Breath of Fire (Rena Drake)

by Liliana Hart

  “Our people are in a great time of need,” Julian said. “It is with hope and courage that you have all gathered together this day, for there is evil among us. The Destroyer must be stopped. Our people who still live must be returned, and those who are dead must be avenged. I have asked the impossible of you and here you are, standing before me. Now I ask another impossible task.”

  He turned slowly and made eye contact around the circle. The room swelled with anticipation. But underneath it were the dregs of resentment and fear. Julian stood strong and straight. My chest surged with pride that my lifemate was a true warrior—as fierce as the Drakán warriors who had breathed life into all of our clans—a leader to so many people.

  My dragon whispered inside my head seductively, saying how wonderful it would be if he were our true king. I fought the urge to agree with her. The Promised Child would be our true king, and I needed to remember it, no matter how good the greed of power felt.

  “I ask that we combine forces and hunt for our lost people. That we combine magic and seduce the Destroyer with its power, because the magnitude of such power will be irresistible to him. You will all follow me into battle when the Destroyer is found,” he said with conviction. “You will follow me as one clan united, just as it was in the days of old—the days of the Realm of the Drakán.”

  “And then what?” someone yelled from the crowd.

  I gasped in surprise, because I knew that voice. Erik came forward until he stood facing Julian like a gunslinger at dusk. His skin was pale, and dark circles rested beneath his eyes. He seemed thinner than when I’d left home, his face more gaunt. His pain was obvious, and the impotence of his power seemed pitiful in a room full of those who judged a person’s worth by how much power they wielded.

  “Erik. Don’t do this,” I said.

  He’d been Alasdair’s only son for two thousand years before I’d been born. Alasdair had never been a loving parent to either of his children, but he hadn’t hated Erik. There’d been a bond between them that I’d never had. He was grieving for my father in his own way. But it was the wrong way.

  My compassion for his situation was followed by frustration and anger. He shouldn’t have questioned Julian’s authority, especially since I’d already pledged our clan to join his. And he sure as hell shouldn’t have been contradicting my orders to the rest of the clan.

  “Stand back, Rena,” he spat, not bothering to take his eyes from Julian. “I don’t answer to you. You’ve made your choice. I want our self-appointed leader to answer my question.”

  The crowd grew restless, and I could feel the stirrings of inner dragons throughout the room begin to waken and become interested in the violence that lay heavy across the room. Tension and anger poured from Erik. He stood before Julian powerless, his grief-stricken face desperate for his cause.

  I cast my power out around him to soothe. And to search. Erik was close to losing his battle with being powerless. He’d been one of the greatest generals to ever fight for the Romans, but he’d been nothing as a Drakán. And he was tired of being nothing. He wanted to die.

  “Well, my lord?” he said. “I asked you a question. What happens when we follow you into battle? Do you have grand plans for uniting us permanently? Of forcing us to bend to your will and raping our minds as you did my sister’s? Your powers of persuasion must be great for her to turn traitor to us all.”

  “Have a care, castro,” Julian said. “You are speaking of my lifemate. And brother or no, I will not stand for it.”

  There were several gasps from the crowd, my own included. To be named castro was a terrible fate. To be named a castro meant that a Drakán had been castrated of his powers for displeasing the gods in some way.

  “Call me what you will,” he said. “I speak the truth. She betrayed us all for greed. To increase her own power.”

  “Would you not have done the same?” Julian asked. “It is our way. We are not a passive society. You have all forgotten what we used to be. Your human blood and human heart weakens you. I am strong, and the gods chose a mate for me who matched my strength.”

  There were several thoughtful nods from some of the Ancients in the crowd. I stepped forward to deny the accusation. To assure my people that I hadn’t betrayed them because of power lust. Only because the gods had forced me to. But I stopped. I’d made a promise. I wouldn’t interfere or undermine Julian’s power in front of his people ever again. He wanted blind trust. And by gods he’d get it. We were in the middle of a volatile situation that could go from bad to worse if I chose now to open my mouth. Our immediate goal was to stay alive. I had the rest of eternity to hate Julian once that was accomplished.

  Besides, Julian and I had already had this argument, and he knew exactly how I felt about having my choices taken away from me. I didn’t know why or how we’d ended up as lifemates, but he’d had to have been behind it somehow, knowing this moment when he could declare himself would come.

  I stepped back and felt Julian mentally sigh with relief. I took my place back beside him, but I couldn’t bear to touch him just then. It wasn’t his family he was destroying with words and magic. It was mine.

  “Has it not occurred to you all that we cripple our entire race by continuing our feuds?” Julian asked the room at large. “Instead of mating with each other we are forced to mate with pure humans who dilute our blood even more. How will the Promised Child ever come to pass if we continue on this way?”

  “You cloud the issues with your talk of the Promised Child,” Erik shouted, turning the attention back on himself. “But I see through to what you really are. I have made peace that you and your lifemate would cause my death, but I will not cower and stand by while you destroy us all. You say that the Destroyer is among us, a creature more powerful than we can imagine. But I say that it is you, Julian of the Belgae, who has already destroyed us all. I name you the Destroyer.”

