“Time to go?”
Chelsea squeezed my wrist. “Maybe. Stay ready.”
Campe crashed through the treetops, landing on the cat and squashing it flat. Sorry, kitty. More dragons crash landed, forming a tight circle around Drago.
“Demi Drago, you will not survive,” Campe bellowed. “You’ve spurned your place in the magical world. Surrender or burn, demi. We tolerate no darkness.”
“I am ten of you lore loving idiots, and the world burns before me. Your time is past. Death comes for you today. Tomorrow I reign, striking terror into the worlds while your carcasses rot.”
“Sadie! NOW!” I hissed.
Chelsea snapped the summoning spell.
Below, the circling Thundra stomped in a ritual I’d bet good money was ingrained from the beginning of time. Drago’s roar blasted fire into the treetops. The incredible noise shot pain through my ears, which felt like they’d reached the end of day three of a thrash metal concert. The pine needles dripped fire and flames licked across the canopy. Between Drago, the answering Thundra, and the crackling flames, I was struggling to think.
Chelsea pinched my arm, hard, and I jumped, catching my balance with an inelegant flop across the branch.
“Sorry.”
I shrugged, taking in Sadie’s wide eyes, and I reached for her hand.
“Do you still want to do this?” I yelled over the mayhem.
Sadie shivered and pointed to her belly. I touched her and the kicking surprised me. Even this barely baby was ready to rumble.
“The baby started up a few moments before Chelsea pulled me,” Sadie called. “He’s never kicked like this until now. I knew it was time!”
“What do you need to do?” Chelsea popped onto my branch and sat in front of me, back to the brawl, eyes locked on mine. Sadie floated in the air next to us, surprised, but getting into it. Atta girl.
I sucked in air, peace surrounding my body, seeing the path.
“We pop into the center of the Thundra, facing Drago. For the Triune to move forward, he and any demis to come must receive an equal chance to thrive. Their lives aren’t accidents or mistakes, and each life is as valuable as the next. The Thundra believe culling any dark offspring is their right, and they’ve done it, ruthlessly, already. This has to end.”
Chelsea tipped her head, staring at me. “They killed their own children?”
“Yes, and I know why. To enter the Triune, they have to see it too. Me protecting Drago is the personification of the lesson. Last chance, Sadie. Are you positive this path is the right decision?”
Her fingers splayed over her baby bump. “Never more certain in my life, Patra.”
I glanced at Chelsea. “Can you deliver an object?”
That netted me an epic eye roll.
“Send this,” I unbuckled my waist sack, “to Parker. Let me grab my anti-vertigo first, though.”
I reached in and extracted the blood from Ares and palmed it, then pulled the vertigo potion and cinched the sack.
Chelsea’s eyes went wide. “You’re breaking the law.”
“No, just trusting a heart I know well and love even more. Besides, it won’t open for you, but I’m not sure it can’t be burnt with dragon fire. Send it to the kid.”
A hard stare, a nod, and a snap. As it vanished, emptiness filled me. One step closer, Patra. Take in the last moments. I grabbed my staff, protective runes moving across the surface. Time to go.
“Ready?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
“OK, let’s do this.”
Snap.
The waist sack landed on Parker’s balls. He winced, pulled the journal from the sack, and opened it to a blank page, a disquiet of dread filling his gut.
“Show me Patra’s latest entry,”
He read, swallowed, and wiped a tear. “Jesus, Boss. I’ll do my best, but this time, you try to stay alive. Fucking Zeus.”
Chelsea landed us on a small patch of not yet torched grass, and I coughed in the rippling smoke. We couldn’t last long without air, but I’d try for as long as I breathed.
“Thundra, I cannot allow you to extinguish any race, including your own demis,” I screamed, smoke tearing at my throat. “A war instigated against you allows for self defense, and those who started it will answer, but your choice to destroy demis must become an ancient, forsworn practice. The Triune can’t support any race who asserts superiority via annihilation. This stops now.”
