“Don’t tell me that didn’t hurt. I know it did. I felt every bit of anger and pain you did. She has been nothing but hurtful and dismissive of your feelings. And you’re telling me that you would choose to help her when instead, I can give you everything she has and more. I can open your eyes to a world where you can date whomever you want, control whomever you want. We will live as emperors. You can have your own pet dragon. And where you rule, no one can hurt you, abandon you, or betray you.”
Max looks to me and to Séraphin. I don’t want to believe they’re father and son, but seeing the resemblance, it’s hard to deny.
“Max,” I whisper. “I didn’t abandon you. I never would. There were times when I couldn’t be there with you, but you know I love you. I wouldn’t trade you for the world. I wouldn’t ask you to do that for me either, but I’m asking you to trust me. There hasn’t been a time when I didn’t need you. And I’m sorry if I hurt you. I never meant to. Yackros is important to me too, but not more so. Just different. This man standing before you wishes to destroy the world, not give it to you on a silver platter. Don’t fall for his lies. He’s trying to trick you.”
I don’t know what else I can say to keep him, but I realize more powers are coming through. They were revealing themselves to me before we got down here in this tunnel. I knew this was goodbye to Max—I just didn’t know why. And now that I do, I wish I could go back in time and stop him from coming.
I wish I had demanded Rohesia’s family come insisted. Wren or Rhys, or anyone but Max.
“You may not realize it, Alita, but you did abandon me. There were days when you may have been physically present, but were never really there. You have no idea what’s going on at home. I didn’t bother telling you because I knew you wouldn’t even hear me. And Sér—my father is right. I’ve been hurting for far too long. We’ve been fighting over the existence of dragons for more than a year now. And though you were right, it doesn’t mean you were right about everything. You made it clear to me that they were far too important to wait. For even one day.”
“No, Max!” I yell. “That’s not true. You could have told me anything. I was always listening. I’m so sorry you were hurting, but that doesn’t mean I loved you any less than Yackros. My attention was focused on something I didn’t understand. You know how my mind works. You’ve always understood that about me. Once I find something to give all my attention, I don’t let go until the matter is solved, taken care of, or over. No matter how much time I spent researching dragons, it doesn’t mean I was abandoning you. All you had to do was speak up.” I fall to my knees before him.
I know it’s a lost cause. Séraphin was right. The moment we walked in, I brought him an ally, not my friend, not my boyfriend. I brought a boy I love, and now I have to watch as he turns into my enemy.
It feels as though my heart is physically broken, but I beg anyway. “Please, Max. I love you. Please don’t do this. Please don’t make a choice you can’t turn back from. I asked you to come because I need you. I’ve always needed you. Why do you think I tried so hard to prove dragons are real? I needed you on my side because it was tearing me apart not having you with me.” I know it’s pathetic, at least in Séraphin’s eyes.
“If I asked you to leave the world of dragons behind you, to walk away forever and live your life with me, would you do it?” He kneels down in front of me, taking my hands in his.
I could tell him yes. I could convince him that I would, but I can’t. Yackros would never ask me to make that choice. He would never even pose the question. And I realize now, far too late, that Max saw him as competition. Not just another friend, but someone who would take me away from him.
I pause, trying to figure out something I could say to change his mind except for what he wants me to say.
“Alita! Please don’t do this! We are out of time,” Rohesia begs before gasping like she’s being choked. She’s leaning forward as though trying to get to me, but somehow rooted to the spot.
I take one calming breath, knowing there’s no going back. “I love you, Max. I always have, and I always will. But you know you’re asking something of me that I just can’t give. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused. I hope that one day, you will realize that. You know I’m going to ask, so bear with me—please don’t do this. Please don’t throw away your life, your family, everything you’ve worked so hard for all for one man you’ve known for one minute.” I hold on to his hands as long as he lets me.
He nods with every word I say until I finish, and for a moment, it’s just the two of us. Nothing else going on. No war, no villain. No pearl. And then it ends.
