Page 120 of Vardaesia
Niida, too, was moaning beside her, the dainty Myrox dagger lowering from her throat as she pressed her hands to her stomach. But neither of them had the luxury of giving in to their debilitating symptoms, because they needed to act fast while they still could.
Marcus had offered them a miracle, since he was now actively wrestling with Aven on the ground—something that wouldn’t last much longer, Alex knew, because as soon as Aven overcame his shock, his Meyarin nature would allow him to effortlessly subdue his mortal opponent. The Hyroa blood was slowing him down significantly, but Alex wasn’t naïve enough to think Aven getting splattered would ultimately give Marcus the upper hand. If she could push through the weakness, so could he, as miserable as the feeling was. But they didn’t need hours to get away, only a brief window of time—time that Marcus had given them.
With a wheezing breath as she battled her illness, Alex directed Niida to use her Myrox blade to cut through the bindings holding Jordan, Bear and Kaiden, while Alex herself rushed over and hauled D.C. away from the struggling limbs of Aven and Marcus. Hunter, meanwhile, was dragging Grimm’s unconscious form out from behind the bookshelf, and throwing Hyroa blood-coated daggers into anyZeltorawho were managing to fight off the effects of the spray.
While the Meyarins might have been caught up in their agony, Calista and Gerald were human—and unlike Alex, they didn’t have a strong enough concentration of Aven’s blood in their veins to feel the effects of the toxic blast—so they were free to run forward unhindered, with Gerald ready to use his tattoo whips and Calista commanded to hold everyone with her telekinetic ability. And yet, neither of them were using their gifts. Because they weren’t able to.
As Aven had said—Kaidenhadallowed himself to be captured, but Alex now knew he’d only surrendered in order to orchestrate that moment with Lena, when she’d given in to his flirting and run her finger down his cheek. All it had taken was a single touch for him to steal her nullifying gift—something that now, even barely conscious, he was using to keep Gerald and Calista—and likely Aven, too—from using their own abilities.
However, Alex was aware that he would soon be fully unconscious if he didn’t stop, the drain of using his gift too much for him to maintain without time to recover from Aven’s blood-boiling torture.
Not wasting another second, Alex looked to Niida, who nodded once to confirm that she was able to handle the agony of the Hyroa blood for just a little longer. In a blur of speed, the queen took off on theValispathas they’d planned in the sunroom, with Hunter, Grimm, Jack and Rachel disappearing along with her. Alex caught the objection on her parents’ faces just before they vanished from the library, knowing they would have stayed with her if given the choice—which is why she hadn’t given it to them.
Niida’s assistance was a godsend, since there was no way Alex would have been able to concentrate on moving all ten of them at once without the queen taking half the load. Even now, the idea of moving just four of them as well as herself wasdaunting, given how weak she felt from the Hyroa blood. But she pushed away her doubts and dragged D.C. over to where Kaiden and Bear were trying to hold Jordan between them—a useless endeavour, since both looked like they were about to pass out—and that’s when she heard it.
The sickening sound of an impaling blade followed by Marcus’s pained gurgle that cut off into deafening silence.
Feeling more urgency than ever before, Alex hastily activated theValispatharound her friends and rushed them out of the library, looking back just in time to see Aven pull Vae’varka out of Marcus’s now lifeless body. And as Aven’s eyes locked on hers, they seared her with the same promise that he gave as he opened his mouth and roared loud enough to shake the city.
The promise that the next person his fiery blade sunk into… would be Alex.
They may have moved swiftly outside the palace walls, but Alex knew they were nowhere near out of danger yet. That was partly because D.C. began struggling like her life depended on it, screaming at them and even drawing the dagger from Alex’s thigh holster and slicing Alex’s leg in the process—adding even more poison to her system—before Kaiden, covered in Bear and Jordan’s blood, as well as his own, was able to wrestle it away from her. Together with the equally weakened Bear, the two boys managed to hold D.C. down and keep her from whatever Aven had mentally ordered her to do. At the same time, Kaiden drew out his portion oflaendra, handing one flower to Bear and ordering him to chew it as he shoved another into his own mouth. Their healing began instantly, their strength returning enough for Bear to contain D.C. alone while Kaiden hurriedto tear open bulb after bulb and pour the nectar on Jordan’s stab wounds, even forcing open his jaw and dripping the liquid straight down his throat.
All of this Alex watched through blind, unfocused eyes as she concentrated on not letting them fall out of the air—something that was already challenging thanks to the Hyroa blood, but became more difficult when she realised she’d forgotten all about the veeyons.
With Kaiden only just beginning to get his strength back and Jordan still unconscious, she knew there was no hope either of them would be up to using their transcendence gifts—just as there was no one able to do so for Niida and the others with her who Alex could see a short distance ahead, the five of them about to enter the mass of black creatures.
“Hold on!” Alex gasped as she reinforced the force field around theValispathuntil it was at full strength. She knew doing so would keep them protected from the natural elements such as wind and weather, but she had no idea how it would hold up against an attack from car-sized flying beasts.
