by Riley Storm
The window flung open and Galen carried them out into the night sky in a swirl of air.
To the west, near the main gates, a bright golden light spread across the horizon. The wards of Drakon Keep, and they were under attack. Even as she watched, the glow spread wider as shadow reared up and struck from more and more points.
The pair of them landed on the front lawn. Not long after, they were joined by the other shifters.
“Is everyone safe?” Galen asked, his voice carrying over the sound of the storm and the assault on the wards.
“Yes,” Jax said. “They’re in the tunnels, on their way to the eastern wall.” He knelt to the ground, placing one palm on it, his eyes half closed. “They’re going to be okay.”
“Good. Then we must prepare to make our stand,” he said.
The dragons spread apart, leaving room for Kyla to stand next to Galen.
On the far left, Aaric began to glow as he lit with a fire from within. His clothing turned to ash, incinerated by the heat as he began to char the ground around him, his very skin turned to flame. Even from this distance she could feel the waves of heat washing over her.
Kyla was next in line, and she too began her preparations. Like she had in her battle with the Archmage, she opened herself up to the magic, letting it pour into her. Power raced through her veins, spreading through her body as she channeled it, preparing for battle. Her vision lightened as the night grew brighter, and she was sure by now her eyes were glowing a bright silver, like the moon hidden above.
With a shriek of defiance at the powers arrayed against them she slammed her staff into the ground. A beam of pure silver light shot upward and into the ward above them, racing outward to reinforce the section under attack, adding her strength to the already tremendous power of the wards.
Galen, she could see, was eyeing her, even as he too threw his head back, calling upon the winds of his powers. The air howled like a banshee as it responded to his command. The storm above swirled darkly as he reached out and harnessed its strength, lightning flashing with increasing frequency.
Beyond Galen stood Valla, the youngest. He roared his anger, even as his skin turned a brilliant arctic white. Twin horns of ice curled up from his head and ice descended around his face as he adopted a gruesome helmeted visage. Dual blades of blueish-white formed in his hands, and the very air itself seemed to freeze solid as he swung them around.
Victor too was ready. The skies around him were full of water, frozen in time and space, hanging still, unmoving. The ground around the water dragon rippled and flowed, and she saw splashes as something lurked in the depths around the powerful dragon, ready to reach up and pull its enemies down into the depths below.
Anchoring the right, Jax had disappeared completely. Rising from the earth in his place was a monstrous figure. Standing easily twenty feet tall, the earth elemental was terrifying. Sharp angles and spikes adorned its upper body, while a huge club hung from its right hand, vicious-looking points jutting from every angle, made of a material darker than the blackest night. The ground shuddered as it spread its feet wide and the air trembled when it bellowed a challenge.
The dragons were ready. Kyla was ready.
“Let them come,” she snarled as another tremendous blow struck the wards.
They were ready.
A darkness she could feel in her soul rose up beyond the shield, visible even at this distance, a tidal wave of epic proportions as it raced toward the golden barrier.
Kyla steeled herself. The collision between the two forces was unbelievable. She expected an explosion, but the darkness was too absolute. It swallowed up the golden light even as the shield shattered, robbing everything of light.
The ward was down, and the vampires were coming.
The first wave came out of the trees shortly after, charging across the ground. Kyla gaped at the numbers. There had to be thousands of them. She knew they weren’t all from the nearby human town of Plymouth Falls. People would have noticed that many missing. These had to be from all over the world, numbers that the vampires had created over the past few years.
As the first line came on, she saw others emerging from the treeline, moving slower. There were fewer of those, but they still numbered several hundred, and around each one of them the shadows swirled.
Even in her wildest dreams she’d never known how strong the vampires were. There was no coming out of this, no surviving this fight. She swept her despair aside and ignored it. She might die, but she was going to make her death hurt. The vampires would know they had tangled with one of the Council, and she was going to strike fear into them from it.
Galen was the first to strike. He let loose with a mighty bellow and the very winds of the storm responded. Lightning slashed down from the sky into the oncoming ranks of the vampires as Galen controlled the charge of the air itself. Dirt and bodies flew everywhere as strike after strike hammered home.
But still the vampires came on.
Jax’s earth elemental form lifted a foot, and as it came down, the earth itself split asunder, a crack racing out from his impact, spreading wide like it was being ripped apart. It hit the vampire lines and dozens more disappeared.
Aaric cursed his enemies and fire erupted from the holes in the earth as he called upon fire in one of its most primal forms. Lava splashed across the charging vampires, eating through them, incinerating limbs and torsos, melting skin and decimating their ranks further as the ground became a volcano spewing forth its lifeblood to help defend the keep.
The first row of vampires to leap over the barrier found themselves sinking into ground that was more water than earth. Tentacles of water lashed up and sucked them under, while blades of ice skimmed low over the watery surface, separating the visible halves of the vampires from those buried underneath.
Then it was Kyla’s turn.
