by J. L. Weil
Underneath me, his already cool body turned frigid, ice filling his veins. Steam rose from the pit in blinding waves from the collision of fire and ice. Due to the sheer amount of lava, he barely had time to inhale before he was blowing out another stream of frosty dragon’s breath.
When the idea had formed, I’d pictured what would happen to ride an ice dragon into a volcano and all that it would entail. But this… this battle with nature, fighting the natural order of things…
It was beyond anything my mind could even think.
Was it too much, even for Issik?
It was hard to fathom there was anything the Ice Prince couldn’t withstand, couldn’t fight. He was a born warrior in my mind, tough and ruthless. But the freeze had taken a considerable amount of effort and most of his power, draining my already weakened dragon. It caused a not so graceful landing. Flaring out his wings, he tried to steady us, but we crashed down onto the frozen pool of lava too fast, too unevenly. I lost my grip and tumbled off Issik, over the ice, the freezing glass scraping my palms and knees as I skidded on its surface.
“Are you alright?” Issik groaned, working out his own kinks as he stood to his full dragon height.
I shoved to my feet, testing the durability of my own limbs. Nothing appeared broken. “I’m fine,” I assured, brushing at my pants and took in our surroundings.
Holy mother of God.
I felt as if I’d fallen into a giant crystalized crater. The walls surrounding us were a glossy black that reflected light from the stars, and the frozen lava that glowed under inches of ice.
“Good, now let’s find what we came for, and get the hell out of here.”
I understood his need to be quick. Something about being inside the volcano made me feel claustrophobic, as if the walls were closing in on me, suffocating me. It could have also been the air quality, but my lungs were burning, screaming at me to escape.
Without wasting another precious moment, I set forth to find the stone. That tug inside me that drew me to this place gave a yank. It was as if the other stars were trying to connect with the missing ones, as though they recognized one another, like long lost sisters destined to be reunited.
My eyes scanned inch by inch of the volcano walls, seeking out that tiny stone of power. Issik took the higher points, stretching his long neck and lifting up to his full dragon height as I stayed close to the icy surface.
‘Keeper of stars. Key of dragons. Have you come to save me?’ an otherworldly voice broke through the silence.
My entire body went still, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by my companion.
“What is it?” Issik demanded.
Feet planted and body still, I moved only my eyes, trying to pinpoint the origin of the voice. “I-the star… it’s talking to me.”
Issik watched me as if he was attempting to figure me out. “Well, that’s new.”
“You’re telling me,” I mumbled.
“What is it saying?”
I resumed my search, allowing my instincts to guide me. The star was here, so close. “It wants me to find it.”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve heard its call, is it?” he guessed, noticing my not so shocked expression at the stone whispering to me.
“It called on me once before,” I admitted, shaking my head. “The others didn’t speak, not with actual words or voices. It was more of a feeling, a nudge.”
“Your bond to them is stronger. It would only make sense that the link flourished with it.”
Fabulous. Can’t wait to see what weird shit happens next.
“Where are you? Where are you?” I chanted at the stone, knowing I didn’t have long to linger. My eyes scanned the cavern, the moon directly above providing enough light to see. Why the hell hadn’t I thought to bring a lantern? “Tell me where to find you?” I beseeched, projecting the thought into whatever thread that allowed me to hear the Star of Fire.
“Are you asking me or the stone? This talking inside your head is very confusing,” Issik admitted.
I hushed him, and the only sound that trailed was my breathing. My ears stretched, trying so hard to hear something, but nothing. I groaned, rolling my eyes and there it was… the pull. As if I was playing a game of hot and cold. My eyes raked over the ground we stood on, searching the frozen pool of lava.
And I saw it. A flash of firelight sparkled in the center of the pit. It seemed to pulse with an unearthly heartbeat.
The Star of Fire, shining like a ruby behind a film of glass.
My chest thundered.
‘Free me,’ the stone whispered in a song, an invitation. ‘Free me.’
I took a step toward it.
How? How was I going to get it out from under two inches of ice without destroying the very thing allowing me to stand? Without the ice, the temperature would rise, the lava would flow. “Do you see it?” I asked Issik.
He exhaled through his nostrils. “The thing under your feet? It’s difficult to see with you stepping on it.”
I rolled my eyes and shifted to the right, crouching. “Any suggestions on how to get it out?”
“None that will be easy,” he rasped, but I could already see his eyes calculating. “Step aside,” he advised.
“What are you going to do?”
‘Claim me,’ the star lured like a siren’s song.
“Loosen up the ice a bit,” he informed. “We can’t stand here staring at it. Nothing a spike and my claws can’t fix. Find something to hold onto.”
I backed away a few steps and pressed my spine into the rough wall of the cavern. My palms splayed out on either side of me, gripping the igneous dark gray rocks. Issik slid his tail alongside him, so it was directly above the throbbing crimson stone.
Something cold went through me. A different kind of chill. Not Issik, but…
He lifted his tail, bringing the spikes clustered at the end down on the ice. The walls shook underneath my hands and my feet rumbled. Pebbles and debris rained over us, but Issik unleashed a wing, sheltering me from injury.
