The Fallen Prince

by Shea Berkley

  She stared at the black sky sprinkled with a thousand stars. One by one, they began to burst like fireworks on a clear and cold night.

  The stardust zipped across the sky. Falling. Falling. Falling. Until it swirled around her, sinking into her skin, flooding every nerve with a magic so intense she couldn’t breathe.

  Her body convulsed.

  Her heart beat once.

  Twice.

  Then stilled.

  Seeing Is Believing

  The bodies are buried. All fourteen of them.

  I killed fourteen men. Me. Alone.

  When I think about it too much, my stomach gets tight. The grave mounds slowly sink into the ground, instantaneous internment. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I can’t watch, and I turn away. Squatting beside Bodog, I stare into the fire he made. It’s safer, except the images of the dead soldiers I try to push deep into my mind won’t stay buried. I slip my right hand within the fire and let the orange and red flames lick at my fingers, willing a jolt of pain to chase the images away. After a while, I pull away and examine my hand, burn- and pain-free. “It’s not right.”

  Faldon’s face shifts and the wooden lips part. “Right or wrong, the power we each have is a gift and not to be used lightly.”

  “I guess Jason didn’t get that memo.” My thoughts darken thinking about my former friend. “I’ve been meaning to ask you how power is given. Jason seems to have an awful lot of it.”

  “He does.”

  “So how’d he get it?”

  “Whoever gifted him with power made sure he either had an unlimited reserve for a specific time period, or they created a new way of permanently altering his human status.”

  “Like he died and was reanimated?” My causing Jason’s meltdown and then giving him the power to enact his revenge gives my life just one more sick twist.

  “It’s an interesting theory…”

  “But could it happen?”

  “I don’t know. I’m more familiar with Granel’s genetic alterations he created for Navar.”

  Out of all of Granel’s creations, the hellhounds have given me the worst nightmares. I hate those damn dogs. “It’s a creepy hobby he’s developed.”

  “It was banned hundreds of years ago, after the werewolf uprising.”

  “Werewolves?” He can’t be serious. “Are you telling me you guys made werewolves?”

  “Our people are masters over nature, but even we have our share of failed experiments. Werewolves were designed to control one specific human nation from wandering too far outside their boundaries, but the werewolves migrated and caused havoc when they developed a taste for human flesh. The few who survived were placed in the Unknown, where access to magic is limited. To be honest, no one knows exactly what is in there, what has survived. Thrived. Adapted. It’s how the area got its name.”

  I rub my stomach and wonder if I’m getting ulcers. Seventeen and I’m killing myself with worry. “Kera’s in there…so are Reece and Signe…with those things and God knows what else. Why would you create something like that and then let it loose? It’s sick.”

  “We were put here to create order out of chaos. To use our talent with science and magic and refine the rough edges of nature.” He paused. “When mistakes happen, we needed a solution.”

  I push to my feet, unable to hide my disgust. “If you haven’t noticed, you guys are having an epic fail moment.”

  I start toward the bridge, my worry growing with every step. Someone has to know what’s in the Unknown. Someone has to know where Kera is and what’s keeping her there. Someone.

  It’s a call of frustration. A call for help. I can’t do this alone. One misstep will bring me to my knees.

  Your powers have grown stronger.

  I turn around. Bodog and Faldon are still by the fire. I must be hearing things.

  You are hearing me. To save Kera, you must kill the Dreamweaver. It never gives up its victims willingly, so you must lure it from its burrow. Whatever you do, never listen to your death song. Now hurry. Kera won’t last much longer.

  “How do you know all this?”

  A king always knows what goes on in his kingdom, Dylan.

  I’m talking to my dad? I clench my teeth and my jaw spasms like a Pavlovian dog hearing the bell. “Why should I trust you?”

  You have no one else to turn to.

  I hate it that he’s right. I feel his presence leave my mind, and I realize I’ve wandered closer to the bridge than I had intended. That my dad can distract me so completely makes me nervous.

