I had no idea where it might dump us out at, but the bracelet pulsing at my wrist urged me on, and I carefully pushed open the doors.
The corridor before us was lit by torches, but two plagued guards stood at the end near an arched doorway, and what looked like stairs leading deeper into the fortress.
“I’ve got the left,” Craig whispered, and I nodded, shifting so I aimed for the one on the right.
Together, we crept down the corridor and attacked at the same time.
I wrapped my hand around the guard’s mouth and drove my dagger deep into his neck to drag him away from the stairs while Craig did the same with his.
They dropped easily, and I paused, looking at their bodies, not moving.
“Forrest, let’s go,” Craig growled, already moving down the stairs.
Something was wrong.
I expected them to jump and come after us again, but the guards remained on the floor. Dead.
“Forrest?”
“Yeah, coming,” I replied and hurried to catch up.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and took out the two guards stationed there, too.
They didn’t go down as easily, and I wound up ducking under the blade of mine as Craig squared off with the other one.
Their eyes were black, and I knew they had the plague in them, but for some reason, they went down without Craig having to ignite the fire in his sword, and I never once breathed fire on them.
When they landed dead at our feet, and Craig made to keep going, I pulled him to a stop.
“What? We don’t have time for this.”
“You don’t think this is a bit odd?” I muttered. “They’re dead.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“But how? They’re plagued, we should have to use the potion, and we’re not. This is wrong, something isn’t right.”
“What’s not right is you slowing us down. We need to get Kate,” he growled and yanked his arm out of my hand. “You’re wasting time.”
I didn’t move. Something tugged at my mind, a strong sense of confusion and anger. I followed it, thinking it came from Craig, but when I reached out further, it drifted away from where Craig stood and went in a completely different direction in the fortress.
I started to turn in that direction, needing to follow it, when a scream erupted from down below.
“Kate,” I whispered and sprinted past Craig, bounding down the stairs as the scream sounded again, followed by cursing and a man bellowing in rage. “Kate!”
I didn’t care about secrecy anymore.
Kate was being tortured, and I was not going to wait around to sneak in and get her out.
Craig seemed to be on the same page, and both of us followed her screams to a set of large double doors guarded by four more guards.
In a state of pure rage, I attacked, barely noticing when their blades nicked my arms and another slashed down my side. I ignored the blood dripping from my wounds and attacked harder, driving the last guard hard enough into the wooden doors they splintered, and his body was flung across the room.
“Forrest!” Kate screamed, and I heard chains rattle as she screamed again in pain.
“Kate! Get away from her!”
It was a scene from my worst nightmares.
Kate was bound in chains, beaten and bloodied, as Zohar and Allis stood by her side. Their black eyes were glassy, and they sneered at us as we moved closer.
“Not so fast, my prince,” Zohar warned, and tugged on the chain, dragging Kate to her feet.
She fought against him, but she was weak and could hardly stand. His hand wrapped around her throat and I growled as she clawed and beat at him while he choked her right before my eyes.
“Let her go!” I snarled, but Craig held me back.
“You can’t stop this war from coming,” Zohar bellowed, and squeezed tighter.
Kate’s face was changing colors, and her eyes bulged.
Zohar sneered. “Nothing you do will prevent the wave of destruction I’m bringing to the realms!”
He threw Kate across the room, and she landed hard on her side, gasping for air as the chains rattled. He rolled his shoulders and growled as power shimmered over his body.
“No Vindicar is going to stop me this time.”
I dropped my daggers, watching as Kate struggled to sit up. She pleaded with me not to do what I was about to do, but this was going to end, right now.
I closed my eyes and felt the shift start to come over me just as I whispered to Craig, “Think you can handle Allis?”
“You’re going to take on Zohar?”
“They’re not leaving here alive,” I snarled in answer and roared as my dragon burst through the surface, filling the space while I stood on my hind legs and my wings flared behind me.
Zohar smirked before he shifted next, the black dragon pressing into the stones behind it. He was twice my size, and when his wings shout out wide behind him, the walls trembled and cracked, splitting open the walls and sending rubble everywhere.
I rushed forward, using my wings to shelter Kate when Zohar took to the sky. I turned my gaze to her as I heard Craig and Allis battling behind me. She lifted her hand and rested her palm against my face, but Zohar was waiting.
The power of the Vindicar ran through all of us, and I was going to use it to kill the bastard.
I took off after him, lifting myself into the sky and following the glimpse of his spiked tail as he zig-zagged through the clouds, trying to lose me. But I didn’t need to see him to stay on him.
I let his hatred guide me, following it like a lit-up trail as we soared through the clouds.
When I was within range, I sucked in a mouthful of air, felt my fire build within my chest, and unleashed my fury on him.
The fire just missed his body as he rolled to the right and I followed.
He shot a fireball over his shoulder, the flames black and red.
I shifted my position lower, but it singed my left wing, and I growled in pain before I attacked again, pumping my wings harder to try and get over him.
His head swiveled to the side, trying to see me, but then I dove downwards, grabbed hold of him in my claws, and we spun around and around as we crashed towards the ground.
