by H. D. Gordon
I held up both hands to the Firedrake, its golden, diamond shaped irises watching me the way a lion might watch an antelope.
“The Relic is within me, girl,” the Drake said. “The only way to get it is to slay me. Raise your weapon, and let us begin.”
I looked down at the staff in my hand, and back up at the Drake. Its aura was so full of emotion, telling a wordless story that made my chest ache.
I mumbled the incantation that retracted my staff, tucking it into the back of my waistband. After all that had happened, I didn’t have it in me to take another life, not in the name of saving my own.
I closed my eyes and waited for the fire to engulf me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What are you doing?” the Drake asked.
I opened one eye, peeking at the enormous creature before me. “Um…Waiting for you to eat me, or burn me up or whatever.”
The Firedrake’s head tilted. “Why?”
I sighed. “You said the only way to get the Relic is to kill you, and I won’t do it. You’re innocent, and I feel bad enough when I hurt people who deserve it. What makes my life more important than yours? And, anyway, I’m done with the bloodshed, the running, the fighting. I’m really tired. So just get it over with, okay?”
I closed my eyes again, awaiting my death. When it didn’t come, I opened them.
“What are you waiting for?”
“What’s your name?” the Drake asked.
My brows furrowed. “Aria…. What’s yours?”
“Sapphira.”
“Pretty name…. Are you gonna eat me, Sapphira?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
I didn’t want to tip those scales in one direction or the other, so I remained silent as the Drake decided my fate. When the silence went on too long, I said, “I don’t understand.”
The Drake paced back and forth in front of me, barbed tail swishing, diamond-shaped eyes unblinking. “I’m a captive here, Aria. I was taken from my home as a Drakeling and trained to protect the Relic at all costs. I once believed it to be noble, an honor even…but lately I am…questioning things.”
I had to bite back a laugh at the similarities in our stories. “What would the Seers do to you if you let me have the Relic?” I asked.
“They would have little use of me.”
We stared at each other a moment.
Then she started to gag, scaly throat working until her strange eyes watered. She opened her huge mouth, two rows of razor sharp teeth staring back at me. A stone the size of my fist tumbled off her tongue, landing on the ground before me. Steam rose from the stone, as though it had just come out of a pot of boiling water.
I bent, mesmerized by its beauty. It was a storm of swirling colors, and when I looked at it, I felt as though it might be looking back.
“Is that…?”
The Drake raised her chin, her sharp eyes also focused on the stone.
“You’re giving it to me?” Why?”
“Do you always ask stupid questions, Aria?”
I tilted my head.
“A long time ago, before my kind was trapped within the Unclaimed Realm, we used to have riders. Two-legs like you who soared the skies upon our backs.”
I nodded. I’d heard these stories, old fables whispered to children at bedtime.
“A Drake had to choose her rider, to make sure the person was a good fit, and to ensure that the power of our fire was not used for ill gains. Once we chose, our bond with our rider was for life, despite the fact that many of us outlived our riders for hundreds of years in some cases.”
She paused here, and I didn’t need my aura reading ability to see the sadness in her eyes.
“In order to help us make a good choice, Drakes evolved with the ability to sense a person’s innermost intentions when they ride upon our backs. There were exceptions, of course, Drakes with dark hearts who chose riders with the same, but for most of us, we would only choose a rider whose heart was pure, whose intentions were good.”
I swallowed, lulled by the deep but gentle sound of her voice in my head.
“When you jumped upon my back, Aria, I sensed your heart, your true intentions, and you are perhaps the purest of anyone I’ve ever met…. If circumstances were different, I might choose you as my rider.”
For a few stolen moments, I imagined what it would be like, and a somewhat comical image of me soaring over Grant City on the back of a Firedrake, cape blowing in the wind behind me, filled my head.
Then the Drake’s head lifted, diamond eyes flicking to the west. “Take the stone, Aria. And then get on my back. They know I’ve given it to you, and they’re coming to stop you.”
