Plight of the Dragon

by Debra Kristi

  40

  DRAGON SONG

  Sebastian

  Kyra and Kalrapura, as one. Sebastian’s heart swelled. He had been running toward Anguis and Queen Shui, his intentions to save the queen. Kyra’s arrival had taken him completely by surprise. An astonishing, blessed surprise. Her hair was a wild disaster, her eyes burned with blue flame, and a modest covering of scales dressed her body. She was heart-stoppingly exquisite. The mere sight of her sent his soul into flight.

  But then something large and ungiving smacked him in the side, tossed him away from her.

  Sebastian stretched, sending pops and cracks throughout his body. Oddly, nothing hurt. He sat up, and then ducked. Anguis’s massive tail swung through Sebastian’s path, missing him by a foot. The ancient dragon continued to fight with Queen Shui. Sebastian getting smacked sideways had clearly been an unfortunate twist of happenstance. Lying flat on the ground, Sebastian rolled clear, then checked before standing. The last thing he needed was to become the unwilling target in an unplanned game of dragon swat-n-bat.

  Kyra ran toward him, and he was overcome with the desire to laugh. Laugh for all the despair he’d experienced leading up to that point. Laugh for the anger and depression and fear. Laugh because Kyra was alive, alluringly alive, and he was alive, and Kalrapura was exactly where she was meant to be. Guess he had his answer on whether a Reaper could die or not. And he did laugh, a little. Then held up his hand to stop Kyra’s approach.

  All his protective instincts kicked in. Close to destructive dragons was not where she needed to be. Plus—he glanced at his father, still standing on the frozen lake, studied him and all the men he’d brought with them. They wore their usual deadpan attire, with a few notable exceptions. Some held a hint of smile or a twinkle in the eye. They appeared excited, even eager for the outcome of the dragon battle.

  He looked back at Anguis and Queen Shui. Although she held her own fairly well against such a considerable opponent, she was losing.

  Sebastian glanced back and forth between Kyra and the fight. Despite his attempt to keep her out of harm’s way, she now moved toward her mother. When the dark sky filled with the sound of flapping wings and echoed with a bone-jarring roar, Kyra faltered.

  Kyra’s sister swooped in, flew above the massive, old beast, her talons clawing at his eyes. Before Sebastian could decide on his course of action, Bolsvck crashed between Anguis and the queen.

  “Hell,” Sebastian mumbled. The whole family is involved. No way of keeping Kyra out of that pit now.

  “Sebastian!”

  In an instant the battling dragons were forgotten. The hair on the back of Sebastian’s neck rose at the sound of Kyra’s cry. He’d taken his eyes off her for mere seconds. Whirling around, he located Kyra, his blood pressure spiking. Marcus, no longer in dragon form, had his hands all over her—pulling and yanking and struggling for control. Every fiber of Sebastian’s being erupted with rage and loathing.

  “Let me go!” Kyra yelled. “Your stupid pendant is gone, and that stinky Serpicose won’t work.”

  “You’re coming with me,” Marcus said, and tugged harder.

  Kyra slid on the ice and fell. She pulled herself up to her knees. “I stabbed you once. I’ll do it again. Until you either leave me alone, or you’re dead.”

  Marcus growled.

  “Stop!” Sebastian ran toward them, his stomach churning and his inner cold dipping. But when he met Kyra’s gaze his feet stumbled to a stop, skidded on the ice, and dropped him on his back. In a matter of seconds, her scales engulfed her body and her mighty Moorigad surged forth. Marcus was knocked off his feet with one fell swoop of her tail, and in an instant, he too transformed. Another dragon battle began.

  “Isn’t this exciting?” Leila swayed at Sebastian’s side and whispered at his ear.

  Sebastian startled, stared at her. “Who are you? And why did you destroy Chelsea’s life?”

  “Poor boy. Mother leaving you in the dark.” Her knuckles brushed the side of his face. “I am your older sister. The true Mara in the family.” Her fingers ruffled his hair, and he knocked her away. “You, the product of a Mara and a Grim, an interesting idea.” She pressed her cheek against his. “For what he did to you, I would have destroyed Marcus. It would have worked, too, had a meteor shower of dragons not wrinkled my plans.”

