“I wish…” he began. “I wish I had more time. There’s still so much of the world I haven’t seen. I want to swim with the oceanfolk, tame a griffin, duel the fire spirits.…”
Kaia peeked out at the millions of ice crystals swirling in the dark. It was hard to imagine such wondrous things when the world was frigid and black.
“But, it looks as though the world might freeze over before Nifras even gets here,” he finished bitterly.
Kaia thought of Odriel and squeezed Klaus’ hand, wishing she could share with him the same confidence the spirit guide had poured into her. “It’s going to be ok, you know. We’re going to defeat Nifras, the sun will shine whole again, and you can go do all of those things.”
When Klaus turned to her, his eyes softened, but he did not smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again and looked back at the fire. “I hope you’re right, Firefly.” He lowered his head to rest it against hers.
The dragon fire stirred restlessly within, as the Shadow Heir leaned against her. She considered, wearily, that this might be their last chance to talk before reaching the Deadlands, but she couldn’t sort her feelings into words. How could she explain how much he had meant to her in the past months? The bond between them seemed palpable, so strong Kaia felt she could reach out and touch it—an unbreakable tie between two that shared a past, present, and future. Hopefully, it was a future that stretched past the next season. The fire blurred as Kaia’s eyes slid shut. As she fell asleep, she imagined that the small blaze was the only warmth, the only light, in their frozen world.
She hoped she was wrong.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Idriel
It seemed as if Kaia had scarcely closed her eyes before Nifras’ great booming woke her. Under the black sky, the snow had stopped, but the earth’s quaking caused the drifts to fall from the boughs of the evergreen. As the crashes resounded around them, Kaia summoned flames to her hand as she, Klaus, Shad, and the animals scrambled to escape the small avalanche in the dark.
Just as they clambered to their feet, a shattering cacophony like they had never heard before reverberated through the air, like the breaking of a thousand mirrors echoing through the night. An eerie silence fell over them like a heavy blanket.
But the sky did not brighten.
It only took a second for Kaia to realize what had happened. She looked at Klaus with wide eyes, then turned to Shad.
The cat’s hair stood straight up from his body, and his black pupils dominated his normally luminous eyes. “We must fly.”
They leapt onto the Dalteek and spurred them southward. Klaus urged Stormshade to a leaping gallop and Sunflash eagerly bounded after, as if she sensed the urgency of their cause. Kaia looked back to see Gus, in full sprint, already trailing behind.
He barked as he sprang through the snow after them. I’m coming. I’m coming.
She tugged Sunflash’s reigns and called out to Klaus. “Klaus, I can’t keep up at this speed, Gus won’t make it.”
Stormshade tossed her antlers impatiently as Klaus slowed the doe to a halt. Shad’s eyes turned to the red shepherd, panting happily as he caught up to them.
I’m here. Why are we stopping?
“Firefly…” Klaus grappled for the words.
Kaia tilted her head as she waited.
“Kaia,” Shad said, his voice rough with tenderness. “You must leave Gus behind.”
The words didn’t sink in. “What?”
“He won’t be needed in the Deadlands,” Shad went on.
“No.” Kaia shook her head incredulously, looking from Klaus to Shad and back. “I can’t just leave him here.” Kaia illuminated the road around them, tears welling in her eyes. “Not in the freezing dark!”
Klaus ran a hand through his hair. “He’ll be safer here than where we’re going, Firefly.”
Gus looked back and forth between them, tail wagging. I’m ready. Where to next?
Sunflash pawed the ground in agitation, urging them to hurry.
“Maybe we could take him to a village,” Kaia protested, her voice catching.
Shad shook his head. “You know we haven’t the time.”
Kaia swiped at her eyes with a battered forearm, willing the nightmare away. They still had miles yet to run through the pitch black and ice to meet an undead army. An army she wanted nowhere near her beloved companion.
With a cry of frustration, Kaia bowed her head with clenched fists. She slid off Sunflash’s back with trembling lips. She knew they didn’t have time for her sentimentality, but Klaus and Shad said nothing as she knelt on the ground before the ragehound and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace.
