by Jada Fisher
We did it. We did it! Faeldrus was gone.
Well, part of him—the most dangerous part—was inside me, but I was almost certain I was going to be able to contain it.
“Davie!” Suddenly, Mickey threw herself at me, her arms circling my shoulders. I caught her, of course, and hugged her just as tightly as she held me. “It’s over. It’s all over! We did it! No more anti-humanist dragons! No more rotted dragon. It’s all over!”
“Well, not quite,” Krisjian said softly. “We still have to undo the ritual, right? Send everyone home?”
Oh.
Right.
Somehow, I had forgotten about all of that. I guess I’d wanted to get past the first part because it had seemed so impossible.
“Did that ghost lady ever tell us how to undo it?” Bopha asked. “There were a lot of people talking at once. I might have lost some of the information in the shuffle.”
“No, she didn’t,” I said, running my hand through my hair. “But it should be simple enough, right? It’s a massive, unfinished spell. We should be able to just feel it and make it, uh…just not be.”
“You really think it’s going to be that simple?”
I shrugged. “We just defeated our kind’s greatest enemy, who’s been influencing things for millennia. I kinda feel that after that, pretty much anything is comparatively simple.”
“You have a point there,” Mickey conceded. “So what? We all circle up and join hands again?”
“Sounds about right. Oh, and Bronn, stand in the middle.”
“Me?” the prince asked, blinking several times as if just waking up from a particularly-involved dream. It was the first he’d spoken since we’d transferred the curse, I was pretty sure, and it was so nice to hear his voice.
“Yeah. I’m not sure if the control of the curse has passed to you since you and Faeldrus switched places, so I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Um, okay. Do I have to do anything?”
“I have absolutely no idea.”
“…comforting.”
“I gotta say, when the world broke in two today and things started falling from the sky, I didn’t expect to get pulled into a whole saving the world thing,” Princeton said casually, walking to the edge of the spell circle from before and holding out his hands expectantly. “You think my daughters are ever going to believe me?”
“They might remember themselves,” I said, walking over as well. My body should have been aching, fatigued and empty, but I felt like I was practically reverberating with all the potential within me. “We’re undoing the ritual, but I don’t think it’s just going to…reverse everything.”
“Pity,” the less-human-looking oracle said. “So many people died from this. It would be nice if that could all be…undone.”
I thought back to Mallory, how she’d been sick for so long as Faeldrus’s spell festered inside of her, making her more and more ill until it was able to use her as a conduit and kill her outright. How the last thing she saw was our worst enemy rising from the ground in front of her, brought there by the neon bile she’d painfully thrown up. “Wouldn’t it?”
No one said anything after that, but maybe that was because we were all joining up, closing our eyes, and letting ourselves slip back into the enticing pull that always came from joining up with other oracles. Or at least that was what I assumed they were feeling considering that was what I was going through.
Our breathing began to sync up. Slow. Steady. We fell together, as one, reaching out for the magic of the ritual.
I wasn’t sure if I was leading the others or if we were all moving as one, but I felt around for the webs of Faeldrus’s magic. It was easier than I thought it would be, but maybe that was because part of him was inside me, still burning and spitting and trying to get free from all the magic trapping his essence. Once I found the first thread of it, I was able to follow it and wow, was there quite a bit to follow.
It glowed, fever-bright in my mind, stretching out across the cosmos. It was like the river that had carried me around after death, but instead of being something so familiar as a running current of kaleidoscopic water, it was a threatening web. Crisscrossing lines of magic that were meant to take and raze and leave nothing else once Faeldrus claimed them.
But he’d never claimed them, and they were throbbing, calling out for someone to give them meaning. To give them purpose. They wanted to tear into everything. Greedy little tendrils that sank into the fabric of every world there was and even worlds that once were as well.
“Do you feel that?” I asked, not opening my eyes. I could feel affirmative responses from the others, even if I couldn’t hear them. “Follow those lines. Find all of them that you can and draw them to us.”
Easier said than done, I supposed.
I reached for the closest, burning line of magic nevertheless and pulled it back into myself.
Yikes, even knowing as much as I did about Faeldrus, I still wasn’t prepared for the feedback. It hissed and spat at me, squealing and trying to yank itself out of my grip as if it knew that we were going to make it give up its greedy hold on all the worlds.
It hurt, sure. It hurt in that weird way where my body wasn’t being harmed but my soul was. I could hear groans and hisses from all around me, telling me that I wasn’t the only one struggling.
It was… It was a lot, and I felt my grip on the magic slipping. It was just so hot and mean. No wonder no one could beat Faeldrus before. Even though he was gone, his magic was still virulent and vindictive.
I could hear the whisper of him in the back of my mind. Mocking me. Telling me that there was no way to undo what had been done. It slipped further from my grasp.
“Bronn,” I heard myself cry out. “Help us!”
“W-what do I do?”
“I don’t know. The magic won’t listen to us. Maybe only a dragon can…”
I heard footsteps rapidly approaching me, but I still didn’t open my eyes. Then I felt lips pressed to mine and I realized he was kissing me.
