Eliada spoke briefly to Hedya, then came forward cautiously. The others followed a couple steps behind. She stopped a few long strides away, her teal eyes moving across the dragon before settling on Ash.
“Ashtaroth,” she said, her tone as wary as her approach had been. “It seems we owe the safety of our families to you.”
He said nothing, staring stonily at her. Piper considered saying something in Eliada’s defense, then decided against it. Let the old woman win him over herself—if she could.
“It would also seem that our histories have left dangerous gaps in our knowledge.” Her eyes darted to Tenryu. “We did not know it was possible for you to control the great dragon.”
A low growl rumbled from Tenryu.
“I’m not controlling him,” Ash said coldly. His eyes flicked over the nearest draconians and back to the old woman. “Nor can I stop him if he decides to kill you, so I suggest you set aside your assumptions.”
Eliada pressed her lips together, her gaze darting toward Tenryu.
“Now that Hades knows the location of your city,” Ash said, “what do you plan to do?”
“Obviously, we have no choice but to abandon the city.”
“So you’ll run and hide again?” he asked, his voice sharpening. “The soldiers and scouts who escaped tonight will return to Hades, and Samael will send another army to destroy you. He will flood these mountains with men until he finds your next hiding spot. Now that he knows you’re here, he will not rest until every last draconian is destroyed. Will you hide forever? Will you retreat from the open skies into caves and holes for the rest of your lives, praying they won’t find you?”
Eliada looked at him with bleak eyes.
“We just destroyed two companies of his army,” he continued. “Samael is focused on his war with Ra on Earth. His armies are split, weakened. For possibly the first time, Asphodel is vulnerable to an attack.”
“Attack Asphodel?” Eliada gasped.
His eyes flashed over the other draconians. “I won’t be a slave to Hades any longer. Will you? We have been prisoners of fear for too long. Finally, we have the chance to free ourselves from Hades’ shadow once and for all.”
“You’re mad!” An older draconian pushed out of the cluster of warriors. “You might have the horns of a Taroth, but you are not Jesyr. We will not follow you to our deaths.”
Ash didn’t react to the name of his father. “Death will find you anyway if all you do is cower in your mountains. But if we strike now—”
The draconian waved a dismissive hand at Ash. “Just because you fly on the back of a great dragon does not mean you are fit to lead us into war. A warrior we would follow, but not a baby sparrow under a dragon’s wing.”
Ash studied the draconian. He somehow looked so much older than his actual age, as though he had endured an entire lifetime while he’d been gone with Tenryu. Reaching up, he grasped the hilt of his sword, pulling the blade free with a loud rasp of steel. The murmuring voices in the back of the group instantly died.
“If you think I am unworthy, test my skills then.”
In answer, the older draconian drew his sword, the blade coated in drying reaper blood.
With his free hand, Ash pulled his armored faceguard over his shoulder and clipped it into place. Piper’s heart rate kicked up and she wasn’t sure how the draconian warrior could look so confident facing Ash, not when Ash looked utterly terrifying in his gleaming black armor and with that huge, curved sword.
The two draconians advanced on each other as Eliada backed quickly away. Ash and the older warrior paced in a slow circle, sizing the other up, swords held at the ready.
Without warning, the warrior lunged. Ash’s sword spun in his hands—but he didn’t attack. He didn’t even defend. Instead, he jammed the point of his sword in the ground, abandoning it as he slid away from the charging warrior.
The other draconian came up short, spinning around and scarcely getting his sword up as Ash darted toward him. One of the fastest displays of swordplay she’d ever witnessed played out, the warrior spinning and slashing with his sword, Ash gliding around each strike. The blade couldn’t touch him. She’d seen before how fast Ash could move in battle, how he intuitively anticipated coming attacks, but his skill had never been so clear before; usually he was armed and crashing through his enemy’s defenses too quickly.
