“These poor people,” Brin said, clutching her hands to her chest. “They never stood a chance.”
“Someone might have escaped,” Slade said.
Jasin nodded, standing taller now that he’d found a purpose. “We should look for signs of survivors. Auric and I can scout the surrounding area from the sky, while the rest of you can search the town itself.”
Fools. There were no survivors, that was obvious. They just needed something productive to focus on to make them feel less helpless at the sight of so much death and destruction. I knew what that was like, so I let them carry on without voicing what a waste of time it would be.
Auric and Jasin took off into the air while Brin and Slade carefully examined some of the rubble. Once they were gone I picked my way through the debris, following Kira’s path to the end of the town. I spotted her kneeling in front of what was once the inn she’d worked at, and now was nothing more than ash and bone. I really should give her a few more minutes alone, but something tugged at me, urging me to join her. If anyone knew what she was going through, it was me.
Kira didn’t stir when I approached, even when I rested a hand on her shoulder. She simply stared at the place that had once been her home, her arms hanging listless at her sides, her knees pressing into the blackened ground. Dirty tears stained her face, and I resisted the impulse to wipe them away.
“The others are searching for survivors,” I said quietly.
She finally looked up at me with haunted eyes. “But not you.”
“We both know the Dragons wouldn’t leave anyone alive.” Unlike the others, Kira and I had seen this before. We’d both lost our families to the Crimson Dragon’s fire, and we knew how he worked. But her face crumpled in response to my words, and I wondered if she’d held onto some hope that her friend was still alive. I was a complete ass. “I’m sorry, Kira.”
“This is my fault,” she whispered. “This wasn’t random. The people here weren’t part of the Resistance. They’re dead because of me.”
“They’re dead because the Dragons are cruel, heartless bastards who think nothing of destroying lives.” Gods, how did I always end up as the one who comforted her? One of the other guys should be doing this. Even Slade would be better than me. I wracked my brain, trying to think of something I could say to make her feel better. “For all we know, the Dragons had problems with the town that had nothing to do with you.”
She shook her head at my feeble attempt, and though we didn’t share a bond yet, the guilt and heartbreak were clear on her face. “I led them here by sending Tash that letter. The Dragons must have intercepted it and guessed we’d stop here while we traveled through the Earth Realm. They did this to leave us a message that this is the price of opposing the Dragons. They won’t simply destroy us—they’ll destroy everyone we love.”
I couldn’t deny what she was saying since it was probably the truth, but if I let her sink into this kind of grief she might never come out of it. She blamed herself for what the Dragons had done, and that guilt would crush her spirit and make her want to give up entirely. I knew that all too well from experience.
Kira was the next Black Dragon and we needed her to be strong. She had to keep fighting. She had to rise above this and move forward. We needed her—and so did the world.
“And how are you going to respond?” I asked, making my tone hard.
Her head snapped up. “What?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re the next Black Dragon, aren’t you? Are you going to sit back and do nothing? Are you going to let them do this again to another town? Another family? Maybe Auric’s, or Slade’s?”
“No!” she cried, her hands clenching into fists.
“Then what are you going to do about it?”
She rose to her feet and wiped away the last of her tears. Resolve straightened her shoulders and made her stand taller. Determination tilted her chin up, and anger made her eyes turn to deadly slits. I watched the transformation take hold of her, turning her from victim to avenger in the space of seconds.
When she spoke, her voice was like ice and I heard the steel behind it. “I’m going to stop them.”
“Yes, you are.” I didn’t doubt it for a second.
She stared into the ruins of her village one last time, before turning to me with an unforgiving look that made me wonder if I’d pushed her too far. “And then I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.”
8
Kira
We buried what bones we could find, until all of us were covered in soot and the day grew late. I decorated Tash’s grave with a few flowers Brin brought me and then stood over it for a long time, silently saying my goodbyes while the biting wind tore tears from my eyes. My mates stood behind me, giving me space, until it was time for us to go.
As we left Stoneham, the only thing that held me together was the thought of vengeance and retribution. The Dragons had taken so much from me over the course of my life, but no longer. I’d been on the run for so long, hiding from my destiny, but now I was ready to fight back. I was going to destroy them—or die trying.
We left the ruins of Stoneham behind and found another spot in the forest for us to camp for the night. A few of the others visited a nearby town for supplies and warmer clothes, but I didn’t join them. I wouldn’t put any more innocent people at risk with my presence.
As we set up camp, the others kept trying to comfort me or ask how I was doing, but I told them to leave me alone. Nothing they said or did could make this any easier or bring Tash back. The only thing that would ease the unrelenting ache in my chest was the death of all five Dragons before they could hurt anyone else.
I ate something—I had no idea what—and then visited the nearby river to clean myself off, although my movements were routine and my mind was barely there. The anger faded and I went completely numb for a while, until I remembered Tash again. The grief became so strong it made me double over. She was gone. I would never again see her smile, or hear her laugh, or eat her food. We’d never get to catch up on the last few months we’d been apart. The Dragons had taken her from me, and she was never coming back.
