Adele roared with pain and anger, but she was far from done in. She arched her neck and snapped her fierce jaws around his tail, ripping him from the air and slinging him backward. He landed with a thud against a tree, but the pain that he felt was of no consequence to him. All he could think about was getting to Victoria before whatever Adele had done to her took her life.
Springing back off the tree he had just thudded against, Barrett dove beneath Adele’s body as she rushed at him again, and he went to Victoria, hovering over her as she rolled around on the ground, twitching and screaming, her eyes shut and her mouth twisted with pain. He still couldn’t see what was hurting her, and he frantically swept over her, turning her over with his wing to see if there was something beneath her that would explain what was happening to her body and her psyche.
But he could see no explanation. She only continued to writhe in his grasp, the sounds that came out of her shuddering down his spine and lodging an ache in his gut and his heart that nothing would dislodge until she found relief.
He had no time to linger over her. She was breathing, despite the misery she was in, and Adele was rushing back towards him. Barrett set Victoria on the ground as gently as he could, then he rose up, meeting Adele head-on. She shot fire out at him, and the heat burned along his body. It had no impact on him. He rushed forward, targeting her throat with his powerful teeth and sinking them straight through her scales the way that only a green Rockwell dragon could ever do.
Barrett tasted her blood, and it only drove him on. She was his sister, it was true, and if he’d had the choice, he wouldn’t have killed her outright. He would have given her a chance to leave and never come back. She would have gotten one chance. But she had Olivia, and she was tormenting Victoria, and those two women were his family now, just as much as his friends were. Sometimes you chose your family, and sometimes that choice came suddenly and surely.
He would kill to protect Victoria and Olivia, and he would kill to protect his Clan. He wouldn’t lose even a moment’s sleep over it, whether it was his sister or not.
Barrett shook Adele back and forth, slinging her body through the air and making every effort to break straight through her neck, which he had a death hold on.
But Adele was a Rockwell, too, and even though she was older than he was, and therefore not as strong, she was more than a formidable foe. Adele swung her body under her, using her tail to cut beneath and then between them. The thick end of her tail beat against his chest, gashing open the sensitive skin there so that dragon blood poured down onto the ground, gushing from the open wound.
Barrett roared with pain and frustration, and he threw Adele as hard as he could, slamming her against a tree and then beating against her with the blunt strength of his head. As he did, he looked down, and he could see that his underside was almost ripped in half, and the blood that poured from him showed no signs of slowing, much less stopping.
He began to feel weak, but he pressed on against the dizzy feeling, striking at Adele again and again with his head. She took several blows to the face and the chest, and those blows hit their mark. She shuddered with pain, and he could see her eyes rolling back in her head. But she only struggled for a few moments before she gathered the strength to push back against him, and then she was flying up into the air again, and Barrett was chasing after her.
The only way he knew to help Victoria was to end Adele. Dragon shifters didn’t have magic, but he would swear that there was some power Adele was using on Victoria, and if he killed her, that magic would end. It was his only hope.
But the blood leaving his body was leaving him weaker than he wanted to admit. He could barely see straight, and his wings cut through the air with less strength and less precision. Adele was gaining distance, and distance gave her that advantage over him. He lunged forward, putting on a burst of speed, and he managed to grab her tail and yank her from her trajectory upward, but it was a short-lived victory, as she jerked away from him, doubled back, and struck him from behind.
Barrett rolled forward in an attempt to right himself, but when he pulled out of the barrel roll, the world was fuzzy, and his head was clouded. If dragons could sweat, he would have been sweating profusely.
Still, he charged at Adele, reaching for her again. He would never give up.
Incoming.
The sound in his head—the voice of his friend and his brother, Ryan, was more welcome than he would ever be able to express. The relief that flooded through him was enough to allow him the strength to grab Adele more fully and toss her to the ground again.
One minute out, Jordan’s voice followed in his head. What’s the situation?
