by Ashley Meira
And I did it.
Fire or not, that’s who I was.
I took a step back.
Oh.
Oh.
That’s who I was.
Sophia Sinclair. Whiner. Grouch. Former mercenary. Food addict. Temperamental. Loyal. Strong.
A fighter.
A Warrior.
“Don’t let them down.”
My hands curled into fists. Determination steeled my spine. “I won’t.”
I opened my eyes.
Everything was black, then everything was white.
Unfortunately — or fortunately, in this case — the world didn’t work that way. Grays seeped into my world, followed by soft blues, then dark blues. More and more colors spread out, repainting the tableau before my eyes. The world came into focus.
Pain wrapped its gnarled fingers around my heart. I braced myself for the sights. Diana to my right, unconscious and barely breathing. Fiona and Adam to my left, hidden by the mob of charybdis.
Instead, I saw clouds. A thick clump of them to my left, fat with rain and snow. The city of Fuji sat below it, a myriad of buildings standing against the buffeting winds. To my right were the tips of the valley walls, their once smooth tops jagged from Seraphine’s ice beams.
My confusion grew as I turned around. The beating of wings was around me. She was near. Or Damien? Both, most likely. But they were out of view as I stared at Mount Ashitaka, its summit nearly eye level to me despite being miles away. I looked down, barely able to make out the path we’d taken into this valley. It was little more than a strip of gray from here.
But where was here? Was any of this real? Could it be a fever dream brought on as I succumbed to the blood loss?
I turned around again and again, hearing the beating of wings but finding no creature to place them to. The situation didn’t truly hit home until the overpowering scent of lilies rushed toward me. I dived away, watching a thick beam of ice blast through where I’d been standing.
A look down revealed Seraphine, her slitted eyes mean and furious. She flew up toward me, murder in her movements, and everything fell into place.
Where I was.
The beating of wings when no one was around.
I looked at where the ice beam hit. I hadn’t been standing. I’d been flying. I was flying.
This time, there was no darkness when I looked down at myself.
There were wings, a tail, a body covered in molten scales.
There was a dragon.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It should’ve have felt weird, like I was in another person’s — creature’s — body.
But it didn’t. It might have been because I didn’t really have time to focus on my transformation — not with Seraphine flying at me and spitting ice.
I swooped out of the way of her second blast, trying to really feel the way my new body moved. There was power in each motion, fluid and oddly natural.
Pain against my left wing had me plummeting. I felt the wind kiss my face as I fell before quickly catching myself.
Damn it, Sophia. Admire later, fight now.
Each beat now caused my wing to burn, but I couldn’t fully bend the appendage to survey the damage. Maybe if I was on the ground, but that could wait until this was over.
Damien seemed to share my sentiments, because he rushed to join the fray, his blasts of lightning rending the sky. I tensed my body, ready to fly out of their way, but none came. Each bolt slammed directly into Seraphine, a true testament to the skill Damien possessed.
She reeled back, white scales charred and bleeding. He celebrated his success with a piercing roar, one that broke my heart. It sounded enraged and broken all at once. I could relate. But now was not the time to mourn — we had a sea witch to kill.
Seraphine dove toward the valley, but I flew in her way. Maybe if she stayed away from the charybdis, she couldn’t absorb more of their power. The roar I let out was raspy in my ears, a pale imitation of Damien’s, but it held her attention well enough.
I’d never given much thought to how dragons communicated, but I could now safely cross “telepathy” off the list. There was no sense in her responding roar, nor did Damien send me any messages on how to proceed now that we had her surrounded.
I suppose the lightning bolts he threw were clue enough. Despite her injuries, Seraphine was able to dodge this round of attacks. Drops of blood floated around her as she crested through the air, their scent so vivid it almost overwhelmed me.
I swallowed back the primal instincts her blood had conjured and tried to join the fray. I say “tried” because I had no idea what to actually do. I’d never been a dragon before. Hell, if you told me this was ever going to happen, I’d have rolled my eyes. Was I able to cast magic like Damien? I should, right? I was a mage again, wasn’t I?
A scary thought came to mind. What if this wasn’t temporary? What if I was stuck as a dragon forever?
That moment of doubt was all Seraphine needed to swoop in and clamp her teeth around my neck. I wasn’t able to see my entire body, but unlike Damien, who was lithe and ethereal, I was stouter, tougher — more bruiser than princely, which made sense considering my personality. That composition made it harder for Seraphine to properly rip out a chunk of my neck. She made a valiant effort, going so far as to stab her claws into me for more leverage, but I managed to pry her off me with a feral roar and a stream of fire.
Huh. Guess I could use magic.
Flames bubbled in my gut, welling forward in an excited river as I let out another breath of fire so intense I couldn’t see anything in front of me. I felt Seraphine’s claws retract and her weight push away from me. Her screech told me she was still alive, but I’d make sure that wouldn’t last long.
I dove for her again, claws outstretched and teeth bared. I still wasn’t sure how this whole dragon thing worked, but my instincts were doing a pretty good job so far. Besides, it was time I relied more on my Fire.