  Before I can turn around, a rush of air slashes through the area, followed by an earsplitting cry. The next moment, a huge dragon is in front of me, its weight shaking the ground when it lands. In no time, Bodog’s up a tree, stick in hand and a whimper on his lips. I grab my sword and hold it in front of me, staring down the burning blade into a pair of amber eyes.

  “Don’t hurt him,” someone yells weakly.

  The next moment I see Lucinda leap off the dragon’s back and reach up to help Leo down. He clutches his side where blood soaks his shirt and looks at Lucinda. “I told you he wouldn’t stay put. I knew he’d be here.”

  I put away my sword and race to him, fitting my shoulder under his arm for support. “What happened?”

  Leo limps along beside me. He’s sweating and can’t seem to take a full breath. “Get ready. Jason’s coming. He was in the human realm tearing it up when we got there.”

  I’m almost relieved. That’s why we couldn’t find him with the maps. “What was he doing there?”

  “He went after his dad.” Leo’s kind eyes flicker with pain.

  I set him on the ground near the fire, and Lucinda peels back his shirt and examines his wound. “Bro, he killed his own dad. Ripped him apart. Then went after his wrestling coach, then the principal…everyone he believes should’ve stepped in and stopped his dad from being a dick, which is pretty much everyone. He’s out of control. If you’re going to save Kera, you’ve got to leave now, before he gets here.”

  “Are my grandparents okay?” I feel selfish for asking specifically after them, but I have to know.

  He sucks in a deep breath when Lucinda touches a sensitive area and grunts, “Yeah. Your grandfather and my dad are pulling people together and are coming this way.”

  “Wait, they’re coming to Teag?”

  “To the barrier. Whatever crosses over, they’re determined to kill.”

  “So everyone knows about me now?”

  “Hard to hide when that walking chunk of meat starts showing off his new powers and telling everyone how superior he is to us puny humans. Classic movie-villain mode.” He coughs and clutches his side. He’s about as pale as I’ve ever seen him.

  “He is superior to humans,” Lucinda says, pushing Leo’s hands away so she can wrap his wound with bandages she’s pulled out of thin air.

  “Cin…” Leo draws her name out.

  I’m not surprised she thinks like Jason. Honestly, I can’t understand why she’s with us. From what I’ve seen, she isn’t the type to stick around a losing team.

  She blinks as if she’s startled by his tone. “I meant no insult. It is like comparing a kitten to a grown lion. Same heart, different skills, and right now you are a tangle of kittens in need of better skills.”

  She stands, and Leo grabs her hand. “Where are you going?”

  “To bring you those with better skills.” She dips down, caresses his cheek, and kisses him.

  “Hurry back.” He lets go, and she’s gone.

  I can’t stop staring at him. “Wow.” It’s all I can say. Their relationship doesn’t seem like a temporary fling.

  “Jason was aiming for her.” He fidgets with his bandages, then says on a gruff whisper, “I got in the way.”

  “You got in the way?” Leo isn’t that stupid or clumsy. “You saved her life.” Ever since he stepped foot in Teag and met Lucinda, she’s been the one to protect him like a leopard hissing over its latest kill. Clearly
, when he saved her, it made an impression. Maybe I’ve misjudged her after all.

  A distinct yelp echoes. I see the dragon pressing its front feet along the base of a tree, trying to shake what’s in it down. Bodog smacks the dragon’s head with the heavy end of his walking stick and tells it to go away.

  “Where did you find a dragon?”

  “In the woods behind your house where Kera tied it.”

  In the woods where Kera tied it? I sigh. “Her sweet little pet was a dragon?”

  He struggles to sit up straight and yells, “Blaze!”

  “Blaze?” That monstrous thing can’t be the same tiny fire-spitter who tried to bite me.

  The dragon lumbers over and sniffs Leo, then me. I’m not a fan of a dragon’s massive, hot nose shoved in my crotch, and I gingerly push him away.

  “He likes you,” Leo says on a sigh of relief. “Lucinda said he belonged to Faldon.”

  “This can’t be that Blaze. Faldon’s dragon was tiny.” I show Leo how tiny with the span of my fingers.

  “Here, yeah, but once he stepped foot in our realm, he started to grow, and good thing, too. He’s big enough to carry you into the Unknown. So take him and go.”