“Who?” I asked as I scooped up the Relic and tucked it into my jacket.
The fear in the beasts golden eyes spoke legions, and bloomed terror within me as well.
“The Seers,” she said.
We leapt off the side of the cliff. My stomach rushed up to my throat, the wind tearing at my hair, the air snatched clean out of me. When I opened my eyes again, I blinked at what I saw, and held on tighter to Sapphira.
Seers, hundreds of them, floating over the landscape in their billowing white robes, milky eyes fixed on me, blacked stained mouths turned down in terrible grimaces.
“I don’t know how to get out of this realm,” I shouted to Sapphira over the roar of the wind.
“There is a fountain. I’m going to fly you over it. When you jump into its waters, it will take you back the way you came.”
Easy enough, I thought, until those pale skinned bastards started shooting flaming arrows our way.
“Fire can’t hurt you, right?”
Sapphira banked left hard, barely avoiding a rain of arrows. “I don’t think they’re for me, dearest. My masters do not intend to let you leave the City alive.”
We neared the white buildings, the Seers following close on our tails, like a hoard of ghosts or ghouls. My heart beat furiously, the only sound along with the beating of Sapphira’s massive wings. My eyes widened as so many flaming arrows came toward us that it looked like a meteor shower, and I closed my eyes, wondering if this whole thing weren’t some insane nightmare, and I would wake up back in my little apartment in Grant City any moment now.
When one of the arrows grazed my leg, and pain seared through me, I knew this was no dream.
In the distance, I spotted a gurgling fountain with a statue of a creature with three heads in the center. Sapphira made a beeline toward it, picking up speed enough to make my stomach clench.
We were almost there when something struck Sapphira’s side hard and sent me flying. For a terrifying, breath-stealing moment, there was nothing but open air between me and the ground, which was rising up quickly to meet me.
Sapphira let out a roar that shook the heavens, and I caught a glimpse of the hoard of Seers that had struck her before I was blinded by the blaze of her Drakefire.
My arms and legs clawed uselessly at the air. Never in my life had I been more salty about my lack of wings.
Just when I was thinking that I would end up splattered on the pristine street below, an enormous scaly body swooped beneath me. I grabbed Sapphira’s neck for dear life as our bodies collided, tears streaming from my eyes involuntarily.
We were only a couple hundred feet from the ground now, the fountain so close and yet so far. I checked my jacket to make sure that the Relic had not been knocked free, and was grateful for the restrictive power of my bra for the first time in the history of bras. I’d placed the stone right between my breasts, and that puppy had held onto it as though it were my last hundred-dollar bill.
“It’s time to go, Aria,” Sapphira said in my head. “When I fly over the fountain, you have to jump.”
Even though I’d only just met her, I was reluctant to leave her. What would the Seers do to her once I was gone? What would become of her? I’d spent a lifetime wishing I could fly, and though I’d never imagined it would be like this, I thought Sapphira wa
s right about our compatibility. In a different realm, under different circumstances, I could’ve loved her, and she me. We could have belonged to one another. I felt this in my bones, in my heart.
“Don’t worry about me,” Sapphira said, as if reading my thoughts. “I can take care of myself, Aria.”
Now the tears streaming down my face had nothing to do with the harsh wind. I gripped her tighter, not wanting to let go.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against her neck. “You deserve better than this.”
“Since when do the Gods care what one deserves? It’s almost time. You have to jump.”
I fixed my gaze on the fountain below, my heart in my throat as I glanced over my shoulder and took in the hoard of Seers still at our backs. I ran my hand over Sapphira’s scales, placing a kiss to her neck and crying harder when her aura spiked with affection.
“Go, Aria,” she said. “Go and save your world.”
“Thank you,” I told her.
And then I jumped.
The waters of the fountain rose up to meet me as the Firedrake roared out, loud enough to split the sky.