When they were in their dragon form, they could speak back and forth in each other’s heads. Usually they used such things for playing ball or other games in the air or going on long flights. There were few opportunities to actually use the ability in combat, but he had never been more grateful for the skill than he was now.
Nor had he ever been more grateful for friends who showed up, without having to be asked, just when he needed them.
Victoria is compromised. So am I. Adele is weakened, but she’s still fighting. Olivia—Victoria’s daughter—is in danger, and Victoria might only have minutes to live. She might have less than that. She might be dead.
Quentin’s voice came in strong. Shit! There you are—we see you.
What are the orders? Hannah asked. You want Adele, or do you want Victoria and Olivia?
Barrett was able to fight off Adele and speak to his friends at the same time by compartmentalizing his brain. With one compartment, he calculated Adele’s next move and reacted to it before she could complete the defensive maneuver. He blocked her oncoming attack with his tail and sent her spinning through the air, but the effort made the split in his chest scream with agony. In his head, he focused only on getting his friends here and in to their positions.
Jordan, I want you with Victoria. Take away as much of her pain as you can. She had something in her hand—a phone. If she’ll talk to you, get her to tell you what’s happening with Olivia. Follow up on whatever she says.
I’m on it, Jordan said, and out of the corner of his eye, Barrett saw Jordan’s bright blue dragon form dive down lower towards the ground, heading for Victoria.
He felt a wave of relief, knowing that Jordan would heal her as best as she could.
Hannah, Quentin, and Ryan, I need you with me, Barrett said. Adele’s fighting for her life, and she knows it. I want her ended—now.
There was no verbal response, because as he gave the orders, two black dragons and a maroon dragon came sweeping in just below the tree line. All three headed for Adele, who lashed out against them frantically, diving and thrashing and snapping her jaw at them. She roared loudly, fire erupting from her, but she didn’t aim the fire at the three dragons attacking. She aimed it at the trees, and the flames took hold of the dry branches and the flammable leaves, consuming them in an instant.
Within seconds, the first few rows of the forest were ablaze, the heat pulsing around them. It was a strategy. They were taking a big enough risk as it was, flying around in the daylight. A fire would be seen from further away than the dragons could be seen, which only increased their chances of being spotted, even out in the middle of nowhere. They might be able to kill Adele—in fact, Barrett was sure they would be able to—but could they do it without risking everything they were fighting for?
How is she? Barrett called to Jordan, even as he circled Adele with the others. Tell me she’s alive.
She’s alive, and I’m able to help her—at least a little. But I don’t know what’s happening to her. She’s bad, Barrett—I won’t sugarcoat it. You need to hurry.
Adrenaline rushed through him, demanding action. He scanned the forest fire, and he looked at Adele, who was flying back and forth in front of the flames, dodging Ryan, Quentin, and Hannah, as they attacked her but also tried to stay below the tree line to avoid being spotted. Every second that th
e fight continued, they risked total exposure.
Barrett had to do something, and he had to do it quickly. His friends were distracting Adele, and he darted his eyes towards one of the nearby trees. Flying towards it, he snapped a branch off with his jaw, then tossed it up into the air. As it fell down again, he breathed fire onto it, creating a flaming sword—or the closest thing to a flaming sword that he could produce.
Catching the non-burning end in his teeth, he steadied the burning limb, then dropped it down and snagged it with his claw. Then, taking advantage of Adele’s distraction, he flew up, out of her line of sight. He was over the tree line, fully exposed, but he had to be—at least for this moment. There was no other choice. If this worked, then everything ended.
Adele snapped and roared and spit fire at Quentin and Hannah, who were facing her dead-on. Ryan had fallen to the ground, injured, split open like Barrett was.
Barrett flew towards the battle, hovering above them, and he waited, every second that passed feeling like an eternity. When Adele lifted her head up to roar again, Barrett acted.