She leveled her staff as they came in range, and a green-gold lightning bolt shot forward. It hit the first target and the vampire literally exploded. But her spell wasn’t done there. It split in half, and hit two vampires, sucking their life from them and using that energy to split into four and find new targets. Her spell went on and on.
Hundreds fell from the combined might of the dragons and the mage. It was a mighty attack.
But still the vampires came on in their thousands.
They weren’t going to hold. Not here. But Drakon Keep had another trick to play just yet. One last defense that even Kyla hadn’t known about.
As the vampires reached the perimeter of the dragons, they slammed into another barrier. An inner ward field that held them at bay.
“Where did this come from?” she asked, not having sensed its presence.
“The wards on the cavern below,” came Galen’s reply. “I redirected their magic, as it was designed to be, centuries ago during first construction. To block any access to the cavern, and its precious gift.”
Kyla frowned as Galen’s head cocked to the side, looking like he’d been struck by something.
“My brothers!” he shouted abruptly. “Hold the line. I will return, I promise.”
“What?” she yelped, as the others simply acknowledged his order. “Where are you going?”
Galen grinned at her. “Not me. We. Come. I have an idea.”
He grabbed her hand before she could respond, hauling her back toward the Keep.
Away from the battle.
Chapter 34
“Galen! Where are you taking me?” she yelped, pulled along in the dragon’s wake, unable to resist the air currents swirling around both of them.
Struggling hard, she twisted to face behind them, focusing her magic to lash out at a clump of vampires on the other side of the wards. Designed to keep things out, not in, the red energy spat from her hand, exploding in the middle of the attackers, killing several and scattering the rest.
“Inside,” Galen said excitedly. “We need to move, fast, there’s no time to waste!”
“You want to run away from
the fight?” she cried, magic striking again. “What is going on with you all of a sudden?”
“Not running away,” he said. “Trying to win it.”
“Now you’ve completely lost me,” she said as they disappeared into the Keep itself, the carpet of air carrying them down the main hallway at breakneck speed. “How are we going to win the battle from in here?”
“We aren’t,” he said. “But the others might.”
Kyla twisted back around and rapped her knuckles against the back of his skull. “The others are outside, Galen. Where the fighting is? We can’t just leave them there. It won’t take the vampires long to break through the second wards. Not once the elder vampire shows himself.”
“Which is why we must move quickly. There can’t be any delay, not if we want a chance at this working.”
They slowed to a halt in a hallway that looked oddly familiar. Kyla looked around, recognizing a certain recessed alcove that was actually a hallway.
“Galen,” she moaned in sudden understanding. “We’ve been there, we’ve tried that. It’s not going to work.”
“It will this time,” he said confidently, tugging her along with him, his hand gripping hers tightly.
“How can you know that? Nothing has changed, nothing is different.”
Galen pulled her in close and stepped off the edge of the spiral staircase. Despite knowing it was coming, Kyla cried out in surprise as they plummeted down, the wind only swirling tight as they neared the bottom, slowing their descent until they touched down lightly.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that,” she muttered, looking back up, trying to figure out just how far they’d fallen and how fast.
Galen returned a moment later, a matte black box in his hands. She could sense the artifact’s magic, but still didn’t think anything would be different.
“Here, give me that,” she said tiredly. “Let’s get this over with so we can get back out there. Without us, your brothers don’t stand a chance. We must stand united as one against the vampires. All of us.”
But Galen didn’t give her the artifact. Instead, he once again took her hand, pulling her out into the very center of the chamber, until they were standing right in the middle of all the stone statues.
“Do you remember what you did last time?” Galen asked, the earth rumbling above them, bits of rock and dirt shivering free of the ceiling as something struck a tremendous blow above.
“Yes, I remember. I’ll try it again, but I’m telling you Galen, it’s just going to have the same effect. Nothing!”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Galen hesitated. “I hope.”
“Why?”
“Because, Kyla, something has changed since the last time,” he said, facing her straight on, looking her in the eye.
“What?”
“Me.”
She frowned. “But I’m the one who cast the spell on it, Galen. You didn’t do anything.”
“Which is precisely why it didn’t work. Don’t you see?” Galen said excitedly, holding out the box in front of him. “Last time, you tried to activate it on your own. But this time, this time we’re going to activate it. You with your magic, and me.”
“What are you telling me, Galen?” she asked quietly, starting to catch on, but not entirely sure she believed what she was hearing from the wind dragon.
“I’m telling you that I’m done holding back. That I’m done trying to deny what I so obviously know to be true. I will never be able to forget my past, but no longer will I let that forbid me from having a future. Katherine would want that for me. She always wanted what was best for me, and right now, that’s you.”
Kyla shivered. “Galen…”
“I’m not done,” he said, cutting her off. “You have opened my eyes to so many things, and taught me that I need to let go of past hurt, but also past hate. Holding onto them is no way to live in the present.” He took a deep breath. “And in the present, the only way I want to live, is with you at my side. I choose to forgive the mages for what happened to my mate, and I no longer can hold that against them, because they have given me something in return.”
“What’s that?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper, the words quickly fading to nothingness in the torchlit cavern.