  In an abrupt move, Sebastian stood up and stepped away. “Why are you here? What is it you want from me?”

  “To explore you.” She leaned closer. “Get to know you better.”

  “I think you should leave.” He swung a move-along gesture with his finger, and his gaze drifted over the carnival. Dragons were taking flight from multiple locations, heading toward the lake. The lights and sounds of Mystic’s now ran full-wheel. Things were spinning and blinking, and the dragons…the ones flying toward the lake were disappearing mid-flight. Sebastian’s muscles went rigid. His mind reeled.

  Think. Think. Think.

  Valentina with her vortex ability couldn’t reach a flying dragon.

  Mystic’s was back or repaired or whatever it was she’d needed. She apparently didn’t want those dragons coming to their aid on the lake. The more he studied the occurrence, the clearer it became. Dragons who refrained from approaching didn’t appear to get relocated. Kyra, Kyra’s family, him, they were on their own. No help was coming.

  Sebastian glanced at Kyra and Marcus, and fury blinded him. He looked away.

  The wisp of a touch ran along his arm. He turned to Leila. “Why are you still here? Go!”

  She recoiled, and he didn’t have to see himself to know. Her reaction was telling enough. Plus, he felt the change—the darkness—take hold, start manifesting the moment he’d glowered at Marcus. That demon had used and hurt Kyra. Totted her around like a puppet.

  Wide-eyed and ashen, Leila backed away. “We are not finished, you and I.” Recovering her posture, she gave him a fox of a grin, and then vanished into the wind.

  Leila’s words meant nothing to him. All that mattered, all that ever mattered, was his girl of fire. His extraordinary Moorigad. For her, he would ruin worlds. An eclipse of reason flooded his veins in slow-moving ink, and he moved forward in measured steps, the darkest of thoughts manifesting around Marcus.

  “I merely need your compliance, your strength. Stop your struggle.” Marcus flew a foot off the ground and knocked Kyra backwards with the swing of his tail.

  Sebastian’s inner shadows turned to obscurity, and the remaining stars in the sky were snuffed out. He narrowed his glare, and it scorched with never-ending revulsion for Marcus, the soulless man-beast.

  The beast who laughed, and then spewed fire like a flaming torch on steroids.

  Merciful Hell. Fire went everywhere. Fire shot through the sky and shot at Kyra, and fire blew across the ice. The surface beneath her vanished, melted, and Kyra dropped back into the lake.

  Talia and Valentine circled in behind Sebastian, whispering his name, but he paid them no attention. He didn’t have time. Not when he stood before a fiery Marcus.

  This has to stop. Sebastian splayed his hands out at his side with his palms toward Marcus. An infinity of darkness coursed through Sebastian, snaked from his fingertips, wanting and searching for a mark. Almost invisible to the non-magical eye, weaving a path across the ice, Sebastian could hear and feel the dark magic’s yearning.

  The ground at his feet became slick with water, his small terrain of frozen lake growing smaller by the second. And yet, the fire was subsiding, Marcus dropping, his head drooping. His scales turned brittle and his eyes grey. His wings fell limp. His life was ending. With a mere thought, Sebastian was smothering and stamping out the dragon.

  Talia tapped his shoulder, and the darkness within him leaped forward, snapped at her fingers. He sensed her back away.

  A crack of the ice. Sebastian ignored that too, his focus honed.

  “Sebastian.” Kyra’s voice washed over him, tugging at his calm and unknotting his madness. She had returned to him,
risen again from the frozen lake. “This is not who you are.” Her hand soothed down his arm, causing him to blink and release the darkness. Marcus dropped to the ice with a crunck.

  Sebastian’s ears rang, and his gut dropped like a weight. He looked away from the destruction he had caused, sought comfort in Kyra’s eyes. “I couldn’t...” He sighed. “I was just so…” He paused again and stared deep into her eyes. “I did it for you. He makes me so mad.”

  Kyra smiled. “And you were always the calm and sensible one.” Her hand caressed the side of his face. “Don’t darken your soul with an ugly deed for me. I love you as you are.”

  “I don’t have a soul to darken.”

  “To feel as deeply as you do, to put yourself through all that you have for me, there’s no way you don’t have a soul.”

