by Jada Fisher
“A kiss to remember you by?”
“I think that’d be nice,” I murmured, standing on my toes.
And then our lips were pressing together, and I was filled with an electric sort of warmth that made me tingle from my head to my toes.
We parted for a second, our faces only a breath apart, still holding onto each other.
“May I ask a favor of the great prince?” I asked, voice low as I fought for it not to shake.
“Whatever you want.”
“You know what it is,” I murmured, a soft, pained smile on my face. “Please.”
He nodded and took a step back, his grip lingering on my waist. I could feel that the dragons were going to be here any second, and that was the only thing keeping me from throwing myself into his arms and never letting go. I just had to be strong one more time, then I could finally rest.
He finally broke contact with me and turned toward the portal. He took maybe two calm steps before suddenly racing forward, grabbing Mickey with both of his strong arms and diving through the portal.
She realized what was happening a moment too late, and I winced as I heard her cry of anguish.
“Davie, no!” But then both were gone, and I was alone.
It was better this way. She was stronger than me, smarter than me. She would help all of them defeat the anti-humanists and live peaceful lives. My job had always been just to make sure she was safe. I had failed at that before, but now I was going to protect her with everything I had.
I felt the draft from dozens of wing downbeats, but I didn’t let that distract me. Raising my hands, I pushed out all the energy that remained within me.
“Good-bye, Mallory,” I murmured, memories of our lives playing through my head as I called upon protection and strength, as I pleaded with the energy within me to do what I needed it to do.
Sure enough, crystal began to erupt from the ground. But it wasn’t quite like any of the others I had seen, in my visions or with my sister. These were jagged and tall, spiking up like quartz on a cave wall. They were capable of tearing, and slashing, and they did just that to all of the metaphysical bonds that kept this world tethered with all the rest.
“Good-bye Bron,” I continued, saying what I couldn’t before.
I could feel large creatures landing all around me, some of them rushing for the quickly shrinking portal, only to have pillars of crystal shoot out to either dissuade or impale them. The rocky growth didn’t neglect me either. It formed around my feet, propelling me higher as it encased more of my legs. It was cold, oh so cold, but at the same time, comforting. All the pain was ebbing away, replaced by a comfortable numbness.
“Good-bye, Mickey.”
I heard howling, but it didn’t matter. The crystal had reached my ribs. I couldn’t really breathe, and when I looked down, there was a spike of the magical blue going right through my chest. Huh, it was just like my painting coming true. I guessed I could say with confidence that my visions were pretty much all literal. A little late in the game for that confirmation, but nice to know.
“I love you all,” were the last words that left me before my entire world was blue and I was completely sealed off.
I hung there a moment, somewhere between living and dead, awake and asleep. It was painless, but also sensationless. I felt no joy, but also no terror.
I did feel relief. Everyone was safe, and it was with that knowledge that I was able to fall back, letting myself sink into my final good-bye.
It had certainly been a wild ride.
Find out what happens next in the Dragon Oracle Boxed Set, Books 4 - 6.
amazon.com/dp/B085XBZF77
Power of the Seers
Dragon Oracle, Book 4
1
The Gray Dawn
Bronn
I kept my eyes closed, trying to cling to sleep and the dream that I was being pulled out of. But try as I might, I could feel my body waking up.
“Davie…” I breathed to myself, my chest aching as I rose to consciousness and she drifted from my arms.
My hand went to my lips, still tingling from where I had been kissing her. For a moment, it had been easy to forget that she was gone, and it was my own naiveté that had killed her.
I let out a frustrated cry and threw my blankets off, rising to my feet none-too-gracefully. I stalked to my bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. It didn’t make me feel better, though. Not that I deserved to feel better. I had somehow let a traitor into my inner sanctum, and the woman that I loved had been killed.
That thought made anger rush through me again, and I knocked everything off the sink as I yelled. It all clattered to the floor, but I only felt more and more pathetic.
Davie had been a better person than I could ever hope to be. She was smart and funny and brave, and somehow was willing to help the very people who had turned her entire world upside-down.
And of course, beautiful.
I remembered the first moment I saw her, tall and stately, with eyes that sparkled like the night sky. Her figure was like an hourglass, but with a feminine sort of softness around the middle. The kind that I could just imagine my hands sinking against as I held her, if that kind of thought wasn’t completely inappropriate.
But now there would be no more holding, no more looking at her full lips as she mulled something over. No watching that cute, pink little tongue that she would stick out whenever she was being her snarky self. No more of her sarcastic quips.
No more Davie.
I heard a knock at the door and one of my butlers ask if I needed assistance. I managed to gather myself enough to answer. I had too much to do to be moping, and I wasn’t going to let Davie’s sacrifice be in vain.
No, I was going to be the best prince I could be, and goodness knows my people needed it.
I headed back into my room, picking out something simple but official for the day. I had far too much to do to spend an hour or so getting prepared with my full royal regalia.
