gray face. Kai tried to speak and tasted iron. Ren's face rose in his mind. Azure's arms around him. He had promised to come home. He would not break that promise on these steps. "Get us out," Kai said. His words came slow. "Anywhere. Now." Seraphina's eyes changed. She had kept her royal blood hidden for ten years, and Kai guessed she had kept more than that hidden. She pressed both hands to the stone floor. Green light spread from her fingers. It was the same light Kai had seen crawl through his fields at night, the light that grew his crops before winter. But now it climbed the air and wrapped around all three of them. "Hold on to me," she said. Obsidian gripped her shoulder. Kai reached with a bloody hand and caught her sleeve. The steps dropped away. For a heartbeat there was nothing but cold and rushing green. Then the ground slammed back. Kai landed in wet moss. Pines rose around them, tall and quiet. The palace was gone. They were in the woods, far from the wounded city. Kai heard a stream nearby. The air smelled of earth and rain. Seraphina did not wait. She tore Kai's jacket open and set both hands on the wound. Green light poured into him. The bleeding slowed. The torn skin drew together. Warmth spread through his chest and pushed the cold back. Kai gasped and sat up. "Easy," Obsidian said. He held Kai's shoulder until the shaking passed. Seraphina sank onto her heels. Sweat ran down her face. "I have never carried two others that far," she said. "I did not know I could." Kai touched his chest. The wound was a pink line now. He was alive. But they were lost in the forest, the queen still held the stone, and Seraphina had spent nearly all she had. "Where are we?" Kai asked. Seraphina looked at the trees. Her calm had cracked again, and this time it did not close. "I don't know," she said. "And she felt me leave. She knows we ran. She will come looking."