But now, she was a dragon and could protect people from dragons. She could finally afford to think about the advantages of dragons claiming territories and being responsible for the people therein. It meant that they wouldn’t kill people in each other’s territory. The system of ownership kept people safe.
At least, that’s what she had begun to believe.
But now she knew that some dragons simply wanted to exterminate humanity. Stonequest had told her that there were dragons who believed the human population should be culled by half.
There she was, trying to assimilate herself into dragon culture because she tried to view it as a necessary tool—not an evil exactly, but simply something that must exist—only to find that there were dragons as horrible as her worst nightmare.
Some thought people were no better than slaves or sheep or dogs.
Other dragons thought half the world should die.
There were dragons who wished people to live only so they could serve them as slaves.
It was the epitome of power run amok. It was despicable, deplorable, and disgusting. And yet—until she had been put in manacles—she’d still believed that being on Dragon SWAT was helping. She’d believed that she was fighting against this callous disdain for humankind in general.
But now, she’d learned that the dragon justice system was corrupt.
When she’d been locked up in prison, Kristen had been able to tell herself that it was for the greater good and she was there because the evidence seemed to point to her. She knew that it didn’t, simply because she did not kill any of the dragons, but she also respected the forensic process. Evidence had to be gathered and assessed and clues investigated. Her being incarcerated meant that other dragons who had committed crimes would also be locked up because of evidence. She was sacrificing her freedom—temporarily, she had thought—so that the guilty wouldn’t be able to tear the net of justice to pieces.
Only now, her enemy had gone free.
Obscura, who had targeted her friends after stalking them for weeks, who had kidnapped her brother and put him inside a sick, man-sized game so she could torture him while she waited to catch Kristen. Obscura, who had raised Shadowstorm, the dragon who had tried to make a city blow itself up so he could rule over the ashes. She was a monster, a cruel and vicious being who cared only for herself, and yet she had gone free because of a benefactor?
It was all simply too much.
Now, her friends and family were once more in danger from the twisted dragon, and there was nothing she could do about it. She’d accepted being sent to prison precisely because she thought that by doing so, she would help to affirm a system that kept dragons like Obscura behind bars, but it hadn’t worked out that way at all. She was now trapped, while the shadow dragon was free.
This wasn’t justice. It was a travesty.
And on top of all that, for the first time since she’d been a dragon, Kristen was actually afraid for her own life. If she got out of solitary and found that the six dragons had friends, she wouldn’t last long. If she had her dragon powers, she might be halfway to healed already, but she didn’t. She was trapped in a room with bruised ribs and a jaw that was painfully swollen.
As she lay alone, scared for her people, helpless, and frustrated, she couldn’t help but wonder if being a dragon was really such a great thing after all.
And if—by some miracle—she did get out of there, a war seemed inevitable. She honestly didn’t know which side she’d be on.
Obviously, she couldn’t kill humans. She had been raised by people, most of her friends were people, and she would forever protect people, but how would she do that? If fighting broke out and hundreds of dragons tried to kill humans, it seemed logical that they would use fighter jets, tanks, and everything else at their disposal to defend themselves. Would it make sense for her to join mankind in the fight against dragons?
The reality was that she wouldn’t be able to stop more than a few dragons. She simply wasn’t experienced enough. While she had steel skin, which was an advantage, there were all kinds of powers she was still ignorant about. Hell, Shadowstorm seemed to be able to control lightning to some extent. Another dragon with that ability would make her conductive skin quite a liability.
She wouldn’t fight against humans. That went without saying, but would she fight for them? She couldn’t win the war by herself, she knew that. And then there was the possibility that by joining the humans, she would further galvanize the dragons against them. Dragon kind might see her allegiance to humans as a threat to their hierarchy and act even more swiftly to crush humankind. After all, that was what had happened with Obscura. Her being a dragon had made the other dragon swear vengeance. Perhaps her fighting for people would do the same thing, but to every dragon in existence.
No, if it came to war, Kristen wouldn’t fight for people. It simply wouldn’t achieve anything. The only thing she could do if the situation degenerated to open warfare was to try to act as a bridge between the two worlds. She knew she couldn’t defeat hundreds of dragons on her own, but if she could convince them not to attack people, she might be able to turn the tides of war.
Of course, she’d no doubt have to do the same with humankind. She was famous and she’d have to use that. After all, they possessed nuclear weapons. At the end of the day, it was humans who could end the world and she didn’t think that they would necessarily pull that option off the table. After all, they’d used them against each other so why not use them against an even more powerful foe?
No, no, it was unthinkable. She had to make sure that war between humans and dragons simply didn’t happen. There would be no real victors. Humans would not be able to wrestle independence from dragons by force, and dragons wouldn’t be able to force humans back into complete servitude. Both sides were too powerful, but she also had a feeling that neither side thought of the other that way.