I caught a final glimpse of her, turning to face the army of Seers, teeth bared, Drakefire erupting from her powerful maw.
Then the waters of the fountain swallowed me up.
I sat up, rubbing my head, my mind foggy, as if I’d just been yanked from a very realistic dream.
The scent of damp earth filled my nose, and I blinked into the darkness.
“What the…?”
“Quickly,” said a familiar voice. “Get up. He’s coming.”
I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Who’s coming?”
“Shiva, you idiot. Get up.”
“What?”
A heavy sigh, and a feeling of cold, like someone without a soul moving closer. My vision finally cleared enough for me to make out where I was—still in Shiva’s basement. The only light was from my phone, which was lying beside me.
“Time moves differently in the City,” the Seer behind the bars hissed. “It’s only been a few seconds here. If you get up quickly, he won’t even know you were gone. No one will. Trust me, you do not want Shiva to know you have it. They’ll all be coming for you now. He’ll be coming for you.”
“Who? Who will be coming?”
“Typhon.”
“What?”
“The God Killer. The Father of Monsters.”
I gulped. How did one defeat a killer of Gods?
“Typhon cannot deny a challenge. Remember that,” the Seer added hastily.
There was no time for more questions, despite the million that ran through my mind. I gripped the bars of the Seers cage and pulled myself to my feet just before the approaching footsteps reached me. The Seer skittered back into the shadows.
“I can’t help you, girl,” the Seer hissed. “Leave me be.”
Shiva stepped into the ring of my phone’s light just in time to hear this. “Did you not hear me calling?” he asked, casting a disgusted look in the Seer’s direction. “I said time was up. If it didn’t want to help, that’s no fault of mine.”
“My bad,” I said, and followed Shiva back up the dark staircase, trying to slow the pounding of my heart, to make sense of everything that had just happened.
By the time we’d reached the top, I’d managed to get a hold of myself.
Sort of.
Thomas and Raven were still in the living room, looking almost bored. They sat up straighter when they saw me, questioning looks on their faces. I shook my head, all too aware of Shiva’s sharp eyes on me.
Shiva claimed he wanted to do good for supernaturals, but I could only imagine what he would do with something as powerful as the Relic.
“The Seer refused to help,” I said.
I watched the dismay and disappointment flood Raven’s and Thomas’s aura as we stood to leave.
As the two of them stepped out the front door of the house, Shiva called out to me. “Miss Fae,” he said. “A word?”
I turned back, eyebrows raised in question.
“Sorry it didn’t work out,” he said.
I nodded. “I bet you are,” I replied.
I felt his eyes follow me out, doubting I’d seen the last of him.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
They’ll all be coming for you now. He’ll be coming for you.
Who?
Typhon. The God Killer. The Father of Monsters.
The Seers words played on a loop inside my head, along with the memories of Sapphira and the random act of kindness she’d done for me.
If I lived, I thought I’d try to go back and free her from the Seers. I owed her that.
For now, I stared down at the rock in my hand, sighing at the thing that was the source of all the trouble. I was back at Thomas’s cabin, in the bathroom alone, trying to plan out my next move. I hadn’t told the others yet that I’d been successful in retrieving the Relic, because part of me didn’t want them to know. The thing had a strange magic, and every moment I held onto it, the more I was reluctant to let it go.
“The precious,” I mumbled to myself, cracking a small smile at my own stupidity.
Then I tucked it into my pocket, drew a deep breath, and went out to face the others.
Waiting for me in the living room, sitting and standing around the large fireplace, was the entire team, every person I’d collected along the way since I’d started this crazy journey. Looking at them now, I realized how lucky I was, how fortunate that I’d gotten to taste the world outside of life with the Peace Brokers. The people in this room didn’t share my blood, but they were the closest thing I’d ever had to a family. I loved them, I realized, and I didn’t want to leave them. Not yet. Not ever.
