by Susan Illene
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Dragon Language Glossary
Dragon Clan Names
About Susan Illene
Acknowledgments
Forged by
Flames
by Susan Illene
Forged by Flames
Copyright © 2016 by Susan Illene
All right reserved.
This book, whole or in part, may not be copied, scanned, or reproduced by electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying or the implementation of any type of storage or retrieval system) without the express written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. Please do not participate or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials. Purchase only authorized editions.
www.susanillene.com
ISBN-10: 0-9863361-3-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-9863361-3-3
Model image obtained for the creation of this novel’s cover was licensed for use from Josh McCullock photography. Cover design by Jeff Brown Graphics.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events portrayed within its pages are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not meant to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, undead, or mostly dead is purely coincidental.
Dedication
To my family for all their support.
Chapter 1
Bailey
I clutched the steering wheel and searched for a threat, any threat. The last gasps of autumn were approaching now that November was almost over, which meant dragons on the west side of Norman, Oklahoma had been out in force searching for enough food to get them through the coldest days of winter when they’d be stuck in their dens semi-hibernating. Though there were still plenty of cows and wildlife in the nearby countryside outside of town, some of them had developed a taste for humans.
“Where in the hell are they?” I glanced over at my slaying partner, Conrad, who sat in the passenger seat of the truck. He held a loaded crossbow with the front aimed at the floorboard, ready to lift and shoot out the window if we came across danger. Conrad wasn’t flame-proof like me, but he could do some damage from a distance while I went after the dragons up close with my trusty sword. He’d been working out more too and building up his already toned muscles to give him that much more of an edge. The extra strength came in handy if he had to release a rapid succession of bolts or carry me to safety if I got badly injured during the fight.
The dark-skinned nineteen-year-old—wait, that’d be twenty since his birthday was two weeks ago—gave me a grim look. “You’ve killed so many of them, I’m willin’ to bet they’re hiding from you.”
I ground my jaw. “Only three this week and it’s Wednesday. I need to kill more.”
Conrad had no idea how much I needed it, considering the dark and deadly side of me was something I tried to keep well-hidden from my friends. Slaying was the only way to bring relief to the irrepressible instincts that drove me to attack dragons wherever I could find them. To a certain extent, I’d learned to control myself, but lately I hadn’t found many reasons to bother. The motivation to curb my killing desires had been for the sake of the red shifter dragons—some of whom I’d become allies with since they weren’t a threat to humans. I hadn’t seen much of them lately, though.
“Maybe we could address the big elephant in the room,” he said, arching a brow.
I stopped at an intersection and leaned forward in my seat, taking the opportunity to get a better look around for any fire-breathing beasts. “We’re in a truck—not a room.”
“You know what I mean, Bailey.”
I didn’t look at him or say anything. It was a topic I’d been avoiding for a while now.
“Ever since we rescued those kids you’ve been actin’ different. You’re all weird and cagey and shit. About the only time I see you smile is right after you kill a dragon.” Conrad ran a hand over his short tufts of hair that he’d started growing out recently. “Don’t think I didn’t notice this all started about the time Aidan stopped comin’ around.”
I stiffened. He wasn’t wrong, though Conrad wasn’t aware of the full story. No one knew that after we fought a major battle against the pure dragons at the Norman airport—to rescue a group of children and push the clan out of town—Aidan and I had met again later that night.
Fresh from battle and our blood still pumping, the attraction between us had been higher than ever. Aidan had also been working through his feelings because he lost his father—the pendragon—during the fight. They hadn’t been on the best of terms, which only made him feel worse. Alone in Aidan’s lair, we’d taken comfort in each other’s arms. It had been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and the scariest.
Considering he was a shape-shifter, a rare breed among dragon-kind compared to the pure beasts that outnumbered them ten-to-one in the world, and I was a slayer born to slaughter all fire-breathing creatures, it probably wasn’t the smartest move on our part. Still, it was one of those moments I’d remember forever.
We’d grown close over the months he’d been training me to slay his enemies—the pure dragons—and I’d learned to trust Aidan despite my instincts. In his human form, he could be more civilized than half the people I’d met since D-day (the arrival of the dragons) six months ago. Despite that, a relationship between us couldn’t work. I’d been doing my best to accept that the same way I had to accept fighting dragons for the rest of my life. Slayers didn’t get sick or age. They always died in battle and usually before they reached thirty. Every day I survived was a gift. I had to do everything I could to get back to my family in Texas before my slayer heritage got me killed. Aidan was the key to doing that, and I needed to stop thinking of him as anything more.
