The Dragon King and His Fallen Star novel Chapter 149

Chapter 149: Escape from the Ruin

KIERYGAN’S POV

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The roots and dead vines thickened, coiling higher, tighter, crushing the air from our lungs. One whipped around my arm, its thorns burrowing deep, and forcing my blade from my grip. The steel clattered uselessly to the ground. I snarled and heaved against it, but the damn things weren’t just binding us. They fed, draining us dry, leeching every ember of strength,

every

flicker of flame within me.

I tried to shift, to summon the dragon, but the roots strangled that power down, caging it.

The others fared no better. Ulyanna and Scylla’s magic frayed beneath the merciless grip. The Morens raked their claws bloody through bark and vine, but each wound sealed itself with a wet hiss, the roots knitting back together faster than they could tear.

And through it all-what stoked the fire in my veins, what made me thrash harder, snarl louder -was her. Eirlys.

The roots had wound up her throat, tightening, squeezing until her face blanched. Her body convulsed once, then sagged, her glow snuffed out, her eyes sliding shut. She was hanging by a thread, barely drawing breath.

“No.” The word cracked, splintered. A roar ripped from my chest, rattling the very stones. Eirlys!”

I called her name again, again, each cry more ragged, more frantic. My voice frayed, and my throat scoured raw.

She did not stir. She hung limp in the roots’ grip, like a ragdoll whipped and flung by savage

hands.

Morwenna and Mirael slithered through the ruin like vipers, their smiles honed to cruel edges. Each carried a manacle wrought from that same cursed black metal that once bound Eirlys, hungry to claim her again.

They closed in on her-on my mate.

“Don’t you dare!” The roar ripped out of me, raw, cracking with fury and despair.

I thrashed against the roots, every muscle straining, my voice breaking as I called her name again and again-pleading with her to wake, to fight, to breathe.

Their laughter cut through my desperation, cold and merciless. The manacles hovered above her wrists, ready to snap shut, ready to seal her fate.

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<Chapter 149: Escape from the Ruin

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Suddenly, a shrill, ear-splitting cry split the air, so piercing it rattled my skull. Morwenna and Mirael shrieked, clutching their ears, their faces contorted in agony. Even the Light Reaper faltered, his shadowy form swaying. The roots convulsed, their grip loosening.

Before I could register the source, a blur of fur shot from the shadows-Nibbles.

The tiny creature bared his teeth, loosing another cry, not mere sound but something older, primal-an echo that bent the very air.

The vines recoiled in horror. The manacles slipped from the witches’ hands.

Talons burst from my fingers, shredding the roots that bound me. Around me, the others tore free as well, their strength and magic rushing back like a surging tide. I didn’t hesitate. I lunged for Eirlys, ripping apart the vines that strangled her throat, her wrists, her ankles.

They snapped under my claws.

I caught her as she sagged into me. “Eirlys.” Her name left me like a prayer, a curse, a plea. All of it at once. “Open your eyes.

Please.”

Her chest heaved, a ragged gasp breaking the silence, air flooding back into her lungs. Her eyes fluttered open, light sparking faintly within them.

Seizing their moment of confusion, I bared my teeth and snapped to the others. “Go. Now.”

They hesitated only for a heartbeat before obeying. Ulyanna and Scylla vanished in twin flares of light, the Morens dissolving into shadow.

I shifted in an instant. Eirlys lay gathered against my talons. Nibbles scrambling into her arms with a desperate squeak.

Flame roared from my throat, a torrent of fire hurled at Morwenna, Mirael, and the Light Reaper. Their laughter split the air as they slipped into shadow, re-forming just beyond reach.

Cowards.

But I did not waste anymore time on them. Eirlys was all that mattered now. I had to get her out of this cursed place.

I beat my wings once, twice, and launched skyward.

A roar tore from my throat as I exhaled fire into the gloom. To my surprise, the blaze didn’t just burn-it carved through the fog itself. Rot and shadow peeled back, sunlight piercing the ruin for the first time. A path. A way out.

But before I could break through, something seized me.

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<Chapter 149: Escape from the Ruin

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Pain lanced through my right wing, sharp as a spear. I twisted midair, snarling, and saw it: a clawed hand of shadow, its fingers sinking into my scales, rotting them on contact. The hand stretched from the void itself, tethered to the Light Reaper.

A roar ripped from my throat as I thrashed against his hold.

Below me, Eirlys’ furious voice rose. “Let him go!” she cried.

Lightning burst from her hand, arcing straight into the Reaper’s form. For a heartbeat, hope flared. But the light vanished the instant it touched him, devoured like a feast. He drank her power as though it were wine, his grip tightening, dragging us down.

My wing buckled, black rot eating through the membrane. Pain roared through me. I reached for her through the bond, every ounce of will I had bleeding into the words.

“Eirlys. Listen to me. You have to fly. Get away.”

Her refusal slammed into me, sharp and unyielding. “No.”

Again she raised her hand, hurling another strike of light. Again, he swallowed it whole. Her essence was feeding him, and still she fought, unrelenting. Desperation clawed at me.

“Eirlys,” I begged, my voice breaking, no longer a command but a plea. “Go. Save yourself.”

Her answer seared back through the bond, fierce as fire. “I’m not leaving you.”

Her gaze locked with mine, blazing through fear, through pain, through the ruin itself. “If you burn, I burn. Remember?”

Her words cut through me like a blade to the heart. She was throwing my own vow back at me. A ragged screech tore from my throat, half fury, half despair at her damnable

stubbornness.

“Eirlys. Please.” My voice cracked, raw, my throat burning.

But she made no move to save herself. Instead, she clung tighter, her slender arms wrapping around my talons as though she could anchor me against the void. Her warmth bled into my scales-and then came the glow. Faint at first, then swelling brighter, brighter still, until it

stung my eyes.

Her lips brushed against me, a ghost of a kiss on my scales, before her voice rang through the ruin-clear, steady, breaking me with every word.

“I love you,” she uttered out loud. “I’m grateful to have known you. My life was the best it could be because of you… even if it’s short-lived.”

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<Chapter 149: Escape from the Ruin

My chest cinched, tighter than the Reaper’s grip could ever hope to bind me.

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She turned her face to Nibbles, trembling in her arms, ears flat but eyes fierce. “You too, Nibbles. You’re the bravest rabbit.” She pressed a kiss to his head, her voice soft, final. “I love you.”

Then her glow erupted.

It wasn’t just light-it was life, pouring into me. Into my wings. Into my bones. The rot recoiled, burned away by her fire. I felt strength flood back through me, fierce and wild. Her glow healed where the Reaper had tried to unmake me.

I roared, the sound shaking the ruin itself, and beat my wings with every shred of power I had left. Nibbles let out another of his piercing cries, the sound weaving with her light like twin weapons of purity.

The Reaper’s claw faltered. For one breathless instant, the void lost its grip.

And I wrenched free.

We broke through the blight above, light crashing down on us like salvation. The foul fog tore away in burning ribbons, sunlight cutting a clear path through the darkness.

But below us, the Reaper’s voice rose, guttural and endless, curling around my spine like ice.

“You may slip free of me this time,” he thundered, the abyss itself speaking through him. “But you cannot halt what is coming. I am coming for you. I am coming for all of you.”

When my claws touched the stones of Solmere, I shifted back, cradling Eirlys against me. Nibbles scrambled free from her lap, blinking up at the rough landing.

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