Old Wicked (The Last Dragon Lord Book 3)

by Michael La Ronn

  “Where’s Daddy?”

  “He’s going to be fine.” Ennius pointed to the security guards. “Do we have a clear way to the motorcade?”

  One of the men had a radio on his ear. “We’ll have to take the long way around, but the cars are still intact, sir.”

  A shadow swooped over them, stopping them cold. Looking up, they saw nothing but the moon and the clouds and the broken glass.

  Another blast rocked the foyer, shattering the remaining glass. They stopped, shielding themselves as the glass spilled to the floor and covered them.

  “Sir, that blast was close!” one of the guards said.

  “We don’t have a choice but to keep going,” Ennius said. “We can’t turn back.”

  They ran out of the foyer into a garden in the back of the event center. A mass of elves lay dead in the middle of the grounds. Ennius looked away in disgust and tried to stop Madelaide from seeing it, but she started to cry even more.

  Ennius pointed to a cluster of trees a few meters away. “Over there!”

  They entered the cool shade between the trees and caught their breaths.

  A shadow swooped over them again.

  The guard looked up in fear but saw nothing in the sky. “Sir, it’s not safe here.”

  Something grabbed him, slammed him against a tree, breaking him.

  The other two guards drew their guns. “Sir! Get down!”

  The shadow grabbed the guards and smacked them together, knocking them out.

  Ennius grabbed Madelaide and held her tight. Then he started to run, panting, but the shadow struck him, knocking him to the ground.

  The last thing Ennius saw before he blacked out was Madelaide landing in the mud.

  ***

  Madelaide screamed. Her uncle lay unconscious next to her, and the three security guards were dead, their bodies broken on the ground. She turned and ran from the trees, calling her father’s name. She burst into the gardens. Ahead, the event center was smoldering, and people were still running in a stampede across the lawn.

  The shadow flew over her and her heart stopped. A black dragon dropped out of the sky and landed in front of her.

  She froze.

  “My dear,” Old Dark said, grinning. “What is a little girl like you doing all by yourself in the middle of all this chaos?”

  XXIX

  Miri hit the ground running as soon as she jumped off Frog. She weaved through a crowd of dragons and elves running toward her, pushing and shoving and yelling at people to get out of the way.

  Frog stomped behind her, and his presence thinned out the crowd, for no one wanted to be on the wrong side of the growling river dragon.

  “Follow the fire,” Frog said.

  Miri ran toward the smoke, putting her arm over her face. The inside of the event center was burning brightly now. A small fire in the foyer was spreading.

  “Where can he be?” Miri asked. “Let’s try the ballroom!”

  She pushed through the smoke and emerged into the ballroom. People were lying on the floor, coughing. Some were dead.

  “My God,” she said.

  She wanted to help all of them, but her heart broke because she couldn’t.

  “Help…”

  A woman in a black dress lay pinned under a table.

  Miri grabbed the table and pushed it aside. The woman’s leg was crushed.

  “I can’t move,” the woman said.

  “I’m sorry,” Miri said. She bent down to inspect the wound. Blood was oozing out of the leg. Her femur was surely crushed. She would live.

  Frog surveyed the large ballroom. “He ain’t here.”

  Miri pursed her lips. The woman grabbed her wrist. “Please, you can’t leave me here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Miri said, escaping the woman’s hand. “You’re going to be okay, but I can’t help you anymore.”

  It took everything in her power to turn around, to ignore the woman. She pretended that she couldn’t see anyone else in the room lying hurt or dead.

  I’m going to pay for this, she thought. I shouldn’t have to think twice about helping these people!

  In the distance, she heard sirens. Sighing with relief, she said sorry to the woman again and followed Frog through the smoke and dust and rubble to the other side of the ballroom. They exited into a glass foyer that was completely destroyed. No glass was left, and the evening wind blew hard.

  “One of the blasts was here,” Frog said, nodding to smoldering shrapnel at his feet. “Watch your step.”

