Dragon Oracle Urban Fantasy Boxed Set (Dragon Oracle Complete Series: Books 1 - 9)

by Jada Fisher

  “Crap. I think I just made it worse. Oh well, let’s end this, shall we? You think you still got that in you?”

  If there was one thing that I would always appreciate about Mal, it was that she never babied me.

  “Heck yeah.”

  “I was hoping you would say that.” She turned and flopped down to sit. Instead of spines or scales like the other dragons, the wyvern had a massive mane of hair that surrounded its head and traveled all the way down to the tip of its tail, which ended in another truly impressive plume of fur. It was certainly easier to hold onto, but also a lot easier to slip down.

  As if she could sense my thoughts, Mal reached back and gripped one of my arms. “Hold onto me, big lady. I’ve got you.”

  “Are you sure?” I heard myself mumble.

  “Yeah, I’m stronger than I look.”

  It didn’t make sense to argue with her, so I just did what I was told. But as we rose higher, back toward the violence, back toward the battle, I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting farther and farther away. Sweat beaded my brow, but it was cold. Oh so cold. It reminded me a lot of dying.

  Wait… Was I dying?

  That was the last thought I had before I fell back into oblivion.

  9

  Brand New Limits

  I was falling again. What had happened? I had thought I was holding on. But I wasn’t.

  Where was I?

  The entire world seemed to turn around me, spinning until I wasn’t falling backward at all, but instead gently floating to the ground.

  I set down on both of my feet, and it was like the entire world just loaded into being around me. I was in the city, and that made sense, but everything was burning.

  It was as if I had never made the shield. Every single thing around me was completely consumed by flames, licking up to the sky and devouring even the clouds.

  Wait, fire couldn’t do that, could it?

  I was so confused. What was going on?

  “Well, it looks like you didn’t decide to come of your own free will, but I’m glad you’re here anyways.”

  A cold, stony hand gripped my wrist and yanked me in its direction. Stumbling, I saw a figure rise from the ground at my feet, building upon itself in waves of shadows until the apparition was standing in front of me, smiling gleefully across both her faces.

  “You took a good chunk of the city with you, but are you finally ready to die?”

  I shook my head. “But I still have so much to do.”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t we all. A life to live and dreams and all that stuff. Too bad, too late. Let’s go.”

  She pulled me another step and I felt myself start to sink down with her, but then something burning bit into my other arm and yanked me that way.

  I let out a scream, my head whipping to the side to see that the rotted dragon was standing there, the claws of his foreleg buried in my arm.

  “She is mine! You cannot take her!”

  “Let go, Maelfacious. Don’t you have another few millennia of brooding and plotting to do?”

  “Maelfacious? No one has called me by that nickname in so long. It brings back memories, doesn’t it?” But the spirit didn’t even flinch. “Besides, I have claimed her. I will not allow you to have her.”

  “Lies,” the spirit hissed, yanking me harder.

  If anyone had ever told me that I would be a part of a supernatural tug-of-war, I would have laughed at them, but as the two ancient beings argued over me, I couldn’t help but wonder at the complete insanity of it all. I was not some chew-toy. Some object to be owned and fought over.

  “After what you did to me, I made it so you could never bury your mark in anyone ever again.”

  Wait, what?

  “Oh please, my little Faelynn, still holding a grudge? It’s been millennia, as you said yourself. And you took to your punishment so well.”

  “I’m cursed to walk all the realms and never know peace! I just want to die!”

  “Well, let me oblige you.”

  Suddenly, he lunged forward, and for a moment, I thought that he was going to attack her, but instead, his mouth closed over where her hand was gripping my wrist and he bit down with the force of a hydraulic press.

  I screamed, because what else could I do, and I had a moment of clarity as I felt muscles tear and bones crack. When the dragon finally opened his mouth, I could only watch as Death’s skeleton hand and my hand both dropped to the ground, fire licking at the bottoms of both of our stumps.

  No.

  No, that wasn’t possible.

  “Time to go, Faelynn,” he rumbled before tackling her outright.

  I watched them go at each other, embroiled in battle, but I was so completely over it. Wasn’t it enough to be caught up in some sort of dragon war? To have visions and power that sometimes seemed too big to fit in my own skin? Did I have to deal with two extra-dimensional, ancient beings that wanted me for two very opposite reasons?

  “Davie! Come back to me! Come on, I know you’re in there!”

  I looked up, seeing a glimmer of light up above. Mal’s voice drifted down, connecting me back to my own world.

  “Come on! I don’t get to brag about the cool way I saved you if you die! Breathe with me, girl. Just breathe!”

  Her words beckoned me, and I pushed upward, letting myself go toward the light. The higher I went, the more pain swamped me, but it was affirming. It was grounding. It reminded me of where I was and what I was and what my body felt like.

  And then, without even a blink, I was back in reality, looking up at Mal, who was holding onto me tightly.

  “Hey there,” I rasped. Wow, my throat hurt too. Everything hurt.

  “Oh thank God!” she gasped, bending forward and resting her head against my shoulder. That hurt too, but I ignored it when I felt warm, wet drops falling from her face.

  Huh. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen Mal cry before. That was something.

