The Lost Siren: Rise of the Drakens Book 1, Raven Storm [surface ebook reader txt] 📗

came from the demons or the drakens, or all of us. Sabien trembled, tears running down his face. Kieran leaned into his ear and whispered something. Sabien whipped around to face me, smiling as he began to make several shallow cuts along his body with a suddenly steady hand: one at each wrist, and two on his neck. He closed his eyes and started chanting as the cavern was plunged into darkness, the only light source coming from D’Arcy.

There was a mighty rumble and then suddenly the side of the arena was blown open, exposing us to the elements. Benedict stood in the rubble, fury and blood in his eyes as the storm outside raged around him. Rain pelted his body to mix with the blood that snaked down his chest, his sacrifice for blowing up the side of the mountain. I took my chance while everyone was staring at him in awe. I ran straight at D’Arcy, my sword held high.

“SABIEN! NO!”

The weight of Benedict’s command sent every draken to their knees, but Sabien was too far into starting the spell; too determined to listen. The cuts he made bled freely, trailing on the ground to form intricate patterns that glowed. He opened his eyes to reveal they’d gone pitch black, and then ritualistically positioned my dagger under his chin.

“This is my choice. Respect it.”

He thrust the dagger up with all his strength as I struck, hurling my sword at D’Arcy’s neck with all the remaining energy I had. Several things happened at once.

Sabien’s black sacrifice roared through the mountain, striking down anything that wasn’t me or a draken. The demon hordes fell to the ground twitching, then disintegrating into ash. The mountain groaned and sealed the large cracks, and the vampyres were left writhing on the ground, easily dispatched by nearby drakens. My sword sang through the air, but D’Arcy blocked it, cutting off his spell to defend himself. Benedict was at my side an instant later, and then the fight truly began. D’Arcy knew he wasn’t a match physically against Benedict, and I was a minor irritant at best. White hot magick sparked at his fingertips, flying to hold off the raging draken king. Tears fell down Benedict’s face, his grief and rage a tangible force that whirled around him.

“Why D’Arcy?” Benedict grunted, striking over and over at the erected shield D’Arcy put over himself.

“I would have been king centuries ago if you had just gone on that raid with everyone else like you were supposed to! The draken race would have joined forces with the Overlord, and there wouldn’t have been an eruption! We are an extinct race because of you!”

D’Arcy lashed out at me, but I ducked, dodging his claws. My body ached from the stress of fighting, and I wavered. The other drakens were almost here, almost within range of hearing D’Arcy’s traitorous acts from his own poisonous lips...

“You’re all so blind! To think a human could be a spy!”

I saw my chance to literally put D’Arcy off balance and took it. I leapt, surprise breaking across D’Arcy’s face as my weak, human body easily passed through his shield, not even considered a threat. I wrapped my arms around his legs and just hung on. It was all I had strength to do.

“GET OFF!”

D’Arcy teetered, off-balance with me dragging him down. Benedict took the opening as the shield fell and slashed his brother across the chest, causing D’Arcy to roar in pain. I managed to unsheathe my remaining dagger and stabbed it down in his foot as hard as I could, pinning his foot to the ground underneath. Then D’Arcy was attacking me, spitting in rage as I felt claws and teeth pummel my body. Instead of trying to get away I latched on, holding him down and rendering him unable to defend himself despite the abuse to my body. Benedict hesitated, so I decided for him. Using my short sword, I stabbed D’Arcy again in the thigh, finally bringing him to the ground. Kieran was suddenly next to me, not hesitating as he opened D’Arcy’s throat and spilled his blood all over the rocks. The white magick on his fingertips fizzled and died. His body tried to heal itself, then fizzled out.

“Part of Sabien’s sacrifice; no one who intends to do our people harm will survive.”

We stood as a sad group as we watched D’Arcy die, sneering and goading us even as he bled out.

“The Overlord will come again with more, and he will hunt down every last one of you until our race is wiped from the planet. You should have—" He choked on his own blood, but none of us moved a muscle, “—just died. We’d be on Lyoness right now. My mate would be alive. You did this Benedict.” He gave a final cough and went still.

I turned to Benedict to tell him it wasn’t true; none of this could possibly be his fault. He heard D’Arcy’s confession himself, surely, he wouldn’t believe his poisonous lies!

Benedict was already gone and across the pit, kneeling over Sabien’s body. He gently lifted his cousin’s head into his lap, stroking his blonde hair away from his face. Every draken left standing kneeled, their claws held up with palms facing out. It would have made me feel better if Benedict had cried or screamed or did anything to outwardly express his grief. Instead, he sat there cradling Sabien, silent and unmoving as stone. Gelf stood next to Benedict with Pirth and Wyrren, covered in blood but mostly uninjured.

“It should have been us. We have lived long enough.”

I felt his regret in my soul. My legs swayed, and pain in my neck raced throughout my whole body. Kieran glanced at me and put one hand respectfully on Benedict’s arm.

“My king, please—"

Benedict shook him off violently, which was at odds with the gentle way he laid Sabien’s body back down. He stood and faced me, and I would have been terrified at the anger radiating from