The Dragon Mage Collection

by L J Andrews

  “You see the reason now?” Eisha’s voice trembled.

  My lips pressed firmly together, and I knew my eyes had narrowed into slits by the way Eisha backed a single step away. I wasn’t angry at Eisha, I wasn’t even angry at Teagan—I was desperate. “Eisha, you can’t tell me you agree with Teagan,” I hissed. The battle was a frenzy by the fierce roars of my people—of my family. I could wait no longer. “Tell me you feel the same thing he does. How does it not feel incredibly wrong? The moment the words crossed his lips, I knew he was mistaken. Now he fights with a warped belief.”

  “I do feel Teagan’s energy will not be here at the end of this fight,” Eisha said with surprising firmness. I wanted to scream, but the bond with my son helped keep my head focused.

  “Yes, as do I,” I admitted. Eisha eyed me curiously. “But then, Gaia’s energy is no longer with us, either. Yet, she lives. Teagan fights like a dead man—so he will surely die, if that is his belief. I refuse to allow it. Especially when fate did not bring us together only to rip us apart by death so soon.”

  “Perhaps it was for Malik you found each other,” Eisha whispered, smiling lovingly at the baby. “He is remarkable, and now your union with Teagan will live on forever. You have created something together I never imagined possible. You’ve both changed our people—the mage people—forever.”

  Eisha’s dark eyes locked with mine. In that moment, I knew she understood, even if she didn’t want to admit it. Eisha loved me like a daughter and simply didn’t want to see me go. I kissed Malik firmer along his brow, his nose. I kissed each fingertip. My son’s lips twitched into a weak smile. I beamed, the sting of new boiling tears welling in my eyes as my heart swelled with unconditional love.

  “Eisha, long ago my mother asked you with her dying breath to care for me and protect me.” The power in my voice only fueled my strength. My heart was breaking, yet igniting in fury in the same breath. Slowly, I faced her—the tears lining her eyes, but not falling—and began handing Malik back to the woman who I knew would die in defense of my child if she were asked. “Today, I must ask the same of you.”

  “Jade, please,” Eisha gasped, stepping close to me, though her hands cupped the back of Malik’s head. “You are a daughter to me. I did not bear you, but you have taken such a place in my heart. I can’t let you do this.”

  When Malik was safely in her arms, I offered her a fierce glance before peeling back into my true form. Heaving a torrent of energy-fused flames in a circle, I made my own protection barrier inside Teagan’s. It was large enough for Eisha to enter the flaming circle if she needed, but the way Eisha cocked her head and let a tear fall, I knew she understood it was designed for Malik.

  “What will you do?” Eisha whispered. As far as I knew, Eisha was the only wyvern who, like Teagan, could hear thoughts when her fellow dragons were in true form. Turning my broad skull to face her, I released a frenzy of steam and smoke.

  I plan to stand in this war as the queen of the elemental dragons, I hissed. But perhaps even more important to my soul—I plan to save my son’s father from himself.

  Eisha stiffened her shoulders, clutching Malik against her chest. Her jaw was taut, but there was a playful light flashing through her eyes. “Good,” she snarled. “I would expect nothing less from the woman I know you’ve become. Your mother would have done the same for her people, and your father. Though, I assure you, she would make sure your father, Malik, knew exactly how she felt about him playing the martyr.”

  Eisha grinned and my heart lightened. I shuddered my head and breathed a small burst of white flames. I fully intend to tell Teagan exactly how I feel about his plan today. I love you, Eisha. You see me as a daughter, you are my mother in every way. I know my real mother would be proud to hear me say those words. Protect my son. Should the worst happen, tell him how fervently I love him.

  “As you told Teagan, I will leave those words for you,” she whispered. “Fight true, my queen. We stand with you. You are the leader we have waited for. I know this with every ember burning in my soul.”

  The crack in my heart as Malik released a soft coo nearly bolted my claws to the ground. I love you—so much. Teagan could hear wyvern thoughts, and Malik had energy I had never imagined. There was a rumble in my broad chest where the hottest fire abided in my heart. Though I couldn’t be sure, somehow I knew Malik understood he was adored and fiercely loved.