I’d lost so many people in my life that it should have gotten easier to lose another, but it never did. I doubted it ever would. I let the pain wrap around me and turn back into anger, filling me with red hot clarity. I had no one left except the people with me now, but none of my mates’ families were safe while the Dragons were alive. We had no choice but to stop them.
Jasin stepped between the trees as he approached the river. “Kira?”
“Not now,” I said. “I’d like to be alone.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice even closer.
“Just leave me be!” The words came out in a rush, and I immediately regretted my harsh tone. Jasin was only trying to help, but I couldn’t deal with him right now, or anyone else for that matter. A tangled mix of emotions threatened to choke me—overwhelming grief, fiery anger, and crushing guilt for being the cause of all of this mess—and I rushed to my tent to get away.
But when I slipped inside, I found someone else waiting for me. An elderly woman with white hair, wrinkled skin, and eyes like steel. Enva. The strange woman who’d appeared to me ever since my twentieth birthday, when all of this had started. She always offered a few hints and tidbits of information, then vanished and left me with more questions than I’d had before.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. To say I wasn’t in the mood to entertain her cryptic advice tonight was an understatement.
“I sensed that you had questions.”
I cast her a sharp glare. “I always have questions, but I’ve had a rough day. This isn’t a good time.”
She studied me as I sat across from her. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry about your friend and your village. Being a Dragon can be a great burden sometimes.”
“How would you know?” I snarled.
She gave me a sad smile. “I was one too, once. Many years ago.”
“I suppose it’s time you learned the truth.” She folded her wrinkled hands in her lap. “Kira, I’m your grandmother.”
I gaped at her. “My grandmother.”
“Yes. Nysa, the Black Dragon, is my daughter.”
“You mean…” I swallowed, trying to wrap my head around her words. “So it’s true. The Black Dragon really is my mother?”
“She is.”
I stared at the old woman before me, looking at her in a new light. My grandmother. A sense of rightness settled in my chest, and I knew it was true. “And you were the Black Dragon before her?”
“I was, although I was known as the White Dragon.”
I blinked. “I didn’t know we could be anything else.”
She pursed her lips. “Yes, well, there’s a lot you don’t know. Much of that is Nysa’s fault. She had all of our family’s history destroyed, along with all information about previous Dragons. It’s a miracle she let people remember the Gods, but even she can’t wipe all traces of them from the world.”
I had so many questions I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to know about her time as the White Dragon, and how it had led to Nysa becoming the Black Dragon and ruling for so long. But instead I found myself asking, “How are you here? Aren’t you over a thousand years old at this point?”
“I would be. Assuming I was still alive.” She waved away my questioning look. “I died a long time ago, but I’m trapped between life and death. My connection to the Spirit Goddess and my magic lets me watch over you and sometimes manifest for a brief period, although it takes a lot out of me so I can’t stay for long.”
“Why are you trapped?”
She pursed her lips before responding. “That is a longer tale, which needs to wait for another visit. The short version is that the way to the afterlife has been closed for the last thousand years. Everyone who dies is trapped—not only me.”
“Everyone?” Horror crept over me as I imagined how many people that would be after all this time. And now Tash was one of them, along with everyone else I’d known in the village. “So those souls that can’t find peace…is there any way to save them?”
“There is. You must defeat Nysa.”
Easier said than done. I’d been determined to stop the Dragons earlier, but now my task seemed even more challenging. “Does she control the shades?”
“Yes, she does.”
As I suspected. I dragged a hand through my hair. “What about the elementals?”
“No. The elementals hate both the Dragons and the shades.”
Finally, a small bit of good news. I rubbed my eyes, suddenly exhausted. “How am I supposed to defeat her and the other Dragons? They’re so much more powerful than we are.”
“I’ve noticed.” She snorted. “You need to train more. Now that you have two bonded mates, practice combining their elements.”
“Combining…how?”
She rolled her eyes up at the roof of the tent like I was a complete fool. “Fire and earth together make lava. Water and air make fog. It’s all fairly obvious.”
I nodded slowly. “And fire and air make lightning.”
“Exactly. Your mates will be able to combine their magic through their connection with you. Then you’ll all be able to summon the joint elements.”
That explained how the Dragons had summoned lightning during our fight at the Air Temple, and how Stoneham had been covered in lava. If we could figure out how to combine our magic in such a way we might have a chance. Or at least more of a chance than we had now.
“I wish I could tell you more, but the other side pulls at me already.” She pressed a wrinkled hand to my cheek and stared into my eyes. “Stay strong, Kira. The journey is long and fraught with danger, but you’re on the right path. Keep going and you’ll find your way.”
