Dragon Mark

by Kit Bladegrave

  It was hard, sitting on the sidelines for the other fights, but this one was going to be bad. I held my gut as it churned, warning me that whatever was about to happen, we weren’t going to make it through the night without losing people.

  And as soon as they were cleared of the portal, I fell to my knees in the sand. “Oh, no.”

  Screams had replaced the sounds of celebration as fire fell from the skies, turning the town into a blazing torch.

  Slade rushed into the fray without a second thought, and Nora was right behind him, drawing on power as she attacked with a vengeance I hadn’t witnessed yet. She tore through the lines of Black Diamonds charging at her, killing them as they chased down Shadowguard refugees. So many dead filled the streets, and I bit back a cry. Women, kids. They were murdering kids.

  “Nora,” I pleaded, “Nora you have to stop them.”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” she snapped, right before she yelled at a line of dragons sprinting right toward a group of adults trying to shield kids from an attack. She slammed her hands down to the asphalt, and a shockwave erupted, shooting straight for the enemy. It tossed them into the air like leaves on the wind, and she lifted her hands again, drawing violet streaks of lightning from the sky to kill them before their bodies ever hit the ground.

  “Run, get to the portal,” Nora yelled to the dragons. “Go!”

  They took off, and she sprinted back into the melee. I wanted to see Slade, but there were too many enemies for her to pull her gaze away from them for long. My hands dug into the sand, needing to hold onto something as I watched what had been a night of celebration turn into a night of pure terror.

  A dragon grunted nearby, and Nora rushed to aid him, yanking a Black Diamond away from Tank. He’d been pinned down, and the second he found his feet, finished off the dragon, breaking his neck.

  “Thanks for that,” he growled. “Where’s Slade?”

  “I lost sight of him when we got out here. Keep evacuating.”

  “We’re going to be overrun,” Tank warned. “They’re pouring in from all sides. The wards that the witches put in place, they’re failing.”

  “Just do what you can,” Nora told him. “Get them to safety.”

  Tank nodded and ran away, calling for refugees to follow him and dragging more guards with him to defend the portal as a last resort. If they got into the base, we’d be screwed.

  “Where’s Slade?” I asked Nora again. “Can you see him?”

  “No,” she whispered, and her whole body stilled. “But he’s here.”

  “Wait, who he?” I scrambled to my feet, peering through the haze created by the fires. “Radnak? No, he can’t be here! Where the hell is Slade?”

  She said nothing, didn’t move, just stood and stared.

  “Nora! Find Slade!”

  “Shut up, Everest,” she yelled at me, and my jaw dropped.

  “I’m sorry, what did you just say to me? If Radnak is here, you need to find Slade and get him out. Nora. Are you seriously ignoring me?” I yelled in frustration. “I lent you my body to keep him safe so stop standing there and do something.”

  “I am,” she hissed so viciously, that my next rant got stuck in my throat, and I sputtered.

  I watched, doing my best to keep quiet, as she spread her arms out, leaning her head back.

  Violet streams of magic shot out from her fingers, carried away on the wind.

  How she could tune out the fighting around her amazed me, but I only had a few moments to be impressed before her head shot to the right, and then she was off.

  She dodged attacks from Black Diamonds and Priests alike, jumping over the dead, until she neared the edge of town and stopped short.

  “Radnak.” Her voice was cold.

  The man in question stood in the flickering fires of his army, leering broadly at us. “Well now, isn’t this interesting. Nikolai said you were still alive and I’m amazed to see he was telling the truth. Everest, the last known Descendant.”

  He couldn’t tell? How didn’t he know?

  “Use it,” I blurted. “He thinks you’re just me. Use it. Draw him in.”

  She tilted her head and backed up a hasty step. “Yeah well, I’m a hell of a lot stronger than you gave me credit for, jackass,” she said, sounding exactly like me. Guess it helped she was technically in my head. “You should just leave while you’re ahead.”