After all, dragons could fly, breathe fire, and heal super-fast. They obviously thought themselves superior.
Humans had fighter jets that could go faster than dragons, plus tanks, and if they were really and truly threatened, the aforementioned nukes.
Kristen couldn’t let a war happen.
But she currently couldn’t do a damn thing.
She was trapped in a padded room with no contact with the outside world, while her nemesis was out there, probably already hunting her friends and family.
While she wanted to make a difference and to make peace, if Obscura had killed her family or any of her friends, there was a very real chance that the Steel Dragon herself might be the one to trigger the world war.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
After twenty-four hours, Kristen was led back to her cell. She should have felt happy or relieved, at least, that she could now see other faces, but she didn’t. Instead, it was merely a reminder that she didn’t belong there. She was locked up in this prison with other dragons even though she hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t even see herself as they did. Her heart would always be human. None of these dragons felt that way.
Still, it was better to be back to the strangely comfortable bed in her prison cell. At least she could actually watch the time and eat what she wished. She could go outside or visit the library.
It was fairly obvious to her that her brawl with the six dragons wasn’t a secret. Everywhere she went, she received deferential nods. She didn’t know who’d told the story, but the fact that she had beaten six dragons seemed to impress most of the population in the prison or at least intimidate them.
Still, she would have given all that up for a friend right now. But even that was a weird thought. Why did she want to be friends with a dragon criminal? Considering that the burden of proof needed to keep a dragon in there seemed so high, she could assume that most of them were guilty of horrible things.
But could she? Maybe the only dragons who were released were those with benefactors. After all, that was how Obscura got out. And Kristen had battled Copperstrike, a drag
on who’d trashed a town while battling with another, wealthier dragon. Both had damaged the city, and yet the richer one had gone free while the poorer one was still locked up. Maybe being in there had nothing to do with guilt or innocence and all to do with connections.
She felt a pang of guilt when that theory seemed to bear out.
The morning after her first day out of solitary, a guard arrived. He led her to a part of the prison she hadn’t seen since she’d been checked in.
Stonequest waited in the admittance room. He tried to smile but mostly looked as guilty as hell.
“What, no flowers?” she asked him before he could say anything.
He smiled awkwardly and cleared his throat before speaking. “There’s been another murder. The same method was used, and a dragon was killed without signs of struggle or battle. A tiny wound caused enormous damage and there is a DNA match with the others again.”
“I thought that DNA was supposed to be mine?” Kristen said. She knew it was a petty, stupid thing to say when she said it but she hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone since she’d been in there. Her social skills felt raw.
“I never thought it was, Kristen, you have to trust me on that. We were only doing our due diligence. Now that there’s been another murder, I was able to convince the Council that even if it is your DNA, it has to be someone else using it as you were locked up here.”
“Well, thanks for that, Stonequest. It’s good to have someone pulling the strings.”
“Pulling the strings? What are you talking about?”
“The only reason I’m free is because you talked to someone. Admit it, that’s how this works.”
He glanced at the dragons and mages standing guard and watching the door. “Kristen, I understand that you’re upset. You’ve obviously had a tough time in here.”
She could feel his gaze on her bruised jaw. The swelling had subsided but half of her face was still purple and yellow.
“That’s putting it lightly. Did you know Obscura was in here? She and her little thugs made my stay fairly fucking horrible.”
“Can we please not do this in here?” Stonequest pleaded. “Let’s get you checked out, get that silver cuff off your ankle, and head home. I have a car, a driver, and a pizza. I know that’s not enough, but…well, it’s what I have.”
Kristen glared at him. “Mushroom and pepperoni?”
He nodded.
“Fine.” She turned her back to him and strode to the desk. The dragon there showed her to a changing room. It was extremely odd to change from a prison jumpsuit back into her SWAT uniform, but that was what she’d worn when she’d been booked and Stonequest—being a guy—had not thought to bring her regular clothes.
When Kristen stepped into the lobby, she saw surprise on the faces of the guards.
A mage knelt to undo the silver cuff on her anklet. “This is a new one, officer,” he said, and with a spell muttered in a language she didn’t know, her powers returned.
It felt like being sick with a fever for three days and waking up to find yourself normal again with nothing out of place except an unusually large appetite. Or, she thought, like having a cast taken off her entire body. To have her powers back felt so good it was almost orgasmic.
Kristen drew a deep breath—the first one she’d dared since her ribs had been pummeled by the brass knuckle—and felt her heart beat faster with the extra oxygen. Her ribs still hurt and they wouldn’t heal instantaneously, but she could tell that her body was now doing something about it. She touched her bruised face. It was still tender, but not as much as it had been before. She tried to concentrate on healing her face, already quite irritated by how Stonequest stared at her.
“Shall we?” he said and offered her a hooked elbow for her to hold.
