Visions (Dragon Reign Book 7)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “You sell yourself short,” Craig admonished him. “You dreamt of her?”

  “I might’ve, but it was a dream, nothing more.”

  “Yes, because no dream has ever told us anything of use,” Craig pointed out with an arched brow. “You should know better than to dismiss a sign like that.”

  “It was nothing,” he muttered, drained his mug, and stood. “Call for me when we’re ready to go.” Then he was out of the hall, mumbling under his breath to himself.

  Sabella had told me last night, too how she felt Forrest was being drawn toward this Keeper for one reason or another. All of us were connected to the fate of the realms and stopping Baladon.

  The sooner Forrest let himself see the truth, the better for all of us.

  “It’s my fault he’s like that,” Craig said sadly. “He thinks he wasn’t good enough and that’s why Kate chose me over him.”

  “She loves him, just in her own way.” Drake shrugged. “Love is a curious thing.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” I grunted, and the three of us laughed.

  The first time I met Sabella, felt that immediate bond to her, I’d been so reluctant to face what was before me, admit what I felt. Now, I was itching to track her down and tell her again, just so she knew for sure before we left the realm of the elves. Love was definitely strange, but it was powerful. The source of hope and joy in this world had been taken and killed. But love endured, the only thing that could stand against such immense darkness.

  The three of us sat in that hall, drinking ale, and saying nothing. We were all lost in our own thoughts, but I had no doubt the same question was on all our minds.

  Who was going to return alive?

  16

  Sabella

  You sure you’re ready?” Tristan whispered.

  “I got this,” I assured him, and moved closer to the table where the orb rested, decked out in new leather armor over my blouse.

  The orb glowed blue with the power I’d given it as I neared. “Gather around and keep your hands and feet tucked at all times.”

  Tristan grunted in annoyance, but I heard Kate laugh.

  “Remember, what I told you,” Hansi instructed me, standing on the other side of the table.

  We were in the hall of the elven palace, nearly every occupant gathered. Boris was with us, as was Lucy, increasing our number, in addition to giving me a bit more security about going in blind.

  “You must hold onto the orb to return to the realms. If you lose it, you will be trapped there until you find another way out,”

  “Right, don’t lose the glowing blue ball, got it.”

  I didn’t have to look to know Tristan rolled his eyes and growled at me in annoyance.

  “Everyone ready?”

  I heard a chorus of yesses behind me.

  I reached out for the orb. My hands were steady as they closed around the sphere, which was warm to the touch, and thrumming with power.

  Tristan, Craig and Kate, Forrest, Boris, Lucy, and Greyson all closed in tighter around me as I shut my eyes and thought of the place I’d seen the gods.

  I counted the seconds in my head, but nothing happened. I frowned at the orb, squinting, one eye open, wondering if was doing something wrong, when—

  Bam!—

  It felt like someone yanked the floor out from under me. There was a loud pop, and the hall disappeared.

  It was replaced by cracked stone walls dripping water and covered in a thick moss.

  Firelight lit the space around us, and I tucked the orb safely in the leather pouch at my hip, drawing the string tight to keep it there.

  “Everyone make it?” I whispered, peering ahead of us into the gloom.

  “All accounted for,” Tristan said. “Is this the right place?”

  I nodded, swallowing back the fear threatening to well up in me. Light, I was made of light and Baladon would not extinguish me so easily. Tristan slipped his hand easily into mine giving me the strength I needed to take my first step.

  “They were separated in groups,” I told everyone as we moved quietly along. “Shadows hold them to their chairs, draining them. The rooms branched out from this main tunnel, but this was all I managed to see.”

  “How many are here?” Kate asked, the Vindicar shield grasped in her left hand and a sword in her right.

  Craig was beside her, his Executioner blade at the ready. Forrest and Boris brought up the rear, keeping Greyson and Lucy ahead of them. It was far from an army, but my hope was with this small of a group, our presence would go unnoticed.

