by Jada Fisher
I took in a deep breath, her words hitting me like a punch to the chest. I wished that I could deny what she said, but too many of her words rang true.
And that really, really sucked. Had I just come back to life for a whole lot of betrayal and unhappiness? Seemed like a bad bet on my part.
“But I have to protect them,” I whispered, unable to bring my volume above that.
“I know, sweetie. You always were a protector at heart.” She reached out and stroked my face. “But please, for me, remember to take care of you.”
I thought back to Death’s words, and how she wanted me to come with her willingly. But I couldn’t tell Mickey that just yet. Not when the news of all of those other dead oracles was so new, so fresh and burning.
“I promise.”
“Thanks. I love you, little sis.”
“I love you too.”
And I’ll always protect you. No matter what.
6
Jumping the Starting Line
“And now bend toward the ground, trying to let gravity do most of the pulling as your muscles relax.”
I groaned as I followed Mickey’s instructions. We’d all been learning fighting from Mal and practicing together, which left me more sore and tense than I’d ever been before. Mickey had then suggested some of the stretches she used to help her when she was in the middle of a flare, and I hadn’t expected it to be such a workout on its own.
“Don’t push yourself. If you strain, it ruins the point of the stretch. Just let go.”
“If I let go, I’ll fall over,” I huffed.
“Davie—”
She was cut off as the horns sounded yet again. This time, I knew exactly what that meant.
“Is that…” she asked, standing up.
I nodded. “The anti-humanists. They must be back.”
“But what could they possibly want? There’s no way Bronn would ever hand you over. It would be virtual suicide.”
“It’s Baelfyre,” I said, my brows furrowing. “He has a plan. He wouldn’t show up here if it didn’t benefit him somehow. We just have to figure out how.”
“Hey! Hey, guys!”
I looked over to see Mal and Krisjian running for us, the former with a set of keys in her hand. “Is it time to steal another car?”
“Mal… The horn just sounded. There is no way you had time to find those keys and then come here.”
She shrugged. “It’s good to be prepared. So are you coming or what? I found a set of wheels that will probably withstand even three invisible death ladies.”
“I wouldn’t tempt faith by saying that, but she should be leaving us alone for a bit.”
“Why?” Krisjian asked, affixing me with one of those looks that he got whenever he heard something that didn’t quite sound right to him.
“Later. Mal, lead the way to this car that we definitely shouldn’t be taking.”
“Right this way!”
She took off at a jog, and Mickey and I followed her. It didn’t take us long to reach a sort of massive garage, the type that celebrities usually had on a show where they showed off their houses.
“That cannot be full of cars,” I said, staring as Mal punched in a code to raise the doors.
“Oh, it can,” she said with a smile. “And it is.” The doors finished opening and she made a grand gesture. “Behold, all the fancy cars these dragon folks have for when they want to cruise around the city. Believe me when I say they won’t miss a thing.”
I looked at the rows and rows of really pretty cars. I’d never really been into vehicles myself, and Mickey and I had always been too poor to afford one of our own, but the artist in me loved all the shiny and pretty colors right in front of me.
“This can’t be real,” Mickey breathed, walking forward just slightly.
“You know, I’ve been saying that a lot lately.”
“Anyways, I know it’s nice to gawk, but come on, we have a traitor to go confront. And this time, no grim reaper to stop us.”
We followed Mal once again as she led us to what could only be described as a hummer on steroids. It was truly massive, and a near neon green, with extra tall wheels that made even me feel small.
“Mal, how are you even going to see over the dashboard?”
“You’re hilarious,” she countered, running around to the driver’s side. It took a bit for her to clamber in, but that gave the rest of us time to climb up and buckle ourselves in. We really were pretty high up, and I found myself swallowing a bit nervously. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
Maybe Bronn was right. Maybe I should just hang back and enjoy myself for a bit until I was absolutely needed.
“Too late! The key is in the ignition!”
And that was all the warning we had before she was peeling off, whipping out of the parking space and gunning forward so fast that I was pressed backward into my seat.
She was right, though. The car certainly seemed meant for off-roading, because we were handling the fields way better than the last ones. I didn’t even flinch as she cut through a small grove—a shortcut, she claimed—and soon we were right at the edge of the shield with everyone else.
This time, I didn’t have her pull over while we were still a ways away, so naturally, they heard us. I saw Bronn’s shoulders tense, and when his head craned to see me, he looked a wee bit disappointed.
Oh well. He was going to have to come to terms with it one way or another. There was no rest for a seer.
Especially not one who might have declared war on an entire faction of dragons.
Whoops.
But he didn’t say anything, and instead turned to look right at his cousin, who was wearing the exact cocky expression that I had expected.
“Cousin! I see you have brought the seers. You made the right decision. Now, order the female to drop this shield, and we’ll take them right off your hands.”
“You must think me an idiot to ever trust you,” Bronn said levelly, his voice cool and stoic and so completely different from how he always talked to me.
“Well, yes, I do. And frankly, the royals believe it even more so. Are you saying that you’re refusing our terms of surrender?”