She remembered the day he was born, almost four years ago—just a puff of wriggly red fur squeaking in the straw. No matter where their journey had taken them—haunted forests, dank cellars, bloody battlefields—he had been there, always happy, never complaining. Now, she had to leave him on his own in this sunless, unfamiliar land. With a sob, she released him and grabbed her blanket from her saddlebag, knotting it about Gus’ neck like a cape. She knew it wouldn’t stay on, but she could hardly bear the thought of him out here in the cold.
Klaus fidgeted restlessly atop Stormshade, haste and compassion warring within him. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Kaia hugged Gus once more. “Stay safe, my friend,” her voice wavered as tears spilled down her face. “I love you, Gussy.”
Gus gave her face a lick and cocked his head, his tail still wagging blithely. Why are you sad, my girl?
Kaia wished Mackie were here to make Gus understand…wished Mackie were alive anywhere. She kissed Gus between his brown eyes. “I promise I’ll find you.”
With that, Kaia stood and turned to mount Sunflash. Without looking at Klaus or Shad, she spurred the Dalteek into a gallop with Stormshade following close behind. As they rode into the night, Kaia looked behind her to see Gus trailing them.
He barked uncertainly. Wait, my girl! I’m coming! Wait for me.
Kaia’s loyal hound fell further and further behind, until at last, he was swallowed by the darkness.
✽✽✽
The hooves of the Dalteek beat the ground like overzealous war drums as they raced south. They rode for hours, the Naerami beasts living up to their tireless reputation, but without the sun or stars, it was impossible to tell how much time had passed. The only light came from the lit branch that Klaus held in front of him and Kaia’s own outstretched hand as she tried to illuminate their path. They passed only a few scattered villagers fleeing north in panic.
The pressing, suffocating need to rush south had dried Kaia’s tears, and a nauseating dread roiled within her, consuming her thoughts. Were they too late? Would they find their allies already dead and Idriel’s Lost free to suck the marrow from their world? She concentrated on Odriel to keep herself calm, pictured the glowing blue bear and imagined his calming voice in her mind. She had to believe they would win. This is why I was born. My time is now.
A familiar white ball of light in the distance disrupted her thoughts.
“Everard!” she cried, urging Sunflash even faster. As they crested a small hill, Kaia gasped, the breath stolen from her lungs. Ringing filled her ears, and her limbs went numb.
Idriel didn’t have an army.
He had ten armies. A multitude. A legion that swallowed the landscape before her, illuminated by Everard’s light.
A sea of black eyes in warped skeleton skulls covered the snow-coated desert. The red sand had already born these foes once before, centuries ago, and now it groaned under their mass once again. These Lost, no flesh on their gleaming white bones to speak of, clanked in their armor and rushed forward with disturbing agility—a heaving, twitching ocean of dead surging towards the beacon of yanaa.
Lurking behind their ranks, a great black dragon writhed and roared with malice. So unlike the elegant, joyful creature Kaia had witnessed on the mountainside, this dragon bristled with s
pikes, claws, and teeth. Great wings folded on its back, it loomed larger than two houses stacked on top of one another, with spines protruding from every scale. She could feel the emanation of sheer hate as it thrashed in orgiastic fury, whipping the host of Lost forward in an unstoppable killing wave. Idriel, brother to Odriel, had come to consume this world.
As she watched, the Okarrian army—no, their band of warriors, of allies, of friends—closed ranks further down the ridge, preparing to meet the flood of evil. Shad alighted from his saddle bag to the ground. There would be no place for the cursed cat down there. The ancient flames within Kaia roiled furiously at the sight of the tidal wave of Lost threatening to wash away Everard’s small glow.
She turned to Klaus beside her, her voice sharp. “Kill Idriel. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Klaus’ eyes locked with hers. “Kaia…” Still atop Stormshade, he leaned over to grasp her arm and pulled her to him. His lips met hers in a hard, searching kiss. Her warmth rose to meet his cold mouth as the dragon fire sparked and crackled within her. He softened as he pulled away, lingering for a moment they didn’t have, letting their breath come and go together as one.
