Embracing The Inferno (Dragon Within #5)

by Kyra Dune

  "We heard him screaming." Stephanie rubbed a hand across her puffy eyes. Her clothes were all sooty but she didn't appear to be hurt as she slowly rose up from her crouched position. "I… I think they were hurting him to try and lure you out of the house."

  Bile rose up in the back of my throat. Calm. I had to stay calm. That's what I told myself. Derek turned to Stephanie and pulled her into his arms. "He might still be alive."

  "Doesn't matter." Zack's voice was cold and flat. "We can't go chasing after him. It's a trap. And we don't know what kind of numbers we're up against."

  Zack stared at me as he said those words and I knew he was waiting for me to argue. I wanted to argue. God, I've never wanted anything so bad in my life. I couldn't be the kind of person who would just abandon my friend. Could I?

  But what if he was dead? What if I went risking other people's lives for no good reason? What if I got someone else killed? I hope you never find yourself faced with the kind of decision I had to make.

  Could I risk Derek and Zack for Jonah? That was the decision I had to make. Was it worth taking a chance on losing one, or maybe even both, of them? I thought about Luka, lying on the front lawn with a bullet in his throat, about Brandy and Curtis, their ashes scattered across some cold woods in the Oregon mountains. And I knew what the answer had to be.

  "Zack's right." I hated myself so much for those two words. "We need to get out of here." Don't look at me like that. I don't need you to tell me that wasn't the heroic thing to say. I know. Believe me, I do. But I never claimed to be a hero, did I? I was just a girl, trying to protect what she had left.

  Derek and Stephanie were looking at me like they didn't even know who I was, but neither of them said a word. Nobody spoke up for Jonah. Nobody insisted on going after him.

  Sam supported Tony with one arm around his waist as we made our way around the side of the house. I heard Stephanie gasp, and I figured she saw Luka. I didn't need to look. I was going to see him in my nightmares for years to come, I was sure.

  I could almost feel my grandfather out there in the woods as we made our way slowly down the road to the van. I hated him like I had never hated anyone in my life. And I wanted to kill him. That was a scary feeling, let me tell you.

  So much of this was his fault. If he hadn't sent Zack after me, none of this would have happened. And yeah, if I could have gone back in time and changed it all, I would have. Even if that meant never meeting Zack. As much as I loved him, I wouldn't have hesitated at the chance to trade him for all the lives that were lost. But life doesn't work that way.

  We were only a few feet from the van when all the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I immediately pulled an air shield up over us. Zack and Sam turned toward the woods, so I knew I wasn't only one who felt it.

  "What is it?" Stephanie's voice rose. "What is it now?"

  "Shh." Derek pulled her closer to his side, gently running his hand through her hair. "It's okay. We're going to be okay."

  My grandfather stepped out from the tree line. Behind him, two men were dragging a limp and bleeding Jonah between them by the arms. I couldn't tell if he was alive. Anger bubbled up in the middle of my chest. The kind of anger that would once have had me doing something reckless. No more. Not after my little outburst by the van. Because Zack was right then too. I shouldn't have gone running after Derek like that. Maybe if I'd stayed cool, Luka would still be alive. It wasn't a mistake I meant to repeat.

  "Everyone stay calm." Alastair was using that voice like you might use on a nervous dog prone to biting. His clear, blue gaze was fixed directly on me. "No reason for things to get violent."

  Who was this guy kidding? "Let Jonah go."

  "I will," Alastair said. "I'll let them all go. So long as you come along quietly with me now."

  Yeah, right. Like I was going to fall for that. Who did he think he was talking to? Did he imagine I was still the scared, confused little girl who first showed up at his compound a year ago? If he did then he was worse than stupid.

  Derek said my name in a low, urgent kind of tone. I ignored him, stepping right through my shield and out into the open. Zack tried to follow me, but he couldn't. I wasn't letting him out. I knew I'd hear about that later, but right then I had to focus on what was right in front of me.

