by Jada Fisher
“You see?”
“Back home, they would say that people needed to be made an example of. That mercy was showing that you were soft.”
“And do you agree with that?”
He looked out the window, at all the fire, then looked up at the roof as if he could see the dragons fighting above. “No. I think weak is the furthest thing from what you are.”
I smiled at that, because who knew when I would get a chance to again.
“Suck-up,” Mal muttered, raising an eyebrow.
That broke the moment and we all managed a slight chuckle. Might as well get it out while I could, because I had a feeling that we wouldn’t get a chance for quite a while.
“There,” I said, pointing at the highway sign. “Hop on there. The overpass should take us to the center of the city.”
“And that’s where you need to be to do your magic thingie?”
“It’s the best spot.”
“Alright then, hold on. If I was these dragons—and thank God I’m not—I’d take out all of the main roads to make sure my victims stayed where I wanted them. They’re going for mass damage. They want to be known.”
“I can’t believe they’re revealing the existence of their entire people,” Mickey said, looking out the window at the chaos already starting to loom ahead of us. “This seems like a big deal. Dragons have been hiding from us because of our numbers, right? When humans began to outnumber them by a lot, they could take them down. There’s more of us than ever, and now we have guns and bombs. What’s changed?”
“Something,” I answered as calmly as I could. “And it’s probably not good for us.”
“You can say that again.”
“Uh, not to cut into this sisterly moment, but I’m pretty sure I see a gap in the road ahead.”
I squinted, and sure enough, I saw an entire part of the highway that was just gone, crumbling and broken and smoking. The smell hit me a moment later, and it was hard not to choke on it.
“There a way around it?”
“Keep going.”
“Excuse me?”
I hardened my gaze and put my hands back on the dash. “I said, keep going.”
“Look, I know you’ve got a lot of power, girl, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing about a seer that can make a car float.”
“I’m not going to make the car float,” I snapped, furrowing my brows. I just needed to think. To brace myself. If I could hold off an entire dragon army, I could do this.
Then again, I had called upon very old magic to recreate that shield. This was something entirely different.
And something I had sworn I would never do again.
“Alright, well, if you mess this up, my death is entirely on your hands.”
“Thanks, Mal. You’re a gem.”
She snickered at that, as if we weren’t racing toward a massive, burning ravine, then pressed the gas to the absolute max. I cut off everything else in my mind, and just focused on the shield around us and the other side of the road.
We could make it. We had to make it. All I had to do was…fold things a little, and then punch through.
Easy enough.
“Hold on,” I growled before letting the energy simmering inside me burst out in a violent wave.
One moment, the gap in the road was in front of us, then we shot through a thick, cloying fog, and the next second, we were erupting right back onto the road again with the gap behind us.
“Uh, what just happened?” Mal asked, her eyes still on the road but her head turning slightly this way and that.
“You dimension hopped,” Mickey breathed, sounding more than a bit nauseous. “You skipped us like a stone.”
I nodded. “Glad it worked.”
“Uh, I think I’m going to be sick,” Krisjian groaned. “That was not fun.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mal shot back. “That was the coolest— CRAP!”
I didn’t have time to ask her what was happening as the road in front of us suddenly fell away, a dragon surging up from underneath the overpass. It took off into the sky, hardly even noticing us as Mal slammed on the brakes as hard as she could.
But no matter how magical we were, it seemed that my shields couldn’t do a thing to slow us, and we went careening over the edge. I hadn’t anticipated myself dying in a fiery descent to the earth, but the ground rapidly filled my vision as we fell down, down, down.
But then, when we were maybe only halfway to our untimely demise, the car lurched backward. I slammed into the dash, definitely regretting not putting my seatbelt on, and it took me a few minutes to collect myself enough to realize that we were going higher.
“Hah! Look at that! Your prince is here to save the day.”
Groaning, I twisted from where I was crumpled against the dash and looked through what had once been our rear window. There wasn’t any glass anymore, just massive dragon claws curled through the back that belonged to none other than Bronn.
“Alright,” Mickey said with a gasp. “Maybe you can trust him.”
I chuckled weakly, which seemed to be the sound of the evening, and tried to catch my breath while he carried us. He managed to get a mile, maybe two, before two dragons set upon him.
He set us down, the car slamming a bit harder into the ground than he probably would have liked, then rounded on the attackers. One he caught in his jaw, but the other quickly wheeled away, going back into the city and leaving fire in its wake.
Ah, I got the plan. They weren’t there to fight. They were there to hurt. To do as much damage as possible.
That made me really, really angry.
“This is close enough,” I said, opening the door. It wouldn’t budge, however, the side partially caved it—probably from when I had let my concentration slip a bit. I wasn’t about to be delayed, however, and I leaned back so I could kick at the windshield.
“Whoa, Davie! You can just climb out my si—”
All it took was one more kick and the entire thing shattered, raining thick glass all around us. I didn’t pay it any mind, however, and slid right out of the car.
It was time to end this.
