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  “Forrest? What’s wrong?” He slung the knapsack onto his back then gripped his sword in his right, holding the coin in his left.

  I couldn’t put it into words, but a rushing filled my ears, and I swore I felt Kate again, but this time, she was calling out for us, calling for help. Her voice was faint, and it was only growing quieter the longer we stood there.

  “I don’t know, but we need to go.”

  Craig held the coin flat in his palm, and I stepped closer, resting my hand on his shoulder and held out my other for Celandine. When she stepped back from us with a sad smile, my heart sank.

  “No, you have to come with us,” Craig urged.

  “I cannot,” she said and took another few steps away. “Cassius pulled me from Kate’s mind using the power from this world. If I leave, I will be lost forever.”

  “But if you stay, the plagued will find you,” I argued.

  “They will, but who says I cannot destroy as many of them as I can before they take me down?” She gave us a wicked grin as the first yells of fury rang out in the fortress. “Now go, you must save Kate before the darkness takes hold in her permanently.”

  The coin was already glowing in Craig’s hand even as I continued to reach out for Celandine.

  It was like watching her die all over again, but then we were being thrown through realms, and she was gone from our sight.

  I grabbed hold of Craig’s shoulder tighter as the rushing in my ears turned to screams and roars of dragons.

  The second my feet hit hard ground and the light faded, I stared slack-jawed at the chaos we landed in the center of.

  Dragons flew overhead, breathing fire as dark, shadowed beasts attacked them, raining death from the skies.

  On the ground, dragon soldiers fought against the plagued. Smoke filled the air, burning my eyes and down my throat as I hacked and tried to see a clear image of what was happening.

  There was rubble everywhere, and so much screaming and yelling.

  We stood in the courtyard of the castle, and panic froze me for a few seconds until two strong hands grabbed hold of me and whipped me around.

  “Forrest! My son, what are you doing here?”

  Kadin wrapped his arms around me tightly, but when he set me back on my feet, I took in his bloodied face and clothes, the way he held his left arm oddly, and how his sword was almost limp in his hand.

  “What’s happening?” I asked as he dragged me toward the steps of the castle.

  “The plagued, they’re attacking, and they’re being led by your Vindicar! What happened?”

  “It’s a long story, but that’s not Kate,” I told him, trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. I caught sight of the dead, too many to count scattered around. “Why haven’t you fled? Why is everyone still here?”

  “We can’t use the portals, they’ve cut us off completely, broken through our walls… we have nowhere to run! Half our number are too weak to shift anymore.”

  Craig held up the coin in his hand. “Yes, yes we do! We need to get everyone out of here!”

  “And you, you both are coming with us!”

  “I can’t father, not while Kate’s here.”

  He grabbed my arm hard and shook me fiercely. “No! She is lost, Forrest, there is no saving her and I will not leave you behind!”

  “Craig, Forrest?” another voice yelled, and I whipped around to see Lucy, also covered in blood and grime sprinting toward us.

  Her eyes were hard and her face set in anger. I didn’t even have to ask if she’d seen Kate or not. I wondered while I took a few seconds to stare at her, what wounds were from today, and which ones came from the attack after we’d left her and the other witches and sorcerers behind.

  “Lucy, we have the coin! We can get everyone out of here,” I told her, taking her hand.

  “Help her,” Kadin ordered, and before I could argue, he dove back into the madness, several of his royal guard at his flanks.

  I couldn’t tear my gaze from him, watching him take on the plagued as they came at him, two, three at a time, all the while searching for any sign of Kate or Cassius.

  “Forrest! We have to go!” Craig bellowed.

  I whirled around, taking after him and Lucy, heading inside.

  So many people filled the front hall, trailing into corridors and rooms. They clung to each other, fear on their faces and tears streaming down their cheeks.

  All the sadness and desperation bashed into me, and I held my head in my hands, trying to tune them out. Their emotions grew worse until I sank to my knees, cringing and praying for it to stop.

  “Forrest! You have to push through it, man,” Craig urged, crouching before me.

  “I can’t… I can’t think!”

  “You don’t have a choice. If we don’t get them out of here, they’re all going to die. Is that what you want?” he snapped.

  Body shuddering with the effort to get control of my emotions, and everyone else’s around me, I forced myself to breathe and open my eyes.

  Craig’s stare was there to meet me, and he nodded firmly as he pulled me to my feet.

  My head throbbed, and my heart pounded in my chest, but my people needed me.

  Lucy was already gathering everyone together to get them ready to transport.

  They needed me right now. Needed their prince. I repeated the words over and over again, and the mantra kept their emotions from overwhelming me, for now at least.

  As I was turning to gather more people into the hall, I felt as if a hand reached out and brushed against my cheek, a light touch.

  Kate.

  I glanced over my shoulder. She was close, so close.

  We’re going to save you, I told her, hoping somehow, she’d hear me.

  5

  Forrest

  I watched as Lucy disappeared with the final group of people needing to escape Gregornath while the battle continued to rage on outside.

  Our forces had been pushed back to the steps, and Kate was out there somewhere, fighting against those she was meant to protect.

