by Alexia Black
“Looks like the Aether child is awake,” the old druid turned on his chair to face Aiden. There was no happiness in his eyes instead it was just pure curiosity. Detached and clinical, he looked like a kid who was drowning a cat just to see how long the little animal could hold its breath.
The apprentice silently handed him the golden sunburst.
The lightning picked pace, numerous blue arcs jumped in circles around Aiden till they formed a tornado of lightning, and he, at the eye of the storm. Without warning, the storm collapsed in on him. I held my palm over my eyes, shielded it against the bright light that exploded in the room.
The room dimmed back within a second. I opened my eyes and screamed, unable to hold in my horror at the sight that met me.
Aiden was burned all over, flesh more charred than not. Tiny sparks of lightning moved just under his skin, burning his already burned body. He stood kneeling, unmoving, like a corpse. Then before my eyes his skin healed, tissues knitting together, skin forming anew where it had been completely burnt off. The parts where his skin hadn’t completely burnt away, it healed roughly. He resembled patchwork doll.
“Fascinating,” the druid said, scribbling on his notepad.
I sucked in a shaky breath, sitting paralyzed on the floor. It wasn’t just because of their bloodthirsty nature and fierce battle skills that Aether dragons were considered the strongest warrior race; it was because of their healing capabilities too. No wonder they were considered to be dangerous than the Fae even. They were impossible to kill.
The only signs that it hurt was in the way he had screwed his eyes tight, knuckles almost white and the dull flash of red from the pendant. He had been hit with a storm of lightning and that tiny amount was the only slip in his control. Exactly what kind of training did he go through to withstand this level of pain?
So, this was why the pain from the soul bond hadn’t affected him as much as me. It had hurt him just as much as it did me, but he had been used to the worst.
The runes were getting hungry again, their attacks relentless. Through it all Aiden stood strong, his shoulders straight, refusing to yield to the pain, refusing to hand over his power to Caroline, refusing to be their puppet.
The head druid had already gotten bored and gone back to his scrolls, passing over his notepad on Aiden to his apprentice.
“He is getting tired,” the apprentice told his master. “He won’t be able to hold on much longer, maybe a few hours till he completely breaks.”
The head mage shook his head, hand gently carding his fingers through his snow white beard. “Aether dragons are built for wars. We were lucky to get a fledgling like him but even then it would take two more days before he completely breaks.”
I curled my hand, the edge of my short nails pressing bloody crescent moons against my palm. He was kneeling there, having his flesh burned off again and again and I still hadn’t figured out a way to save him.
The only advantage I currently had was that the room was soundproof so the guards outside wouldn’t know anything unless the druids managed to dial the emergency number. I shouldn’t give them time to call for the guards. If Caroline or whoever this ‘lord’ she kept referring to was any less cocky they would have installed emergency buttons in this room. But they could afford to be cocky; the room was devoid of weapons. Against an enemy filled to the brim with power, who could weave dark magic with words, I doubt throwing water bottles or sleeping bags would help.
I wasn’t going to fight head on. There was no way I would survive a punch from the six and half foot tall bear of an apprentice much less a single spell thrown at me. Once they noticed what I was going to do, I had maybe ten seconds before their instincts kicked in.
Time to fight dirty but first, I needed to collect something.
Chapter 25
Ten minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom, my unburnt hand hidden behind me. The apprentice was standing beside the rune, checking his watch and taking notes. Aiden still hadn’t budged an inch from his position, but he was taking more and more time to heal with each attack. Blood was leaking from between his lips, thinly pressed together and sweat beaded his skin where it wasn’t charred. I faltered, seeing the wreck his body had become but I couldn’t afford to be distracted now.
I went past the head mage who didn’t notice me, engrossed as he was in his scrolls and the croissant he was eating. He was the bigger threat. He could unleash the demons on unsuspecting humans and supernaturals. It would be genocide on a scale not even past wars could’ve managed. But he was physically weaker and so easier to take out. I had to take out the apprentice first.
I stepped forward and stood one step behind the apprentice. “Shit! What’s that?” I pitched my voice high in fake distress.
He whipped around, eyes widened in concern. I launched myself on my toes and smeared the shampoo I had stolen from the bathroom in his eyes. He screamed, trying to get it out but instead ended up smearing it further in. I crouched and swept his right leg off the ground, toppling him directly onto the glowing runes. His head hit the floor with a hard thud, blood gushed out of the wound. He tried to crawl away but the runes didn’t let him. He screamed as lightning engulfed him, burning through him like it had Aiden, slowly sucking him dry.
The runes didn’t discriminate.
The head druid jumped up startled by the scream, in two leaps I was in front of him and sucker punching him in the solar plexus. He bent in pain, struggling to breathe; I caught hold of his head and crashed my knee into his face. Blood dripped down to the hardwood floor from his broken nose. I smeared the leftover shampoo that was stuck to my hand in his eyes. His screams ripped through my eardrum.
