by G. Bailey
“Shit,” I mutter, turning and running down the corridor, as I know I don’t have a choice in this fight. I call my own dragon, knowing I have to hold Elias off and try not to hurt him until Isola gets here. If anyone can make Elias remember, it is her.
Chapter Eighteen
Isola
The portal comes out in the forest just under the castle, and I stand still, waiting for my army to step through behind me. The trees move in the breeze, and I step closer to one, seeing that the bark is covered in black vines that stretch up the tree. The only light comes from the castle, and I can see all the trees look the same. Dragca feels different. I don’t dare touch the trees, not unless I plan to use light magic to get rid of the black vines covering them.
I look up as I hear a dragon roar and the sound of fire crackling in the air, but I can’t see what is above us through the tight bunched trees. I’m guessing dragons are fighting, which means we need to be careful or they could see us. I glance at Bee, who seems brighter from just stepping out into Dragca, but her eyes stay on the trees, looking worried. She glances at me, and I sigh, knowing there is nothing we can do about this right now. Using light magic would make too much noise, and everyone would hear us.
“Maybe you should hide, Bee; it will be a war zone in there, and I cannot lose you,” I whisper to her. “There is darkness everywhere…and you are not strong yet from your time on Earth.”
“No, we together. Dark must be fought,” she says firmly, and I sigh in agreement. I don’t want her away from me, and I guess I can’t shield her from everything. Dagan and Korbin came through first to scout the area before returning to give us the all clear, but they indicated that there was no safe place nearby. So I don’t even know where I could hide Bee that would be safe anyway. Dagan and Korbin come out of the portal, both of them walking to my side, staring at the tree like me.
“Seems Tatarina has been busy,” Korbin states.
“Hopefully too busy to have time to hurt Elias. I kill her, and then we find him,” I repeat the plan we discussed again. “Thorne is still alive, I can feel that. Hopefully she has just locked him up somewhere.”
“His mother won’t kill him, I’m sure of that. I’ve grown to like the bastard, so I wouldn’t have let him walk to his death,” Dagan states.
“Tatarina is bat shit crazy, Dagan. I hope your trust in her not wanting him dead plays out, because I don’t believe it. She killed her childhood best friend, and then married her husband. Then killed him, despite apparently being in love with him…those aren’t the actions of a sane person,” I mutter. “She has to die for everything she has done.”
“We love you and follow you, no matter what you choose, Isola,” Korbin says, leaning over and kissing the side of my head.
“We are all here,” my uncle interrupts, and I turn around to see him standing right behind me, his arms crossed. “If anything—and I mean anything—goes wrong, we meet at Dragca Academy. It’s a safe haven against her.” I nod once, understanding how Dragca Academy would be the safest place to run from evil to. Part of me misses the academy anyway. Hopefully nothing will go wrong.
“I am going to stay in human form, but everyone else should shift,” I say, raising my voice so the dragons behind my uncle can hear. I frown at the sound of more roars, wondering why they feel familiar. When I realize why, I run out of the tree line, hearing Korbin and Dagan shouting for me to stop, but I can’t stop. Those roars…they feel like a lost memory. When I get out the tree line, I stare up at the two dragons I love, fighting each other. Elias’s and Thorne’s dragons are throwing mouthfuls of fire at each other, before flying and slamming into each other in the air. Everything below them is on fire, and now that we are out of the tree line, I can smell and see it. The fight is nasty, but there is no ice anywhere, Thorne isn’t truly fighting Elias. He could have killed him by now.
“Why are they fighting?” Korbin asks, his voice full of horror and worry, as my mouth feels dry and I stare in confusion. Elias and Thorne don’t pause in their fight, clawing and burning each other every few moments. It is so painful to watch two men I love trying to kill each other and feel completely powerless. I try to reach Thorne’s mind to tell him I’m here, but he is too distracted to hear me, and I don’t want to become a distraction that lets Elias win.
“We have to stop them before they kill each other!” I cry out, pacing as I watch the fight. If I shift and go to stop them, I won’t be able to finish this war and kill Tatarina. Though the more I watch them, the less I care about anything other than stopping them from killing each other.