The heads, easily fifty feet above me, stared at my impudence, sparks dribbling. High above them, Drago’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s with your sense of importance, Keeper? Puny and weak, trust me, I don’t need help, and you’ll die today, anyway. Is now the time?”
Sadie’s and Chelsea’s hands in a death grip, I craned my neck upward. “I’m not afraid of death, Drago. Are you? I’m trying to save you, give you space in the creation to be yourself. Isn’t that enough?”
“Fuck you all. I can rule the world, Keeper, and don’t need your or anybody’s permission.”
“No, that’s not my role, Drago, but these guys want peace.”
From the smoking soil, Vapors rose, absorbing the smoke, cleaning the air and pooping what appeared to be charcoal briquets on the ground. Not the fancy entrance I expected. Good old Vapor buddies, keeping it real.
I leaned toward Sadie and whispered, “Poseidon would laugh his ass off if he saw this.”
Sadie’s giggle rang across the tension. “He’d love it.”
The Vapors merged in the cleaned air, growing opaque. I’d never seen so many congregated in a single place. The mist kept rolling, thickening, and within minutes, forming shapes.
“Whoa, they’re dragons,” Sadie breathed. “Look, they match the shape of each one.”
“I didn’t see that coming.” Chelsea’s eyes moved from Vapor to dragon. “Are they shields?”
“No,” I answered. “More.”
“Thundra, in the beginning, you created and curated a peaceful world. When Zeus imprisoned the Vapors, you faced a choice, and you made the best one possible. Now you face a new one. Is peace your true and highest purpose?”
One by one, the dragons bent forward, heads touching the smoldering grass.
“Are you surrendering?” Drago roared.
Silence.
Campe was the last to lay his head upon the ground. “A great wisdom, Keeper. We lost our way.”
“En venterim,” I replied, and the dragons, in unison, inhaled, pulling the matching Vapor deep within their cores.
“Zeus split you, never realizing you were corporeal, but could exist in either form. Now rejoined, the balance tips to the old center. We can be more.”
“I don’t know what shit you just pulled, Keeper, but I’m done. Time to die.” Sparks and flames seeped between Drago’s teeth as his jaws opened.
Fingers crossed I’d read this right, I yelled to Chelsea and Sadie, “Stand directly behind me and stay there!”
Chelsea took a half second to decide, but followed her heart and yanked Sadie with her, casting a protective spell. We both knew a spell wasn’t enough.
I glared at Drago and jammed a hand on my hip, crashing the tip of the staff into the ground as his blast of fire filled the space between and consumed our little trio of defiance.
Chapter Thirty
I spit a mouthful of acrid tasting soot on the ground and shrugged. “You’ve got a decent library, Drago, which I keep safe until you return. What does a swim in the River Styx mean to you?”
Enormous yellow eyes blinked. “You have my books? Why?”
“I have Daisy, too. And I safeguard both while you get your shit in a pile. I’m a Keeper. I manage the line.”
With a shrug, I turned my back to Drago, ensuring Chelsea and Sadie remained protected, and glared at the newly incorporated Thundra.
“This demi deserves space, an equal footing, and the chance to thrive, just as you seek. The Triune honors both requests. What I’m asking, with respect, is
that you do, too.”
It’s pretty fucking weird sitting in a circle of predators like a tasty smoked appetizer, but as my eyes traveled along the fearsome, toothy faces, the changes within shone.
“I see them, who they were,” Sadie breathed. “Each is changing as the Vapor rejoins.”
Campe stepped forward. “If this demi dies, we start clean, an unsullied line.”
“Are you freaking serious? Can you hear what’s spewing from your mouth? You are no longer more, or less than another race. Look around you! The mer left the water for equality! The fae took a stand for each race’s opportunity to thrive. Humans,” I gestured toward Sadie and a bloody but upright Ballard who stood sandwiched between Pook and Bingo, “came here, with no magical protections, to support the Triune. Unsullied is a myth, Campe. The world is messy and imperfect. I plead for the right of this magical, despite his attempt to kill me, to exist.”
The surrounding area filled with pops; nine witches, plus Loboli, landed next to us. No way was my River Styx dunk going to cover this crowd. Here’s hoping for a fire free tête-à-tête.
