Dragon Trial: Dragon Guard Series book 1

by Cassidy, Debbie

  He shook his head, his lips tightening. “It’s on the other side of the complex. Three floors below us.” He ran a hand over his face and then studied his tattoo again.

  “What is it?”

  “I could get to him, but I doubt I’d be able to get us back out again. The amount of magic required to pass through all the locked doorways would drain the enchantment.”

  “So what do you do now?”

  He closed his eyes briefly and sighed. “We need to get back to our cell.”

  Something on the map caught my eye. “Wait.” Glowing red and blue lines pulsed on the grid. Power lines. And they seemed to amass together in one huge room on the floor below us. “I think I found the hub of power.” I tapped the screen. “We need to get to this room.”

  Dante studied the map, and I studied his profile. “Can you get us there?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes. I think I can. Will you be able to turn off the power?”

  It was my turn to do the slow nod. “I think I can.”

  “Okay. Let’s get back. We can try for the hub tomorrow night.”

  I flipped the monitor back to the setting it had been on when we’d arrived. A tingle ran up and down my spine and my muscles tensed. Someone was coming.

  Dante grabbed my hand. He’d sensed it too. “Anya, we have to—”

  The door opened and two Bloods stepped into the room.

  Chapter Nine

  How had we let our guard down so completely that we hadn’t heard the guards coming in time? And why the heck were they just standing there, staring at us. My body had gone into high-alert mode, my mind on the daggers tucked into my boots, daggers I’d happily use to slit the Bloods’ throats before they could scream, except they weren’t making any kind of move, auditory or otherwise.

  Dante had gone deathly still, but I could sense the activity going on inside his mind. He was ready for action, he just needed to know what move to make, and to do that he needed the Bloods to react. He cut an imposing figure, his frame larger and more powerful than the two Bloods. Hand-to-hand, he’d win, no question. But my gut told me Dante would employ magic, and that would drain his ink and put us at a disadvantage tomorrow night. Not that it looked like there would be a tomorrow night for us. Damn, I missed Jezebel.

  The initial surprise had melted off the guards’ faces. Shoulders came down as they relaxed; it was obvious they weren’t expecting to rumble. Instead, they exchanged glances, and some silent communication passed between them. One of them closed the door and flipped the lock.

  Dante slid me a quick glance, and I shook my head slightly in a wait-for-it-gesture.

  “Who let you out?” the guard furthest from the door asked calmly. “Was it Sophia?” When we didn’t respond, he took it as a yes. “Of course it was. Dammit, we told her to wait. We told her we had it under control and not to say anything to the prisoners.” He sighed. “Young-’uns have no patience.”

  Strange coming from him, because he looked no older than twenty or twenty-one. His hair flopped about on his forehead in agitation every time he moved his head, adding a comical air to his demeanor.

  Dante’s shoulders rippled beneath his shirt, muscles knitting and then relaxing. But he didn’t speak. He was waiting for more information. Smart move.

  The Blood who’d shut the door ran a hand over his face. “We need to get them back to their cell,” he said to floppy hair guy. “If the commander’s men find them missing it’ll fuck everything up.”

  His companion was already at the monitor, punching buttons. His tongue peeked out from between his lips as he concentrated. He pulled up the map we’d just been poring over and studied it. Another short sequence of buttons and our cell room flashed up. He hit several more buttons and the cameras went offline. Had he noticed the magical imprint Dante had left? Probably not, because he’d have commented otherwise.

  “Buddy, get them back to their cell,” he said, and then to us, “We’re going to get you out of here, trust me. You just need to hold out a little bit longer. You can’t make dumb moves like this, it’ll mess everything up. We have it under control. I promise you, the resistance won’t rest until Gustov is brought to his knees.”

  The resistance? Was that what Sophia had meant when she’d said not everyone was happy with the way the Bloods were doing things? Was that why she’d been so tight-lipped when I’d pushed? What had she said? Oh yes, just stay alive. Alive meant there was hope of escape.