“Isola, you must kill Tatarina and take the throne. Nothing else can matter at this moment,” my uncle says, placing his hand on my back, but I shrug him away, stepping forward with my eyes still locked on the dragons fighting in the sky. I look back at the castle briefly and wonder why Tatarina hasn’t sent people out to fight them both. Neither of them can be on her side, surely.
“I will stop them. Kor, you protect Isola,” Dagan states and nods at me. I love you. I can’t help but smile at his words whispered in my mind before he steps away from us all and shifts. The worry sets in as Kor wraps an arm around my waist, and we watch Dagan’s dragon take off into the sky. The moment Dagan gets close, Elias goes to attack him like he doesn’t even recognize his own brother. Dagan avoids the blast of fire, and Thorne charges into Elias’s side.
Isola, Dagan…Elias doesn’t remember who you are. He doesn’t remember anything, Thorne warns both Dagan and me as we can all hear each other now. Elias doesn’t remember me. Tatarina has taken him from me.
Then we knock his ass out and make him remember. Team work time, Thorne, Dagan tells him, sounding strong even though I can feel his emotions and how fearful he is of losing his brother. There must be a way to save Elias’s memory, and if I kill Tatarina, we could spend years getting my Elias back.
Got it, Thorne replies just as I watch Elias’s dragon slam into him, but Dagan pulls him off Thorne with his claws. I never thought I’d have to watch three people I love more than anything fight with each other. I never knew how much it could hurt deep in my heart to see.
I love you both, be careful. It’s all I can think to say, knowing it’s only words, but that is better than nothing. When I finally look away and meet Kor’s eyes, he doesn’t need to say anything for me to know how he feels. The panic, the worry and protectiveness are written all over his face.
“Everyone, shift into dragon form and carry your weapons. We protect the princess at all costs. For Dragca!” my uncle shouts in a war cry, and nods once at me before stepping back and shifting himself. The dragons all move to their own space before shifting, until the whole forest is full of dragons, and I know we have a small chance of winning this. Or of them holding off anyone that supports Tatarina until I can kill her. The dragons pick up their weapons in their claws as I wait for Kor to shift for me. He steps back, his dragon wordlessly taking over in a puff of black smoke until his massive dragon stretches out. I climb up his back as he lowers himself down, and I slide myself between the spikes on his back. I keep my spear tightly in my hand, and Bee moves to sit in front of me, holding the spikes with her little arms.
“To the castle!” I shout, and Kor waits for my uncle and more of the dragons to fly out of the tree line first because I doubt he would want us in the target line first. I lower my head, holding an arm around the spikes and keeping Bee between the spike and me, as Kor flies up with a massive gust of wind nearly knocking me off him. The cold breeze blasts against my skin as I lift my head through the pressure, seeing Dagan and Elias fighting, and Thorne’s dragon spiraling away from them after taking a hit. I feel Thorne’s and Dagan’s pain from the fight, and the fear of losing them threatens to swallow me just as Elias’s dragon seems to lock eyes on me. Instead of the blazing red eyes I’m used to seeing, Elias’s dragon’s eyes are black and cold, vacant of anything. He doesn’t recognize me…and the pain from that hurts my chest. There is a moment where it
feels like my whole heart breaks as Elias’s dragon shoots a blast of fire straight at us, and Kor swoops down low, making the fire miss us before carrying on his flight to the castle.
He didn’t mean that, Dagan tells me in my head, feeling my pain, and I realize I need to swallow my emotions because it will affect their fight. I don’t want to tell Dagan that I’m sure Elias did mean to try and kill me, and that I’m sure he doesn’t even know who I am anymore. When I can look back, Dagan, Thorne and Elias are still fighting, this time crashing into the trees below that are on fire from their fight. I take some relief that they have Elias on the ground now and he can’t escape. If Dagan and Thorne can knock him out, then we can talk to him, make him remember who we are. They have all forgotten me once before, and I won’t let them forget me again.