  “I’m not going to leave you. Not like this.” He’s bleeding and can barely take a full breath.

  “Lucinda wouldn’t have left if she thought I was dying. Trust me on that. Signal Wyatt.” Leo nods toward the tree Bodog is climbing out of. “Bodog can look after me until he gets here.”

  The little man’s foot slips and he falls to the ground, not instilling confidence in me. Leo won’t let up. “Bro, this is your only chance. You’ve got to take it.”

  If I leave and something horrible happens to Leo, I’ll never forgive myself. But how can I leave Kera to suffer a moment longer? Not to mention Signe and Reece. Not long ago, I would’ve abandoned Leo in favor of Kera. Somewhere along the way, I learned to contain my selfish nature.

  “Go,” Leo says, delivering a weak push against my leg.

  Bodog gives the dragon a wide berth and ends up near my elbow. He digs the slim end of his walking stick into the dirt and stares up at me with his big googly eyes. “Faith takes risk.”

  Faldon’s face appears in the wood, and I wonder how much faith he had to have in order to allow Bodog to separate him from the tree.

  “Your friend will be all right,” Faldon rasps.

  I don’t like the risk, but I’ve run out of choices. I point my finger at Faldon’s wooden face. “Don’t you dare let Bodog leave him.”

  The wooden lips crack open. “You have my word.”

  I call a ball of fire to my hands, and when it’s big and hot enough, I send it into the sky, where it explodes into a shower of sparks.

  Now that I’ve made my decision, I can’t wait to find Kera. I grab my satchel from near the fire and approach Blaze, hoping he’ll let me ride him, and prepared to force the matter.

  I run my hand along his side, feel him shiver at my touch. He glances back at me, not in a threatening way, but in a way that makes me think he knows what’s going on and I’m taking too long. I nod and vault onto his back and settle into a space with small, soft scales that feel made for a rider. Halfway up the neck, a series of horns sprout out in two rows that climb to the top of his head. The smallest ones nearest me are perfect handholds.

  “Make sure you have enough speed, and once you enter, push for height,” Faldon’s raspy voice calls. “There is no telling what you’ll encounter once you enter the Unknown.”

  I’m not sure how to get a dragon to go, so I treat him like I would a horse and kick his sides with my heels. He suddenly hunkers down and jumps. I’m not prepared for the vertical takeoff. My head spins until we level off. The speed is good, but I yell for him to take us lower.

  He understands what I want almost as if he’s reading my mind. We dip back toward the earth, skim the ground at a winning NASCAR speed, and hit the edge of the drop-off near the bridge.

  There’s no time to feel any of the sensations I felt the first time I tried to cross. We break through the cloaking magic and find ourselves flying over a deep gorge. Silence pushes against my eardrums. Blaze struggles to rise higher. The woods loom in front of us, except we’re sinking. It’s like something is sucking us down. Blaze pumps his wings, his muscles strain. We slam against the opposite edge of the gorge and he claws at the dirt.

  “Come on. You can do it,” I yell, feeling my stomach drop further with every second suspended there.

  His back claws rip off chunks of dirt as his front claws sink into the earth. With one massive heave, Blaze hurdles us up and into the woods, skidding to a stop in front of a huge tree. I slip off his back, my legs shaking, and I hug him.

  “I love you, man. I don’t know about you, but I was scared to death.”

  Blaze snuffles and lets out a horrible sulfurous stink, one I remember coming from Kera one night. She’s been keeping a lot from me, and that makes me nervous…and worried. Why didn’t she trust me?

  I let go and remount, turning the question over in my mind. Once we find a big enough break in the trees, Blaze crouches and springs into the air. Aloft, I peer into the thick canopy of glittering, silver-edged leaves. Off to my right, smoke filters up through the limbs. Campfires. It’s right where the map showed an army. In front and to my left, the forest blankets the area for miles and miles.

  I do a low-level search pattern, zigzagging back and forth. For being so big, Blaze is amazingly agile and quiet in the air. I can hear a squirrel climb a tree…but it’s probably not a cute little innocent squirrel. It’s probably vampiric with venom in its spit.

