by Amelia Jade
Even as she watched, a blast of Frostfire slammed into one of Arrent’s wings, throwing the big red’s attack on her aside.
He whirled in mid-air and Miranda seized on his surprise. Her wings snapped up and out, halting her progress and spinning her around at the same time.
The big red dragon kept coming at her, but she was ready. When they collided she wrapped her talons and wings around his head and neck, raking him repeatedly even as her three-inch long teeth ripped chunks of scale and flesh from his neck.
They fell from the air together, but she didn’t care. She had him, and he wasn’t getting away.
Arrent roared and screamed, but it was too late.
The newcomers turned the tide and A Company dragons dropped from the sky quickly, overwhelmed as Daxxton’s team arrived to swiftly end the battle.
Miranda saw the ground coming up quickly and pushed herself off of Arrent, her abused wings halting her fall, though they screamed in protest.
Her foe, however, didn’t have time, and he slammed into one of the ruined wings of the house. She didn’t think the fall would have been fatal on its own, but the giant wood spike sticking up through his torso indicated otherwise.
Her attention was immediately riveted to the battle ongoing on the far side of the Nova Estates building.
Daxxton and Corbin circled, each of them hurt, but neither out of the fight yet.
Scales rained from the sky as they blasted each other with their breath weapons and raked each other with their talons as they closed.
“Daxxton,” she said, landing near to Nolan, whose opponent had surrendered rather than be killed.
“Look at him go,” Nolan said. “I didn’t think anyone could stand up to the Old Bloods.”
Vogel landed next to them with a snort. “I didn’t realize there were any Old Bloods still actively involved in our world.”
Daxxton unleashed another one of his triple-fire weapons. This one rendered the rear leg of Corbin useless, but even as he roared in pain, the Echo Dragon fired back.
But Daxxton was ready, and he sent his own breath weapon forward again. The two beams of energy met in the air with a crackle of unhinged power that battled back and forth as they circled upward.
She watched in awe as the streams of power fought for supremacy. The Silver Dragon seemed to be winning, but even as his breath closed in on Daxxton, the Aurum Dragon began to pulse with an inner light, like she’d seen within him as they first left the house.
The light grew, and grew, until it became almost too bright to look at.
But Miranda had to see, and though her eyes watered, she stared at the power on display.
The Silver Dragon tried to answer, but it just couldn’t match Daxxton. The golden light became a fire, and she watched in shocked awe as golden flames unlike anything she’d seen before burst from Daxxton, turning him into something…else.
“A Phoenix,” Nolan whispered in awe from next to her.
The golden flames seemed to give Daxxton power, and even as she watched he pushed the stream of energy coming from his mouth back toward the Silver Dragon. Corbin fought against it, but even she could see he was out of his element.
The golden flames began to pour from Daxxton’s mouth and replaced the triple-stream of Fire, Ice, and Lightning.
Then it hit the Silver Dragon, and Miranda was forced to look away as the Echo Dragon simply erupted in flame so hot it disintegrated in mid-air.
When her vision returned the light was leaving Daxxton and he was circling toward the ground.
No sign of his foe remained.
Chapter Thirteen
Daxxton
He sagged wearily as his feet touched ground, his entire body drained of energy.
It had been many centuries, and a much younger Daxxton, the last time he’d had to expend so much energy in a fight.
The others circled around him chattering excitedly about what they’d seen. He finished shifting back and gathered his breath, then just shook his head.
“Don’t you get it?” he asked, dejected at their enthusiasm.
“Get what? That you just kicked some major ass?” Nolan exclaimed and the others, even his instructors from Top Scale, chimed in.
“Not that,” he all but snarled.
Miranda stepped forward, pushing the others back. He could see in her eyes that she had an inkling of what was going on in his mind. It shouldn’t have surprised him that she was the first to pick up on it, but it did. Daxxton made a mental note to apologize to her for that later. She continued to impress him, which meant he was underestimating her still, and that needed to stop.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching up and putting her arms around him.
He held her tight. “Thank you.”
“I don’t get it,” Dak said, holding himself up on Zander, his one leg useless for the time being until it healed.
“Well you should,” Miranda said, wheeling on her security man. “Yes, he just showed off his true capabilities, and they were amazing. Nobody is arguing that. But he did so to kill off not just one of our own, but one of the few remaining Old Bloods. That should be cause for sadness, not rejoicing.”
The mood around them sobered. Daxxton knew he needed to do something. They couldn’t fall into melancholy just then. He needed them for more than that. This wasn’t over.
“It should also be a cause for anger,” he said, straightening, feeling a rush of energy surge through him as he realized at last what had to happen. He didn’t want to do it, but it was past that now. He had no choice.
“Anger at what?” Blaine, his senior instructor and one of his closest friends, asked.
“At the people that let this happen,” he said firmly. “Think about it. These men just flew into Cadia. Ten dragons. Waltzed right in over the border. There was nothing that could be done about it even if we had spotted them. But the Guardian program has been scaled so far back that we didn’t even have eyes in place to see them come. That is what we should be angry about.”
