by L J Andrews
“Send him to hell, Teagan,” Mitch hissed.
Teagan smirked, the blades trembling when a frenzy of energy surrounded the green steel.
I drew away from Teagan, giving us room to spread the powerful bond between us. In this desperate moment, I didn’t need to touch him to feel his rage—his power. He met my eye, and I knew he could still take what he needed from me. Turning toward Bron, there was a harrowing silence that encompassed the cliffside for a trembling breath. Then everything clashed in one furious strike.
Bron raised his hands, forgoing the stone blade. Teagan crossed the jade swords, though not on the defensive. A fury of wind brushed along the stones, building in strength as Bron’s power struck against his blades. When the energy of Bron’s first attack faded, Teagan ripped his blades apart, and the storm of fierce wind blasted against the dark mages. Most crouched, bracing for Teagan’s strike, but others took the full force. They did not live long.
Bron protected himself—caring little of the mages falling around him. Teagan’s power ripped through Bron’s mage army, but the High Priest was a different opponent. Apart from rustling Bron’s black hair, he was untouched. The high priest laughed, uncoiling from the blast, and sneered at Teagan. “You will have to do better than that.”
Bron waved his hands as a signal to the dark mages, and they stormed toward the cave. I could feel the night energy encircle the protections placed around the cliff, and the rumble sent my stomach into sick waves. Their power was strong, and I feared it would be deadly to my warriors in human form.
“Prepare to take your true forms,” Teagan murmured darkly.
“Teagan,” I gasped, keeping my stance low and my connection to the stone engaged. “What are you doing?”
“You must be able to shift,” he breathed. “Their power is too much for just a sword.”
“I won’t connect with your energy as strong in wyvern form,” I argued.
“Jade, please—I can’t… lose you too,” he whispered, his strong hand wrapping firmly around my arm in a powerful grip.
“You haven’t lost anyone,” I responded through a taut jaw. “And you will not lose me tonight. I’m staying at your side.”
Teagan forfeited, his face calm but fierce. For just a moment, I could see more of the warrior dragon in his blood than I could of the mage. Holding his hands out at his sides, subtly I felt Teagan’s power overrule the protections keeping us trapped in our human forms. We weren’t the only ones who noticed.
Bron grinned, his eyes even more sinister than before. The dark mages rushed toward the cliffside, scrambling along the rocks like black spiders rushing toward flies in their webs. Teagan was forming a powerful energy around him, I could feel it in my blood. With a scathing glare at Tao, who backed away like the coward he was, I felt the shift begin.
Warriors erupted in a frenzy of wings, scales, and flames. Athika leapt onto Ruby’s back, and together they blasted into the sky. Ruby breathed a stream of fire, and Athika wrapped the flames around her sword as they had done inside the cave. Together they swept across the line of dark mages, blasting them with flames or cutting through their flesh with Athika’s burning sword. Amber roared into the sky, and Rochelle sent a wave through the earth, causing dozens of dark mages to fall into the deep crevice at the base of the cliff.
Konrad took the skies with Onyx and breathed a torrent of blue flames toward Bron. The High Priest shielded his head, though his eyes never left Teagan, who blasted a new wave of his power. Bron’s teeth clenched, and I saw the exertion pulse through veins in his temples. With so much from the warriors and Teagan, the dark High Priest was meeting his match.
Clutching the stone around my neck, I watched Leoch bellow a furious roar toward Tao. His traitorous friend shifted quickly into a warrior, but today there was nothing fierce about Tao. He tried to retreat, but holding the burn of the jade bloodline against my skin, I commanded the trees to obey my call.
The power was challenging to harness, but when I did, it was stronger than I’d ever felt before the stone was returned. The pine boughs stretched, the aspen roots burst through the soil, and with more focus, the thick bark wrapped around the fleeing warrior like a cage. Tao bellowed into the sky when Leoch attacked. Leoch locked his jaws on Tao’s neck. Tao slashed his claws against Leoch’s broad breast. Pyre and steam billowed between the two warriors to the point I was having trouble stomaching the blood and scorched flesh.
