“Crane! Where is he?”
“Here, Craig, what is it?” he asked as he wiped his hands on a dirty rag.
“You know that clear steel you used in the sword?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes… why?”
“I need a cage, and I can’t let it be seen until the target is in the cage and I need it right now.”
His worried glance shot past me to the manor. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing, yet, but it appears our King Raghnall is not who he seems,” I growled, and Crane’s eyes darkened in anger. “So, do you have something to help me out here?”
“Yes,” he stated and marched away, waving for me to join him. “Yes, I do.”
9
Craig
Forrest had joined in the yelling by the time I returned with Crane and six sorcerers.
From outside appearances, the wooden cart they dragged along behind them was empty, but if it was empty, it wouldn’t take six men to pull it.
Crane walked beside me, his face blank, but I wasn’t as coy.
Every few seconds a growl slipped from my mouth, wondering if anyone else within the royal household had been taken over.
My cousin, perchance.
“Easy, Craig,” Crane warned as we reached the room. “We will have one chance.”
“I know,” I muttered. “Don’t mess it up.”
He smirked right before we entered the room, then his face went blank again.
I heard Raghnall growling as Forrest and Kadin discussed Kate and how her progress was coming along as far as her using her newfound abilities.
My father’s hands were curled into tight fists at his sides, and his right eye kept twitching violently.
“She’s out in the gardens right now, practicing,” Forrest said.
Raghnall’s eyes darted to the open doorway… where they landed on me and his lip lifted in a sneer.
“Well then, why don’t you show us what the Darrah is up to?” Raghnall asked brightly.
Crane and I exchanged a glance.
The sorcerers with the cart had remained in the foyer, setting the trap we only had one chance to spring.
“I believe she needs time for her training and not to be disturbed,” Crane said.
Raghnall stalked closer, and I fought the urge to take up a protective stance in front of the older man.
I was fairly certain he could protect himself far better than I could, but knowing the plague possessed Raghnall had me on edge.
“I insist,” he argued. “Being one of the kings of our world, I have a right to do as I please.”
Kadin opened his mouth to argue.
Forrest placed a hand on his father’s shoulder and bowed his head to Raghnall. “By all means then, she would be happy to show what she has learned.”
Raghnall huffed in agreement, and I noticed Forrest whisper to Kadin, but didn’t stick around to see his reaction.
I turned and led the way with Crane, Raghnall right behind me.
“She is out front,” I told him, and we walked through the foyer.
I took two steps to the right and Crane to the left at just the right time.
Raghnall had not noticed and continued on straight through the center. When his head smacked hard on something metal he could not see, he cursed and whipped around with a snarl, but I was there to slam the cage door shut, locking it.
“What is the meaning of this?” he snapped, reaching out and gingerly touching the bars he couldn’t see. “Release me at once!”
“Not until you tell us who you are,” I growled with a dark grin.
His arm lashed out, but I was far enough away that he couldn’t reach. “I will kill you for this, son.”
“Do not call me son. You are not my father, not anymore.”
“Forrest? What is this?” Kadin seemed almost more fascinated by the invisible cage able to hold a demon than the fact the demon king was the one trapped inside.
“Part of our new work,” Crane explained. “Don’t worry, he can’t escape.”
Raghnall cackled and the sound grated on my nerves. “You put too much stock in sorcerers’ magic. This cage will not hold me for long.”
“It doesn’t have to, just long to get some answers before I kill you.” I drew the blade from my back and swung it casually as I circled the cage. “When did you possess my father?”
“Who says I’m possessed?” he challenged. “Perhaps this is how I just am.”
“No, I see the plague in you. You are not the demon king.”
Raghnall shrugged, before he smashed his face to the bars, studying me intently. “You are quite bright for a bastard, aren’t you? Too bright. I should have killed you so many times.”
“And now you never will,” I said with a wink.
He shook the bars with a growl, but the cage held fast. “You cannot hope to defeat my master.”
“Zohar?” Forrest asked.
Raghnall’s head whipped around at an impossible angle that made my neck ache as he glared at the dragon prince.
Forrest continued, “Is that who sent you here?”
Raghnall laughed, a high-pitched shriek that made me grind my teeth and grip the sword, ready to run him through just to get it to stop. “The young dragon prince who thinks he knows all. You truly believe you will stop the darkness? That you will end this plague my master wishes to bring upon the world?”
“We will stop you,” Forrest snapped. “It’s our destiny, has been since the beginning.”
His cackling grew worse, and the hair on the back of my neck rose.
Clearly, he knew something the rest of us did not.
“Speak, demon,” I snapped, pointing the blade at his throat. “Speak, and I will make your death as painless as possible.”
That was a lie, but he didn’t have to know that.
“You wish to know about destiny is that it? About how this is all going to end?”
I stepped closer, so the tip of the blade was pressed into his skin. “Enlighten us.”
Not seeming to care about harming himself, he pushed his body as far into the bars as he could, and the tip of the sword cut his flesh.
