by J. L. Weil
Where the hell was Jase?
Through the smoke and the stench of charred flesh, a dark shadow materialized. The army parted, making way for the slim figure as it walked toward us. Her dress was covered in raven feathers that fluttered with her graceful and regal movements. I glared at the witch. Behind her, she dragged a silver chain that clanged through the darkness like death bells ringing. It was a leash. I’d seen one like it before. My stomach threatened to heave, a tumble of nasty memories assailing my mind. Tianna gave the shackle a yank.
Would this nightmare ever end?
A figure stumbled forward, the spelled chains secured around his wrists and ankles, making walking problematic. My world stopped moving and the three descendants beside me stiffened. I shook my head, unable to believe what I was seeing.
“Jase.” His name was a sob that trembled on my lips. I leaned against Issik’s massive leg for support.
No. No. No.
This was bad, so fucking bad.
How had Tianna captured Jase? My best guess, while we’d been fighting for the Star of Fire, she had been distracting us with her illusions. The real her had gone for Jase, knowing he was alone, that his hatred of her clouded his judgment, and that his strength was diminished.
I had a theory about the descendant’s powers dwindling. It seemed that from the moment I released the invisible bonds holding them to the Veil, their abilities weakened in a more rapid pace. The closer we got to breaking the curse, the weaker they became, and since Jase was the first dragon I freed from his chains, his power had drained quicker than the others. Of the four, it was Issik who seemed to be the most resilient.
“Let’s make this simple for everyone. Give me the star and I’ll release your dragon.” Although there were four of us, Tianna was speaking directly to me, as if I made the important decisions.
Funny. But in this case, I did hold the ability to strike a bargain, the Star of Fire lay glowing in my hand. “And if I refuse?” I nearly choked on the words, emotion clogging my throat. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jase.
Tianna knew there was nothing… nothing I wouldn’t give to save them, including the stone now warm in my hand. I fumbled with it in my fingers, turning it over. Could I really give her the star to save Jase? He might never forgive me… but he would be alive.
Wrath twisted Tianna’s face. “Then not all of you will leave here alive. The time of playing nice is over.”
“Don’t do it. Don’t give her the stone,” Jase begged, and I hated, absolutely hated seeing him stripped down to a prisoner, pleading. From the powerful, born leader he was, reduced to a dog Tianna controlled.
How could I not? I couldn’t let him die. I just couldn’t. It would break my heart into a million fragmented pieces. I couldn’t do what he asked. He might be willing to die to save his brothers, to save me, but I couldn’t… I refused to let him sacrifice himself.
It would kill me.
I squared my shoulders, taking a step forward. “How do I know that you won’t kill him even if I hand over the star?”
“Olivia,” Jase snapped. “You can’t.” He turned his violet eyes to Issik, Kieran, and Zade. “Get her out of here,” he ordered.
“I’m not going anywhere. Not without you,” I declared, shoving aside the tears that had gathered in my eyes. I gritted my teeth.
A little, cold smile curled Tianna’s lips, as if she could see my resolve dwindling. “Smart girl. These chains keep him from shifting, a clever little spell.”
“You must,” Jase argued. “Now go—”
His demand was cut off as Tianna flicked her hand. Pain fractured in Jase’s eyes, and he fell to his knees. Frantically, his hands flew to his throat, gasping for air that wasn’t there.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Her cynical grin only widened as she angled her head, in a condescending gesture that made me want to skin her alive. I wasn’t the only one enraged by her actions.
Issik stomped the ground in icy fury. Kieran and Zade tightened their ranks around me, while the army at Tianna’s back hissed and shifted on their feet, eager to attack. It was only a matter of moments before a fight erupted.
I could barely hear, could barely think about what Tianna was offering, what Jase was barking. Kieran spread his wings, the moonlight highlighting the veins that ran the length of them, and pure terror hit me. They were going to leave him here… with her.
Kieran moved to pick me up, but I ran forward, toward Tianna, ignoring the searing pain in my hand. “Fine. I’ll give you the stone. But you release him first.”
“Olivia,” four voices hissed in objection.
I raised my brows. “Do we have a deal?”
“If you cross me…” Her white teeth flashed with every word. “Your suffering will be long, and I plan to be very thorough.”
“Sounds delightful,” I snapped, ignoring the silent pleas of the dragons behind me.
With another wave of her hand, she released the spell preventing Jase from breathing. His palms sunk to the ground as he gulped in air, releasing the burn in his lungs. “No,” he rasped.
I kept my focus on Tianna. If I looked at Jase, I would break and I wanted nothing to get in the way for what I was about to do. Fear no longer gripped me, not for myself.
Placing one foot in front of the other, I moved further away from my dragons and toward Tianna, stopping just short of where Jase was slumped to his knees. “Go,” Jase breathed. “Run.”
“They really are magnificent,” Tianna admitted, her silver eyes glittering. “It’s a shame they wouldn’t yield when I gave them the chance.”
“Release him,” I demanded just as Jase shoved off the ground and lunged at me.
Tianna snapped and his chains tightened, cranking him backward. His wrists were ringed with blood, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“The stone for the dragon. That’s the deal. No tricks.”