Ever since I had returned, it had been a nonstop struggle with the anti-humanist dragons that had broken through our shielding. My family had just barely been able to beat them back, and I had personally helped drive the last of them from our halls.
I wasn’t quite sure how that worked, considering we had been gone for what felt like months, but apparently, time was not congruent along all the dimensions, because we had been only been gone a few days.
As soon as we drove the last of the dragons out, all our energy went into strengthening our defenses. We didn’t have the magic to resurrect our shielding, making several of the court question how I had somehow traded our seer—who could generate shields—for another seer who so far just seemed to have a knack for projecting herself into other’s minds. I often had a difficult time responding diplomatically to those queries, and Mallory had issued several combinations of curse words that I had never heard before.
I tried my best, working to build walls and summon allies from our far-flung countries, but we were suddenly facing the challenge of appearing on the edge of a human city that we had previously been invisible to. I had my human relation dragons working on a cover story that it was a movie set, but keeping the citizens at bay required an entire security team and that was a drain on our resources.
“Your Majesty,” my butler said, nodding to me.
“Vennihar,” I answered. I noticed the expression on his face and withheld a sigh. “Did you need something?”
“Yes. Your guests are requesting that all of the excess clothing we provided for the previous seer be removed from the room and we return anything we had taken from her before. They say it is…painful.”
Of course it was. All of those fine clothes were things that Baelfyre had provided, little promises of a future she would never have.
Anger and pain rose within me, and all of it at myself. How could I have just let her sacrifice herself for me? Since when had I become so selfish? Sure, it was the easy answer. By Davie sacrificing herself, my p
eople still got to keep a seer and their prince. It made the most sense, especially for my people.
But to hell with sense and what was best for my people!
We were bloody dragons, imbued with the power of the ages. How could we justify having our existence rely on a lone girl who just wanted to live peacefully?
I could feel myself slipping into one of my moods, but I didn’t have time for it. I had made my selfish, heartless decision. I needed to live with it.
“Do whatever they ask,” I said simply.
“Of course, sir.”
He nodded and quickly walked away, leaving me to stand in my doorway, thinking about the woman I had failed.
I could still see her heart-shaped face, cheeks rounding in one of those sly smiles she wore when she was teasing me. The way her many-times dyed hair fell about her head in a frizzy cloud whenever she just woke up. Her long lashes, framing those eyes that could look right through me.
I shook my head and pushed myself to keep walking. I was bordering on being late to the defense summit we were trying to create, and that certainly wouldn’t do.
I made it down to the lower floor, steeling myself bit by bit. I couldn’t afford to show weakness to the people who were depending on me. I needed to deal with these dragons and then prepare for any other enemies that might try to take advantage of our after-war weakness.
I reached the room to find that everyone had pretty much already gathered, and I was announced. Everyone stood, bowing, and I couldn’t help but find the whole spectacle ridiculous.
What made me worthy of any of their esteem? Just because I happened to be the grandson of the king? Ridiculous. I hadn’t done anything but get an innocent person killed. What use was a dragon who couldn’t protect his charges?
But I kept those bitter thoughts to myself and bowed in response.
“Gentleman,” I said, taking my place at the head of the table with my grandfather. “Any updates on the situation?”
“We are handling the media and human incursions, but the wall isn’t going to really do much of anything. It will buy us minutes, maybe hours. We need to repair the old shielding!”
“How?!” another argued. “The ways of old magic are lost. The only hope we had was the seer girl and now she’s gone.”
“Any developments on her elder sister? Perhaps she can tap into—”
Suddenly the doors slammed open and Mickey was standing there, breathing hard. The eldest of the sisters was quite different from Davie, half of her angular face scarred and her limbs much frailer.
Several men jumped to their feet and our guards drew their weapons, but I held up a hand. I may not have known Mickey well, but I could recognize the determined expression on her face.
“I’ve seen something,” she gasped, panting as if she had run down the stairs. Which, knowing her, she probably had. “Something that could save us all.”
2
A Boy in a Dream
Bronn
“Are you sure this is what you saw?” I asked for probably the third time.
Mickey looked at me with wide eyes. Her rapid breath and heaving chest hadn’t stopped since she burst through the doors, even though I had dismissed the court after her first explanation and called all of the rest of our less-than-merry band to the room.
“I am telling you, it was clear as day.” She winced a little. “Okay, well, as clear as my visions can be. But I saw it. There’s a boy someplace warm, and he’s got the old magic inside of him. I saw shield walls coming out from him as far as the eye could see in either direction and…”
“And what?” I pressed. The two other times she had iterated this story to us, there was no ‘and.’
“…and his shadow was…weird.”
“Really?” Mallory asked, crossing her arms. Her face was pale, with deep, purple circles under her eyes. I didn’t think that she had gone outside since we had come back. In fact, I didn’t even think she left the room she shared with her parents unless it was to visit Mickey. We certainly hadn’t exchanged many words. Did she blame me?