Her panic increased when the veeyons, likely acting on their bound leader’s order, broke formation from their spiralling movement above the city and dove towards Niida’s group and, seconds later, Alex’s. TheValispathmoved fast—much faster than the veeyons could fly, but there were justso manyof them. Rather than slipping through undetected, Alex and the queen had to actively dodge and duck and move around them, testing all of their remaining focus and mental strength. Alex knew theValispathcould move straight through buildings, but at the first bounce of a veeyon off her force field, she discovered it worked differently with living creatures.
Up and up they wove through the masses of veeyons that were now rising from their spiralled level and purposefullyfollowingNiida and Alex. The ones who were already closeenough flew deliberately into the force field, ricocheting off with loud, angry squawks. But while their actions were to them nothing more than like playing on dodgem cars, each jarring attack felt like a stab of pain through Alex’s head as she had to carefully maintain her hold on theValispath, keeping her friends safely in the air and moving upwards.
Her concentration wasn’t the only worry. It may have been a struggle, but she was determined to get them to Draekora enough that she could ignore the pain, ignore the sickness, and justget them there. But with the veeyons trailing after them, as soon as they arrived, she and Niida would be delivering a flying army to the floating islands. And if Zain hadn’t yet convinced the free Meyarins to evacuate, they were soon going to be inundated with talons and teeth and venomous green sludge— sludge that,thankfully, could not penetrate the force field, despite the veeyons’ best efforts.
Alex didn’t know what to do. She had to get to Draekora— shehadto free Grimm, because any minute now, she was going to succumb to the poison in her blood—poison that not evenlaendracould cure. She could already feel her body shutting down, her weakness all-consuming. If she didn’t break Aven’s bond with Grimm the moment she arrived, she had no idea how long it would take for the weaponised spray’s built-in antidote to take effect, no idea how long until she’d be strong enough to perform the Release. And with Roka surviving only from Fletcher’s attempts at CPR…
She had no choice. It had to be done, and it had to be done straight away. But if they were under attack from the veeyons at the same time…
She couldn’t think. She could barely keep them on course as they sailed high enough to reach the first islands, and she directed them straight towards the deadened wildflower valley. Jordan was beginning to groan, coming around, but Bear andKaiden were still struggling with D.C. who was almost frothing at the mouth in her violent frenzy. And while the veeyons weren’t in line with them anymore, they also weren’t far behind, just as they weren’t giving up their chase.
Finally reaching the island settlement, Alex was halfway to Roka’s tent when she could manage no more. She fell forward, theValispathdissolving around them as they all crash-tumbled along the ground. She’d known she was weak, but the sudden shutdown of her body came as a surprise, as well as the terror of what might have happened had it been only a few seconds earlier when they’d been in open air. But looking up at the sky from her prone, panting position, Alex didn’t have a chance to consider that for long, because she had another concern. A much larger, more imminent concern that was lunging out of the air and straight towards her.
She didn’t have time to react. She didn’t have time to attempt theValispathagain, to summon A’enara, to curl into a ball or even just raise her hands to protect her face. The veeyon was directly above her, so close that she could see the intelligence shining in its yellow eyes, so close that she could feel its breath as it screeched at her, so close that she felt the phantom pain of it shredding apart her body before it even made contact.
But that contact never came.
Because, with a burst of inky blackness, the veeyon was yanked upwards and away from Alex as talons—muchlarger ones—wrapped around its torso and shook it like a dog wrestling with a chew toy. With a pained shriek, the veeyon was thrown through the air only to disappear below the edge of the island, its wings unable to keep it in the sky after having been crushed by the punishing grip of the mightier creature.
There’s never a dull moment with you, Alex.
Alex was too weak to respond as she looked up at Xira and all the other draekons who were now arriving through theabrassain black bursts across the sky. Those draekons didn’t hesitate to engage the veeyons in battle, screeches and roars ringing out as beast fought beast in a clash of claws and teeth and fire and sludge. The sounds were unlike anything Alex had ever heard, and in her nearly unconscious state, she felt as if someone was sticking needles into her ears. It was enough for her to clamp her hands against the sides of her head, trying to block out the noise and the agony it prompted through her body.
She just needed a minute of rest; a second of quiet; a moment to close her eyes. Then she’d be able to deal with what was happening around her. She just needed… to… sleep…
ALEX!Xira screamed into her mind from wherever he was in the sky, jolting her back into awareness.You’re not done yet— GET UP!
How he could know that when he’d only just arrived, she had no idea, but his yell was enough to make her groan and roll onto her stomach. Her bleary eyes managed to see that Jordan, paler than death but now awake, was helping Kaiden and Bear with D.C., who was fighting even harder than before. It was as if Aven had been counting on the veeyons to take them out, and now that the draekons had intervened, he was even more furious, desperate for D.C. to cause damage on his behalf. Truly, there was no way hecouldhave expected the draekons’ arrival—Alex herself had no idea what Xira and his kin were doing in Medora so soon, but their timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