He stands, our hands slipping apart. A shimmer catches my attention. A blue-tinted pearl in the shape of a teardrop on the leather band wrapped around Séraphin’s wrist. I look down at the crown at my knees and pick it up, realizing this is defeat. I never had the pearl. And that’s why Fyazum was never free.
I look at him, a level below us, as he watches, sadness in his eyes. And I feel that pain to my core. I get to my feet. This isn’t how I pictured today going at all. If I had the magic, I would go back in time and do things differently. Max would never have a reason to betray me. Us. Everyone we love. Both his family and my own.
“Well, now that we’ve got that all over with, shall we continue on with our negotiations? I presume you’ll give up the pearl for Rohesia?” Séraphin smirks as Max steps up beside him and stands just behind him as though seeking protection.
“Of course.” I pick it up, running my hand over the details, feeling every scale, every jewel.
I hold it out for him to take. He grins. “Thank you.” He grabs one side. Just as he does, I use every ounce of power I can muster without showing it, clamping down on his opposite wrist, pulling the cuff toward me.
I pull it from his arm. “You’re welcome!” Using the same magic in one fair swoop, I push him forward. As he falls, hitting his head on the rock, I rush up the steps, untying the ropes on Rohesia’s arms. She tries to pull me into a hug, but there’s no time.
Max must’ve realized he was useless against us because he’s kneeling beside his father, trying to wake him.
“Come on!” Rohesia grabs my hand and pulls me after her. She doesn’t slow down as we approach the edge, but instead, we leap, my heart and lungs nearly leaving my body doing so, and land on Fyazum’s back just beneath his shoulder blades.
“Go!” Rohesia yells just as Séraphin gets to his feet, blasting jets of green toward us from his hands. I duck, barely avoiding it.
Fyazum climbs into the air and the mountain top shimmers, just as the wall did, disappearing and showing the sky, still as black as Max’s aura, Séraphin’s heart, and the way I feel dead inside.
23
We soar into the clouds, which are freezing, an unexpected surprise. I’m gasping, holding on for dear life, hoping I don’t just slide off with all the moisture in the air and plunge to my death. Rohesia seems far calmer, though she’s probably used to this, whereas I am not.
I rest my head against the back of her shoulder, hoping she doesn’t mind, unable to get up without the wind punching me in the face. It’s all I can do not to lie down and cry until there are no more tears left.
What was an hour-and-a-half drive becomes a fifteen minute flight and we’re circling the Dragoon Mountains. We land near where I would normally park my car, which suddenly seems like a lifetime ago.
“Alita, dear, you need to get down. Show us the way,” Rohesia instructs.
Fyazum extends his wing, creating a slide. It’s not nearly as painful as I feared, which is comforting. I was worried about how stabby it would be. But it’s smooth sailing and I land on my feet comfortably, though the need to collapse is still there. I am mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted.
Thunder roars, and it takes a moment to register that it wasn’t thunder at all. I shake my head, trying to clear the brain fog, and start down the path toward Runavelius’ entrance.
I walk past the log, disconcerted to have a dragon following me. That’s never happened before. But onward I go, only stopping at the edge, where I know I cannot get in any longer.
“What is the matter?” Fyazum asks, his voice much higher than Yackros’.
“I’ve been banished. I cannot enter Runavelius any longer.”
“Oh, dear child, how mistaken you are. Were you not told that you could only enter with an invitation?” Fyazum voice is much quieter than the other dragons I’ve spoken to.
“The exact phrase was, ‘Our only true and trusted king is missing. He has been since the wars of old that separated our kinds in the first place. Find him and free us from this dark imposter of a king’s reign. Bring back the ways of old, unite dragon and rider once more. ’Tis the only way to save Yackros, to return here, and for all of us to truly live.””
“Then there are multiple reasons why you should be able to enter once more.”
