by Zoe Chant
The cake was incredible. It consisted of creamy, gooey layers of chocolate cake and chocolate ganache, with just the faintest hint of the lavender to give it a touch of something special. Something that made her want more and more, just to feel that burst of richness with a hint of flower on her tongue.
“It's incredible,” Alyx said, sighing in pleasure. “You should have your own show.”
Ginny smiled softly. “Oh, no. I couldn't deal with that sort of attention. But I enjoy experimenting and feeding the chimera's guests.”
“I need to come back to Sky Home more often,” Jared said and grinned. “Last time I had to spend several days here, it was still all Game of Thrones.”
“The chimera claims he hates how wrong humans get dragons,” Ginny said with a wink at Alyx, “but honestly, secretly he loves it.”
Alyx laughed softly, looking around the kitchen in wonder.
Sky Home was built into a mountain as well, a network of tunnels and caves connecting to the huge cavern that served as the council chamber. It should have reminded her of the fire dragon lair—but instead, it felt completely different.
The kitchen felt lived-in, filled with warmth. The tunnels hadn't made her feel trapped.
The room they'd been given even had a window, so that real sunlight filled their room. They were so high that from their window, she'd been able to look down at the cloud cover that kept Sky Home hidden from the eyes of humans.
“Are you always alone up here?” Alyx asked curiously. “It's so different from Wing Island.”
“I used to live in Mountain View—the home of the storm dragon and his mate,” Ginny explained.
“My own home,” Jared added. “Very different from Wing Island as well. You two should come visit.”
Ginny smiled softly. “That big, empty house of yours could use some life.”
Jared sighed, as if that was an old argument. “Who knows, maybe one day I'll find a nice griffin shifter to settle down with. But right now, the council keeps me way too busy.”
“What do you do?” Alyx asked curiously. She still didn't really know how the shifter world worked. “Is it sort of like a shifter government?”
Jared nodded. “Pretty much. I'm not a member of the council of elements. I’m more of a messenger. It's very rare to have a master of an element. It's always a dragon who's born with that power, and even they go insane from it if they don't find a mate to balance their power.”
Alyx leaned against Braeden, reassured by the warm glow of the mate bond in her heart. “I guess we avoided that fate.”
Jared chuckled, reaching out to cuff Braeden's shoulder. “Never thought I'd say that about a fire dragon, but I'm really glad. I would have hated to lose you. Especially now, when it looks like we really need you.”
“I'll do what I can,” Braeden said. “As soon as the chimera figures out how to deal with Steele.”
“Well, once you've done that, my invitation stands. Naomi would love visitors, I'm sure. She's so far along that they're avoiding most travel now. Especially with the fire dragons around.”
“So much left to see.” Alyx could feel some of the old excitement burn inside her.
That’s why she was so good at her job. She'd always loved to explore. Fashion, new trends, new restaurants... and now, an entire new world.
New shifter towns. New friends, perhaps. And there was still Cara’s offer to connect her with her swan shifter designer friend...
“I'm looking forward to it,” she told Jared earnestly. “And I'd love to visit your home.”
“It's a great place for a griffin.” Jared looked at Ginny, then smiled and added, “a great place for any shifter, really. I've had the happiest childhood you can imagine, playing hide and seek in the hills and valleys, flying among the rocky mountaintops, swimming in the lake... I've never missed my family. Because I had a family. Still, I wonder...”
He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “It doesn't matter. I'd love to know where I come from—but I've got all I need. The storm dragon is as good as a brother to me. I've got a home, I've got friends—and I've got a lot of work to keep me busy.”
“Especially right now,” Braeden said. “If I don’t take out Steele...”
He left the sentence unfinished, but Alyx knew what he meant.
There was more than just their own happiness at risk.
What would happen if the fire dragons targeted humans, instead of just the elemental dragons?
“Have more cake,” Ginny said, determined. “And give the chimera time to fix this. He’s been brooding over his books and scrolls ever since he first saw Steele. He’s on to something. I know he is. No one knows as much as the chimera.”
Alyx gave Ginny a grateful smile.
They weren’t alone. They were all in this together.
And she wouldn’t allow Steele to take her mate from her. Not now, when she’d only just found him.
Not ever.
Chapter Eighteen: Braeden
It took a day until the chimera resurfaced.
Jared arrived in the council chamber at the same time as Braeden and Alyx did. The large cave was lit once again by the eerie light coming from the symbols decorating the plinths.
Braeden looked at the large seat of stone, on which the symbol of fire was slowly pulsating. Even now, he could feel Steele's darkness inside him.
He hadn't heard Steele's voice since he and Alyx had mated—which was good. And perhaps now, with the light of the mate bond so strong inside him, it was impossible for Steele to influence him in such a way.
Still, he didn't like the sensation of what felt like a living shadow inside his chest. He wanted Steele gone, once and for all.
As if on command, the lights in the cave flickered. Shadows began to move at the back of the cave. The sensation of old power made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The chimera had arrived.
“Dragon of Fire, welcome,” the familiar voice boomed.
