Dragon Mark

by Kit Bladegrave

  “I’ll let you deal with that I guess, unless you want me there.”

  “I do, if you’re up for it,” I said, noticing how pale she still looked, and how warm her hand was on my arm. “But I also want to pick up where we left off with your training.”

  “I think I can handle myself.”

  “You never stop training, Everest, never. That’s when your muscles get lazy, and you lose your edge. Trust me. We’ll do a bit every day when I can find the time.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” she sighed, and I kissed the top of her head as we walked.

  We were quiet the rest of the way through the base, all the way to our cots, but once she laid down, she never let go of my hand. She fell asleep still holding it between our cots.

  I pushed mine a bit closer before settling back against the pillow and shut my eyes, apprehension stirring in my gut that though I’d found out about the ambush plan, Everest still had secrets.

  Secrets that if she kept to herself much longer, were going to get her killed.

  Five

  Everest

  To say the morning was a struggle was an understatement. I’d woken up before Slade. Our hands were clasped firmly together, and I carefully tugged mine free before heading to the bathroom to get ready for another day. I was halfway through my shower when the mark on my side burned with a new life, and I dug my nails into the shower stall as I bit down hard on my loofa to stop from crying out. As the pain ebbed, my legs shaking, I had to stay in there a lot longer to make sure I wouldn’t fall over the second I stepped out.

  But then I saw my face in the mirror and realized there’d be no hiding what was happening to me, at least not for much longer. There were bags under my eyes, and my skin was flushed. I felt hot, too, burning with a fever. My hand shook as I raised it to my cheek and I quickly curled my fingers into a fist when the door opened, and Amelie strolled in.

  “Everest? Are you sick?” she asked, rushing to my side. “You look like you’re coming down with something.”

  “No, really, I used too much power yesterday. Think it just hit me hard,” I assured her.

  “Still, I think you should let your mom check you out, maybe give you something.”

  “I’ll talk to her, promise.” I smiled brightly.

  She continued to purse her lips before shrugging and ducking into one of the shower stalls.

  “You going to the meeting this morning?” she asked loudly over the running shower water.

  “If Slade wants me there, yeah, I’m going.”

  “Should be interesting.”

  “Interesting, good choice of words for a meeting where I guarantee there’s going to be at least one fight.”

  I braided my hair and flung it over my shoulder. I told Amelie I’d see her later and went to find my boots and black, leather jacket to tug on over my black sweater and tactical pants. At least I got to dress like a badass here. I wondered what my other self would think of me now. The self that worked as a janitor in a museum and thought she’d never amount to anything.

  “And look at where you are now,” I whispered to myself as I tugged on another boot and laced it up. “You’re a Descendant fighting in a war, and in love with someone who is essentially a king. Yeah, think you’re doing pretty good, Everest.”

  “I’d have to agree,” Slade said behind me, and I grinned wider. “You almost ready?”

  “Yep, we’re good to go… what?”

  He came around my cot to stand in front of my, and immediately his brow wrinkled with worry lines. “Maybe you should stay behind and get some rest.”

  “What? No, I’m going with you.”

  “You sure you’re feeling up to it?”

  I straightened after I got my second boot on and hated when his gaze shot to my wobbly knees. I locked them and threw my shoulders back. “I’m good. We going to see the leaders or what?”

  He nodded and motioned for me to lead the way. I took two steps, and the room spun around me. Slade caught me right before I face-planted and then I was lying back on my cot as he pressed his hand to my forehead.

  “Benji, fetch Mahlia would you?” he looked behind him at the boy he saved from Radnak.

  He’d become Slade’s unofficial sidekick, and if I’d felt better, I would’ve grinned, cracking a joke about him having a Robin to his brooding Batman. But all I wanted to do at that moment was lie there and not move for a few hours, or days.

  But I was stronger than this. I started to sit up, but Slade pushed my shoulders back down.

  “I haven’t eaten anything today, that’s all. We’ll grab some breakfast, and I’ll be perfect.”

  “You’ve been like this for days. It has nothing to do with food,” he scolded.

  “Don’t take that tone with me,” I snapped, feeling a strange anger rise up in me that felt foreign. “I can take care of myself just fine. Back off.”

  His eyes narrowed, and I let my head fall back to the pillow. What the hell was wrong with me? I swallowed but coughed harshly when a sudden lump formed in my throat.

  I was gasping for air, and the mark on my side throbbed, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. It was draining me of life, I knew it, but even as a voice inside my head screamed at me to let Slade know, another, fiercer one cut it off and said there was nothing he could do. It would only distract him, and I couldn’t let him be distracted not now.

  I’m going to die, was all I could keep thinking as Slade held my hand and started yelling for Mahlia. I wanted to tell him I’d be fine but couldn’t get the lie out this time.

  You will not die, Everest, we will not let you, a voice that had been with me for the past few days now told me sternly. But we cannot stop this, not yet.

  I wanted to scream at it to do something, but I was too weak to do anything but lie there.