7
Aerial Assault
In my head, I knew what was happening. I knew that the city was under attack and that there would be fire and dragons everywhere. Heck, I had literally just seen a dragon break through a highway ramp and send us hurtling to our death.
But it was one thing to know all of that, and it was another thing to see it. As I exited the car to run over to the crest of the overpass we were on, I was surrounded by all of it.
There were screams, so many screams, and buildings laid broken and shattered around me. All of it was random, with some blocks completely untouched and others looking like they had been bombed. Cars sat overturned, melted together, alarms going off here and there. Fire hydrants were erupted everywhere, as if that would somehow stop the inferno devouring everything.
It was just like so many of my visions, one of death and destruction and what it would look like if we lost. All it would take was a bit more damage, a bit more apathy, and everything would be over.
But I wasn’t about to let that happen.
I grabbed onto the metal railing atop the guardrail and let my body absorb everything around me, connecting me to the world most intimately.
It all pulsed through me, a fervid maelstrom, hot and acrid and drenched in terror. I could feel loss, I could feel fear, I could feel disbelief just as much as I could feel heartbreak. I held onto each of those points, those blinding beacons of pain, and let it sink into my skin.
Because I understood it. The horror pouring out around me was one I had already lived through. I knew what it was like to be surrounded by nothing but fire and screams, to have the heat build in you until your eyes couldn’t open and even your lungs refused to work. I knew what it was like to feel trapped and scared and small.
I understood.
And nobody deserved that.
I reached out and reached out and reached out until all of that fear, all of that pain, bubbled over within me. Like the fuse being lit on a rocket, all it took was for the spark to reach its goal, and suddenly, I was erupting outward.
It hurt in a way I couldn’t entirely describe. It felt like it was ripping the very soul from me, shooting outward and upward in a dome of shifting light. As it rushed, I felt any fire it touched fade and vanish, drowned out by my power. The power of every seer that had ever come before.
I would protect them.
I would protect all of them.
I grit my teeth, feeling my legs start to grow weak. It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t going to have enough. It was one thing to cover an entire castle and its estate using the foundations already built by those far more wise and powerful than I. It was another thing entirely to shield an entire city in the middle of a dragon attack.
But I couldn’t stop. I was the only one who could halt the dragons in their tracks. I didn’t need to turn around to feel that Baelfyre and his forces were closing in on the city, intent on having a sky battle right above while everything burned. I had to stop that. If I didn’t, what was the point of coming back at all?
The ripping continued, and I could feel my soul start to leave myself, as if I was being dragged upward. I wasn’t using magic anymore, just my own fierce will to survive. And while I felt that desire burn hotter and hotter within me, my body just seemed to become weaker.
It started with my fingers cramping around the guardrail, then my arms trembling. And just when I was sure that I was about to fall over entirely, I felt hands on either of my shoulders.
“Hey, we’re here for you,” Mickey said, her fingers gently gripping me.
“Yes, you are not alone,” Krisjian added. “Use us. We’re here for you.”
I went to breathe a protest, that they needed to protect themselves, but I couldn’t speak. Maybe… Maybe just once it would be fine to let others help me. I’d already died once to a noble sacrifice. I really didn’t need to make it a habit.
Taking a steadying gulp of air, I reached into them, finding power similar but different from mine. While mine bucked and brayed, sizzled and popped, Mickey’s was more subdued. It rushed quietly through her, curling through her limbs and her mind as steady as a river and with just as much weight. I felt it wash over me, cooling and soothing and erasing all the tearing I had felt.
And Krisjian, little, young Krisjian. His was biting and sharp, full of so much vinegar that my tongue curled in my mouth. It frothed through our connection, punching its way to the forefront of my mind, insisting that I use it. That I let it help.
How could I say no to something like that?
I let out a bit of a manic chuckle. If I thought coming back to life and feeling all the power that I had accrued had been intoxicating, this was a downright overdose. Three living oracles’ worth of magic poured undiluted into my veins. I could do anything. Anything.
Those dragons were going to be sorry.
But first, I had to protect the city. Furrowing my brow, I channeled everything they were giving me into my own surge, willing it to expand, grow, and cover. I didn’t open my eyes, but I could feel it, ever moving outward until finally, finally it touched the boundaries of the city.
“You did it!”
“We did, didn’t we?” I asked, swaying slightly. I would like to say either Mickey or Krisjian caught me, but we mostly just crumpled together in an unsteady pile.
“Eh, semantics.”
“Look, it seems like it’s my job today to interrupt all your moments, but while there’s a whole dragon battle going on outside the shield right now, I think we should probably concentrate on the fact that we’re trapped in here with a whole lot of pissed-off ones.”
I looked up just as Bronn descended, his glittering scales covered with ash and blood that I hoped wasn’t his. Craning my neck back toward the castle, I saw two other dragons and a line of drakes that I recognized from the castle bolting toward us. Surprisingly, there was a wyvern just behind them. I knew from what little time I had spent lazing about and reading everything I could get my hands on in the castle that they tended to be bigger and slower than most of their brethren, built for tanking and not speed.