He nosedived towards her, putting on every bit of speed that he could muster, so that he was flying at her like a flaming bullet. She wasn’t looking at him, and he got close to her before she realized that he was even coming. When she did see him, her yellow eyes burned with hate, and her mouth opened to snap at him to ward him off.
Barrett didn’t slow his pace. He didn’t hesitate. He shoved the burning limb down Adele’s throat, thrusting it into her with the force of his body and then hammering it down further by battering his head against it as it jutted out from between her jaws.
The fire ignited within her, and Adele screamed with agony, writhing in the air and tumbling towards the ground. Once she hit the ground, she rolled back and forth, her wings thrashing, and her tail swiping at invisible assailants. The fire, which would have no effect on her scales and only some effect on her sensitive underbelly, was now eating her alive from the inside, burning her organs, consuming her veins, and eradicating her life force.
She shuddered and twitched on the ground, but as the Rockwell Clan agents watched, she gradually stopped moving, then went fully limp, her body turning dark as the burns began to stretch across her skin. Then she shifted, her charred, naked human body lying lifeless on the ground, her eyes open and staring coldly, her mouth twisted in agony, and her power entirely burned out.
Barrett sagged down towards the ground himself, the pain and weakness in his own body now leaving him almost dizzy. He found that he was struggling to breathe, although he hadn’t noticed it when he was in the heat of the battle. He collapsed onto the grass, and immediately Ryan and Quentin were beside him. They were also breathing hard, stained with dirt and blood from the battle.
He only allowed himself to recover for a second, his thoughts immediately turning to Victoria. Turning his head, Barrett saw her lying in Jordan’s arms. Jordan had pulled a loose dress over her body to cover her nakedness, and she was cradling Victoria against her, using all of her power to suck the pain from Victoria and impart her own healing powers.
Barrett shifted back into his human form. His abdomen was gaping open, and his skin was covered in blood, but he pulled himself over to the bag of clothing that his friends had brought with them, and he pulled on a pair of pants, wincing at the jolt of pain that stabbed at his gut.
Crawling towards Victoria, he hovered over her, looking down into her pale face and stroking her hair back from her eyes. “Victoria,” he whispered, wishing he could take her into his own arms but not daring to remove her from Jordan’s healing force. “Sweetheart. Can you hear me?”
Victoria looked at him blankly. She wasn’t shaking any more, but there were tremors moving through her body, and her gaze looked empty—so empty that it horrified Barrett. He reached his hand to her cheek, stroking her cold skin. She didn’t respond. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink.
“Jordan,” he said, his voice tight. “What’s happening to her? What do you feel?”
“I don’t know,” Jordan said. “Her pain is coming from her back. From her spine. I don’t know why. Up until you arrived, she was still struggling against me. She’s still now—we need to turn her over, though. Maybe there’s something …” Jordan shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s just get her turned over.”
Barrett was bleeding profusely, but he helped Jordan turn Victoria’s limp, seemingly lifeless body. He stretched her across his lap, and he ran his hand down her spine, feeling for anything that might be lodged there—the source of her pain.
“I can’t feel anything,” he said, frantically, looking at Jordan, who was also running her hand over Victoria’s back. “Do you feel anything?”
Jordan shook her head. “No. No, I don’t. Adele wouldn’t have had magic. Not of her own. And if she had, the magic would have died with her. But she might have had something with her. Something that she could use against someone.”
“She had something that she wore,” Barrett said, thinking back. “It made her invisible. I couldn’t see her, or hear her, or smell her—nothing. And she took it off. Could it have had other powers? She must have gotten it from somewhere.”
Jordan eased Victoria’s legs off her body and crouched back on her haunches, looking around the ground for something that might have hit Victoria and fallen to the side. As soon as Jordan was no longer in contact with Victoria, Victoria began to tremble again, groaning with pain.
Barrett wrapped his arms around Victoria, cradling her to his chest to try to comfort her. All he did was get his blood all over her, as she slumped there, still shaking.