  The accusation lay like lead across the room, and then the room swelled with a whoosh of voices and frantic conversation. I felt the heat of fire as it burned angrily inside them and waited to break free. I glanced at Feng and saw he was smiling. We were making things very easy for him to step in and take over.

  “Enough,” Julian called out. The whip of power crashed across my body without warning. Julian had been shielding against me, keeping his emotions and thoughts from me, and I hadn’t even realized it.

  Erik went flying over the crowd and hit hard against the floor. The wood planks buckled under the force of his weight and the ground trembled as he hit, throwing everyone in the room off balance. I winced as I noticed one of planks of wood had splintered and pierced through his chest.

  “I will not be questioned by the likes of you, castro, unless you wish to challenge me. I have called everyone together because I have the power to do so, and your clan has been promised to me through your sister. You dishonor her with your disobedience. The Destroyer is clever at disguising himself. You were a champion fighting for the humans. But you are useless to us here. Go home and leave this battle for those who can win.”

  I was still tied to Erik, and I felt his flinch as Julian’s words hit home.

  Julian turned his back on Erik and took hold of my elbow, leading me toward the exit. I had to concentrate to put one foot in front of the other. I was numb.

  “Is this what you wanted, Rena?” Erik yelled across the room. Pain laced his voice, and his breathing was erratic. “He could be the very one who took our father away from us. Yet you stay with him and condemn the rest of our people to be led to slaughter like cattle.”

  “You’re wrong, Erik,” I said, turning around to face him. I knew what I had to do, and hated myself in that moment almost as much as I hated Julian.

  “I am your Archos, and he is my lifemate. He is not the Destroyer. He is the one who will save us all. Go home, Erik.”

  I held back the tears until I’d turned away from the room. The silence was deafening, and our footsteps echoed across the hard wood. It was the mom
ent of truth for all the clans. They would have to decide if they were with us or against us. The line in the sand had been drawn.

  “I will follow you into battle and fight at your side, Julian of the Belgae.”

  I recognized the thickly accented voice and dreaded what was coming next. Feng took a step forward and bowed mockingly, his hands placed in the position of prayer above his chest. “I will fight beside you, but when the battle is over we will have our own to contend with. I challenge you, Julian of the Belgae, for the kingdom of our people, until the day the Promised Child is delivered.”

  I stared at Feng and saw straight to his soul. To his future. And in it was Julian’s death.

  Julian returned Feng’s bow and arrogantly raised his brow. There was a small smile upon his lips, and I realized he was elated at the prospect of a good fight.

  “So shall it be.” Julian’s words rang like a death toll.

  We exited the room. My legs shook and my heart thundered against my chest. Excitement shone in Julian’s eyes, and I decided then and there that I would never understand the male psyche. My mind and my heart were both frozen. I either needed a good cry or a good fight.

  I picked the fight.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  As soon as we crossed the threshold, I drew from Julian’s magic and slammed the doors shut with a resounding thud. I sealed them with our combined powers and ignored the pounding that came from the Drakán on the other side. They could all stay in there forever as far as I was concerned.

  “Are you out of your mind?” I said.

  The calmness of my voice was the complete opposite of the turmoil that wreaked havoc inside of me. My inner dragon roared and fire spread beneath my skin. But something kept me from bringing her completely out and unleashing her rage against Julian. My dragon’s anger was an aphrodisiac to Julian, and I knew he’d never get the point if I used her. So for the first time in my life, I sent her away.

  But once I’d locked her away and could no longer feel my beast, magic still pulsed within me and filled me to bursting with the need to break free. It wasn’t power I was drawing from Julian. It was my own. And it felt comfortable inside my skin, like it had always been there. Maybe it had. The room dimmed to a soft glow around me, but the target of my rage stood out like a beacon. Julian. His eyes flared, and he called on his dragon, but for once I didn’t react as his animal came to the surface. It was as if I were no longer Drakán. And while there was a part of me that was terrified at the unknown, my body embraced it fully. And wielded it.

  A great wind swept through the hallway from out of nowhere. Gale-force winds that tore priceless paintings from the walls. Antique vases crashed to the floor and shattered into tiny pieces. Julian’s hair swirled violently around his face. But he kept his balance against the rage of my storm and leaned into it.

  “How could you do that to Erik? Don’t you have any compassion? You ridiculed him in front of everyone. Brought his greatest shame to light.”

  The hallway was long and narrow, and we faced each other like gunslingers. My dragon wanted to come out and play, but I held her back, reveling in the new power that coursed through my body. This power didn’t need my dragon. Didn’t want her. And it felt wonderful.

  “I did what I had to do,” he said. “Your brother is weak. And I would have lost ground with the other clans if I’d let him get away with questioning my authority. You know this. You’d been having the same thoughts about your own clan and their disobedience. Don’t question my authority. You agreed to this, lifemate.”

  Thunder echoed in the narrow walkway and lightning crackled horizontally along the ceiling.

  “What has come over you, Rena? You feel different.” Julian didn’t seem worried, only curious. “Your thoughts are projecting in shapes and colors. I can’t read you.”