Braeden sent encouragement through the bond, and Alyx nodded at him. They'd get through this and what was to come together.
He knew that Alyx hated the thought of him taking on Steele on his own—but what other choice was there?
The shadows before them moved. For a heartbeat, he saw a dragon's wing spread—then the wing tensed, and the shadow was ripped apart. Instead, from the corner of his eye, he saw the shadow of a writhing serpent's tail appear.
“Come closer,” the chimera growled. “Let me taste the shadow within you. I have found the answer to what Steele has done—and if it is true, we are all in greater danger than I'd thought possible.”
Braeden pressed Alyx's hand, then released it.
Don't worry, he sent through the mate bond.
She was pale but gave him an encouraging nod. She'd lived through an entire lair of fire dragons. She could deal with this, too; he knew that.
He knew that she wanted to be here, with him.
But he still couldn't help but feel guilty for drawing her into this.
Braeden watched the shadows flicker as he stepped forward. He'd never seen the chimera. He'd only ever seen the twisting shadows.
Now, for the very first time, Braeden found himself drawn further forward. He moved closer and closer, until he stood right inside the flickering shadows that had always cloaked the chimera's appearance.
Suddenly, out of the darkness, a head came forward.
Braeden forced himself to stand still as he faced the chimera’s true form.
It was a dragon's head, eyes gleaming. The aura of power was so intense that Braeden had to grit his teeth against the sensation.
It wasn't like the power of his own element. The chimera’s power felt like lightning, sizzling along his skin, bursting with little shocks every time he took a breath.
He'd always known that the chimera was immensely powerful, but he'd never seen it. Now he was experiencing it firsthand.
The legend said that the chimera had once b
een a dragon as well. He hadn't found a mate, and his power had grown to a point when any normal dragon would've gone mad.
But for some reason, the chimera had managed to cling to his sanity.
It hadn't been his body that broke. It had been his soul. The dragon within him had splintered into a thousand shards, never to be made whole again.
And now, for the first time face to face with Gareth, Braeden could see just what that meant.
The chimera's body couldn't settle on an animal. The dragon's head before him shimmered only a heartbeat later and vanished. Instead, it was a lion's head that glared at him.
Then that was gone as well, and for a moment, Braeden saw the large, scaly body of a giant serpent.
Gareth shifted and shifted and shifted, his body never settling on a form for longer than a heartbeat or two. It was disorienting. At last, Braeden had to close his eyes, the dragon within him groaning in terror at the sight.
Could Gareth still feel the dragon within him? Or did it feel like a giant wound, his body broken again and again, never able to cling to his dragon for more than a second?
“I can feel it,” the chimera hissed. “Now hold still. This will hurt.”
Braeden clenched his jaw, determined not to show any pain. It didn't feel right—not in the face of the suffering of Gareth's soul.
But the chimera didn't show a sign of what the rapid shifting did to him. Instead, he reached out with his power. Even with his eyes closed, Braeden could feel it.
Gareth's power surrounded him, probing at him again. The sensation of lightning against his skin was nearly unbearable—and then it stabbed him like a knife.
Braeden bit back a cry, arching back as Gareth’s lightning-like power struck straight into his chest. At the back of his mind he could hear Alyx cry out at the agony pulsing through the mate bond.
Gritting his teeth, Braeden clenched down on the pain to shield Alyx from it. The fire within him flared up in instinctive reaction, trying to protect him from the chimera's power. Braeden forced the fire back down. He left himself utterly open and defenseless to the chimera.
And there, in his chest, he could now feel the shadow twist. The darkness that wasn't part of him—the taint of Steele, who'd managed to poison him with his shadows.
For a moment, the chimera's attack increased in force. Then his power reached out, touching the shadow inside him—
A cry filled the cave.
It wasn't Braeden’s own voice. It was that of the chimera, a dragon's roar changing to that of a lion and then to the hiss of a snake.
For a moment, the pain within his chest was so bad that Braeden found himself crumpling to his knees. His hand clutched at his shirt, right over where it felt like his heart was trying to escape his chest. And then the light of the mate bond flooded through him.
A moment later, Alyx's arms wrapped around him.
“What have you done to him?” she demanded angrily.
“I'm fine,” Braeden said, still panting. He raised a hand to cover hers. “Really. It's not his fault.”
When he managed to open his eyes again a moment later, the chimera had vanished. His twisted, eternally shifting body was hidden by shadows once more.
“It is as I feared,” the chimera's voice said after a moment, echoing through the cave. “A great and terrible enemy has arrived. Worse than we thought.”
“How much worse than a fire dragon can it get?” Jared asked from behind them.
The chimera laughed without humor. “Much worse. We thought that there was a new elemental dragon. That Steele was the master of fire. We were wrong.”
“Fire chose me,” Braeden said proudly as Alyx helped him back up to his feet. “It chose me to fight this threat.”
“Yes,” the chimera hissed. “I thought it was to fight fire with fire. But that's not where Steele's power came from. He has found something deeper, darker. Something we thought of only as a legend even in my days.”