  “But I am ahead, hence why I am here. You all thought you were so clever, but I’m afraid this was what I wanted all along.” He shot his arms out to the sides and cackled. “So much death, you know what it does to blood magic? Makes it stronger and you and your armies have created so much death, so much strength for my Priests. I came to thank them.”

  “What’s he talking about?” I asked Nora as I felt her anxiety shoot up until she was shaking. “Nora?”

  “The backlash,” she whispered.

  Radnak bowed his head.

  “You… you sick bastard!”

  Radnak frowned at the sudden change of tone and took a step closer. “You, why do you seem different?” He sniffed the air and lurched back with a snarl. “You’re not just Everest.”

  Magic dripped from her hands as she leered at him. “No, no, I’m not.”

  “The First Communion,” he whispered, and his eyes narrowed as he started to shift. “I’ll tear you apart, and then I’ll finish off everyone here,” he roared, changing right before my eyes.

  I expected Nora to turn and run for cover, then I swore I heard Slade yelling at her, but it was too late.

  She jumped onto Radnak’s shoulder and held on tight as he finished shifting into a full-fledged dragon, then took off into the sky.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I yelled, cringing as she struggled to hold onto his spiked back.

  “Taking a page from your book,” she replied, then flattened her palms against Radnak’s back.

  Violet lightning shot straight into his spine and lit up his back as it exploded under the skin.

  He snarled in pain, rolling to trying to dislodge her, but somehow she held on. I wasn’t sure for how long. Her breathing was growing ragged, and I sensed her strength waning from using such a massive attack.

  “Nora, take it easy,” I warned, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. “Nora.”

  She wasn’t listening, clearly, because she did it again and again, until Radnak’s body jerked from the shocks and he tumbled to the ground.

  Nora was flung off his back and rolled across the asphalt before she slammed into a curb.

  Wincing in pain, she struggled to get back up as I clutched a hand to my chest. How could she not feel this pain?

  She barely got upright before Radnak was there, slamming his fist into her face. She staggered back, but managed to block the second punch and the third, dropping low and swiping at his legs. He struck the ground and Nora tried to get away, She was dizzy and was barely able to stand.

  “Everest,” she gasped, but there was nothing else.

  Slade, where the hell was he? And the other clan leaders?

  “You can’t run away from me,” Radnak yelled.

  Nora glanced over her shoulder to see him coming for us, seething mad.

  “You will not stop me.” He was a few feet away.

  I felt Nora struggle to pull on her power like before, when a yelling shadow threw itself at Radnak, taking them both to the ground in a flailing heap of limbs and cursing.

  Their wrestling dragged them into the glow of a nearby fire currently devouring the town hall, and Slade’s face came into full view.

  If I survived this, I was never going to let him live this moment down; throwing himself right into the arms of the enemy to try and save Nora, save me.

  Slade landed a solid blow to Radnak’s face and then climbed to his feet, planting another kick in his gut. “You’re going to die, Radnak, and I’m going to be the one to kill you. I swear it.”

  Wiping blood from his nose, Radnak started to laugh maniacally, and
a shiver raced down my spine, as well as Nora’s. “That’ll be hard to do, when the next time you see me, I’ll be winning this war. Look around you, Slade, and tell me, where are the other clan leaders?”

  Nora spun around, but there was no sign of them amongst the fighters now rushing toward Slade and her. “What… what have you done?” she hissed. “What did you do.”

  Radnak licked his lips as if he’d just eaten something delicious. “I will be seeing you both again very soon, but first, I must take care of a very important ritual. Thank you for the show tonight, Slade, it was a pity I couldn’t stick around for the finale.”

  “I’ll kill you,” Slade bellowed, charging forward, but Radnak snapped his fingers.

  A bright red explosion threw all of us backward, slamming into debris and each other.

  Nora waved her hand to try and clear away the smoke, coughing as she sat up and stared at the spot Radnak had been. “He’s gone,” she stated. “Damn it. He used us as a distraction.”

