Please don't hate me for this !
Richie and Edwin had flown down to the town, noticing that it was a lot busier with guards. Richie had ordered Iris to stay away and hidden to keep her safe, not that Iris was pleased by the order. She wanted nothing more than to burn the town until she found Eddie, but Richie wasn't going to risk the lives of innocent Ponanians.
Edwin wished he had Rowan, his wolf, by his side, but he was back on Konilla with his sisters. He knew when their ship got to Pona that that he'd have his bond, but it didn't help Edwin in the moment when he was stuck without Rowan.
"We need to be careful," Richie whispered and the guards darted from place to place. "They'll be expecting us to come save them."
"So maybe we should have Iris with us?" Edwin asked, annoyed that Richie made her go hide somewhere else.
"I'll call her if it's necessary," Richie said, his fingers running over the knife in his pocket. It was one that he'd been given by the Ponanian soldiers in the mountains, as he had left his own in Konilla. "Hopefully we can save them and get out."
"Hopefully," Edwin emphasized, his spear in hand. "Can I kill whoever or is there certain people?"
"Don't kill Ponanian people, they're the ones who don't look like guards. Kill the guards but focus on saving Eds and Bill," Richie said, his fingers tightening around his knife.
He saw Klais walk out to the hanging stand, smiling at it. He ran his hand over the rope, resting how strong it would be. Richie knew it would definitely be strong enough to kill Eddie, with how light it was.
"We need to be closer," Richie whispered, scooting so he had a better view of the hanging stand. "I need to be thirty feet or closer."
"What?"
"Just trust me."
Edwin didn't know what to do, so he just nodded and followed Richie. They were hidden behind a bush, meaning they could see everything but the guards couldn't see them.
"Now we have to wait," Richie whispered.
•••
Eddie's neck hurt, but he was sure it was going to hurt even worse when they put a rope around it and dropped him. He just hoped that they got rid of his body before Richie came in and found it. He didn't need his dead body to be the cause of more tears.
Henry grabbed his arm about an hour after they'd been brought into the new room. He forced Eddie's hands into rope so he couldn't move, and it reminded him of the first time he'd met Richie.
It was an odd thought, being comforted by the idea of being restrained, but it reminded him of the boy he loved more than anything in the world. He didn't fight back when Henry forced him outside, his heart dropping at the sight of the stand.
Klais stood in front of it, as well as the countless Lucantian guards. He didn't see his father anywhere, which terrified him. If his father fought back, he would have been murdered; Eddie prayed that he had been drugged and was asleep somewhere so he didn't have to see his children be hung.
There were Ponanians all standing in front, forced into the square by the Lucantians. There were children being forced to watch them be hung, which was a terrifying thought.
Neither Eddie nor Bill would have been able to stand the idea of a hanging in their youth, and now children had to watch it. They were forced in front of Klais, and Eddie could tell it would be a one at a time hanging. He suddenly hoped he'd be killed first. He didn't think he'd be able to stand and watch Bill die.
"We have gathered today to watch the death of two Lucantian traitors!" Klais bellowed, making the Lucantian guards cheer and the Ponanian people stay silent. "They have betrayed and attempted to overthrow us! They have helped a Tenebrian rebel escape, so they are nothing but an issue for our people!"
Eddie almost wanted to laugh at what he said, but he was too afraid of what was about to happen to him. He felt Klais grip his arm and force a rope around his neck.
"E-Eddie!" Bill yelled, trying to struggle against Henry's grip. "D-don't kill him, p-p-please!"
Klais ignored him, and Henry stuffed a piece of the bloodied cloth from Eddie's neck in Bill's mouth to silence him. The sight nearly made Eddie gag.
"Any last words, traitor?" Klais asked, smiling at Eddie.
Eddie smiled back, shocking Klais. "You won't win this war. I swear, your luck will not last and you will for a slow and painful death."
Klais glared at him, grabbing the lever to drop him to his death. "good riddance," he said, pulling the lever.
Eddie closed his eyes, expecting to feel the terrible pain around his neck, but it never came. Instead, he felt a pain in his back as he collapsed to the ground and opened his eyes to see that he wasn't dead.
The rope was still around his neck, but it had been cut?
Eddie didn't think he was heavy enough to have ripped the rope. He sat up and realized his legs were hanging over the platform that was supposed to drop him to his death, and his neck didn't hurt except for the uncomfortable rubbing of the rope.
He looked to the stand and his eyes widened as he saw a knife wedged into the wood of the stand. He stood up slowly and looked around at the entire group, all of whom were still because they were so shocked.
A roar pulled Eddie from his thoughts and he saw Iris take off from within the forest, followed by several other dragons. Many of the people in the square ran off to take cover, whereas the guards ran up to Klais to see what their orders were.
"Take these two to the cells," Klais said, grabbing a spear from one of the guards. "I want you to kill every single dragon you see."
Eddie tried to fight against the guard's grip, but he couldn't do anything. He was trapped in the grip and forced toward the cells. The rope was still around his neck, so he couldn't run since the guard was grabbing onto it as well.
"Hey!" a voice screamed from behind Eddie.
The guards, Eddie, and Bill all turned around and saw Richie sitting on the back of Iris.
"Let those two go, or I'll burn your flesh right off your fucking bones!" Richie yelled, glaring at the guards.
Iris let a cloud of smoke drift from her throat to show they weren't messing around.
The guards lifted their hands and backed away, allowing Eddie and Bill to run toward Iris and Richie. They climbed onto the dragon and took off, but barely made it into the sky before Iris wailed in pain and stopped abruptly.
They all looked down to see a metal hook wedged into her leg, shot by the Lucantian guards below them. They were dragging them toward the ground, despite Iris's weak attempts to burn through the chain.
When they got close enough to the ground, another hook was shot, catching Iris in the side.
Richie screamed as blood poured from the wound, the dragon collapsing to the ground. They all fell off of Iris and were held back by the guards.
Klais approached the group through the clouds of smoke and flames. He had a spear in his hand and raised it into the air.
The entire group was forced to watch as he stabbed it into the dragon's weak body.