A first kiss that felt like a last.
His eyes brimmed with unspoken words as they locked on hers, his hazel irises swirling gold and gray in her fire’s reflection—sparking facets she had never noticed before—overflowing with a longing kept long hidden behind dark lashes.
But they were out of time.
“Burn bright,” he managed roughly, and then he was gone, galloping down the hill towards the black dragon.
Kaia stared for a moment where he had been, letting her electrifying emotions course through every inch of her body, stoking the scorching heat within her.
“Odriel’s wings,” she whispered.
With that, she turned Sunflash and thundered along the ridge to join Okarria’s bravest. She resisted the urge to touch her mouth where the hot press of Klaus’ lips lingered. As she remembered the sweet taste of him, her heart nearly burst with passion. With an effort, she shoved the jumble of desire to the back of her mind. She would see Klaus again and tell him how she felt. She had to believe it.
Kaia focused on Everard’s beacon. She needed to reach the frontlines before Idriel’s soldiers, or their warriors would be surrounded and overwhelmed. As she reached the rear of her army, she threw a great fireball into the air to announce her arrival. A thunderous cheer erupted as the soldiers parted to let her pass. Hands reached out to touch her boots and brush Sunflash’s flanks for luck as they galloped to the front where Everard, Cressida, and Okoni awaited her.
“I hope you didn’t worry too much,” Kaia said breezily as she leapt from Sunflash’s back.
Anger and relief struggled for control of Everard’s countenance, but in the end, he only favored her with grimly pursed lips.
Cressida smiled and raised her sword in a salute. “We hunt together again.”
She raised her voice loud enough for the frontlines to hear. “May the killing be swift!”
The warriors cheered her words, and Kaia turned to face their foe. The Lost were already almost in range. The ground thundered with their approach, and their keening filled the air.
She flashed a wolfish grin at the stern magus as the explosive heat surged through her body. “Any last words of advice?”
The magus sighed deeply. “I am over a thousand years old, and I am not the oldest being on this world by half.” he paused as Idriel shook the sands with an ear-shattering roar. “How is it that the fate of Okarria has come to rest on the shoulders of a seventeen-year-old human child?”
“Actually, Everard.” She walked out into the glistening white field. “I think I’m eighteen now.” With that, she raised her hands in front of her, and in an instant, images of Layf, her mother, Gus, Tekoa, Fiola, and Klaus bloomed in her mind. She thought of Okarria—its marvelous creatures, brilliant mountains, and verdant forests. As the caged fire rampaged within, she set her hardened gaze on the army before her.
And exploded.
With a deafening BOOM, she unleashed the Dragon Rage.
A towering wall of flame billowed out in front of her with great reaching fingers. The snow evaporated before the roiling curtain of heat, steam billowing up to reveal the scarlet sand beneath. A searing shockwave blasted through the leading wave of Lost, incinerating them without a trace. The blast knocked back the second, third, and fourth rows, leaving them flaming in the sand.
For a moment, the battlefield silenced. Kaia looked back at her dazed allies with a smirk of satisfaction. When they saw her clear eyes and smiling face, they realized the rage had not consumed her and another raucous cheer, louder than the first, echoed across the bloodshot desert.
In their bolstered fervor, the army jostled to push forward while the enemy was down, but Everard and Cressida steadied them. It would not do to go rushing into the enemy’s open arms. Kaia had killed hundreds and knocked down a thousand, but the other thousands already scrambled to step over their downed comrades and fill the empty spaces at the front.
Idriel bellowed again, and the Lost rushed forward even faster. Kaia would be able to keep those directly in front of her at bay, but the far left and right flanks were out of range. It wouldn’t be long before they were surrounded. They had to stick together. I just have to stall the attack and keep us alive long enough for Klaus to kill Idriel. Kill the puppeteer, and the marionettes will fall. She took a deep breath as she glanced at the massive dragon pacing behind his endless army, flashing its man-sized teeth and raking its claws through the sand. But how would Klaus be able to kill that?