  The sounds bursting in the distance were not ones of battle. Roars, screams. The scent of burning flesh and bone scorched the back of my throat. I felt the agony, the frenzy, the determination. No, it was no battle. With a strong step over the energized barrier, I breathed in Teagan’s energy that only connected with my own—but wouldn’t trap me. I was stepping into a war.

  Though my dragon form hid the emotions of my face, inside I bellowed the anguish of leaving my son behind, though I knew it would be just as impossible for me to ignore the tug of the bond between Teagan and me. He was wrong, I felt it through every pulse of my heart. I burned for him and would not sit idly by hoping for my people to have a victory while he died trying to save us all. We stood together. No matter what became of us in the end, we stood together. Always.

  Before any fervor faded from my determined heart, I took to the sky. My soul screamed in sorrow, but buried deep inside there was a glimmer of hope that soon welled into belief. I knew Malik would survive. I knew he would be safe. And that brilliant pulse of energy gave me the strength to keep moving forward.

  My wings dug deep into the gray clouds. The once blue canvas was stained with dark smog from fires below. Over the ledge, just below the tree line, I caught sight of the carnage. Diving low, I roared a stream of flames. Matching cerulean wings flashed through the haze, and furious roars vibrated in my soul. Blasting a line of dark mages with my pyre, I landed in a cloud of ash and embers next to Sapphire as he slashed his deadly claws across the neck of a legless serpent. My jaws nearly unhinged as my fangs sank into the hardened black scales. The lindworm bellowed a haggard cry, the open wounds from Sapphire’s strike bleeding in the back of his throat by my fatal bite. I tasted the thick, black blood—but I took on the fierce night energy bleeding across my fangs as though I were a mage and dragon like my son and mate.

  The serpent shuddered, his powerful body twice the size of mine, but soon he fell limp in my bite. With a violent shake once more of his neck, I dropped the dragon in a heap of blood and scales.

  Jade, I knew you’d come.

  Though Sapphire was looking at me, it was Nuka who cheered through my thoughts. She was covered in blood—black and rich burgundy of her own—but her piercing dark eyes were vibrant and alive.

  We end this for our people today.

  Where is Teagan? Sapphire bellowed.

  I have yet to find him, but I will. I would. Teagan’s energy still filtered along the battlefield. He was still alive, and I wouldn’t stop until I found him.

  How did you become separated? Nuka asked before turning her eyes over her wings and blasting the rocky ground with a river of molten pyre that swallowed a handful of dark mages.

  He thought he could die today, I snapped. I heard Sapphire grumble as I allowed images of my last conversation with my mate to sear across my mind. I’ve come to change his mind and kill some lindworms on the way.

  I shrieked a roar, ending our tight conversation when three lindworm warriors flew over our heads. They seemed to be rushing away. There was a tremble in the night energy. Something had happened—something monumental—to cause lindworm warriors to carry such a fury of concern.

  The lead warrior glanced down—his concern washed away when he recognized me. With a bellow, the serpent released ebony flames and dove for us. I braced for their landing. When the dragon’s slithering body struck the ground, I struck his face. My claws peeled through the shield of thin skin that flapped like extra wings around the sides of his face. He roared in pain. I clawed at the warrior again, trying to crush his neck with my fangs as I’d done with t
he other serpent. Sapphire coated the lindworm in his flames, but the serpent backed away, heaving angry breaths as the remaining two warriors forced Sapphire and Nuka to engage.

  The queen, he snarled in my mind. I thought you would remain hidden like a coward. I must admit, it pleases me to see you fighting. I’m certain you will die.

  I chuckled in the back of my throat, pulsing my own shocking energy against the lindworm. He trembled when the earth shot jagged stones into the base of his feet as I broke apart the ground with a commanding thought.

  You thought wrong, though I am curious what has you so broken, I shouted, stabbing my long claws into the lindworm’s ribs. He roared and slashed his spiked tail across the back of my neck. Ripping my talons from his scales, I backed away. Already, my boiling blood was dripping down my neck and onto my wing joints. It only enraged me more. You’ve faced a great defeat, I can feel it in your heart. You fear you’ve picked the losing side. I assure you that you have, I laughed, circling the warrior while keeping Sapphire and Nuka in my sights. Nuka released a shriek of pain when her opponent gnawed on her front leg. Sapphire’s claws shredded the throat of his lindworm, and he quickly moved toward his sister.

