by J. L. Weil
“We’re nearly there,” he offered, noticing my apparent struggles.
The moon shone ahead, casting the sea of sand in silver shadows. In that moment, something emerged from behind a leafless tree. My heart knocked in my chest, seeing the figure hooded by a cloak, guarding their face against sight and the gritty winds.
Was this the wanderer? He had the look of someone with no name, no title, no home. I had known firsthand what it was to have none of those things. It felt as if my days of living on the streets had been a lifetime ago, not mere months.
The wanderer nodded at the goblin. “Orion.” His eyes swiveled to me, taking in the cuts and bruises covering the parts of my body he could see. “She looks like walking death,” he commented brusquely.
My chin rose as I met his scrutinizing gaze. Underneath the hood, his face was shrouded, but grey hair covered his chin and cheeks in a scruffy beard.
“She’s stronger than she looks,” Orion the goblin assured. “And stubborn,” he added, folding his arms.
The wanderer thumped the staff I had just noticed in his hand to the ground and lifted his head. “Good. She’ll need both to make the last leg of her journey.”
I found the way they talked around me, instead of to me, to be perturbing. “I can hear you,” I stated, finally speaking.
He sent a warning look in my direction, and I got my first glimpse of his face. A scar ran just under his eyes. It was too dark to see what color they were, but he had the kind of face that seemed weathered by long, harsh years. He reached inside his cloak and pulled out a pouch, dropping it into Orion’s waiting hand. “Go now, my friend. Stay hidden. You know what she will do if she catches you.”
Orion gave me one last look. “I bid you farewell and good luck, keeper of stars.” He bowed his head slightly in my direction, before disappearing in front of my eyes.
A ripple of sadness trickled through me. One day I would find a way to repay him for his bravery and kindness. One day when the world wasn’t going to shit. I was once again alone with a stranger, putting my freedom and trust in his hands. He had orchestrated my release, but I wasn’t under any delusions he was a friend. Not yet.
“Why can’t the goblin willowphase us?” I asked, staring at the spot the goblin had been only seconds ago.
His jaw tightened. “Because she can sense it. We don’t want to attract any attention to us. It is a few more miles to the border. Can you walk?” Not waiting for me to respond, he started trekking it toward the moonlight, the darkness at his back.
Quickly, I fell in step beside him. “Why are you helping me?” I blurted.
“Does there need to be a reason to rescue a pretty girl from evil?” he countered, with a slight incline of his head in my direction.
“Most people wouldn’t stick their neck out for a stranger,” I mumbled, staring at the ground.
“In most places, the fate of the world isn’t in jeopardy,” he replied softly, regret and despair coloring his voice.
We walked in silence for a time, hours perhaps, and I took the opportunity to study the man who was a mystery. He was tall, even if his shoulders hunched with age, and though he carried a staff, he did not seem to rely heavily on it for support. Who was he? Why would he help me? How had he known I was in need of rescuing?
So many questions swirled in my mind, and I doubted he would give me the answers, but it didn’t stop me from asking. I schooled my face into bland curiosity, keeping the pain I was feeling masked.
“Where are we going?” I asked, unable to handle the silence anymore. Talking helped keep my mind from what walking did to my body, and I hoped to gain insight on who this wanderer was. Two birds. One stone.
“To Crimson Kingdom,” he replied in a flat tone. “That is as far as I can take you. After that, you’re on your own.”
“But—” I started to protest, but one cutting glance from the elderly man made me shut my trap. It wasn’t that I was ungrateful for all he had done. I was afraid to be alone.
“Zade will be able to sense you the moment you step foot on his land, but so will the witch. She will be looking for you, searching for your scent.” Which she had now, thanks to my vile of blood. “Zade must get to you before she does. It is your only chance.”
The words were foreboding, but I’d take the gamble regardless.
This man knew of the descendants, knew them by name, and hearing that he was taking me to Zade had my heart skipping. “How do you know the descendants?”
The wanderer blew out a breath. “It isn’t important.”
