The white glow pulsed as the power increased.
The crack in the floor encircled Craig and I, and just when I was watching Lucy, waiting for her to give us the signal to go, a dark cackling filled the chamber once again.
“We have to go, now!” Craig yelled, and grabbed my arm.
“What if we get stuck between worlds?”
The cackling grew louder as the chalk outline turned darker.
“Go!” Lucy yelled, and the strain of keeping the portal open was evident on her face. “Go now, we’ll distract him as long as we can!”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but then Crane’s other hand landed on her shoulder, and the cackling cut off in a sharp scream as the white glow was as blinding as the sun.
With Craig holding onto my arm in a death grip, we leaped into the narrow crack in the floor, and my stomach somersaulted as we were thrown through space and time.
Before we were cut off completely from the others, I heard screams of panic, and then everything went dark.
We hit the ground hard, and my head struck a rock.
Craig cursed somewhere nearby, but I blacked out.
13
Forrest
“Open your eyes, man,” Craig muttered and tapped my cheek hard. “Forrest?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” I muttered, and groaned when I tried to sit up.
“Take it slow, you hit your head pretty hard. Knocked you out for a few minutes.”
I sat up and peered around through squinty eyes. “We make it?”
He knelt beside me, staring into the familiar dead trees close by. “Yeah, I’d say we’re back, but the question is where. There’s not exactly a map of this place.”
“You have any idea where we landed?”
Crunching sounded close by, and I struggled to see past the shadows created by the trees.
Craig placed a finger to his mouth and hauled me to my feet. He motioned towards the right and we side-stepped that direction until we were under the boughs of the trees, crouching and waiting.
A few seconds later, a beast like we faced the very first time we came here emerged, sniffing the air as it slowly spun around searching for its prey.
Craig nudged me, and we quietly crept farther away, losing sight of the creature, before we broke into a dead sprint to put as much distance between us and it as we could.
When we stopped to catch our breaths, I hunched over double, cursing the ache in my head and caught sight of the glowing at my wrist.
“The bracelets,” I whispered and tugged up my sleeve. “It’s glowing, so is yours.”
“Kate... Lucy said they would pulse faster when we were close.” He turned his body, holding out his arm, and I watched as the pulsing slowed. He gritted his teeth and turned back the other direction, and it increased. “That way.” He started off, but I stopped him. “What?”
“When we were leaving, what happened?”
He glanced back the way we’d come and clenched his jaw. “Whatever stopped us from going through the first time, I think it broke through.”
“You think they’re alright?”
“Depends on what was thrown through the portal to attack.”
The screaming echoed in my ears, and my gut clenched, imagining what horror we left behind for the others to fight off.
I didn’t want to lay the blame at Kate’s feet, but if she had just waited, talked to us about what she was going through, they might not be facing down whatever plagued horror Zohar sent through the portal.
Or worse, it could be Allis, or Zohar himself.
“We have to move,” Craig whispered.
I nodded, taking off after him through the trees.
The glowing from our bracelets kept up a steady pulsing, and I prayed to the gods for us to find Kate quickly enough, so we could get back and hopefully find the others alive.
14
Kate
I slashed furiously at another tree branch as the gleeful cackling sounded again.
“What’s with the sad face, Kate?” the illusion of Craig chided, stomping along beside me. “You should be quite pleased with yourself.”
I didn’t answer and hacked at another branch in my way.
He’d shown up a few moments after I finally got myself going again, after seeing everyone I loved, beaten and blooded in that clearing.
At first, my heart had nearly leaped out of my chest, thinking he and Forrest had come for me after all.
But the second I reached him, and his smirk spread wider than should’ve been possible, I screamed in anger and tried to kill the illusion.
He always remained just out of reach.
And decided that tagging along with me was just too much fun.
It switched between him and Forrest. One or the other followed me like my own personal traveling hell.
“You know, you are fulfilling your destiny by coming here if you’re still worried about screwing e everything up.”
Setting my jaw, I whipped around with the blade ready to slice the illusion clean through, but it disappeared.
I heard a clicking of a tongue behind me and glared over my shoulder to find him there instead, leaning against a tree.
“Really, is that any way to treat your friend?”
“You are not my friend,” I growled and focused back on my path.
“Do you even know where you’re going? You sure this is the right way?”
Since seeing Allis in the clearing, I had gone from being mildly freaked out to scared, to downright pissed at what he was doing now. Toying with me. That’s all he was doing, playing his damned game to see if I’d snap, go insane, give up on my quest of finding the rest of the shield.
After the illusion of Craig disappeared the first time, I’d spent the last few hours with Forrest scolding me for giving into my emotions and not being a true dragon, not in his eyes.
I’d tried several times to take his head off with the sword, but the blade only passed through his body like it wasn’t there.
When his voice had finally disappeared, I thought I was free for a while, but then Craig was there to pick it right back up and had not shut up since.
“My destiny,” I snarled, unable to keep quiet, “is to kill your master.”
