by L J Andrews
Teagan narrowed his gaze, watching the fleeing mages that were being chased by a few common dragons now. He met my eye, seeming slightly surprised that I was going to leave, but nodded.
“Teagan,” I muttered. “We’re going to win this.”
He nodded. “I know. You’re my brother, Mitch. Don’t you ever forget that.”
“So, that sounded a lot like a goodbye speech,” I snapped. “Shut up, yeah? I’ll see you soon, I just gotta…deal with this first. Seriously, man, if you die, I’ll kill you.”
He chuckled, and I thought I sensed his mood lightening. Thane growled and Teagan nodded, glancing at me. “He says he’ll do the same to you if you die,” Teagan translated.
I laughed now, resting a hand on Thane’s thick skull. “Hey, I know this isn’t manly and all, but just know I love you guys. See you soon.”
Thane dipped low enough I could slide off the side. I knew he didn’t want me to leave, but somehow I believed my adopted dad knew there was something dangerous threatening our family somewhere else. He needed to stay with Teagan, I understood. I did. This was my moment. The mages talked a lot about fate, or destiny, or whatever magicky talk they used. Taking a deep breath, I landed in an ungraceful heap on the ground and ripped out my longest, sleekest knife from the sheath on my thigh.
Well, if fate was a real thing—if destiny had a plan—then this was exactly where I was supposed to be. I rushed toward the trees after the mages. Malik needed me—and after I did whatever I was asked to keep that baby safe, I planned to rub it in Raffi’s face that I was certainly the favorite uncle.
Chapter 31
Teagan
Mitch faded into the darkness. I wouldn’t have let him go if I hadn’t felt overwhelmingly sure he was needed somewhere else. Rising to one knee, I unsheathed one of the swords on my back and took a deep breath as my father flew beyond the trees.
It was as though we’d crossed into a new land. The battle faded. Sounds of shrieking lindworms, roars of warriors, shouts of the mages, all dissolved into distant echoes. My chest was tight, and I felt the trickle of manipulated power burning in my veins. Bron was close.
A rush of wings filtered overhead, and I snapped my eyes to the sky, breathing out my relief when Onyx swooped down close to Thane’s flank. His gleaming scales were coated in dark lindworm blood, though the only way I could see it over his ebony body was because of the smell. Donovan rode along his back, gripping a blade in one hand while pulsing protective energy around his royal. Leoch was on Thane’s other flank, and to my surprise, Athika strode along his neck.
“Where’s Ruby?” I shouted in panic.
Athika smirked. “Don’t worry. Ruby is handling herself just fine. She will come when she’s broken a few more bones of the lindworms. Don’t mess with Onyx, I’ve learned tonight, or you’ll have Ruby to deal with.” Athika was bloodied. Most likely it was her own blood that dripped down her forehead and along her neck, but she was energized. I could practically feel scorching fire energy bursting through her skin. She bent low toward Leoch’s face. “Are you ready, warrior?”
Leoch blasted the dark, smoky sky with his own burst of flames. Thane dove a little more until his heavy, powerful feet plodded on the ground. He kept his wings wide, partly shielding me, but also being ready to take flight if needed. Leoch and Onyx followed. Athika and Donovan leapt off as their riders landed and rushed to my sides. The forest was still—eerily still.
Teagan, Thane’s voice broke through my thoughts. This is the night our family can finally live in peace. I will not watch you fade, do you understand me? Now, fight with all the power you have. You are the only dragon mage on this battlefield tonight—you have more power than Bron—use it. As your father, I expect you to use it, and if you feel your fate has led you here to die, you bury it. Make your own fate tonight.
I met his penetrating gaze through the shadows. In wyvern form, Thane towered above me. Clearing the knot from my throat, I couldn’t hug my father, so I simply rested my palm along his smooth, armored scales. How would I answer that? All I knew was what I’d felt; I would do anything to change fate if I knew how.