“If she had something magical,” Jordan said, still sifting her fingers through the dirt. “It would have been an object, like you said. It would be here …” She paused, moving her fingers more forcefully through the dirt. Straightening, she pulled out what looked like a snap bracelet. It was glowing and shimmering through the coating of dirt that was on it, and when Jordan wrapped her fingers around it, she jumped back, holding her hands up. “Shit. It’s burning. It’s …shit, I have no idea what it is, but it’s bad.”
“Destroy it,” Barrett said. Victoria began to moan and thrash in his arms again when the bracelet landed close to her, and he pulled her away, wrapping his body around hers and rocking her lightly. “Hush, baby. Hush. Hush. It’s okay. I’m here.”
“I can’t touch it,” Jordan said, reaching for it again and yanking her hand back. “Fuck! It’s …potent.”
Barrett didn’t know what the thing was, but he had to find a way to end it. He put Victoria gently down on the ground again and pointed to her. “Hold her,” he ordered Jordan. “You’re most useful taking some of her pain.”
Jordan hurried to sit with Victoria to keep her calm, as Barrett approached the glowing item. He stared at it, examining it as thoroughly as he could without touching it and without taking much time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Ryan, Quentin, and Hannah had drawn closer, and they were watching him assess the artifact.
Barrett made sure that the bracelet was set firmly on the ground, and then he slowly pushed to his feet. He started to lift one foot up, but he became dizzy and stumbled to the side, the loss of blood getting to him.
“Let me,” Ryan said, jumping forward.
“No,” Barrett said, holding up a hand. “I’m fine. I’ve got this. Just …let me hold onto you.”
Ryan moved to stand beside him and Barrett anchored one hand on his friend’s shoulder. Then he lifted his foot again, and he began to stomp it as hard as he could on the bracelet, trying to use sheer force to shatter it. But the bracelet only sank into the dirt, its substance not giving way.
Barrett swore under his breath and crouched down again, reaching for the item.
“Barrett, be careful,” Jordan barked. “It’s not worth it. Look what it’s done to her.”
“She’s worth it,” Barrett said. Without hesitation, he grabbed the bracelet, wrapping his fingers around it and shouting
as pain immediately wracked his body. To steady himself, he grabbed it with the other hand as well, tightening his fists as his body began to shake. All of his worst fears bombarded his thoughts—Victoria’s death, Olivia’s death, Hannah’s death—any of his friends. They all died one by one in front of his eyes, as he clutched the bracelet, and he wanted to sink into the misery and hide. He wanted to let go. To free himself.
But he didn’t do any of that. He twisted his hands as hard as he could, applying all of the force that he could muster until the cracked.
When it began to crack, the heat it emanated grew stronger and the pain that moved through him became almost overwhelming. His vision went black, and his body shook, and he relived every nightmare he’d ever had. He saw himself dying violently. Dying painfully. He saw himself losing his grip on Victoria, as she fell into a pit. He saw his grandfather being snatched from him and thrown into a fire. Somewhere in the background, he could hear himself screaming, but he couldn’t stop the sound any more than he could stop the images.
And then suddenly the bracelet snapped. It broke into two pieces under the sheer force of his will and the magnitude of his strength. The moment that it cracked, he sagged forward, released from the pain, and the heat, and the mental torment he had suffered.
Barrett melted into the ground, his breath coming in ragged, miserable gasps. He was weak—too weak to even open his eyes.
“Victoria,” he whispered.
All he heard was Hannah’s voice near his ear. “Hold on,” she murmured, over and over again. “Hold on, Barrett. Stay with us.”
Chapter 37
Victoria
“Mom?”
Victoria heard the sound of her daughter’s voice through the haze that clouded her mind. It was different from the screaming that she’d heard in her head before—Olivia screaming and crying out for help when Victoria couldn’t get to her.
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