I certainly did.
“A weird shadow? You wanna elaborate on that?”
“No, not really.”
Mal cleared her throat and cracked all of her knuckles, which succeeded in gaining our attention. “It was your sister, wasn’t it? You saw her shadow over his, right?”
Mickey shrugged uncomfortably. “Maybe. Or maybe it was just what I wanted to see.”
“I doubt it,” Mal said, standing. “If this kid is what you say he is, then he’s one of you mythical people, so he’s connected to your sister. It makes sense that your mind would project a sort of familiarity to him. Especially since you’re seeking him to build the shields and, from what I understand, shields were kinda Davie’s thing.”
Huh. Since when did Mal get so insightful and talkative? While she didn’t seem to be in mourning as the others were, she did spend a good amount of time learning everything she could about our drastically different timeline and eating as much food as physically possible.
“Fair enough.”
“So, what do we do?” Mallory asked. “You said this boy was someplace warm. Did that come with any GPS coordinates? Because I can think of a lot of places that fit that criteria right now.”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Great,” Mallory continued, crossing her arms. “Let’s get started now, and maybe in five years, we’ll actually find this kid with your sister’s shadow. Just a few thousand locations to check, right?”
“Wow, tone down the sarcasm there, short stack. Since when did you become the dubious one?”
“Since I jumped out of one world with a living best friend and landed in another world with a dead best friend.”
“You know, she was my sister!” Mickey snapped.
“This isn’t productive.” Mal said matter-of-factly. “Like it or not, Davie is dead, and she died to give all of us a better chance at this whole living thing. So either you all can waste it squabbling and feeling bad, or you can enjoy the gift she gave you.”
She had a point, and I sensed that it was a good time to step in.
“Mickey, do you think that perhaps you could divine where this location is? Anything we can do to help?”
Her brow furrowed, and she chewed at her lip. Her feet, much smaller than Davie’s, paced across the room.
She really was different from her younger sister, and those differences just emphasized the gaping hole the younger seer had left within all of us. She was all fine lines, gentle steps, and sweet expressions. Even when she was angry, there was an air of benevolence to her.
I missed Davie’s rasp, and the way she made the world move around her rather than conforming to it. I missed the space she took up, and the sure gait of her steps. I missed her.
“Get me a map. Oh, and a pen!”
I quickly strode to the door, ducking my head out to commission one of our staff to bring us what Mickey had demanded. They must have sensed the urgency of the moment, because they hurried off and returned in less than a handful of minutes.
Once the supplies were in my grasp, I closed the door again and handed them to Mickey. She spread the map out at the table before pulling up a chair and uncapping the pen.
“What are you planning on doing?” Mallory asked between sighs. I didn’t get the feeling that the dwarven girl was bored, but rather that she just wasn’t getting enough oxygen. I reminded myself to get her to our doctor in the next few days.
“Something I read in a book once.”
“Uh-huh, and what kind of book?” Mallory questioned.
“…it was young adult fantasy.”
“Of course it was.”
“What?” Mickey snapped. “It was Davie’s favorite genre and we liked to read together.”
“…oh.”
There was an awkward moment as Mallory sheepishly turned red, but Mickey busied herself with holding the pen over the map and closing her eyes. After a beat, she started
to hum gently. It was an unfamiliar melody, low and with a gentle rhythm.
Strange… The more her humming went on, the more a strange tingle began to work its way up my spine, building in my head until my thoughts were a sort of pleasant buzz. Mickey swayed back and forth, and I found my breathing syncing up with her movements until it was difficult to remember what exactly was going on and why we were here at all.
My body stopped being a finite, contained thing, and I felt like everything that was me spread out, intertwining with an energy I hadn’t noticed before. Suddenly, I was rushing away on the gentle breeze circulating throughout the room, seeping into the earth beneath the foundations of the house, sweeping through the city and feeling its heartbeat.
And then, faster than a blink of my eye, I saw her.
Abruptly, I was no longer some ephemeral mass whisking through the universe. I was just Bronn, the useless prince, staring up at the woman who should still be alive.
My breathing stopped as I took the sight in. Her form towered over me, still and lifeless. The same jagged, blue crystal that had enveloped her sister now encased most of her, but most horrific was the sharp outcropping jutting from her chest.
My chest heaved but oxygen refused to come to it. Was this how she had died? Somehow, I had hoped that it wouldn’t be like this, that her energy would be scattered to the dimensions, or that she would ascend to a higher plane for her selfless sacrifice.
But no, she was stranded in some other universe, impaled and strung up like some sort of war conquest.
It was disrespectful! After everything that she had done, she deserved so much more! Anger welling up in me, I reached out for her. If I could not save her, the least I could do was give her the proper burial rights of a hero!
“I did it!”
I was yanked right back into my body and the palace. I lurched forward, gasping, and it took several seconds for my head to clear.