  “Everest?” Mom was by my side now, feeling my forehead. “She has a fever. It could be a bug, or it could be from her powers advancing too quickly. I’ll give her a sedative to calm her, and so she can get some restful sleep, and a potion to bring down her fever.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were this sick?” Slade demanded as Mom went to work.

  “Didn’t want you to worry,” I admitted. “It’s nothing.”

  I felt his growl vibrate through our connected hands. He smoothed my hair back from my forehead then cursed when I started to shiver from the intensity of the fever. My teeth chattered, and he tugged the blanket up around me. He moved to take off my boots for me and helped me sit up, so Mom could get a potion down my throat. It tasted vile, and I gagged on it but kept it down.

  Slade slipped off my jacket, too and gave me another pillow to prop me up.

  “I’ll stay with her,” Mom promised Slade when Jenny called out to him. “Go.”

  “If anything changes, you send someone for me,” he ordered. “Benji, I want you to stay by her side, too. Got it?”

  Benji obediently hopped up onto the cot beside mine, and I grinned at the kid. He was like a mini Slade and having him around cheered up a lot of people. He was good at cheering people up, and he patted my shoulder warmly as if to say everything would be alright.

  If only it was that easy.

  “I’ll be back as quick as I can,” Slade whispered to me then kissed my forehead. “You’re going to be fine.”

  I nodded, but then Mom was giving me something else to drink, and it washed through my veins, warming me until all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep.

  My body stopped shivering, and every muscle relaxed.

  I felt another blanket being added to my body and heard Mom tell Benji she’d be back soon enough to check on me.

  Shortly, the only sound I heard was Slade’s voice in my head and felt his lips on mine as I dreamt of happier days.

  I dreamt of a world where neither one of us had to die to save the other.

  Six

  Slade

  “Everest’s sick?” Jenny asked me as we walked through the portal and into town.

/>   “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s just a bug,” I told her quietly, glancing over my shoulder just as the portal closed behind Aiden and Preston. “It’s something to do with her powers and that necklace. I swear it’s affecting her.”

  “I’ve never known another Descendant, but I’ve never heard of their powers weakening them like this.” Jenny blew out a frustrated breath. “Not to sound insensitive, but we need her.”

  I nodded in agreement. Everest was our ace. We had witches and warlocks, sure, but a Descendant’s powers would be able to stand against the others Radnak already had under his control. And whenever the final battle of this war came, I’d feel better knowing she fought at my side, protecting all of us just like the witches had protected the other dragon clans in the first war. That and having Everest calmed me, kept me focused when the rest of the world seemed more than ready to spin out of control.

  “She’ll pull through,” Jenny assured me, nudging my arm. “That girl is strong.”

  “Yeah, yeah she is. Sometimes I worry she thinks she’s invincible. She’s been too damned lucky.”

  We met the three clan leaders in the building that had once been the town hall. Their armies had moved into the rest of the buildings or set up tents in the streets to accommodate them all. It should’ve lifted my spirits to see so many gathered, ready to finally take a real fight to Radnak, but my thoughts were back with Everest, watching her shiver on that cot, too weak to even stand.

  “Slade,” Charlette greeted me warmly. “Good to see you again this morning.”

  “And does everyone feel that way?” I asked, walking with her toward the large table set up in the center of the hall. Quinto barely acknowledged me, but Orella stood to shake my hand, a warm smile on her face.

  “Most of us do,” she told me, shooting a glare toward Quinto. “He’ll come around.”

  “He can hear you,” Quinto muttered, tapping his fingers loudly on the table. “You’re late.”

  “Everest has fallen ill, I had to see to her,” I explained.

  “What’s wrong with the poor girl?” Charlette asked worriedly as we found our seats.

  “Overuse of powers she’s not used to having yet,” I said, praying that was all it was. “You’ve settled into the town well?”

  They nodded, and we dug right into our first order of business.

  “Has the prisoner given up any information yet?” Orella asked.

  I tucked my hands out of sight and was about to answer, but Preston cleared his throat from behind me.

  “If I may?”

  I bobbed my head for him to go on.

  “He’s told us about the defenses at the encampment, and I’ve dispatched scouts to check the information. He’s given up no information on Radnak’s overall plan, though, but it’s only been one night.”

  I’d wondered if they got any more out of Nikolai after I unleashed my fury on him. I reminded myself to thank Preston and Tank later.

  “It’s a start,” Orella stated, “however, I feel there is an even more pressing matter.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “The Council. They’ll have been informed already of our armies amassing in one location, and it won’t be long before they summon us,” she said. “I suggest we don’t give them that chance, and instead, we go to them.”

  I felt the unease behind me. The last time we saw the Council, they’d been more than happy to execute me without any questions being asked. If I showed up a second time with more Shadowguards, they would consider it an attack.

  “How do you plan on doing that?” I finally asked. “We’re not exactly on good terms.”

  “They’ve sat in their own dimension for too long,” Charlette said with a shake of her head. “They’re disconnected from the world, and as such, it’s time they come back to reality. I think we should invite them here.”

