Chapter 57: Chapter Fifty-Seven

Daegal.

There was a sea of black and brown beneath my feet. All jumping and growling in attempts to tear us to pieces. Hellhounds. The witch sent hellhounds by the thousands.

I wanted to rip each one limb by limb. My wings shuttered in anticipation of a fight.

One that I knew would take hours to win. She’d done this to tire us out. To beat us until we were down and needed to rest. It was a way for her to sneak inside and catch us off guard.

It was a strategic plan. One that I knew well because I’d used it before.

Poppy stirred from inside of the top-story window. I hated the fear radiating off her. I hated that she was being put through this during her pregnancy. She deserved to rest. Not worry about being eaten by a mutt.

The hellhounds were given her scent because they clawed at the front doors of the castle with such a force that it was uncanny. They were sent here to end her. To shove the knife into my heart and twist it until I was dead on the inside.

My fingers tightened into fists and I swooped down toward the door and blasted the slew of hounds with fire.

Their screams made my dragon happy. But it was a revolving door. The ones I burned turned to ash and more took their place.

I could hear their claws digging into the wood, bending the foundation and my dragon grew restless. He needed out but I needed my human brain to stop this. My agility in case they broke through the door. I could be to Poppy before they made it to the staircase.

Several dragons from the field shifted and landed amongst the hellhounds. The hounds underneath were smashed from the size of the dragons but the others attempted to climb up their scales.

Stetson swooped in next to me. “How are we going to stop them? There are so many."

There was a calmness to his voice that I appreciated in this chaos. “I’m not sure. They are trying to get to Poppy. Kelli is trying to wear us down. We need a method that’s going to kill as many as we can at once.”

I looked over the hellhounds piling up at the door of the castle like zombies, and the others attacking the warriors. “We need an aerial attack. We all get together and spray over them like a crop duster.”

Stetson nodded. “It’s the best plan we have. Does someone need to stay by the castle doors to make sure they don’t make it inside?”

“Send a couple of the warriors over,” I mumbled, shooting into the air.

I felt Poppy’s adrenaline spike when I blasted into the sky and began to huddle the dragons together.

I stopped, floating in the center of a giant circle of my warriors, and looked around at each of their faces. “We need to fly together over the field. Blast as many as we can.”

“How many are there?” one asked, fear lacing his voice.

There had to be thousands. But it didn’t matter.

We had to kill them no matter the number.

“I don’t see any more coming,” I said. “They’re trying to get to Poppy and we can’t let that happen.”

“How is she doing this?” someone asked. "I thought she was gone forever."

“We’re not talking about her. She’s a witch, she’s turned herself completely evil and her morality is gone. We worry about her when she shows up. Right now, we kill the hounds.”

They lined up side by side spanning across the field. The hounds growled and jumped trying their best to get to us.

My dragon pressed against the surface and sent a silent shiver through my body. I closed my eyes and allowed him to breathe the fire from me.

The hounds began to burn into ash one by one. The darkness over the field vanished and the hounds raced to get away.

I dared a look at the castle where two dragons poured fire onto the hounds who tumbled over one another to get to Poppy. It seemed like an hour before the field was vacant of any hound. My body was exhausted and I felt like tumbling toward the ground.

The two dragons at the castle burned the last of the hounds and I watched as they drifted toward the ground.

Exhaustion was ridden over us.

Kelli had succeeded in tiring us out. She’d exhausted us to the point that we hardly noticed the earth splitting beneath us.

A dangerous crack split right where I’d heard it on the horses with Stetson. Not enough to cause an earthquake, but a shift enough to cause the earth to separate.

I let myself down to my feet and caught myself on all fours. Stetson walked over, bent down, and braced his palm on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I just need to rest. That’s where she’s going to come out.”

Stetson helped me to my feet. ‘She’s not here yet.”

“Tell all the dragons to rest. Go inside and rest. Do not come outside for any reason. Not until I call them."

Stetson grabbed my shoulder. “You rest too, Daegal. If she is attempting to tire us out then you’ll need to be ready too.”

Despite the utter exhaustion coursing through me, I had a bone-deep need to get to Poppy.

The doors to the castle flung open the second I reached for the door. Poppy sat in a chair in the entranceway with her palms wrapped around her stomach. Relief was written all over her face. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said.

Selena shut the door behind me and I bent down to wrap Poppy into a hug. “I’m fine. We’re all fine.” I pulled away and looked at Selena.

“She’s attempting to tire us out. The ground cracked open and I believe it’s opening for her.”

“She’s coming from the ground?” Poppy asked.

Selena cleared her throat. “If she did turn to the dark gods then she would come from beneath us.”

Hearing it aloud made it more real than before.

Poppy closed her eyes and pressed her palm over her face. “She’s going to hurt my baby.”

“No, she isn’t,” I said. “That is something I won’t let happen. Selena,” I said turning to her. “I need you to do whatever you can to protect the castle and the bunkers. I’m letting the warriors rest. It took a lot of energy to kill those hounds. Once they’ve rested, I will assign a position for them. Until then, I need you alert. Because I need to rest.”

I turned to Poppy and offered her my hand. “Come Ember.”

She didn’t object as I led her up the stairs to our room. The utter exhaustion began to weigh on my body. Each step felt like I was pulling a horse behind me.

I kicked open our door and nearly fell onto the bed.

Poppy walked around and began to pull my feet up when I stopped her. “You don’t need to be lifting me.”

She stood back with tears in her eyes as I crawled further onto the bed. “Come lay with me.”

She wiped her eyes and her bottom lip trembled. “I’m afraid to go to sleep.”

I opened my arms and she crawled against me, resting her head against my chest. “Everything is going to be fine.”

“How can you say that?’ she asked. “She is so close, Daegal.”

I closed my eyes and ran my fingertips against her skin. “She is close, and when she gets here I’m going to end this. I won’t live in fear. I won’t allow you to live in fear.”

There were so many unspoken questions hovering between us. So many things we needed to say but none of it mattered.

We could talk about the what-ifs all day.

None of it would change the fact that she was coming and there was nothing we could do about it.