He bled, and if I had any doubts before about the plague being in him, I didn’t anymore.
His blood was black as tar.
“I will tell you how this war begins,” he whispered. “A war like nothing seen before. She will be the one to lead the armies of the Master, the armies that will cover this world in darkness.”
An image of Kate, her eyes black, appeared in my mind, and my hand tightened its grip on the sword.
“You lie,” I growled fiercely.
“I do not lie, not ever,” he insisted. “She will come, you’ll see, and by then, it will be too late.”
I shook my head, but he was laughing again, that screeching, high-pitched sound that tore at me.
A vision of Kate filled my mind, seeing her at the head of an army of plagued, those black eyes of hers staring back at me, so cold and heartless.
She was destined to stop the plague, not be a part of it. But the images continued to bombard me, seeing her shouting orders in the midst of a fight, covered in blood. Seeing her kill dragons, demons, humans alike, any that got in her way.
And when she shifted into her dragon form, her scales were onyx, and the runes that usually glowed such a brilliant white and blue flared crimson, as she roared, taking off into the sky and unleashing flames of black death.
I yelled with fury and thrust the sword forward as my finger ignited the fire that would kill Raghnall and the plagued demon he had become.
He gasped as the blade bit easily into his skin and went right through his neck.
Forrest yelled, he and Kadin rushing forward to stop me, but it was too late.
I yanked the sword free, and it clattered to the stones as I sank down with it, clutching my head and willing the horrible images to leave me be.
Raghnall choked and sputtered, before a thud told me he was dead,
the crackling of the flames destroying his body was the only thing I heard.
Raghnall, demon king, was dead.
Vaguely, I swore I heard Crane mutter, “The king is dead, long live the king,” and his hand fell to my shoulder.
10
Kate
I hardly slept, picturing Forrest and Craig with me again, but the moment didn’t stay happy for long.
They were torn away from me, and I was left running through the darkness alone, hearing that horrible cackling in my mind that I knew belonged to Zohar.
At some point, I’d given up on sleeping, and started out again after dousing what remained of my fire, and packing up my bag again.
As I walked as quietly as I could, I pondered the memories Celandine presented to me last night.
I had not witnessed her handing over the throne, but the wedding that came after was hard enough to see from her perspective, after returning from that first fight and realizing what her destiny had to be.
Part of her heart had broken, knowing she would never be with him, not truly. But her life took her elsewhere, and she needed to know the dragons would be well looked after.
The day he announced his wife had a son, she told me this morning, when I continued to replay the event over and over again, that she had locked herself away and bitterly cursed her father for destroying the life she dreamt of having one day.
“You loved Broden though, didn’t you?” I asked, unable to stop thinking about her situation and my own.
I still had no idea what to do about my feelings for both Craig and Forrest. I’d be an idiot not to admit I loved them both, after all, we’d been through, but each love felt different somehow, like they completed a separate part of me… there was just too much to try and sort out right now.
And all Celandine’s memories did was make it even more confusing.
We cared for each other, but those feelings did not grow until much later in the fighting, when sometimes all we had to keep us from falling prey to our own despair was each other. We became each other’s strength, and in time, my love for him was as strong as any love one soulmate can have for another. But after what happened with the creation of the Vindicar, I wound up with two, and it plagued me every day, almost worse than the fighting did, to know I could never truly be with them.
I wondered at her words some more, worried I’d never be able to figure out where I belonged either.
And I saw plenty of those fights to doubt I would’ve kept on fighting, or not gone insane if I didn’t have someone with me like Craig or Forrest.
That’s why I was here now, to stop this entire situation before it became a war. If I didn’t, I would be forced to watch the plague tear apart the realms, again, and kill everything I cared for.
I was not going to let them get killed, not this time.
Celandine had just fallen silent inside my head again, and I was okay with that, but then I heard something else that made me wish it was my past life still talking to me.
“Kate.”
I froze mid-step, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end as it came a second time.
That voice, it couldn’t be.
I held my breath, waiting to hear it again, but when nothing happened, I chalked it up to lack of sleep and walked on.
“Kate.”
I staggered in the underbrush this time, in my hurry to turn, drawing the Executioner blade as I did.
The voice, it teased me, and I wanted it to go away.
My hands shook as they gripped the sword, knowing this couldn’t be real.
I glared into the shadows as Celandine urged me to keep going, but then I heard my name again, further away this time, barely a whisper and confused tears filled my eyes.
It came a second time, a third, and I couldn’t hold back any longer.
I took off through the trees, chasing after that voice.
I slashed through branches and bushes, sliding in the leaves and hit the ground hard before I managed to find my feet again. The wound on my arm throbbed when I smacked it into a tree, opening it again, so warm blood spread down my arm.
But I couldn’t stop.
It called to me still, and when I burst through the trees, I found myself in a clearing, the grass dead and burnt at my feet, and I was not alone.