I turn to look at him and see a smile on his face. It hardly seems like the time for it, though I do find it adorable. “I tried to go in again. I was blocked. What could change now?”
“Yackros always welcomed you, dear child. He just didn’t welcome you into the forest because he knew you would die if he did. This was always in Guthrie’s plan. He knew that once you had the pearl, Yackros couldn’t deny you entry. Bringing the pearl meant bringing me.” His logic is sound, though irritating. I’ll have to have a serious talk with Yackros later. How could he refuse to let me in?
I turn back around and take a step forward. There’s a shimmer in the invisible barrier, and I’m inside the magical forest of dragons again. It feels like taking a long, deep breath after not breathing for a while. I’m home. I take it all in, amazed once again by the astounding beauty and how majestic everything seems here compared to the outside world.
I keep walking, though I wish to visit the meadow. There will be time later for that. And it would hardly be the same without Yackros.
We reach the edge, where rock meets woods. I can hear the pounding steps as dragons move about and I don’t know what to expect, but I imagine it won’t be pretty. Onward we go, Fyazum by my side.
We part the trees and face at least a hundred dragons, some done up in armor, others wearing nothing special of any kind. In front of all of them stands Ruxsiu, gold armor over his scales. “Your Majesty, it has been some time since we’ve seen you. After all these years, I’d hoped you had simply died. Now I see that I must kill you.” He grins a toothy smile.
I find it odd that he acts as though he doesn’t know a thing about where the true king has been all this time. Is he still pretending to be innocent?
Rohesia appears beside me, her mouth on my hand to keep me from making a noise as she pulls me back into the woods. I don’t even know how she got off Fyazum without anyone noticing. “We must get you to the dungeons. Yackros needs you. He is far too weak as it is.”
I want to be here for this, to watch as Fyazum puts Ruxsiu in his place. But what I want even more, more than anything in the world right now, is to be reunited with my dragon. It’s been too long, and I’m feeling unlike myself. He’s so close, and yet still so far away.
With a fleeting glance, I look at the two dragons, still circling each other, talking of the past while Fyazum reveals what happened nearly a thousand years ago, and follow after Rohesia, who’s already several feet in front of me.
“Rohesia!” I whisper-shout her name.
She turns back, looking at me oddly. “What?” she asks, sounding exasperated.
“How do you know where Yackros is if you’ve never been to Runavelius? You said you didn’t know where it was.”
The fear of betrayal stings at me. Perhaps more so now, after losing Max, but still, the pain grips at me, threatening to choke me. Could Rohesia be my enemy too? In some ways it would be easier to believe than Max, and at the same time, just as hurtful. But for so many different reasons.
“Girl, what are your tears about?” She rushes to me, wiping the drops from my cheeks with her sleeve. “Fyazum showed me the way when we circled above the forest. Of course I haven’t been here, but that doesn’t mean I’m leading you astray.” She wraps her arm around my shoulder and pulls me alongside her. “We saved my dragon. Now let’s go save yours.”
I take a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s.”
I follow her lead, deeper into the forest than I’ve ever been. The war of dragons is raging on around us. I wonder if everyone in the surrounding area, outside Runavelius, can hear what’s happening right now. Does it sound like thunder, or do they fear the monsters in the mountains?
We run, surrounded by exploding trees, ear-splitting roars, and debris falling everywhere as what I imagine to be hundreds of dragons engage in battle.
Upon reaching a small alcove in the rock at the edge of the tree line, I can feel a darkness, something palpable, so desolate of all things good. The cave’s entrance, a doorway so small only a human could fit through it and certainly not a dragon.
Glancing to Rohesia, I see the same lost look in her eyes. “I don’t know that I can enter there, Alita.” She sounds so torn, almost relieved not to have to get closer, yet awful for leaving me to take on this leg of the journey alone.
I don’t have time to ask why, to be upset, or to attempt to convince her otherwise. Squaring my shoulders, an audible gulp escaping me, I face the door head-on and step forward, knowing my dragon is somewhere down there all alone, possibly injured, certainly consumed by anguish, and he needs me.