Thane’s desperate, meaningful words were lost when suddenly we were surrounded by a rush of dark mages. Thane roared into the sky, blasting a river of pyre against their bodies. The mages were prepared, and the forest shook with thick, suffocating darkness as they blocked the attack. Athika and Donovan moved in step with me. I wasted no time pressing my hands along the ground. The earth snapped. Rocks burst from the pressure of the stones, trees, and roots splitting apart. Athika surged a wave of her elemental power and, like I’d seen my own mother do, a spray of molten rock shot from the core of the earth. Dark mages screamed when drops of boiling liquid maimed their skin and broke through their darkness like melting wax.
From the sky, a familiar roar filled the twilight. Raffi pounded on the ground, his fangs ripping through a large, hulking mage with a jagged sword. The sword slashed against Raffi’s fangs, but the warrior caught the blade and smashed the steel between his forceful jaws. The mage held up his hands, but with a sickening sound, Raffi’s jaws encompassed the mage and I watched him devour the man whole.
Clutching my swords, I released a trembling breath and lunged forward against Bron’s army. Mages pulsed energy—I absorbed most of the night energy while shielding from any manipulated darkness. It was easy tonight, like a second nature. One sword lodged in the chest of a slender female. She muttered hissing curses at my name until Athika ripped her dagger along the woman’s throat just to finish her off faster. Gripping Athika’s shoulder, I absorbed her furious energy. Together, we blasted fiery white power toward the tops of the trees. Screams and terrible gurgling moans surrounded the treetops as dark mages waiting to attack from above fell to their deaths—though most were gone long before they struck the ground.
Athika’s shoulders were heaving, her lips wide in a twisted grin. “How did you know you could do that?”
“I didn’t,” I admitted.
“Your energy just knew it,” she breathed. “You’re acting on instinct. Teagan, I’ve never released such power! End this, Dragon Mage. You can end this.”
She screamed in fervent excitement, rolling her dagger once and slashing against a stout dark mage with a thick beard. Leoch followed behind, slashing the mage across the back for added measure.
Onyx and Donovan used each other well. Onyx would trap mages in a fiery ring while Donovan would attack with either his silver sword or knife. Sometimes he would entrap a mage’s face in a swirling funnel of water that never abandoned their face until the mage was drowned where they stood. It was remarkable seeing the pure elemental power from the mages and wyverns. Even Onyx’s fire took on a damp, misty feel when he shot pyre rivers against the mages. Some of the dark army would be near his fire, and it was as though the very presence of Onyx’s molten breath caused them to choke and drown on the water in their bodies.
Thane took on no less than five mages each time. I worried he would be overrun, but he handled each one with more fury than anyone I’d yet seen in this battle. I stood close to his side while I cut down a mage at the neck. I spun on my heel, drawing the second blade through the stomach of a dark mage readying to strike my father from behind. Slamming the tips into the earth, I blasted a mixed energy wave into the army. I wasn’t sure which of the elements I used, only that mages stumbled as they ran at me—blood gurgling from their throats like a gory fountain before they died. Perhaps Athika was right, I was hardly thinking, only acting. It seemed as if the energies inside my body were reacting as one powerful surge. Everything was on the brink of changing. It was unnerving. I’d grown accustomed to my powers, perhaps not the river of night energy I’d felt stronger since Malik’s birth, but for the most part I was familiar with all strands of the elemental powers rushing in my veins. Tonight, though, something certainly was different.
Shrieks filtered from the sky, and more lindworms dove at us. Two pummeled against Thane
’s spine, desperate to eradicate the lead warrior. I shouted at the serpents, blasting them with my power, but a line of dark mages surrounded their warriors. Thane now fought against a handful of dark mages and two lindworms. Onyx shot to help, his fangs digging into the back haunch of one of the lindworms. Onyx shook his powerful head, snapping either scales or bone on the serpent while Donovan took on some of the mages. I slashed my blade, but something shocked through my body. Gasping, I crumbled to the ground. I heard Athika’s fury, Leoch’s roar. Thane’s painful shout.
Teagan, Thane cried, though it was clear he was gasping against all those who’d come against him. Go! Send him away—take him to her—cut off the head! Go, son!
Acid boiled in the back of my throat as I hunched over, desperate to help in the battle near me, but as though a rusted hook had impaled my center, I was tugged painfully in a different direction. Onyx roared, and Raffi and Leoch shot to the sky once Haitian joined them and flew after fleeing lindworms. I lost sight of my father, but could feel his fiery anger—and pain. He was wounded.