The magic I was holding onto spasmed a little, as if it wasn’t sure where it was supposed to go, and then it was flooding through me and into Bronn, where it finally settled.
Oh. Okay, apparently, he needed to be a part of the circle. That made…sense? In a way.
“Don’t stop,” I whispered against his mouth. I couldn’t open my eyes, couldn’t risk losing my concentration, but I could feel him staring at me.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” he answered before kissing me again.
He could probably just hug me, or hold my hand, but I wasn’t complaining about his methodology. Because it was working. I could feel the magic in our circle winding around us, trying to find an escape before channeling itself into Bronn.
And the more it sank into the dragon, the more the realms began to drift apart. Not enough to truly be free, but maybe enough for random chunks of things to stop falling from the sky. Or at least I hoped.
It wasn’t exactly a quick affair. Maybe it took years. Maybe it just took hours. I was pretty sure it wasn’t minutes, but who could really say? Eventually, we pulled every single thread of Faeldrus’s influence away from the worlds, breaking the ritual. Bronn stopped kissing me. We all eventually let go of each other and looked around. Waiting for the big show.
…and nothing happened.
“Uh, I could be wrong,” Bopha said, her tone forcibly bright. “But shouldn’t there be a little more…firepower? And how are we supposed to get home?”
“I…” Finally, I opened my eyes and steadied myself. I felt a bit turned around and dizzy—a danger of rearranging something that was never supposed to be rearranged, I guessed. “Maybe we didn’t break it yet. Bronn has all of it, but it’s still there. Maybe it’s waiting for you to complete it. Or even give it an order?”
“How do I do that?” Bronn asked, brows furrowing together. “I’ve never cast a spell a day in my life.”
“I’m not sure.”
Mal let out an
aggravated noise. “You know, for saving all of the known worlds, this sure is turning out to be anticlimactic. Is the answer really just you need to ask the magic if it’d pretty please stop trying to destroy everything?”
“It couldn’t be that simple…” Bronn muttered, looking both confused and very, very tired.
So, I took one of his hands in my remaining one, giving it a good squeeze. “It’s okay. I’ll show you how. Two halves of a whole are supposed to balance each other out, right?”
“Right.”
He gave me a smile, even if it wavered a bit, so I gave him one back. “Okay, so reach down into yourself and feel the magic. Once you have a good handle on it, you tell it that the ritual is broken, and the magic should return to where it was stolen from.”
“And that’s it?”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Okay. I’m gonna… I’m gonna try.”
He closed his eyes and I leaned in, resting my head against his chest to listen to his heart. I tried to guide him as best I could, trying to encourage him with all the strange new magic that flowed through me.
It wasn’t exactly cut and dry. I felt him struggling, felt him find the magic and try to bend it to his will. I couldn’t do it for him, and I couldn’t be sure it was working. Or at least I couldn’t until Princeton let out a surprised sound.
“Hey! Something’s happening!” I craned my neck to see his form flickering in and out, blinking like a broken monitor. “I…I think I can see my house! I’m going home! And home is still there! It’d burned down before.”
“That’s great. What—”
But then he blinked out entirely, leaving his spot in the circle empty.
My friends moved to close the gap and I pressed into Bronn more tightly. “You’re doing it. Keep going.”
He didn’t respond, but I knew he heard me, because he did indeed keep going, magic churning inside of him. A few more moments passed, then there was a soft gasp from Bopha. When I twisted my head toward her, she was already gone.
Our circle closed the gap again, and so the process went. I could feel the ritual collapsing all around us, withdrawing and undoing so much of the unnatural damage it had done.
Naturally, the wind kicked up all around us, harsh and biting. The light above flickered out, plunging us into darkness. I could hear shrieks from the ruined city below our feet, unearthly and awful. Then the shaking started. The magic really didn’t want to undo the ritual. Didn’t want it to break.
“It wants me to claim the power,” Bronn said with gritted teeth. “It’s really, really convincing.”
“Don’t accept it. Make it return to where it came from,” I said, gripping his hand even more tightly. “You have to stay strong.”
“I will…” he breathed raggedly. “I will, I promise, it’s just…”
This time, it was my turn to kiss him, and I poured all my magic, all of my strength, into him that I could. “You can do it, Bronn. I know it. Make it submit.”
His face scrunched in pain and I wanted to take that hurt away, but I couldn’t. All I could do was be there for him.
The hippy woman vanished. Then the next Oracle. Then Mal. Then Krisjian. Eventually, it was only Mickey, Sokhanya, Bronn, and me. The prince was groaning, his eyes screwed shut as he breathed shakily, sweat beginning to pour down his face. I could feel him tremble as his jaw began to extend only to shrink back, scales rolling across his skin in waves. It was like his body couldn’t contain what was going on within him and was trying to channel all that extra energy into shifting.
“You can do it, Bronn,” I whispered, holding onto him for dear life. “I know you can. I know it like I know I need oxygen to live. Just a little more.” It was happening. I could feel the last of the resistance fighting him, trying to wheedle and coax him to let it go. To let it bring the worlds together and drain them dry. “Take us home, Bronn. Take us home so we can have our happily ever after.”