An instant later, Ash was somehow inside the warrior’s guard. She didn’t catch what he did, it was so fast, but the draconian’s sword went flying and then he was on the ground. Ash held his sword arm, bent painfully backward, with his boot pressed hard into the warrior’s shoulder blade, positioned to break the joint while simultaneously pinning him to the ground.
Silence pressed down on the valley, broken only by the pained pants of the downed warrior. Ash released him before walking calmly to his sword and pulling it from the ground. He turned to face the draconians, his stare an unspoken challenge to everyone present.
No one responded to that challenge.
The defeated warrior clambered to his feet and collected his sword. He sheathed it, then turned to Ash and inclined his torso—a bow of respect. Ash nodded an acknowledgement and the warrior rejoined the watching group.
A soft buzzing pressure brushed across Piper’s mind.
They have forgotten respect, Tenryu murmured, sounding overly pleased at Ash’s display of skill. But soon they will learn again what it is to be ruled by a Taroth.
She twitched at his voice in her head, trying not to outwardly react since no one else could hear it.
Ash doesn’t want to rule anyone. She thought the words forcefully, not sure if Tenryu would hear them.
To rule is his birthright. His blood demands it.
She pressed her lips together. Ash didn’t want to be a leader; he’d told her so himself. Tenryu was just projecting his own expectations.
Ash’s fierce gray eyes scorched the draconians. “Samael’s sole power over us now is fear, but only if we allow it.” He turned to Eliada. “We are calling you to fight for the freedom of our people, for our right to exist. It is your choice if you will fight or flee. Will you fight?”
She looked from him to Tenryu and back. “I cannot make that decision alone.”
“Then gather your leaders so they can decide. I will return before the next sun to hear your choice.” His eyes cut right through her. “This is the end game. There is no going back to your peaceful obscurity. It is time for the draconians to reclaim our skies … or relinquish them forever.”
He turned away, returning to Piper and the others. A jerk of his head indicated they should follow him as he strode back to Tenryu’s side. Piper stopped in the great beast’s shadow. Lyre, Seiya, Kiev, and Mahala drew close as Ash gazed up at Tenryu.
Piper stared at him, speechless in the wake of his words to the draconians. Beneath his reticent nature, he was fully capable of taking control in most situations, but she’d never seen him so—so commanding. He had called them to go to war at his side, and though he hadn’t precisely said it, he intended to lead the attack.
Maybe Tenryu was right. Maybe Ash was destined to rule them.
Ash turned back to face them. “I want to do one more pass over the valley for any straggling soldiers, and then I need to talk to Raum and the others.”
“We can meet you in the city,” Seiya said. “Zwi can guide you to us. She’ll be anxious to see you.”
“I’ll meet you there once I’m done.”
Seiya looked rather sternly at the rest of them, then gruffly grabbed her brother in a brief, tight hug and murmured something in his ear. When she released him, she gave them all the same look—as though daring them to comment on her sentimental act—before spreading her wings and jumping into the sky. Kiev gave Ash a wan grin, maybe still recovering from the battle or maybe still frightened by Tenryu’s looming presence, then followed after Seiya.
Lyre clapped Ash lightly on the shoulder. “We’ll see you in a bit. We have a lot of c
atching up to do.”
A haunted look passed through Ash’s eyes, but he nodded calmly.
Lyre stepped back and glanced around. “Ah, Seiya and Kiev maybe should have waited. Piper and I can’t fly.”
Mahala slid over to his side and smiled. “Would you like a ride?”
“Why yes, thank you.”
She looked at Piper. “And you?”
Piper turned to Ash automatically. She didn’t want to be separated from him. She didn’t want to let him out of her sight ever again.
“Piper can come with me,” Ash said, reading her mind in that uncanny way of his.
Mahala wrapped her arms around Lyre’s waist from behind. As she spread her wings, Lyre winked boldly at Piper as a corner of his mouth turned up in that sexy, suggestive smile of his. Her mouth fell open. He grinned as Mahala took off, her daemon strength more than capable of lifting his weight. Piper gaped after them. Had his little smile been suggesting what she thought it had? Lyre and Mahala? Really?