He reached for my face, his long finger nails painted bloody stripes on my face. I held him down and punched him again and again till he fell unconscious. Heaving a sigh, I dragged his body towards the runes, right next to where the now dead apprentice lay. I took the older druid’s phone out from his pants and dragged him towards the runes. There was no way I could throw his unconscious body towards the circle; he weighed more than double my weight. I rolled him to the side and rolled him right into the circle. Pain shot him awake but he couldn’t do anything, the runes had him. I stood watching as the runes drained the power from his convulsing body.
He tried to cast spells, break the rune but nothing worked. He couldn’t get a word out before another lightning hit him and he screamed in pain. Their bodies couldn’t handle the pain as much Aiden. Soon, he also lay dead next to his apprentice. The lightning stopped attacking him. The runes losing interest once he was dead.
“Aiden,” I shouted. “Can you hear me?” There was no response. He kneeled, still as ever. His body might be built for pain but even if his body healed, would his mind be able to ever return from the abyss it was lost in.
I got some water bottles and splashed water on him, “Aiden, listen to me.” No response.
“Aiden, it’s Kiara. Please wake up.”
Aiden opened his eyes, his pupils had disappeared and instead it was now a single sheet of silver. I jumped and waved from where I was standing.
“I have an idea,” I said, waving like a maniac to catch his attention.
For a few seconds, there was no change in his expression. Then his gaze drifted downward to where the dead bodies lay.
“Soul mate,” a deep voice echoed in the room. Icy and devoid of emotion, it came out of him but it didn’t belong to him. Goosebumps erupted along my skin hearing the sinister voice. The voice sounded like what I would expect his power to sound like.
“Aiden?”
“Yes,” his voice was lifeless.
“Is it really you?”
“Yes.”
Somehow, that was very hard to believe. Was it subconscious speaking? I had no idea. But, I had no choice other than to trust him, whoever or whatever he was.
The runes had absorbed the strength from the mages and had now taken on a violet hue. The power of its attacks increased. Shit. I had
accidentally added more fuel to the fire.
“The rune won’t stop till it sucks you dry. Give out all your power. Let it take it all. It will stop attacking once you don’t have any power left.” If he gave out his power, then the runes would have no reason to attack a powerless being. But, I didn’t know if his body and soul would survive the loss of his power.
“How sure are you mortal?” I forced my knees to not buckle at the menace that filled his voice.
“Not at all. But, do you have a better idea? The runes are designed to take power only not your life force. It didn’t take mine. It didn’t want my life force; it only wants to feed on magic. We will take the amulet with us when we escape and find out a way to return your powers.”
Aiden or whatever he was now just stared at me without blinking, looking straight through my soul. Whatever he saw on my face must’ve convinced him because nodded in acquiescence.
He extended his arms out, tilted his head up and roared. Power exploded out of him in blinding white waves. I closed my eyes, blinded from the white of his power, the blue of his runes and red of the amulet. The sinister magic roared, filling up the room, suffocating me.
The being that used to be Aiden roared again. It was a battle cry. I covered my ears with my palm, eyes screwed shut, as if it could protect me against the primitive fear that the Aether dragon’s roars brought out.
“Soul mate,” it was not a call, but a command. Reluctantly I met his gaze.
“Take care of him,” he said and closed his eyes. Aiden fell back unconscious.
Chapter 26
I slipped my hands under Aiden’s armpit and dragged him out of the inert rune circle. Since, it had been originally designed to absorb his powers, once that happened, it had returned to its earlier state. It took me more time than I had expected but I finally managed to get him out. I sat leaning against the wall, panting. I had to wait till Aiden awoke to escape out of here.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could fight everyone on my own. But Aiden was out cold and even when he had almost slipped out of my grasp while being dragged he hadn’t awakened.
Taking out the phone I had taken from the druid, with my hand, I dialed the emergency number dad had made me memorize when I had left home. But, it wouldn’t connect. I tried the emergency number Blazewood employees were required to learn by heart. When that didn’t work I tried random ones. None connected.
I went through the contact list. There were only a few contacts. Two were saved as Dave and Caroline, I didn’t recognize the others. Had they programmed it specially to be able to call only a few numbers?
Wonderful.
I switched off the phone and pocketed it. Maybe dad’s team could track the other numbers and figure out who this ‘Master’ was, till then I didn’t want to be located through the phone when I escaped. I didn’t know exactly how it worked but switching it off should help me avoid detection right?
I took out the amulet from my pocket and examined it. How could I give his powers back to him? The ruby at the center was still glowing, albeit not as brightly as earlier, but unlike before it didn’t pulse and just remained steady. I turned it around to find microscopic runic inspections covering the area around the golden disk that the ruby was held in. More druid spells I couldn’t read. I sighed. I was trying to see if I could push the ruby down like a button when the door swung open and two guards led by Dave came in.
“Why is neither of you answering your damned phones? The lord is asking for updates.” The door swung shut behind him. Dave paused, taking in the empty circle, the two druid shaped dead bodies and me huddled next to an unconscious Aiden with the amulet in hand.
In the span of a heartbeat all three of them immediately shifted into wolves, each double my size, saliva dripping down their canines.
Shit.
Dave lunged at me. Pure reflex drove me as I swerved out of the way, spun and punched the grey wolf’s neck. Dave howled in anger as blood dripped from the claw marks on his neck. The wolves froze, yellow eyes staring with fear at my hand.
