by Renee Carr
Chapter 15
There wasn’t much they could do about the fact that they didn’t have a working radar, and therefore couldn’t fly in the dark. They had to wait, and Joshua was hesitant for Christine to do any more investigation into her father’s whereabouts when they were essentially dead in the water. So, he ordered that everyone was to stand down, stay close to the ship, and simply wait.
“I think everyone is going to go mad before the radar is fixed,” Leah said to him as they sat outside. “I can’t help but feel like this is the calm before the storm.”
“But what storm?” Joshua asked. “Is this to do with Cory? Is someone else after us? Is Christine’s father really involved?”
“I, too, have a million questions and no answers,” she teased him, and he smiled. It was mostly dark, and they could hear some sort of cricket chirping, but other than that, it was peaceful. The troops that were still outside seemed to be asleep, as there wasn’t enough room in the ship for everyone to sleep.
“What questions do you have that are not my own?” he asked. “Because you seemed very upset earlier and I can’t have that.”
Leah shook her head.
“No, I was just being petty,” she admitted, and Joshua reached out to her. She sighed, looking into the sky. “I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much. You, with Christine. It’s never bothered me before.”
“It’s not serious,” he assured her and Leah shrugged.
“I know. It never is, with you. It’s just... I don’t know. This illness must be messing with my brain. Ignore me, I’m a mess.”
“Never,” Joshua said. “Yes, you’ve never been sick before... but I think that it’s making me realize a lot too.”
“Like what?” she asked. “That there are better deputy captains?”
“That there are no better deputy captains,” he said. “Or partners.”
She gave him a small smile, but she didn’t say anything more. Joshua leaned into her.
“I mean it,” he said. “Maybe it’s just the adrenaline talking, but... I mean...if anything happened to you, Leah... Creator, when you were in the hospital, it was terrifying. I swore, if they told me that something happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I would lose my mind.”
“You’d be alright, she said. “You always find a way.”
“I’ve always had you,” he said and reached to take her hand. It wasn’t that he had never done that before; they had moments in their lives when they needed to touch. However, they had moments when they needed to simply look at each other, and it would be enough. She didn’t move, letting him take her hand and pull it into his lap. “And I wouldn’t risk losing you either.”
“Joshua, what are you going on about?” she asked.
“I’m going on about the fact that you're making a big deal about me dating Christine, but I don’t have to be.”
“Well, if you’re happy...”
“She doesn’t make me as happy as you do,” he said, and Leah froze.
“Joshua, are you saying something new?”
“No,” he said. “I mean... maybe we’ve never said it before. But all of this has made me realize... when I was getting those parts, I wasn’t looking for Christine to make sure she was alright. I was looking for you.”
Leah didn’t say anything for a long moment, and it was his turn to feel his blood run cold.
“Of course, if you don’t feel the same...” he said. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have just left it. I’m sorry.”
“No,” she said, thinking through all the options. “I think... I think I do feel the same. Is that weird?”
“No,” he said slowly. “We’ve never talked about this before.”
“I don’t know why,” she said. “Everyone else had talked with us about it. Everyone flat-out accuses us of this.”
“Yeah, and we always said that they were stupid, they didn’t know us.”
“I know,” she said. “Because they didn’t know us. They didn’t know how we were and how... we are different, I guess. But... what are we going to do about this?”
“Do you want to do anything about it?” he asked.
“What does that mean?” she asked. “We work together, Joshua. You’re a prince, I’m not anyone.”
“You’re my deputy captain,” he said. “And you’re my best friend. That is more than enough.”
“Let’s say we do follow this through,” Leah said, always the logical one. “We follow it through, and what? Decide we are in love enough to get married? Then what? I can’t marry you.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about that when the time comes?” he asked with a grin. “Because I think we could do anything we wanted.”
“Nathan would never agree!” she argued and he grabbed her arm, pulling her closer.
“Leah, just let me kiss you,” he said and then planted one on her lips.
It was the most unromantic kiss setting that she had ever had. However, she fell into it, kissing him back with a passion as if she had been waiting for it all her life.
And in a way, she had.
When they finally broke apart, they were both panting.
“Wow,” she said, searching his eyes in the darkness. “That was...”
“That was what I was waiting for,” Joshua said with a grin and reached up to stroke her face. He then winced as he did. “You’re burning up.”
“I’m fine,” she said and then the two of them heard someone behind them. They turned around and saw Christine was standing there. From the look on her face, it was pretty clear that she had seen exactly what they had done.
“My father...” she said and Joshua raised an eyebrow.
“What about him?” he asked.
“My father’s ship is close,” she said and took a step back. “I’m sorry. I know that you said not to reach out to him and... I just got so worried, so I pinged his location. He’s on the planet. And I think he’s less than a kilometer away.”
“What?” Joshua snapped. “You gave away our location?”
“He’s my father,” Christine argued. “I was worried.”
“Christine, you could have just killed us all!” Joshua cried and then there were suddenly lights upon them.