So he wanted to remain a mystery. I cleared my throat. “What happened to this place?”
His eyes swept the horizon for a moment. “Without a ruler, the land dies. It is forgotten and all that lives perishes.”
“This is the kingdom of the fifth dragon,” I stated, voicing what I had already concluded. Tobias. He had tested the boundaries of his freedom from the Veil, paying for it with his life. Only the skeleton of his dragon bones had remained.
“It once was. Now it is known as the Nameless Lands,” he declared. “A place the witch uses for her means.”
“Do you know what it was called?” I paused to rest for a moment or two against the wide trunk of a desolate tree. My muscles were screaming, my stomach was famished, leaving me weaker than I should be, and I didn’t know how much longer I could keep going.
Leaning on his staff, the wanderer gave me a wary glance. “We’re nearly to the border. Can you feel it?”
That explained the flush in my cheeks, the exhaustion in my lungs. I nodded and pushed myself off the textured bark. “How did you know I was here? That I’d been taken?”
Our feet crunched over rocks and dried branches as we pressed onward. “I’ve dwelled in these mountains for many years. Nothing happens here that I don’t notice. I spotted the griffins sneaking you off into the mountain,” he confessed, looking over his shoulder, making sure I was still on my feet.
If he lived here then… “Have you ever encountered Tianna before?” I was prying, but the shadows in his eyes were like mine. Broken. Damaged.
His golden skin paled, and I immediately regretted the hurt my question caused to resurface. “We all bear scars from the witch’s wickedness.”
My gaze flickered to his face. Tianna had left her mark on him as well. I rubbed at my chest.
“There will be hell to pay for what she’s done to you,” he declared, with unbridled fierceness that smacked revenge.
My insides recoiled at the thought of more bloodshed to come, but another part of me rejoiced, wanting to join him on the crusade for vengeance. My own powers of poison and tranquility thrummed and pounded inside me, begging to be released, lashing through my lungs.
He watched me with caution as I tried to reign in the power that threatened to let loose. “You’ll need to save that anger for when it counts. This night isn’t over, although our time together is.”
I dug my nails into my palms and took a few steadying breaths as I pictured the faces of Jase, Kieran, Zade, and Issik—my dragons. It was like a dose of cool smoke extinguishing the flame of fire inside me and the rush of power receded.
“Impressive.”
I blinked. “My ability to get myself into shitty situations? You have no idea how impressive that really is.”
If it weren’t so dark, and the hood of his cloak didn’t cast a shadow over most of his face, I would have sworn his lips twitched. My instincts were telling me he was trustworthy, that he really cared about what happened to the Veil and to the descendants, but until I was actually safe, I couldn’t let down my guard.
We hiked a few more yards before the wanderer came to a halt where the rocky land gave way to black sands and mossy grass.
“This is as far as I go,” he stated, the staff in his hand standing tall beside him. “Crimson is donned with rivers of lava, heat that can kill a man, and rocks as sharp as glass. Head straight for the castle. If you somehow make it into the walls, hide. Don’t l
eave.”
That wasn’t likely to happen. One of them would find me before I made it that far. We both knew it. Well, that was if I didn’t get myself killed before that by trying to avoid everything else.
I swallowed, staring out into the distance at the gleaming obsidian castle jutting into the night’s sky. We had reached the border between the Nameless Lands and Crimson Kingdom. Fear hit me in waves, crashing into me again and again. Ally or enemy, there was something to be said for traveling with company, safety in numbers. The prospect of crossing over alone was both terrifying and joyous. I didn’t know what waited for me in the foreign kingdom. Where the descendants there or miles away? The wanderer seemed confidant Zade would sense me, and I knew the dragons had those ties to their land, but going out there alone, knowing Tianna could come sweeping in to kidnap me again at any second, made my heart thunder in my veins.
Part exhaustion. Part fear. I might be sick.
Dragging my eyes from the intimidating land, I stared up at the wanderer. “How can I ever thank you?”