“You, Kyla Langston. They have given me you. Someone I care for.” Galen stared deep into her eyes. “Someone I love.”
“That you love?” she echoed, not sure she trusted her ears the first time.
“Yes. Yes! I acknowledge it now, openly, freely. No more hiding, no more letting guilt about things I cannot control weigh me down. I will forever remember Katherine, but right now, Kyla, I love you. Freely. Unconditionally. Despite the odds of it all, and nothing would make me happier than to have you as mine. For as long as we shall live, regardless if it’s a minute, a year or another century.”
She bit her lip, overwhelmed at everything he was saying, everything he was revealing to her just now.
“You had better know what you’re getting yourself into,” she said quietly. “I don’t do take-backsies. Just because we’re about to die, you can’t just say all this stuff. If we manage to live, then you have to deal with that.”
“I want it all,” he said. “You. Me. Us. Together.”
“I want children,” she said.
“How many?”
“Three, maybe four,” she said quietly, not sure how he would take that number.
“Let’s make it five!” Galen cried.
“Whoa now,” she laughed, appreciating his enthusiasm. “You’re not the one pushing them out, remember? Don’t go getting any wild ideas.”
Galen laughed with her, sweeping her up in one giant arm, lifting her off the floor. “It doesn’t matter to me. I will take whatever, as long as I get to be with you. Nothing would make me happier.”
She smiled. “So you feel comfortable dying at the side of a mage now, do you?”
Galen shook his head. “No. I feel comfortable dying at the side of my mate. I’d prefer to live, of course, but given the circumstances, I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, even if it’s just for these last moments.”
Feeling giddy, Kyla leaned in close, pressing up on her tiptoes to give Galen a deep kiss.
Above them the cavern ceiling shuddered again, harder this time, a reminder of what waited for them.
“I love you too, Galen,” she pronounced, feeling the words leave her at the same time a weight lifted from her shoulders. It was freeing, to be able to finally say what she’d known in the back of her mind for some time now. “With every fiber of my being, I am yours, for now and for as long as the fates grant us to be together!”
Crying out the last word, Kyla reached out and grasped the artifact with Galen. Magic flowed to life. She gasped in surprise. Last time, the artifact had responded but slowly, sluggishly. Now it gulped down her magic, bursting to life in her hands as she amplified the innate magic within.
Her eyes watered as golden light spread wide over the cavern, but she never looked away. Never tore her gaze from the man on the other side of the artifact from her.
The man she loved.
The light built and built, spreading out from where they stood in a perfect sphere, reaching to the edges of the caverns and then up, filling the entire chamber in its calm light.
All at once it went out, without warning, and the magic in the box died, filtering away to nothing in mere seconds.
Both of them looked around wildly, waiting for the statues to start cracking, for the dragons to win free of their stone imprisonment.
“Did it work?” Galen asked after a moment had passed and nothing happened.
“I…I thought so,” she said, disappointment creeping into her voice.
The ceiling shook violently and a chunk of rock fell, narrowly missing a statue as it shattered on the cavern floor.
“I was sure it would work,” Galen said, seemingly in shock.
“Come on,” Kyla said, takin
g his hand. “There’s nothing more we can do here, my love. Your brothers need us. We must return to the surface.”
Galen appeared to be in shock, but he managed to keep enough composure to pull her into a hug as winds swirled around them, lifting the pair from the ground and carrying them out of the cavern.
Kyla watched for as long as possible, hoping that she would see something happen, but as they reached the stairwell and shot upward, everything was still, the stone as solid as it had been when they first entered.
They had failed.
Chapter 35
By the time he carried them back outside, Galen’s disappointment had turned to anger. It burned brightly within him, and the skies above the Keep responded to that anger with savage fury all their own.
Gale force gusts picked up almost immediately as he rejoined the line with his brothers, all of whom were now just waiting for the final barrier to fall before unleashing their powers on the vampires again.
Black clouds high in the sky began to slowly rotate clockwise. Just a few at first, but then more, and more. Galen stared stonily at the mass of vampires arrayed outside the golden dome of the inner ward field.
There were thousands of them still. Behind them, the more powerful vampires called shadows to them and launched attacks at the ward, weakening it bit by bit. It wouldn’t be long now before it too fell.
The shadows darkened the landscape for miles around, turning the battlefield into a gloomy display of horror. The only light source was the red-orange glow of Aaric’s fiery form, and the brilliant white of Victor, his icy skin reflecting the light of the flames.
“You will pay for this!” Galen bellowed at the vampires, watching their clothing begin to flap and billow in the increasing breeze.
The storm system was growing, spreading wider as more clouds were pulled into the spinning mass of blackness. Lightning flashed deep within and thunder rumbled out at regular intervals. Galen wasn’t even aware of what he was doing, the weather simply responding to his fury, knowing that he was angry.
Outside the shield, some of the more powerful vampires were forced to turn their energies on the mounting fury of nature’s call, using their shadows to rip the unnatural storm apart, sheltering their less powerful comrades.