Bron hadn’t advanced. No, he and Teagan stayed at a distance between the split where Bron stood and where the cliff of the cave began. Bron flashed a stream of blackish blue energy across the divide. It might have been beautiful had it not felt so evil.
Teagan slashed at the energy with one blade, holding a fist out from his chest. His arms trembled as Bron pressed his dark power even harsher against Teagan’s chest. Teagan’s fingers flared open, and I startled back and nearly lost my hold on the stone when a bolt of electric power shot from the sky into Teagan’s palm. He couldn’t harness lightning. No mage could command such dangerous power—Gaia had said some energies were simply too much for one mage alone.
But yet, he was.
The bright crashing surge of power sizzled across his skin, shining through his eyes as though the bolt of electricity had surged through his blood. Even Bron seemed surprised and took a step back. I rushed to Teagan’s side, convinced Leoch could handle Tao from here on out. Teagan opened his other palm—a new flash of blinding power ripped along his fingers, wrist, and forearms. His entire body was engulfed in spitting, fiery sparks as he walked toward the edge of the cliff. Athika whooped from Ruby’s back. Donovan and Onyx flew over top, and the onyx mage stared in disbelief as Teagan raised his hands to the sky.
Bron’s palms were open, his jaw set. Any hint of arrogance was wiped from his pale face. Teagan thrust his arms down, a threatening shout freeing from his chest. I heard his pain—others might have heard his power, but everything about the rage and torment that escaped when the shocking power burst toward Bron was evidence Teagan was fighting for the lives of his family.
Bron braced against the shocking collision, but the dark High Priest faltered, then fell to his knees. He was failing. I pressed my hands to the ground, commanding the energy of the earth to help. Rumbling boulders shook the ground, tumbling down the cliffside toward the line of dark mages and Bron. The stones crushed against skulls, shoulders, knees—it was sickening to hear the crushing and snapping of bones, but I wasn’t the only one who joined in the assault. While the dark mages were scrambling from my attack, warriors shadowed the sun and breathed terrible flames of their breath across the mages.
Celeste led a huddle of elemental mages, and the dark enemies were buried in the ground. Some fell beneath toppling trees, or more stones crushed their fragile bones. It was mayhem and terror, but we were winning.
Teagan stalked toward Bron. The dark High Priest was weakened and met Teagan’s approach with sinister disdain. Gasping, Bron found his footing when Teagan’s lightning power was spent.
“Your emotions fail you,” Bron bellowed. Teagan flung a surge of energy filled with jagged stones. The dark High Priest swiped his hands over his chest and the stones turned to dust. “I know just where to strike to do damage. You think I care what becomes of those who stand at my sides? You cannot break me by their deaths—but I can break you!”
It took maybe half a breath for Bron to strike again. The blast wasn’t aimed at Teagan.
My heart sunk when I heard Dash bellow, his black wings protectively covering Mitch’s body as it flopped backward. Bron’s strike was aimed directly at Mitch, and it was a perfect shot.
“No!” Teagan bellowed, his entire focus drifting toward his friend.
Bron fired his twisted power again. Teagan tried to thwart the attack, as did Rochelle, Johan, so many mages, but there was simply too much power. The blast of black energy struck Dash. I knew I screamed; I could feel the nails railing along my throat when Dash crumbled in a heap of wings
and scales.
Raffi was in the sky, and the pain of his cry shuddered through the entire cliff. Dash was defending Mitch, and I didn’t know if either were alive, but valiantly Raffi took Dash’s position, breathing molten rivers around the two fallen friends and snarling at the High Priest to try again.
Bron wasn’t finished. Teagan’s power was filtering away as chaos from a near victory soon turned to more bloodshed. Bron drew Teagan’s focus anywhere but on him. The dark High Priest shot his power everywhere, but never at Teagan. I blasted my energy toward Onyx as he tried to outrun a shot from Bron. The royal disappeared above the clouds, and I lost him from my sights.
