Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Chapter 59

Kyla

"You bastard, that is not how this is going to go!" I scream at Rift. "We're supposed to make it out of this together! We're supposed to raise Raia and Ash, together!"

Rift has already taken it upon himself to bring the Dark Lord into his human form, in a burst of magic he falls.

I leap to the air, and I catch his limp form, landing with him cradled in my arms in front of where the Dark Lord has collapsed.

I roll to my side and gently set Rift's lifeless body on the rocky earth, and then I rise up to see the Dark Lord, already risen and reclaiming his more powerful beast form.

My claws are out as I tackle him, my jaws clasp around his neck, but it's too late... his scales are too thick.

No, no, no! Rift can't have done that for nothing! All of this can't be for nothing!

With savage intensity, I claw and bite at him, but he grows beyond my size once more.

The Dark Lord laughs, mocking us and our hopeless plight. "I guess Elias was wrong. The love you two shared. It wasn't enough to conquer me. In a few moments, I'll have you for myself, Kyla." He grasps me in his claws and throws me down to the ground, holding me beneath him as I struggle against his size and strength.

"Hey, Rift," the Dark Lord shouts toward where Rift lays. "Does this look familiar to you? But instead of your body, I've got my own back to do whatever I want with her. Know this as you slip into the dark oblivion that awaits you. Your precious princess is now mine because of you."

"I'll never be yours," I hiss at him, biting at one of the legs that hold me down. "And I'm never going to stop trying to kill you."

"But that just makes it all the more fun, my dear," the Dark Lord snickers. "Don't you understand that about me? I get no enjoyment if there is no struggle and I can always count on you to struggle." His size is so great he can hold me with one foot, and he raises his other fore claw to run his long clawed beast fingers along the ridge of my cheek. "You're beautiful. Rift was right. You're like a goddess. You don't need any of my magic to be what you are."

I clasp my jaws around the flesh of his finger and surprise myself as I yank it off.

He shrieks in pain and his grip on me releases enough so I can slip out from underneath his weight and throw myself airborne, above him.

"That wasn't very nice, little princess," the Dark Lord says, glaring with red eyes at the finger as it regrows. "If you want me to chase you, I'd be happy to oblige." His gaze looks up at me. "But first, I'll crush the body of your precious Rift and—""

The sound of a beast wail echoes through the cliffs.

What was that? A wild dragon?

A tiny flying red blur hits the massive head of the Dark Lord.

Arlite, is that who I think it is?

My heart drops into my stomach.

Raia.

"What is this?" The Dark Lord asks with a sneer. "An even tinier princess come to rescue her parents from the Dark Lord?"

Raia's wing talons cling to the Dark Lord's forehead as she looks him in the eye. I notice her eyes glow like her father's, a magical amber.

I can't watch the Dark Lord kill my baby.

I dive down to land on his head, but I miss completely because the Dark Lord is... shrinking?

"What is happening?" The Dark Lord growls, trying to swat Raia off his face.

My little red dragon child is using magic and she's making the Dark Lord return to his more vulnerable form.

"Raia, be careful!" I call to her.

She answers me with a little roar and flings herself off the Dark Lords changing face to land on the ground beside him. A fiery aura glows around her and I watch as she transforms from a dragon into a pretty little girl, wearing a simple white dress, with red dragon wings coming from her back, and red hair billowing around her as a great power flows from her.

"What are you?" The Dark Lord asks.

"I'm going to kill you," she says, a dark smile on her soft face, as if this fact is concrete. "You tried to hurt my mama."

The Dark Lord laughs at first, but then he screams as his body crushes into itself as the essence surrounding Raia wraps around him.

"How—is—this—possible?" He gurgles the words and Raia moves her hands, effortlessly guiding the magic to strangle and construct him. "No! I won't be defeated—by a—child!"

Raia claps her hands together and I realize she's doing a Scourge on him, except this Scourge is far stronger than anything I've seen Rift do. The Dark Lord's back bends unnaturally, his spine snapping in half and eyes fading from red to a dark brown. His body falls crumpled and twisted on the ground in a gory mess and with the job finished, Raia takes on her dragon form once again.

I land beside her, staring at the Dark Lord's corpse in shock.

"Meep," Raia says, looking up at me with her big amber eyes glowing. She trots over toward where Rift lays motionless and nudges him with her snout.

"He wanted you to live in a free world, Raia," I say softly, not sure if I should be afraid of my own child after what I've just witnessed.

She transforms into her human form and wraps her arms around her father.