  I was terrified. Let's just put that right out there. My heart was racing and I had that low, sick kind of feeling in my guts like you get when you're way beyond scared. I was trying really hard not to let my grandfather see it, but I'm not sure I succeeded. I never was very good at hiding my emotions.

  "I'm not going anywhere with you," I said. And surprised myself by actually managing to sound firm. "You're going to let Jonah go and them you're going to leave. You're going to stop chasing me."

  Alastair's eyes narrowed, but behind him the other two men shared a nervous look. They were afraid of me, as most dragons were. I needed to keep reminding myself of that. It could be useful.

  "And why would I agree to that?' Alastair asked.

  "Because it's over," I said. "You get what you want. I'll fight Megara. I'll even kill her, if I can. But not for the reasons you want me too. I'm not going to let her start a war." Maybe it was stupid, standing there trying to talk him down. Zack would have gone for the kill already. But I couldn't do that. No matter how much I hated him or how much I really wanted to kill him, I couldn't make the first move. I hadn't completely lost the person I used to be.

  I felt the air shift a fraction too late to do anything about it. I flew backwards into my own shield hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. I dropped the shield as I fell, knowing I was going to need cover.

  An icicle and a burst of fire both flew over my head, but Alastair and the other two dragons were already retreating into the woods. Without Jonah. Zack knelt down beside me and Sam pulled up an earth shield to protect us.

  "Are you all right?" Zack helped me to sit up.

  "Fine." My breathing wheezed a little, but nothing felt broken. I grasped his hand. "If I give you cover, will you bring Jonah back?"

  The space between his eyes tightened, but he nodded, pulling me to my feet. I looked around at the others. Tony, Derek, and Sam stood ready to fight. Stephanie had faded back behind us toward the van. I pulled an air shield down over both her and the van, hoping I could keep it there if things got crazy. Besides, it would be a good place to put Jonah. If he was still alive.

  I took a steadying breath, then started to gather up the air around me. "Okay Sam, drop the shield."

  "Here we go," Sam muttered.

  The minute the shield was down, a wall of fire pressed toward us. I met it with a wall of air laced with water, rushing through and extinguishing the flames. My wall hit the trees so hard I heard cries of pain and snapping tree limbs.

  I held the wall in place, creating a barrier between us and the enemy dragons. Zack ran across the street and grabbed Jonah up, throwing him over his shoulder before coming back to us. "Put him in the van," I said, opening a space in the shield to let him through. I won’t lie, it was a strain trying to hold the air in two different directions. But I was doing it. And it felt awesome.

  Maybe I could have held the wall in place long enough for us to escape, but what good would that have done? My grandfather would only come after us again. I wasn't going to run from him forever.

  I let the wall of air go whooshing through the woods and heard more screams. A few trees toppled over. And then the dragons under Alastair's command came pouring out of the woods straight at us.

  When you're fighting for your life everything is different. Strange. Sights, sounds, even smells, they're all stronger and harsher. You're hyper aware of yourself and everything going on around you. Everything is so clear, and yet blurry as well. Time seems to speed up, slow down, and turn sideways all at once.

  I fought like I never have before. I didn't think. Didn't hesitate. I just tapped my powers and let them do what needed to be done. It was kill or be killed. No in-between.


  I cut a path through the oncoming dragons using all four elements. They couldn't second guess what I was going to do because I had access to power they had never seen before and didn't know how to handle. It was bloody and it was nasty and I'm only too glad that I really can’t remember all the little details. What I do remember most is one thought running over and over through my mind: I had to kill Alistair.

  By the time I reached the woods I was shaking from letting loose so much energy. The fight was still going on behind me, but I didn't look back. Not to check on my friends. Not to make sure the shield was still protecting Stephanie and Jonah. I had to focus. I couldn't let anything distract me from what I was so sure I had to do. As long as Alastair was alive I would never have peace.

  Leaves crunched under my feet as I stepped beneath the shadows of the trees. And then I felt that familiar tingle along the back of my neck. I hit the ground hard, rolling to the side as a blast of frigid air whipped by me.

