Wings of Fate, page 12
part #4 of Protected by Dragons Series
“Your uncle kept one of the collars just in case we needed it one day…and Elias keeps attacking everyone, so we used it on him to control him for now,” Thorne explains, but I can’t reply as Elias finally lifts his head to look at me. His black eyes are empty of anything but darkness, and I feel nothing but pain as I watch him. The collar was a smart idea, even if I hate the idea of him wearing one.
“Eli?” I question, and he growls in response, standing up slowly. Elias’s clothes just hang off him now, and his skin is so deadly pale that it reminds me he really did die. I am so out of my comfort zone here with how I am meant to save him. I need Bee…or a lot of research on light and dark magic.
“Who are you?” Elias asks, his tone horrible and sinister.
“Isola…you know me, Eli,” I whisper to him, stepping that little bit closer to the cage, but I know I can’t get too close with how Elias is looking at me. He wants me dead. He doesn’t know me, let alone love me.
“Princess Isola. An enemy of my queen,” he muses with a growing smirk. “Queen Tatarina will be happy when I kill you.”
“No. Isola, the woman you are in love with,” Dagan snaps from just behind me. “Like I have told you many times, Tatarina is not your queen. She is a monster.”
“I don’t love anyone, and I serve the true queen,” Elias spits out and suddenly runs to the cage door, holding the bars so tightly his knuckles are white. “I will escape and kill you. I will wrap my hands around your neck and break it, pretty princess!” The words are said so cruelly and so loudly that it makes me flinch. Dagan comes to my side, placing his hand on my lower back. I know he expects me to break down…but I won’t. I made my choice to save Elias, and I will.
I step closer to the cage, and keep my eyes locked on his as I speak.
“I will save you, Elias Fire, because nothing is impossible.”
Epilogue
Melody
Isola stands in the middle of the throne room, covered in blood, with a dagger in her hand as she watches Elias hold a sword to Tatarina’s neck. Bee and Nane float near her, both of them fighting with light and dark blasts of magic that are hard to look at.
“Don’t kill her! You can’t,” Isola sobs out, stepping closer with every word, and Elias looks over at her with so much love in his eyes.
“I’d do anything to save you. Anything. Including this,” he says, lifting his sword to make the final blow as Isola runs towards them both, screaming in horror. Tatarina shoots a bolt of ice right into Isola’s chest before ducking out of the way of Elias’s sword and running away. Elias roars as I watch my sister die, and the vision turns into blackness.
I gasp as the vision leaves me, and I sit up off the floor where I collapsed in the empty room, rubbing my face. Isola is going to die. No! I stand up and quickly go to the wardrobe in our room, pulling out my orb and grabbing some daggers which I place into the small rucksack. I can grab some more things downstairs before going.
“Melody? Are you okay?” Hallie asks right behind me as she walks through the open doorway, and I tense, knowing she won’t like what I have to tell her. I could stay here and be a coward, letting my only family die, or take a massive risk and go to Dragca to save Isola.
“I’m going back to Dragca. I had a vision,” I explain to her.
“No…you told me if you went to Dragca again, you would die,” she gasps, her panicked voice is hard to hear.
“I know that,” I reply.
“I love you, you can’t do this,” Hallie cries out, walking to me to place her hand on my shoulder. I rest my head on her hand, taking the little comfort she can give me.
“Isola will die if I don’t warn her, Hallie. I love you too, but I won’t stay here while she dies when I could warn her,” I say, turning to face the devastated face of my girlfriend. To my surprise, she wipes her tears away and walks to me, picking up the dagger from my collection in my bag, before pulling the zipper up.
“Then let’s go. We will tell Queen Winter, and she will help. Both you and Isola think you have to do everything alone, and that isn’t happening anymore,” she says, being the strong human I know she is.
“Hallie, this is a world of dragons,” I warn her so she knows what she is waking into. “Not all dragons are like Isola, and they don’t respect humans. This is a war we will be walking into, and one I don’t think I will walk out of alive.”
“And like it or not, I’m a hunter. Let’s go, because we do this together,” she replies, being the strong woman I fell in love with. Dragca will fall with Isola…so I must save her, even if it means she loses me.
Pre-order the final book in the Protected by Dragons series here.
Thank you so much for reading Wings of Fate!! A big thank you to Helayna, Erin, Mads, Cora and everyone that supported me with this book! Including my wonderful Pack Leaders <3
A special shout out the to lovely designer, Christian!
The final book, Wings of Dragca, is on pre-order here.
Please keep reading for an excerpt from other books of mine, and links on where to find me for updates and teasers!
Thank you and if you have a second, a review would be amazing! They are everything to authors, even if it’s just a quick “I like this book.”
Thank you for your continued support! You’re all amazing!