Loboli moved beside me, glaring at the shifters amassed behind the Drago.
“We convened, and I made the case that this war was the wrong choice. Despite your witch-brewed enhancements that soon vanish, I say again, the true path is one where dragons assume a role as an equal, not a lord. And, regardless of our past behavior, peace lurks, an attainable possibility. Led astray by an outcast witch and demi? Are these the noble underpinnings of our ancient races? In this battle, what did you gain? How much was lost? Can your bloodlines survive? Have you, through black thinking, forsaken your future?”
“The previous era fades! Wake up and choose the opportunity to prosper, for the next generations to flourish, unfettered by the chains of mismanaged history. Let the glorification of misdeeds die today.”
Growls and snarls met Loboli’s speech while the moon, waning, crept toward the horizon. The coming sun lightened the eastern side of the forest. I leaned my head against Chelsea’s.
“The mer fought well but they must return before moonset.”
Chelsea nodded and signaled her coven mates. “Find and transport every mer, including the dead, to the sea’s shore. Leave none behind. Then return and bring Witch Glenna.”
“Yes, High Priestess.” A symphony of pops, and the witches vanished.
“Why are they leaving?” Drago snorted. “Afraid Dracena will destroy them?”
“They honor the mer, who fought with valor, and return them to the sea as the moon wanes,” Chelsea answered. “It is the respectful action to take.”
Behind Drago, deep groans, growing louder, announced the wolves’ forced shift brought on by the end of the full. The bears and cats, shrinking, eyed the dragons with unease.
Campe ignored them and lowered his head toward mine. “You make a strong case, Keeper. You’ve used your symbiont well.”
Rising, he stomped a pattern of beats and the ground shook, earthquake level, as the entire Thundra thudded the rhythm in return. Sadie wobbled, and Chelsea grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the fry zone.
“Stay close,” Chelsea whispered to Sadie. “We aren’t safe, not yet.”
“Drago, we offer peace,” Campe said. “In the spirit of the Triune, en venterim.”
High above, a cackle wafted. I could barely make out Dracena perched behind Drago’s head.
“Was she always there?” I shot Chelsea a side eye.
“No, just arrived. I can find her anywhere.”
“Nice of you to join us, Dracena. But your efforts failed.”
“Oh, I’ve only begun, Keeper. Your gullible believers are the losers, convinced of an unfeasible happy ending. Meet the truth.”
Dracena threw a complicated spell, and the briquets scattered, bouncing across the surrounding ground, gaining elevation and velocity with each bounce.
“What’s she up to?” Sadie asked, rubbing her shin where one of the smaller ones struck her. “Is she about to stone us? I didn’t see that in my dreams.”
Chelsea cast a protection bubble, and the bricks bounced away. “I’m not sure what she’s trying with this magic.” The small lines between her brows knit, eyes never leaving Dracena’s hands.
The intervals tightened, until the briquets smacked the ground in unison, mimicking the Thundra. With a crack, they slammed into the earth, sailing in equal numbers toward each dragon and sticking to their chests. Horrified, we watched Vapor wisps pull from the heart spaces of each one and flow into the charcoal bricks as the dragons roared in protest.
“Pretty fucking smart,” I muttered. “How’d she know they’d conjoin?”
“No idea,” Chelsea answered, eyes glued to Dracena. “She always hoarded her knowledge.”
Behind us, as the Vapors disengaged from the Thundra, a sense of fear covered me. “Feral! She wants to make them wild, turn them from their peace, and stoke the fire! She’s tipping the Universe, Chelsea! Knock her right the fuck off of him!”
“I’m trying.” Green eyes cut to mine and away. “She’s stronger than expected. I need the coven.”
“Quite a battle.” Nereus gazed at the wall, heaving between a crystal and semi-liquid state. “An even match.”
Poseidon’s gaze never wavered. “My money’s on the Keeper, Chum Bucket. She’s close, and that woman knows how to seal a deal.”
“You believe a simple human will not only solve the problem, but execute the solution? Idiocy.”