  “Here?” I repeated alarmed. “You want to bring them where I have a few hundred Shadowguard refugees hiding out in a mountain a few miles away?”

  “They need never know about that base unless you tell them.” She gave me another one of her grandmotherly smiles that did nothing to make me feel better. “Besides, they might think they are above us, but in the end, they do answer to the clans and the covens who gave them this power.”

  “Are you suggesting we overthrow the Council?” Quinto grabbed the table so hard it cracked under the pressure. “That’s treason.”

  “Worse than the treason they’ve committed against the clans?” Charlette challenged.

  “What treason? They haven’t done anything.”

  “That’s exactly the point,” Charlette snapped, jumping to her feet. “They kept the truth from us. I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that they knew the Black Diamonds were still around, as well as the Blood Moon Priests, but decided to let the problem take care of itself. Well, it hasn’t, and now there is a war right on our doorstep.”

  Quinto was on his feet next, glowering at her. “So what do you suggest we do? Execute them one by one?”

  “No, we will ask them to step down.”

  “And if they refuse?”

  I was curious to know what her next move would be, too, and was surprised to hear her say, “Then we either throw them in a cell… or yes, we kill them, so they can cause no more harm to this already complicated and dangerous situation.”

  The weight of her words fell over the entire room, and it was so quiet, I realized I wasn’t the only one holding my breath. I was more than ready to take drastic action, but to hear another clan leader say those words let me know I wasn’t the only one fed up with how our post-war world had been handled. Post-war for them only. My clan had only ever known this war for the past almost eight hundred years. No one existed now who remembered a time before.

  “You can’t be serious?” Quinto finally whispered, his eyes dancing wildly around as if the Council would suddenly drop out of the sky.

  “I am deadly serious,” Charlette said firmly. “Orella? Slade?”

  “Hey, I’m all for it,” I said quickly.

  Orella hesitated, but then she stood. “If they leave us no other option, then I will do what must be done. But, we will need more to tell them, or show them. Charlette, Slade, would either of you be open to having your memories examined?”

  Charlette agreed immediately, but I wasn’t so sure. “What would they look for?”

  “The proof they need to satisfy them. Though I feel Charlette may be right about several of the Council members knowing about this war, I refuse to believe all of them went along with it. If they ask for proof, your memories would be the best thing for them to see.”

  Was there anything in my mind I didn’t want them to see? Most of what I could remember revolved around fighting, death, pain… and Everest. They would see every sweet moment I had with her. I needed to run it by her, but if they wanted an answer now, then I would give it to them.

  “If that’s what it takes, then yeah I’ll do it. But, we do have someone at our base right now who might be a voice of reason for at least one member of the Council. Jared Winchester—the Third—is currently my guest.”

  Three sets of surprised eyes turned to me, then Charlette grinned. “You’ll ask him to be here then, once we get them to agree to come.”

  “I will do that, definitely,” I said. Jared needed to make up with his father anyway in case we all died. He’d forgive me, probably. “How do you plan on doing that? Getting them here?”

  “Leave that to me. I’ll get them here. It might take a few days.”

  “A few days would be good.” Orella pointed to the map before us on the table. “We need to hear back from the scouts and plan our attack, if they’re even still there.”

  “You think they would’ve moved?” I asked, standing so I could see the layout of the land better.

  Everest sending the coordinates to Davis had given us a major advantage, unless of course, they moved camp. If they hadn’t, then we had access to several portals that woul
d take us not only to the Fell Gates, but Radnak’s stronghold, as well as the other dimensions he controlled and held my people captive in.

  “There’s a chance, but I don’t know Radnak very well. What do you think?”

  They watched me as I ran my finger over the location of the camp then spread out further to the surrounding area. They were within striking distance of several more of our outposts, as well as the school Everest had attended, two others in the region, and from what I could remember of our list of high-priority targets, close to a good number of hybrids they’d wanted wiped out.

  “No, no he’s too close to his enemies to pull back now. He won’t think we’re bold enough to attack there.”

  “Even after he’s seen our armies?” Orella questioned.

  “Radnak thinks very little of your armies, trust me,” I mused quietly. “And I hate to say it, but his is massive, combined with Black Diamonds who can breathe fire and ice, as well as Shadowguards who have no choice, but to fight.”

  “They have a choice,” Quinto spat.

  “You think they do? Tell me, Quinto, if a dragon had a knife to the throat of your children, your wife, and told you the only way to save them was to fight, what would you do? Huh, tell me.”

  Orella’s face darkened with sadness and Charlette hung her head, but I only kept my glare on Quinto, watching his Adam’s apple bob up and down nervously as he fumbled for an answer. He finally sighed, sinking back into his seat.

  “I would fight,” he whispered.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?”

  “I said I would fight,” he yelled.

  “Yeah, you would. That’s what my clan has been doing for hundreds of years. You fight, or you watch as your family is tortured and then murdered before your eyes.” I bit back my own pain and sadness, standing as tall as I could in that room. “If we can free their families, they’ll join me, no questions asked, but while Radnak threatens their kin, he controls them.”