Chapter 75 The Army of Ferocious Dragons
The army of ferocious dragons were ready to destroy him.
Orion didn't flinch at the sight of the descending talons or the roar of a hundred dragons. He didn't care for his own life—he had forfeited that long ago. The horror rattling his spine was for her.
He looked at Esperanza, his eyes wide with a frantic, soul-deep terror. He had spent every breath trying to hide her, to keep her light tucked away in the shadows, and now the sky was full of monsters coming to claim her for the King.
High above, leading the charge, was Ezra. He rode his dragon with a reckless, white-hot fury, his silhouette and dark omen against the sky. As he looked down and saw them saw Orion standing so close to Esperanza his blood turned to liquid fire.
Ezra didn’t see a protector; he saw a captor. He saw the man who had stolen his peace, and his eyes fumed with a hatred so intense it rivaled the dragons' breath. His fists clenched, knuckles white and trembling, as he prepared to unleash hell. He wasn't just coming to rescue her; he was coming to tear Orion apart, limb from treacherous limb, for every lie he had ever told.
"You have gone too far!" Ezra’s roar tumbled from the clouds, more deafening than the dragons’ wings. He descended like a falling star, dominating the sky and casting a shadow that swallowed the clearing.
Orion flinched, not from the sound, but from the weight of his own guilt. He looked down at Esperanza one last time, his gaze desperate and searching. In that fleeting moment, she glimpsed deep into his eyes. She didn't just see the hunter or the deceiver; she saw the raw, bleeding terror of a man who knew he was about to lose her, that's all he always wants.
"You should hide somewhere," she let out, her voice cutting through the roar of the approaching storm.
The cold detachment in her gaze flickered and broke, replaced by a sudden, surging wave of concern. She looked at Orion not as a captive looks at a master, but as a protector looks at the hunted. She knew Ezra's fury; she knew he wouldn't stop until Orion was ash.
Orion stared back at her, stunned. He had expected her to cheer for his demise, but instead, he found her eyes searching for his safety. Even as the sky screamed with the wings of a hundred dragons and Ezra’s shadow loomed over them, her only thought was to give him a chance to survive.
"Hide, huh!" He spat the words, a jagged, bitter laugh breaking from his throat. "Letting you go with him... that is all you want, isn't it?"
The concern in her eyes should have softened him, but it only stoked the embers of his madness. His gaze went pitch-black, the last of his humanity drowning in a sea of ink. "But I am not letting him take what is mine. Not this time. That is unequivocally not happening."
He stepped toward her, his shadow stretching out like a shroud. He wasn't looking at the sky anymore; he wasn't even looking at the threat. He was consumed by the singular, dark obsession of his own claim. If he couldn't have her, he would ensure the world stood still until no one could.
"Orion, he would kill you!" she cried, her fingers clutching his hand with a strength that rivaled his own.
The sheer violence of his temper took a swift, staggering turn. He froze, his breath hitching as he looked down at her grip. For the first time, he didn't have to force her hand.
He looked into her eyes and found it—the spark of allegiance he had spent a lifetime trying to manufacture through command and lies.
In the shadow of the coming slaughter, her concern was his absolution. The darkness in his eyes didn't vanish, but it narrowed, sharpening into a new, lethal purpose: if she was standing with him, he would make sure the world burned before it touched her.
"Why would you care?" he pressed, his voice a jagged edge. "Do you not care more for him?" Under the weight of his question, Esperanza’s stare faltered, her resolve weakening as her heart tore in two.
"I never want to lose you," she whispered, the words trembling with a truth she couldn't hide. "I could never see you killed. I couldn't bear it."
A dark, triumphant smirk ghosted across Orion’s lips. "Then choose me. Not him. Because today, Esperanza, someone is going to die."
Before she could breathe, Orion snapped his arm straight. As Ezra’s dragon lunged to incinerate him, Orion didn't flinch. Instead, he reached into the very air and drained the beast. In a horrific instant, the dragon’s life force was sucked dry, its massive body crashing to the earth with a bone-shaking thud.
Esperanza stood paralyzed, her soul feeling as though it had fled her body. She watched the shriveled, incredible creature collapse at her feet, then turned her eyes to the sky. High above, Ezra was a silhouette of pure agony, screaming at his troops to hold their positions.
"No one moves!" Ezra’s growl echoed like thunder, his voice breaking. "Esperanza is with him!"
She stood in the center of the chaos, caught between the man who had just committed an atrocity to keep her and the man who was willing to let the world burn to save her.