He brought his head back, then bit down hard on my shoulder.
I roared as blood seeped from the wound and he came at me again and again until I was forced to let go and kick off his body.
He caught himself and whirled around, coming after me again. I tried to stay focused as pain clouded my vision. His tail whipped me from the right, and the spikes dug into my wing, tearing it to shreds. Air ripped it more, and I had no choice, but to land, staggering to my feet as I shifted, grunting in pain.
“Forrest!”
“Kate!” I spied her running towards me while Craig fought Allis behind her.
I wanted her to stay back as I heard Zohar’s furious roar from overhead, but then Allis screamed when Craig drove his sword through his chest, driving him to the floor. His body twitched once, twice, then stilled.
Craig yanked the blade free and hurried to catch up to Kate just as she reached me.
“You’re hurt.” She caught me in her arms.
I sank to one knee, gritting my teeth.
“I’ll live, but Zohar, he’s coming back. We have to finish this.”
Craig tossed me a dagger and the three of us stood shoulder to shoulder as Zohar landed on the grounds, shaking it as he stormed closer.
He sucked in a deep breath, and any second now he was going to unleash hell on us, roasting us alive.
Kate suddenly reached out and grabbed my free hand and one of Craig’s.
Fire simmered in Zohar’s jaws, and a second later, it shot towards us.
I made ready to grab Kate and shove her and Craig to the ground, but a jolt of power kept my hand locked firmly in her grip before it burst forth from her, surrounding the three of us in blue-white light.
The fire from Zohar surrounded
us, but it never struck us.
Instead, it swirled back around into a large ball. The faster it turned, the more the flames changed from black and red to blue and white. They increased in size and the air around us crackled with power as the three of us fueled Kate.
Blood dripped from her nose, and she yelled, straining to keep up the attack, but then the flames shot out to Zohar and ignited his body. He shrieked in agony as the flames consumed him. They rolled over him in waves, and I couldn’t make him out amongst the bright light.
The shield around us fell away, and a shuddering thud rocked the ground.
When the flames slowly cleared, all that remained of Zohar was a burnt-out shell of a dragon’s body. Zohar was dead.
Kate sank against my side, and I caught her as Craig patted my shoulder, smiling in relief at what we just did.
I thought all we’d be doing was saving Kate and here we were, killing Zohar.
Ending this war before it ever had a chance to get started.
After a few moments of gaining strength from each other, Kate walked away a few steps to stand on her own and I clasped my hands at the back of my head.
The sky lightened overhead, and everything about this place felt lighter, purified almost.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen to the Burnt World, but Zohar was dead. Allis was dead. Nothing else mattered.
I stared around the grounds of the fortress in a state of disbelief.
We did it, we actually did it. Zohar was dead, and the darkness was gone from this world.
I breathed the fresh air, ready to go home and announce the good news, that there wouldn’t be a war, but I caught a sudden whiff of burnt flesh, and the putrid stink of the plague hit my nose.
At first, I assumed it came from Zohar, but it was too strong, and it surrounded me.
I blinked, and Zohar’s body crumpled in on itself, blowing away with a sudden gust of wind, chilling me to the bone.
“Forrest?” Kate asked from behind me. “What’s wrong? Shouldn’t we leave?”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I reached for the dagger at my hip, but it wasn’t there. I’d left it behind when I went after Zohar, not having a need for it.
Slowly, I turned to see Kate watching me closely, but Craig was gone. Just vanished.
This was wrong, everything about what just happened was wrong.
I should run, but I couldn’t get myself to move.
Kate tilted her head as she watched me, in a way that was unfamiliar to me.
I reached out, searching for her emotions… and flinched when all I felt was a blank void where I expected to find the warmth that I’d come to know as Kate.
My eyes widened when she stepped closer.
“You,” I whispered, horrified at what was happening as the world tilted around me and reality rushed in. “You are not Kate.”
She blinked, and as I watched, her eyes turned dark and she closed the distance between us.
18
Craig
The landing had gone better than I thought, after jumping off Forrest’s back, and we were already inside the fortress, taking out guards as they came at us.
We left a pile of bodies in our wake, but each time one went down, I swore I felt something tugging at my mind.
Forrest didn’t seem to notice and kept pushing us onwards, needing to find Kate and get out of here.
I’d hoped to keep our presence a bit quieter, but between the shield of magic we hit, and the number of guards continually charging at us, Zohar knew we were here.
Our time to get to Kate was running short.
The same tugging hit me again, and I swore I heard Forrest whisper even though he stood just a few yards ahead of me.
I glanced back over my shoulder, lowering the sword to my side as I tilted my head and strained to hear.
I reached out. The air almost seemed to shimmer before my eyes and swore for a split second, I caught sight of Kate standing right before me until the image disappeared and I frowned, trying to bring it back.
I worried it was a vision and that we were going to be too late when a scream tore through me and I was running again, sprinting as fast as I could to reach the source of that pained scream.
“Kate!” I ran headlong into the next patrol of guards, taking two of them down with me as I attacked with a newfound fury.