She dodged my swinging fist and tried to go for my jugular again. I flew under her, shoving my claws into her exposed underside. An ice beam stabbed through my arm, even more powerful than the attack that clipped my wing. I reeled back. The gash I’d left against her ribs was already sealing, too minor to cause any real damage when she was this powered up.
Fear stabbed my insides, reminding me this was her without the three other parts of her soul. How would this fight be going if she was at full strength and powered by the charybdis’ sacrifice? I shook my head and let out a puff of fire. I’d lost enough today — this fight wouldn’t be one of them.
Damien flapped his wings, sending heavy gales towards Seraphine. She dodged one but was clipped by the other. It sent her spinning backwards, right into my fire breath.
Had I been human, her screams would have burst my eardrums on the spot. Now, all I could do was bare my teeth in a draconic grin. Another burst of flame spewed from my mouth as she tried to escape. Her tail burst into flames, flailing wildly as she tried to put out the fire.
It didn’t take her long. The storm around us was fierce, with hail and rain competing for control over the skies. I considered trying to cast different elements but didn’t want to rock the boat. Plus, fire seemed to be working well so far — and she had been favoring ice magic.
The battle continued this way for several minutes. Damien would attack, and while Seraphine was busy dodging him, I tried to get in as many potshots as I could.
Though the scales had tipped in our favor at the start, Seraphine proved more resilient than I expected. She hadn’t siphoned more power from the charybdis yet, but now that the shock of seeing me had worn off, she was more agile than ever. Our attacks barely connected as she glided through the air, her lily-scented magic so potent it was nauseating.
Deciding my neck wasn’t an ideal target, she began aiming for my joints. It might not kill me, but I’d be a lot less useful if I couldn’t move my arms — or fly.
Reading a dragon’s movements was hard, but I m
anaged to dodge a good deal of her attacks. Not all of them, however. Her earlier spell still burned against my left wing. The pain, coupled with my lack of experience in this form, allowed her to land some solid hits.
My hand reached instinctively for the new gaping wound in my side, but I couldn’t reach it. The injury made twisting my body too painful, and the blood loss made my head spin when I tried.
Damien had taken a few hard hits, too. His iridescent hide was mostly red, a canvas for Seraphine’s razor-sharp wind spells. He’d taken a few hits for me as well, and I found myself softening a great deal towards him. What can I say? It was hard to hate someone who took an ice blast to the chest for you.
The frost from that spell stood out against the crimson staining his body. Sharp spikes of ice remained where it’d hit, and I wondered if that’s what was causing the pain on my wing. Not that Damien looked pained — or not pained. I was usually good at reading my opponents, but I’d never had experience with dragons.
I wouldn’t say we were losing, though. Seraphine had made a comeback, but our attacks had weakened her. We also had numbers on our side. Even without communication, our movements were coordinated. We were never too close together and made sure to throw magic at the same time but from different angles. Even the graceful witch wasn’t able to avoid everything we threw at her.
We continued our bloody dance — clawing, biting, and throwing spells around like there was no tomorrow.
There wouldn’t be if we lost.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed as we swooped by each other, fighting tooth and nail. Exhaustion weighed me down, and my wings grew heavier with each beat. The cartilage felt like it had been turned into lead. How was Damien doing this? He’d been shifted far longer than I had and showed no signs of exhaustion. Practice, I suppose, which did nothing to make me feel better right now.
What did make me feel better was Seraphine’s condition. We’d succeeded in keeping her from her supplicants, and she hadn’t been able to absorb more power in the entire time we’d been fighting. Her massive body heaved with each movement, her wings fluttering as out of sync as mine must’ve been. Once crystal clear eyes were now hazy with weariness as her heavy breathing clouded the air before her.
She was almost done.
The realization was like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. I surged forward with a fire burning in my heart and mouth. Damien followed after me, shooting bolt after bolt of lightning. Seraphine screeched at the incoming barrage, her movements sluggish but still graceful. The majority of them missed her, but the few hits she did take slowed her enough for me to find an opening.
Slamming into her, I dug my claws into her sides to hold her in place before unleashing the biggest blast of fire I’d ever created point blank into her face.
The heat even made me uncomfortable, but I persevered. Thoughts of Fiona and Adam kept me going. I channeled all my anger, pain, and grief into the blast, determined to cause Seraphine as much suffering as she’d caused me.
If she let out any screams, they were lost in the roar of my flames. I’d never felt so strongly before. Powerful, miserable, wrathful — all my emotions had been amplified a thousandfold. But underneath it all was a sense of freedom, a unity with my Fire that I had never experienced. Was this what my father had meant? Was this my true power, the legacy of the Warrior?
Darkness swarmed my vision in little dots as Seraphine crumbled to ash. Her fierce reptilian features melted away, revealing bone, followed by skin as she transformed back into her original form. I felt her muscles shrink, then crack as her human form bent under the pressure of my draconic grip. Her pupils widened until her eyes were nothing but black, a stark contrast to the lines of fire that were covering her entire body.