  “I remember nine, maybe ten for Mori,” I whispered. “But I sense more.”

  “You can feel them?” Tristan asked.

  I shut my eyes as I bobbed my head. “This tunnel, the rooms branch off it and at the center… I believe that’s where Baladon resides, but… I can’t tell if he’s here or not.”

  “Then let’s get moving before he does show up.” Tristan stayed to my right as we continued onward. My arms glowed as light pooled in my hands, ready and waiting.

  I caught his grin out of the corner of my eye before he went back into serious mode.

  The tunnel was tall, but only twenty feet or so across. When I’d seen the gods, they’d been in rooms blocked by thick bars with no sign of a lock to be picked or opened with a key.

  I held up my hand as the light in my hands pulsed as if trying to tell me something. Crouching down, I rested my right hand on the ground and watched the light slip from my fingers into the stone. It trailed away from us, and we hurried, to follow it, keeping quiet. The light veered off to the left, and when I caught up to it, we came face to face with one of the barred rooms.

  Two figures were chained in chairs, shadowed tendrils jutted up from the ground and were wrapped around their legs and arms, creeping closer and closer to their centers with every breath they took.

  “How do we get them out?” Craig asked, shaking the bars, but they held fast. “There’s no lock.”

  The two gods, women, must have heard us and opened their eyes. I had no knowledge of who they were, but as their gazes locked onto mine and hope flared in their eyes. They at least knew me.

  “Stand back,” I told those near me and grabbed hold of the bars.

  These bars were constructed by Baladon, made from his darkness. But I was of the light, and the light was stronger. I shut my eyes and focused on the power within me. It rose, warming me as I directed it through my arms to my hands. The bars grew hot, and just as I was worried I wasn’t going to have enough energy, my hands closed into fists and the metal melted to the ground, forming a hole large enough for us to slip inside one at a time.

  Forrest, Greyson, and Boris remained outside as the rest of us hurried in to work on breaking the two goddesses free.

  “What are you doing here?” the one with black hair asked fiercely. “He will only capture you next.”

  “No, he won’t, not today,” I assured her, running my hands over the shadows.

  “What should we do to get them off?” Tristan asked me, but I was at a loss. Anything we did could backfire on the goddesses held captive.

  “Let me,” Lucy said and bent down, studying where the tendrils came through the stone. She flattened her hand to the stone, whispering under her breath.

  When her eyes opened again, she glared at the ground. “They’re made of pure shadow, the power they’re taking is being sucked away into the ground to a central system all leading to a central chamber. The moment you free them, he’ll know we’re here.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” I whispered and stepped back, aiming my hands at the tendrils, but the light sputtered in my palms. “Tristan.”

  He moved behind me with a word and rested his right hand on my shoulder.

  The light flowed immediately from our combined strength, and I aimed it at the ground. The tendrils vibrated and one by one, popped free of the goddess as they shriveled and faded away into nothing.

  Lucy and Kate helped her
to her feet, while I moved to the second goddess, dressed in silver armor with short, spiky hair.

  “Get me out of here,” she snarled, her growing rage coming off of her in waves.

  I repeated the process, but as soon as she was free, I sagged.

  Tristan held me back against his chest and asked if I was alright.

  “Fine, just taking more out of me than I expected.”

  “Then let’s hurry.”

  “Mori,” I asked the two goddesses, the first one we freed being supported by the second. “Where is she?”

  “Mori? That bastard took her?” the spike-haired one snapped. “I’ll tear him apart.”

  “Not now you won’t, too weak,” the other whispered. “We have to leave, quickly.”

  “Follow the corridor and wait at the end for us. I have our way out, but we’re not finished, not yet.”

  The black-haired goddess headed that way, but the second remained with us.

  I straightened and led the way out of the cell. There were more to find and just when we were coming upon the second barred room, two gods this time, a cacophony of shrieks reached us.

