Wild by Sara Fields
Chapter 12
Ivar
The vertical maneuvering gear I’d stolen from the soldier was a godsend. The large cartridges shot grappling hooks that dug firmly into the rock and mortar of the wall and I was able to swing along and traverse it with ease. I avoided the giant monsters in a sort of graceful mechanical dance, swinging and propelling myself forward with the sole purpose of freeing omegas. I unbound one and then two, using the swords at my sides to both cut them loose from their ropes and to slice cleanly across several of the horned monsters’ throats with ease.
The dragons swooped in all around, carrying omegas and humans to safety before descending on the monsters in a fit of rage like I’d never seen. The sound of wings beating through the air was deafening, but it still didn’t drown out the frightening laughter that poured out from the giants’ mouths.
The wall quaked for several long minutes and I was forced to slow my movements, afraid that the grappling hooks wouldn’t catch in the crumbling stone. I decided to sprint to the next omega and when I reached her, I slashed at her ropes with my sword, freeing her. Without delay, I kept moving. A moment of hesitation right now could send one of these women to their death.
I didn’t know how many the giants had already killed. With a hard swallow, I forced myself to focus on those still living than those already dead.
Without warning, a sudden jolt of panic that cut deep into the bond between Revna and me. I swung forward and caught myself on the wall, stopping completely. I turned my head, searching for her. I gritted my teeth in open fury and fear. I refused to lose her again.
There was no missing the massive wingspan of the dark red dragon rising into the sky. Even though the rising smoke of the city obscured what I could see in the distance, I knew without a doubt that Revna was in its clutches.
With a roar, I shot the hooks into a nearby building, using the maneuvering gear to swing down to the ground. I landed on the dirt road in a gigantic cloud of dust, but no one gave me a second glance. With a cursory survey of my surroundings, I realized that I was only a block away from the stables where I’d housed Dandelion when I’d first arrived in the city.
I sprinted in that direction without a second thought. When I rushed through the stable doors, I found a small number of people huddled inside. They looked in my direction with wide eyes, terrified that someone had found their hiding place.
“Stay hidden as best you can,” I whispered to them, and a small boy nodded resolutely.
“I’ll keep my family safe,” he answered, and I grinned.
“I have to go rescue mine,” I replied, and he grunted with agreement.
“The big black horse over there is a strong one. You should take him,” he offered.
I smiled broadly, knowing that he could only mean Dandelion.
“Yeah? How do you know?” I asked.
“He’s been wild ever since the action started. He wants to fight,” the boy responded, and I strode over to the stable where my horse was stamping his hoof on the ground with his impatience.
“Miss me, boy?” I said softly and Dandelion huffed his displeasure. I laughed softly and reached out to pet my fingers up and down his nose. He settled and I opened the stable door. Quickly, I pulled myself up onto his back. There was no time for a saddle. My head just cleared the ceiling, but when I flattened myself to his body and gripped his mane, he took it as a sign to rush out of the stall. He galloped out of the building and practically soared over the short wooden fence that surrounded the stable’s paddock. He raced down the street, his hooves pounding into the dirt with focus. He wasn’t the kind of horse that feared battle or monsters.
He was a warhorse.
“I’ve missed you, boy,” I shouted over the noisy clatter that surrounded us.
He neighed excitedly and I directed him toward a collapsed section of the outer wall, fully intending on following the dragon that had stolen my omega. As soon as I broke out of the city, Dandelion picked up the pace, galloping at a breakneck speed over the flat plains. He avoided the never-ending onslaught of giants by weaving in and out of their grasp and before long, we were out of their reach entirely.
The dragon hadn’t gone far, only to the base of the mountains. Dandelion tore over the plains in chase, but as we drew closer, I saw the dragon that took her begin to fly away. I searched its claws for Revna’s form, but I didn’t see her within them any longer. I turned my gaze back toward the ground.
A flash of red caught my eye first.
The Recruiter.
I tensed at the sight of him and right in front of him was the small form of a naked woman.
Revna.
I spurred Dandelion on, rushing him closer until I closed the distance between us. I roared as I drew near and just when I was preparing to dismount, the cultist drew his hand up toward his mask and pulled it away. With haste, I pulled up on my stallion’s mane and he slowed with a snort of dissatisfaction.
I stared at the cultist, taking in his true face for the very first time.
From the scars that covered his face, it was clear that he’d survived a terrible fire many years before. There were places that his skin appeared as though it had practically melted, marring his face for the rest of his life. His eyelashes were intact, but his eyebrows had not survived his ordeal.
Those green eyes bored into Revna and a possessive snarl ripped out of my throat.
She was my omega epsilon, my mate and I hated that the man was staring at her naked body like he owned it.
“Father,” she spat, and I froze at once.
It couldn’t be. He was supposed to be dead.
“Daughter,” the man answered coldly, and a vicious smirk turned up at the corners of his mangled lips.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” she scoffed, and I could feel the disbelief rattling through her like a drum.