  Her heart fluttered. She reached into her pocket and fingered a grimoire. It was wet from the rain earlier in the day, but she hoped it would still work.

  She followed Frog into the gardens, where Lucan and Celesse stood on the lawn. Ennius sat on a bench next to them, holding an icepack on his head. A crowd was gathered around them.

  “You’re a little late,” Celesse said.

  Miri joined Celesse and Lucan. She smelled the remnants of a fire, but it smelled different than the fire inside that was burning because of the blasts. She sniffed and then looked ahead.

  Old Dark’s emblem was burning in the grass. Above it, an arrow pointing forward, away from the garden grounds, across a decorative pond. A needle-shaped skyscraper rose high into the sky, its golden lights shining upon the building and pointing upward.

  They heard a shrill scream pierce through the night.

  Something was moving on the top of the tower.

  It was a little girl.

  She was in the claws of a dragon.

  Old Dark.

  Lucan pulled off his bow tie. He crumpled it in one hand and threw it into the grass. He clenched his fists and shook them. Then he reached into his pockets and pulled out a stack of grimoires, counting them before putting them back. Eyeing the top of the tower, he scowled and marched across the lawn.

  “Lucan, no!” Miri cried. She grabbed him but he pushed her away forcefully and she fell back into the grass. “This isn’t a good idea. It’s a—”

  “It can wait,” Lucan said. “It can fucking wait.”

  XXX

  Amal stretched as Redtail uncoiled himself from around her.

  “Are you all right, human?”

  “I’m fine,” Amal said.

  She stood and Demetrius helped her up. They had taken cover under the Crafter dragon when the blasts started. Fortunately they hid in a safe spot away from the secondary blasts and the stampedes.

  Redtail’s gang of dragons gathered and counted off to make sure everyone was present.

  “That was some attack,” Redtail said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  “The question is, who the hell did it?” Demetrius asked.

  “We’re all safe,” Amal said. “That’s all that matters. Redtail, please accept my apologies. I had hoped to give you a chance to speak in favor of conservation. It would have been a good chance for us to announce our partnership.”

  “This attack is not of your doing, human,” Redtail said. “No offense taken, and our partnership stands.”

  Amal nodded. “Let’s see if we can find out what happened.”

  They walked through the damaged foyer and noticed some commotion in the gardens.

  Amal led the way, pushing through the crowd. When she reached the burning emblem, and saw people pointing to the top of the skyscraper in the distance, her hands went her mouth.

  “There he is,” Demetrius said. “Old Dark is really alive. I mean, I believed it, but—”

  A furious roar erupted from the top of the skyscraper, and it made Amal shiver.

  Then a small tremor shook the ground.

  She thought it was a stampede, but no one around her was running.

  Behind her, Redtail and his gang of dragons had dropped to the ground. They were kneeling.

  “It really is true,” Redtail said, his hand on his heart. His scarred face was filled with wonder as he looked upward.

  Quietly, but forcefully, Redtail and his dragons began
to sing a song.

  Smile for us, old dragon lord…

  XXXI

  Lucan started up the steps to the revolving door entrance of the skyscraper when he heard a voice.

  “Lucan, wait!”

  It was his uncle. Ennius jogged after him, and when he reached the top of the steps, Lucan punched him in the face, sending him down a few steps.

  “Gah!”

  Lucan shook his fist. “You want some more, come a little closer.”

  Ennius wiped blood from his mouth. “I came to help you.”

  “You’ve helped enough, you son of a bitch. You shouldn’t have brought Madelaide.”

  “It’s my fault,” Ennius said. “I know. I was trying to get back at you. But I never thought this would happen.”

  “That makes two of us, but her blood is still on your hands.”

  “We’re going to bring her back,” Ennius said, patting a stack of grimoires in his pocket.

  Lucan wanted to punch him again. But he knew Dark was on the roof. Lucan needed all the help he could get, even if it was from his uncle.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Lucan said as they ran into the building together.

  ***

  A white orb floated over the gardens, taking photographs. A red dot blinked on its underside as it recorded everyone.