“I’ll walk, thank you,” she said and marched from the prison, her head held high and her shoulders once again able to carry more of the weight of the world.
They crossed the parking lot to a black Mercedes parked in the rain. Stonequest opened the door for her and she slid in. He followed so they were both in the back seat and on either side of a pizza. It smelled divine. She had eaten breakfast—food being one thing the prison did surprisingly well—but now that she was actively healing, she could feel hunger growing inside her.
“Where to, ma’am?” a mage with dark skin and elaborate patterns shaved into his tight, curly hair asked from the front seat.
“Daryl?” Kristen asked.
“Um, yes, ma’am.” The mage’s practiced and slightly foreign accent slipped into the much more familiar sound of a Detroiter. His gaze glance from her to Stonequest. “But most dragons call me by my mage name, Enfuegus.”
“You were the first mage I ever met, Daryl. It’s good to see no one’s eaten you.”
He chuckled at that. Stonequest looked intensely uncomfortable.
“I think so too, Lady Steel. I think so too. Are you doing all right?”
She craned her head to see herself in the mirror. Her face was still bruised. No doubt that was what he was referring to.
“You should see the other guys. All six of them.”
The mage chuckled again.
“Enfuegus, if you’ll excuse us. We need to talk about police business,” Stonequest said formally.
“But of course, sir,” Daryl responded, his slightly foreign and totally fake accent present once more. Apparently, he could slip it on and off effortlessly. Kristen both respected him for it and despised the fact that dragon culture made him do it. He started the car, exited the parking lot, and cast a spell that created a shimmering wall of air between the front and back seats.
He fiddled with the radio but she heard nothing. Apparently, it was a soundproof spell. Cool.
“First off, Kristen,” Stonequest said as the vehicle moved toward the gates. “I want you to know I never actually believed that you killed Icebreeze.”
“Well, that’s a fucking relief since I didn’t.” She might have said more but she snatched a slice of pizza and devoured it first.
“We’re all relieved you’re finally free.”
“Are you?” She took a second slice. Her wounds, the bruises especially, were fading quickly but as they did so, her hunger seemed to increase proportionately. At this rate, she would have to get Daryl to stop for burgers, although most of a pizza was still left.
“Of course we are.”
“I have a little trouble believing that considering no one came to visit me except for my human friends.”
“I didn’t want to create the appearance that I favored you because you’re on Dragon SWAT,” he explained.
“What about creating the appearance that I was actually innocent? You know, I understand that I’m a dragon by blood or whatever but so far, my experiences with dragons have definitely not been super-great. Every time I need an actual friend or companionship, I have to go back to humanity. You dragons really are cold-blooded.”
“Us dragons, Kristen. I know you went through some hard stuff in there, but you’re still one of us.”
“Hard stuff? I faced a group of Obscura’s goons and almost died.”
“And they’re all still in there, while you’re free.”
Kristen clenched her teeth. “Obscura’s free. What the hell is that? It seems like all you dragons are allied against me and against humanity in general.”
“I understand that you might feel that way, but I assure you there are dragons on your side.”
“Then why no visitors?”
“Because of the charges in the case. Think about it. There was DNA evidence. If someone came in here to visit you, they could conceivably have taken some of your DNA—like a vial of blood or fingernails. That could have ruined your chances of getting out at all. We had to stay away. It was the only way to prove that the case was objective.
“Well, it sounds like while I was defending my life, you were working on excuses to placate me.” She helped herself to another slice of pizza.
�
��It wasn’t you I was worried about, it was Heartsbane.” He snorted with exasperation.
“What do you mean?”
“She was more…uh, let’s say forceful about getting you released. It took a fair amount of persuasion to keep her away. Honestly, I regret it now. I didn’t think that you’d be involved in any fights or anything while you were in there. If I’d have known that would happen, I might have let her try to visit and…intimidate the guards, I think her words were.”
Kristen paused before her next mouthful to think. She couldn’t stop eating, not when her body was taking away the pain one bite at a time, but she needed a moment to absorb what he had said. Finally, she managed to ask, “Heartsbane? Really?” She couldn’t picture the obviously anti-human dragon coming to her defense.
“Yes, really.” Stonequest nodded. “Dragons are used to playing the long game, which means not always playing our cards until the chips are down. Heartsbane acts tough, and she really is tough, but she also cares deeply about her own. You’re one of us now, one of hers.”
She nodded. That was something she could relate to. Even before she’d been a dragon, she was fiercely defensive of her own family and friends. Now, it had become an even stronger drive.
“I… Thank you for telling me that, Stonequest. It means a lot to me, actually.”
“That the only reason I didn’t come was to ensure your innocence?”
“No. That’s bullshit you’re hiding behind and you know it, but for telling me about Heartsbane. If she’s anything like me, that’s something she’ll never say to my face, like ever. So thank you.”
The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2) Page 48