Dragon Mark

by Kit Bladegrave

  But if we moved forward any slower, we risked Radnak going after another unprepared leader. And the next time, I doubted I’d be there to save him or her.

  “You keep staring at that wall, you might catch it on fire.”

  Everest slipped her hand into mine, leaning against my shoulder. We fit so easily together just like this, my cheek resting on her forehead. I’d wanted to talk to her last night, feeling like we hadn’t much time for that since arriving, but she’d been busy with Amelie apparently. Then when I’d finally made it back to our cots, she was sound asleep, too tired to even take off her boots.

  I’d smiled at the toes of them peeking out, and left them on her, not wanting to wake her up.

  I pressed my cheek firmer against her forehead and frowned when I felt her so warm. I lifted my hand to check her for a fever. With so many of us crammed together, and all the injuries we had, I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed to catch something.

  “What are you doing?” she said with a laugh as my frown deepened. She tried to shove my hand away, but I pressed it securely against her skin. “Slade, seriously, I’m fine.”

  “You’re flushed,” I pointed out, noticing how red her cheeks were.

  “I am not sick. You are just ungodly nervous and trying to distract yourself.” She pulled my hand away and held it between hers. “You should stop worrying so much. Charlette said she’d vouch for you. That should be enough to convince the other leaders.”

  I growled quietly. She was lying to me, again. Ever since we got back, and though she swore up and down she wasn’t hurt during that final attack by Radnak, she somehow managed to turn every conversation around to me and what I was going to do now that the entire dragon world was about to learn the Lost Heir of the Shadowguards was alive. Alive and hiding out in a mountain refuge.

  I tried to spend as much time with her during the day as I could, so I could keep an eye on her, but Charlette, Jenny, and Preston constantly pulled me away, trying to figure out the best way to go about our next attack on Radnak and the encampment we knew about.

  I was sure if Everest was showing signs of being unwell, Mahlia wouldn’t let her be doing so much around the base, or even sparring with Jared and Tank. But then again, I hadn’t seen Everest around her parents too much either. Or Amelie.

  I blinked as I realized the only times I saw Everest now was either with me or while she was sparring. Otherwise, she seemed to be keeping to herself, conveniently out of everyone’s sight.

  But it wasn’t just her feeling unwell she’d lied about. There was more to it, the nervous shift of her eyes said there was. Too bad she was as stubborn and hardheaded as I was. I’d never get the truth from her without it turning into a fight.

  “If something was wrong,” I asked her quietly, “you’d tell me, right?”

  I studied her closely as her smile faltered just a hint before she stood on her toes and kissed me soundly.

  “There is nothing wrong. Aside from the fact there’s a war going on, we’re good. Promise.”

  I wanted to believe her, but those eyes still lied.

  “Slade?” Jenny called as she and Charlette emerged from the impressive war room here within the mountain. “I need you to come with me.”

  I sighed as I nodded, mentally preparing myself for whatever was about to happen.

  “Everest, you too,” Jenny said just as I turned to tell Everest I’d see her later. “We thought it’d be nice to show them the Descendant we supposedly kidnapped is alive and well.”

  I held Everest’s hand safe in mine as we made to follow Jenny, noting how Everest did not seem surprised at all by this turn of events.

  “You ready for this, whatever this is?” I asked, praying if she knew something, she’d tell me and not let me walk in blind.

  “No matter what happens, I’m staying right by your side,” she promised.

  My heart sank.

  Several times, I talked to her about not risking her life for mine, and each time, she would touch that damned necklace around her throat and tell me I didn’t have a say in the matter. She was a Descendant, and nothing I said would change that fact. For some reason, she believed she was meant to protect me and the other clan leaders. She stated it quite loudly letting me know that it was because that was what the first Descendants did during wartime. How she knew that, I feared to ask, and she hadn’t offered up the information on her own.

  That necklace, everything went back to it. I glanced at it as we walked and couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t wearing the damned thing. Was it doing something to her?