  Miri saw it first.

  Frog saw it and growled.

  The orb stopped in front of them.

  “Why don’t you come out, you coward?” Frog asked. “Why don’t you stop the deceit?”

  The white orb revolved in place, snapping photos.

  Miri pulled out a grimoire. She blasted it with a fire spell, breaking it into pieces. “I’m tired of being watched,” she said.

  ***

  Lucan and Ennius exited an elevator on the fifty-first floor of the skyscraper and ran into a long hallway filled with offices.

  “The roof access elevator is up the stairs,” Ennius said. “From there, we take it to the sixty-second, then we can access the roof stairwell.”

  They moved through the shadowed offices, emerging into a corridor of windows. Outside, they saw the gardens, far below. Lucan couldn’t believe they had climbed so far so fast.

  He thought of Old Dark and tried to concentrate. The black dragon would try to play mind games with him. He wasn’t going to listen. He was going to blow him off the roof and that would be the end.

  “Lucan,” Ennius said. “When did we grow apart?”

  “Now isn’t the time for this shit,” Lucan said.

  They rounded a corner and spotted a gold elevator with wide doors. It looked like a service elevator.

  “But if you want an answer to your question,” Lucan said, “It was the fact that you used Dad’s death as a springboard to your own career.”

  “I didn’t intend for it to happen that way,” Ennius said. “What would you have had me do? Not use his death at all?”

  “It was my time,” Lucan said. “And you knew it.”

  Ennius laughed. “You were a boy. You didn’t know the first thing about politics.”

  “I could have learned.”

  “You were full of anger,” Ennius said. “That would have served no one. Be glad you didn’t get into politics when you did. You did the world a much better service by starting your grimoire business.”

  Lucan growled as they entered the elevator.

  They rode up in silence.

  “But I suppose I was too hard on you,” Ennius said. “When you started defaming me in public, I let my ego get the better of me.”

  “That sounds like an apology,” Lucan said.

  Ennius laughed again. “I guess.”

  “Let’s get Madelaide home safe,” Lucan said. “Then you can apologize if you want.”

  ***

  A black helicopter whirred over the gardens. Miri watched as it passed over them. It swung over the trees and then circled back toward them, hovering for a moment, stabilizing as it descended to the grass.

  Earl threw open the door and smiled. He motioned to the pilots to keep the engine running.

  “Miri! Celesse! Where’s Mr. Grimoire?”

  Miri pointed to the top of the skyscraper.

  “Oh boy,” Earl said. “When I heard the blasts, I called for air assistance so we could get out of here quick. The boss has gone and made this complicated.”

  He heard Old Dark roar again and then went pale. “Awfully complicated.”

  XXXII

  Lucan and Ennius ran onto the vegetated roof of the skyscraper. Tall grass wavered in the night breeze, and sirens wailed below them at the event center.

  Lucan stopped and motioned Ennius to stop. Together they stalked through the grass. Madelaide was ahead, tied to a metal stake.

  “Daddy?” she asked.

  A shadow loomed above. Lucan reached into his pocket and cast a protection dome. It appeared just as Old Dark smashed into it. The blast knocked the dragon backward but Dark flipped in mid-air and spread his wings, flapping high into the air. He grinned. “You certainly came prepared.”

  “Listen up,” Lucan said, pointing at Dark, “We’re going to let my daughter go. After that, we can duel it out if you want.”

  “Ah,” Dark said, landing softly, “You don’t like to see someone in captivity, hmm?”

  “So that’s what this is about,” Lucan said. “You had a chance to see the city. Do you understand why I kept you in a cage?”

  Dark twirled a claw. A yellow string of magic unspooled from his fingernail and spread across Lucan’s protective dome like aerosol strings until the entire dome was covered. With a shatter, the dome disappeared. Dark’s nail cracked in half and he bit it off.

  Lucan readied another grimoire. Ennius stood by his side and readied one as well.

  “We don’t tolerate playing dirty,” Ennius said.