Leah and Joshua stepped apart and flexed their magic in their hands. There was no way this was going to end well.
“Christine,” Joshua said in a low voice. “I need you to rally the troops and I need you to do it now.”
“But...” she started and he growled at her.
“Christine, that’s a direct order!” he barked.
She ran off, and Leah, despite their new revelations, turned to him.
“Joshua, the poor girl has just been through a shock,” she said. “You don’t need to be like that.”
“She could have just killed us all,” he said. “And you—I’m not taking any chances with you now.”
“Just don’t let whoever is on that ship know,” she said. “Because I have a feeling that they will use it against you.”
The ship’s lights came up completely, and the engine powered down. Leah braced for the worst as the landing platform came down.
She expected wolves by the hundreds. What she did not expect, however, was Christine’s father to stroll down the platform like he was at home in his living room.
“Well, well, well,” he said with a grin. “You two looked shocked. You shouldn’t be.”
“Ambassador Torentino,” Joshua said. “I want to think the best of you. But right now...”
“Oh, my boy,” the ambassador laughed. “You should not think the best of me, unless it’s to marvel at this situation I’ve gotten you into. I didn’t think you’d actually all scurry onto one ship, with a lack of food for 12 hours. But here you are, just like putty in my hands.”
“Where is Cory?” Joshua demanded as he felt the troops start to rally around them. “You will tell me where my brother is, or I swear, my troops will tear you limb from limb.”
“Cory is with me,” the ambassador said. “And he’s safe. But you won’t see him until you give me what I want.”
“Father!” Christine and her patrol suddenly appeared, and she screamed in shock at what he was saying. Leah had no doubt that the guard had no idea what her father had done. “How could you?”
“Darling daughter,” the ambassador said with a smile. “You’ve done exactly what I wanted you to do. Good girl.”
“What?” Christine said. “What have I done? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t...”
“Your distraction, your time with this hopeless prince,” he said, indicating Joshua. “I knew all his plans. I knew everything about him, thanks to you spending time with him.”
“Did you BUG me?” Christine screamed at her father. “How could you? How...”
“I didn’t tell her anything,” Joshua said to the ambassador.
“You told her enough,” the ambassador said. “Enough for me to know the whereabouts of your brothers on any given day. Enough for me to get Cory into an unprotected situation, enough to know he doesn’t like to take too many guards with him. A ribbon cutting, no one expects an attack there.”
“And no one expects the ribbon to be held by two wolves,” said another voice. Coming down the platform after the ambassador was the person Joshua recognized from their intelligence briefing as Remy, the rogue wolf. Joshua sniffed the air and could immediately tell that the ship held more wolves than he had dragons. Dragons were big, and there were fewer of them that could fly on a ship that size. There were twice as many wolves on the ship, and he could feel the anger in their blood.
“Remy,” Joshua said. “Sloppy Remy, who left his phone in the hotel room.”
“Sloppy Remy,” Remy grinned. “Why did you follow that trail as if it would lead you somewhere? All I needed was for you to get in the air and follow that trail. The rest, the ambassador and I could take care of.”
“WHERE is my brother?” Joshua demanded. Remy grinned.
“All in good time,” he said. “Now, you will give me exactly what I want, or he will die.”
“What can I give you?” Joshua asked. “You’ve captured the wrong brother if you have some elaborate takeover scheme. Newsflash, I’m just a prince. If you wanted a crown, you should have taken Nathan, not Cory and me.”
“Ah,” the ambassador said with a grin. “But you're the right brother. You see, I’ve got your brother tied up inside. And if you don’t give me what I want, he’ll be dead before you can so much as start to transform.”
“Joshua, don’t listen to him,” Leah said through gritted teeth. “He’s mad.”
“Am I?” the ambassador asked, and Remy pulled out a tablet. He turned on the screen and they could clearly see Cory, tied up on a ship that was at least the same make and model as the one in front of him. When Cory saw his brother, he raised his voice.
“Joshua, DON’T DO IT!” Cory screamed. “He’ll kill Nathan. He’ll kill the whole kingdom! He’ll...”
“Cory, are you hurt?” Joshua asked and Cory shook his head, although he was tightly tied. “Hang tight, then—I’m coming for you.”
The screen went black and Remy smirked.
“That’s cute,” he said. “He’s strapped to dynamite and we’ll light the fuse if you don’t give us the codes for the palace.”
“I will die with those codes in my head,” Joshua vowed.
“I don’t think so,” Remy said. “Because that would mean Cory dies too. So I guess if you want to take them to your grave, you better choose which brother you want to die. You give me the security codes, and it’s true, what remains of the dragon monarchy will be destroyed. But if you don’t give them to me, Cory dies here and likely you.”
“Never!” Joshua roared at him and all of a sudden, Leah felt an excruciating pain in her side.
She looked down in shock before she even registered what had happened. She had been shot, and the ambassador was holding a smoking gun with a smirk.