  My warrior chuckled darkly through my thoughts like a poisonous river of hatred. You may convince your subjects you are perceptive, but you have thought wrong, Queen of Elementals. I have no plans to lose this war—and when we are victorious, I’ll see that you choke on your own words in your blood.

  The lindworm took to the sky. I darted after him. His long tail was so near my jaws, I snapped, but missed. Before I had time to react, the dragon reeled around, his slithering body moving swiftly as he wrapped around my wings. The strength of his crushing hold tethered my wings like a scaly, black rope. I felt my bones giving and shifting in ways no wings should shift. Swinging my head back, I jabbed one of the emerald horns on my head against the scales of the lindworm. He loosened his grip when the point struck through his flesh, but still squeezed my wings, using the power of his sails to propel us higher. He would render me flightless—I could easily see his plan—then drop me until I fell to my death.

  Desperately, I tried to shake him away, but he kept his grip strong. I bellowed in agony as I felt the slender bones fracture.

  You will die, queen, he hissed. You and the rest of the elementals. I have no desire to see our people united. For years, the elementals shunned my people, all over the sins of ancient ones.

  The skies were filled with other small battles. I watched as Leoch, Haitian, and Raffi soared past—Athika on Leoch’s back, the others with elemental mages on their spines, shooting energy at fleeing lindworm warriors.

  Jade! Raffi bellowed, reeling back and rushing toward us. The mage on his back was older, but her eyes were a furious color that reminded me of the morning sun. She rose from her place behind Raffi’s wings and held out her palms.

  The lindworm crushing my wings released a haggard roar, his body shaking. The tug he kept on my wings loosened enough that I shook him from my body just as Raffi sank his powerful jaws into the flexible spine of the lindworm, while the mage leapt from his back and actually took hold of the lindworm warrior’s wings. Snarling, I turned to the beast and sank my front claws into the sides of his skull.

  Nag is dead, Jade! Raffi shrieked in my thoughts. Ced killed him!

  I couldn’t move for half a heartbeat. But slowly, I drifted my gaze to the fading lindworm warrior. With every beat of my wings, they ached from the small cracks in the bones. As I pressed my claws further into the lindworm’s scales, the pleasure of Raffi’s report slowly took away any pain I felt. So, this was your worry. Your king has fallen. What side was it you believed would be victorious?

  His yellow eyes dripped in his own blood the deeper I pressed my claws, the longer the mage pulsed her raging energy against his own, the more scales Raffi ripped from the lindworm’s body.

  Nag was the weakest. You still…you still must face the High Priest. He will not yield. The lindworm chuckled with the same sinister darkness I hated. Already he has your…mate. Your dragon mage. How hard will you fight, queen, when he dies?

  A sickening snap echoed in my stunned ears as Raffi broke the spine of the dark warrior. His eyes flashed a crimson death before his entire form went limp. I ripped my claws from his face and let the corpse fall once the mage had returned to Raffi’s back.

  My heart throbbed in my chest as I scanned the skies for any hint of Teagan. It was possible the warrior could have lied, but the suffocating darkness bleeding into the sky made it clear there was a clash of energy somewhere nearby.

  Where is Teagan? I screamed toward Raffi.

  Raffi nodded toward the trees. I tried to join him and Thane, but was forced to chase the warriors. It’s Bron, Jade. They’ve found each other. I think…I think Teagan was fading last I felt him. Bron made certain none of us could get close. I lost sight of Mitch, and Thane was overpowered. Jade, what if…

  Don’t say it, Raffi, I hissed. Never had I sensed such dread in Raffi’s heart. Whatever he’d seen or fought against had been powerful enough to coat him in unaddressed fears. Bron will not win—he will not win! Now, fight. Destroy Nag’s army, and help me win this war!

  Raffi roared, spraying the gray sky in brilliant flames, his head shaking as he accepted my charge to battle. His energy strengthened me. Without meeting his eye again, I darted away from my warrior and rushed toward the violence cursing my heart. I knew Teagan was fighting against Bron. I knew he was fading, as Raffi said. I knew I was running out of time.