“Beat her, that’s how. It’s the only way any of us can be free.”
“Any advice?”
The corner of his gray whiskers twitched. “Don’t die.”
Nodding, I crossed into Crimson.
The trees fell silent as I walked over the mossy earth, birds, and critters having darted for cover at my approach. Or maybe it was something else…they sensed something dark...
I felt it too.
Cursing under my breath, I glanced at the volatile land in front of me, so similar to the dragon. The air pulsed and throbbed with power, a hideous presence that loomed in the shadows. Tianna. She was searching for me and closing in fast.
“Run!” the wanderer hissed at me. “Run now. Swiftly. Run as if your life depends on it.”
It did depend on it.
So I fled.
Eyes zeroed in on the tall obsidian castle, my feet flew over the mossy grass with patches of black sand. Even as the earth tilted under my feet, rumbled, I kept moving.
So close. I was so close to being free of the witch. If I had come this far just to get captured again… tortured… Tears fell in earnest at the thought, hampering my vision, but I couldn’t stop running. Not to clear my eyes. Not to catch my breath. Not for any reason.
If I did, she would find me.
Perhaps she already had…
A howl echoed from the Nameless Lands, vicious and snarly. It was followed by another, and another, until fear pooled in my blood. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Faster. I had to go faster.
I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking a glance over my shoulder. It was another form of torment, needing to see what hunted me. Sprung from a nightmare, the creatures were so dark they appeared made from a starless night. Three wolves of shadow and evil, eyes of midnight stalked toward the border between lands with frenzy.
Tianna’s hounds.
My eyes slung forward and I forced my legs to move faster. My tattered dress snared on a branch and I hit the ground, grass and dirt scraping over my palms as I braced my fall. I didn’t give myself time to wince over the pain, just shoved to my feet and raced for the castle, using the sliver of moonlight to be my guide. I didn’t brave another glance behind me—I didn’t dare.
Their panting breaths almost fanned my neck. The pounding of their paws dug into the dirt as they flew over the earth. I refused to let myself think of what would happen if they caught me as I careened over a small stream of flowing lava. The heat kissed my bare legs, but I barely felt the pain.
I should have known it wouldn’t matter how far or fast I ran. Tianna had great power. She had years of knowledge of things I’d never understand. I didn’t stand a chance pitted against someone like her.
So why try?
No! my mind screamed. You can’t give up. It is exactly what she wants. Don’t let her win. The words hissed and tingled in my mouth.
I had to survive. I really did, but her allies were too many.
Where did she hide them all?
It was a question I would regret asking myself because I was about to find out.
Hurry, hurry! Every muscle of my body beckoned.
My knees groaned as I pushed myself harder, focusing on the towering castle. No matter how fast I ran, it seemed so out of reach. Sweat rained down my face and into my mouth. My strength was on its last thread, my speed diminishing. Stars danced in my vision yet I knew if I fell now, I wouldn’t be able to get up again. I’d be surrounded… I’d be mauled…
Three dark shadows flew over my head, and a roar that shook the earth rang throughout the kingdom. The wolves snapped at my heels, sensing the urgency of the hunt. They’d found me. The descendants had come.
I stumbled at the sight of their figures in the dark sky, and the three sets of wings that took up the sky gave me hope. I forgot for a half a second about the hounds.
“Olivia!” My name bellowed from somewhere in front of me. A voice I’d dreamed about for days.
Jase, my entire body slumped with relief.
He was running toward me, feral rage smoldering in his glowing violet eyes. He was here. I could see him. Another few more feet and I’d be in…
One of the hounds rushed past my right with such blinding speed, I scarcely had time to react. The hounds surrounded me. A whoosh of air expelled from my chest as I hurled myself to a stop, and my feet dug harshly into the earth. I turned in a circle, shaking my head.
“No,” I whispered, gritting my teeth. I had not come this far to get ripped away from the descendants again. I refused to believe it.
I wouldn’t go down without a fight. Claws and teeth be damned. Nothing they could do to me would be worse than being caged again. I might not have daggers or arrows, but I wasn’t weaponless.