“I’m saying that you can take those terms and shove them up your—”
“You know, I warned them you wouldn’t acquiesce so easily. You see, these royals, they think you’re young, a coward. They thought you’d happily hand over the oracles at the mere promise that your people would be saved. But you see, I knew better. Because, while you are many things, my cousin, you are not a coward.”
Bronn’s eyes narrowed. “No, a coward is one who pretends to be my right-hand man then tries to kill me and my people through lies and subterfuge!”
“Oh, was that an insult toward me?” Baelfyre fluttered his lashes, ever the smarmy, overconfident jerk. “Careful, dear cousin, or I might hold you accountable for those words someday.”
“Accountable?” Bronn hissed, the slightest bit of emotion making it back into his tone. “Do you even know the meaning of the word?”
“Oh, I do. And I know many other words. Such as surrender, annihilation, eradication. Words you’ll soon be familiar with if you stick to your stubborn ways.” He smiled, all bright and dazzling. All the anger that I had pushed away from the situation with Mallory welled up again, and I really wanted to punch the guy.
“Come now, they’re not your kind. And you’ll still have your shield even after she’s gone.” His eyes flicked over to me and we connected for a moment. I tried to channel all my hate into our staredown, but he just smirked. “She’s certainly not pretty enough to choose over all of our people, and from what I hear, her friends have done plenty of damage on their own. You lose nothing by handing them over, but risk everything by keeping them.”
Bronn bristled and took a step forward. Seeing the two of them face off again made me nauseous. I remembered what happened the last time. And although I might have been more in touch with my powers than I ever w
as before, I wasn’t about to go hopping to another dimension to save him.
No. I’d done plenty of that.
“This conversation is over,” Bronn said. “Surrender now or prepare for complete war.”
“Prepare?” Baelfyre echoed, his grin growing even more. “My dear cousin, you don’t understand. When I said give us the seers or we battle, I meant exactly that. You can end this here, if you want, but that’s also when everything will start.”
“Strike whatever blow you wish,” Bronn answered, drawing himself up to his full height. “We don’t deal in slaves and we never have.”
“Slaves? They’re seers, not dragons. Not even humans.”
I didn’t miss the sharp intake of breath from Mickey behind me, but I schooled my features into a hard mask. I wouldn’t let this cretin get under my skin. I couldn’t.
But his comment seemed to be exactly the thing to set Bronn off, because suddenly the prince was striding toward the wall and I could feel the rage pouring off him.
“They are living beings!” he shouted, giving me chills. If it were any other moment, I might have turned to Mickey and told her that I was right, that we could trust him, but it wasn’t the right time. I didn’t know if it ever would be.
“Very well then, protect your little pets. Soon, you won’t be able to hold them no matter how nice of a shield she’s restored for you. Consider war declared.” Baelfyre leaned in until he was practically touching the barrier that I had rebuilt. “You’re going to come to regret this, cousin, and I do hope I am there to see it when you finally realize exactly the mistake you’ve made.”
“I will never regret protecting those I love.”
Baelfyre’s eyebrows shot up and I froze in place, even my lungs forgetting to work. Did… Did he just drop the L-bomb?
“Oh, is it love now? I would love to hear what your advisors would say to that. But perhaps another time. I suspect you’ll all want to discuss amongst each other how you’re going to survive the hell our rulers are going to rain down on you.”
Bronn spat at the dark-haired man, but his spit just hit the shield and slid down slowly. There was a moment of silence as the two just glared at each other, but eventually they broke their stare. With a slight nod, Bronn and his people turned, beginning to shift back into dragons for the flight back to the castle.
Bronn, however, stayed human, his eyes set on me. There was suddenly a lot hanging in the air between us, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to suss it out in front of my friend, the young boy I’d carted here from across the world, and an alternate dimension version of my former(?) best friend.
He didn’t quite make it, however, before a resounding boom shook the earth, rattling up my spine and shaking my teeth. I stumbled back against the side of the car but managed to stay on my feet.
“What was that?” Mickey asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “But I’m going to find out.”
Closing my eyes, I reached down into the burning, fizzing magic within me, grabbing it with both hands like I hadn’t in weeks. It had been so nice taking a break from everything, pretending that I was a normal, human girl, but the time for that was over. I had a job to do.
My mind went racing across the grasses, then over the trees, then shooting forward until the entire world was a rush of colors. It came to a stop with a jolt that made me nauseous, and I had to breathe deeply to figure out where I was.
When my head stopped swirling, I realized I was standing at an intersection in the city. It was one of the busiest ones, where Main Street connected with Jefferson and Monroe, and I knew the inner-loop to the highway was just a bit away. For a moment, I was confused, but then the sky went dark and fire burst into being all around me, sending me hurtling back to my body.
“They’re attacking the city!” Bronn was yelling, hand on my shoulder as he tried to push me into the car. “You need to get to safety!”
“What?” I asked, feeling dizzy from my quick vision. They were much nicer when they let me settle in and out of them. “How do you know?”