  I tugged her to a stop before we entered the room.

  She tilted her head. “Slade?”

  “You two coming or what? We don’t have all day,” Jenny called from inside the room.

  I noticed how her gaze lingered on Everest for a few seconds too long before she turned her back on us both and waited.

  I shook my head and grinned, so Everest smiled and relaxed. “Nothing, just glad you’re here with me.” And that her wounds had healed from the fight, and my bruises were finally fading. We’d both been banged up pretty bad, and meeting the other clan leaders like that might not have been terrible. Would’ve helped show how desperate our plight was, but I’d rather not see Everest walking around with injuries.

  We stepped into the room to where Preston was seated at the round table, alongside Charlette. They both rose to their feet and Jenny closed the doors behind us. The clicking sound was ominous, and I suddenly wanted to leave this room and not face whatever decision the three of them had finally come to.

  “Alvaron,” Charlette started, but I held up my hand to stop her.

  “Slade is my name,” I corrected. “Stop calling me by that other one.”

  She pursed her lips at me, leaning back in her chair. “Your given clan name is Alvaron Shahan, and that is what I will call you.”

  “No, you won’t,” I snapped, and Everest squeezed my hand, but I pushed on. “Look, I get that I’m the Lost Heir and everything, but I’m not going to all of a sudden start being formal with the other leaders and clans who decided we were nothing better than rebels that needed to be disposed of. Alvaron Shahan never had a chance to live, but Slade, he did. He’s the one who’s been fighting for years to save his clan. He’s been able to do something. That is my name. Use it.”

  Charlette shot a look to Jenny and Preston, both of whom were smiling, surprising me. I’d expected Jenny to smack me upside the head for acting like an idiot, but instead, they settled back in their seats and waited for the clan leader to continue.

  “Fine then, Slade,” Charlette finally said. “I have spoken with the two other clan leaders, and though they are glad to hear I have not been killed, they do seem skeptical to hear my full tale.”

  “Wait, you haven’t told them what happened yet?” I asked sharply.

  “Not exactly, no,” Charlette replied.

  “Then what the hell have you been doing the last five days?” I growled, glaring at her before I turned my heated stare to Jenny and Preston. “What’s going on?”

  Even Everest resituated herself in her seat, not meeting my gaze.

  “What’s going on is that we decided not to tell the other two leaders anything of import yet,” Preston said slowly. “The second Shadowguards or Black Diamonds are mentioned, they’ll either call in the Hunters, or the Council will do exactly as they did the last time, and try to shut down any rumors of Black Diamond sightings.”

  “Then what did you tell your husband?” I demanded, wondering what the hell she spent the past few nights talking about, if not the truth. I waited impatiently for her to answer as, for the first time since meeting her, I sensed her hesitation to open her mouth.

  Charlette carefully folded her hands, resting them on the table after a few long, tense minutes. “I told him I was taken by Shadowguards.”

  I was on my feet in a shot, baring my teeth at her as I considered shifting right here and now. “What the he
ll is wrong with you? You swore you would vouch for me, that you’d help us. This is the exact opposite of helping. You’re going to damn us even more in their eyes. And you just told me what would happen if you brought up my clan.”

  “Just hang on a second,” Preston started.

  I growled in warning.

  He bowed his head, adding, “You knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”

  “No, but I expected her to tell the truth.”

  “We’ve decided it would be better to bring the clan leaders together and not tell them you’re going to be there,” Jenny argued. “This way, we can at least get you and them in the same place without expecting an ambush.”

  “Right, because instead of just an ambush, they’re going to have an entire army waiting to kill us all. This is the worst idea you’ve ever had.” I tossed my hands in the air, storming away from the table. A horrible second thought occurred to me as I whirled back around. “And they still think we’re holding you captive when we go to this meeting?”

  Charlette tipped her head. “Yes, and that you are willing to negotiate my safe return to my husband.”