  “When and how?” Dante asked calmly, arms crossed over his chest as if he’d been aware of the resistance’s existence all along.

  How the heck did he pull it off? Not a flinch, not a twitch on his face. To look at him, you’d think he’d been in cahoots with them from the start.

  “Soon. We’ll get a message to you when it’s time. Just hang in there,” Buddy said.

  “What about the Dreki you have locked away?” Dante asked.

  The floppy-haired Blood by the monitor blinked in surprise. “What about it?”

  “Are you going to set it free too?” This time there was an edge to his tone.

  The Blood sighed. “You studied the schematics of the complex. It’s one thing staging a power cut to allow a bunch of Skins to escape, it’s another letting a Dreki out of a restricted sublevel of the complex.”

  So, they were going to cut the power. It would disable the collars and release the cage doors. Every swipe door would be open to us. We could fight our way out, but we’d need weapons. I opened my mouth to ask all these questions, but Dante beat me to it, except he was still focused on his brother.

  “What is Gustov planning to do with him?” Dante asked Buddy.

  Buddy frowned. “With the Dreki?” He shrugged. “I have no idea. Right now, we’re doing our best to stop his experimentations on your kind. It took some time, but we finally know the truth. We know what’s coming, and we know which side needs to win. We need to stop him, and to do that, we need to take away his ammunition, and right now, that ammunition is the Skins.”

  “We’ll need weapons,” I added. “Once you cut the power, we’ll need weapons to fight our way out.”

  The Blood by the computer grinned, his boyish face made even younger by the smile. “We’ve got you covered.”

  Buddy ushered us toward the door. “Quick, we need to leave now before patrol does a sweep of the area.”

  Dante slipped his hand into mine as easily as if we’d been doing it forever. His calloused palm spoke of hours wielding a blade. And then we jogged after the Blood.

  * * *

  Back in the cell we stood staring at each other for a long beat.

  “You can’t tell the others,” Dante said, his voice low and intimate.

  “I know.”

  Telling the others about the resistance would mean explaining how we’d gotten out of the cell. The resistance operatives believed Sophia had let us out, but the others might ask her about it and then our cover would be blown. If the Skins found out that Dante was a Dreki, who knew how they’d react? Fear and anger were the top two contenders. What if someone spilled the beans to the guards in the hopes of bartering for their freedom?

  No. There was no telling the others the truth. Not even Helgi. “I won’t tell anyone. But you need to promise me something.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

  “I want out of here. Not just me, but all of us Skins. If the resistance plan goes awry, then you need to get us out using your enchantment mojo.”

  He studied me contemplatively, his handsome face etched in shadow. “The Skins in the lab are a lost cause.”

  He was right, even though it made me sick to admit it. “Agreed. But the ones here in the cells aren’t. You take us with you.”

  He turned away, hands on hips. “The resistance will come through.”

  “But if they don’t.”

  “I can’t promise you anything. I can only carry one other person with this enchantment, and I came here for my brother. If I can’t get to him,
then I have a duty to my people to get out of here alive.” He turned back to me, his eyes glinting dully in the gloom. “If I can’t take my brother, I can take you with me instead.”

  Me? He’d take me? My pulse lurched and then I smacked it down. “I’m not going anywhere without the others.” I lifted my chin. “We may be a fucked-up, mutated bunch, but we stick together.”

  He shook his head. “No. You’re not like them, Anya. There’s something different about you. You resisted my magic, and your scales are ...”

  “What about my scales?”

  He opened and closed his mouth as if reconsidering his words and then said, “They’re beautiful.”

  Beautiful. Another alien word, but damned if it didn’t hit me straight in the solar plexus. This Dreki had moves, but I’d been around long enough to learn how to dodge the pretty words. “What the heck has that got to do with anything?”