He turned slowly, eyeing each of the shifters in turn. “If we had even just seen them come in, the alarm could have been raised. We would have been alerted, and we could have met them with our full strength, and dealt with this peacefully. Nobody would have had to die today. Instead,” he shot a finger at one of the survivors, sitting grumpily against a pile of stone that used to be a statue, “many of your friends died today. Many of our kind. We’re already few enough in this world.”
Daxxton felt his voice grow stronger. “This needs to stop. We all know who hired them, and that this is but the opening salvo, I’m sure. They’ve been getting ready for this for some time now. With the Iron Scales having been dealt with, Fenris will have no choice but to come for us directly.”
The assembled shifters muttered as he spoke aloud the thoughts they’d all been having.
War was coming.
“What’s the plan?” Asher Owens, Frost Dragon and recent graduate of Top Scale Academy, asked for the group.
“I’m going to the Council with Miranda. There I will invoke Imperare ad Impugnandum.”
A hush fell over the crowd as they realized what that meant.
“You don’t have to do that,” Blaine said. “You know what that will require you to say.”
“I know, old friend. But I think after what happened here tonight, they’ll figure it out soon enough for themselves. I may as well play the last card I have.”
The tall Fume Dragon simply bowed his head in acknowledgment of the wisdom of that thought.
“The rest of you, clean this up, deal with our prisoners, and make sure everyone is accounted for.”
The others nodded firmly and turned away, already divvying up tasks among themselves. In moments it was just him and Miranda.
“You’re really going to do it?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Cadia needs to change, and this is the only way it can happen fast enough. Otherwise we risk losing everything.”
The
woman he cared so strongly for nodded. “Okay. I will come with you. But I’m curious, what did Blaine mean when he said you’ll have to say something?”
Daxxton turned and moved away from the rubble of the west wing of the house, moving toward one of the stone circles where he could shift without risk of stirring up more debris.
“Only a certain few may invoke Imperare ad Impugnandum,” he explained. “At least in Cadia. I only fit one requirement, but it is something I have kept almost entirely to myself for my life. If I wish to follow through, I will be forced to reveal it.”
“Which is?”
He turned at her and smiled. “Come and find out,” he challenged, before disappearing in a cloud of gold smoke as he shifted once more into his dragon form.
***
The word of the attack on the Nova Estates had clearly reached Cadia proper. He could sense that even before they’d landed, but the sentries’ reports that the Council was once again meeting confirmed it.
He opened the doors hard enough for them to slam, but without enough force to break them this time.
“You,” Klara Nova all but hissed as he strode forward in front of the entire assembled Council without breaking stride.
“Yes, me,” he responded. “Did you think it would be anyone else?”
He turned and looked at the rest of the Council. “I’m going to make this short and sweet. Cadia has become weak, and obsessed with money. Her borders are unprotected and her enemies move against her. This cannot be allowed to stand.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Klara snarled from her elevated Council chair.
“I’m glad you asked,” he said politely. “I, Daxxton Ryker, invoke the right of Imperare ad Impugnandum. As an Aurum Dragon, one of the Old Blood, a so-called ‘Great One,’ I hereby challenge your right to rule. If any of you object, I will meet you on the field.”
The hall went silent as he revealed the true nature of his being as an Aurum Dragon.
“You are not an Old Blood,” Klara snapped. “The last of them was born nearly fifteen hundred years ago. You aren’t even a millennia old yet. You are nothing but a liar.”
Daxxton shifted his gaze onto her as he summoned the last of his energy.
From within his core, the golden light began to pulse once more. It brightened until the room was lit completely by his internal glow.
“The last of the Old Bloods of your races were born then,” he spoke, his voice taking on an ancient, almost hollow tone to it. “But not of mine. Challenge me if you will. Otherwise I will rule Cadia, and set her back upon the proper path once more.”
Klara simply stared at him in disbelief. The power of the Old Ones was such that they could summon the power of light. If he let it grow, he would once again become engulfed in flame, resembling the Phoenix. It was after all from his kind that the legend of such a bird had begun.
“No.”
The simple word shocked him back to reality. He had hoped his demonstration of power would be enough. But clearly Klara was not ready to back down. None of the others on the Council seemed ready to challenge him. But she wasn’t backing down.
“You are obsessed with your power,” he said sadly.
“This is my Council,” she snapped. “You are not welcome.”
“Then I shall meet you on the field,” he said sadly. “I do not wish to kill another of my kind,” he continued. “But if you step outside, I will have no choice. Please reconsider.”
Klara simply laughed. “Is this the type of weakling we want running Cadia? Unwilling to kill when it’s necessary?”
She hopped down from her chair and strode past him. “Let’s go.”
He saw the feral gleam in her eye. There would be no reasoning with her.
“You can’t do this,” Miranda hissed into his ear as the entire Council filed outside as well, to witness the right of Imperare ad Impugnandum. The Challenge to Rule. Once invoked, if he won, he would be crowned King of Cadia.
It was an old, obscure law, that nobody had thought would ever be called upon. Only certain groups could even invoke it. Old Bloods of the Dragons, the High Guardian, or one of the Council Members themselves. That was it.