  “In exchange for what?” I snarled, quickly losing my temper.

  “For them listening to the truth, of course. Once we have them together, we will tell them the truth, I swear it, but we have to get them there, Slade, and to do that, they must have a compelling reason. This is that reason.”

  I shook my head furiously and stomped away again. They’d all lost their minds. That was the only explanation that made sense right now; that they’d gone insane, because this plan was insane.

  “She’s got a point,” Everest said.

  I shifted my furious glare to her next.

  She held her ground. “Don’t give me that shit. You know they’re right.”

  “How?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Think about it. If Charlette announces that she’s found the Lost Heir and he saved her from certain death from the Black Diamonds, who are in fact alive, oh, and not to mention Blood Moon Priests were there, too. And that you’re part of the Light Guard who have spent the last hundreds of years trying to save their own, while simultaneously trying to protect hybrids and other high priority targets, do you really think they’ll hear any of that?”

  I opened my mouth, started to answer, but she cut me off.

  “No, they won’t. You saw how the Council reacted and they’ll be the same way. They’ll say they want to meet, and the second we’re all together, they’ll try to kill you, and I for one am not in the mood to watch you nearly be killed. Again,” she finished. She was on her feet, and staring me down, toe to toe.

  I clenched my jaw. “Maybe it’d be better if you didn’t come.”

  “No, we need her there,” Charlette argued. “It’s one of the main reasons they did agree to come. They believe they are negotiating for me and for her.”

  I didn’t have to wonder how shocked I looked. I saw it reflected in Everest’s eyes. She gave me a smug grin while I wondered how mad at me she’d be if I tied her to a chair before we left so she couldn’t go.

  “If we do this, you are not to act as my bodyguard,” I warned her. “Understood?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you are a Descendant, and are just as important as I am, if this goes wrong. Which I have no doubt in my mind it will,” I added hotly, shooting a look toward Charlette before turning my attention back to Everest. “If I’m attacked, you get your ass out of there, you don’t take the hit for me.”

  “We’re still going on about that?” She groaned in aggravation. “Get over it, alright? You’re important and my job—”

  “Your job is not to keep me safe. I have actual guards to do that now, thanks to them.” I waved my hand at the other ones across the table.

  Jenny grinned widely. “You wouldn’t let me do it before, but now that everyone knows who you are, thankfully you don’t have a choice. You’re too important to the cause right now to deal with your stubborn pride.”

  “Pride?” Was that really what she thought? I shook my head and stalked around the room. “It’s not my pride I’m worried about.”

  “Then what the hell is it?”

  “You don’t think the fact that I’ve watched people die for me is enough to make me hesitant to have guards?” I hurled the words at her, and the room fell into a dangerous silence. “That every family who took me in wasn’t eventually killed? Or that when my parents were alive and had guards, every single one of them gave their lives before my parents were killed anyway? No, Jenny, it’s not my pride I worry about. It’s you and Preston. It’s my clan, understand? My clan, my responsibility to keep them safe. And all this time… all I’ve done is fail them and watch them die while I cowered in the shadows, telling myself every night before I went to sleep, I was doing everything I could for them. Well, I wasn’t, and we all know it.”

  Everest reached for me, but I backed away.

  “Sorry, I just… I need a minute alone, alright?”

  “Don’t take too long,” Preston said as I neared the door. “We’re leaving in an hour to meet them. It’ll look bad if we’re late returning Charlette and Everest to them.”

  “Course it will.” I left and hurried down the hall, needing to clear my head.

  In a little over an hour, I would be meeting the other two clan leaders and announcing who I was. Did I expect them to even believe me? No, not now that Charlette had kept the truth from them once already. And I couldn’t blame them since they seemed to think we were meeting to negotiate her safe return, not trying to talk them into helping us in a fight against an enemy they thought dead and gone. There was no scenario I could imagine where this did not end badly for us. They’d see us coming and attack, end of story.