Ash extended a hand to her, breaking into her train of thought. She forgot about everything else as she met his eyes. She had missed him so much. Losing him had hurt so much. Placing her hand in his, she swallowed her heart back down as it climbed up her throat.
He wrapped an arm around her waist. Holding her close, he snapped his wings out and down, propelling them up onto Tenryu’s back. The dragon’s scales felt like uneven rock under her feet. As they crouched just behind Tenryu’s neck, she saw the dark rope wrapped around two of the spines on his back with open loops for handles.
Ash gripped a handle with one hand, holding her tight with the other, as the dragon grunted and pushed to his feet. The draconians, still gathered a little ways away, flinched in unison as the great dragon rose to his full height. Clinging to Ash, she stared down at the ground. It was so far away.
Tenryu spread his wings. With a huff of effort, he took two running steps and sprang into the sky. The air boomed beneath his wings as he beat them, lifting them higher. As the draconians and the battlefield shrunk beneath them, she clutched Ash, her arms wrapped tightly around him.
He was back. She finally had him back and she couldn’t be happier that he was alive and well—for now. But how long would that last if he planned to lead a draconian attack on Samael’s fortress estate?
Chapter Twenty-One
Standing beside Ash, Piper watched Tenryu disappear behind the northern ridge of mountains. The massive beast had decided to hunt before they returned to the draconian city; the draconians might not appreciate him snacking on their livestock.
They’d already scouted the length of the valley and then some. Tenryu had effortlessly picked off a handful of soldiers, but any other surviving reapers had disappeared. She wasn’t sure how far they could teleport, but they’d managed to clear the valley at least. It was unfortunate that some had escaped, but on the plus side, it would take them a long time to travel back to the ley line. They had a short reprieve before Samael received a full report about the failure of the attack on the draconian settlement.
Fear trickled through her. What would Samael do when he heard about Ash and Tenryu? Their combined power was too dangerous for the Hades warlord to ignore.
She looked up at Ash, her heart swelling. She was so relieved to have him back that it was its own kind of pain, but she also felt a distance between them. Something about him had changed but she didn’t understand what.
The second sun still peeked out from behind the shadow of Periskios but it would soon vanish. The golden light streaked through the tall, spindly trees that surrounded them and glittered on the fast-flowing creek that burbled past them and into the forest, but it was already beginning to dim; soon the eclipse would plunge the mountains into darkness. Tenryu had dropped them in a random bit of valley miles from the draconian city. Aside from the sound of the water, it was absolutely silent.
The diminishing light touched Ash’s face, highlighting his hollow cheeks and the circles under his gray eyes. Those eyes turned from the sky down to her and he smiled tiredly.
“You look so serious.” He lightly touched a finger to the corner of her mouth and she realized she was frowning. “I thought you’d be happier to see me.”
“I am happy.” She took a deep breath to steady her voice. “Having you back … I feel like I’ve come back to life.”
His smile faded. “I’m sorry.”
She pressed her hand to a piece of the black armor over his chest, sliding her fingers over the smooth, cool dragon scale. “What happened after Tenryu took you away?”
He sighed, the air sliding from his lungs as though even that small movement exhausted him. With a hand on her waist, he guided her over to the creek and began to remove his armor. He detached the face piece and neck guard, then dropped the entire chest plate on the ground. He sat on the leafy turf and she lowered herself beside him. It felt so wonderful to sit. She’d almost forgotten how exhausted she was, but the weight of her fatigue was returning quickly. She held on to her daemon form, afraid that if she shifted back to human, she would promptly pass out.
Reaching out, she took Ash’s hand in both of hers. His skin was strangely warm, almost like he still had a touch of fever. He stared at the sunlight sparkling on the flowing water of the creek.
“I don’t remember that much,” he said, his deep voice quiet. He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water. “We went … places. Places I’ve never seen before. Other worlds, I think. The whole time … his mind is so powerful and vast. I was lost in it, in this sea of his rage.”