The scream cut off suddenly and I feared the worst.
Forrest slashed with his daggers, and together we made short work of the guards.
When the last one fell, I rammed my shoulder into the doors before us and burst through, staring around the room and the fire that surrounded the edges. They were black and red, roaring with a life of their own and there at the far end of the room highlighted by their flickering tendrils was Zohar and Allis.
A body lay on the floor at his feet, and the second I moved farther into the room, my heart pounded beneath my ribs.
“Kate… what did you do to her!” I roared and charged forward.
Allis ducked down and placed a blade to her throat.
I staggered to a stop, Forrest growling beside me. “Let her go!”
“You two are making it very tiresome trying to get rid of you.” Zohar raised his hands, and the fire alongside the walls grew higher, reaching towards the ceiling. “But, now that you are here, I will take care of the three of you, here and now. You will not stop me, not again!”
“Get down!” Forrest yelled, and gave me a shove as the flames shot towards us.
We hit the stones, and I felt the heat swarm across my back, singeing my hair, but the second it was clear I was up and sprinting across the room.
Kate was still on the floor, but Allis and Zohar charged forward to meet our attack and soon my blade was locked against Zohar’s.
Allis yelled as he tackled Forrest, but I had no time to watch them fight.
After all this time spent worrying, about wondering if we were going to get through this alive, I was going to kill Zohar. I was going to tear his head from his body and destroy the darkness.
We might not have saved Celandine in the past, but we were sure as hell going to save Kate now.
I swung the blade in a wide arc, aiming right for Zohar’s neck, but it hit steel, and he thrust me back. I lost my footing and had to duck low to avoid him taking my head off with his forward attack.
I rolled to the side and kicked out my leg, knocking him in the knee. He hit the floor, and I was back on him, hacking away at him as my rage made it hard to keep my focus on doing anything else. I wanted him dead, I wanted him bleeding out and gone from this world.
He hurt Kate, and I was going to tear him to pieces with my bare hands if I had to.
“Craig!” Forrest yelled, but I missed it, and suddenly a tendril of fire whipped out and struck me across the face.
My blade fell from my hands and a second tendril wrapped around my ankles, yanking me to the floor.
My head cracked on the stones and my vision blurred as Zohar stomped closer.
He gripped his blade hard in his hand, while the flames whipped out again and again, striking me each time, burning me.
Forrest yelled in fury, and I heard Allis and him scuffling as metal hit stone, but I couldn’t make out who was winning that fight.
“No bastard son of the demon king is ever going to be enough to stop me,” Zohar snarled as another flame wrapped around my middle and dragged me to my knees.
I spat at his feet, unable to do much else while my head still spun from the hit it took and my entire body ached.
Zohar glared at me, I smirked back, waiting for his attack to come. He held the blade high, and I braced to move just at the right time, a blur of a shape sprung out of nowhere behind him and latched onto his back.
“Kate!”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, choking him, holding on tight.
Zohar was forced to drop the sword and the fire holding me let go just as Forrest threw Allis across the room, into t
he flames that quickly ate his body. His dying screams cut off in seconds, and we rushed to aid Kate.
Zohar reached around him and grabbed her by the hair. She screamed as he threw her from his back and she crashed right into us, taking us all down.
“Enough of this!”
Zohar raised his hands to his sides, and the flames in the room rushed to his sides. They climbed higher and higher over his head like a tidal wave as the three of us clung to each other.
We weren’t going to outrun it, but I wasn’t going to watch Kate die either, or Forrest. I stood and placed myself in front of them.
“Get her out of here,” I ordered, but Forrest and Kate stood, each taking a side, and held my hands. “What are you doing? Leave! I’m not going to let him kill you both!”
“And I’m not going to let him kill you,” she challenged.
Forrest nodded in agreement with her, standing firm beside me as a true friend, a brother I never had.
The second I turned my gaze back to Zohar, ready to face him, whatever he threw at us, a jolt of power shot from Kate’s hand and into mine, then from mine into Forrest.
The runes on Kate’s arms glowed, and as I watched, the same symbols appeared on my arms and on Forrest’s, as if they’d been there all along.
The power of the Vindicar, I’d never truly felt it until that moment, and it was incredible.
Zohar’s lip twitched in disgust across from us, and he threw his arms forward with a yell. The tidal wave of fire crashed towards us, ready to destroy us, but a shield of blue-white light burst to life before my eyes and the fire crashed into that instead, rushing around us, but not reaching us.
Zohar screamed in fury, and then I watched as the flames began to die down to nothing. Or at least I thought they were, but then they burst to life again, fueled by our light magic instead of the darkness.
It shot upwards in a column before us, and burst outwards, driving across the room even as Zohar tried to outrun it.
But this was his fate now, to die here in these ruins.
It caught him up in its swirling storm, and his screams echoed around us until the dark spot that was his body disintegrated right before our eyes. The column of fire swirled a few seconds longer before it dissipated into nothing.
Chaos (Dragon Reign Book 4) Page 10