“The new pendragon is keeping him away,” I said, pressing on the gas pedal. The truck jerked forward, and we continued our way north on 36th Avenue.
“Yeah, I bet he did after he found out about you.” Conrad paused and narrowed his eyes at me. “But do you think the pendragon suspects you and Aidan are getting a little too close?”
I jerked the wheel, almost sending us off the road. It took a moment to get the truck under control again. “What are you talking about?”
“You ain’t foolin’ me, girl. You’ve got that whole angry and bitter vibe goin’ on. That’s the real reason you started spending almost every day out here huntin’ dragons—to avoid thinking about what you can’t have.”
I tensed, realizing Conrad was right. For those first few weeks, after I last saw Aidan, I stayed at his lair most of the time until the need to hunt dragons overwhelmed me. It hurt not being able to see him. Then Aidan’s sister, Phoebe,
came by and told me her brother had been sent far away to patrol their clan’s borders. I’d realized I needed to stop fantasizing that there could ever be anything serious between us. My family needed me, and I’d nearly allowed my emotions for a dragon shifter to make me forget about the people I loved. If not for the giant chasm running parallel to the Oklahoma border with Texas, separating me from my mother and step-father, plus a huge clan of pure dragons who wouldn’t be easy to get past, I’d have gone home already.
“I know it can’t ever work,” I said, shooting Conrad a look. “So I don’t want to hear another lecture.”
His eyebrow raised in disbelief. “But do you really accept it?”
“It doesn’t matter what I accept. What matters is I know what I have to do,” my voice came out clipped.
I didn’t want to talk about this with him or anyone else. The more I discussed it, the more it bothered me—and not just because of Aidan. There were still days where I woke up surprised the world was filled with dragons, and that I was expected to slay them. Never mind that I might have begun to fall in love with one of the damn beasts. My future was never supposed to be like this. I’d just finished college when the apocalypse began and had meant to return home to my parents’ ranch to help them run it. Then my whole life spiraled out of control on that fateful day back in May. The only thing I could do now was keep slaying the beasts that were ruining the world and work on getting back to my family.
Conrad was quiet for a minute. “Alright. I’ll let it go, but only cuz you look miserable enough without me making it worse.”
I snorted. “At least you’ve got someone you can care about openly.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” he said, smiling at the mention of Christine. We’d rescued her and her daughter after a tornado struck Norman shortly after D-day. That was the beginning of her and Conrad’s relationship, though they’d gotten even closer after we rescued Christine’s daughter, Lacy, from a dragon that had kidnapped her and a few other human children in town.
“It’s good you have somebody,” I said, truly happy for him.
“Thanks,” he replied, then frowned and looked away.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothin’. Let’s just find some dragons for you to kill.”
That was strange. Conrad usually didn’t keep anything from me, but I wouldn’t push him for now. The tone of his voice made it clear he wasn’t ready to open up about whatever was bothering him.
“Okay, but I’m here if you need to talk.”
He glanced at me. “Yeah, I know.”
In the middle of the road ahead, a middle-aged woman with long, brown hair streaked with gray appeared out of nowhere. I slammed on the brakes, jerking us forward in our seats as the tires screeched across the pavement. The truck came to a stop about twenty feet from where she stood.
“I’m going to kill her,” I swore, rubbing the side of my neck where the seatbelt had dug into my skin.
Conrad slowly removed his clenched fingers from the dashboard. “Not if I get to her first.”
We hadn’t seen Verena in weeks. The sorceress revealed herself when and where she chose. Mostly, you had to be useful to her in some way, or she didn’t waste her time with you. It didn’t escape me that if she was showing up now, she wanted something. I glanced at my pistol where it rested in the center console, but before I could make up my mind on whether to carry through with my dark thoughts, I found myself unbuckling my seatbelt and getting out of the truck. The damn sorceress had taken over my free will again.
Fighting every step, I nevertheless made my way toward her. It irritated me to no end that while I could feel every part of my body, I couldn’t control myself. Too bad being a dragon slayer didn’t diminish her ability to manipulate me. Sometimes I wondered if sorcerers were the ones who created slayers like me in the first place—to battle the beasts for them. All I knew was that my race had been around for thousands of years, and the ability to fight dragons was passed down through the family lines. We got greater speed, strength, and immunity to fire, but magic still worked just fine on us. It was damned inconvenient.
