Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Chapter 48

Rift

I use the spell my Father showed me to keep warm as I hold onto Kyla. I haven't told Kyla this, but without a Scourge I'm more than running on empty, my life force is draining. If I pull Alvar back into his human form I may actually be done.

Still, if this is our first real step toward taking down that son of a bitch, the Dark Lord, I have to do it.

I grip onto Kyla's back and crouch low as the first fireball comes at us from the direction Alvar bears down on us from. His massive shape appears in the white cloud of the blizzard we fly through. From his jagged black wings to his cruel curved claws, Alvar's menacing form is the stuff of nightmares, especially when it's coming for you intent to kill.

I ponder how Alvar is far more intimidating than any other creatures I've fought over my years being "trained" by my mother in how to torture others.

"Get him to land, Princess," I yell at Kyla, summoning up my strength to cast my magic at him.

"Hold on tight, it's going to be rough," she hisses at me. She swoops downward, her wings catching on the wind making an unpleasantly bumpy ride as she descends. Narrowly she misses crashing into a snow capped mountain peak.

The talons on her wings rasp as they grip into the icy rock, she climb around it and pushes herself off the mountain and back into flight. Alvar smashes into the cliff, breaking off a chunk of ice and sending it flying in our direction. Kyla barely dodges it, but while doing so I struggle to stay on her back.

Damn, this isn't as under control as I'm used to.

"I can't find a place to land," Kyla's beast voice roars, she sounds nervous.

"Keep going further down the mountain," I say, searching the icy cliffs and chasms. "There has to be somewhere flat the further down we go."

Another fire ball blazes past us and hits Kyla's wing.

Kyla shrieks and a puff of smoke blows from her nostrils, the heavy smell of it lingering over me. I rest my fingers around the hilt of the dagger secured on my belt.

"He's closing in," Kyla says, her voice strained. "I can't outfly him much longer."

"You're smaller than he is, use it against him," I say. Another fire ball, this one misses us, but it's larger than the last.

"I don't want you to fall off my back," Kyla says.

"Do it! I'm not like your mother. I'll burn," I shout.

"Hang on tight," she cries.

Kyla tilts her body and catches a heavy wind, abruptly turning herself downward and around. Momentarily we're upside down, but I create a chain in my hands, wrapping it around her neck as we turn and using it to stay attached to her.

We fly under Alvar's belly just as he catches up to us. His jaws snap at air and he roars angrily at his near miss.

"There!" I shout at Kyla, noticing a flat, barren valley, covered in snow between two peaks. "Land there. Do you see it?"

"I see it," Kyla answers, narrowing her wings for a quick landing. We skid in the ice under the snow, her tail sweeps to the right to balance us, covering us in the fresh white powder.

I slide off Kyla's back into the drifts, my gaze to the swirling white skies as I dust myself off. "Kyla, where did your father go?"

"I don't know," she says, shaking her lithe serpentine body of snow. "I'll give him another challenge." She raises her head to the skies and calls to him, her beast sound echoing against the frosted cliffs.

Alvar answers us and his outline appears above us, his shadow casting a darkness over where we stand.

Kyla raises a wing to cover me as fire rains down on us. She answers her fathers flames with her own. I watch in awe as her throat glows, her jaws widen and fire explodes into the cold air, melting the snow around us and creating a mist so Alvar can't see us from his elevated position.

The ground shakes as we sense him land in the valley near us. Any moment he will pounce, now is the time to transform him back into a man.

"Kyla, let me go to him," I say from the shelter of her great wing. I touch her side. "It's time to finish this."

Kyla's beast tucks in her wings over her shoulders and she lets out a horrible wail. Her eyes glow red in the blizzard, yet that red hazes with tears.

Alvar's beast kicks up drifts as it rushes us, and I focus all my essence at him. It occurs to me that my love for Kyla grounds this Light magic as it surges forth powerfully. I can sense it wrap around the massive form of his beast.

As Alvar's body changes, he doesn't stop his charge. He lunges at me, the red in his irises have bled into the whites. The expression on his face is wholly one of a beast, though his body is one of a man. "You can't stop me so easily!" he seethes, and I realize it's the Dark Lord speaking through him.

"You've underestimated the people here," I snarl at the Dark Lord, "Good people." I use the last of my dark energy to trace beside Alvar and plunge the blade of the dagger deep into his chest. The sound it makes as it rends into his flesh, reminds me of when I'd killed my mother. Except this man, unlike my mother, has a good heart.

Alvar falls to his knees as I brace against him, holding the dagger in place as I'm brought down with him in my weakened state. I'm devoid of my magic and empty. Alvar is broader and heavier than I am as a human, and since I'm worn through I sink with him into the snow. My forehead throbs, and eyes pool with blood. I struggle to breathe.

Alvar's expression is one of shock at first, he bellows into the blizzard in agony, but then something incredible happens: a mist in the shape of a drakon flies from his body, dissipating in the wind, and the red in his eyes clears until both of his eyes are a human blue. He sags against my chest, wincing as he reaches for my own shoulder to support himself, his gaze steady on me.

"Where is my daughter?" he rasps, his brow furrowed in concern. "I didn't hurt my precious Kyla, did I?"

"You daughter is stronger than anyone I know. She handled herself as such," I assure him, gripping his hand on my shoulder with my free one. "She loves and admires her heroic father, the king."

"I wish I would have taught her how to love herself more." Blood oozes from the corner of Alvar's mouth. The light leaves his eyes and his gaze wanders far away as he murmurs, "Lucy, my heart, do you know I'm free? I only wish I could hold you one last time."

"I will be sure to tell her," I say, and for some reason, even as my own perception of the world falls hazy, a ball forms in my throat as I watch the human eyes of the once powerful King Alvar glaze over in death. My heart overflows with the deepest of sorrows. I hadn't thought myself capable of feeling this.

"It's so beautiful, the-the light, Rift," Alvar says, eyes brimming with tears. A quiet sob escapes his throat and he shakes his head. "I don't deserve it."

I grip his hand tighter as he fades. "No, my king, I believe you do."

A weak smiles spreads across Alvar's scarred face.

Rest in peace, my dear friend.