“There's nothing else,” Braeden said, staring into the shifting shadows before them. “Earth, water, air, and fire. We're all gathered here now. All four elements. There's never been anything else.”
“There has always been more,” the chimera said. “Always. It has been sleeping for a long, long time. Many thousands of years ago, it was banished to the heart of the earth, because its power was so great and terrible it threatened all life. But it seems that in the centuries the fire dragons spent hiding below the earth, they found it—or at least, a part of it. They woke it. And now Steele wields its power.”
His mouth dry, Braeden swallowed. He'd known that something was off about Steele.
“The element of darkness.” The chimera’s voice carried though the cave with the weight of a ringing bell of bronze.
Braeden froze, shaking his head.
It made sense, he knew that. He'd seen himself how shadows had spread over Steele's body.
He'd thought that the sensation of shadow and smoke had been a part of Steele's fire dragon powers. Fire caused smoke and shadow. It had seemed strange, but it made sense.
But this...
“There has never been an element of darkness,” he said. “There has never been a master of darkness.”
Once more a dragon's head came out of the gloom, fixing them with its stare. “Until now,” Gareth growled. “The element of darkness has awoken. And if Steele is not its master, he still wields its power.”
“So what do I do about his voice inside my head?” Braeden demanded.
Gareth drew back into the shadows once more. “You already know. It's his power that wounded you.”
“The element of darkness,” Braeden murmured, feeling the coldness of the wisps of shadow inside him.
It felt impossible. He'd never even heard of such a thing.
But then, he'd never been that high in the fire dragon hierarchy.
“What does it mean?” Jared asked. “What do we do?”
Braeden turned slowly to look at Jared. He spoke without waiting for the chimera.
“We do just as we'd planned. I take him out. I end this threat.”
“Fire against fire?” Alyx didn't sound convinced. “But you heard what Gareth said. Steele's not—”
“He's still a fire dragon.” Braeden ignored the swirling of darkness within him. “He's forged some sort of unholy alliance with something he should never have touched. But he's not the master of darkness. He's still a fire dragon—tainted, but of the fire. Which makes it my duty to deal with him.”
“He's wounded you before,” Alyx pointed out, worried.
Braeden turned to face her. He raised a hand to brush a strand of hair out of her face.
He had to keep her safe. He had to. And there was no other way.
“I wasn't trying to fight him before,” he said. “I was trying to escape. This time—this time I won't hold back.”
***
Braeden left an hour later.
The chimera had summoned the other elemental dragons to Sky Home, but Braeden couldn't wait. It was as if the chimera's touch had awoken the darkness inside him.
You can't win, Steele's voice hissed inside his mind.
Braeden kept grimly silent.
I will rule, Steele continued to gloat, and you will all kneel before me.
Braeden didn't try to shut Steele up this time. Instead, he focused on the dark presence inside him, flying straight towards where the dark power seemed at its strongest.
Steele had made a mistake.
Oh, he'd managed to infiltrate Braeden's mind, which was infuriating.
But at the same time, he'd left a part of his power inside Braeden. And Braeden now used the wisps of shadow within him like a compass, allowing it to lead him straight towards Steele.
He hated that he'd been forced to leave Alyx behind, but soon it would all be over. For better or for worse.
I will destroy you, Steele growled. I will burn you to ash. I will—
Braeden blocked out Steele's voice. He'd been
flying for over an hour. And there, before him, now spread a rocky valley.
He couldn't see signs of human civilization, which was good.
Not good was that Steele had made it out of the erupting volcano so quickly. Braeden had hoped that they'd have a few more days—but then, he hadn't known at the time that Steele had made a pact with Darkness itself.
No wonder he'd seemed nearly as strong as an elemental dragon.
Braeden didn't even try to hide his approach. Steele would be able to feel him, the same way that Braeden had been able to use the darkness inside him to find him.
This was it. This was the encounter they both wanted. This was where it would end.
As soon as Braeden reached the valley, a strangely dark dragon spread his wings and rose up.
Steele.
He looked different now. Before, his scales had been red, flecked with darkness here and there.
Now, it seemed as if the shadow had taken over Steele’s entire body. Darkness moved across his scales. Every now and then, Braeden was still able to see a glimpse of dull red, but mostly, his body was covered by shadow.
Braeden spread his wings, hovering for a second. He reached out for the familiar light of the mate bond, the golden glow pulsing firm and strong in his heart.
I love you, he thought.
For a moment he could see Alyx, standing in the council chamber. Her eyes were worried, but he could smell the scent of her hair and feel the warmth of her skin.
There was so much he still had to show her about the shifter world. And so much she still had to teach him about the human world.
Then a loud roar pulled him from his thoughts, and Steele attacked.
Steele was fast. He evaded Braeden's first attack effortlessly; the flames never even got close to touching him.
Likewise, it felt easier now to escape Steele's attack.
Perhaps it was because Braeden was mated now and had access to his full power. But he couldn't help fearing that it was because of the darkness inside him.
Something in him seemed to know just a heartbeat earlier than he should have known how Steele was going to attack. Which seemed like a good thing—but what if Steele found a way to exploit that connection?