“Is it?” he asked. “You sure that’s what your destiny is?”
“What else would it be? I’m the Vindicar, remember.”
I hacked at another branch as he shrugged.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing, if that’s what you believe, who am I to argue with you.”
I yanked the sword free of the branch and pointed it at him. “Why else would I be here?”
Craig shrugged again, pacing around me in a circle. “Dunno, what made you come here in the first place? All alone, too when you know the only true way to defeat the darkness is with Craig and Forrest by your side?”
“I’m doing this to save them,” I said. “My care for them drove me here, that’s all.”
“You absolutely sure it wasn’t anything else? Something calling to you maybe? Something that has seen you lose control, seen you want to lash out and take your revenge against those who wronged your family?”
My fingers readjusted themselves on the hilt of the sword.
I should’ve said no, denied it flat out, but I couldn’t get the words to leave my mouth. Was that really what I wanted, revenge? There was a lot that played into why my parents were killed, but that moment when I nearly killed Kadin and Raghnall, that had not been me.
But I had enjoyed it, having that much power over my supposed enemies, knowing I could crush them in seconds if I wanted to.
A smile spread across my face before I could stop it and I caught Craig grinning at me knowingly.
Quickly, I made my face go blank and think of who had stopped me from killing those two. Forrest and Craig, the real ones. They were who I needed to focus on and remember why I had come here alone. To save them and save everyone else.
Th
ere was no room for revenge. I didn’t need it.
I pushed forward again, hoping Craig would poof away, but he stalked alongside me again, whistling obnoxiously loudly.
I gritted my teeth, but refused to say anything else to him. I just needed to get to the ruins, that was it.
“He doesn’t really care for you, you know,” Craig said suddenly, and I paused mid-swing.
“Who?”
His eyes narrowed as he leered. “Forrest, or Craig, to be honest. Neither one wants anything to do with you, not after all the shit you’ve dragged into their lives. You’re risking your life for them for nothing.”
“I didn’t start this!” I yelled, and poked him hard in the chest, nearly toppling over when my hand passed right through him, and he disappeared. “Gah! Get back here so I can kick your ass!”
“I’m simply trying to be helpful,” his voice said from above, and I saw him walking along a thick tree limb before he crouched down and watched me closely. “Saving your heart before it gets broken. They know what Celandine did to their past lives, you really think they want to die horrible deaths again? Do you?”
I gripped the sword hard enough for my fingers to cramp. “It’s not going to happen,” was all I managed to say before he burst out laughing in glee.
“If you weren’t the Vindicar, neither one would be with you. Why would they?”
I said nothing and slashed at another branch, trying to remember the last few times I was around Forrest and Craig, knowing the illusion stalking me from overhead lied.
Their feelings for me were just as strong as mine were for them.
Hell, I overheard them arguing about me enough times to know when this was all over, they would probably go back to bickering which was the better match for me.
“There’s not one damned special thing about you,” Craig persisted. “You’re just Kate if you take everything else away, an orphan, a little lost girl with no one to love her.”
“Just leave me alone,” I whispered hotly, remembering the last embrace I shared with Craig and Forrest. The last time they kissed me. “Just leave me alone.”
I raised the sword to cut another branch when suddenly Craig was there and this time, the sword bit right into his neck.
His eyes widened in panic and blood spurted from the wound as he gasped.
Panicking, I tried to pull the blade free as he collapsed in my arms, solid.
“No, no! Craig?”
It couldn’t be him, but the body in my arms was real and hard. He choked on his blood, lifting his hands to staunch the wound, but there was too much blood, and then his breathing stopped, and his eyes slid closed.
I shook my head, horrified as I stared at the dead body before me and the blood covering my hands. So much blood, glistening in the strange lighting of this world.
Tears pricked my eyes as I whispered no, over and over again.
The runes pulsed with power and I felt it threatening to overflow and lose control.
A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I jerked, a wave of power bursting out from me and striking whoever stood behind me.
I whirled around, and my nightmare grew worse to see Forrest standing over me, his face blank as he glanced down at his body, slashed to ribbons from my outburst.
“You… you can’t be here! This isn’t real, it’s not!” I pleaded as tears streamed down my face. “No… no, it isn’t possible. I wouldn’t’!”
“Craig,” he rasped as he sank to his knees. “You killed him, Kate… you killed us both.”
Shaking, I tried to reach out for him, but he fell to the ground, and his eyes remained open, but glazed over as he stared back at me.
“Forrest… Forrest!”
I shook his shoulders, but he didn’t move again. Tears continued to run down my cheeks as I looked from him to Craig.
“This isn’t real, please, this can’t be real… I can’t… I wouldn’t have killed them. No, please just open your eyes, both of you!”
But neither moved, and my gut twisted in knots until I turned to the side and lost what little there was in my stomach. As I wiped my mouth on my arm, lost in the misery of what I’d just done, footsteps sounded behind me. I didn’t turn, didn’t care anymore to see who was there. Craig and Forrest were dead by my hands.