I pressed my hand against hers, wishing she didn’t have to leave. It wasn’t fair that as soon as I’d found another member of my family, I was losing her again. “I will…grandmother.”
She faded away before my eyes, until it was like she had never been in the tent at all. I rubbed my weary face and thought on her words. I’d tried to deny that the Black Dragon was my mother, hoping it hadn’t been true, even when my gut had told me it was. There was no denying it any longer, but that didn’t mean I had to become her either. Enva, the White Dragon, had proved that. She had been helping me all this time, so she must disapprove of her daughter’s actions and wanted Nysa stopped too. That couldn’t be easy for her, but perhaps she’d grown tired of watching the world tumble into chaos and had to do something to help stop it. I’d have to ask her at her next visit, whenever that would be. I shuddered at the thought of her trapped between life and death, along with all those other people. Nysa must be the cause of it somehow, if stopping her would put an end to it.
At least now I had an idea of what to focus on: figuring out how to combine the elements.
9
Auric
Kira’s eyes burned with determination as she stood before us. “We need to make lightning.”
It was the morning after we’d discovered Stoneham had been destroyed, and she’d told all of us about her visit from Enva while we’d had some bread and cheese. Then she’d insisted Jasin and I train with her immediately while the others prepared for us to depart. The tone in her voice had left no room for argument, and now she stood before us with her hands clenched in fists, her shoulders stiff, and a fierce slant to her lips.
All night long I’d tossed and turned, worrying about how she was doing and wishing I could comfort her, but she’d made it clear she wanted to be alone. Any time one of us tried to talk to her—and we’d all tried—she’d sent us away. Now I wondered if I should have tried more. I wasn’t sure I liked this new, rage-filled Kira that had emerged after she’d spoken with Reven. Gods only knew what he’d said to her to make her turn her grief into fury. I’d never seen her like this before and wasn’t sure what to make of it…or how to undo it.
Jasin arched an eyebrow at her. “And how are we supposed to do that?”
My brow furrowed. “Yes, you said we needed to combine the elements, but it doesn’t seem like Enva gave us any actual information on how to do that.”
Kira crossed her arms. “It must not be that hard to figure out. We’ll just have to try.”
I sighed and looked over at Jasin, who shrugged. We stood near the river we’d camped beside, away from the others and within reach of water in case things went wrong during training. I summoned a ball of swirling air in my palm, while Jasin did the same with fire. We moved closer and raised our hands to combine the two elements together—but all it did was snuff them both out.
“Well, that didn’t work,” Jasin said. “Now what?”
“Maybe I need to do it,” Kira said. She summoned both elements in her hands and tried to force them together, with the same result. We’d been practicing with air in the few moments we could find since we’d left the temple, and she’d picked up the basics of controlling it quickly. I sensed she found it easier—or less intimidating—than fire. Of course, it would take a lot more training before she was a master. After all, I was still learning new things every day, including lightning it seemed.
“Gods!” Kira yelled, as the elements disappeared from her hands. Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped them away with quick, angry strokes. She was trying to mask her grief by channeling it into fury and action, but it was still there under the surface. She would have to deal with it at some point, but not today I supposed.
“We’ll get it eventually,” I reassured her. “What else can we try?”
“I don’t know.” She turned away, her face twisted with frustration. I hated seeing her like this, but wasn’t sure what to do.
“Remind us again what Enva told you,” Jasin said, in a tone one usually reserved for trying to calm a wild animal. I could tell this was tearing him apart too.
&nb
sp; Kira scowled. “She said you’ll be able to combine your magic through your connection with me.”
I nodded slowly as I considered her words. “Maybe she doesn’t mean we should literally combine them, but somehow access the other’s element through our bond.”
“Is that possible?” Jasin asked.
I spread my hands. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Can you feel each other through the bond like I feel the two of you?” Kira asked.
I shook my head. “Not that I’ve noticed, but my bond with you is still so new. I’m only beginning to feel your presence.”
“It gets stronger when we’re touching,” Kira said. She reached for both our hands, linking the three of us together. From the corner of my eye I saw Slade, Reven, and Brin packing our things and giving us curious looks. They had to be worried about Kira too, but they knew better than to interrupt us during training.
My bond with Kira burst inside me at her touch, much stronger than it had ever been before. Waves of grief, anger, and guilt washed over me and it took me a moment to realize they were coming from her, along with a sense of desperation and determination, plus a dash of frustration and impatience. I sucked in a sharp breath as I sorted through her emotions and found my way back to my own self again.
“I think I can feel Auric through the bond,” Jasin said. “But it’s very faint.”
When I glanced over, his eyes were closed. I copied him and searched through that tangled web that was my sense of Kira and there, in the distance, was a small flickering flame that felt like Jasin.
“I sense you too, but only barely,” I said.
“Try to access each other’s magic,” Kira said.
Shake The Earth: Her Elemental Dragons Book Three Page 4