Daemons and Demons Book One.

Prologue

Prewarning: Very jumpy between scenes! Unedited.

Location: Wales.

Blood coated the floor like a stream, washing with it any sense of victory. Bodies laid limp for miles, some with their wings still reachings, caught and shredded, some bodies still hissed with power. The demons that had caught and killed them feasted on the fresh Drycræft that leaked from the kills.

Merlin's power, his Drycræft, was still fighting to hold the ward, the protective barrier he had thrown over Arthur and himself when Arthur's dragon fell. Witches and demons fought to break through, a cackling woman walking circles around them. They needed time. And they didn't have any.

"Arthur!" Merlin yelled, begged, as the dragon began to wheeze. "If we're to get out of here, if we have any hope of winning this, we must leave."

Arthur held onto the golden dragon's head, clinging onto the strength he still had and pushing into his bonded beast. He was sobbing, praying there was something to be done. That his dragon wouldn't die, not here, not now.

"Save him!" The King yelled at his Mage. "Merlin, I order you." Arthur regretted the next words. "If you love me, you'd save him."

"It's because I love you that I can't." Merlin wished he could, he turned his head to the dragon and his rider. "Arthur, I wish I could, wish there was something I can do but I cannot. If I save the dragon, I risk breaking the ward. If I break the ward we are dead. The world will be lost."

"I can't leave him."

"You must." The dragon coughed, moving his head from Arthur's lap. "I will not make it. I will slow you down and drain your Mage. You need to go."

"No." Arthur punched the floor, it cracked under his fist.

The dragon stood, blood pouring from his wounds, pushing Arthur towards Merlin. He began to pray, pushing the King closer and closer to the Mage. He gave Merlin a nod.

The ward began to crack, Merlin jumped at his King, using the last of his power to teleport them away. Arthur fought his hands, but the magic stuck and they disappeared in a flash of white sparks.

The dragon stood. The last stand. He turned his broken body towards the demons, drew in a long breath and with the last of his strength poured flames over them all.

****

Arthur fell to his knees, screaming at the loss of his dragon. His body shook and twitched before he turned on his Mage. Tears lined both of their faces as Merlin built a new ward, smaller, ready for the job they still had to complete.

A shifter, heavily pregnant, stood in the ward, her hands on her baby's bump, but unable to do anything but watch, frozen in fear. Chosen by fate, to bear an heir to the Pendragon's line. Teleported to Merlin as soon as he got his King to safety.

"Don't let this be how the war ends."

Arthur took his Mages hand. Even though they had lost the war, it didn't mean everyone had to. Their thirteen knights had gotten away, even if their troops had all been lost, the knights would live on.

"I cast this spell," Merlin grabbed handfuls of soil, white Drycræft erupting along his body. "To purify the knights. All thirteen." He listed them off. "Their lines will continue, their spirits will awaken once Morgana has been defeated. They will awaken to help the Pendragon line once more, take down the demons and her followers once she has died."

Arthur grabbed a blade, readying himself for the spell Merlin would cast with him.

"I let fate decide who will serve our kin like me and Arthur served each other. Let them be kindred spirits and brothers." Merlin saw the images, a red haired werewolf, a blue haired demon and a golden Mage. The Frylinches who would serve his line, like brothers. Who would save the world. "Let them find each other when the time is right."