Rivals (Dragon Reign Book 1)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “Forrest!”

  “What?” he snarled, his dragon still attempting to break free even as the dark magic stopped him.

  I motioned to the shadowy mass, needing to know if I finally lost it, or if there was really a blue pulsing light now. “I see it! Kate!”

  We yelled her name, screaming at the top of our lungs.

  She was alive! She had to be alive!

  The pulsing increased as the brightness grew until it burst through more of the shadow. The plagued spawn snarled in rage, and its shape slowly came back into focus, but the tendrils held us fast.

  I couldn’t see Kate, but she was alive. That was her magic, and when I blinked again, I couldn’t believe what I saw.

  A roar that ripped across the open plain around the ruins and tore down the rest of the standing structures exploded from deep within the shadowy mass.

  A being of pure light rose and spun around, stretching wings that stretched far larger than Forrest’s had when we first arrived and he fought the plague spawn.

  The massive dragon flexed those wings, sending a gust of wind to knock us all back to the ground as it lifted itself higher in the sky.

  “Kate,” I whispered in awe at her form. My spirits lifted at the same time my heart sank. I’d only seen one other dragon who looked like that, and it had been the warrior at the festival.

  A Darrah. She was a Darrah, and I wasn’t the only one who realized it.

  Blue rivulets of power rippled over her body as she lowered herself back to the ground.

  Swinging her head wide, she bashed through walls of stone, opening her jaws wide as fire brewed in her chest.

  It shot from her mouth and struck the spawn and its surrounding shadows, but the flames weren’t red and orange.

  Oh, no.

  These were blue and almost electric in appearance. They crackled like lightning through the air, and the hair on my arms stood on end.

  The spawn pushed back against the attack, but she easily dodged the shadows, swung her body around, and her tail slammed into him.

  When she swung back around, she faced me and sniffed the air. She bared her fangs at me, and I stood perfectly still, waiting to see if she would try to kill me, too. But then she bobbed her large head, and those green eyes glimmered.

  She knew exactly who I was and I thanked the gods for that. Forrest crept beside me, and she growled fiercely at him, but didn’t attack.

  “I will destroy you!” the plagued spawn shrieked and flew back at Kate, sending them tumbling out into the field in a tangled mass of shadows and dragon limbs.

  All I could see was a ball of dragon fury and shadow, but Forrest and I would be idiots to try and break them up.

  We needed her to hurry and get back through the portal. It wouldn’t stay open for long and as I glanced over my shoulder, saw it was already shrinking.

  “Forrest! Get the sword!”

  “Why do you still need it?”

  “Just grab it!”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I tilted my head back and forth as I readied to sprint out of the ruins. “Something I’m probably going to regret.” I took off, running as fast as I could to catch up to Kate and the spawn. “Kate!”

  I waved my arms over my head, but she was in too much of a fury to notice me. The shadow tried to surround her again, but she swiped at it with her tail and when that failed to throw it off, threw her head back, unleashing a wild spray of blue fire, dousing the field.

  I cursed, dodging it as I ran closer.

  “Kate! Damn it, Kate! We don’t have time for this!”

  I looked around for something to get her attention and picked up a heftily sized rock.

  “Hey!” I yelled and chucked the rock at her head.

  She whipped around snarling and snapped her jaws a foot from my face.

  I stared her down and waited for her to realize that our time in this world was over and we needed to leave, now.

  “No! My master, he will have you!” The spawn was stalking towards us again, and I staggered backward, tripping over the bones in the field.

  I was about to take off running, but Kate scooped me up in one of her clawed feet and her wings spread out wide behind her.

  We lifted off the ground, crossing the field in seconds.

  Forrest was right beside the portal, and she reached out another foot to grab him, spun in a tight three-sixty, and we sailed through the portal.

  Then there was falling and more falling and then nothing.

  “Ow,” I winced, when I lifted my head. “Where the hell are we?”

  “Lie still before you hurt yourself any further.”