I blinked and she was gone, reduced to nothing but a few dark marks of ash against the clouds. Her magic faded away, the unnatural brisk taste lingering on my tongue for the briefest of moments. It felt almost anticlimactic for such an awful beast to die so quietly, like a dandelion blown away by a small child.
Almost.
Relief swept through me, so potent I could almost ignore the pain coursing through my body.
It was over. It was finally over.
I let out a triumphant roar, too happy to be embarrassed over how wimpy it sounded. Even my first roar had been better. I really needed to work on that. Later. Maybe Damien could teach me.
I turned to find him but only saw darkness. The dots that I thought had been pieces of Seraphine’s ashes remained, growing larger and larger. The wind that had barely registered against my scales now cut against my flesh, hail digging into fresh wounds and further tearing them open.
What was happening?
There was more black than sky at this point. It felt like I was being waterboarded by ice water.
“Damien,” I cried, my voice hoarse and feeble.
My voice.
I was human again, fainting and falling to my death.
That was the last realization I had before the darkness fully claimed me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I think she’s waking up.” The frantic whisper pierced through the thick haze of sleep that had enveloped me.
Wait. Sleep? When did I fall asleep? The last thing I remember was—
I shot out of bed, my dry eyes burning as I tried to piece together my location through the plethora of rainbow-colored dots assaulting me. “Seraphine—”
Dead. Ash. Killed. By me. A dragon. My Fire. Magic.
Thorns dug into my heart.
Adam.
Fiona.
“—ia!”
“Don’t shake her.”
My head whipped around. That voice, strong and deep. So familiar, but also impossible. “Adam?”
A warm hand cupped my face as another pressed a glass to my lips. I placed my hands over it, relishing the refreshing liquid and the feel of my lover’s skin against mine.
Maybe. Hope blossomed in my chest, but I refused to let it spread until I was sure. A soft glow chased away the technicolor dots, soothing my aches and the burning in my retinas. The scent of pine overwhelmed me in the best way as vanilla tickled my tongue.
“Stop hogging her,” the whisperer huffed, her voice pulling away the vice around my chest.
“Let her come back,” Adam said.
I clenched my eyes and turned my head toward the voices. It took a few seconds for my impatience to best my fear, but when I finally opened my eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to care. “Am I dead?”
Fiona was sitting at the foot of my bed, covered in bandages and bruises. She let out a choked sound that I thought was meant to be a scoff, her hands trembling as she wiped her eyes. “Dummy. Of course you aren’t.”
It felt like a betrayal to look away from her so easily, but the man at my side was too tempting. “Adam?”
My voice cracked, along with the gates that held back my tears. They scalded my cheeks and seeped into the cotton of Adam’s shirt when he pulled me against his chest.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, his heart beating against my ear, strong and alive. “You’re safe. We’re all safe. Everything is okay.”
Another scoff, harder and unmistakably masculine. “That’s impossible.”
“Can you stop being an ass for five seconds?” Fiona snapped at Damien, who was leaning against the doorway.
His skin was sallow and there were deep bags under his eyes, but his words hadn’t lost their edge. Neither had his magic. The taste of mint overpowered vanilla in my mouth, telling me his recovery was progressing faster than Adam’s.
He shrugged. “Sure. You got a stopwatch?”
“You—”
“Knock it off.” Adam sighed, his breath scattering my hair.
“What happened?” I asked. “I saw Seraphine hit you, then you fell and….”
I clung to him, trying and failing to stop the tears. A hand pressed against my knee, the touch soft through layers of blankets. Fiona’s cotton candy magic en
veloped me. Everyone’s magic was so vivid now, stronger than I’d ever sensed. If I wasn’t so relieved to see all of them, I’d have barfed at all the different tastes and smells.
Was this because I had achieved unity with my Fire? Did any of that truly happen? It all felt like a wild dream. Then again, Fireborn were descended from dragons. If turning into a dragon wasn’t my true power, what was?
“He didn’t fall.” Fiona puffed out her cheeks. “Like I was going to let your boyfriend go splat. You’d kill me.”
“The charybdis,” I said. “They swarmed you—”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “Like I can’t handle some gross fish people.”
“First of all—” Damien held up a finger “—you couldn’t. Adam helped you. Second of all, that’s racist.”
“Since when are you Mr. Politically Correct?”
“Whenever he can annoy people with it,” Adam said before turning his attention back to me. “Fiona caught me before I landed. In a sense.”
“In exactly that sense,” she said.
He shot her an exasperated look. “She flew up — to intercept me, I imagine — and crashed into me instead. The impact broke my fall and we both landed relatively unharmed.”
“And surrounded by charybdis,” Damien added.
Fiona frowned, and I swore I heard her mutter “gross fish people” under her breath.
“I was hurt,” Adam continued, wincing. “Pretty badly. But I had enough magic to help her deal with the charybdis.”
“That’s why Seraphine didn’t absorb more power,” I muttered, relief making my eyelids heavy. I had so many questions, but just knowing everything was okay reminded me how tired I was. “She had no more.”
“She could have had more,” Damien said. “Who knows how many charybdis were lurking in those pools. We kept her far enough away that she couldn’t call more.”