  Marcus chortled. “So touching.” He stood up. “Too bad you didn’t have the guts to finish what you started. Guess I’ll have to finish it for you.”

  “You can try,” Kyra countered.

  Another crack and splash.

  Several yards off to their side, changes in the frozen surface were affecting another fight. Queen Shui’s tail flopped in the water. The ground at her feet had broken into countless pieces, then returned to a liquid state and dropped her into the lake as it had Kyra minutes before. The ice beneath Anguis and Bolsvck shifted. In a flurry of flaps, they took to flight and fight and floundered, moving chaotically toward Marcus, Kyra, and Sebastian.

  “Things are about to escalate,” Sebastian said.

  “That’s what I tried to tell you,” Talia quipped.

  Without a glance, Kyra swung her arm around like she was tossing a Skee-Ball at Marcus. Wind swept down from the heavens in a frenzy, dropping behind and swinging down beneath them, scooping up Valentine in its path. The current carried her like a cannon through the air.

  “What have you done?” Sebastian said, his entire body tensing, fighting the desire to lunge after Valentine. Save Kyra any future regret should Valentine get hurt, or worse.

  “She’ll be fine—” Kyra’s eyes widened.

  Bolsvck and Anguis, consumed in battle, tumbled into Marcus one beat before Valentine plowed into them—or through them—and all three turned into a swirling bubble of vortex. Pulled and sucked into another-land by way of distortion, until there was nothing but Valentine kneeling on the broken ice.

  Kyra’s sister spiraled into the sky and roared, raining sorrow from the skies. Queen Shui thrashed in the water, an inconsolable sound venting from her dragon. Nearby dragons joined the ballad, and the water oozed heartache, while the heavens bled mourning.

  41

  AMBASSADORS

  Sebastian

  “My father. What have I done?” Kyra stood motionless, the frozen embodiment of disbelief.

  Sebastian threaded his fingers between hers. “You couldn’t have known your father would get in the way. At least he’s not dead. Just sent somewhere unknown.” Internally, his chest sank.

  Outwardly, he began to actually sink, along with everyone else standing upon the frozen surface. The magic of Anguis the Ancient had been spiraled away, and with it, the ice. Sebastian and Kyra fell into the lake.

  Talia and Valentine splashed and coughed, but Sebastian could see they would be okay. Queen Shui and Keahi had come to their aid.

  Kyra wrapped her arms around him and dropped her head against his chest. He’d ached for this moment, but for it to happen this way was wrong. He held her tight, and they slowly sank farther in the water. Nothing he could do would take away the pain she felt, but he could be there for her now, and maybe that would suffice.

  “You’re a fool.” Mortifier grabbed Sebastian by the collar and, in a flash of wind and water, whisked him away from Kyra into a mad dart until they stood upon the shore, dry and unrumpled, as if nothing had happened.

  Kyra had burst into her Moorigad and taken to the sky. When Sebastian came to a standstill, she was already circling above the carnival.

  Sebastian yanked free of Mortifier. “I’m the fool?” His voice rose to an accusatory pitch, and he glared at his father, then at the line of Reapers beyond him. Their numbers were dwindling. One Reaper, then three Reapers, all vanishing, leaving the carnival in theatrical puffs of smoke.

  “You mess with things you don’t fully understand yet.” Mortifier shook his head, then motioned to his remaining men. One of them, Mr. Johnson, had a strong hold on an unhappy Davies. “We’re not here for the entertainment, boy. We have a job to do.”

  Sebastian rolled his shoulders. “I get that, but—”

  Mortifier halted him with a sharp snap of a finger. “I don’t think you do. From the very start, you were tasked with the reaping of Balidhug, or Marcus Blackall, whatever you want to call him. And yet, you’ve failed time and time again.” His shoulders sagged. “And the ancient—The first Moorigad…” He shook his head in silence. “You never should have talked to him.”

  “Okay.” Sebastian waved his hand between them. “I’ve listened to enough of your bullshit. Now you’re going to listen to me.”

  Mortifier raised a brow, but said nothing.