“Alita!” Rohesia calls as I step into the shadows.
I don’t look back. I can’t.
Down I go, surrounded by nothingness, no light to guide my way. I reach out, hoping I’ll feel anything before I run into it face-first.
I want to call out to Yackros, but I’m afraid of what else might be down here and how they would answer. Is this a lost cause? Am I only walking into a trap? So many desperate thoughts race through my mind.
And like a switch has been flipped, there’s music in my head as scenes of happy memories play.
The first time I met Max. Our first date. Our first kiss. Finding Runavelius. Meeting Yackros. Discovering dragons exist. Playing with Hanna as a child. So much joy, nothing in the world could touch it.
Except right now. Each happy thought is replaced by a horrible one. Fighting with Max. Losing Hanna as a friend. My parents thinking I’m crazy for believing in dragons. The moment in the kitchen when my mother took away my drawing. Being discovered in the meadow with Yackros. Breighad picking me up like a stick and running to Ruxsiu.
Nearly dying. Losing Yackros. Being forced out of Runavelius. Max’s betrayal.
I sink to my knees. The emotional toll of reliving these moments is unbearable, and the physical strain leaves me breathless. Every part of me hurts all over again. My heart, my back, my shoulders, my arms.
I’m back in that dragon’s grasp, being crushed by the force of every horrible memory resurfacing at once, bringing all the pain with them.
“Help,” I mutter aloud, I think. I want to cry. My eyes hurt as though I have been, but no tears will come.
“Alita?” I hear my name, and goose bumps coat my arms. But it must be in my head because I’m alone. Completely alone. I lost everything.
“It’s all over. I’ve lost everything. I’m going to die here, drowning in sorrow, and the world will never know I wasn’t crazy.”
“Alita!” the voice repeats my name, shouting it with such force, I’m shaken from my stupor.
“Yackros?” I ask, daring to hope for a little longer.
“You are not alone, Alita. This doesn’t end here. Get up, my Little Wingless.”
I cover my mouth with my hands, overcome with great emotion, far too many things to distinguish what I’m feeling right now. “Yackros?” I ask again.
“From you, I much prefer Sparkles.” There’s a light chuckle.
Forcing myself to stand again, I dash forward, fal
ling against my dragon. Warmth and light replaces the cold mustiness of this cave, and like magic, there is light.
“I found him, Sparkles. I found Fyazum. And he is here, now. Fighting to reclaim his throne.” I want to sound proud because of how much I accomplished, but it’s more dismayed.
“And the pearl?”
“Séraphin has it still. I had to give it to him in order to save Rohesia.”
“We must get it, Alita. We must save it.”
“I know. He’s up there right now, fighting in the battle. But I had to save you first.”
“Thank you.” His tail whips around his body, patting me on the head. “Now we can save it together.”
24
Yackros tells me which direction to go, but walks behind me. I wish I could walk beside him, but it seems there are actual walls around us, and the caverns are too narrow for the both of us. Of course, he insisted that I walk ahead of him for numerous reasons, the top of the list being that he didn’t want me to accidentally get hit with his tail, and he didn’t want to slow me down. I feel like I’m only slowing him down, but given his weakened state from being in captivity so long, I do as he asks and go first.
The walk up and out seems far longer than it did coming in, though that could be because we’re going a different way. I wasn’t wrong in thinking the entrance I came through would be too small for a dragon.
With every step closer to where the battle ensues, I feel a little more lightheaded, and slightly sicker. I’m not ready for this. I barely had three lessons of physical training with Wren, and basically no magic lessons with Rohesia.
I don’t know how to fight, how to be of any use in this battle. And yet, I’m walking toward it with no choice but to stand up for the ones I love.
I can’t shake the feeling that something—beyond the obvious—is horribly wrong. I’m about to discover whatever it is. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, smell the fresh air cutting its way through the musty shadows.
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