I have to force my gaze and mind away from them as Kor lands on the entrance to the castle, and I slide off his back. I’m slightly confused why the towers of the castle and the giant catapults on them aren’t being used to defend the castle. We shouldn’t have been able to just land here. I look away from the heat as Korbin’s dragon shoots a blast of fire at four dragons in white and black uniforms that run towards us with their swords raised high. Two dragons run to our back, but my uncle’s dragon swoops low, picking them up in his giant mouth like a snack and dropping them off the edge of the castle before flying back up. I ignore their screams as I hear a loud horn, and then dozens of dragons fly over the top of the castle, heading straight for my army. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Korbin’s dragon shift back into his human form and then quickly pick up the sword his dragon carried here.
“Stay low,” Korbin demands, pushing me down to hide behind a bit of the castle wall as we see the dozens of dragons aiming straight for my army, and the fight begins. One of them is killed straight away and falls with a thud on the stone floor right in front of us. It’s only when we straighten up and step a little closer to the dead dragon that I see how strange it looks. The dragon has black lines all over its red and brown scales, and when I look up, I see that the fire they are shooting is redder than is natural. What the hell?
“Looks like we enter this hell hole together, doll,” Korbin says to me, and I nod, lifting my spear as I straighten my spine. This is the end game…the end of Dragca being at war. I only have to kill her and take the throne.
“Let’s go,” I say, knowing we can’t put this off any longer, and the dragons above us are fighting to give us this short amount of time. We have a slim chance of killing Tatarina because she wants me here, and the fact she isn’t out here fighting means she is waiting for me to come to her. Kor and I run into the main building, which is empty, to our shock, and we get to the end of the corridor, walking into the throne room.
I scream as Kor is blasted across the room with a ball of fire as soon as we enter, and he slams into the wall, falling to the floor, knocked out. I watch his chest moving for a moment, needing to know he is alive before I can calm myself. I angrily turn to look at Esmeralda as she lowers her hand, a smirk on her dead-looking, red-painted lips as she leans against the throne. Esmeralda looks awful. Clearly, being undead doesn’t work for her.
“Where is your sister?” I ask, knowing Esmeralda is not the one I want to deal with tonight. I will fight her if I have to, but killing her won’t get me the throne.
“My sister is busy waking up her army…so we have time to catch up. Why don’t we start by me killing your little dragon lover like I did Jacian? He seems just as weak. Though you seem to collect the weak ones, like my nephew, for example,” she remarks, her red eyes going to where Kor is lying on the floor, and I growl low, making her laugh. I don’t collect weak anything, and if the bitch keeps talking, then I will let my dragon show her how strong we all are.
Kill her. Save mine, my dragon growls, and my powers make it slowly snow in the room from my unspoken agreement with her.
“What army? The dragon guard curse is broken; no army serves your sister anymore. I’m surprised there are even a dozen dragons fighting for her outside,” I say, and she stops laughing, turning her head to the side in an almost twitchy movement.
“You will soon see how wrong you are,” she says, just before sliding a sword out of the holder on her back. “Death is all that belongs to you in Dragca. Like every one of your family and your mates.”
“Bee, go to Kor and protect him,” I whisper to her without taking my eyes off Esmeralda, knowing she will do as I say and feeling her let go of my hair. Esmeralda runs at me, her sword held high at her side, and there is no doubt she will fight until one of us is dead. I keep still until the last moment and block her sword with my spear, managing to push her away. She swings straight back, this time blasting fire down the sword until it tingles against my skin, but it won’t—can’t—burn me. I call my ice as I slam my spear against her sword, and to my surprise, ice blasts out of the end of the spear. I scream as Esmeralda pulls a dagger out I didn’t see in her belt and slams it into my thigh. I push her away again as dizziness fills me, and whack the spear into her arm, knocking the sword out of it as I try to ignore the pain from my leg which threatens to overwhelm me. Taking advantage of her surprise, I call for my powers as I shove the spear through Esmeralda’s heart, and ice slowly crawls all over her skin as her mouth parts in shock. When the ice crawls all over her face making her look like an ice sculpture for a moment, I pull my spear out. It seems like slow motion as her body falls, shattering into millions of shards of ice on the ground, the red and white ice mixing together almost beautifully.
