Visions (Dragon Reign Book 7)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “They were called away to Gregornath to assist King Forrest with the banshees and hellhounds there,” she informed me and Kate, who had woken with the knock on the door. “But, they have ordered me to tell the both of you, you are in deep shit when they are able to come to Silver Valley.”

  “You said that already and if we find a way to Baladon, it’ll be worth it.” I hoped. I kept that last part to myself, but from the look on Danielle’s face, Tristan was more worried about my running off than he was pissed.

  It didn’t take long before Hansi was back on the main floor with us, holding a stack of texts he dumped on the table. Frantically, he shuffled through them as I examined the pages Danielle brought us.

  “What’s this matter of an orb?” I asked, pointing to the sketch.

  “The orb of the gods,” Hansi explained, thumbing through a book then tossing it aside when it didn’t have what he wanted. “What they used as a portal, a doorway of sorts, into their realms.”

  “It was an orb?” I turned to the next page which was scribbled notes. “Wait, Baladon had this?”

  “They think so,” Danielle said. “They found a pedestal within the ruins, and it appeared some sort of round object had rested on it.”

  “If Baladon has the orb, it would make sense how he managed to not only find the gods when they had banished him from their realms, but take them away, keep them hidden. The doorway opens seams and splits,” Hansi said in a rush.

  “But the dimension we found him in, the stone maze, wasn’t that a pocket dimension created when the realms were put back together?” I was confused, my head throbbing as I tried to keep up with this new information overload.

  “That is what we first thought, but I’m afraid we were wrong,” Greyson said as he turned to another few pages. “This realm we found him in belonged to another god. When he took over, he corrupted it and twisted it to mold his image.”

  “So, the orb was there?”

  “No!” Hansi let out an excited yell making us all jump. “Sorry, sorry, but here it is. The orb of the gods.”

  He set the book down before us, and we all leaned in. There was a blue, glowing orb set atop a silver and iron pedestal. I had never seen anything like it, but according to the text beneath the image, there was a keeper of the orb, a protector of sorts.

  “Mori? She is its keeper… what happened to her?” I asked as I met Hansi’s gaze.

  “It would appear, she has either been killed or captured,” Hansi said sadly. “And if so, I’m afraid Baladon can go wherever he pleases and create whatever realms he wishes.”

  “So, we’re screwed? That’s great. Great news.” I stalked away from the table, furious we hit another dead end.

  My head throbbed again, and the room started to spin around me.

  I heard Ashan telling me to remember my one moment, and I shut my eyes tight, stilling myself as I pictured that night by the fire, Tristan at my side. The pain in my temples and the dizziness faded away, and I was able to open my eyes again.

  “Sabella?”

  I held up my hand to stop Kate. “I’m alright. I’m good. No vision, no voice.”

  “Right, so,” she said, turning back to Hansi, “if this orb is gone and this keeper is gone, there’s no good news in any of this?”

  Hansi grinned and tapped the side of his nose again, something I noticed he did when he had an idea. Whether or not it was a good idea, that I was starting to call into question. He pulled another book from the stack, opened it, and slid it toward me.

  “What am I looking at?” I asked.

  There was an image of a similar orb on the right page and what looked like a story telling how the first orb of the gods was brought about.

  “You are going to make us another orb,” Hansi stated.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “You have the power within you, Sabella. If you wish to find Baladon, this is how to do it. Create a new orb and break into his dimension.”

  He made it sound so damned simple, but staring at those two pages, I knew it was going to be anything but simple. Was I strong enough? The vision of my death, and Kate’s and the deaths of so many other innocent people hung over my head.

  I didn’t have a choice. If I couldn’t be strong enough, we were all going to die.

  10

  Tristan

  I lunged out of the shadows and slammed my shoulder into the side of the hellhound.

  We rolled across the ground, the mangy black furred beast snarling as those red eyes flared at me, but I was bigger and more pissed off. I clamped my canines around its throat, biting until I tasted the vile blood running through its veins. Its growl turned into a cry and then it went limp.