  “Baladon’s minions,” the armored goddess stated, spitting in disgust. She shook out her hands, and a short sword appeared in one after several attempts. “Get to work, Sabella, we don’t have much time.”

  “You—you’re a goddess of war, aren’t you?” Kate asked in awe.

  “Agaris,” she confirmed with a wink. “And you are the Vindicar. Shall we kill together?”

  “Oh, we shall,” Kate agreed, and the two of them moved to the front line.

  Craig’s eyes narrowed with concern, but he remained right by her side leaving Tristan, me, and Forrest to free the gods.

  The minions grew closer. The clashing of metal swords and grunts filled the background as I melted the next set of bars and ran inside to free the two gods. They thanked me, these two were weaker than the first pair.

  Lucy said she would help them get back down the corridor.

  I watched them leave then turned to Agaris, in the act of slicing her blade through one shadow after another, clearly in need to slaughter something.

  Kate and Craig fought back to back, but between the three of them, they managed to push the lines of minions back further.

  Boris and Greyson had joined the fight, and with each new room they moved past, I rushed in with Tristan and Forrest, freeing the gods and goddesses trapped by Baladon.

  Seven so far. Seven safe from Baladon’s grasp.

  It wasn’t until we entered a chamber with a single man in a chair, his beard trailing to the floor, that the first bit of uncertainty struck me in the chest. I made to free him.

  “Sabella, wait,” Tristan said. “It’s too late. He’s gone.”

  “No,” I whispered, but when I reached out to touch him, the god’s eyes opened wide, and two black pits glared back at us. His mouth yawned open, and shadows burst forth, snatching and clawing at us.

  Tristan shoved me behind him, and I ran from the room. Forrest and he fought off the attack. Greyson fell back as I prepared for a defense, but Tristan was yelling at me to keep moving.

  “Sabella,” Kate yelled over the increased din of the fighting. “Find Mori. We’re going to be overrun soon.”

  “But the others,” I tried to argue until a fresh wave of minions, all shadow and claws sprinted toward our group. “Damn it, alright. On it.”

  I flattened both hands on the ground, forcing myself to drown out Tristan’s snarl of pain as he and Forrest tackled the newly-turned god, cutting off our escape.

  I thought of Mori, of the Keeper of the Gateway for the gods, and my power pulsed into the stones at my feet.

  It took off down the tunnel then veered right.

  “I found her—” I yelled.

  Tristan and Forrest were thrown from the room and right into me. We untangled ourselves as Greyson backed out of the room, his hands thrown out before him and a shimmering, silvery shield blocking the god in.

  “Go. I can’t hold him forever,” he yelled.

  “Mori. I found her,” I said.

  Forrest and Tristan got to their feet, we took off, following the pulsing trail of light on the ground.

  Kate screamed in fury, drawing my attention as she bashed a minion in the side of the head. Another charged her from behind. Craig was there in a second, snarling in fury as his face shifted with his demon rage. He slashed the minion and it fell dead at his feet. He wrapped an arm around Kate’s waist, drawing her in quickly. Then they parted again and were back to the fight.

  Warriors, all of us were warriors beneath the faces we tried to show, and we all knew the cost of such a life. I just prayed we would not wind up suffering warrior’s deaths in the end.

  “Sabella,” Tristan urged, and I took off again.

  The light came to a stop at another barred room. When I peered in this time, the crushing fear of failure threatened to take me under, but Tristan’s hand found mine, holding it back.

  “We save those we can,” he reminded me.

  “Right, right,” I muttered and grabbed for the bars, avoiding staring at the collapsed bodies of three more gods in their chairs, the light completely drained from their bodies.

  The bars melted, and Forrest was the first one through, sprinting to the rear wall.

  “He’s not killing her,” I said surprised to see no shadowed tendrils draining the life from the figure before us.

  “Forrest?”

  He had come to a dead stop before the being I assumed was Mori.