“Leah!” Joshua caught her before she fell. Leah felt the blood pouring out of her wound and she knew that it must have hit an artery.
“Tourniquet,” she managed, as she started gasping for breath.
“Leah, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you,” Joshua promised, looking her right in the eyes as he held her off the sand. “Everything is going to be okay, do you hear me? Everything is going to be...”
Her eyes started to flutter and he realized that she was losing too much blood.
Breathing in, he focused on her wound and pushed fire forward. Most dragons couldn’t do that without transforming, but Joshua knew he had it in him.
Leah screamed as she felt the fire on her, but the wound was instantly cauterized.
“It’s okay,” Christine said, instantly rushing forward. Her eyes were yellow and she managed to push a cool ice breath onto the wound, to cool the burn. “It’s okay.”
“Just stay still,” Joshua said to Leah as he passed her to Christine. “Stay still. I will take care of this.”
He stood to face Remy and the ambassador then, his eyes yellow and his hands quaking with anger.
“Before you die,” he said to them, “do you want to tell me why you are doing this? Does it matter?”
“Because the dragons have held the throne long enough,” Remy said. “It’s time for the people to be free.”
“That time may come one day,” Joshua said. “But it won’t come today.”
And then, he pushed his transformation forward into the giant dragon he was.
Chapter 16
Joshua had often fought in a rage. After all, that was what he was known for. Dangerous, heartless Joshua who killed without thinking, who cared for no one except his brothers.
Those rumors didn’t bother him. They never got to him, except at this moment. They weren’t entirely true, and the proof of that was lying on the ground, possibly bleeding out.
Leah was his whole heart, his every moment, and he had to fight to save her. Cory was inside, and if he didn’t save both of them, he was pretty sure he would throw himself off a cliff and never draw breath again.
Joshua knew that he could destroy Remy and he knew he could destroy the ambassador. That was easy, and he set his fire sights on them, drawing a deep breath. He knew there was a legion of dragons right behind him, and he didn’t doubt for a moment that they would cover him.
They wouldn’t move the way Leah did, and they couldn’t read his every thought like she could, but it would be a close second.
He wished she was soaring beside him, and he vowed that whatever happened here today, he would make sure she flew again.
The fire that came from his throat was intense. Remy tried to jump in front of the ambassador and pull him back into the ship, but there was no point.
He vaguely heard Christine’s anguished scream from behind him and knew that her father was dead before he hit the ground. He didn’t mean to cause her pain, but there was no other answer.
What Joshua didn’t count on was the number of wolves that came tearing out of the ship. He knew that there were plenty packed in there, but he didn’t count on the fact that they were packed to the rafters, and armed.
The wolves poured out of the ship in never-ending numbers. Wolves, on their own, were normally no match for dragons. However, armed to the teeth, leaping and shooting, the dragons quickly realized that they were outnumbered.
Joshua tried to use his magic to control his troops and give them orders, but there were too many that he wasn’t mentally connected with, and there were rapidly too many that were injured and afraid.
To his left and right, the dragons fell out the sky, bitten, shot, and pulled down by packs of wolves, their wings torn to shreds.
It only took four minutes for Joshua to realize that they were losing.
He couldn’t believe it, and he denied the reality in front of his eyes for a few terrifying seconds.
He ordered them left and right. He order
ed them up and down. He ordered them to blast fire, and he grabbed wolves by their small waists, throwing them against the ground to break every bone in their bodies.
But still, more came out of the ship, and he was certain that they would keep coming.
To his horror, below him, he saw some of them approach Leah’s still form. Some of the dragons had formed ranks around her, but he knew that it wouldn’t be enough.
Cory was still inside, and he knew that they would kill his brother if it looked desperate.
Joshua had to make a decision at that moment, and it was the most heartbreaking decision he ever had to make.
He could swoop down and protect Leah or he could try to get inside the ship and protect Cory. Either way, one of them would die.
It was an impossible decision, but his body seemed to make it before his mind did. He flew down to the ground, drawing himself up to full height as the wolves approached, and he blasted them with fire. Behind him, Christine had transformed and was pushing her own fire, but he could tell her mind was broken. Tears poured out of the smaller dragon’s face as she killed the wolves, with her eyes darting constantly toward her father’s corpse.
Behind him, Leah still wasn’t stirring and he feared the worst. He couldn’t sense any life magic coming off of her, although there was a lot of chaos happening around him.
One of the wolves bit him and he howled, rearing up and killing it quickly. But there was another, and another, and before he knew it, he, too, was surrounded.
This wasn’t a situation he had ever been in. He had never been ready to die.
He thought of Leah’s hand on his shoulder, and the spark in her eye. He thought of how he might never see that again, if he survived and she didn’t.
He didn’t want to live a life where Leah wasn’t walking beside him. He wasn’t sure how long he had been aware of this truth, but it was logged in his soul now and he would never be able to shake himself free of her love.
If this was how he was going to go, then at least it was near Leah, with her body still warm.