I snorted. That was rich coming from her, but I held out my hand, opening my palm to reveal the glowing crimson stone. It pulsed with a burning light.
Like a woman possessed, her eyes brightened, fixed on the star. She lifted her slim fingers, nails painted black, and reached for it. In a simultaneous movement, she released the chains holding Jase prisoner, just as her fingers grazed the stone.
Jase exploded into his dragon, brutally towering over us. “No!” his voice thundered in my head.
But it was too late.
Something unexpected happened, something no one predicted, least of all me.
Together Tianna and I held the Star of Fire and the next second we found ourselves ensnared by the stone, trapped in our own little bubble. Untouched by the world around us. Unable to move. An unending flame of energy surged from the star, joining my power with the witch’s.
Her life seemed to flow to me, her power mine for the taking.
Those silver eyes blanched.
Power shuddered through me, a void of ruthless magic flowed and flowed, a dam ready to burst. The star became a vessel and linking me to Tianna’s magic. What the hell was happening? I tried to pull away, but it was useless, the energy of the stone was too powerful.
I had to let go or risk being incinerated to ashes.
“Olivia?” Kieran’s voice whispered in my head.
Kill her. Kill her, the words chanted in my head. Not the stars, not the dragons, but my own voice. Strike now. Kill her.
I didn’t know how.
Someone cried out my name again. Zade? Jase? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.
Nothing I did released the hold the star had. My fingers wouldn’t budge. My muscles wouldn’t listen to the commands of my brain. Tianna and I were trapped by the stone, held captive by its power.
Then something inside me splintered.
Fire exploded out of me. Not in a dragon’s breath, but in a burst of energy. I had no other way to explain what happened. The molten flames had gathered inside me, and I was a glittering figure of flaming gold.
“Olivia!” a voice roared. Not just any voice. Jase’s.
Power burst from the stone in a white-hot light that shot through me, delivering an equal blinding blow to Tianna. Sparks showered over us and we were each thrown back, severing our link to the star.
I crashed to the floor, my head cracking against the ground.
The four dragons yelled my name again and again, but it was too late.
Seconds later I blacked out, only to find that I was staring at myself beside five ghostly women dressed in white. I recognized their faces. They were the mothers’ of Tobias, Jase, Kieran, and Zade. The fifth, the one I’d never seen, I knew to be Issik’s mother. She had the same white-blonde hair as her son, as well as those piercing eyes.
I gaped down at my body, a sick sense of dread overcoming me. One of my legs was oddly angled, definitely broken and blood pooled around my head, soaking into the ground. I tried to reach out, to touch myself, but it was as if I was far away. Another dimension possibly, no longer in the world of the living, yet somewhere in between life and death.
A flash of black caught the corner of my eye, followed by another and another. The four descendants rushed to my side, dropping to the ground beside me, while tears glistened in their eyes. They were in human form.
“What happened?” I sobbed to the women in white hovering close to me.
“You’re on the brink of death,” Jase’s mother answered in a calm and leveled tone. Compassion settled on her pretty features.
“Tianna,” I whispered. My eyes searched for the witch, just as Zade stood up, his face twisted into something animalistic and snarled. Tianna was sprawled on the ground a good twenty feet from where I was, but appeared in far better shape than me. She got to her feet, dusting off the folds of her dress.
“I’ll kill you,” Zade seethed. “You, traitorous piece of filth. You’ll pay for what you’ve done to our families. What you’ve done to her.”
A cruel smile tipped at Tianna’s lips; white teeth gleaming. “Yes, well, now that I’ve got this…” She held up the Star of Fire in between her fingers. “You’ll have to find another way.”
Zade launched himself at the witch but her magic sent him sprawling backward, and then she hurled another blast at Kieran who had surged forward right after Zade. One by one the descendants launched themselves at Tianna, and wave after wave she countered their attacks with her spells.
My heart squeezed with pain, seeing them attack her and get knocked down again and again. They were relentless in their pursuit, but the witch was too strong. The army behind her was gone, misted by her magic. She stood alone against the descendants and still they lost.
It was my fault. I had failed them, failed to keep the star safe. If it hadn’t been for me, Tianna never would have been able to get her hands on the Star of Fire. Jase had begged me not to save him, but I hadn’t listened, couldn’t bear the thought of him imprisoned by the witch.
And now…
Squeezing my eyes shut, I blocked myself from the fight. A deafening roar raged over the valley that shook the ground, but Tianna only laughed, tormenting them.
“You can come with us if you like.” Tobias’s mother extended an arm toward me. “You only need to take my hand. There will be no more pain, no more suffering.”
I couldn’t lie, the prospect of both had me considering it. I was so tired, so battered and beaten. This fight… I didn’t know if I had the strength to continue, but as my eyes opened and I stared at the four dragons surrounding my body, all I could think was there would also be no more love.
I wasn’t ready to let go of how they made me feel.
My head shook. “I can’t. I must go back, for them.”
“Good,” Kieran’s mother said with a nod. “They need you. This battle is far from over.”