  Something else was rushing through the trees, and I turned, the hellhound still in my jaws, to find Craig ready to come to my aid, the Executioner blade in his hands. It dripped more black blood, and he grinned as he lowered it.

  “Hungry?”

  I spat the beast out of my mouth and snarled at him.

  “Think that was the last of them. Forrest has two more down in the field.”

  I shifted back, wiping the blood from my mouth and spitting to try and clear out the taste.

  Craig tossed me a wineskin filled with demon grog. I hated the stuff, but it’d get rid of the hellhound in my mouth. I drank it down and tossed it back with a grunt of thanks.

  “Did you work out all your anger yet? Might be a few banshees left to round up.”

  I’d been going non-stop since we arrived in Gregornath over a week ago, venting my anger and hurt against the hellhounds and banshees. They’d destroyed an entire village, crops, and killed livestock by the time we got here. Forrest had been ready to torch half the countryside, so he could at least save his people if not the land, but my shifters managed to track down the hellhounds leaving the banshees to him and his dragons. Took a few days, but we weeded them out one by one.

  “Nah, I’m good. And hungry,” I commented.

  “What, you don’t like hellhound?” he joked.

  I glowered at him.

  “Just saying.”

  “After you.” I nudged the beast with my foot.

  He glanced at it and cringed.

  “We need to burn the bodies.” I bent down and tossed the corpse over my shoulders, cursing at the weight of it, but started through the trees.

  We walked in silence, him as lost in his thoughts as I was in mine. These were the moments I dreaded. The silence. The calmness. Every time, I smelled lilac or swore I heard her voice calling my name somewhere nearby. Every damned time. But she wasn’t here. Even as far away as Silver Valley, I sensed her. She could keep telling herself all she wanted we weren’t meant to be, but every shifter instinct in me was screaming to go to her. Protect her. She was mine. She could run all she wanted, but the truth wouldn’t change.

  As we cleared the trees, Forrest landed near the pile of hellhounds my shifters were piling in an open field away from the trees, so they could be set the bodies on fire. He shifted when his feet hit the grass and hustled toward us.

  “Is this all of them?”

  “Last one.” I tossed the body onto the pile. “Your lands are purged of hellhounds. Why couldn’t we have had hellhounds instead of snakes?”

  Forrest shuddered. “I’m a dragon, and I hate snakes.”

  “Well, they’re all dead and so are these bastards. Care to do the honors?” I asked him.

  Forrest stepped up to the pile, sucked in a deep breath, and unleashed his fire. The fur of the hellhounds caught instantly and spread quickly, engulfing every last one.

  “The banshees have been obliterated, though I think I’ll hear their screaming in my dreams for many nights to come.” He stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it, glaring with annoyance at the flames stretching into the sky. “And I can’t thank you enough. I know you both have your own issues to contend with.”

  Craig and I huffed at the same time, and Forrest laughed.

  “Just you
wait,” Craig warned him. “The second you find yourself a girl, and she thinks she can take on the world alone, you’ll be as upset as we are.”

  “Kate knows what she’s doing,” he assured him. “And so does Sabella.”

  I growled.

  He might know Kate because of their connection from their past lives. But Sabella, there were days she wasn’t even sure of herself. He had no right to say anything about her.

  “Let’s head back,” Forrest suggested, failing to hide his smile. “We’ll get some food, drink some ale, and see if any messengers have come from Drake.”

  I doubted it.

  Sabella made it quite clear in her letter she would not be speaking to me again, unless I went to her and forced her. Which I was going to do as soon as I felt I was in somewhat control of my emotions. She’d not only left me, but she also left the pack, whether she thought it or not. She was their queen, they’d accepted her, and she up and left them. Her motives meant nothing, not in a pack mindset. I stalked along beside Craig and Forrest, only half listening to their conversation about plans to track down Baladon. That in itself was becoming an impossible task. The symbols in that maze, they were important, but until we had someone who knew exactly what they pertained to, all we could do was sit around and twiddle our thumbs, waiting for the next attack.

