by Laurie Roma
“Swords at the ready,” Drago ordered.
As a unit, they turned and drew their swords, ready to do battle. They could kill with a thought, but explicit action was needed. The streets near the outer wall were quiet, already overtaken as shown by the destruction left behind, but Zazis was massive, and the fighting had just moved toward the center of the city.
They hurried toward the sounds of the screams, and Amari could see the people she had watched living their peaceful lives being slain with blades and arrows wielded by males dressed in beige clothing. The color would have allowed them to blend in with the surrounding sand while they had approached the city, but they didn’t bother to hide as they dragged males and females out of buildings.
Needing answers, Amari grabbed one of the enemy, shielding them both from view. Before he could utter a word of protest, she sank her fangs deep into his neck. It was the expedient way to gather intel, though, touching him was revolting. Information poured into her mind...his life, from birth to the present, and his purpose—or the one his leader had given him.
They were soldiers, sent to slaughter the males, enslave the females, and claim the city as their own.
The rage burning deep within her was so intense, she was like a firestar ready to explode. But something else seemed to settle inside of her, and her turbulent emotions shifted to a sense of sheer determination with a vicious finality. She couldn’t stop herself from using her magic to destroy the Ziturri she held, and he was forgotten the moment he disappeared.
She shared everything she learned with her mother and fathers, and they finally understood the real reason she’d been drawn back to the planet. Some transgressions demanded justice...no matter the cost.
They would destroy the enemy, and free the Ziturri in captivity.
Several large wagons with wooden wheels and metal bars were on the street. Some were filled with females, while others sat empty, waiting to be filled. There was a small group of city residents trying to stop the army of attackers, but they were obviously inexperienced and outnumbered.
“Do not let them see you,” Zorak reminded. “Doing so would cause more harm than good. They are still not ready as a race. Let them think that we are the vengeful spirits of their ancestors. They should believe that someone on this bloody planet is willing to fight for them.”
Amari was maddened by the constraints that bound them. Still, she knew they could not reveal themselves, or they would be named gods on this world. And when they were gone from the planet, there would be no one to aid them if the Ziturri ever called for help again. It would be better for them to have no faces to pray to in the years to come.
Odan and Kalani attacked the males guarding the wagons, cutting them down quickly before releasing the females from the cages. Zorak transported into the middle of the battle, his sword like an extension of his arm, moving with deadly grace.
Standing off to the side, Drago created a whip made of gray smoke that obliterated soldiers as it struck them. Her father wielded it with expert skill, but she had never seen him use the weapon before. It was creative, damn effective, and slightly terrifying.
Fighting by their side filled Amari with pride.
She noticed makeshift blockades that had been used to try to stop the invading army. Some had been demolished while a few were still in position. Taking the opportunity to ply a little of her own ingenuity, she gathered the burning debris into a massive pile, then she detonated it. The pieces scattered into the air, and she made sure the shrapnel hit only the soldiers, sparing the innocent.
“Nicely done,” Zorak praised before he threw himself back into the fray.
When they moved further into the city, Amari saw a group of archers with their arrows angled toward a couple with two young males. She destroyed the attackers before most of them could fire, but one managed to release an arrow before he fell. Odan transported the arrow into his own hand and used it to stab a soldier in front of him.
Another female stood in the middle of the road after she’d been freed, terror in her eyes as she turned in circles trying to find who or what had saved her.
The family that had been spared from the arrows huddled together in fear behind a cart, but a strong push of air from Drago got them moving. The father bent to grab a sword to defend his young ones as they fled down the street, but he was no warrior. Amari forced herself to look away from the wide, terrified gazes that searched the air for specters, and she threw herself back into the fight with renewed vigor.
When they turned onto another street, Kalani destroyed two males that were pulling at another young female’s clothing, then she sliced through three more with her sword using blinding speed. The female on the ground blinked rapidly as her attackers disappeared in front of her eyes.
The Dragon Warriors kept on moving, but Odan repaired the female’s clothing and put a dagger in her hand. When she got to her feet, she was ready to fight.
“We may not be able to show ourselves, but we do what we can,” he said softly.
Amari stopped looking at the wounded and terrorized as they cut a swath of vengeance through the city, destroying an enemy that sought to enslave others of their kind. When they reached the massive sandstone pyramid that stood in the center of the city, they found the prime force of the army.
Females with their hands tied and clothes torn were being pulled out of several caged wagons. They were forced into two lines, then led up a steep ramp to the main entrance of the pyramid. Halfway up the pyramid exterior was a large, rectangular terrace that had been used by the ruling family. The bodies of that family littered the floor while a new self-appointed king sat on the throne in their place.
As the Dragon Warriors cut through the army, the new king and several of his soldiers rushed to the edge of the terrace, looking down at the carnage below. The leader disappeared from sight for a moment, returning with a frightened female held in front of him like a shield.
Then, old memories collided with delusion, and what played out in the dream wasn’t what really happened long ago.