The hound in front of me barred its razor canines, saliva dripping over its charcoal muzzle. He snapped at me and I jerked to the side.
“Olivia!”
Spurred by the sound of Jase’s roar, wild instinct took a hold of me. I gathered what little energy I had inside me and summoned poison. I wanted the beast to suffer. Tranquility would have been too peaceful for what Tianna had done to me.
The poison buried inside me hurled through my lungs, flaring with elation. I unleashed my power, a burst of green mist erupting from my lips and traveling through the air as miniscule toxic particles. The hound snarled, backing away. He couldn’t escape though. The poison swirled around his face, toiling its way into the beast’s nostrils, down his lungs, until it weaved into its entire body. From there, it worked its magic, slowly killing the wolf.
I held my breath, but I didn’t wait for the hound to die or the others to attack. I ran straight into Jase’s waiting arms, a burst of energy boosting my legs. His scent hit me—sea and wild mountains—as he finally scooped me up into his arms, and in one smooth movement, he spun, taking us both to the ground. His strong body shielded me, while the power of Issik, Kieran, and Zade barreled into Tianna’s mystical hounds. Flames, poison, and ice shot from the depths of my dragons, engulfing the evil beasts.
The wolves shrilled, groaned, and cried, their bodies writhing in agony as they were burned, poisoned, and frozen to death. Horrible sounds. Sounds that would live in my memory for years, along with the nightmares I endured in the mountain.
My breathing was chopping and raw, but I was safe—I was back where I belonged.
With my dragons.
Chapter Six
I never wanted Jase to let me go. I was quite content to stay huddled on the earth for as long as he would hold me. It would take a crowbar and some serious muscle to pry my arms off him. I heard Jase let loose a breath he’d been holding, his face buried into my neck.
A rattling growl erupted from one of the descendants above us, and Jase lifted his head. As those violet eyes met mine, my body shook, and a small, broken sound burst from my throat. The primal wrath faded from his eyes.
He brought us up off the ground so we were knee t
o knee. “Welcome home, Cupcake,” he whispered, his lips moving over my skin as he pressed a kiss to the curve of my cheek.
I’d missed them something terrible—missed the security they offered, the warm fuzzies, and even their bickering amongst each other. I drank in the sight of him, the familiar lips, the broad chest, and the messy midnight hair. He was exactly how I remembered, how I dreamed. “Are they—” my voice trembled.
“They’re dead,” Jase assured, helping me carefully to my feet. His eyes darkened as they roamed over my cheeks and arms. I probably looked atrocious and half dead, but I was too elated to feel any embarrassment. His thumb tenderly brushed over the cut along my cheek. “What did she do to you?”
My throat closed up and I shook my head, unable to speak of it yet. “She has my blood,” I sobbed. That was all I could say.
Grim understanding glimmered in his eyes. “Come here,” he murmured, and carefully swept me off my feet. I let him cradle me in his arms, carrying me off toward the castle.
My head rested on his shoulders, a hand over his beating heart. The kingdom behind me was no longer doused in shadows with the stain of Tianna’s magic. Kieran, Zade, and Issik guarded us from the sky, soaring low enough I could make out the color of their scales, emerald, ruby, and white tinged with blue.
A humid breeze ruffled Jase’s hair, brushing tendrils of silk off his forehead. The next time I lifted my head, the castle stood in front of us. Its sharp, spiked towers jutted up from the ground, like clusters of obsidian crystals, and the way the moonlight glinted off the angles took my breath away. The stronghold itself was as fierce and prominent as the dragon who ruled over the land.
Two pillars flanked an oversized front entrance, and the doors were wide open as if someone had left in a hurry—not bothering to lock up behind them. Inside the main hall, thick rugs scattered over the moonstone floor, a stark contrast to the palace’s exterior darkness. Jase finally set me on my feet, and mere seconds later the elaborate curtains ruffled at the arrival of Kieran, Zade, and Issik.