Page 131 of Mate of a Monster

He’s right.

The young exile’s chest is caved in on one side, skin torn open and slick with blood and ash, but his clothes smell like salt water. His eyes flutter before going wide in blind, animal panic.

“How?” Knight asks, but everyone must have figured it out by now. He just wants someone to say it.

“That’s how Zev got here,” I say, “And your mother.”

Another body hits the ground rolling ten feet away, coughing blood across the stone. I look around at the portals still splitting open overhead and everything in me goes cold.

“Someone figured it out.” Legend frowns. “They die on Exile, come back to Rathe trick.”

My eyes narrow on the chaos raining into the courtyard. Every guard has come to attention. So has every king, as the brothers stare across their lands with knitted brows.

“No,” I say.

Legend’s head whips toward me. “What do you mean no?”

I tear my gaze from the bodies and look at the Kings of Rathe, settling last on the one who belongs to me. “Not to destroy us.” My voice hardens. “To distract us.”

Vicente is already barking orders to the nearest warriors, but I cut across him anyway, power still crackling at my skin.

“Vicente,” I snap.

He turns instantly.

“Fight to kill. If they die here, that’s the end of the game for them now.”

He doesn’t hesitate. “Done.”

He pivots and roars commands across the courtyard. Silver moves with him; their soldiers break into formation as more bodies drop from the sky like broken sacrifices.

I look at the Kings.

At Knight who watches his mate with worry. At Sinner whose grin has vanished entirely now that there’s real blood on the ground. At Creed, pale and furious. At Legend, whose attention keeps cutting between the falling bodies and me like he’s trying to protect me from ten different things at once and hates that he can’t.

“Let’s go.”

“I call Ben!” London shouts, already sprinting for the massive green beast.

Knight growls something that sounds suspiciously like her full name, which only makes her laugh. Ben lowers himself enough for her to grab a scale ridge and haul herself up. The green dragon immediately throws his head back with an arrogant roar like he’s proud to be chosen.

Show-off.

Zev whistles low. “I want one.”

“You can earn one,” I mutter. “But for now, looks like she’s willing.”

“Aren’t they all?” he murmurs as he hops up and strokes her scales.

Everyone is seated and settled, aside from me. I shoot upward, spinning once through the moonlight as the entire formation rises with me like I’m the center point they’ve all been waiting for.

Wings slam downward with enough force to shake the courtyard, dust, blood, and scattered petals blasting across the stone as they rise in a thunder of scale and fire.

Below, chaos still tears through the castle grounds: warriors intercept the fallen exiles as they hit the ground, steel flashing, magic sparking. Above, the sky opens black and wide.

This is what I was made for.

I know it now in my marrow.