  “And it worked. How the hell did he get past the wards?” Slade demanded.

  “Nikolai. How long have you had him in your cells?” Nora snapped. “How long has he been down there, unsupervised?”

  “What are you getting at?” Slade was right in her face, and I willed them both to get a hold of their tempers, but I was too weakened from the fight to do anything, but watch. “You saying this is my fault?”

  “I’m saying Radnak managed to break down the wards because Nikolai was using blood magic the entire time. He was feeding off Everest, using her to do it.”

  Slade looked like she’d slapped him.

  “Nora, stop,” I pleaded, but the words were barely a whisper.

  “No,” he muttered. “No, that can’t be right.”

  “It is, and it’s why she held on so long. It wasn’t Radnak draining her, it was Nikolai.”

  Shaking his head and looking beyond defeated, Slade backed away from us. “I don’t believe you. I would never… I wouldn’t have put her in harm’s way if I’d known.”

  “Nora, please,” I tried again. “I did it to myself. I got the mark.”

  “You got it saving him,” she snapped at me, and Slade frowned. “Everest is defending your foolish actions, but it turns out she’s more of a fool than I originally thought. That mark, I swore it was Radnak, but it appears he tricked you both.”

  “Don’t you dare lay all this on Everest,” Slade warned. “I don’t care who the hell you are, but that woman you’re possessing has done more for my clan than you ever have.”

  Nora opened her mouth to reply, but another voice cut across hers.

  “Slade! Where are the others?” Orella yelled, and Slade breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Radnak, he took Charlette and Quinto. What about the Council members?”

  “They’re good, but our casualties are high. Wait, he took them?” she asked alarmed. “We have to stop him from doing the ritual.”

  “You can’t,” Nora informed them matter-of-factly. “He’ll do it as soon as he returns to the Fell Gates and without a proper plan, we’ll never breach the walls in time.” She turned and started to walk away.

  “So what, you’re just going to leave it at that?” Slade yelled.

  Nora’s steps slowed, but it wasn’t because she was going to continue arguing with him.

  I watched as the ground came up to meet her.

  Slade was by her side a second later, cursing vividly as he scooped her up in his arms.

  “I’m fine,” she mumbled.

  “I don’t give a damn about you, woman,” he snapped. “All I care about is Everest.”

  “You really do love her,” Nora mumbled and then her eyes closed, cutting off my view of the outside world.

  I fell to the sand by the fire, taking stock of what hurt.

  I was in bad shape, and there was at least one more fight to go.

  One more fight that would probably kill me at this point.

  Great, that was just great.

  Sixteen

  Slade

  Quinto and Charlette were gone. Within hours of the attack, several Emerald Petite and Sphinx dragons started to complain about headaches and feeling like their guts were being torn out. A few hours after that, a Sphinx was apprehended attempting to kill a Hollow Well.

  One by one, we watched them all fall to their knees, clutching their heads and crying out for it to stop. And then the next second, they were our enemy.

  The cells were overflowing now with the dragons who had been our allies when this night started. We couldn’t trust any of them and even the ones who swore up and down they were fine, we had no choice, but to keep away from the rest of us, just in case.

  “He’s crippled us,” Orella spat as we trudged our way up to the main level of the base after locking away the last few Sphinx dragons. “Our army’s just been cut in half.”

  “It was his plan all along. How had I not seen it?” I slammed my fist into the metal wall, grimacing as the jolt of the hit radiated up my arm. “I know him, I should’ve seen a trap like this coming, but I was too happy we were saving my clan.”

  “None of us saw it coming, Slade. Taking back those dimensions was far too easy, just like you said. None of us wanted to believe there was something worse he was planning.”

  “Yeah, well, too damned late now.”

  We’d practically walked into the last one, and though the battle had been brutal, the fight had only lasted a half hour, a few minutes more maybe. And no Priests, that should’ve tipped us off, if nothing else, that Radnak wanted us there.