  I knew that voice. “Mama Lucy?” I managed to pry open my eyelids and saw her brow furrowed with worry as she hovered over me. “We’re back?”

  “Yes, thank the goddess,” she murmured. “What happened?”

  “A lot.” I pushed myself up, and she let me this time, bustling away from my spot on the floor to the couch I’d laid on not too long ago. “How long were we gone?”

  “Barely a day,” Forrest answered for her.

  I shifted my gaze and saw him sitting on the floor, leaning against the far wall, face pinched in anger. His hands were limp on his lap, and his head lolled to one side, too.

  When I started to smile, he snarled at me.

  I gave him a weird look. “Are you having issues, friend?”

  “I am not your friend,” he seethed. “This witch paralyzed me.”

  “Temporarily,” she amended sharply. “Serves you right, coming back through that portal and trying to tell me you’re taking my girl away from me. Terribly rude, even if you are a damned prince.”

  Kate.

  Wildly, I searched the living room and breathed a sigh of relief to find her on the couch. She was breathing and looked unharmed, except her eyes were closed and the marks on her body were still visible. They weren’t glowing as strong as they’d been in the ruins, but they were there, all the same, pulsing in time with her breathing.

  “How is she?” I asked as I made my way stiffly to her side and took her hand. I expected Lucy to shove me away, but she only stared down at Kate and shook her head.

  “I don’t know yet. That portal opened in the living room, and the three of you burst through it. You were all unconscious. He woke up first,” she said, nodding to Forrest. “Barely offered me a word of explanation of what happened before he demanded I stand aside and let him leave with you both, so perhaps you’d be so kind as to tell me.”

  “Are you going to paralyze me if you don’t like what I tell you?” I asked.

  Lucy frowned. “Depends.”

  “Ok then,” I said, wondering where to start. “Well, let’s just say Kate definitely knows she’s a dragon now. A very unique dragon.”

  “She’s a traitor,” Forrest chimed in, but Lucy snapped her fingers and his voice cut off.

  He kept trying to talk, but no sound came out and eventually he gave up, slouching against the wall, and contented himself with glaring furiously at us both.

  Lucy pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. “I will not have him tell me what Kate is.”

  “But is she a Darrah?” I asked. “She didn’t outright tell us.”

  “I wish I could say, but she’s never told me about her past. But that bracelet, I knew it was old, very old, and I knew one day she would come face to face with who she truly is.”

  I gave Kate’s hand a gentle squeeze, willing her to open her eyes. “She’s doing just that. Forrest told me about the Darrahs. Told me how they killed them all off.” I focused intently on Kate’s face. “All but one.”

  “I’ll die before I let him drag her away,” Lucy stated.

  “He won’t be taking her anywhere.”

  I felt Forrest’s glare intensify, but didn’t spare him a look. All that mattered now was Kate waking up and all of us working together to combat what we saw in the Burnt World.

  Lucy said she would make some
tea and then I could tell her all about what happened while we waited for Kate to come back to us.

  20

  Kate

  “Kate, open your eyes. Kate.”

  I didn’t want to. I was comfortable, finally comfortable. All I wanted to do was stay here and not have to deal with whatever the world wanted to throw at me next.

  “Kate.”

  I wasn’t sure who grabbed my shoulder, but I finally opened my eyes, and my jaw dropped.

  “Dad?”

  He stood before me in his plaid shirt, dirty jeans from working outside, and grey short hair. He smiled warmly and threw his arms open.

  I leaped into them, and he hugged me, kissing the top of my head.

  “Wait, if you’re here… am I dead?” I asked, pulling back suddenly.

  His laugh was warm, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed the sound of it. It’d been rare when I would hear it and should’ve treasured it more since our time together was so short.

  “No, you’re not dead.”

  “Then how are you here? What is this place?”

  Everywhere I looked I saw nothing, but a gentle, blue and white light. I couldn’t even tell what we stood on, but didn’t care. My dad was here.