  “I don’t tolerate much of anything these days,” Dark said. He assumed an attack stance, digging his claws into the grass and arching his back. He bounded into the air, and Lucan ran at him.

  Dark swiped at Lucan. Ennius shot a fireball at the dragon’s claw, knocking it away just in time. Dark lunged at Ennius and hit Lucan with his tail. Lucan rolled across the grass and let off a wave of electricity that ripped through Dark and made the dragon cry out. Ennius retreated and started to untie Madelaide but Dark hurled a plasma sickle at him, knocking him into the air.

  Ennius landed in the grass and Dark jumped on top of him. Ennius looked up with frightened eyes.

  “Uncle Ennius!” Madelaide cried.

  When Dark turned for Lucan, he was gone, hiding behind the roof stairwell.

  Dark stomped toward the stairwell, breathing smoke ahead of him.

  Lucan held a grimoire close to his chest.

  Stomp.

  Stomp.

  Growl.

  Stomp.

  Stomp.

  Stomp.

  Growl.

  Silence.

  Lucan flashed the grimoire and sent a paralysis spell around the corner of the stairwell. He followed the spell to see if it connected.

  A whoosh of fire and a poof of magic engulfed the spell, dissipating it mid-air.

  CRACK!

  Dark’s fist connected with Lucan and knocked across the roof. He slid to the roof’s edge, his head dangling over the edge. Below, he sensed the long, long fall to the ground.

  “Daddy!”

  Lucan was winded. He tried to catch his breath.

  He only had one grimoire left.

  Dark stomped toward him but another spell flashed behind him. A wall of ice flashed in front of him and he crashed into it. The ice shards cut his face and bloodied it and he roared angrily.

  Ennius stood, an ice crystal dissolving in his hand, smirking confidently. “How’s that for a spell, dragon?”

  Lucan sat up and caught his breath.

  Dark about-faced and leaped at Ennius, who had finished untying Madelaide.

  A fireball from Dark’s claws knocked Ma
delaide out of Ennius’s arms and sent him sliding to the roof’s edge.

  “Get up, Unc!” Lucan cried.

  Ennius reached for his grimoires but Dark grabbed his hand and they fluttered into the night. Ennius yelled as Dark held him over the edge.

  “Let him go!” Lucan yelled. He grabbed his grimoire and dashed toward the dragon.

  Lucan saw it coming but he couldn’t react fast enough. With his tail, Dark grabbed the metal stake. As Lucan activated his grimoire, Dark thrusted his tail upward.

  Lucan first saw his uncle’s eyes widen. Then he heard Madelaide screaming. And a helicopter motor.

  Then he looked down and saw the stake in his torso.

  His hands slowly touched the stake. It was warm.

  He looked up and saw Dark’s face, which was satisfied in a way that chilled Lucan’s soul.

  His grimoire wheel glowed in front of him. He reached for a rune—any rune—but he fell short and the wheel evaporated into pink wisps. He landed on his knees and blood bloomed in his throat.

  He closed his eyes as Dark lifted the stake into the air and hurled it over the rooftop.

  XXXIII

  Miri and Celesse screamed as Dark impaled Lucan. They could only watch in slow motion as Dark threw him over the roof.

  “Keep this helicopter high,” Earl told the pilot.

  “We’ve got to get down there!” Miri cried.

  Earl’s eyes were filled with tears. “We’re staying right here.”

  Miri hit him on the shoulder. “Fly down there, now!”

  “Miss, stop hitting me. Miss. Miss!”

  Earl pointed to the rooftop.

  Dark held Ennius by the throat. He let the man go, and he dropped to the ground. The governor’s chest heaved up and down and Madelaide ran to him. Together, they escaped into the stairwell.

  Three dragons crawled from the upper story windows and climbed onto the roof, joining Dark.

  “The whole fight was rigged,” Celesse said. “Those dragons were waiting to attack.” She put her hands into her face and cried.

  The dragons looked up at the helicopter and then said something to Dark.