Bronn tilted his head back, mouth full of far too many teeth, and let out a pained, brilliant roar. It shook me, jolting me right down to my core, and then the entire meadow around us fell into nothing.
12
Partial Reset
I came back to myself and the first thing I realized was that my back was wet. The second thing I realized was that there were no explosions, no screams, no rumbling or other apocalyptic shenanigans.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by the night sky. And just a night sky. No missiles, dragons, or fireworks. No giant spells or things raining from it. Just a velvety sort of black dotted with stars.
A groan sounded from near me and I sat up enough to look around. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t to be surrounded by nearly a hundred bodies—all of which looked to be breathing.
“I… I’m pretty sure I was dead.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone spoke next to me, whipping my head to the other side to see the soldier from before.
“That’s because you were,” Krisjian grunted as he sat up too. “You all were dead.”
“Yeah, I actually recall that.” It was the Australian kid. The one with the manmade transplant.
It had worked!
I let out a joyous squeal and hugged them both tightly—an impressive thing to do with one arm. If they were alarmed, they didn’t say so, just let the strange lady love on them.
A giddy noise sounded from behind me and I knew Mickey was up. It didn’t take long until all of us were slowly rising to our feet, achy, exhausted and very dirty.
Well, except for the people who came back. They were mostly clean.
“We were all dead.” That came from one of the others who had been laying on the floor with us. He was an older man, and completely unfamiliar. “Our leader, the Ageless One, he killed us all.”
Oh. I didn’t know why, but I hadn’t realized that we’d been surrounded by anti-humanists. They’d all been in dragon form when I’d seen them last, so I hadn’t quite put two and two together. I definitely needed a nap. Or maybe a dozen naps.
“He did,” I said, striding forward. I both heard and felt Bronn fall into step beside me. “I tried to warn all of you, but you wouldn’t listen. I hope you learned something, but even if you haven’t, I don’t care.
“We beat your Ageless One at his own game, took his power. So from this moment on, there will be no more anti-human sentiments tolerated. You will lay down your arms and integrate into rehabilitation programs that we will create. And know that, should any of you try to subvert our efforts and cling to the old ideals, we will find out, and there will be consequences. You’re being given a second chance. Don’t waste it.”
“And spread the word to any you know or love who aren’t here,” Bronn added, voice booming and full of command. “This is a new era of our lives. Dragons and oracles and dwarves all working together. Maybe even humans too. Do you all understand?”
There was a murmur of agreement, although I wasn’t sure how genuine it was, and then the former anti-humanists began to walk off, back into the world that I’d watched fall apart.
“Can you believe it?” Mal asked, walking up beside me. “We actually saved the world.”
“We did,” I said with a long breath. “The only question is, what kind of world are we walking into?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mickey added, joining us. And then Sokhanya and Krisjian. “Because I think we’ve pretty thoroughly proved that, no matter what happens, as long as there are two oracles together, there’s pretty much nothing that can stop us.”
I smiled at that, because how could I not?
“Yeah, we do have a pretty good track record, don’t we?”
“We do,” Bronn said, taking my hand in his. “Wanna go see what’s waiting out there for us?”
“I do,” I said with a grin. “Cause I’m pretty sure it can’t be any worse than what we just came from.”
Krisjian groaned beside me. “Aw, come on, don’t jinx us like that!”
“I’m pretty sure that defeating an apocalypse outweighs any jinxes.”
“Let’s not test that theory, huh?” Mickey asked, squeezing my shoulder. “Ready?”
“Ready,” I agreed. As ready as I could ever be.
And then we walked out of the stadium together, unsure of what was waiting for us but prepared to face it. We had no idea what our futures could possibly hold, but I was pretty certain that we were entering a new era.
And I couldn’t wait.
13
Lives in Review
The world was saved, sure, but it certainly wasn’t the same. While many people and places returned to their state from before the apocalypse, not everyone did. There were still people and buildings gone forever, lost to the aftermath of Faeldrus’s spell.
And perhaps the biggest change was that humans definitely still knew that dragons existed.
They didn’t forget the apocalypse either. Sure, some people seemed fuzzier on the details than others, but they knew that something happened. Something that made things fall from the sky and sink into the ground.
It had taken quite a lot of influence and conferences to stop the humans from declaring an all-out war on us. There were incidents of hate, of course, and attacks on either side. We dealt with ours while humans dealt with theirs, and as the years passed, we tried to work towards peace.
And the years did pass.
It was strange to have an opportunity at a life after I’d given up all of that, but even with all the stress of going into a new era, I was definitely living. We all were.
Krisjian never went to a physical high school, but he took GED courses online and then went to a local community college. It helped that Mal went with him, although she did have to assume Mallory’s identity to do so.
If there was one person who I really wished had come back when the ritual was broken, it was my best friend. But unfortunately, that was apparently a fixed point in our history. Which was awful. If anyone deserved a second chance, it was her.