I waited a heartbeat or two for the dust to settle, but from within the swirling smog, a figure arose, born of pure darkness. I knew from the slim, female form, the blazing flowing hair, and flawless beauty of the face that stared at me with wry humor… I knew I was in deep shit.
Tianna.
“So glad you saved me the trouble of having to do all the dirty work,” the witch drawled with a wicked smile.
Issik and I both blinked with surprise. In retrospect, we shouldn’t have been the slightest bit shocked by her arrival. It had really only been a matter of time. I just wished it had been after I had the Star of Fire in my possession. Now it was a fight to see who got it first.
Tianna fought dirty, so my odds of winning weren’t good. Not in the slightest.
My fingers curled into fists at my side. That fucking witch had the worst timing. One more minute. I only needed a single minute more. Was sixty goddamn seconds too much to ask for?
“On it,” Issik’s voice flittered into my mind.
“That’s not what I meant,” I groaned.
But it was too late.
The distraction was already in motion, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, except thank him and take advantage of the opportunity. I just had to reach the stone, touch it…
I shoved off the wall at the same time Issik hurled that thorny tail toward Tianna. The witch only laughed as his tail went right through her, destroying the illusion. On a ripple the witch disappeared, leaving behind the echo of her nail-grating laugh.
More games. More tricks.
She reappeared with a pack of shadow hounds on both sides of her, growling and snapping. I was forced to skid to a halt, or risked colliding with the witch.
“Grab the stone and get ready to fly,” Issik ordered, his voice booming with authority.
The hounds made of nothing but darkness, fangs, and razor claws attacked, flying over sheets of ice as if their pads were made of grippers. T
hey dashed past me, going for the real threat. Issik. That left the stone between Tianna and me.
Issik’s teeth sunk into a hound’s neck, cleaving the beast’s head off. Its body fell to the ground. The Ice Prince swirled right, but the other three hounds were at his feet, snarling and clawing. They jumped onto his back, one by one.
“Olivia!” he bellowed. “Now! Get the stone!”
His voice snapped me into motion. I had to get to the star before Tianna did. I would get the stone.
She must have seen the resolve on my face. The air swelled with magic as I gauged the distance between the stone and me against Tianna’s position. Her eyes seemed to read my thoughts.
“So brave,” she crooned. “I wouldn’t do that if I were—”
Too late. I lunged.
It wasn’t a graceful dive. No. I more or less threw myself forward and belly flopped on the slippery floor, landing five feet from where the stone was nestled in shards of broken ice. I didn’t let myself think about Tianna, about where she was. I didn’t allow myself to dwell on the pain shooting through my body or the air that had been knocked out of my lungs. I forced myself to scramble to my knees and dragged my battered body across the ice. My knees sagged behind me, but I persevered as the star coaxed me, offering me the strength and encouragement I needed.
Issik let out a yelp just as Tianna’s foot came down on my hand, crushing the bones against the ice. I cried out in agony.
“Give me the stone or… I can make this feel like child’s play.” Her foot pressed down harder to emphasize her dark promise.
My teeth slammed onto my lower lip, biting against the pain that ripped through my hand. A deafening roar that made my head ring resonated throughout the cavern, but I couldn’t think about Issik and the hounds. Couldn’t think about the regret of not bringing the others. Couldn’t think about how Issik and I were going to go up against the witch alone.
I had to move now. Every inch felt a mile, and even with one arm pinned to the ground, I didn’t stop reaching for the star. It was so close. I could nearly feel its pulsating energy at my fingertips.
Toying with me, she allowed me a few inches, and just went my nails were digging through the ice, searching, she shifted all of her weight. The crunch of bone fracturing hit me before the pain brought tears to my eyes. Black dots blanketed my vision.
I screamed.
And screamed.
With that bellow of agony, I released a deadly concoction of poison and tranquility. The green and purple mist swirled together—separate, but one moving force, giving me the opening I needed, leaving Tianna to deal with the mist of magic.
The earth shuddered underneath me. I didn’t dare look, but I heard it and knew I had to hurry. My fingers stretched and stretched until I thought the tendons would snap. Every bone and muscle in my other hand was screaming at me, but I managed to pull myself up to the hole Issik had created. Water was pooling onto the ice, melting.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
Inside the crystallized lava, the Star of Fire sparkled, such stark contrast as my fingers shoved aside the broken pieces, reaching for it again.
“Give it to me,” Tianna shrilled, like a wild woman on the verge of losing her shit.
I don’t know what kind of sorcery she had unfurled to combat the effects of poison and tranquility, but it hardly mattered now. She had released her foot from atop my broken hand. “Go to hell,” I hissed and closed my fingers over the stone.
My triumph was short-lived. Tianna let a shriek that threatened to take down the volcano on top of us. I didn’t have time to register what was happening to me, because the floor underneath me groaned.
Fuck.
Crackle. Creak. Crackle.
Horror coiled in my gut. The ice wasn’t going to hold. This was it. The floor was going to collapse, taking the stone and I with it.
I had succeeded in finding the Star of Fire, had been able to beat the witch by getting it first, only to die.