  Baladon’s words repeated themselves over in my mind, telling me I was going to be tested, but how? These monsters he kept throwing at us weren’t a true test of anything. No, it had to do with Sabella. And what did she do? She ran off on me. For all I knew, he was inside her head, messing with her mind, making her forget the moments we shared. Our time together.

  “You growl any louder, you’re going to lose your voice.” Forrest grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “She’ll be fine, Tristan.”

  “And how do you know that, huh? How?”

  “Because she’s made it this far in her life without anyone helping her. She’ll survive a few days.”

  I knew what she’d been through before coming to my kingdom, but then she’d been on the brink of going completely insane. How could I know for sure that wasn’t happening while she was away from me for this long?

  “The Darrah lands have been cleared of the harpies that had tried to move in,” Forrest said as we walked, picking up the previous conversation.

  “Any other monster problems you’ve got?” Craig asked. “You see what happens when we leave you alone? Honestly, man, and you call yourself a king.” He shook his head as they laughed.

  Once upon a time, those two had been enemies on sight, and now they acted like brothers.

  Baladon might be trying to tear our realms apart, but it was going to take far more than countless monster attacks to do that after what we’d all been through recently. “That looks like an elf banner.” Craig pointed to a rider nearing the gate of the castle.

  “News from Silver Valley,” a dragon guard called out to Forrest and handed him a missive.

  Forrest ripped it open and skimmed it, his eyes widening.

  “What is it, what’s wrong?” I demanded as my pulse raced.

  “Sabella and Kate are being well looked after,” he informed us, “and Danielle has delivered what was found at the stone maze by you two and Lucy. It appears, they might be onto something.”

  “Something good?” Craig pushed.

  “A way to find Baladon.”

  “Just like that? How?” I demanded and held my hand out for the letter. Forrest handed it over, and I skimmed it. “Hansi. Who the hell is Hansi?”

  “As far as I know, he’s an elf scholar who has made it his life’s mission to study anything and everything about the gods,” Forrest said. “If he says there’s a way to find Baladon, then I believe him. We’ll take the next few hours, eat, rest, and then head out to Silver Valley.”

  I stared toward the east, wanting to leave right then, but Forrest and Craig were already moving inside. I was filthy from the last few fights. Since arriving here, it had been endless hunting and killing. I’d hadn’t stopped to get myself cleaned up except to wipe the blood from my face. A few hours of resting would be good for us and give me a bit more time to work out what exactly I wanted to say to Sabella.

  I read through the letter again, but Drake was very unhelpful in saying exactly how Sabella was holding up. It did say she had spoken several times with Ashan one on one, and the current situation was well under control. Did she have another vision? Was it worse than the last time she forgot herself? Or were the voices back? There were no specifics, and I’d be sure to point that out to Drake once I saw him again. I had no doubt if it was it his wife that had come running to me, he’d be furious with the lack of any actual detail on her well-being.

  “Where do you think Baladon is,” I asked the other two.

  “In another realm, worse than the one we found him in the first time,” Forrest suggested.

  “And you truly believe this Hansi knows what he’s talking about?”

  “Yes, I do. He’s been one of Drake’s most trusted advisors for hundreds of years,” Forrest told me as he grabbed my shoulder. “I’m sure whatever he’s found has nothing to do with Sabella either, so quit worrying for just five minutes, go get cleaned up, and there’ll be a feast waiting for us all in the hall.”

  I handed back the missive and headed to the guest chamber to get cleaned up. Food and drink would not be enough to quell the growing anxiety in my gut, the one telling me whatever this Hansi came up with involved Sabella. She was part god. Made sense the way to find another god was to use her somehow. Avoiding that type of plan was the real reason I hadn’t wanted her running off anywhere with Greyson. She had enough to deal with and adding to the mix tracking down Baladon was only going to make matters worse for her.