  “You may have planned out the anomaly that I am, but that doesn’t mean you get to control me. And the same goes for everyone else across the worlds.” He motioned to the people gathering onshore—the dragons, Talia and Valentine, the patrons and Zeke (sitting humbly on his usual bench). “You don’t control any of them. So if they do something that affects your collection list, changes the names or even scratches some out, you need to let it go.”

  “You don’t tell me what to do.” Mortifier narrowed his stare and stood straight, peering an inch down upon Sebastian.

  “I’m not telling you what to do. I’m telling you how it is.” Sebastian cocked his head to the side. “Fate is fate, but you need to let the course of events play out as they will.” He pulled Alice’s pendant from his pocket and gazed at it. “What happened out there,” Sebastian pointed to the lake, “I didn’t manipulate any of that.” An image of him killing Marcus popped into his head. He blinked it away. It wasn’t him. He wouldn’t allow it to be him. “I simply rolled with what was taking place. It was others, people not in the know about your precious list, who changed the outcome.”

  He glanced at Talia and Valentine, and grinned. Of course, it was Kyra who had really made the difference by saving Marcus, just like she had in the beginning when she had pulled him from the water, and Sebastian loved her a thousandfold more for her actions. Instead of killing Marcus, she had sent him away. She’d reminded him life was precious. Not just a few select lives, but every life, no matter how shady they appear to others. He clutched the pendant tight. Kyra would forever stand as his reminder to be the better man, the better Reaper.

  Kyra landed in an open area near the entrance portal, shook free of her dragon form, and walked toward them. He couldn’t help but grin at her approach.

  “It looks to me like you have your priorities all in a twist,” Mortifier said.

  Sebastian blinked. He’d lost track of what he’d been saying, distracted by his girl. He snapped back to his father. “My priorities are exactly where they should be.”

  Mortifier shoved his hands in his pants pockets and pondered his son for a breath or two. “You’re a Reaper. You can’t escape what you are, Sebastian.”

  Sebastian waggled his finger at his dad. “Correction. Half Reaper. I’m not anything you’re familiar with, so you shouldn’t try to fit me into your Reaper mold.” He glanced at Kyra. She smiled, encouraging him to continue, yet there was no denying the tang of sadness in her eyes. “I have a better handle on what I am and what I’m now capable of. Don’t push me on this.”

  Mortifier grunted. “You think you can pave your own path? Make your own rules?”

  “Not at all.” Sebastian smirked. “I’m simply going to follow the course and see where it leads. I’m not going to control events or people’s actions to determine who lives or dies.” He gazed at the pend
ant again. “I’ll leave that to a higher power. One higher than you.”

  “That’s not how it works,” Mortifier said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Sebastian held the pendant up for his father to see. “She wasn’t a victim of circumstance. You murdered her, plain and simple.” He tossed the pendant at his father. Mortifier made no move to catch it. The necklace fell to the ground at the Grim’s feet. “I’ve seen the damage you’ve done, exploiting and engineering individual fates. I can’t believe that’s the way it’s meant to be. We’re ambassadors, not directors, and you’ve been meddling. What you did—working with Davies, stealing Marcus’s dragon, sending him to Purgatory for all those years on the chance of avoiding a supposed destiny…Well, that may have actually created that very destiny by turning Marcus into the monster he is now. So no more. No more manipulation.” Sebastian kept an unwavering watch on his father.

  Mortifier’s face showed deep contemplation one minute and pulled into a snide grin the next. “We shall see how it all plays out.” Crow’s feet spread from the corners of his eyes as his smile stretched across his face. Behind him, Reaper after Reaper disappeared, until there was only Mortifier and Mr. Johnson, with his hand clenched firmly on Davies.

  “What are you planning on doing with him?” Sebastian asked.

  “Nothing you need to concern yourself with. He and I are overdue for a little chat is all. You know, regarding all that stuff that has your sickle stuck in the mud.” Mortifier turned to leave.

  Sebastian frowned. He didn’t trust his father, but it was clear a ton of debris had piled up between Davies and his father. Debris that needed to be sifted through.

  Kyra now stood beside him, her gentle hand finding a home in his palm. She whispered at his ear, “We’ve done a lot of good today.” Yes, they had. Some good. And some bad. But the good outweighed the bad. He squeezed her hand, thankful for her reminder.