Chapter Fifteen
I rolled over on my back, cradling the star and my broken hand against my chest. A hundred bright glamorous dots glittered through the mouth of the volcano, splashing my face with moonlight. I thought I might pass out, was close to dropping off into the splendid abyss void of pain, fear, and panic.
Yes, there was loads of panic coursing through me… along with something else. My breath became a ravaging flame in my lungs, burning and roaring. I tried to sit up, knew I had to move, had to get out of the volcano, but the shooting pain kept me immobile. The ice continued to crack and crinkled underneath me.
“Shit,” I hissed.
“Naughty girl,” Tianna taunted with a slow smile, hovering over me.
If I had the strength and the means, I would have ripped out her throat. Someday, I promised myself. Someday. Right now, I could barely move, hardly breathe. The witch made a move toward my closed fist, but the ground underneath us trembled, knocking her off balance. She fell a few feet from me.
I needed to move, but my veins, my bones, my muscles all felt as if they were baking in an oven. The Star of Fire was intense as it granted me its power.
“Get to your feet. Now!” a voice in my head demanded.
Not Issik, and yet it was familiar, but my terror was making it difficult to decipher who the voice belonged to.
“Olivia. Get up. You must!”
The sense of urgency had me moving and lifting to my knees. A scream ripped from my throat as the ground fractured in three different directions, and my legs found themselves on opposite sides of the floating glaciers. My balance teetered just as strong talons grabbed me, wrenching me upward, and not a moment too soon. I glanced down to see the little pad of ice I’d been kneeling on be swallowed by a bubbly wave of liquefied lava.
I sucked in a gasp of air through my teeth.
Zade used the powerful flaps of his leathery wings to lift us up before the heat scorched the skin of my muscles and bones. Not a pretty picture.
“Cutting it close, don’t you think?” he asked snarkily.
“I could say the same thing,” I muttered, staring at the ice being swallowed by bubbling lava. Tianna was gone, vanished from the inside of the volcano, and Issik was above us, flying out of the mouth.
“What were you thinking, going inside the volcano?” Zade scolded. His claws wrapped around me securely, but gently.
“That I had to get the star before the witch.”
“You could have been killed. Issik knows better than to put your life at risk.”
“Don’t blame him. This was my idea.” The stone was clasped tightly in my hand, its power swimming in my veins in a fiery delight. “It might not have gone as smoothly as I hoped, but I got the star.”
We broke free of Titan Mountain, the night unfolding around us. “I felt it, the release of my chains, but it doesn’t look like the night is over yet.”
It had been wishful to think the witch had vanished and admitted defeat. Not her style. Waiting with an army of supernaturals at the base of the volcano, however, that was more her thing.
“Shit,” I rasped, seeing the sea of warriors that greeted us, stretching out to the border of the Nameless Lands.
Kieran joined us in the sky then, flying beside Zade. “Well, isn’t this a picturesque slice of hell?”
“Where’s Jase?” I asked, realizing everyone was here but him.
Zade motioned with his head to the ground. “Down there.”
Wonderful. Jase was on ground control.
What was the point of this? Did she think she could show up with an army and we’d hand over the stone? It was too late. I’d already been granted the power from the Star of Fire. It was swimming in my veins, burning like liquid fire.
“Get me down there,” I ordered. I wasn’t about to let Jase face her alone.
“Are you smoking crack? I am not dropping you right in the middle of a fight. Not happening, Little Gem.” Zade kept to the skies with my disapproval.
I wiggled i
n his hold, but it was a waste of energy. There was no way I was breaking free from a dragon’s strength, even one not at full force.
“You’re going back to the castle, where I can protect you and the stone.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but Olivia and I have unfinished business.” Tianna’s voice exploded around us, everywhere and nowhere.
“Go to hell!” Kieran yelled. He swooped down, releasing a stream of poison over her army.
She laughed. “So predictable. The four of you never change.”
In the distance, where the villages of Crimson dwelled not far from the castle, smoking cinders burned. Her army had gone in and trampled the town, windows shattered, walls crumbled, and people screaming. It was much like the attack on Wakeland. So much for those protective measures.
Tianna was showing her dominance, letting us know she would find other ways to hurt the descendants if they didn’t give her what she desired.
“How should I punish you?” she purred, and I could sense her slithering over my skin, like a serpent.
“Cut the bullshit!” I yelled. “Enough of the games. Show yourself.”
A piercing roar split through the waning night.
Jase!
Zade’s chest rumbled with unbridled fury at the state of his lands, and he shot toward the ground, straight for Tianna’s army of misfits.
“Zade,” Kieran warned, but the fire dragon was past reasoning. We all were.
Zade landed in the center of her ranks with a ground-shaking thud, and released a torch of inferno from deep within him. Fire rained over my head and the troops closest to us incinerated into dust. The ash of their bodies blowed away with the wind. I coughed, trying to shield my face as I slipped out from under Zade’s talons, and rose to my feet, cradling my fractured hand against my chest.
Desperately, I searched the mass of chaos for Jase.
Issik landed on the other side of me with Kieran at my back. I was walled in by dragons, a hurricane of toxic masculinity, all equally as fearsome. “You’re not taking what’s ours. Not again. Not ever,” Kieran growled.