“Because I know her heart. At the core, Cleopatra gives a shit. She believes in the balance, feels the equilibrium in her soul.”
“So what? She’ll never see sixty. Why care?”
“Stop thinking there’s a choice, a measured calculation. It’s never been that with her. Cleopatra made the line her family and sees each member as important. In one stroke, she’s done more than magicals have to pull their world into a community. Even us, you crunchy old fart. Olympus changed in her life’s spark.”
The wall crystalized and Poseidon punched it, the clean ringing sound filling the bubble. No cracks.
“Soon.”
Pops filled the air between the bellows of the separating dragons. Chelsea’s gaze never left Dracena. “She’s up to something. This is a distraction!”
Eleven pairs of eyes stared, all heads cocked to the right.
“Potion!” Glenna shrieked, and twenty-two hands cast, knocking Dracena from her seat behind Dargo’s wing joint, and she slid cackling, seventeen feet along his spine.
“Weak! Bitch, you’ll never stop me, for I found eleven and you are one short.”
An aqua dragon, smaller than the members of the Thundra, cocked its head and shifted, becoming a statuesque silver haired woman. No charcoal fell from her chest.
“A demi,” I breathed. “They can’t be separated from their original Vapor because they never had one.”
The woman reached Chelsea and held out her hand, palm upward. “I am Reva; my mother was a witch. I have no coven. Read my lines.”
Chelsea glanced at Reva’s palm and froze before turning her own. The lines were identical. Reva laid hers over Chelsea’s and they twisted upright until the deep creases aligned. A bright green glow lit the circled coven and a shot of joy reverberated through the clearing, bouncing several briquets off the chests of the dragons.
As one, the twelve turned and cast, calling Dracena’s vial to them. It smacked into Glenna’s palm and she eyed it, then unstoppered and sniffed.
“Enslavement.”
“A forbidden potion!” Chelsea shrieked. “No safe place in the world remains for you and the coven that brewed this monstrosity. I’ll convene the world’s covens and your signatures will be known, hunted, and incarcerated. Your free days are few, Dracena. You brought imprisonment upon yourself and now destroy the futures of eleven more.”
A pop answered the sentence as Dracena fled.
“Behind me, Sadie,” I shrieked as Drago roared in frustration, fire bla
sting. As before, the invulnerability dip prevented contact, but I swayed, feeling woozy.
Inside my body, an overwhelming sense of loosening dulled my senses. I stared at the supersized Drago, knowing I should be afraid, but my guts felt as though a switch flicked. Complete thoughts weren’t landing in my mind. I stumbled, feet moving in an awkward shuffle, a disjointed puppet, with Sadie and Chelsea on my heels.
I’m not controlling my body. Help me. Please, help me.
Vapor symbols erupted on my arm.
Trust.
Death.
Birth.
Oh the gods, I’m fixing to get toasted right in front of Ballard.
Trust.
Feet slowing, my numb hand shoved into my short’s pocket, pulling the vial of blood from Ares. I stood less than twenty feet from Drago’s front claws, facing his horrific maw. His eyes narrowed, smoke swirling from his nostrils, and his lips pulled away from teeth longer than Poseidon was tall.
Holy crap, I’m about to be dead! An impaled Keeper marshmallow flambé.
I unstoppered the vial and with a shaking arm, raised it as Drago’s fire filled the space between us. We walked in lockstep, with Chelsea’s gasp and Sadie’s whimper of fear rattling in my brain, marching through Drago’s inferno to his gaping mouth.
Heart clattering in my chest, I jammed the staff behind his teeth, using the seconds before its incineration to dump in the blood. To his roar of fury, we fell in a tangle of blackened limbs to the ground.
The symbol for death etched on my soot encrusted arm and I floated away.
Drago shook, shrinking and screaming as the Thundra watched. A final shrieking roar, and he collapsed, limp.
“Is the demi dead?” called Queen Flitana, zipping through the dragons, a petite fae badass, and landing on the inert body. She pressed her ear to Drago’s chest. “The heart beats.”
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