  Chapter 30

  Mitch

  Stepping out of the blue van that smelled like corn chips the day I arrived at Wyvern Reform House nearly three years ago, I would have never imagined where life would take me from there.

  I was a thief. A homeless thief who’d found some stability in a reform program. I hadn’t seen my mom in years. There were some nights I missed her when I’d first entered the program, but after a while I’d found a liking with Sapphire. I still missed my real mom, I knew I’d always love her, but Sapphire had helped me find some sort of purpose, I guess. Sort of like a burly older brother or uncle. I would say father, but when I’d met Sapphire, my version of a father was a guy who occasionally brought fast food and drugs to appease my mom’s habit. It must have settled his guilt that his children were hungry, before he left with whatever flavor was on his arm that night. So, Sapphire taking me in and actually guiding me—I just assumed that wasn’t what a father did.

  Well, now I was riding on the back of a dragon. A dragon who claimed me as a son. I knew Sapphire was a powerful part of my life, but not as a father, because as strange as it sounded, it was as if Thane had always been my dad. It was as if Teagan had always been my brother, even more than my real older brother. He was in some jail miles away—yeah, that brother had tried to stab me when I’d taken his stash and hid it away. He was the reason I learned how to use knives. So I’d take a dragon mage any day over that.

  I didn’t know what tonight would bring. There was something different about Teagan. I hadn’t seen Jade or my nephew in what felt like an eternity—and honestly, that wasn’t like the queen of dragons. They were nauseatingly close, and I knew there was a reason my brother wasn’t sharing why his mate wasn’t here. I didn’t know where our mom was, though I knew she was biding her time until she met Bron again. There was this sick tension in my gut as I thought of what could happen. I’d lost a family before, shredded to pieces by addiction and crime. I refused to lose another one.

  Clasping Teagan’s shoulder as we sailed toward the trees, even I could sense the thick, dark energy that only came with that dark douchebag of a mage. Bron was around. I really hated the guy, and I hadn’t even faced him personally like Teagan, Thane, and Gaia had. I wouldn’t be a threat to him—I didn’t have powers—but I’d been working with Gaia alone since she’d adopted me. No one knew, and I didn’t think anyone realized that the human race had energy too. I had energy, and my mom had
been helping me every night, long after the caves had settled in silence, to harness my own unique power.

  I never imagined such things were possible, but through the last months I wasn’t better at knife fighting just because I practiced day and night. No, Gaia had taught me to feel, to listen. I knew things now. I could sense things I’d never felt before. Just like I sensed Teagan’s burden. Part of me wondered if he really believed he wasn’t going to walk away from Bron. It was as if each pound of his heart seared through me with his deep fears.

  “You’ve got this,” I shouted in his ear against the fury of the wind. “Teagan, you’re going to slice off his balls, then tear out his heart. We’ll make a trophy out of them, maybe even frame them.”

  He actually chuckled. “Great visual, man.”

  “Well, you need it,” I said sincerely. “You’ve got this. We’ve all got this. Okay?”

  Teagan’s jaw clenched when Thane shifted directions and darted toward the ground. I believed everything I said and hoped whatever energy Teagan was picking up caused him to believe me. I really needed him to believe me.

  Cautiously, I stood along Thane’s back, holding tight to Teagan’s shoulder to steady myself. Something raked up the back of my neck. I sensed something, not from Bron, not from Teagan. But something was wrong. My heart lodged in my throat when I caught sight of a unit of dark mages rushing toward the trees—in the opposite direction. I didn’t know how I knew it, maybe it was all the meditating or whatever Gaia had taught me, but I had a clear image of Teagan’s son in my mind. I wasn’t a mage, I wasn’t a dragon, but I knew somehow those dark pricks knew about Malik—or at least sensed something hidden in the forest. And they were darting right for it.

  I opted not to tell Teagan. His focus was laser sharp on the river of black energy spreading from wherever Bron hid in the trees, and he needed to keep it there. Slapping his shoulder, I pointed at the ground that was fast approaching. “I need to help against the mages.”