My right hand didn’t look mine anymore, hard silver scales covered my arm, my palm had transformed into claws like that of dragon but much smaller in size to fit my human body. Tiny bones pocked out of my arm in a single file, each sharpened at the edges. I had pressed the ruby in panic and the amulet had slowly dripping Aiden’s power into me.
It was turning me into a dragon.
I attacked Dave, but with reflexes much more honed than mine both in human form and even more in wolf form, he easily avoided my claws. I tried to pull the fight away from where Aiden lay prone on the ground.
The other wolves attacked from opposite sides, one bit into my hips and other on my thigh. I roared in pain, my voice going an octave deeper. Sudden strength coursed through me, strength like I had never imagined, like I had never possessed. With a growl that sounded more beastly than human, I ripped the neck of one that bit on my thigh and kicked it in its gut. The wolf flew and hit the wall with a sickening crunch. The place where she had bit into my thigh healed in an instant, so, had all my burn marks. Even the throbbing in my jaw was gone.
I grinned like a maniac, the longer I had the amulet the larger my power grew. Adrenaline coursed through as strength and magic as I had never experienced before filled my cells.
I was no longer helpless.
Red haze filled my vision. I clawed at the wolf biting into my hip. She jumped back, blood dripping down the gash on her eye. Dave and the wolf attacked me simultaneously. Launching towards me, canines bared.
I couldn’t duck and avoid them this time. But, there was no need. Aiden’s power was increasing my reflexes to supernatural levels as my body half shifted. My eyes could easily track the two wolves’ movements. My sharpened senses kicked in as I clawed and kicked the wolves away, pushing them farther and farther away from Aiden.
A sharp kick to the gut and the other wolf fell on her side. I didn’t waste a second and let my claws descend on her neck like an angry beast. Not waiting to make sure she was dead, I turned ready to face Dave but I was too late. He was standing right beside Aiden, his canines descending towards Aiden’s neck.
“NO!” I growled.
Power exploded out of me, invisible but tangible and latched right onto Dave’s soul. He whimpered as I absorbed his magic into mine.
“How could you betray your own team?” I stalked forward. Dave’s eyes kept shifting into back and forth between his human and wolf one. “How could you do this?”
He hissed, fear and anger in equal parts. I wanted to make him suffer longer but I looked back towards Aiden, lying vulnerable, the trust the other being inside him had placed on me. I couldn’t afford to waste time.
One slash and Dave stopped moving.
Everything was over in a few minutes. I stared at the door. No reinforcements showed up.
What fools! He didn’t even have his demon with him. Was it with her? Caroline must not have expected me to kill her dogs. Even I hadn’t. I looked down at my arm, admiring the smooth scales that shimmered under the harsh light. Bewitched by the power that coursed through me, I had never felt so alive.
So this was what it felt like to be a dragon. To have powers. To be able to protect myself.
I relaxed my fingers around the amulet, the sharp parts that made the sunburst pattern in gold had dug into my fingers. I couldn’t afford to have let go of the amulet in between the fight. It would have meant my end. My injuries healed before my eyes. There was not a residual ache in my body.
Fierce possessiveness burning through my soul, I held my dream in my hand. All that I’ve ever wanted and I didn’t want to give it up. Even though it wasn’t mine and it was never meant to be. I wanted it more than I wanted anything in my life.
But…
I knelt down and pressed the amulet into Aiden’s hand and closed his fingers over it. I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t leave him helpless without his powers. The magic drained out of me like a retreating ti
de. I transformed back to my weak self. I chuckled coldly. What would I have to do to get that kind of power again?
“Please don’t die,” I pressed my forehead against his. “I will be pissed if you decide to die now. I want to tell you how badass I was while fighting. You have to get up and thank your knight in shining armor, you dumbass.” Belatedly I realized that if he died I would die too. Weirdly enough, I hadn’t thought about that ever since they dragged Aiden into those runes. “If you wake up I will buy every single dessert you want. You are going to be sick of sweets by the time I stop making you eat. So, please wake up. Please.”
Aiden groaned and opened his eyes. “My head feels worse than the time you played that atrocious tune on my guitar.”
I hugged him hard, my frantic heart finally calming down. He was alive.
“Thank fates you’re finally up. I was getting bored being awesome all by myself,” I said, trying to forget how much his almost death had affected me.
Aiden looked around at the dead bodies that littered the room and then back at me.
“Impressive.”
“I know. Now, please, go wash off those creepy runes from your body. We don’t know if there any more druids in this building and I don’t want it to randomly activate under some stupid spell. Oh and keep pressing the ruby, you need to be in contact for it to work.”
He nodded. I didn’t know if I could remain as calm as him if I had almost died. He was something else, alright.
I used the time to sift through the torn clothing left behind by the dead wolves. Nothing Aiden could wear. I walked towards the table and looked at the books that could potentially unleash hell on earth. I had to do something about them. I wish the runes could burn the non-living things too. Those scrolls and ancient texts would wreak havoc on this world if it got into the wrong hands.