  “Starlight,” he whispered.

  And she was.

  Pure starlight, though it was dim from being chained here so long.

  The stars trickled from her hair, trailing to the ground at her feet.

  He was already moving to undo her hands chained to the wall, forcing her to stay upright. Her head hung to the side, but as soon as she was freed from the restraints, with a groan of pain she fell into Forrest’s arms.

  He sat on the floor with her, giving her a little shake to try and wake her, but she wasn’t coming to.

  “Just get her out of here,” I told him. “Tristan.”

  “I know. Farrah,” he said, and without a word, turned to leave after Forrest was away with Mori.

  When we entered the tunnel again, the fighting had grown worse, and our line was quickly losing ground.

  An explosion rocked the tunnel behind us, and I turned in time to see Greyson bashed repeatedly into the stone wall while Lucy came charging from the rear. She threw a vial at the god’s feet, lightning crackled around him, rooting him to the spot as the jolts rocked his body.

  Lucy was picking Greyson up, and they were retreating, but her potion wouldn’t hold the god forever.

  “Can you sense her?” Tristan asked, his eyes focused on the battle just yards away from us.

  “I’m trying,” I muttered, shutting my eyes and thinking of Farrah.

  But then the minions stilled, and another presence swarmed my mind.

  I cried out at the sharp sting to my temples.

  Tristan caught me before I could fall, asking what was wrong.

  “You dare enter my realm,” Baladon’s voice boomed down the tunnel, quaking the walls, threatening to bury us alive. “I will kill you all.”

  He was coming. We had to retreat.

  There it was, a faint pulse of light.

  “Farrah, I found her.”

  Before he could stop me, I jumped to my feet and took off down the tunnel, darting to the right, then left, wondering why this room was so far off the main path.

  Tristan kept up easily behind me. I waited for him to grab me and try to pull me back to the others, but then we rounded a corner and there she was.

  Except she was not alone.

  I gulped as Tristan growled and placed himself protectively in front of me.

  “Hello, Sabella,” Baladon leered, smiling widely and baring his fangs at me.

  “Trap,”
I whispered and wanted to kick myself.

  Of course, he’d use my mother as a damned trap. Why couldn’t I have seen this coming, why?

  “I can’t tell you how glad I am you’ve come to visit. Please, make yourselves at home. You won’t be leaving.”

  17

  Tristan

  There was no easy way out of this trap.

  Baladon wrapped his hand around Farrah’s neck and squeezed.

  Sabella tried to lunge at him, but I snatched her back at the last second. Her mother’s eyes shot open wide as she gasped for air, her nails digging into the wooden arms of the chair that had been her prison for far too long.

  Her light was fading as we watched.

  “Let her go,” Sabella seethed.

  “Or what? You think you and the few measly members of our family you rescued are enough to stand against me?” His hand tightened, and Farrah’s back arched as she struggled to pull free. “They all thought they could trap me, that I would never be strong. Now, who’s the strong one, Farrah?”

  “Bastard,” Farrah spat, and he squeezed again.

  “No, that’s the easy way out,” Baladon suddenly said, releasing her.

  She sucked in breaths, hacking and coughing severely.

  “You have much to answer for still, as does your daughter.”

  “You will not touch her,” I warned.

  Baladon laughed harshly. “And you believe you can stop me? Tristan, the great alpha of the shifters. Please, I’m trembling with fear,” he mocked.

  Sabella had slipped her arm from my hold, and I felt how warm her hands were. She had a plan, but there was no way for her to tell me with Baladon staring right at us both. Distraction. It was all I could hope to give her.

  Baladon’s eyes narrowed, and he twirled his hand, pulling his staff out of the shadows surrounding him like a cloak.

  “Those you have rescued, they mean nothing to me now. I have taken what I need from them.”

  “Even Mori?” I asked, smirking when his eyes narrowed. “We took her away from you. Whatever your plans for her were, they’re gone now.”