Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
BOOM.
The blast shakes the floor underneath us and the walls and everything else.
Ximena is caught off-guard by it. Frankly, even though I knew it was coming sooner or later, I’m caught off guard, too. Still, I’m more ready than she is, and when we’re both thrown to the floor by the sudden shift in cabin gravity, I manage to knock her knife away from her.
She struggles with me and we wrestle for a moment, but it’s too little too late.
I have my burning blade at her neck and she’s pinned. We’re both huffing for air, but I yell so I can be heard clearly.
“I, Thraxahenashuash, First of my name, declare victory over Ximenaushanax, and am now your Commander of the vessel Draci III.”
“It is not fair,” Ximena snarls from underneath me. “You did not obey the rules of the Ritual. What was that blast?”
Still speaking to the room at large, I make my voice loud. “That noise was your true and rightful King. King Shakshaacac has come to take back control of those who would rebel against him. You have one single chance to avoid a summary execution for your treason and plotting against him.”
“When I said you did not obey the rules of the Ritual,” says Ximena, eyes glittering with hatred, “I meant that the challenge is to the death.”
And then she begins struggling again in my hold, even though it means the killing blade begins to burn through the scales at her throat.
I have no great love for Ximena. I knew I might need to kill her when we entered this circle. But as the smell of singed scales meets my nostrils, it seems foolhardy and… wrong. There are so few of us left. What will her death really accomplish? She’s six hundred years old and for it to end here, on this floor because of her foolish pride—
I ease up on the blade just the slightest bit, pulling back.
It is a mistake.
Ximena senses it. Maybe she was trying to push me into this very sentimentality. Either way, like the cunning Draci she is, she takes advantage of it. Reaching up, she locks her arms at my wrists to keep me from pushing the blade any deeper, then spins out from under my grasp, much like I did to her earlier.
I snarl in fury, but when I turn to follow her, she’s ready, knocking the blade from my hand with a solid kick and then throwing herself after it. In a flash, she’s upright again, flashing blade in hand.
And I… have nothing. No weapon.
I shake my head, hands out. “Shak has disabled the ship. You’re dead in the water. I am the only chance these people have to escape—”
She flies at me, swinging at the same time.
And as she does so, a bright blue blade appears in the center of her chest. It was driven through her back.
She blinks down at it in shock. When she tries to grab at it to pull it out, the hot, burning blade merely slices the tips of her fingers off. She opens her mouth to scream, but only blood gurgles out. She falls to the ground, and then to her knees.
And standing behind her is Giselle.
My mate.
My beautiful, glorious mate, her wings extended, a shocked expression on her face even as her hand is still extended.
It was obviously Giselle who dealt the killing blow. I extend my own wings to block her from the view of the fallen Ximena.
Giselle blinks up at me as I take her in my arms. “T-The barrier,” she stutters. “It went down when the ship shook. And she was going to— She was going to— I had to stop her.”
“And you did,” I say, combing her hair back from her face. “You saved me.”
But we aren’t truly safe, not yet. We’re standing in the center of an arena full of Draci who, just half an hour ago, were on board with full scale rebellion and invading the human planet.
I release my mate and turn to my people at large. “Who else will join Ximenaushanax on the floor?” I gesture behind me, but keep Giselle’s body planted firmly in front. “This is the price all must pay for treason. I never betrayed my brother and have worked in his stead this entire time.” They don’t need to know that isn’t strictly true.
My brother and I made peace on the shuttle ride up. Well, as much as peace as could be made without knowing how it stood between my mate and me. I swore to him, though, that all I cared about was her and my kit’s safety, regardless of her feelings toward me.
It was my fault she’d gotten caught up in all of this in the first place. If she never wanted to see me again… well, I couldn’t say I’d take it gracefully or never want to see my kit, but for her sake, I would try. Shak also said that even if Giselle accepted me, he did not know if I would be welcome in his palace because of how his mate felt toward me, considering what I had done to her friend. At the time I’d been desperate to have my mate back safe in my arms, and now that I do, my feelings have not changed—I would have done anything, no matter the outcome of Giselle’s feelings toward me. Even if she never wanted to see me again, I must see she is safely returned. I will spend my whole life seeing to her safety and comfort. And that of our kit.