The former queen of Crimson smiled gently. “We’ll send you back now, but this isn’t goodbye, daughter.”
“We will meet again,” the five of them said as one.
Forming a circle around me, they each placed a hand on my shoulders, and everything around me went black. Silence fell and suddenly I was floating, soaring to a fleck of glittering silver light, like a tiny star beckoning me home. Then I was gasping for air. My eyes fluttered open and I was staring into Kieran’s startled emerald eyes.
“Olivia?” His fingers brushed the blood-crusted hair away from my forehead. “You’re alive,” he whispered. “How?”
I was lying on a bed of gravel, the night sky sprawled out above me. No pain. No broken bones. No blood. The trip back to the living had somehow miraculously healed me. No. the fallen queens had healed me. I don’t know how the women in white managed it, but I was eternally grateful.
“The other side kicked me out.” My voice was scratchy and rough.
A chuckle of relief rumbled through his chest, and he leaned down, pressing a kiss to my lips. “I love you,” he murmured.
“Get out of the way,” a husky voice demanded. It was Zade. He stared down at me with glowing eyes of fire, and dropped down on the other side of me. “It’s true.”
I only smiled.
“Don’t you ever die on us again,” he demanded, cupping my chin in between his fingers. He turned my face left and right looking for injuries.
“See, that’s the problem. The four of you are more important to me than my own life, so if dying was the only way to save you, I would gladly take my last breath.”
I loved them. Deeply. Madly. Truly.
Issik and Jase were also there. They each took a hold of my hands, and I relished in their steady touch. We were together again, safe. That single thought brought it all rushing back to me.
I sat up slowly. “Where is she?” I asked.
“Gone,” Kieran replied, caressing my cheek with a knuckle.
“For now,” Jase added, and a warm breeze ruffled his hair.
I gulped. “And the star?”
Ice hardness radiated from Issik’s eyes. Not at me, I realized, but the witch. “She took it.”
“I’m sorry.” My voice was quiet when I spoke, and dread sunk in my gut. “I never should—”
Jase’s brows furrowed. “Don’t say it. Don’t apologize. You’re alive. That’s all the matters.”
“We’ll get the stone back,” Zade promised, but it didn’t change the feeling of failure swimming inside me. I had let them down. “Besides, the chains binding me are gone, and the star’s power transferred to you. I’d say tonight was still a win.”
A hole formed in my chest. I couldn’t say anything else, so I let Issik and Jase helped me to my feet, and I released a wobbly breath. We didn’t know what Tianna had planned with the Star of Fire, or if she could use it at all.
Still, nothing good could come from it being in her possession.
“Let’s get you home,” Zade urged, gripping my hand.
Night was slowly receding, and in a few hours the sun would break, giving birth to a new day.
We’d survived. Tianna might have taken the Star of Fire, but I had stolen something from her. Magic.
I didn’t know what to make of the change. It was more than the power of the three stars. Something else swam in my veins now. I wasn’t sure how I felt about having a piece of her inside me, or what it meant, but when Tianna found out there’d be hell to pay. She didn’t seem like the kind of witch who took kindly to stealing. It hadn’t been my intention to take even a shred of her magic, but what was done was done.
“Are you okay?” Jase inquired, watching me with careful eyes. “What you did back there with the stone… that was unbelievable. You were literally engulfed in flames, your entire body.”
“How did you do that?” Issik asked, the awe resounding in his deep voice.
That seemed like a lifetime ago, like a dream. Had I really burst into flames? Looking a
t my skin, you’d never be able to tell. Not a mark on me, no residual effect. “I don’t know.” My own surprise was written over my features. “It just happened.”
Kieran only shook his head at me. “You’re a bundle of surprises.”
They had no idea.
Keeping Titan Mountain at our backs, we walked the border between Crimson Kingdom and the Nameless Lands, heading for the castle—toward home. In spite of the suffering my body endured, my legs were stronger than they’d been before. My hand was healed, no longer shattered and I had more energy it seemed.
We were about to cut inward, going around the river of lava that flowed through the heart of Crimson when a movement caught the attention of the descendants.
Jase held out his hand, stopping us. “Wait. There is someone out there.”
The four dragons went into warrior stance, regardless of how weary they were feeling. All I could think was, now what. Hadn’t we had enough trouble for one night?
A hooded figure stood in a whirlwind of dust. He grew closer, and as my heart sped up, recognition immediately hit me. I knew that man. It was the wanderer, the one who had broken me out of Tianna’s prison. What was he doing here? Had something happened?
The wanderer stopped in front of us and leaned on his wood staff, the wind ruffling the hood covering part of his face. The four dragons surrounding me all stiffened.
“Tobias?” Jase whispered.
DRAGON DESCENDANTS WILL CONCLUDE IN THAWING FROST, BOOK FOUR
All good things must come to an end… but not without a little blood, sweat, and tears.
Tianna wouldn’t have it any other way. That witch.
Ready for the next part of Olivia and the Dragon Descendants’ story?
You can get your next fix in THAWING FROST, the final book in the Dragon Descendants Series!
Here’s a preview of the cover (you may need to turn to the next page for it to be visible):