Everything slowed, freezing Amari in place. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She could only watch in horror as the leader’s face morphed into that of a female’s—a Tarin female born centuries later on a distant planet with similar objectives...enslavement, subjugation, and terror.
It was Quilla Rego.
And she smiled evilly...right before she slit her captive’s throat.
CHAPTER TWO
Amari woke, breathing hard and fast.
Sweat trickled down her face, and she felt her heart hammering in her chest. Sitting up in bed, she looked down to assure herself that her hands weren’t covered in the blood of a people from long past.
She cleansed herself and dressed in a black vest and matching pants with a thought, but she remained sitting on the bed in the dark and quiet. The dream hadn’t come to her in many years, and she had actually believed herself free of it...until recently. Over the last few weeks, the old nightmare had morphed and merged into something new.
Now, it always ended with the face of her niece, Quilla Rego, several generations removed, of course.
Sensing movement to her right, she looked over to see Rhys resting his head on the side of the bed. Her argos let out a plaintive whine, and his glowing amber eyes held concern in them. Leaning back against the headboard of her massive bed, she reached out and patted the mattress. Rhys immediately jumped up, then curled himself next to her. When he lowered his head onto her leg, she stroked his thick, golden fur, but he didn’t let out his usual rumbling purr.
Instead, he just stared up at her with wide, worried eyes.
On her home world, many argos were bred and raised to be companions, but her Rhys was just as wild as she was. She’d found him at the bottom of a ravine on one of her visits, and it had looked like he’d been in a vicious fight with another animal. Back then, he’d been so small, she could carry him in her arms. Now, he was a huge beast, and almost twice her size.
Her human friends had said he looked like a lion, but the truth was that Rhys was so much more than a mere animal.
She felt his coarse tongue lick her palm when she stopped petting him, and this time, Rhys let out a purr of pleasure when she ran her hand over his large head again. He had been her companion for long years, and although it wasn’t usual, she had shared magic and blood with him at his request, forming a bond with Rhys that could never be broken.
As he lay next to her, he radiated so much heat that she had to regulate her own to remain comfortable. Still, she savored the love she felt emanating from him, and sent her own back to him. She knew he felt it when he bumped his head against her again.
“You always know when I need you,” she said softly through their bond, and Rhys purred in response. “I am sorry, my friend. I did not rest well...again.”
She felt another wave of his concern. He couldn’t speak to her out loud unless he really concentrated, and even then, it was only a word or two. Through their bond, she could feel the impressions of what he was thinking perfectly. That was enough for them.
Traveling with him, she could go months without speaking out loud, and that had suited her just fine. Each night, he slept next to her bed, sprawled out on a thick cushion. Her nightmares made him even more protective, and he would remain by her side until she felt better. He guarded her, but he also knew she would never let anything happen to him. It was the way it had been for over a hundred years, and it would remain that way until she died, or he wanted an end, but that wouldn’t happen for a very long time.
The nightmares disturbed them both, but she liked to think that the dream came to her as a reminder. For what had been, what was, and what could be. Amari had made plenty of mistakes during her lifetime, but the incident with the Ziturri had been the first time she’d instigated her family’s involvement in a war that was not their own.
It had been her true start as a warrior, but it was also her gravest error.
When she’d visited the Ziturri world alone, it had been her first visit to an inhabited world by herself, and she had made a mistake there. It had been a misstep she had been warned about, but she hadn’t listened. Or more accurately, she hadn’t obeyed and had stayed and observed far longer than had been advised.
She had gotten attached to the Ziturri people.
Kalani, Zorak, Odan, and Drago had thought she had been far too young to travel by herself, but she had always been independent and fearless. Being with them had been wonderful, but she had known it hadn’t been her place anymore. She’d known that early on, but she had stayed with them because it was what they had wanted.
But she had always been better off alone.
Amari had found joy in traveling the stars and journeying to other planets. Still, she always checked in. She had returned to her mother and fathers to spend some time with them and had only been with them a few hours when she had felt it. The shock of it. The intense feeling had pushed at her, had told her that she was needed.
She had tried to ignore it, to hide it from her family. However, that hadn’t lasted long. Her announcement that they had to go to Ziturri had come out of nowhere, and there hadn’t been time for explanations, so her mother and fathers hadn’t understood her urgency when she’d said that they had been needed. They had been galaxies away from where she wanted them to go, and they had refused at first.
Nevertheless, she’d realized she had to go back to Ziturri...with or without them.
Growing up, she had always known that her fathers had been unique, more powerful than others of their kind. Her mother had been able to sense energy as a Tarin, and she’d retained that gift even after she had been converted to a Dragon Warrior. Amari had never sensed disappointment from them when it didn’t seem like she had inherited their extra gifts, but as a youngling, she had wished for something extra.
Then, she’d discovered she had powers beyond anything any of them had ever seen.