All eyes in the room turned toward me as I joined them. Clare was still here, along with Nick and Vivian. Raven and Remy. Sam and Matt. And, of course, my Thomas.
I could see from their auras that they were braced for bad news, so it felt dang good to be able to deliver some good news for a change.
“I got the Relic,” I said, reaching into my jacket pocket and removing the stone. I held it up for all to see.
And blinked in surprise when everyone literally jumped and shouted for joy.
“I knew you could do it!” Sam exclaimed, bouncing over to kiss me on the cheek.
“Atta girl,” said Remy.
“Thank the Gods,” replied Vivian.
“Yes!” said Matt with a fist pump that made me grin.
Thomas only smiled. I could see in his aura that he was infinitely relieved.
Once everyone had settled back down, I said, “Now all I have to do is return it to the guardian, make my wish to reclaim my soul, and reward myself with a foot-long chili cheese dog and tater tots.”
“How do we find the guardian?” Sam asked.
“Luckily for us,” Vivian said, “I made sure the translator answered that question before the crap hit the fan back in New York.” Her blue eyes met mine. “And the short answer is, we don’t find the guardian. The guardian will find us.”
“That seems easy enough,” Raven said. “We just wait around for the Relic to be collected. Sounds like a good plan to me.”
Beside her, I noticed that Remy had gone quiet, his brows furrowed in thought. I stared at him until he looked up and met my gaze, the question obvious on my face. Concern had begun to weave through his aura, and for whatever reason, it made my throat go dry.
He sighed before answering, nodding toward the Relic, eyeing the rock warily. “It’s just that now that you have it, everyone and their dog is going to come after you.”
The Seer’s voice played through my head again at this. The words were nearly identical.
I raised my chin, tucking the Relic back into my pocket, my fingers splayed possessively over it. “Then let them come,” I said.
And as if in immediate answer to my challenge, the floor-to-ceiling windows along the west wall shattered, and a team of armed Peace Brokers came pour
ing through.
The sound of the glass shattering was enormous. It rained down in tiny pieces, a shower of diamonds. Someone screamed, probably Sam. Clare and Matt hit the floor as if this were some drive by.
The rest of us took out our various weapons.
The scene took on that fast paced slow motion that only ever appeared during battle. My staff was in my hand before the raining glass settled, spinning around my palm and catching two Brokers in the chins, sending them stumbling back.
The room erupted into chaos.
Thomas threw someone into the wall, rattling a bookshelf and sending several volumes tumbling to the floor. Raven dodged another Broker and snatched him up by his shirt, sucking the essence out of him as her eyes swirled purple. Vivian’s fangs were bared, her normally calm demeanor instantly becoming terrifying as her eyes filled with bloodlust, and she faced off with a Broker who was also part Vamp. Remy unfurled his wings, a silver sword appearing in his hand as if out of thin air, clashing with the sword of a Broker again and again, metal striking metal. Nick had another in a chokehold.
I shouted at Sam, Matt, and Clare to get clear and turned back to the chaos, my staff like an extension of my arm. If they wanted the Relic, they would have to go through me to get it.
I ran up the wall, swinging my staff as I did so, knocking a Broker on his ass by sweeping his legs out from under him. I spun, slicing higher, catching another in her shoulder and following that up with a hard kick to the midsection that sent her flying back out the shattered window.
Three more swarmed in after, more appearing for every one we took down. They were not easy opponents, but they had picked the wrong group of people to mess with.
Time was untraceable as we took them on, a blur of fists and fangs, weapons and commotion. A Broker snuck up behind Raven. I twisted the arm of the one I was facing until I heard a snap. He yowled and I shoved him forward, using the tip of my staff to scoop up a heavy book that had fallen to the floor and send it hurtling toward the Broker sneaking up on the Succubus. The book’s thick spine hit the Broker right in the back of the head, making him stumble, dazing him. Another perfect shot dropped him like a rock.