Digging my swords into the ground, I pulsed a raging swell of my own power and broke whatever agonizing hold the dark thread of energy had on me. Onyx rushed to my side, his dark eyes scanning the trees while Donovan helped me stand.
My heart thudded dangerously against my chest as I scanned the area. The swords scorched my palms in a comforting way as they seemed to react to the swirling power inside my chest. My eyes flashed wide when I saw him. Finally, the moment I’d been waiting for had come. There was some sort of comfort not facing him alone. I found strength when Onyx snarled, his wings opening wide, and when Donovan’s strong energy powered next to me.
Bron stood straight and powerful, his black armor fitted to his strong body, and his hair fell wild around his shoulders. Through the gaps in the black strands across his forehead, his silver eyes locked with mine. Already, in his palm there was a flame of ebony energy, just swirling against his skin, waiting to strike. Bron smiled. It was a terrible grin, and it was nearly impossible to believe that, at one point, this twisted creature had been married to my mother.
“I wondered if you would have the courage to stand against me tonight,” Bron hissed, the ebony power glowing even darker, with enough blackness it seemed almost solid.
The blades in my palms reacted, fiery energy ripping down my forearms until escaping out my fingertips. “Nag is dead, Bron. All that’s left is you.”
Bron laughed wickedly, his pleasure of the moment evident in his face. “I’ll be sure and thank whomever did the honor of shredding the lindworm king. Who do you suppose has controlled his armies these many years? He was a thorn in my side. Much like you. I hope you still honed some of your energy these last few months, even without your mother. She might have taught you great things. You understand I had to kill her. She’d betrayed me for too long.”
He was taunting me. It was working.
My throat tightened. From behind Bron, the trees gave a little as a white dragon shoved his head through. I couldn’t stop myself. Hatred took over, and I slashed my energy against the ancient dragon without warning. Aldwin—the traitorous elder—roared in pain as the wave of my combined power struck him in the eyes. Once a milky color, now trickles of steaming blood dripped from his lids and onto his scales.
Bron crowed with such sinister emotion it sickened me. He nodded as Aldwin writhed in pain, dragging his thick feet across his face as if to wipe away his agony. Donovan didn’t stand still, either. I thought Bron might strike at the mage, but he allowed him to dart toward Aldwin, seeming to enjoy the rage from the elemental mage as the ancient wyvern battled through his blindness through each furious strike from the onyx mage.
“Perhaps she taught you enough to make this interesting,” Bron hissed.
“Before I end you,” I snarled. “I want one thing clear. You betrayed my mother—you were the coward. You severed the bonds. It must have really pissed you off when she mated with a dragon—when she forgot all about you, didn’t it? How did it feel when she chose my father over you? Thane could have done anything and she would have stood with him, but not you. She saw you for the spineless weakling you are, and she left you. She banished you!”
I found a level of satisfaction watching Bron’s face contort. As I suspected, Gaia was still a sore spot.
“It is my fate to wipe all her energy from the earth tonight. That means ending you,” he growled. His words sent an electric shock through my body. He said the words, but it struck the fear in my heart—it was exactly what I’d felt for months.
“Well then,” I growled, sending my fears to a buried cell in my heart. “We better not waste fate’s time.”
Onyx roared and sprayed his fiery breath toward Bron. I knew the High Priest would easily deflect the flames, but it gave Onyx time to dart toward his enemy. I sensed Onyx had just as much reason as me to destroy Bron. Onyx slashed his claws at Bron, actually nicking his wrist and drawing blood before Bron released the swirling dark energy against Onyx.
“Your mind is still mine,” Bron shrieked at the royal. “Do you want to know how many lives you took during your time at the manor?”
Onyx shook his thick head, and I sensed the torment and conflict raging in his soul. I refused to watch Bron take control of Onyx’s mind. Opening my palms out from my chest, I shot protective energy between Onyx and the dark High Priest. It was enough to draw Bron’s focus away from the royal.