At first, she thought it was just intuition, but as her abilities grew, she knew it was far more. Something had made Amari keep quiet as she tested the limits of what she could do. Then, the energy went dormant for several months, as if her extra gift had never been. Believing the ability had left her, she had relished the quiet, until she’d finally realized that a vital part of her had been missing.
Her frustration at the loss of her ability had sparked her desire to go off on her own. Thankfully, the energy had returned and all but slapped her in the face, saving her life and allowing her to maneuver through a field of dangerous black holes. She had only been on her own for about a year when the incident happened. She had traveled to a part of space few had ever been, entering the zone before she’d understood the peril.
The black holes would have sucked her in and consumed her vessel. No one had ever escaped from one, and her race had named them a dark oblivion that were to be avoided at all costs. Even with her enhanced vision, she wouldn’t have been able to see or sense those anomalies until too late. She had survived by letting go and depending on the energy around her, and ever since, if she had felt that pull, she listened.
With the war on Ziturri, her abilities had sent her into danger instead of saving her from it, and every time she had the dream, those memories continued to haunt her. She had been too late to save the citizens of Zazis, but that wasn’t her biggest shame.
That wasn’t the real reason the nightmare continued to haunt her centuries later.
After the leader of the invading army took his hostage, he had spouted some rhetoric, filled with empty threats and feeble boasts in an attempt to stop what he couldn’t see. The female the new king had been holding had been the last of the ruling family’s bloodline, which would have meant something against another Ziturri. Against the Dragon Warriors, it meant little. Nothing would have stopped them.
The king had watched as his army was systematically slaughtered in front of his eyes, then he had given one last command that would have changed everything...and in a way it had. He had instructed his army to kill all of the females, to claim one last sacrifice before they were destroyed. It was the last effort for control made with evil in his heart, and his soldiers had listened and obeyed, and they had raised their weapons, ready to take innocent lives.
Her family wouldn’t have been able to save all the females in time, but suddenly, she had known that she could.
Instead of waiting for it, she’d summoned the energy around her. She didn’t just listen, she demanded, and it responded as if it had always been waiting for the invitation. She claimed it, absorbing the energy until it filled her. In doing so, she unlocked something within herself, a secret even she hadn’t known she’d held.
Time slowed until one heartbeat turned into eternity.
And in that moment, she’d felt like a god.
While the rest of Ziturri stood still, she’d floated into the air, hovering several feet off the ground. Finally, she’d understood why she felt energy and why it called to her. She was a conduit with the ability to use what the universe provided. The strength of her power was enormous, so infinite and overwhelming that it had blinded her, and yet, everything had become so clear.
Letting go, she released an ancient magic that had been hidden deep within her. Pure light had shot out of her, spreading fast to cover the city and surrounding sand. Night turned to day, and with it, the light disintegrated the invading army and its king until not even a single trace of them remained.
Amari remembered how glorious it had felt to use her abilities to protect the world, but she had lost control. Hellfire, that wasn’t accurate. She’d never had control of the power and unleashing it on Ziturri had almost left it in ruins.
That was where her real nightmare began.
Terror was a foreign emotion to her, but that was exactly what she felt when she’d pulled the light back and witnessed the extent of what she had done. The pyramids had begun to crumble under the strain of the magic, and if she hadn’t stopped, all of the structures w
ould have collapsed, killing those she had wanted to save.
Her light hadn’t just covered the city. It had spread across the planet, making the entire world tremble. Worst of all, the army in Zazis weren’t the only ones she had destroyed. Her magic had killed all Ziturri with evil in their hearts, across the entire planet. If she hadn’t stopped herself, she would have become a world killer.
With one brief second of power, she had been an extinction level event.
Her mother and fathers had tried to hide their fear...for her, of her, and what she was capable of, but she’d understood. After leaving Ziturri, they had taken her to a race they’d hoped could help her—a planet called Ilius, home world of the Mystics.
Ilius was a paradise where life flourished, and the Mystics were beings with various colored eyes and different shades of purple hair most of them kept very long. They were known for their extraordinary control over their magic, which was more elemental in nature, and not as multifaceted as the dragon shifters’ abilities. Nevertheless, the Mystics were a peaceful yet powerful race, and they had proved it by remaining unscathed for eons.
When her fathers had been younger, they had traveled to Ilius to learn as others of their kind had done before. Unlike their previous physical and magical training, the Mystics taught them how to expand their minds and tap into powers previously unknown to them.
The Nazira brothers had been on Ilius when the gods had punished the Dragon Warriors centuries ago. They had lost most of their magic during that time, and it had been a brutal and devastating castigation. Some had gone crazy from the loss, but the teachings the Naziras had learned from the Mystics had kept them stable.
Her fathers had shared a palace on Ilius with other visiting Dragon Warriors, and they had returned there when Amari was sent to one of the temples in the mountains. She had refused to go, not wanting to chance the lives of another race, so a few Mystics had agreed to travel to Liti—the smaller of their two ringed moons—in order to teach her.