Finding his mind and power again, Teagan thrust a wave of rabid power against Bron—it worked—for a moment. Bron stumbled, clutching his face. Teagan darted toward me. His breaths came in rapid waves, and I saw the exhaustion in his eyes. His side was bloody; I wasn’t certain when he’d been injured. Turning toward the dark mages, his face fell. They were coming. What was left of Bron’s defenses were attacking with more ferocity than before.
When Bron lowered his hands from his face, his skin was coated in blood from Teagan’s strike.
“Back into the cave!” Teagan bellowed. I scanned the scene quickly, holding firm to Teagan’s hand clutching my arm. Meeting his gaze, I nodded. His brow furrowed in agony, his voice so soft I might not have heard him if he were any farther away. “I can’t stand…against him.”
I knew Teagan’s power was fading. Bron seemed to be only gaining strength. The dark High Priest shouted for the slaughter of everyone. Only feet away, fierce dark mages ambled toward us. Raffi snarled into the sky, and quickly the mages and warriors took the command, darting back into the mouth of the cave.
“One more time,” I murmured, clasping his fingers with one hand and the jade stone with the other. Teagan gasped, his face dripping in sweat, but he knelt.
“You can’t stop this, Teagan. You’ve lost,” Bron bellowed.
Pulsing all my strength—I didn’t care if it killed me—I offered everything I had to Teagan. I offered my strength, the pure elemental power of the stone, I urged it into his hand. I gave it to him as my mage, but also as the only one I was truly willing to sacrifice anything to protect.
Teagan clenched his jaw tight. From the depths of the earth, the boulder-laden mountainside shifted dangerously. The ground split again, but this time enormous, thick, stone walls burst from the molten center. Teagan cried out as the energy strained his body. I held firmer, my fingers digging into his flesh.
Bron shrieked his displeasure and throttled furious, fiery blasts against the rocky walls. Teagan pressed harder against the stone, the mountainous shields surrounding the entire cliffside—every entrance. The sound was deafening. Crumbling rock, breaking trees, splitting soil. I heard nothing, not even the sound of my own agonizing cries. Clenching my eyes tight, I focused with all my might on our bonded energies. We would defend our people once more. We would live—we would fight another day!
Teagan was gasping at my side. My energy was fading. I wanted to collapse, but I strengthened my hold on his hand. My head slumped against his shoulder. Teagan held me close, but pressed what little dripped from his power into the earth for one final surge of power.
Then the earth fell into silence.
Chapter 22
The Mage
Burning. Anguish. Blinding pain. Everything tumbled inside my chest, my brain, my palms, my legs. Cold stone pressed against my face when my eyes fluttered open. Jade’s golden hair draped over my cheeks, and everything was silent apart from her quiet pleas against my ear.
Pulling my hands beneath my body, I heard Jade gasp and sniffle as she backed off my shoulder. Her gentle hands were wrapped around my waist, and carefully, she helped me right myself. My head screamed as though someone were pounding iron stakes into my skull.
“Teagan,” Jade breathed.
Facing her, I found everything in a blur. I could just make out her features, but when my vision came back into focus I caught Jade’s swollen eyes. She’d been crying. How long had she believed I was gone?
Crushing her against my chest, I kissed her temple, her forehead, her lips, then simply held her against my body. Jade’s shoulders shuddered as silent sobs came once more. “I thought…I thought you wouldn’t wake again,” her muffled words soaked my damp shirt.
The back of my throat was dry, and I couldn’t find the way to form a response. Stroking her hair gently, I scanned the surroundings. Everything that had happened was a muddled mess in my thoughts. I remembered little, and so much, I just couldn’t filter what was real and what was a nightmare. We were surrounded by mountains. Thick blocks of stone. The shields were so tall the moonlight was shaded. Jade and I were alone—though I didn’t know where everyone might have gone.
“Jade,” I rasped. “Where is…where is Bron?”
I remembered him.
Jade wiped her eyes, her palm brushing over my cheek. “He’s gone, I think. For over an hour he tried to break through the walls, but it’s been silent now for some time.”
I nodded, relief flooding over my chest. A breeze blew in from the top, and for a moment I believed I might find a bit of peace. Until I remembered everything with a furious crash of sorrow.