  Not much time had passed in reality, but in my mind, it felt like a lifetime, waiting for our chance to go out there and find her. We had no plan, nothing at all, except to knock her out and drag her back with us, like we planned to do before she was possessed by the plague.

  The screaming had grown less, and I hadn’t heard the roar of a dragon in some time. My home, the place I was meant to rule over one day, had fallen in a single day to this plagued army. I never thought it possible and yet here we were.

  Lucy came back to us, and the only ones left to evacuate were those still fighting outside.

  I had no idea how we were going to get them away unless we dove into the fight.

  I met Craig’s gaze, and he nodded firmly before he charged toward the front beside me, our weapons in hand, ready to attack.

  My father and the others were fighting in a half circle, doing their best to keep the enemy back, but they were losing ground quickly.

  Craig and I started at one side, shoving soldiers back toward Lucy, and yelling at them to retreat, even as we held off the attackers. Fighting hand-to-hand wouldn’t help us, and Kadin was in danger of being overwhelmed.

  “Get them back!” I yelled to Craig, throwing my head back as I shifted.

  The others had grown tired, too weak to hold their form, but I was fresh into the fight, and my fire was ready to burn.

  Plagued screamed as they caught fire, and it burned through their lines, killing them.

  Wave after wave came at us, but I pushed them back as Craig dragged the soldiers out of harm’s way, shoving them toward Lucy.

  I backed up farther and farther, not seeing anything anymore. The shrieking of the dying enemy was all I needed to hear, to know we were going to get out of this. We were going to make it.

  All we had to do was get my father inside, then snatch up Kate.

  We’d figure it out once we were away from here.

  I heard Craig yel
ling behind me, but I couldn’t stop the attack, not yet.

  Then I heard it. A yell of pain that sounded far too familiar.

  I snapped my jaws shut, and through the smoke and haziness in the air, I spied my father, on his knees, with a sword to his throat.

  Cassius held the blade, but it was the person who stood beside them that had my claws digging through the courtyard stone as a snarl escaped my throat.

  “If you wish him to live,” Cassius yelled, “shift back, Prince Forrest.”

  Reluctantly, I forced my dragon to retreat and stood with Craig at my side, glaring at the man who held my father’s life in his hands.

  “Let him go. We’ll leave, and you can have Gregornath,” I shouted.

  “Seems like a reasonable offer,” Cassius said with a shrug. “But I’m afraid I want so much more than that.”

  “You two were supposed to stay out of this,” Kate snapped.

  Her eyes were almost solid black, but when I reached out, searching for a trail of emotions that would tell me how she truly felt, I sensed it… just a hint.

  Kate.

  I nudged Craig to try and give him hope.

  The Kate we knew was still in there somewhere. We just had to get her out.

  “Kate, please,” I begged. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I have told you why. Everything we knew was a lie!”

  “He’s using you,” I told her, taking a half-step closer. “He’s using you and your power to get what he wants! That truth he told you? It’s not true. He’s twisted your mind! Please, listen to me. Come back to us!”

  She closed her eyes, wincing and seemed unsteady on her feet. Her lips moved, but whatever she said, I couldn’t hear.

  “I have to do this,” she hissed furiously. “I have no choice.”

  “Yes, you do.” I held out my hand for her. “You can come back to us, please. This isn’t you. You’re not a killer. You’re not his puppet! You are supposed to fight with us to stop this, not join it. Kate, look at me… really look at me, at us.”

  Slowly, she lifted her head and her gaze locked onto Craig as he nodded slowly, before she looked at me next.

  The darkness started to recede, and more of the blue-green of her irises shone through as the runes on her body, glowing red, warred with the light.

  I willed her to fight it, to make this right, and chanced a look at Kadin.

  He only had eyes for me, and I knew exactly what he was going to do a second before he moved.

  “No!” I yelled and tried to lunge forward.

  My father grabbed for the blade at his throat and yanked Cassius over his shoulder, throwing him to the stones. He kicked Allis hard in the chest as he charged in and all the while, Kate stood by, watching the spectacle unfold.

  Her feet started to move, but she seemed to be at odds with herself and remained planted.

  Kadin was almost to us, but then he tore a blade from the hands of a dead plagued and turned on Cassius.

  The others moved in closer, and I was about to charge in, but Craig grabbed me and yanked me back.

  “Let me go to him!” I fought against Craig, but he held me too tightly. “Let me go!”

  “You can’t! You’ll be overwhelmed!”

  I watched as Kadin’s blade slashed through the air, nearly taking down Cassius once, twice, but then the air grew heavy with magic, and dark tendrils of shadow burst out of the stones.

  I expected it to be coming from Allis, but a bright red flash caught my eye.

  Kate held out her hand, Executioner sheathed at her back, and her eyes were solid black once again.

  The shadows shot out and grabbed my father at his ankles and his wrists, dragging him to the ground once again.

  An evil smirk I never thought would grace her lips met my stunned gaze, but then Cassius stalked toward my father and just as he opened his mouth to call out to me, a blade was plunged through his chest.

  “No!” I bellowed and ranted, my heart shattering as I watched my father suck in air, gasping for breath as blood seeped from the wound.

