Falling Like ✸ Jon Snow ✓

69| 𝔦𝔫𝔧𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔠𝔢

king's landing, the crownlands

— THE CITY SEEMED TO BE HOLDING ITS BREATH. From sellswords to children to rats, every creature seemed to know somehow that the final confrontation between queens was coming, and they waited in utter silence that did nothing to ease the lengthening shadows of tension echoing off of every surface.

Jon stood before the armies of Northmen, Dothraki and Unsullied with his eyes trained on the gates of the city, waiting.

Between them and the gates stood the Golden Company. Cersei's sellswords.

What little remained of Euron's fleet were the first to take notice of the shift in the air, as if it was suddenly crackling with static electricity rather than just hanging there, limp and silent.

The faint sound of wingbeats reached their ears, but no roars, and no visible sign of the dragons anywhere. Euron frowned in wariness and confusion as he paced the deck, looking around across the water.

But as the wingbeats drew nearer, something finally seemed to dawn on him. Horror painted across his features, he turned his eyes up to the sun, and the small black dot in the centre of it that grew larger with each passing second. A wrathful shadow descending upon him. Suddenly, the shadow split in two.

Euron's reaction was too late. As he screamed at his men to fire their scorpions at will, fire was already raining down upon them. A couple of bolts narrowly missed Drogon and Rhaegal, but the dragons didn't even appear spooked. With the slim number of ships remaining, it didn't take long for Euron's to be the only ship remaining.

"CAPTAIN!" One of his men hollered in terror. "STARBOARD, STARBOARD!!!"

He whirled around with wide eyes, but the green dragon was already upon them.

Nymeria's eyes fixated on the captain, and she didn't need to utter a word for Rhaegal to understand. His claws reached out, deadly and inescapable, and wrapped tightly around a screaming Euron before flying away again.

As Rhaegal swept out of the line of fire, Drogon swooped in with perfect timing, his flames devouring the final ship.

Euron continued on screaming as Rhaegal flew higher, until finally the dragon's claws squeezed hard enough to crush bones, choking the last of the sound from the deranged captain's lungs. Then they dropped him into the sea, never to be seen again.

There were more scorpions all along the walls of King's Landing, but Nymeria and Daenerys were more than ready for them this time. Every desire and emotion became solidified into one burning focus.

Win.

Gripping tightly to dragon spikes, they manoeuvred around each and every bolt before closing in on the walls and blasting the scorpions to smithereens.

The soldiers atop the walls screamed as they burned, and those who still remained in the city below cried out in horror, but the two queens wouldn't lay a hand on them. They pressed forward, targeting instead their true enemy.

From outside the city walls, the waiting armies listened to the destruction that became louder as it drew closer. The crumbling and burning of wood and stone, the thunder-like beating of wings, the sharp and angry roars of the dragons. And then the gate was blown apart right before their eyes.

The heat of the sun disappeared for a brief moment as Drogon's enormous shadow was cast over the armies, and as he shrieked, passing by overhead, Jon drew his sword and the armies charged into the city.

Their job was to head off the Lannister force, eliminating any chance of escape. Once that happened, their only choice would be to surrender. Cersei had never expected the dragons to attack so close to the city, and they had used her underestimation to their advantage to destroy the most powerful components of the false queen's brigade.