“I have to,” he replied.
“You’re too weak, too hurt from your fight with Corbin. You can’t win.”
“I know,” he said as they emerged into the night air. He looked up as the first flakes of snow fell across his face.
How fitting that the first snowfall would be that night. Blood would rain from the skies, but the snow would cover it up in the end.
“Then why are you doing it?” she asked, frustrated.
“I’m not,” he said as the group stopped at a pair of stone circles.
Klara occupied one.
“Well, let’s go then,” she called at him.
“Do you wish to nominate a champion?” he asked wearily, going through the rite.
“No, I’ll fight you myself,” she chortled arrogantly.
“Very well. I nominate Miranda Pyke, Princess of Tanith, as my champion,” he said.
Miranda stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly,” he replied. “It could never have been one of my team. That wouldn’t have been acceptable. It has to be you, a foreign entity and sovereign ruler.”
“But what if I lose?” she asked.
“You won’t. She’s going to underestimate you even more than I did.” His eyes hardened, glinting with steel. “Show her the error of her ways.”
Miranda nodded jerkily and moved to the center of the circle.
“Well, this shouldn’t take long,” Klara laughed, not even bothering to protest the decision, and a cloud of smoke shot through with fire began to swirl up around her legs.
Daxxton stepped up to Miranda, leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I believe in you,” he whispered, and then shuffled clear of the circle, before all but collapsing with weariness onto a nearby bench. He was spent for the near future.
It was out of his hands now. He just hoped he’d done the right thing.
Chapter Fourteen
Miranda
This was all a dream. A bad dream. It had to be. There was no way that this was really happening to her. There was no way the real Daxxton would trust her to be his champion, to fight Klara for him.
Would he?
She glanced over at the Aurum Dragon, her Aurum Dragon, and though he was bone tired from his fight with Corbin, there was no doubt in his eyes. Only a stolid, unyielding confidence. He nodded once in her direction.
He did trust her. Implicitly and completely.
She marveled at his ability to do that, when they weren’t even officially mated. How could he have such faith in her to do what was needed?
Because he loves you.
She jerked at that realization.
Across from her, Klara finished her shift, the large red dragon pawing at the ground in irritation.
Without a second thought Miranda ran back across the circle, threw her arms around Daxxton and kissed him full on the lips. “I love you too,” she said as they parted moments later.
“I love you,” he murmured, kissing her again even as he smiled through it.
“I know,” she told him, giving him a wink. “Now stay still, I have a kingdom to win for you. Never trust a man to do a lady’s job,” she teased.
Her expression with him may have been happy and relaxed, but the instant she turned and headed back for the circle, her face drew grim and closed. There was no more time for laughter. No more time for doubts. The fate of Cadia and Tanith rode on her shoulders now.
I will not let them down.
Her arms spread wide as she approached the center of her stone circle. Inky blackness, darker than the darkest shadows flowed out from her, spinning up around her body like a tight cocoon. The blackness grew swiftly and calmly; there was no rush nor panic to it. It blossomed into a magnificent sphere of pure darkness fifty feet wide, before it began t
o shrink, tightening around the form it contained, until it seemed to mold to the outline of the Blast Dragon that had appeared within.
The whole event took less than a handful of seconds, but to those watching, it had been much longer than that.
“Let’s be on about this then,” Klara said, and without any further preamble she spat a fireball at Miranda and took to the sky, her huge ochre wings beating furiously to gain her ground.
“Bitch,” she hissed, yanking her massive body to the side as the brilliant ball of flame went sizzling by, only to impact upon a nearby tree in the courtyard.
Wood and bark exploded outward as the tree burst into flame and collapsed upon itself. Several of the Council members scurried out of the way, while one of them went to raise the alarm so the fire could be put out before it got much worse.
The others shouted and cursed at Klara.
That was a good sign, Miranda mused as she took to the air, careful to avoid Klara’s swooping attack as the Councilwoman dove into an attack.
The wind shrieked over the red dragons talons as they narrowly missed her jet-black scales, and Miranda immediately drove for higher ground. Behind her she heard Klara screech in anger as her attempt to end the battle swiftly failed.
She’s not thinking straight. Prolong this fight and you can use it to your advantage. Make her do something ill-advised.
It was a good tactic, but how the hell was she supposed to implement that?
Below her Klara unleashed another fireball, but Miranda easily avoided that one. She didn’t return the attack, choosing instead to conserve her energy. Although she hadn’t expended as much energy as Daxxton had, she’d been in a fight just a few hours earlier as well. Right then Klara had energy to burn.
“Come back here you little flea-bitten whore!” Klara taunted, pushing hard to close the distance between them.
Miranda couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. “Listen, you two-bit has-been hack, just because your mate sees you as the worthless sack of scales you are, doesn’t give you the right to be jealous of my happiness.”
She didn’t know for certain that Zoltan felt that way, but given his distinct lack of ever appearing anywhere around Klara unless he had to, she could make an educated guess. Probably. She’d only met the man earlier today, so she was gambling a bit, but Miranda was good at reading people.