Gasping to catch my breath from my dead sprint, I stared at the back of that head, her hair the same color as mine, same height, same build.
At first, I worried I was simply going crazy, but then she turned on the spot, and I sank to my knees in the dirt.
The sword slipped from my grip and my jaw dropped.
“Kate,” the woman whispered lovingly as she approached. “My dear, sweet Kate.”
“Mom?” I gasped in shock.
She was here, flesh and blood here.
Tears shone in her eyes as she stepped closer, reaching out a hand for me. “My girl, I’ve missed you so much throughout the years.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears as they slipped down my cheeks.
I had no strength left from the run, and she fell to her knees before me, hugging me close to her as we cried together. She felt so real in my arms, but it couldn’t be her. She was killed by the other dragons. This shouldn’t be possible, and yet here she was.
I managed to wrap my arms around her and turned my head to breathe her in… when my eyes widened, and I stilled in a panic.
“Kate? What is it, what’s wrong?” she asked, pulling back as she cupped my face in her hands.
It looked like her, the eyes were just like mine, green with a hint of blue from the strange lighting. Her face was an older version of mine and her hair, same as mine.
But Mom, she always smelled of lavender. Always. It was the one memory I managed to cling to when she died. I dreamt of her countless times, and even after Dad was killed, it was Mom’s lavender I remembered most.
“You are not my mom,” I growled, the sound reverberating from deep within my chest.
Her eyes narrowed as she smiled. “Don’t be silly, of course I’m your mother.”
“No, you’re not.” I tried to pull back, but her hands tightened on my cheeks so hard, I waited for my jaw to crack, wincing in pain.
“Clever girl, aren’t we?” she snarled, and fangs sprouted in her mouth.
Her palms pressed harder, and I screamed in pain as her touch burned my skin.
I thrashed and managed to headbutt this monster, rolling backward and away when she was forced to let me go.
My face stung, but I reached for the sword and held it high, glaring at the creature who looked like my mom.
“What are you?” I snapped, watching closely as she pushed to her feet. “What? Answer me!”
She smiled wider, and those fangs grew impossibly longer in her mouth. “You know exactly what I am, girl. What all of us are.” She spread her arms wide as more rustling came from the trees.
I needed to look, but only chanced a glance, not ready to take my gaze off her completely.
Until the second figure came through the trees and I had no choice.
“No… no this isn’t happening,” I whispered, horrified at the figure emerging from the shadows.
And it wasn’t the only one. More appeared, stalking towards me until I was surrounded by these creatures, creatures with faces of those I cared about.
Dad cackled darkly at me as he approached, face burnt, and the rest of his clothes torn and bloodied as if he had just been killed all over again.
“You did this to me,” he growled, circling closer.
I shook my head frantically, keeping him at sword point. “No… I didn’t kill you,” I whispered.
“You did. I died to save you, just as your mother did. Just as we all did.”
I grit my teeth, forcing my gaze away from the other faces, of Mama, of the kids at the house, but there were two I couldn’t bear to see though I knew they walked closer.
Their steps crunched in the leaves, and I shut my eyes, not willing
to see those dark faces glowering at me in rage.
“It’s not real,” I whispered, repeatedly even as the steps came to a stop, one on either side of me. “You’re not them, you’re not real.”
“Closing your eyes won’t change the truth,” Forrest hissed in my ear.
I flinched.
“You are the reason we died back then,” Craig growled. “You’re the reason we will die again. All of us, because of your failure.”
I scrunched my eyes shut until they hurt. “No, that’s why I did this, it’s why I came here.”
“To do what? Fail again?” Forrest cackled a sound I never heard come from him before. “You are weak, Katherine, too weak to be the Vindicar, just as Celandine was too weak to do what had to be done. She could not kill her father and look at where we are now.”
“I am not weak,” I argued, but the words trembled with my fear. “I’m not.”
“Then why did you run?” Craig challenged. “Why?”
“To save you!” I shouted, and opened my eyes.
It was the wrong thing to do.
Their faces, so handsome and strong the last time I saw them, were now deformed and twisted in anger. Blood covered them, and their eyes were solid black masses, watching me with such malice, my gut felt like it crashed to the ground.
I staggered away from them, but they only followed.
“You won’t save us,” Forrest growled, hands closing into fists at his sides.
“You have only sealed our fate,” Craig added harshly. “Just as Celandine did theirs all those years ago.”
More sticks and leaves crunched behind me, and I came to a sudden stop. Heart pounding, and palms growing sweaty the longer I tried to hold onto the Executioner blade, I gulped as I glanced over my shoulder.
I whipped around, and my sword aimed at Broden and Malcolm instead.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Celandine plead for this not to be happening, and I was in complete agreement.
But there they stood, bearing the wounds that lead to their deaths.
Blood dripped from Broden’s side, and Malcolm’s face was drenched in more crimson, as was his front. When he shifted his head, I saw the gash at his throat and gagged.
Chaos (Dragon Reign Book 4) Page 5