  “I’ve always been with you, but you never needed me until now.”

  I frowned, unsure of what he meant until he held up my wrist, my wrist without a bracelet. “Oh no! Where is it?”

  “You removed it, just as you were meant to.”

  I rubbed the spot where I’d worn it for so many years, trying to remember what happened.

  There’d been yelling, lots of yelling.

  Craig and Forrest.

  They’d been in trouble, and the plagued shadow attacked us as we tried to escape.

  I stared in amazement from my hands to my dad’s face, filled with pride.

  “I’m a dragon.”

  He nodded. “Yes, one of a very powerful, old bloodline.”

  “But… why? How?” I shook my head as the past events hit me all over again. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

  “You weren’t ready to know, and it was too dangerous. It still is.” His smile fell away, and he held my shoulders. “Kate, you must listen to me. There isn’t much time, but you are in grave danger now that you’ve shifted. You’ve revealed yourself, and they will hunt you.”

  “You mean dragons like Forrest?”

  “Not just dragons,” he corrected and my gut twisted. “I’m afraid you will never be safe again.”

  I puffed out my cheeks and wished I could close my eyes go back to sleep, pretend none of this happened. “Why? What happened to our family?”

  “Our history is a long and difficult one. I do not have time to explain it all now. You must find it out on your own and learn from it. It’s the only way to stop it for good this time.”

  “You mean the plague?”

  “Yes. We thought we contained it before, but we were wrong. There is only one sure way to end this. The shield of the Vindicar.”

  I wrinkled my face. “I don’t know what that is… but the spawn… it called me that.”

  His face tightened in fear. “It recognized your power. How you must wield it. We had it for a very long time, the shield, but when our family was betrayed, it was stolen and shattered into pieces. You must find them, Kate. Find them and bring them back together.”

  “And do what?” I asked frantically. “I can’t do this!”

  “Yes, you can. This is what you were born to do, Kate, and if you can’t, then the world is lost.”

  I clung to his arm, wanting him to come back with me, but he was fading from sight right before my eyes. “Dad, please.”

  He cupped my face in his hands and kissed my forehead. “I have faith in you, my daughter. Remember all I’ve taught you, and you will be fine.”

  He hugged me again, and I clung to him as tight as I could, willing him to stay with me, but I felt his presence slipping away.

  Tears slipped down my cheeks to lose him again.

  And then he was gone, and I was falling backward through the bright lights.

  “It’s that strong already? How can that be?”

  I knew that voice.

  Mama Lucy’s voice.

  I was back home, safe and sound, in Mama Lucy’s house on the comfy couch in the living room. Maybe it was all a dream after all, and I was going to open my eyes and see Mama Lucy with the kids.

  But when I did open my eyes, I looked right up into the eyes of Craig, the half-demon. “Damn.”

  “Kate?” he asked confused.

  “Sorry, I was hoping all of this had been a really bad dream,” I mumbled and tried to sit up, but stopped when my neck screamed in pain and my head throbbed. “Ow! Why does everything hurt?”

  “Probably because you shifted into a dragon for the first time and went after the plagued spawn,” he offered. “Saved our asses, though.”

  “I did?”

  He nodded and smiled warmly. “Yeah, you did.”

  With his help, I sat up, and Mama Lucy was there to hug me.

  She was crying, wetting my shoulder, and I patted her back.

  I told myself whenever we were safely back home, I’d let myself fall apart, but now, after speaking to my dad and fighting off that… that demon spawn, falling apart was the last thing on my mind.

  A strength I never knew I had in me burst into life and I realized there wasn’t time to sit around and complain about the turn my life took.

  I was a Darrah, and though I might not know exactly what it meant, I knew it was important. People were relying on me, the world actually. I had to be strong now. Had to be fierce enough to save them all.

  “Mama Lucy, you’re smothering me,” I mumbled after a few minutes of letting her hug me so tight.