  I felt more than heard the massive roar behind me and I craned my neck back to see Bronn at the center of the battlefield, at least a dozen dragons surrounding him and attacking him all at once. The other two dragons were trying to get to him, to have his back, but they were being held off by others.

  It was a grim situation, and my heart ached at seeing the man I loved covered in wounds and blood. I imagined we looked like quite a pair.

  Somehow, despite everything that was going on, our eyes locked, his pupils narrowed to slits. I felt his gaze glide over me, taking in my bloody face, the cuts on my arms and hand, all of it. My eyes fluttered, but I forced myself to hold our connection.

  I could see and feel something growing in him, I was still too dizzy to place it, but it didn’t feel very good. With what little strength I had, I reached for him, only to realize that I didn’t have a hand there anymore.

  Or rather… I did, but it wasn’t human anymore. No, there was a palm there, four fingers and a thumb, but what had once been scarred flesh and twisted skin was scaled in brilliant gold, tipped in sharp, black nails.

  That probably wasn’t good.

  But it also seemed to set whatever was brewing in Bronn off, because suddenly he roared in a way I had never heard him roar before. The sound burst out of him, long and loud and rattling every bone in my body. It didn’t stop either, not after a second, not after a breath, not after three breaths. The hair on the back of my arms stood up and I knew, I really knew, that something truly magical was about to happen.

  “What’s he doing?” Mal asked, holding me tighter. But as she spoke, the clouds grew dark overhead, drawing in close and thick until they covered the top of the battlefield like a canopy. Even the enemy dragons paused, baffled by whatever phenomenon they were seeing. I knew that they had never seen anything like this. In fact, I knew our whole world had never seen anything like it, like it was written in my little seer bones.

  “Changing the world,” I rasped right before his roar ended, his wings flared, and lightning cracked right down t
hrough him.

  Gasps and squawks sounded from everywhere as Bronn took the direct bolt right through his spine. It lasted only a second, maybe two, and then there was nothing but silence.

  In that moment, I swore that the entire city froze, not a sound or a breath going through any of the hundreds of thousands of people huddled below.

  And then, without so much as a warning, Bronn’s mouth opened and he let out a brilliant blue flame, lightning crackling through it.

  It was beautiful, and terrible, and so many things all at once. I watched, feeling electricity dancing along my skin, as his beam bit through the horde in front of him, turning some to ash and making others spiral down to the ground. Once that path was clear, he turned, eliminating enemies swath by swath.

  They tried to run, tried to fly away, but there was no escaping. Even those that went beyond the range of his beam were struck down as multiple bolts of lightning lanced from the sky.

  It was beautiful, it was terrifying, and I couldn’t help the desperate, manic laughter that bubbled up from my chest.

  “What in the name of the dragon gods is going on?!” Mal asked breathlessly, her eyes locked on the sky.

  But mine were there too, honed in on Bronn and nothing else. “That,” I rasped, “is old magic.”

  I could feel Mal looking at me as if she wanted more explanation, more words, but I was really and truly empty. With one last look to Bronn, I let my eyes flutter closed.

  I could rest, for the moment, and when my eyes opened, it would finally be time for that later tab I had built up.

  Because I was going to wake up again.

  Although I had a feeling the world was going to be a lot different when I did.

  10

  The Secret’s Out

  At this point, I wasn’t surprised when I awoke inside a room in the infirmary, all white walls and paintings of ancient battles. I also wasn’t surprised by the fact that my entire body hurt in about every way possible. I knew that they had written on my chart that I had a bit of a sensitivity to pain medicine, which meant they most likely had gone easy on my doses while I was asleep.

  Groaning, I opened my eyes and felt around for my nurse button, but I stopped short when a searing pain lanced up my arm.

  “Ow! What is that?”

  I sat up sharply only to end up with soft but firm hands pushing me back into the bed.

  “Oh hey, Davie, you’re back with us. Relax, sweetie, it’s okay.”

  That was Mickey. Mickey, I could trust.

  Breathing deeply, I forced myself to focus on my sister and the world all seemed to rush into place.

  “Geez, you look rough,” I said before I could think better of it.

  But it was true. She had a black eye, and bite marks on her shoulder were visible under the thin strip of her camisole. Judging by the yellow and scabbing, those marks were at least a day or two old.

  “You’re one to talk,” she shot back. “You look like someone took a baseball bat to your…well, everything.”

  “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad.”

  “It’s pretty bad,” Mal confirmed from beside me. I looked over to see that she had some bruises and scrapes, but otherwise looked pretty normal. “You need to stop making a habit of passing out after something big happens. People are going to start to think that you’re a bit of a drama queen.”

  I chuckled weakly at that, but then that hurt too, so I stopped.

  “What can I say, I have a certain flare for timing— Ow.” I looked down at my arm, which was burning again, and saw that the limb was wrapped in bandages from my elbow down.

  “Oh,” I murmured, starring at the mass of white cloth. “That part wasn’t a dream, huh?”

  “No,” Mickey said solemnly. “You wanna explain that to us?”

  “I… I’m actually still not sure about it. I think that maybe—”

  “See, look! I told you she’s awake!”