  I’m about ready to move to a new area when I hear a scream. I call on my power. It’s sluggish to find me, but I get enough that I’m able to separate the trees and Blaze dives down, landing right in front of Signe and Reece. Horror is etched into Signe’s face and Reece has her pressed up against a tree, his back to her and his sword drawn, but I don’t see a threat.

  Slipping off Blaze, I draw my sword and ask the obvious. “What’s wrong?”

  Signe points to the spot under Blaze’s feet. The dragon scoots to the side to reveal a dying, smooshed field mouse.

  I pick up the broken little body by its tail and Signe whimpers while Reece holds his sword pointed at it. I don’t get it. “It’s a mouse, guys.”

  The thing suddenly turns on me, grows to the size of a bobcat, and lunges at my throat. I toss it in the air and Blaze blasts it with fire. The thing drops to the ground twitching and smoking, and Reece stabs it so many times he looks like he’s preparing it for stir-fry. When he’s satisfied the thing’s dead, his wild gaze settles on me. “Do you know what kinds of crazy things live here?”

  We had a basic clue before we decided to rescue Kera, but I’m thinking he’s not in the mood to hear that. They both launch themselves at me, and I’m in the middle of a hug sandwich.

  Reece jerks back. “From now on, we stick together.”

  Signe pulls away. “Together.”

  “Why’d you do it?” I ask them.

  Reece points to Signe. “I followed her.”

  “I couldn’t wait any longer,” she says. “Lani died because I was always scared to go with her. I refuse to lose Kera because of a weak heart.” She bows her head, fighting back tears.

  Girls and tears. Having an emotional basket case as a mom helped me realize crying is as natural for them as eating. Reece wraps his arms around Signe, and she hugs him tightly. Running his hands up and down her back, he says, “You’re not weak, Signe. You’re cautious.”

  “Cautious?” Her spine snaps arrow-straight, and she shoves away from Reece.

  Oh crap. I take a step back. He should’ve stayed with the back rubbing.

  “Hadrain was cautious and let Navar take over his lands and people. My mother was cautious, and died before she could reveal her feelings to the man she loved, afraid he wouldn’t love her back because she was human. My sister was everything that was good, swee
t, and pure and she was anything but cautious and lived life to the fullest. I want my full measure. I hate being cautious…hate it!”

  She wipes away her gathering tears, and Reece holds up his hands in surrender, lost as to what he did wrong.

  Muttering under her breath, Signe holds out her ring hand. The stone glows blue and she tosses dirt several times in the air until a three-dimensional map appears. She follows the short line to a detailed picture of the inside of an animal burrow. “There she is, in this back chamber.” Signe glances up at Reece, “Waiting for me to stop being cautious and rescue her.” She drops her hand and the map disintegrates.

  “Great!” Reece snaps. “Why don’t you race on out there and get your impulsive self killed trying to rescue your friend, and I’ll stay here and create a plan that will actually work.”

  “Oh, you are…you are…,” she stammers, her cheeks turning redder and redder.

  “I’m what?” he challenges.

  “Not worth talking to anymore.” She spins around and stomps over to Blaze.

  A confused frown shadows Reece’s face, and I shake my head. “Let’s calm down. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

  “What are you talking about?” He thrusts his hand, palm up, in her direction. “I am trying to keep her from getting hurt.”

  Blaze hacks once, twice, and then spits a pile of mucous-laced mouse bones in Reece’s outstretched hand. The big guy grimaces and flicks the special gift off.

  Signe pats Blaze, hiding her smile, and then walks past me. “Kera is this way.”

  Reece follows, wiping his hand on his pant leg. Before I go, I pull Blaze’s massive head to mine and stare into those beady amber eyes. “Stay here. We’re going to get Kera. Understand? You stay here.”

  As Reece and Signe move farther into the trees, I back away, point at him, and repeat, “Stay.”

  When I catch up, Reece leans over and asks so Signe can’t hear, “We’re coming back for him, right?”

  Am I the only one who sees an advantage in having a dragon along? “Why wouldn’t we?” I whisper back.