“NO!” I hear Tatarina wail from behind me, her voice echoing around the room in her despair. I turn, holding my spear high as I turn to face her, and bite my lip as the pain in my leg is terrible. I can feel hot blood pouring down my leg, and every tiny movement shifts the dagger a little. If I didn’t have the spear to lean on, I wouldn’t be able to stand like this. Tatarina falls to her knees, staring at the pile of ice shards as tears silently fall from her face onto the floor. I don’t pause as I limp over to her, looking around for Nane and not seeing the dark spirit anywhere, which worries me because I need to see her when I do this. Sweat gathers on my forehead, every step hurting me more than imaginable. It doesn’t matter about Nane, I can kill Tatarina and then find her later. All that matters is killing Tatarina and taking that white crown off her head. Though it isn’t my father’s or mother’s crown…she made her own which hasn’t been done in hundreds of years. The crowns my parents had were inherited.
I stop right next to Tatarina and move my spear right under her neck as I make myself stand tall. Tatarina finally looks away from the leftovers of her sister and gives me a look that suggests I better run from her or feel sorry for her somehow. I don’t know exactly how to read her emotions.
“This is for my mother. She never deserved to die because of your jealousy. Rot in hell, you total bitch,” I say, going to push the spear through her neck when she grabs the spear. She laughs even as I apply pressure, so it cuts her neck, and I know if I call my ice, she would be dead. Or if I just push a little more, it will go straight through her neck, and either way I win this.
“If you kill me, you kill Elias,” she says, still laughing loudly as my hand shakes with the spear. I shake my head, knowing she must be lying.
“You’re lying,” I spit out. “Lying won’t save you now. I want what belongs to me.”
“No, I am not. I killed Elias the first night he was here and brought him back with my dark magic like I did my sister. If you kill me, you kill him,” I step back in shock as I gasp out. My hand shakes with the spear, and my mouth feels like there is a giant ball of sadness that I just can’t swallow. “He even whispered your name as he died. It was almost sweet how much he hoped you would save him.”
“You’re lying!” I scream, not wanting to believe it as she stands up, and deep down inside of me, I know she isn’t lying to me. She killed Elias. My Elias, and then turned him into a monster.
Isola, are you okay? I
hear Thorne’s worried voice ask me, and I gasp from the shock and pain. My Eli was killed by this crazy bitch.
“I want you to suffer like I did. You stole my son from me, so I stole the man you love from you. Your dear parents must be suffering so much as they watch you walk away from the throne to save a dragon guard,” she remarks, laughing loudly like this is all just a joke. I shake my head, feeling the tears streaming down my cheeks as I fight what she is telling me even now. My body shakes from the shock, from the realization that the price of this war would be Elias, and I won’t take it. Elias can’t be dead…he just can’t be.
“I will save him somehow. You aren’t the only one with magic,” I growl, hoping that somehow Bee and I could save him.
“Elias wasn’t the only one I brought back…maybe you should run, princess, because we both know you won’t kill me. You can’t do it, and you are never going to be a true queen,” she says, smirking as she walks back to the throne she killed my father on and sits down. I shake with anger as I watch her, knowing she is right and there is nothing I can do about it. I won’t sacrifice Elias…I just can’t.
There are thousands of them…we must leave, and you have less than a few minutes. Get the hell out of there or kill Tatarina, Dagan growls through the bond, sounding panicked.
I can’t kill her. Elias will die, I whisper back through the bond, not even bothering to hide my emotions from them. The despair and heartbreak are too much to hide.
What? Run, Isola! Thorne growls into my mind. We have Elias, but we can’t save him without you.
“Dragca or love? A smart queen would kill me now, but you won’t do that. I will let you leave this once, but the next time we meet, I will kill you, princess. It will be fun,” she says with a long laugh, and I don’t even respond to her. I am no princess…I will never be a queen. I will always choose to love even if it breaks me to do so. I let my dragon take over, shifting quickly with a pain filled roar at the dagger in our leg. My dragon picks up Kor with Bee, holding him tight with her good leg before flying through a wall of the throne room and out into the sky, hearing Tatarina’s laugh right behind us as we head straight into a war zone.