  I pushed myself to my hands and knees only to be punched in the back by a fist of air that knocked me back down. I pulled a shield over myself, looking up in time to see Alastair duck behind a tree.

  My shield rang like struck glass as the fist pounded into it over and over again. It occurred to me then to wonder if my grandfather had battle training. I had never considered that he might once have been a tracker.

  I reached out for the earth under where I assumed he was standing and turned it into quicksand, hoping to catch him by surprise. Instead, he floated around the tree into my line of sight. I couldn't see his air shield, but I had no doubt he'd put one in place.

  He stared at me like I was nothing. Garbage beneath his feet instead of his own flesh and blood. And I guess, in his eyes, garbage was really all I was. I wondered if he'd ever looked at my father like that.

  "I see you learned something from your time spent with your fellow hybrid," he said. "I wonder how much."

  "Enough to kill you." I pushed myself to my feet. But could I really? Could I kill my own grandfather? And if the answer was yes, what did that say about the sort of person I was becoming?

  He smirked, like he didn't believe I could do it. I felt a flash of anger. And then I hit his shield with a fist of air just like he'd done to mine. Hit it with almost all the strength I had. It sounded like bells ringing when it shattered.

  A shocked look crossed his face seconds before he dropped out of the air. His foot hit an exposed tree root. He cried out as it snapped. And as he lay there, gasping and moaning in pain, I hit him with the fist again. And again. Something snapped. Blood bubbled up between his lips. And I was crying. Just like I cried when I killed Hannah. Crying for the wrongness of it all. I shouldn't have to be in that place. I shouldn't have to be doing this. It was all so unfair.

  I stood over my grandfather and I could feel the air quivering around us, waiting for me to call it down one last time. To finish this. Only I couldn't. And if that makes me weak, then I'm weak. I couldn't kill him. I wanted to, but I couldn't.

  "Abby."

  I turned at the sound of my name and started to shake when I saw Zack. I felt ashamed to have him see me this way. So weak. "I… I…"

  "It's okay." His voice was soft. Softer than I had ever heard it before. "I know." An icicle formed in his hand.

  I stepped back and watched as Zack thrust the icicle into my grandfather's chest, pinning him to the ground. Alastair made the most awful gurgling sounds. And then he was just gone. I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled. I felt cold all the way through. Like I would never be warm again.

  Zack stepped in front of me, blocking Alastair from my sight. When our gazes met, he reached out and brushed the hair from my face. "Let's go now."

  I nodded, letting him take me by the hand and lead me from the woods.

  The road was littered with bloody bodies. It made me sick to realize I'd killed some of these people. But the worst part was I had no idea which ones. At least no one I cared about was among the dead. This time.

  Sam was kneeling next to Jonah, and when she looked up at our approach I didn't like the expression on her face. "If we don't get him to a hospital fast, he's going to die."

  I glanced over my shoulder at Zack, figuring he'd be the first to protest the idea. He shocked me by nodding his head. He turned to Derek. "Help me get him in the van."

  My brother bristled at the order, but didn't say a word. They actually managed to work together without biting each other's heads off for a change. Under different circumstances the improvement would have made me happy. But I was too numb to feel much more than a dull kind of horror at that point.

  For the entire trip back to the city I sat beside Jonah, watching him struggle to breathe, waiting for him to die. But he didn't. Somehow, he managed to hang on all the way to hospital. Sam pulled in at the emergency entrance. Zack and Derek lifted Jonah up and hauled him inside.

  I sat on the edge of my seat, staring out the window at the door long after they'd gone through it. If there were police inside or security guards or something and they couldn't get back out… Well, I didn't know what I would do.

  "This is where you get off too," Sam said to Tony, who was sitting in the passenger seat. His face had complexly drained of color and he looked about three seconds from passing out. "I can't do anything with those burns. You need a doctor. But don’t worry, I'll come around to bust you out sooner or later."

  Tony opened his mouth like maybe he was going to argue, only to snap it shut again. He sighed. "You be careful. Don't die for her."