“Odiyen smiled upon me that day. He brought the Cult of the Blood Moon to my doorstep and pulled me free from the raging fire that you started, witch,” he answered.
She grimaced and a range of emotions from anger to regret spattered over her features.
“What do you want from me?” she snarled, and my hackles rose in her defense.
“I’ve been following you for a long time, daughter. You’ve tried to hide, but I’ve always known where you were. You see, the cult made me a promise long ago. In exchange for my unending devotion to their cause, I would also be granted the opportunity to punish you for what you did to me,” he answered, just as his chin bobbed back and forth like a serpent.
I swung off my horse and landed hard in the dirt.
“This is my fight, Ivar,” she murmured softly. At first, I was taken aback, but when I glimpsed the determination in her eyes, I knew that she was right. I took a step forward, moving behind her and standing with her in solidarity instead.
“What do you want, Father? Why bring me here?” she directed at him. She was furious and was having difficulty containing herself. I knew that before this day was over, one of them was going to wind up dead.
I prayed to the gods it wouldn’t be her. I wouldn’t lose her to the likes of him.
“Rosethorne has been here for a very long time,” he answered evasively. I thought he would stop there, but he continued.
“Beneath its ancient streets are a multitude of secrets, kept safe even during the harrowing times of the Great War so very long ago. There are detailed records of that time kept deep beneath the temple, accounts that I’d spent a number of years poring over in preparation for this day,” he explained.
“How would there be records when the battle didn’t even make it past the Crescent Mountains?” I pressed, and the cultist looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. He laughed heartily.
“The mountains kept the city safe from attack,” he answered coldly, “but it also kept their activities secret from everyone else, so much so that the rest of the world forgot that Rosethorne even existed at all.”
I began to grow uneasy.
“What were they doing?” I asked.
A salacious grin emerged over his face, monstrous and mangled. He was a monster, inside and out.
“Rosethorne was the source of all the terrible weaponry that destroyed the world so very long ago. Those secrets were something I’ve been searching for all this time and I’m extremely pleased with what I found,” he explained, and his gaze turned back toward the city.
“You found liquid fire,” Revna breathed.
“Among other things.” The cultist’s grin widened.
“So, you saw what I did to the city walls then, didn’t you?” he answered, unable to keep himself from chuckling with arrogant pride.
“That was you?” she asked carefully.
“Yes,” he replied boldly.
“Why?” I pressed.
“I can’t have the likes of my enemies finding anything that I left behind,” he answered, and a chill raced down my spine at the frankness of his words. I schooled my expression, not wanting to give anything away even though I wanted to slit his throat.
“What have you done?” Revna snarled and the cultist turned back to her.
She was a fiery sight to behold. Although she was entirely naked, it didn’t appear to weaken her in any fashion. Instead, she looked like a powerful beauty that was going to destroy the cultist at any given moment. Her fingers were crackling with violet electricity, its brightness and strength growing with every passing second.
“Rosethorne provided the cult with a great many gifts. The Prophet is going to be pleased once they arrive on his doorstep, but with the discovery of my daughter’s true gift, I intend to surprise him with another. Perhaps he’ll even want to take such a blessing as his bride,” he said coldly and Revna openly snarled in his direction.
“I have a mate,” she spat.
“You should know by now that I couldn’t care less about the mate bond. It didn’t stop me from taking your mother, did it?”
Revna’s shoulders were beginning to shake with her restraint. She wouldn’t be able to hold back from tearing into him much longer. I stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on her waist. She jumped, but I didn’t do it in a way meant to challenge her or scold her. I just wanted her to know that I was there.
“What did you come here to do?” I asked carefully, searching his gaze for clues.
He appraised me with a certain detached coldness. His gaze flickered over my shoulder, staring off into the distance at the city falling to pieces behind me. A giant’s terrifying screech filled the air, followed by a man screaming. When it cut off abruptly, I feared that it had been his last.
“I took Rosethorne’s secrets and made them better. War is coming and the cult will be very well prepared because of it,” he answered.
“Is that what you needed alpha blood for?” I pushed and his eyes narrowed.
“You’re resourceful, I’ll give you that. It’s too bad your loyalty lies with the other side. It’s a shame to waste a mind like yours, but no matter. You will die this day and your own secrets will die with you,” the Recruiter answered, and I gritted my teeth.
The shrieking grew louder behind me and I finally turned my head to see what the cultist had been so especially interested in.
A new type of creature was racing toward me on all fours. They seemed to be crawling directly out of the walls of the city and as they drew close enough, the details of their monstrous forms became clear. I didn’t need to look to see, but I knew the Recruiter was smiling with his victory before it had even come to pass.