Verena clasped her hands together in front of her. The slender woman was wearing a purple, flowery skirt and a beige tank top today. It seemed wrong that she could look that normal with so much power behind her hazel eyes. She was born more than a thousand years ago, but according to her, she’d been under a sleep spell when the dragons were sent to another dimension, and she didn’t wake up until a little over twenty years ago. By outward appearances, she looked like she was in her early forties. I wouldn’t have called her beautiful, more like average with a thin nose that looked like it had been pinched a few too many times, but she kept herself clean and well-groomed—which was better than a lot of other people since the apocalypse.
“What do you want, Verena?” I asked through clenched teeth.
She lifted a brow. “It’s time.”
The tight hold she had on my body eased a fraction, allowing me to speak without struggling as much. “Time for what?”
“To repay me for the favor you owe,” she said, an Irish lilt in her voice.
I tensed. No matter how much I’d anticipated this would come up eventually, there had been no way to prepare for it. Last summer, Conrad had been shot by some human looters, and he’d been dying. I’d had to do something to save him. This was before my friend, Danae, discovered she was a sorceress with an affinity toward healing. The only person I knew back then who might be able to help was Verena, so I’d taken a chance on her. She wasn’t a very strong healer, but she had enough skills to keep Conrad alive and eventually get him back on his feet. I’d been willing to agree to a future favor in return without even knowing what it might be because he was my friend, and I’d do anything for him. There’d been no choice at the time.
“So what’s it going to be?” I really hoped it didn’t involve something horrific.
Verena smiled. “Nothing as dreadful as what you’re thinking. You will be going on a journey soon to locate a long-lost artifact—an orb to be precise. Once you have recovered it, you will give it to me. That is all.”
“Um, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t have any upcoming travel plans, and I don’t know anything about a lost orb.” Her hold on me was slowly slipping—she couldn’t maintain it for long—and I managed to wiggle my fingers.
“You will soon enough,” she said, confident.
I wasn’t sure how Verena’s predictions worked, but she did seem to have a knack for knowing about things that would happen in the near future. That must have been how she could always find me. If she said I’d be going on a journey, then it was probably true. “Why do you want this artifact?”
She gave me a cryptic smile. “I have my reasons, but they aren’t any of your concern—yet.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of two dragons flying in the distance. They were headed toward a nearby neighborhood. What little hold the sorceress had over me was quickly diminishing with my need to fight the beasts, and I took a step forward. It appeared when it came to dragons; they took precedence over her magic.
Verena followed my gaze and a look of satisfaction came over her. “I see you’ve got work to do.”
I forced my gaze back to her, needing an answer to my question before I could leave. “What is so important about the orb?”
“It is a matter of life and death, and I must have it.” She narrowed her gaze. “Do not even consider giving it to anyone else…or you will regret that decision.”
“What are you going to do? Kill me?” I took two more steps toward her, glaring.
“Oh no, my dear.” She shook her head. “But you do not want to find out what happens when you forsake a promise made.”
Maybe not, but a sorceress who liked to take control of my body without my permission and manipulate me couldn’t be up to any good if she wanted an orb. Never mind the question of why she couldn’t get it herself. “I’m not giving it t
o you.”
Her expression turned ominous. “Think very hard about that because if I don’t get it, very bad things will happen to you and those you care for.”
My palm grazed the hilt of my dagger, strapped to my leg harness. “If you hurt my friends, I will kill you.”
“I am not the one you need to be worried about.” Her gaze turned pitying. “Just get me the orb and all will be well.”
“You can forget it if you think…”
A breeze swept over us, and she disappeared. Damn it all to hell—I still needed answers! Where was this orb supposed to be located? Why did she want it, and what did she plan to do with it? Most important of all—what would happen if I did somehow get the thing and didn’t give it to her?
Up in the sky, I caught sight of the dragons swooping toward a neighborhood down the street. The terrifying sounds of human screams rose up, chilling me to the bone. One of the beasts blew flames at a target I couldn’t see, but I knew there had to be people in its fiery path. I had to hurry if I hoped to save the neighborhood in time. Curse Verena for distracting me from my job when people were in danger.
I spun toward Conrad. “Get me my sword and move the truck off the road.”
He was already ahead of me, tossing the sheathed blade in my direction. “Here!”
I caught it by the handle and took off running. Conrad knew the drill well enough to know he had to hang back until the battle was over. Then he’d help me clean up the mess that came after.
Chapter 2
Aidan
Warm air glided through Aidan’s scales and past his wingtips. He enjoyed the comforting feel of it, knowing there wouldn’t be many days left like this in the year. They’d just suffered through the first major cold spell last week. Every morning, frost had covered the thick vegetation of southeast Oklahoma, and his breath had fogged the air. Aidan and his patrol partner, Falcon, had barely been able to muster the energy for their border patrols.