  “You’re no longer welcome in my head. And besides, you did this to me. You asked me to give you all my power last night, to open myself to everything. This is my power. And it has nothing to do with the Drakán. This power is not something that is yours to control. I’m free of you.”

  “Not completely. You just aren’t as fully mine as you once were. But we are still lifemates, and there’s nothing you can do to change the fact other than sell your soul to the Shadow Realm.”

  “It’s a tempting thought. You swore to protect my family, to treat them as your own.”

  “And I’ve kept my promise. Erik is still alive.”

  The violent wind rushed past me, the force of it aimed straight at Julian. But still he stood his ground. The chandeliers rattled and shook, and pieces of them slashed down around us like daggers. Another violent rumble echoed in the chamber and the windows cracked at the concussion of sound.

  “Control yourself, Rena.” Julian stepped aside as the chandelier fell from the ceiling and shattered at his feet. “You know I had no choice.”

  “And what about Feng? Could you not see your death in his soulless eyes, Julian? Could you not see mine? He is determined to see you dead. By any means possible.”

  “Sometimes we see the future because it is true. And sometimes we see the future because it is what we wish it to be. Which is it for you? Do you have so little faith in my ability?”

  “Faith!” I screamed. “You have given me nothing to have faith in.”

  Heavy copper urns lined each side of the hallway. I put the force of my wind behind them and launched them at Julian’s body one by one. He put both hands in front of him and the urns bounced off the shields he’d placed around himself. They fell to the ground impotently.

  “You have used me, insulted my intelligence, planned my future and risked us all, yourself included. My life force is connected to yours, and I do not wish to die because you are in the middle of a power struggle. What is there for me to have faith in? I am your lifemate, goddammit, and you have treated me no better than a whore.”

  I brought my foot down hard on the wooden floor beneath me. It buckled with the force of an earthquake and rippled in waves toward Julian. I took advantage of him being slightly off balance and launched everything I could find that I hadn’t already broken—vases, lamps, and an oil painting of a nude woman who looked far too satisfied with herself. Glass nicked the side of his temple, and blood ran freely down his face, but he swatted the items away with his magic.

  “I’m beginning to grow tired of your tantrum. What is this really about, Rena?” he asked.

  My anger vanished suddenly. The wind stopped and my power died. The air was still and weighed heavily around us—the calm after the storm. I was exhausted and heartbroken, and I didn’t know how to get through to Julian. How were we ever supposed to have a relationship when he didn’t know the first thing about compassion, or love or trust? Tears fell silently down my cheeks, and I think I began to give up—on Julian, our people and myself. I didn’t have the strength left to guard my mind or my heart.

  “You love me?” Julian asked, surprised.

  Just the fact that he could be surprised over such a basic emotion told me all I needed to know. Julian was hopeless, and our relationship was less than that.

  “Yes,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter. I believe the mating affected me differently than it did you. I can’t seem to help it, though I want so badly to hate you. And I damn the gods for making me feel this way. Our lives are a diversion to them. Entertainment. And I’m tired of being played with.”

  “Don’t do this, Rena.”

  “I’ve made my decision. I’ll fight beside you when we face the Destroyer. But if we live, I will do everything in my power to release this bond we have. The gods are going to owe me one. I’m going to leave you and go back to my people. I don’t know if my clan will have me after what I’ve done to them. I’m not sure it matters. But I will not stay to watch Feng kill you, and I will not live with a man who sees me as nothing more than a pawn in his game and feels even less for me.”

  I turned and fled the hallway, leaving chaos behind me. I didn’t want
to hear his response or his excuses. And I didn’t want to give him the chance to talk me out of leaving. Julian had a way with words that made me lose sight of my own convictions.

  The fight didn’t help as much as I thought it would. I ended up having a good cry anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  My luggage had been placed in the room next to Julian’s—the one we’d thoroughly destroyed with the best sex I’d ever had. As soon as I found the strength, I was going to collect my things and move to the other side of the castle. Or maybe one of the more private bungalows down on the mountain.

  I stumbled into my room and locked the doors behind me, and I did the same to the door that connected my room to Julian’s. My dragon stirred in sympathy and I felt her sadness at what had just happened. I tried to comfort her, and drew my Drakán magic around me so we could both be warm, and then I flung it outward to shield my room from intruders—mainly Julian.

  The little black phone Noah had given me began to warble. I laughed bitterly and let it go to voicemail. I barely had the energy to breathe, much less speak. As soon as it stopped ringing I picked up the phone and dialed for my messages. I only had the one.

  “Rena—” Noah’s out-of-breath voice was full of panic. I hoped everything was all right because I couldn’t deal with anything else right now.

  “Rena, you’ve got to call me back as soon as you get this. You’ve opened your powers, and I could feel them as if you were standing beside me. So could everyone else. Secrets be damned. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. You’re walking around with the equivalent of a pistol cocked and ready to fire. And the part of you you’ve kept hidden so long is now shining like a beacon for all to find you. There will be those who want to hunt you. And I promise, you won’t want to meet them. You need to get away. Hide.”

  “Shit.” I rubbed my fingers in a circle at my temple to ease the headache that had formed there.