Corrupted: An Epic Dragons and Immortals Romantic Fantasy (Fallen Emrys Chronicles Book 1) by E.E. Everly (motivational books for men txt) 📕

As I neared, Kelyn ran his sword through an attacker. His chest heaved as he whirled to face another opponent, taking no pause for the life he took, not now, not in the thick of battle.

Would he feel remorse later? A life was a life, was it not? No man, whether good or evil, had the right to take life. No man could pronounce judgment. Could they?

Mortal men are evil.

The truth slammed me. I had stepped into a barbaric realm of men who believed in destroying wholesome, wondrous life.

Every contest, every mock combat and training scenario I’d engaged in hadn’t prepared me for this corrupted exhibition, this display of human brutality and vulgarity. An ache for home spread through me and penetrated my very being. I shouldn’t have come here. How could Deian have created this people—this frail race of mortals—who killed with no thought? Their inferiority waved through me.

Maybe they deserved their fate.

Even as Kelyn struck a man, even as I thought about the friendships I had made, I knew mortals weren’t mere dogs. Humans had worth. Owein’s amused heart and cheery eyes filled me, along with Kenrik’s hope for love and family, and Brenin’s innocent smiles and giggles. The poor bricklayer and his friends who feared for him. These people had worth. And Deian saw that.

Whatever worth he placed on the attackers, I didn’t know or care to see.

With a dawning understanding, I weighted the scale of justice in my mind. I understood how men believed they could do the same. Judgment was birthed from a division of right or wrong. One person believed he was correct, and whoever felt otherwise was judged unworthy.

But I could stop them—all of them. I could end the death.

Though I didn’t want to ever engage in combat again after seeing these monstrosities, didn’t want a man to fall because of my actions, I found myself stepping between two assailants.

Without second-guessing myself, I immobilized them. My light wrapped around their bodies, cementing them in place. I grabbed the wicked man’s double-edged axe and whipped it into the air, embedding it into a wooden post. I released Kelyn’s man and urged him to help his comrades.

I met the enemy’s eyes, for only an instant. The black cruelty behind his mind and in his heart slammed into me. I knew, without a doubt, the man was no man worth saving. I left him immobilized and fought on, working my way to Kelyn.

He spotted me and yelled words that were lost behind the scrapes of combat.

“What?” I yelled.

His blue eyes surveyed the carnage around me. “Protect my men! I know you can shield them. Please. Too many lives have been lost.”

I nodded.

Before I could turn, my world slowed.

Seren was too late to warn me, even though she saw the danger from the outskirts of the village.

A wall of darkness, thicker than sludge, filled my vision. I gasped. Alarm stabbed my senses. The enemy was closing in, circling us, and I felt their ugly spirits.

They wanted Kelyn’s people dead. Slaughtered.

“Kelyn!” I had no time to alert him.

I blinked and brought the carnage back to my sight—that was all it took.

An offending arrow, a massive splinter of death, struck Kelyn’s chest.

“NO!” I should have shielded him. Oh, Deian. No. The arrow might as well have been in my chest, for all the pain I felt.

Kelyn’s eyes were paralyzed. In his shock, his hands went to the arrow and wrapped around the shaft.

I stumbled toward him. “Don’t! You’ll bleed out.”

He didn’t have a chance. Kelyn dropped. Lifeless.

Around me, the enemy, with bows drawn, surrounded us. Kelyn’s men surrendered their weapons, which landed in the mud with a finality.

I glanced at Kelyn but glared at my attackers. I carried no weapon on me. I was the weapon. I closed my eyes.

You will not die in vain.

Light discerned light.

I will avenge you.

The bandits possessed no light worthy of my notice, so I separated the fear of Kelyn’s men from the evil in the bandits.

The sentence is passed. I judge you guilty.

I spread my arms wide. Fire burned in my fingertips. In my mind’s eye, the attack was careful and calculated. In reality, I reacted in two seconds.

Daggers of flame shot from my hands as I spun.

Dazzling streaks—lightning strikes to their hearts—dropped every bandit dead before they hit the ground.

In my outrage, in my fury, I killed them.

First time for everything.

It is done.

With my hands throbbing, I held them out from my sides as if they were caustic.

The world spun in a hollow tube around me. I was trapped in a funnel. I heard nothing. I turned my sight within, trying to ground myself.

It is done. My stomach heaved as I saw my core.

My heart-center was black, as if I had struck myself with the lightning. Charred. My beautiful, glowing, violet heart-center hid underneath a shroud, as if my deeds had shamed it.

My breathing grew shallow and rapid. My lips tingled. Like paint across canvas, my vision smeared. My mind was detaching from reality, attempting to cope as I gazed at the blurring corpses I had made.

Niawen, Seren said. I’m with you. Hold on.

My father’s prior words haunted me. “The mortals are corrupted. If you ever leave Gorlassar, you’ll become like them.”

Black. Ugly.

Corrupted.

“But why’s the rift there? Why is the way opened?” I had asked.

“It does not matter. If you leave our realm, there is no return.”

Ringing. Whooshing in my head.

You are not this. Stay with me, Niawen, Seren said.

“My lady!” Soldiers surrounded Kelyn.

“No return,” my father echoed.

I snapped to attention and pushed between the men.

Kelyn was breathing.

I managed to make out the garbled speech of a