Bron rushed at me holding me in his sights, with Onyx chasing him at the rear. The stone sword was gripped tight in his palm, and he dragged it against my blades with ease. When the edges of our swords collided, I felt a suffocating pain wrap around my throat. Bron touched the fire stone lodged deep in the steel of his blade, and black fire rippled down his sword, brushing against my exposed skin on my hands.
Crying out in ferocious pain, I tried to shake him off. Bron pressed his palm against my face, bleeding poisonous dark energy into my system. All the energy in my blood rampaged to defend myself against his attack. I caught a glimpse of his anguished expression. He was shredding my insides, but I was also destroying his. It was simply a matter of who outlasted whom.
Dropping my shoulder, I found enough space to jab one of the jade swords toward his heart. Bron snarled and spun away, his fiery touch ripping from my skin. Where his palm had wrapped on my cheek, it felt as though all the skin had scorched away. Bron was more powerful than the first time we’d faced each other, and I feared I wouldn’t be enough. His energy was too primal, too evil—it had to be tethered before it could be destroyed. Though I wanted to slaughter the man, I wasn’t the one with the power tonight.
Onyx had drifted toward Donovan and Aldwin. Some strength returned to my limbs when I watched Onyx pin the elder to the ground, and Donovan finally plunged his dagger deep into the airway of the old dragon. Aldwin gasped, bleeding fiery blood onto the grass until he released a haggard breath. Bron sneered—again, he didn’t seem unhappy the ancient dragon was lost. He would come at me again, but I needed to be deeper into the forest.
“Onyx!” I bellowed. “Go, help the warriors! This fight ends with the mage.” I must take him to my mother, she has the stones to destroy his energy. Help my father, please, keep them all safe. I will see that he pays for what he did to you.
Teagan, I can help you, Onyx answered my private thought I didn’t want Bron to hear.
Help all our people end this.
Onyx roared as Donovan clamored on his back. In the distance, I sensed Ruby was near. Onyx would join her, the other royals, the warriors. Gaia would finish the High Priest. Bron seemed slightly unnerved and began raising his hand to strike once more. With a glare at his twisted face, I darted through the trees, hoping he would follow.
Bron cried out in frustration, and I felt his energy bolting after me, trying to drain me. Some of it struck my back, creeping along my shoulders, breaking me apart. Grinding my teeth together, I forced my powers to fight against his. Everything I’d be
en told from the others rampaged through my thoughts. I was a dragon mage, I had power. Right now I needed it to last just a little longer.
“You call me a coward!” Bron shrieked, nearer than I thought. I didn’t understand how he could travel so fast, but the few times I’d watched the dark High Priest seemingly disappear, I thought shadows and darkness had something to do with it.
The air was cooling as the hillside sloped up toward the sanctuary. I would be there soon. I could practically feel the stones. The energy trail was bright, almost there.
When the clearing came into focus, I slammed against the earth. Terrible, blazing pain struck me between my shoulders. My fingers threaded into the soil as I fought against the blinding anguish. I felt Bron rip his hands through my hair, wrenching my neck back. His silver eyes locked with mine. The stone blade was precariously close to my heart.
“You cannot run from this, you fool,” he raged between his teeth. The tip of the sword pressed against my skin, blood seeping from the sharp point. Bron’s eyes scanned the area. His brow furrowed slightly. “What is this?”
I tried to act as though he’d discovered some great secret. Bron read my expression and beamed. “You tried to hide behind a pathetic sanctuary? Didn’t you learn your lesson the first time? I can break through them. You abandon your family to save yourself behind your own power—there is nothing more shameful. I’m certain your warrior father, if he’s even still alive, would die from shame. I’ll rid him of having to kill you himself.”
The blade was lost beneath my skin before I could move out of the strike. I gasped, trying to fight against the deadly edge that was sinking further into my stomach. I thought of Malik. I wanted to be with him—I wanted to see him grow. I wanted to love Jade without fear of war. But, in the back of my mind, I knew this was the moment I’d feared. I had drawn Bron to Gaia—I was certain he would step through the ring of stones eventually, probably out of pure arrogance to destroy what I’d created. She would end him. It would be over. My energy faded slightly as I resigned to my fate. The point of Bron’s blade slid just slightly deeper until, all at once, he was ripped to the ground by a flash of scales and teeth.