  He lowered his lids, breaking eye contact. “It doesn’t matter. I have two more days and one more night before I have to leave. I should leave now, but if I do, then the Bloods will be alerted and it might mess up the resistance’s plan. Besides, I can’t help but hope that some opportunity will present itself, and the resistance will find a way to free my brother too. But once my time has elapsed, I will be leaving, and if I can’t take my brother then you should come with me.”

  “What about your collar? What if the guards activate it to stop you?”

  He fingered the smooth metal clasped around his throat. “It has no effect on me,” he said. “It was designed to subdue a Skin. I am no Skin.”

  He could be free at any time, could walk out of this cell at any moment. The idea of getting out of the complex and back to Dad was too tempting. A soft snort drew my attention to Helgi. Even if I could bring myself to leave the others, there was no way I was leaving my best friend.

  “I can’t.”

  Dante leaned in. His breath was warm and fragrant on my face. “Do you think I want to leave my brother here to rot? I came all this way to find him and bring him home, but I must face reality. I must accept that sometimes we must lose a battle to win the war.”

  Who was he trying to convince? Me or himself.

  “There is more at stake than you could ever know, and you’ll be of no use trapped here. If you stay here, they’ll do to you what they’re doing to the other Skins in that lab. Is that what you want?”

  Why was he so insistent I come with him? “Why do you care what happens to me?”

  An indefinable emotion flitted across his face, but he recovered himself, his expression smoothing out into something neutral. “Because you’re a formidable fighter and your knowledge of technology could be just what the Dreki need to finally turn the tide in our favor. Plus, I’m intrigued. You resisted my magic.” His lips curved in a half smile, bringing some warmth back to his eyes. “That has never happened before.”

  He looked decidedly rakish in that moment, and my heart fluttered in a decidedly feminine way. Urgh. “I’d be flattered if I wasn’t so adept at reading between the lines. You want to use me.”

  He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, abandoning the whole charm tactic. “If you had the opportunity to save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives, wouldn’t you?”

  I blinked at him. “That’s a dumb question.”

  “But I’m asking it anyway. You heard the commander in the lab. They plan to turn humans into fighting machines for their misguided cause.”

  “Is it misguided?”

  He made a soft sound of exasperation. “The resistance believes so, and they are Bloods. If that doesn’t convince you, then I’m not sure what will.”

  “How about the truth? Enlighten me. Why did the Dreki come to our world? Why did you try and enslave humanity?”

  He snorted in disgust. “Enslave humanity? You sound like a Dragon Blood propaganda poster. Where is humanity now? Who has them locked up in sector eight? Who is doing the enslaving here? Not the Dreki, that’s for sure. We’re miles away on the other side of the border in the Furtherlands.”

  My stomach dropped. How much of what we knew was actually true? “So, if it wasn’t humanity you wanted to enslave, then why did you come to our world?”

  He walked over to his mattress and lowered himself onto it. “We had no choice. We were called here by the draw of magic when the grimoire was unlocked by human scientists.” He rolled up his sleeves, exposing strong, tanned forearms, and then lay back and tucked them behind his head. “We had to come, because we were honor-bound to do so. The opening of the grimoire began a countdown—a two-hundred-year-long period in which the true enemy awakens. Not to mention a host of other nasties that came before.”

  Yes, the monsters they’d helped humanity fight off when they’d first arrived—before they’d supposedly tried to do all the enslaving, of course. I sat on the mattress parallel to his. “Two hundred years? But that would be up in—”

  “In less than a year. Yes. In less than a year, the veil will crumble and the Jotunn will walk the earth.”

  The word sent a shudder through me even though I had no idea what it meant. It poked at some primal memory that was just out of grasp. “Who are the Jotunn?”

  He closed his eyes and his tone smoothed out into something compelling and lulling. “Monsters. Powerful, ancient beings who have tried again and again to claim the mortal world and been beaten back each time by divine magic. But the gods are long gone. New worlds beckoned them, and they left to forge fresh paths, leaving this world to the age of man. They left behind the grimoires, the final cache of magic in a world slowly being claimed by technology. They hid two grimoires away from the eyes and hands of man, to be activated at a time when the age of man would be over. When the time came, the grimoires would unlock themselves, and the gods would return to build the world anew. They also put in a failsafe in the event that only one grimoire was activated.”