Also by G. Bailey
Her Guardians Series (Complete)-
Winter’s Guardian (Book one)
Winter’s Kiss (Book two)
Winter’s Promise (Book three)
Winter’s War (Book Four)
Box set with bonus epilogue scenes (Book One)
Her Fate Series-
(Her Guardians Series spinoff)
Adelaide’s Fate (Book One)
Adelaide’s Trust (Coming Soon)
Saved by Pirates Series (Complete)-
Escape the sea (Book One)
Love the sea (Book Two)
Save the Sea (Book Three)
One Night Series-
Strip for Me (Book one)
The Marked Series (Co-written with Cece Rose)-
Marked by Power (Book one)
Marked by Pain (Book two)
Marked by Destruction (Book Three)
The Forest Pack series-
Run Little Wolf- (Book One)
Run Little Bear- (Book Two)
Run Little Prince (Coming Soon)
Run Little Beauty (Coming Soon)
Protected by Dragons series-
Wings of Ice (Book One)
Wings of Fire (Book Two)
Wings of Spirit (Book Three)
Wings of Fate (Book Four)
Wings of Dragca (Book Five)
A Demon’s Fall Series-
Runes of Truth (Book One)
Runes of Mortality (Book Two)
Runes of Black Magic (Book Three)
Runes of Royalty (Coming Soon)
From the Stars-
True Light (Book One)
Dark Soul (Book Two)
Shadow Kiss (Coming Soon)
The King Brothers Series-
Secret (Book One)
Chance (Book Two)
Past (Book Three)
Fall (Book Four)
Revenge (Coming September)
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Excerpt from Runes of Truth-
Evie
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask, trying not to yawn from boredom as I hold my sword at my side, resting on it while I stare at the Protector. He isn’t the typical type that comes after me, that’s for sure. Usually Protectors are all posh assholes in shiny suits, but this guy looks like a fake-leather store threw up on him.
“You must die, and I will be the one that finally–” his boring, predictable speech is interrupted when my phone starts ringing. I sigh in relief, not wanting to hear that same old speech again. I pull out my phone and see Hali’s name flashing. I answer and place it on loudspeaker, resting it on the dumpster near me.
“Yeah?” I answer, looking back at the protector as he runs towards me, his sword raised.
“Evie, when are you coming home? I’m starving, and you promised me Chinese tonight. The good stuff from Chingwa, not from the crappy one you like,” she says as I hit my sword against the protector’s, and swipe my leg under his, knocking him over. I kick his sword away from him, wondering why they even bothered sending this man after me. He is a worthless fighter.
“Yep, I won’t be long, and I’ll get that damn Chinese for you. Anything else?” I ask as the protector grabs my leg and calls on his fire rune, trying to burn me. I laugh, lean down, and remove his hand from my leg. I jump on him, and place my sword under his neck.
“Evie . . . what are you doing right now?” Hali asks, suspiciously.
“Err, nothing,” I reply, kneeing the protector between his legs when he tries to knock me off him. He whines, before coughing out in pain.
“I don’t believe that, but I want my Chinese, so I’m going to stay quiet. Later,” Hali laughs, and then the sound of beeping lets me know she put the phone down. Good, no fifteen-year-old should have to hear this.
“I might let you go, but only if you tell me who sent you,” I say, already knowing his answer before he opens his mouth. They always say the same thing.
“Never. I would never betray my people. Protectors never betray their blood, and we always protect,” he spits out.
“I’m your people, you idiot,” I try to reason with him, giving him one more chance.
“You are not,” he spits out, his voice rife with condescension.
“I’m a protector. I really don’t want to do this, but you won’t give up, will you?” I sigh deeply and then lift my sword, shoving it through his heart before he can reply. His mouth widens in shock as I pull my sword out and stand up.
“Death will find you. We will never stop hunting you,” he breathes out, just before his soul light leaves his body, floating up into the sky. I remember the first time I had to kill a protector, and I saw the light of his soul leave his body. It scared me, but then I saw it as what it truly is, beautiful. Beautiful that even an evil protector has light in his soul. That no matter how many of my own people I am forced to kill to survive, there might be a little bit of light remaining in my own soul. At least I can hope there is.
“If only things could be different,” I say, disappointed in yet another one of my kind. Pulling the pen and little notebook from my pocket that I carry everywhere with me now, I flip it open and rip out a page. I quickly jot down the same thing I do every time I am forced to kill those that come after me . . . my rune name. It is the very reason I am hunted, the thing that many people now fear, and yet, I have no idea what it actually says. I leave the note on his stomach and pick my phone up before walking out of the alleyway, down the empty street.