My heart shattered, and I was ready to give up, throw everything away… until Allis appeared before me, tilting his head as he studied me.
“What did you do, Kate?” he asked quietly. “What did you do?”
No words formed in my mouth, and I sucked in a deep breath, widening my eyes again as I stared at the dead bodies of the two people in my life who meant the most to me.
My soulmates, my destiny.
Allis crouched before me and reached out for my blood-soaked hands. His skin was cold to the touch, and I had no strength to fight as he held them up, clicking his tongue.
“What did I tell you? I said they would die because of you and look what happened.”
He nodded to Craig, with the blade still embedded in his neck, and then to Forrest, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.
I shook my head again, mumbling incoherently, but Allis kept a firm grip on my wrists, tugging hard on them so I was forced to look at him.
“You will never be the Vindicar, Kate. You will fail everyone, just as you failed the two young men who were willing to give their hearts to you.”
I sniffed hard, unable to deny the truth, when another pulse of light on my arm caught my eye.
Except this one was not coming from the runes.
I blinked, trying to clear away the tears, and watched the bracelet, willing it to happen again.
Allis was speaking, but I tuned him out completely, holding my breath and waiting… waiting… there!
My gaze slipped to Forrest’s wrist where a matching bracelet should have been pulsing, signifying they were close, but there was no bracelet.
A quick look at Craig told me the same thing, and I turned my sudden enraged glare to Allis, who had finally fallen silent.
“They are dead, Kate,” he insisted. “Dead and gone.”
I wasn’t sure what came over me, but the rage I’d felt in times past seemed to amplify, and my dragon roared to life.
The runes on my body gave off a blinding light of pure power of the Darrah clan as I threw my head back on a furious cackle that turned into a mighty roar.
My body shifted, and I pumped my massive wings, taking off into the sky before twisting and turning, my eyes narrowed on Allis, standing amongst the trees, no dead bodies in sight.
Another trick. Another horrible trick to make me think I murdered Craig and Forrest. Except now, he would pay with his life. He would not escape me a second time.
I opened my jaws, ready to unleash fire on him, but he hadn’t tried to run away, or shift into a dragon himself.
He crossed his arms over his chest and seemed content to watch me bearing down on him. If he wanted to be an easy target, that was fine by me.
My fury drove me on, and just as I felt the burning heat build in my chest, ready to explode and roast him alive, he snapped his fingers and a breathtaking pain shot through my body and I crashed to the ground in a heap.
Convulsing, I cursed against the pain and shifted.
I tried to go back, to let the dragon out, but whatever he just did prevented it from happening.
“We can’t have that now can we,” I heard him call out from close by, and rolled over to see him beaming at me.
Spitting leaves and dirt from my mouth, I snarled in rage, spotted the Executioner blade lying on the ground close by, and lunged for it.
Blinded by my anger and hatred for this plague and everything attached to it, I took off after Allis, screaming for his head.
I was going to kill him, I was going to kill him nice and slow and make him suffer! He made me think I killed Craig and Forrest.
His death would not be a nice one.
Branches slapped at my face and arms, scrat
ching me, drawing blood, but I didn’t slow.
Celandine cautioned me, but my fierce growling drowned her out, and all I heard was Allis’ cackling as he sprinted on ahead of me.
I kept him just in my sights, but too far out of my reach to attack. I was going to tear him apart! I might not be able to turn into a dragon, but he was going to be nothing, but hunks of meat when I was finished with him. My lungs burned, and my heart felt like it was about to pound right out of my chest, but I never slowed.
“Allis!” I bellowed, and his answering cackle had me running faster.
I was catching up, barely a few yards behind him when the trees parted, and I staggered out into a familiar clearing with a set of ruins at the top of the sloping ground.
No, not ruins, not anymore.
I skidded to a surprised stop, mouth dropping open in shock when rough hands grabbed my upper arms and Allis was suddenly before me, wrenching the Executioner blade from my hands.
I fought to break free, but the two plagued dragons lifted me easily off my feet, and Allis whistled as he led the way towards the ruins Craig, Forrest, and I had seen only days ago.
But time passed differently here, and clearly whoever Allis’ master was had been busy at work.
The entire fortress was nearly rebuilt, missing just the outer walls and two towards the far side.
And everywhere I looked were plagued demons, dragons, and undead.
I tugged on my arms, kicking my feet, but their hold was too strong, and a voice in my head scolded me to keep what strength I could.
After my sprint through the woods, I barely had any left in me.
As we neared two iron front doors, they opened inwards, and Allis headed right on inside, the plagued carrying me through.
I tilted my head back and hated to admit the fortress was impressive.
How they did so much work in, so few days was incredible. I was still trying to see, mostly looking for ways out, when the plagued dropped me unceremoniously to the floor.
Chaos (Dragon Reign Book 4) Page 7