  I scanned his face, running my gaze along the strong curve of his jaw, down the aquiline slope of his nose, and finally coming to rest on the perfect form of his lips. His lashes were thick and cast inky shadows on his cheeks. Was there really a beast under that pretty skin?

  His eyes fluttered open, and he stared at the ceiling.

  I needed to jog him, to bring him back to the story. “Why was a failsafe needed?”

  His chest rose and fell in a sigh. “Because the grimoires act as a lock. Two opened together summon the gods’ return, but if only one is opened, it triggers the end of days.”

  “The two-hundred-year timer?”

  “Exactly. But the gods didn’t leave humans unprotected. They left the Dreki behind, slumbering in a pocket of arcane magic. The Dreki are humanity’s defense. We are the dragon guard.”

  And they came to help the humans when the grimoire was activated. But that didn’t explain why they’d created Skins and Bloods. His eyes were closed again, as if he was weary of telling this tale. But I wasn’t done with him yet.

  “Why procreate with humans?” I nudged.

  He was silent for a long time, and I shifted forward, finger out to poke him. No way was he falling asleep halfway through a story. That was just rude. But before my hand could make contact with his shoulder, he continued.

  “When we came through, before we could speak to the men and women who ran the world, we were attacked by your technology. Many of us were slaughtered before our mageri were able to raise arcane shields to protect us. By the time the humans realized the truth—that we were here to aid, not harm—our numbers had dwindled. We worked with the humans to eliminate the first wave of monsters, but then we needed to replenish our ranks in time for the real war to come.”

  So, the first war had been between humans and dragons—a false war born out of misunderstanding and fear.

  “So, you procreated with the humans to replace your fallen Dreki?”

  “Yes. We had no choice. Dragon guards are mainly male. There was only a handful of female dragon guards. Not enough for us to swel
l our ranks fast enough. Our queen sanctioned the move, and the human leaders agreed.”

  “The dragon queen. She was killed by the Bloods.”

  “Yes.” The word was a heartfelt sigh saturated with sorrow. “The dragon queen was the only being who could read the grimoires. The only one who could summon the divine gods back to this realm to aid us. The Bloods knew this.”

  I was so confused. “The Bloods knew she was our only hope and killed her anyway? Why would the Bloods want us to be invaded by these giants?”

  “Because they believe they can forge an alliance with the Jotunn, that they can somehow use them to claim this world once and for all. They believe they can dazzle the Jotunn with technology, subdue them, and make them their slaves. They believe their odds of ruling are better with the Jotunn as their allies. They know that if the divine gods return, even technology will not save them.”

  Oh, God. The Bloods wanted absolute rule. They wanted it all, and they were arrogant enough to believe that they could control an ancient race of giants. Why not, though? They had collars that could control Dreki and Wyverns and Skins, and they were building a super race ... Fuck, if we didn’t stop them, they might just pull it off.

  “You were meant to protect humans, so how did the Bloods get their hands on sector eight? How did they get their hands on all the humans?”

  “Sector eight was a haven built by the Dreki to house and protect humans—a city which we planned to ward against the Jotunn arrival. It was our arc. But the Bloods claimed it when they murdered our crown and weakened us, for without a queen, our magic is but a fraction of what it once was.”

  They’d brought down a dragon queen. The most powerful Dreki. “How did they kill her? I thought the queen would be uber powerful.”

  He was silent for a long time, and when he spoke, his tone was tight with a mixture of anger and regret. “She could have been, would have been if she’d simply followed the lore and taken a mate, but Anara was a force unto herself, wanting to be shackled to no male. She chose to remain a sole sovereign, and although the details of her death are unknown, I believe that is the reason.”