  I let my ego get in the way, telling me the Black Diamonds who gave themselves up so quickly feared the army coming their way. But no, Radnak had ordered them to let us in, let us in and let us take everyone we wanted. Because the previous fights had left a long enough trail of blood for his Priests to use.

  “Everest awake yet?”

  “You mean Nora?” I snarled. “No, but the second she is, we’re having a chat.”

  “The magic she’s using, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Neither have I, but I’m pretty sure it’s killing Everest from the inside out. If she doesn’t stop, Everest might not wake up.”

  “But if she stops,” Orella said gently as we reached the top of the stairs, “we might lose the war. I know you love her, but sometimes we have to sacrifice what we love to save others.”

  “I’ve done that enough. I’m not losing Everest.”

  I stormed off, needing to clear my head and think about our next move. The plan had been to give everyone a few days rest and then move on the Fell Gates. That was our only option unless we wanted to hit Radnak at his stronghold. My gut told me if we did that, it’d be a trap. He would expect us to go there next to try and kill him since we lacked the manpower now to breach the Fell Gates and kill the Priest.

  So our only option was to attack the Fell Gates. Catch him off guard.

  It was a long shot, but Everest was running out of time, as were the rest of us. One screw up and Orella or I would be on that damned ritual table next, watching him rip out our souls. He’d take control of the clans, and nothing in this world would stop him.

  This fight could very well be my last.

  I waited for the fear to set in, knowing I could die, that everything we fought so hard for all these years would disappear in a night. But instead, all I felt was exhaustion. I was so tired of this war, of watching my people suffer as they did.

  I immediately left the balcony I’d just reached to have a few moments to myself after I realized there was no time to rest. Radnak would think we would take days to recoup before we struck.

  If we were going to attack, the time had to be now. Right now.

  I raced down the steps shouting for Benji as I went. “I need you to find Tank, Jenny, Preston, Jared… anyone still able to fight and tell them to meet me in the town square.”

  “Right, and the Council members?”

  “Anyone, Benj
i.”

  “What are you doing, Slade?”

  I clapped him on the shoulder and smiled grimly down at him. “Ending this war. Now go on.”

  He bobbed his head then took off, shouting for all able-bodied fighters to meet in the square.

  I shouted the same message on my way to the portal into town. Once there, I continued to yell, calling to attention every last fighter we had. I even sent another runner to the encampment we controlled to have them send everyone through.

  I paced around the square, watching as the Hollow Wells and Shadowguards arrived. Many of them were banged up from the attack on the town, and more were refugees who looked more than ready to kill something, but I saw the uncertainty and fear in all their eyes as they approached.

  Mr. Winchester and Jared came together, Selma, Morana, and Robert behind them. Benji popped out of the portal with an entire band of dragons, witches, and warlocks tagging along until the town square was packed with bodies, every single set of eyes staring at me.

  “Benji, did you see Everest?” I asked when he sprinted to my side.

  “Still out, but Mahlia said the second Nora woke, she’d send her to you.”

  If she woke.

  I patted Benji on the back and thanked him.

  “Slade, what is this?” Morana asked. “Why are we all here?”

  “We’re here because the time has come to end this war,” I called out loudly.

  Whispers and murmurs met my ears.

  I pushed on. “Radnak has hit us hard. Time and again, he’s come at us, knocked us down. He believes he broke us. But I say all he did was make us stronger.”

  A few warriors shouted with me and more nodded all around.

  “We might have lost half our army, but I have never stood beside more fierce and strong warriors in my life. We’ve lived through Radnak’s reign of terror. We’ve seen the destruction he’s caused and now when he’s at his strongest, what are we going to do, huh?” I yelled, my blood pumping as I walked around the circle of bodies around me. “Are we going to give up? Let him take over? Are we going to let him think he’s won already while we all still draw breath?”