She tightened her hands over his.
“The first thing I remember clearly is you.” His gaze lifted from the water to her, gray eyes softening. “You, right in front of me, saying my name.”
She bit her lip. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you away from him then.”
“I’m glad you didn’t, actually.” He wrapped his other hand over hers as he looked back at the water. “The other dragon—Shinryu—her challenge shook him … changed him. I don’t think they’d ever fought before. All that rage he had kind of … broke, and when it was just the two of us again, he was different. I wasn’t overwhelmed by all his fury, and he was …” He shrugged a little. “We somehow started to talk and …”
Again he trailed off and she said hesitantly, “And you …worked things out?”
With a nod, he turned his focus back to her. “I think he hated me, at first. He hated that he needed me. He was so angry and he’d been so alone for a long time.”
He gently pulled his hands free from hers and scrubbed them over his face.
“I guess it started thousands of years ago. Tenryu wasn’t all that clear on the story; I think the history is too painful for him, or maybe he doesn’t remember it that well anymore. Millennia ago, the great dragons and the draconians lived together in harmony, with an especially close relationship between the dragons and the Taroth family, but something happened. I don’t know if it was one incident or a gradual erosion of their union, but the draconians began to turn against the dragons.
“Something happened, and the dragons withdrew from this world. Some went to other worlds. Some went to sleep beneath the earth, slowly fading away until they died. For the draconians, the absent great dragons soon faded into myth and legend.
“Tenryu went to sleep too, but he didn’t rest as deeply as his kin did. Eventually, about a thousand years ago, he felt a disturbance in the planet’s magic, something that woke him up for the first time in a long time.”
“A disturbance in the planet’s magic?” she repeated, her brow furrowing.
“A sickness, almost. He is very attuned to the ley lines and he sensed that something was wrong. He searched for the source and eventually determined that it was coming from the Hades territory. The Hades family has been experimenting with magic for a long time, in ways that other daemons never dared. Whatever they were doing, they were messing with the planet’s inherent magic.”
She remembered h
er nightmarish excursion through the Chrysalis building in Asphodel—the main source of Hades’ magical experimentations. She could clearly picture a massive, dark room full of catwalks, the bottom filled with humming equipment and strange machines.
“Tenryu might be large,” Ash continued, “but alone, he has limited magic and he couldn’t attack Asphodel himself. He looked for other dragons to help him but he couldn’t find them—they were all dead or gone from this world. He was the only one. So he turned to the draconians, but they had changed in the centuries since the dragons had abandoned them.
“The first Taroth he tried to bond with died. The second died. The third died. The draconians saw him as a menace and drove him away. He left this world entirely, but eventually, he was drawn back. He tried again, and again the Taroths died. Their leaders were dying and to them he became a predator, a monster. He wanted to help, to protect this world, but they were attacking him on sight. Too much time had passed since the dragons and draconians had been allies, and he could only see them as weak animals ignorant of the suffering magic of their world.”
“So that’s what Shinryu meant when she told him he’d forgotten,” she mused. “He’d forgotten that the draconians had once been his allies?”
“After so much animosity between them, Tenryu considered the Taroths little more than a tool to unlocking his magic. He continued trying to bond with Taroths, but they kept dying. There weren’t that many left by this point. Then, while he was away from the Underworld, Hades attacked the draconians and wiped out the Taroths. By the time Tenryu came back, there was nothing left. He gave up.”
She studied his profile, the somber frown pulling at the corners of his mouth. “But then you showed up.”
“And he initiated the bond and I survived it.”
“Why though? Why you when every Taroth for a thousand years died?”
He pulled a face. “Tenryu says I survived because I don’t know how to give up.” He gave his head a small, exasperated shake. “He also said the Taroths have been weakening for centuries, not in bloodline but in nature. Without the dragons, they grew selfish and arrogant … but his opinion is pretty heavily slanted, so who knows.”
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