“Crappy Chinese, here I come,” I mutter, wishing Hali didn’t love that place. They don’t do the bacon fried rice that I love, or anything with bacon in it. The place sucks. I keep my eyes down as I walk down the empty streets of the small Scottish town where I live. The people here don’t come out after dark, too scared of the possibility that demons are around. Little do they know that demons wouldn’t be interested in a small town like this. It’s why I chose to live here. The flashing lights of the Chinese place come into view, and I walk across the road, pulling the door open and hearing the ringing of the little bell. The middle-aged Chinese woman looks up, rolls her eyes at me, and looks back down.
“Hello to you, too,” I mutter, but the woman doesn’t reply to me. I grab a Chinese menu off the side, flipping through it before looking back at the woman.
“I’m ready to order,” I say, trying to get her attention.
“Your child called and placed your order already, Evie.”
“She isn’t my child, more like a pain in my ass. I’ll just wait then,” I grumble, putting the menu back in its place.
“A young girl like you shouldn’t be out on the streets at night,” the woman says, stopping me from walking away.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m not afraid of demons.”
“No, your kind is never afraid of what they hunt,” she chuckles, as the bell rings behind her. She walks over to get my bag of food before I can reply to her. Not many beings can sense what I am, and I’m quite surprised a human had the ability. She hands the bag over the counter to me.
“How did you know?” I ask.
“My family have always been able to sense things. You should be careful at night, Miss Evie. Demons are not what you should fear.” With those cryptic words she walks away, leaving me standing in the shop alone and wondering if she is mad, or possibly, telling me the truth.
-
Evie
“Awesome, you’re finally back,” Hali says, coming out of the kitchen, and running over to me. She doesn’t look at me with any kind of care or worry, nope her eyes are just on the Chinese. A girl after my own heart, right there.
“I have to feed the teenager I look after, don’t I?” I say, and she smiles, taking the bag off me. I glance over at Hali, wondering when she started to look so much older. She doesn’t look like a child anymore, which to be honest with myself, freaks me out a little. She turned fifteen yesterday, but I still think of her as the eight-year-old she was when she started living with me, after her mother died. Hali is beautiful, with black, long African hair which she braids, and it matches her deep-brown skin. She has stunning pale-grey eyes, that all witches have, and nearly all lights reflect off them. I turn around, pulling my coat off and hanging it on the hook by the front door. I put my sword underneath it, using my coat to hide the blood on it from Hali. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror behind the door, almost cringing at how much of a mess I am. My dark-blue, waist length hair is messy today, and my blue eyes look tired. I don’t look like my twenty-five-year-old age, no, I look about fifty from all the stress. I swear if I find a grey hair, I’m going to lose it.
“Did you finally kill the Protector following you?” Hali asks, shocking me as she sits on the sofa and pulls Chinese boxes out of the bag like she didn’t just ask something important.
“How did you even know we had one following?” I ask, curious. She never has noticed before, and she is basically a human until she turns eighteen, so it couldn’t be magic she used to find out.
“You look tired, exhausted really, and it’s because you don’t sleep when one follows us. Plus, you have blood on your boots,” she says, and I look down, seeing that she is right. Damn, I hope that comes off, these are new boots. I reach over, picking up a box and grabbing a plastic fork out of the bag.
“Good work, detective,” I say, making her laugh, but it dies off quickly as her pale, serious eyes meet mine.
“Do you think they will ever stop coming after you? What did you do anyway?” she asks, and I go to change the subject because she is too young to deal with the truth, when she interrupts me.
“Don’t lie to me. I’m not a kid anymore, and don’t you think I have a right to know?” she asks, locking her eyes with mine, so I can’t really look away. I know she isn’t a child, sort of, but I still want to protect her. She is like a little sister to me, and the only person in the world I’m close with. I don’t want her to understand the evil in this world until she really has to. This world is full of demons, protectors, witches, angels, and even the occasional reaper. It was, apparently, better a hundred years ago when all supes used to hide from humans. Now everyone knows about supes, and supes rule the very world humans pretend they still have control over.
“They don’t come for you, so no, not really,” I say, shoving food into my mouth, hoping she will just drop this. I almost gag on the taste of the sweet and sour chicken, it’s crap. I miss bacon already.
“Evie . . . protectors don’t come after me now, but you know I will be hunted when I’m older. It’s why you teach me how to fight, and it’s why we live in the middle of Scotland. I want to know why they come after you, as you already know why they will surely come after me,” she says, seeming much older than she should. I’ve always known why they will come after Hali one day, but I won’t let anyone touch her.
“I don’t know why they come after me, Hali, but I know they can find me because of my rune name. Protectors can always find one another if they know their rune name,” I explain to her the little I actually do know. I don’t even want to think about my asshole ex who is the only reason I know this much about my own kind.
“Like a tracker?” she asks, thinking about it. “Why don’t you just remove the rune name off your skin? It doesn’t give you powers like your others.”