Gargoyles the size of large horses barreled toward me. They were huge and unbelievably ungainly for the speed at which they were sprinting across the plains. Their wings were outstretched to maintain their balance and the skin spanning over them was so thin that it was disturbingly translucent. I soon realized that they were carrying mounts on their backs.
The caged alphas from down below had been freed.
They were coming to kill me and claim what had been taken from them.
I was only one man. I couldn’t take on all of them. Not at once.
I turned my head and Revna was gazing back at me. Her lavender irises were blazing fiercely with purple fire.
At once, I understood.
She would handle the Recruiter. I just had to ensure she had enough time to do it.
Without hesitation, I swung up onto Dandelion’s back and spurred my heels into his belly. He rushed forth and I took off across the plains. At first, I wasn’t sure if the shrieking horde behind me would follow, but eventually the sound of the wild hunt was hot on my heels. The maneuvering gear would do me no favors out here on the flat plains, so I elected to unclasp it and let it fall to the ground so its weight wouldn’t hinder me or Dandelion in our attempt to give Revna the time she needed to cut down the cultist. I held onto the handles of the ultra-hard steel swords, keeping those so that I could still fight.
Wind rushed beside me and I turned my head only to see a steel-colored dragon flying along beside me. Another joined us, only this one was soaring along to my left and was the color of dried rust.
I gritted my teeth, expecting a battle.
“The Ghost sends the Sage of Animus his regards,” the steel-colored dragon mused.
Sandwiched between two dragons, Dandelion didn’t even falter. If anything, he ran even faster, tearing through the plains as if he was the wind itself.
“Who are you?” I asked, shouting to be heard over the cacophony of battle all around us.
“Vericus,” the rust-colored dragon answered.
“Sangor,”the other murmured.
“It appears that you could use our assistance,”Vericus added, and his partner chuckled.
“It would appear you were correct,” I answered gruffly, peering back at Revna and assuring myself that she was still alive.
“Then let’s get to work,”Sangor growled and as I turned my head, I could see that his scales had turned up in an excited grin. His silver eyes met mine as he soared beside me before he caught the wind and turned back toward the monsters racing at my back.
I grasped the handles of my swords and tightened my thighs around Dandelion to keep steady. I began to lead him in a gentle curving trajectory with the sole aim of facing my pursuers head on.
The wild yips and cries of the gargoyle-like creatures turned more frantic as they saw that the fight was coming to them. Sangor and Vericus swooped upward, using their massive wingspans to lift them up into the air before they released a massive volley of fire down onto the beasts below.
The alphas on their backs screamed. Each of them was dressed in what appeared to be stolen leather armor, but that only afforded them so much protection. They struggled to put out the fires at first. They tried to brush it away with their hands and when that didn’t work, they jumped off their mounts with the sole aim of dropping to the ground so that they could roll the flames out.
That worked, but the two dragons at my side had an endless stream of fire at their disposal and they used it. I grinned when I realized that they were making a wall of fire with the sole aim to trap the gargoyles and the alphas inside in.
With a simple command, I directed Dandelion to rush into the fray. It took seemingly no effort for him at all to leap cleanly over the wall of burning fire. I felt its heat as I pressed myself against my stallion’s back, trusting him to lead me into battle like the true warhorse I knew him to be. I held out both swords at my sides and as I rushed by some of the alphas that had fallen off their steeds, I did them a favor and swooped low enough to slit their throats.
They didn’t get up again.
The gargoyles singed by dragon fire kept moving as if it didn’t affect them. They galloped along on all fours, using their knuckles to propel them forward as they eagerly raced in my direction.
Dandelion wove in and out of them like he’d been trained to all his life. His movements were instinctive, and soon enough I stopped directing him and just allowed him to carry me where he wanted.
I cut down one alpha after the next. Vericus and Sangor dove down and plucked several of them off the gargoyle’s backs, crunching them in their talons and swallowing them whole. In just a few minutes, the three of us had eviscerated the alpha ranks, leaving only the crazed gargoyles to contend with after that.
I circled the smallest one, carefully studying what appeared to be rocky armor that covered his physique for whatever weakness I could find. There was a break in its armor behind its neck, a slight space that allowed the tiniest amount of pink flesh to peek through. I stood up on Dandelion’s back and leapt off him, landing directly on the creature’s back as I used both swords to slice across that pale fracture of skin. I cut deep and the gargoyle staggered for a moment. I tore through that weak point again and this time, I was certain that I cut straight through the beast’s spinal cord.
He staggered once more and crashed headfirst into the ground. I jumped forward and landed on the ground, only to sweep myself back up onto Dandelion’s back as soon as he ran by.
I looked up, catching Sangor’s silver eyes. I mimicked cutting the back of my neck and pointed at the beastly mounts and his toothy grin emerged once more.
“I haven’t had this much fun in years,” he exclaimed and just like that, the dragons began to tear into the gargoyles limb by limb.
I didn’t care what the Recruiter threw at me today because when it was over, he would find out what it was like to look death in the face.