  “Sorry, sorry!” she mumbled and leaned back, smoothing my hair from my face. “Craig was telling me about what happened. Are you sure you’re alright? I didn’t see any injuries, but everything happened so fast.”

  “Yeah, guess it did.” I glanced at Craig, but he looked unharmed for the most part. I looked around the living room and paused when I spied Forrest. “What’s wrong with Forrest?” I asked, seeing him propped up against the wall, not saying a word.

  “He wants to take you back to the dragon world because you are, in his words, a traitor.” Mama Lucy lifted her chin and glared at him fiercely. “I should turn him into a toad.”

  “Can you do that? I mean, with all the other magic you can apparently do?”

  She sighed and patted my cheek. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way, hon. I was going to tell you at some point, if you really wanted to know.” She glanced once more at Forrest. “And no, I can’t turn him into a toad, at least not permanently.”

  That was too bad. I knew I couldn’t trust him. Dragons killed my family, and as soon as Forrest learned who I was, he wanted to take me out to. Dad was right, it appeared. Thinking of Dad reminded me of what he said, and there was no time to waste.

  “Craig, do you have that glass shard still?”

  His eyes widened in panic, and he dug through the pockets of his leather coat laid out across the back of the couch. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled it out.

  I reached for it, but he pulled back.

  “You sure about this? Last time you went a little crazy.”

  “I’m sure.”

  He waited another moment, holding my gaze, before he rested it in the palm of my hand. This time when I closed my fingers around it, I was ready for the power radiating off it. This was a part of me, this power, and there were many more pieces out there we needed to find.

  I opened my eyes and smiled at Craig. “I’m good, but I think I need your help.”

  “My help? For what?”

  I held up the glass shard, so it caught the light. “This is a part of a shield, one that once belonged to my family,” I explained. “Or at least that’s what my dad said.”

  “And when did he tell y
ou this?”

  “A few moments ago,” I replied quietly.

  Lucy and Craig nodded slowly. “You saw him?” she asked.

  “I did, and he told me this is part of the Shield of the Vindicar.” I let the glass rest flat in my palm. “And according to him, I’m meant to wield it somehow against this thing that’s coming so this time we can stop it for good.”

  “And did your dad happen to tell you where the other pieces are?”

  “Nope, and I have no idea where to look for the other ones.”

  Craig tapped his fingers on the couch, but then his lips curled into a grin, and he glanced over his shoulder at Forrest. “Maybe you don’t, but I do,” he mused. “The dragon archives. They’ll be filled with information we could use, clues to track these pieces down. You are after all a dragon and if I’m not mistaken, a Darrah.”

  I still wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, but Craig seemed to.

  “Care to share?”

  “It means you are royalty, just as Forrest is. And,” he added, holding his finger up, “if I also recall my history lesson correctly, courtesy of Forrest himself, the Darrah clan was the rightful rulers over the Chimalus clan until his family rebelled and took over.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yes, yes, it is, so therefore you do not have to listen to him,” Craig told me. “And it also means that you have every right to return to the lands of your ancestors.”

  “No,” Mama Lucy argued. “It’s too dangerous. You’d be going right where he wants you.”

  I swung my legs around, so my feet were on the floor, and with Craig supporting me, managed to stand upright. “If we don’t do something about this plague, it’ll spread from the Burnt World, my old world I think, to the demon world even faster and eventually, it’ll come here. We have to stop it, Mama Lucy.” I might know everything there was to know about this new world around me, or demons and dragons, or witches, but I would have to figure it out as I went.

  What I did know was that plague spawn was not the true enemy. The voice in my head had been, and it was much more powerful than the spawn we faced. If we weren’t ready when it came, we’d all die.

  Slowly, my legs shaky from shifting into a dragon and back again so quickly, I approached Forrest. This time when I stared into his eyes, my dragon shifted in response to another being so close. But it wasn’t happy. Smoke trailed from my nose, and a growl reverberated deep in my chest.