  "I'll give it my best try. Now get out."

  Tony slipped out of the van as Zack and Derek were hurrying back. Behind me, Stephanie let out a rushed breath. I guess she was as worried as I was.

  The boys climbed in and Sam pulled away from the hospital. I sank back in my seat. I would have given anything for this to just be over, but Megara was still out there. She was still coming for me, of that I had no doubt. I was going to have to go head to head with her eventually, and even with all my new training, all the power I had in my hands, I wasn't entirely sure which one of us was going to come out on top.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Three days later I was lying on my stomach on a hotel bed staring open mouthed at my face on the TV screen. Way weird. In the back of my mind, I'd been so sure nobody was going to pay any attention to our video. I really didn't expect to be surfing through the channels in the middle of the night to find it plastered all over the news. But I guess Luka was right, if you're all over the internet people are going to take notice.

  Internet Hoax Taking Social Media By Storm? That was the headline they were flashing. Okay, so maybe they weren't taking us totally seriously, but it was a start.

  "This isn't going to work," I muttered, watching parts of the video playing out on the screen. "Everybody is going to think it's fake."

  Zack sat down beside me. "Probably."

  I sighed. "Couldn't you, just this once, lie to me?" I dropped my head into the blankets. "I am a complete and total idiot."

  "You're not an idiot." Zack laid his hand on my shoulder. "You took a chance. Maybe not the best one, but at least you tried."

  If he was trying to make me feel better he was doing a poor job of it. "Abby." Zack's voice turned urgent. "Look."

  I lifted my head and there on the TV was Trudy and Steve. "I don't believe it," I said. They were standing in front of my house. How did the reporters find them so fast?

  "As soon as I saw the video, I knew I had to come forward," Trudy said. "I know a lot of people think its fake, but I can tell you right now that it's not. It's all real. Dragons are real. Abby is real. People are really trying to kill her and somebody… somebody has to help her." Her voice cracked at the end.

  Steve put his arm around her. "My best friend is dead. Those… people, they killed him. It's right there on the tape. This is not a joke or a hoax. For a long time I blamed Abby for it, but I've come to realize it's not her fault. So Abby, if you're watching this, I'm sor
ry for everything I said to you. I hope you're okay."

  Do I even need to tell you I was getting all teary? It was so good to see them there, together, alive. So good to know I hadn't completely destroyed everything I cared about. Then they stepped back and my parents took their place. Everything inside of me clenched.

  "Our daughter is not a liar," my dad said. "We don't understand all of this, but we do know that much. She would not make up such a thing."

  Mom squeezed his hand. "Abigail, honey, if you're listening, we just want you to know that no matter what has happened, you can still come home." Tears spilled from her eyes. "Please come home."

  My throat was so tight I couldn't have spoken if I wanted to. At least my parents believed me. The scene shifted to a reporter in a newsroom saying something I pretty much tuned out. All I could hear was my mom's voice running through my head in loop, asking me to come home. If only I could.

  The scene on the TV shifted again, this time to a hospital room. Tony, his burns covered in gauze, stood beside the bed of a very banged up and frail looking, but alive, Jonah. Tony looked like he'd swallowed a whole bucket of lemons, but he answered all the reporters' questions with the truth. When he didn't have an answer, Jonah did.

  I wondered if it would help, having all these people backing me up. Back to the newsroom, and the reporters there kind of laughed about the video and all, but in that way people do when they're not entirely sure of the joke. I think maybe a couple of real guys, really hurt, kind of led a bit of credibility to the whole thing.

  Someone banged on our door. I looked up at Zack. "It's Derek." My throat was still tight so the words came out kind of raspy.

  Zack got up to answer the door and I muted the TV. Whatever the news was going to go on about next, I didn't want to hear it.

  "Did you see the news?" Derek asked, Stephanie and Sam following him into the room.

  I nodded. "They think were a hoax."

  "No way." Sam sat in the chair by the little table. "Not completely. Not with your friends and family stepping up. Might not have been such a crazy idea after all."