“Look!” Mickey said, pulling me from his grip and pointing me in the direction of our once-home.
And I did look, only for that sick feeling inside of me to increase three-fold. I could see thick, billowing smoke filling the sky right above the city while Baelfyre and his company just laughed and laughed and laughed.
“What have you done?” I screamed, fighting out of Mickey’s grip and storming toward the shield where Baelfrye still stood.
“I would think that much would be obvious, little seer. If your prince won’t come out and fight us, and he won’t hand you over, then we’ll do what we must to draw him out.” He stepped right up to the shield, and once more I didn’t think. I lashed out, my hand going right through the barrier and wrapping around his throat as I squeezed.
But I wasn’t stupid. I didn’t pierce a hole in the thing. Instead, it coated over my arms like it was a heated mold, protecting me but not him.
His eyes went wide in shock and he tried to pry my hand away, but his skin sizzled and popped as soon as he made contact. Smoke was issuing from around his neck, and I relished the pain that crossed his face.
“I think I’ve had enough of you,” I hissed, putting as much power as I could into the shield. Maybe I wasn’t as strong as a dragon. Maybe I didn’t know how to use a sword like they did. But I was pushed to the edge and I was so very tired of good people being hurt.
“Stop!” he hissed, barely able to draw a breath in.
Good.
Good.
But then his skin began to ripple and buck, rapidly shooting outward with a cloud of steam. I was smart enough to snatch my hand back before it got ripped apart, and when the smoke cleared, I was staring into the face of a very angry dragon.
He snarled and tried to charge me, only to headbutt the shield. Maybe, in another situation, I would have been able to laugh. But considering the circumstances, there was no mirth to be had.
Or maybe that was because I heard a mighty roar behind me, and even though I didn’t speak ‘dragon,’ I knew that was a call to charge.
I turned just in time to see a rush of dragons explode into being, steam spreading across the field and temporarily obstructing my view of my friends. They took to the sky, rocketing forward to go straight to the city.
Except at the same time, the rest of the anti-humanists shifted too and launched themselves upward, cutting off the surge in a clash of wings, claws, and snapping teeth.
Ah. All of it made sense now. Baelfyre knew that Bronn would never give us up, just like he had said. This was a distraction, a way to delay him as long as possible from getting to the city so that the anti-humanists could do as much damage as possible.
And once the world knew that there were dragons… Well, everything was going to change, wasn’t it?
But that was something I could worry about after. I knew what I had to do. I had to get to the city and make a shield there too. It wouldn’t be easy, but I had two other seers with me.
Worse come to worst, I would just die again.
“Mal, start the car!” I shouted, racing back toward the giant hummer.
Everyone seemed to start at that, getting back into their seats and buckling up. I jumped in as well, not even bothering with safety as I put both hands on the dash.
“We’re never going to make it through that,” Mal said, white-knuckled as she gripped the steering wheel. For a moment, I didn’t know what she meant, until I looked to the clashing dragons and saw nearly the entire space between us covered in fire.
“Let me take care of that,” I said, reaching down and grabbing fistfuls of the energy in me. Right before Mal took off, I saw the beautiful, glittering dragon that was Bronn turn and roar at us. I could tell what he was saying. He wanted us to turn back, to go back to the castle and be safe.
Too bad safe wasn’t in the cards for me.
“Sorry, Bronn. Maybe next time,” I muttered before channeling ever
ything I had into the car. I could feel more than see the protective bubble form around us, sealing us away from all the world and the noise.
“Whoa,” Mal whispered from beside me. “I felt that.”
“Go!”
I didn’t need to tell her twice. We shot forward, the tires squealing. I felt the slightest bit of nerves as we reached the wall of fire under the thundering and fighting dragons, but we burst right through without even the air conditioning being triggered. Mickey let out a whoop behind me, but I heard a furious bellow from above, followed by several other irritated ones.
“Your boyfriend is gonna be real unhappy with you,” Mal remarked, swerving as a burning tree fell across her path and she barely managed to spin the massive car onto one of the roads that led to the city.
“I can deal with that later. First, we save this city.”
“Are you sure you want to?”
“Huh?” My concentration slipped just enough for fire to burst through my window, and I let out a surprised shout before recovering my hold on things. “Krisjian, what do you mean?”
“That city holds the people who hurt you, right? Mocked you, killed your parents. Would have killed all of you if they had their way.” He leaned forward and I felt his calloused hand rest on my arm. It was easy to forget that he was a homeless kid who’d survived gangs and violence and starvation. But as I caught his gaze in the rearview mirror, I saw someone who had seen far too much for their age. “What if they deserve to burn?”
I had to breathe in, then breathe out, then breathe again. If I thought about Estelle, and everyone else who might have known about my family, yeah… It was easy to imagine that they deserved exactly what they got. Except I couldn’t. Even with all the hate and anger burning inside of me, I knew it wasn’t right.
“The thing is, there’s more than them in there. A whole lot more. All those kids, pets, people who have nothing to do with any of that. None of them deserve to die, so I won’t let them.”
Krisjian nodded and sat back. “I see.”