Shooting to my feet, my heart thudded against my chest as though it were desperate to break out. I swallowed several times, the pungency of blood and death burning my nose. Death, so many dark mages had fallen. But so had…
“Where is Mitch? Dash?” My eyes widened when I gripped her shoulders. “Jade, where’s Gaia?”
Jade wiped her eyes again and glanced toward the cave. “Everyone is inside. I…couldn’t leave you…I don’t know what’s happened inside, but Teagan, I fear what we’ll find. There is such a dark energy here.”
I felt it. Every damning, heart-wrenching bit of what she meant. A cowardly side of me wanted to run—I didn’t want to face what damage had been done. But the bolder, and I hoped truer side, took Jade’s hand and rushed toward the mouth of the cave.
The moment we crossed into the darkness, I was overwhelmed with the surge of panic, desperation, and loss. In the back, fiery sconces burned with life, and together, Jade and I made our way toward the rope bridges and carved out stairs that would take us to the pit.
Warriors and mages were sprawled in sick rows. Most bleeding, some burned. Others fading with each shuddering breath they took. Inside the cave, scorch marks lined the walls. Terrible fire had reigned through the tunnels. Jade clung to my arm, I suspected partly to hold me up on my unsteady feet, and partly for herself.
I saw Athika across the pit, clutching her arm against her chest. Her eye was bruised and bloodshot, and there was a burn on her cheek. When she saw me, she released a shuddering sob and darted for us. Athika wrapped her arm around my neck, then ripped Jade against her chest. “I wasn’t sure…I didn’t know where you both were.”
Ruby slowly sauntered behind her mage. The royal was haggard, her hair wrapped wildly around her face, but her eyes were distant and lost.
“Ruby?” Jade whispered. “Ruby what’s happened?”
Ruby’s chestnut eyes turned toward Jade, brimming with steaming tears. “Onyx,” she whispered. “He…tried to get away…but…he never returned.”
Jade’s heartache seared my own broken body. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I slowly lowered with both the royals as they clung to each other. My eyes clamped shut. A royal, but more than that—Onyx was a trusted friend. Now, ripped away in an instant.
I shot to my feet, anger seeming to give me strength. Glaring at Athika, I pressed my face close. “Who else, Athika? Who else?”
She swallowed hard and took my elbow.
“Teagan,” Jade called, her body melting against my side. “Don’t you leave me…not right now.”
I held her close to me and followed behind Athika as a weak attempt to keep my stomach from spilling along the floor.
“There,” Athika said g
rimly. “There is where we have placed those we lost. We will…honor them all. Teagan, perhaps you shouldn’t do this…not just yet.” Athika’s somber, glistening eyes brought me to pause. Who was there—who waited for me to learn of their death?
Shaking my head, I squeezed Jade’s shoulders probably too tight, but she didn’t shy away. “I can’t hide from it,” I whispered.
Jade straightened her shoulders and took my hand tight in her grasp. Mages drifted about the space, releasing those who had lost their lives against Bron. There were hushed whispers of the lindworms that had attacked before Gaia placed the protections. They’d taken many. I winced when Laina sat next to the fallen body of Magnus. My gut wrenched looking for Ced, but he was nowhere to be found. The prince must have survived—and my guilt mounted. The prince and his warriors had protected my people—Jade’s people. I didn’t trust him, at least I didn’t want to trust him, but I could still feel something for those he’d lost today as well.
Jade cried out, muffling her sob with her hand after a moment. It was as though Bron had blasted his energy at my heart again. Raffi sat against the wall; his head hung low. At his side was Dash. Unmoving. Gone.
Jade knelt slowly, her trembling hand reaching for Raffi’s shoulder. The warrior raised his swollen face, his eyes gleaming with wretched tears. Through a shuddering gasp, Raffi pulled Jade against his body. Finding me over her shoulder, Raffi’s hand clasped my arm, while I clutched Dash’s cold hand. It was wrong. A dragon—a warrior shouldn’t be cold. I wanted to scream at Dash, I wanted to force him to open his eyes. But instead, I hung my head like Raffi and breathed through the boiling pain threatening to rip out my heart.