  As I scrubbed at the blood and dirt on my skin, I imagined what she was doing now. If she regretted running away as she did. If she regretted leaving me. I was the alpha. I was the one meant to carry the heavy burden of saving my pack, not her. I was meant to protect her and have her by my side.

  I stared at my reflection in the mirror, watching as my eyes flared yellow. Had she been right? That maybe the two of us couldn’t work together because she wasn’t a shifter?

  “Doesn’t matter,” I muttered to my reflection. “You’ll see her soon enough and then she can make her final decision.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to join the happy chorus of laughter and talking in the hall, so I stayed in my room, piled the blankets on the floor by the fire, and settled in for another few hours of torment.

  “Tristan!” Sabella cried out as I sprinted through the trees on all fours.

  Branches whipped me in the face, roots trying to trip me up, but I had to keep going. Sabella. She was out here, and she was in trouble. I strained to hear her call out again, but each time, it grew more distant. I was losing her. I dug my paws in, running as fast as I’d ever gone.

  “Tristan!”

  This time, she screamed as if being tortured.

  My paws tripped over themselves as I skidded to a stop, spinning around and sniffing the air. She was close. I took off in another direction.

  A dark cackle split through the darkness, sharp against my ears. They flattened to my head to block out the sound, but it reached me anyway. Each second, I was forced to listen to that horrid sound sapped me of strength.

  I growled furiously, pushing myself harder, but my body gave out. I shifted back, unable to hold my form.

  “Sabella. Where are you?”

  “Tristan.”

  I jumped.

  Her voice came from right behind me.

  Legs quaking with sudden weakness, I managed to turn. I snarled at the sight of her with her hands bound to the arms of a wooden chair.

  Shadows trailed up her body like snakes, writhing with power as they drained her of hers. The light that shone so bright in her eyes dimmed with each pulse, killing her slowly.

  “No… no!”

  “Run,” she whispe
red, barely able to keep her eyes open. “Please… just run!”

  “I won’t leave you.”

  “You can’t save her.”

  From the darkness behind Sabella, a shadow broke free, forming into the shape of a man, reaching ten feet tall at least, with horns curling at his head and a tail that trailed on the ground behind him. He gripped a staff in his hands with a stone that glowed red, matching the fire in his eyes.

  “Release her.”

  “Why should I?” he said, running his fingers down Sabella’s cheek.

  She was too weak to pull back, and my chest tightened with rage, my wolf begging to be let free, but I was too weak.

  He sneered. “She clearly doesn’t want to be with you. And you, what have you done to make her want to be with you anyway? No, she’s better off with me than with a mangy mutt like yourself.”

  “That’s not true,” I yelled.

  “You’re certain? What have you ever offered her, hmm? I, on the other hand, can give her what she needs, what she truly craves. Freedom and power that she controls,” he hissed as he stalked around her. “I am her family after all. I am a god.”

  “Please,” Sabella whispered again, tears streaming down her face. “Just go…”

  “No. You belong with me. You know it,” I urged, reaching out for her, but my hand fell short. Each time I took a step, reaching again, I was always too far away. “Sabella.”

  Baladon lifted his staff, spun around, and drove it into Sabella’s chest.

  I bellowed, struggling to reach her.

  Her scream was ringing in my ears, then I was thrown backward…

  And jerked awake, drenched in sweat, lying on the floor in my room.

  I leapt to my feet, spinning around as the last dredges of sleep disappeared, but the nightmare, that stayed with me. Sabella, trapped just like those other gods, and being turned by Baladon. She was safe in Silver Valley, but no matter how many times I repeated that fact to myself, it wasn’t enough to convince me. I had nearly ruined what we could have together because of my fear for her safety, fear for her being hurt, or killed. Fear of losing the faith of the pack because the one I loved was not a shifter.