As the dead army closed the distance with her own, Kaia released three successive explosions in an arc around her in an attempt to keep the horde from circling behind them. But where one skeleton disappeared, another three took its place. For every one that fell, five stampeded over it in their voracity. With one hand after the other, Kaia released successive streams of fire into the endless dead. The inferno coming easier to her hands than ever before—every blast totally in her control—she no longer had to fear her strength, no longer had to hold back.
But, despite the constant river of flame, the mob of dead circled, clashing with her army from the right and left. The sounds of battle cries—human, Dracour, and Maldibor rang in Kaia’s ears. Cressida called for the warriors to hold formation. If they didn’t stay together, they’d be swallowed.
Idriel lashed his tail and stomped the ground, urging his pawns forward with throaty growls and roars. For every explosive boom that erupted from Kaia’s hands, the shadowy beast would answer with his own threatening bellow. It was difficult to believe that the monster could be kin to the small turtle Gus had found by the mountain lake.
Snow began to fall again as the battle raged. Kaia was grateful for the chill as her body overheated, her skin steaming and her heavy panting creating small clouds in the frosty air. As she dispatched the skeletal warriors in a burning bath, she noticed these Lost were different than Conrad’s stock. Intelligence sparked in the bottomless eye sockets of these creatures, and they seemed to have a greater instinct for survival than the ones she had faced before.
Thankfully, her meager army rose to the task. Her comrades arranged themselves at her flanks and rear in a semicircle, clashing with the wings of Lost that managed to outflank Kaia’s blaze. Idriel remained behind his army—whether fearful of Kaia’s gift, suspicious of a hidden attack from Klaus, or just waiting for the right moment to strike, Kaia didn’t know.
After an hour, her shoulders drooped, and sweat stung her eyes. Hurry Klaus! I don’t know how much longer we can hold out!
She screamed a hoarse battle cry, and another swirling inferno of flame exploded from her hands to rip a hole in the shadowy mass before her. Spreading her arms wide, she launched two fireballs at the Lost trying to move around her range. She sucked air greedily as she tried to regain her breath and squinted in the dim light at the sinuous dragon. He had s
topped his pacing and seemed distracted now, thrashing every which way and keeping his spiky head trained to the ground.
“Everard!” she called back behind her. “Klaus is engaging Nifras!”
The great magus strode purposefully to stand behind her. His dark eyes surveyed the scene tensely. “He is having difficulty.”
“What?” Kaia’s voice pitched with anxiety. How could the magus even see that far? “If Kallar could do it, Klaus can too!”
“He cannot fend off the dead and battle the demon at the same time. They will overwhelm him. You need to get closer to distract the horde.”
“I am distracting the horde!” she snapped. In Odriel’s name, what else can I do?!
Everard’s dark eyes locked on hers. “You have to get closer.”
“And leave the army?”
“Kaia,” Everard said sharply. “Every soul in this army knew they would die here. As will Klaus. As will you.” Kaia opened her mouth to protest, but Everard continued before she could object. “What is important is that the demon dies here, as well. If he dies, there is still a chance for this land. The living will be able to deal with the remaining dead.”
Kaia shook her head in disbelief, shock numbing her feelings as the magus spoke. So, there was never hope after all?
She heard the voice of a child escape her mouth. “E- everyone is going to die?”
Everard rested a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Okarria will survive. Your family will survive. The future will survive. You must do this for them, Guardian Dashul.”
Kaia looked at the ground for a moment and took a deep breath. There was hope—but not for her, not for Klaus. This was her destiny. She looked up into Everard’s solemn countenance and nodded.
“I’ll see you on the other side, magus.”
And with that, she ran into the sea of dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Idriel’s Ace
Kaia rushed headlong into the ranks of the Lost…and was immediately swamped. Drawn to her power, they dashed towards her, reaching out with long fingernails and gnashing yellow teeth. She encased herself in flames and every few steps, she’d permit the nimbus to burst outward in a globe of destruction—at once clearing her path and protecting her from the encroaching horde.
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