  His eyes darkened, and his body started to sag forward, held upright only by the shadows.

  “No! You bastard! I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you apart!”

  Craig picked me up in his arms and dragged me back into the hall as Cassius yelled for a charge. But Lucy was waiting for us, and one second, I was staring at the horror that was my dead father and the next… the next I was sinking to my knees, surrounded by those we rescued, in the courtyard at Boshen.

  “Where is Kadin?” a familiar voice asked overhead, Drake I thought, or Tristan.

  I couldn’t bring myself to answer and heard Craig do it for me.

  “The Dragon King Kadin is dead,” he called out before his hand fell heavy on my shoulder. “Long live King Forrest!”

  Dead, my father was dead.

  And it was all Kate’s doing.

  6

  Kate

  The second Forrest and Craig disappeared from my sight, I released the shadows holding Kadin’s body and sent them flying after Cassius. They wrapped around his body and dragged him back to me, forcing him to his knees.

  Executioner was in my hands in a blink, and I pressed the blade to his throat as I growled.

  “What did you just do!”

  He glared at me, and I tilted my head, sending another tendril of darkness to choke him. He sputtered and gasped for air as I watched, the blade still hovering dangerously close to his neck. A neck I could so easily cut through and relieve him of his head.

  You’re not in charge, a voice warned in my head, and I gave myself a little shake.

  Of course I was. I had the power. I was the one running this show, but even as I held Cassius in my grasp, he managed a tiny smirk.

  The shadows started to pull back and then he was free.

  I held the blade out toward him, taking a few cautious steps back as he straightened his leather coat and smoothed back his ruffled hair.

  “You wanted your revenge, did you not?”

  “I did,” I said quietly.

  “And this… this is part of that revenge.” He motioned to the body of Kadin behind him, eyes wide open, lying in a pool of blood. “Or have you changed your mind?”

  Craig and Forrest, they came here for you. You must fight!

  “Katherine, look at me,” Cassius demanded, and my gaze shot to his against my will.

  But even as he stared me down, that voice lingered in the back of my mind.

  Craig and Forrest escaped the cells I placed them in. They fought to get to me. They got away, which meant there was a chance I would see them again, a chance I would be saved.

  Growling in annoyance, I sheathed my sword and grunted. “I wanted to do it.”

  Cassius seemed happy enough with my answer and either ignored the confusion I knew had to be on my face, or was sure I would continue on this dark path.

  And I wanted to, I had to. There was no going back, not now that we killed Kadin, Dragon King.

  I circled his body as the plagued swarmed through the castle, searching for anyone left behind, but I knew it would be empty.

  Mama Lucy, she had been here, too. She would never leave a soul in trouble.

  An ache started in my chest, and I rubbed at it annoyed, seeing her face beaten and bloodied.

  “We will secure the castle,” Cassius said as he joined me by my side. “Once we regroup, we will make our plans.”

  His hand brushed across my hand, and I jerked to a stop, a flare of hatred striking me hard.

  Forrest, he’d killed so many of our men and for what? To protect these traitorous monsters? And Craig, he helped them escape! They were both to blame for why this victory was not as complete as it should be.

  I meant for them to stay safely away from this conflict and now they were in the middle of it. Trying to stop me, stop me from making this world our own. I wanted them by my side when this was all over, but what they did to me, it was too much.

 
Cassius brushed my hand a second time, and fury pumped through my veins as I screamed out orders for them to clear the dead.

  “Find them!” I bellowed. “Find them so we can finish what they started!”

  “There’s the commander,” Cassius whispered. “Do not let them cloud your purpose, Katherine. Do not let them sway you from your true destiny. Remember all I showed you.”

  I smiled along with him. “I remember,” I promised as I stalked into the castle. “Don’t worry.”

  Screams of the dying filled my ears as I entered the castle. For my first battle, I liked to think it went well enough. We broke through their defenses easily enough, captured their castle, and their king now laid dead in the courtyard. Dead. Just like my dad, my mom, and all the other Darrahs they killed for no reason other than who they were.

  Kadin might be gone, but there were so many more to seek out. I could feel it, the evil in this realm and seeping into the others. One by one, they would fall to our might. There would be no resisting, unless they wanted to die.

  I paced impatiently around and around the great hall, the place I had been before. The place I should’ve taken my revenge when I had the chance.

  You don’t want this! You can stop this, right now!

  I growled at the voice and sank to the throne that would no longer hold a king. I glared at those around me, watching plagued rushing around to do the bidding of their masters.

  Allis and Cassius stepped into the room, speaking quietly to one another, but I didn’t care what they said.

  Peace and quiet, that was what I needed.

  I felt jittery and when I glanced down at my hands, froze to see the dark, sticky residue I hadn’t even noticed before.

  “Katherine, why don’t you go and rest?” Cassius suggested. “It will be a few hours before we are ready to move out again.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, and pushed out of the chair, muttered something about finding a decent room, and disappeared deeper into the castle.

  I vaguely knew where Forrest’s old room was, he’d told us during the few nights we hung out in this realm after convincing his father to aid us.