  I reached the end of the hall and leaned against the window looking out over the inside structure of the mountain. Our numbers had increased since we rescued the Shadowguards and witches from Radnak. We also called in all the Shadowguards and witches from the other outposts, gathering our full force together. It was sadly still a small number in comparison to those still under his control. The longer we sat around and waited for the other clans to accept the truth, the more lives were lost.

  And Everest. I wanted her nowhere near this meeting, but now I was backed into a corner.

  Tank and Davis were down there at the new control center in the midst of the massive open space. They were laughing and punching each other in the arm like they hadn’t a care in the world.

  Kids ran around playing tag, and I wondered if there would ever be a time when my clan wasn’t facing extinction at the hands of our cousins. Those who thousands of years ago had been our allies, before they stabbed us in the back and left us to be blamed for the atrocities they caused.

  The time for peace was long overdue, and if I had to endure this meeting to see it happen, then I would have to suck it up and do it. My people deserved that much, at least.

  Hell, maybe the other leaders could help us better understand this ritual Radnak had been performing on Charlette, and planned to perform on the others. The souls of the clan leaders… there were stories of the powers held in such powerful vessels, but I’d always assumed they were just stories.

  Just like I’d believed the Fell Gates was a place of fantasy.

  I scoffed. Too many damned questions to answer and not enough time to figure out what we needed to pay attention to first. What issue was most pertinent. None of it mattered if we couldn’t get the other three clans on our side.

  When I returned to the war room, Everest was standing with Jenny talking quietly, but they both froze when I entered, clearing my throat. I caught the look of guilt in Everest’s eyes before she blinked, and it was gone.

  “Who else is coming with us?” I asked instead of calling her out.

  “A full guard will be close by,” Preston explained. “But you, Everest, and Charlette will be walking in alone, so they don’t think we’ve come to att
ack and kidnap their other leaders by using her as bait, instead of merely negotiating their release.” He nodded his head toward Charlette.

  “And you really don’t expect them to have their own guard hiding in wait?”

  “We do, don’t worry. We’ve taken plenty of precautions.”

  Why did he sound off when he said it? I hated to think Everest spent last night plotting with these two and neglected to tell me the plan.

  He nodded again for emphasis, and I grunted.

  I wanted to believe him, but in my experience, anytime we had to deal with the other clans, shit always seemed to go wrong. Always. After my last stunt with trying to meet the Council, my faith in their seeing the light had dropped drastically.

  “Right then, let’s get this shit show on the road.” I grinned as Everest punched my arm, muttering about my being a pain in the ass.

  At the moment, I tended to agree with her.

  I gritted my teeth as the minutes ticked by. We’d agreed to meet the other clan leaders—Orella Rendor of the Hollow Well Clan and Quinto Zain of the Golden Sphinx—in a ghost town about twenty miles west of the mountain.

  Our choice, of course, since we were the alleged kidnappers in this scenario. I rolled my eyes at the idiocy of this plan again, but it was too late to turn back now. This town looked like any normal one that had simply fallen to the wayside, but we’d kept it that way, so we would have a place to set up our people if the Black Diamonds were ever defeated. It’d be a good place to start a new home, a place we could easily hide from the rest of the world or blend in with the humans if we chose to.

  And now it might be the place where I died. How fitting.

  We stood in the town center at a crossroads. Jenny, Preston, and twenty Shadowguards—including Aiden and Tank—were hidden from view atop the roofs. Everest was to my right and Charlette my left. I was unarmed, as was Everest, at least of daggers or swords. I argued against it. After all, if I was meant to portray a blood-thirsty Shadowguard, I should’ve been armed to the teeth.

  Both Everest and Jenny had punched my shoulders for that remark before we left. They were still hiding something from me, the way they kept exchanging worried glances, but neither fessed up before heading out. My pulse thundered in my ears, but I remained perfectly still, waiting and watching the far end of town for the portal to open and the rest of our party to arrive.