  The door burst open, and I was surprised to see Krisjian there, holding Mallory and Bronn’s hands. I tensed, my eyes locking with my once-best friend for a moment. We stared, looking each other over, and then she turned on her heel and walked away.

  But Bronn didn’t, of course. No, he strode right in. Or, at least as much as one could stroll when they were hooked up to an IV.

  “What happened to you?” I asked, trying to sit up and mostly failing.

  “Oh, you know, summoned some lightning, took down a small army by myself. No big deal.”

  “You wish it was by yourself,” Mal shot right back. “If it wasn’t for me and good ol’ Gripless, you guys would’a been SOL.”

  “Ah, right.” The prince sat in a chair next to my bed with a groan. Although he wasn’t bruised or bloody, he still definitely looked like he had been through the ringer. There were slight scratches across his skin, a bite mark on his neck, and deep, deep circles under his eyes. “By the way, Lieutenant Argentin mentioned he would like to see you later, when you have a moment.”

  Mal actually started at that. “What? Why?”

  “Something about thanking the best battle partner he’s had in ages. Said it had to be done in person to be proper.”

  The young dwarf just rolled her eyes. “Gross. So he’s a prim and proper type when he’s human? Lame.”

  Bronn shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

  But Krisjian seemed to be vibrating with energy so I moved from the entertaining conversation with Mal to the young man.

  “Something bothering you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and— Nope. That hurt too. Yikes, I really had done a number on myself, hadn’t I?

  “Is…is something bothering me?” he sputtered. “I… Look, I know I’m new here, but you have a scaled arm now, and Bronn somehow summoned lightning, and-and-and I felt you fall away again for a while and then something snapped and I… I just want to understand what is going on!”

  I smiled softly. Out of all of us, Krisjian had the least experience with the fey world, and he wasn’t actually doing that badly. Good on him.

  “I slipped into one of my visions, yeah. And it’s safe to say I learned some things.”

  “Like what?” Mickey asked. “I’m not gonna lie. I felt a shift too. Almost like flood waters breaking, and then everything was just a bit…different.”

  I nodded. “So, the more powerful we get, the more we break the rules of this world, the more old magic comes back. Exactly the kind of magic that all of our people left behind when they abandoned their own dimension.”

  “Oh, uh, you’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Because it is,” I said with a sigh. “The more magic that comes back, the more powerful everyone becomes. That’s how Bronn was able to summon lightning. It’s an ancient skill, one that all dragons used to have, but it faded with time.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “It wouldn’t be if it stopped there. But it doesn’t. Spells that didn’t work before suddenly will. If it gets to a certain level, they won’t even need a seer to cast them. Any fey will be able to perform certain incantations if they practice enough. Incantations like…”

  “Summoning that dragon to our world.”

  “What dragon?” Krisjian asked, eyes far too wide for his face.

  “We call him the rotted dragon mostly,” I explained, taking a breath. “He’s a very, very old being, and very powerful. He’s allegedly the first shifter that ever existed, and he learned to take on multiple forms to more easily recruit people to his cause.”

  “And his cause wasn’t a good one?”

  “Well, no, not really. He just wanted power. In any form, any shape. He killed people to get it, and when that wasn’t enough, he began to wipe out entire nations, and then worlds. It took our ancestors sealing away their entire dimension and every other dimension chained to it before coming here.”

  “Then… Why isn’t he here?”

  “Because they sealed the only pathway from their dimension to this one. The same wa
y I permanently sealed the realm that I…” I swallowed to stop my voice from quivering. “That I died in.”

  “So…the rotted dragon wanted you here, then. Heck, he needs you here.”

  I nodded, lifting my bandaged arm. Although it was covered, I knew what exactly was below that pristine gauze. “And this is a part of it. He’s claimed me, and this is his foothold in this world. He’s coming, and we need to find a way to stop him.”

  Bronn let out a breath. “It’s always something, isn’t it? At least we know what my cousins and their royals are planning. But I’m afraid both of our displays in the city just confirmed to them that old magic is indeed growing.”

  I shrugged, but—yup, that hurt too. “It’s not like it could be helped. There was a battle to win, and we won it.”

  “But next time, could you try to win it without both of you tearing yourselves to pieces? I know you like to play big, bad heroes, but I’m not sure how much my poor heart can take.”

  I wanted to argue with my sister, but then Krisjian was chiming in.

  “This, I agree with. Too much risk.”

  “You could do with taking it easy for once, Davie,” Bronn added, smiling slightly.

  “Oh no, that goes for you too. You literally allowed yourself to summon lightning when you had no idea what would happen.”

  He shrugged. “I had a feeling.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mal didn’t sound convinced. “And I have a feeling that you’re not telling us everything.”

  I gave her a wan smile. “It’s not purposeful. It’s just I gleaned a whole lot and I literally just woke up. Give me a couple of minutes to get it all out.”

  “Alright then, continue, please.”

  “Thanks.”

  She reached out as if to playfully jostle my arm, but quickly seemed to think better of it—much to my immense relief.

  “I also found out a little bit about the apparition.”

  “Like what?”

  “Mostly, that she has a name, and that she’s being punished.”