But aside from that particular cavalry, I could make out at least three dozen unfamiliar dragons closing in on us, and more in my peripheral.
Those were not good odds.
Bronn landed beside us, looking at me with his big, shining eyes. I could tell he was upset that I was there, but also immensely grateful for the shield.
“Sorry,” I murmured, feeling only mildly contrite.
He let out a bruxing sound and lowered his front half so I could climb up. I hesitated, however, licking my lips.
“You’re not going to try to take me out of here, are you?” I asked.
“Davie,” Mickey reprimanded. “We’ve done enough.”
“No. We haven’t. We haven’t done enough until everyone is safe. And right now, having a bunch of angry, anti-humanist dragons trapped in this city with a whole bunch of defenseless folks is not enough.”
“Man, there’s gotta be weapons of some sort around here, right? Supposedly there’s a whole dwarven community in this city, right? The same ones who…uh…did what they did, which probably isn’t appropriate to bring up right now in the middle of battle.”
“Wait, actually, she has a point.” Mickey said, perking up. “They’ve got to have at least a few weapons, especially if they found out that we survived.”
“And what’s to stop them from killing us now?” Krisjian asked, sounding more curious than scared.
“One, we have a dragon. Two, the enemy is already here. Killing us now would just take away the only thing that’s keeping all the danger out.” I heard a shaking roar from above us. “Well, almost all the danger out.”
“Can you find it?” Mickey asked, placing her hand on my shoulder again. “I know you’re pretty tapped out, but I don’t need to tell you what a difference that would make right about now.”
“What choice do I have?” Looking to Bronn, I gave him a bit of a shrug. “You ready to go on what might be a wild goose chase?”
He wuffled slightly and that was enough. Mickey, Krisjian, and I clambered on, but when I held my hand down to Mal, she just shook her head.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she crossed to the car and pulled a tire iron from the back.
“If there ever was a time to get some well-placed revenge on the guys who destroyed my world, I think this is it. You go, save the day. I’m gonna hop on one of our friends and do some real damage.”
“Mal,” Mickey warned. “That’s just a tire iron. What do you think that’s going to do against literal dragons?”
“You underestimate me,” she said with a grin. “Now go. I’ll try to help delay them as much as I can. Bring me back something pointy.”
I wanted to argue with her, but I knew better. And apparently so did Bronn, because his wings began to flap and we took to the air.
We didn’t get very far, however, before another dragon burst out from an office building, sending glass flying. I yelped, completely taken by surprise, but Bronn just flared his wings to pull up short and caught the dragon’s head in his front hands. Did dragons have hands? Or were they front feet? One would think that after living with them for a while, I would know that.
Either way, his claws sank into the beast’s head and with a mighty heave, he ripped the thing’s entire jaw off.
I stared, a bit shocked at the spray of blood, but Bronn didn’t even pause. He dropped the dragon and kept right on rising, giving me a layout of the land.
“That…” I heard Krisjian breathe. “That was…”
“That’ll have to wait until later,” Mickey said. “Davie, do you see anything?”
I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. I felt a bit like an empty paper bag, all the energy gone from me, but I had to find some. We needed weapons. We
couldn’t just rely on three dragons, a wyvern, and a handful of drakes to save us from an onslaught.
If maybe I had a bit more of my wits about myself, perhaps I could try to change the shield’s spell so that it could let allies in, but I just didn’t have the wherewithal for something that intricate, and if the shield collapsed...
Well, it wouldn’t be good, that was for certain.
So I breathed in and out. I reached deep, deep down into myself. Into Mickey. Into Krisjian. I could hear them both gasp softly as I tapped into their power, but they didn’t fight it. Even though I could feel just how incredibly tired and empty they both were. They weren’t like me. They hadn’t done the insane things I had done. They were so…new.
It made a strange sort of feeling rise in my chest, and apparently that was just what I needed. When I opened my eyes, I could see a bright, burning spot of blue in the distance. Pressing my hands to Bronn’s back, I pushed my power to flow through him, connecting us like we were one.
And boy, I did not properly prepare myself for that experience.
It was like everything between us was washed away, and suddenly I was plunged into a well of his emotions. I could feel all of them, thick and enveloping, and so much more than I had ever thought.
He was scared. More scared than even I was. And the weight of responsibility that colored every single emotion made me want to curl up and disappear. There was worry. Fear that he would fail.
And most of all, there was love.
Damn. There was so much love.
Love for his people, even the surly ones who challenged his rule and made life complicated for him. Love for humans, even though they puzzled him sometimes. Love for all my friends, even new and shy Krisjian.
And of course, burning so brightly that I couldn’t look at it directly, was love for me.
Wow, was there a whole lot of love for me.
It bled into the weight of responsibility, twisting together into a sort of shining beacon that most of his thoughts were centered around. And there, at the tip of it, was guilt.
So, so much guilt.
And finally, I got it. Like really, got it. I understood how much my death must have wrecked him. Understood how he blamed himself. I understood why he wanted to protect me now, even if it was incredibly silly. Now, more than ever, I finally got it.