by Max Andren
Sebastian looked resolved, standing to meet DeChadik eye-to-eye. I’d seen that look before and knew exactly what would happen next.
“No, we won’t be going with you. If our daughter comes home, we will detain her here and then call the authorities. And this time, I will ensure that she gets the proper treatment and help that you say she needs. But we will wait here for her to arrive,” he ended defiantly.
“That’s unfortunate.”
DeChadik transformed his hand into a dragon’s claw and struck through Sebastian’s chest. He was quick as a cobra and ripped Sebastian’s heart out of his chest with a sucking sound.
He licked at the blood that pulsed from the still-beating heart, as Sebastian collapsed to the floor and Helena threw herself on top of him, clinging to her beloved.
I turned away from the look of sheer delight and euphoria on DeChadik’s face. The look of shock on Sebastian’s face and the abject terror on Helena’s because she knew she would be next. The horror continued…
DeChadik let my father’s dead heart drop to the floor at his feet. Shifting to dragon, he set them ablaze with his dragon fire, then turned to shadow and left.
The knowledge that Hanley had controlled their minds so he could have what he had wanted—me, made my stomach turn over with nausea and my heart ache yet again, for all that was lost.
Helena’s screams echoed through my mind long after the horrific vision had ended.
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“And you shall die, just as she did, but you’ll have no pyre to rest upon. No beloved to cling to as you scream your final breath. Have you ever had a lover, Phoenix? Anyone that would hold you as you die?”
I refused to speak.
“No? I wouldn’t think so. Who would have you? Your blood is defiled and tainted by druid blood, making you an affront to the dragon race.”
I was too lost within the darkness of my mind to pay attention to DeChadik, so I continued to ignore him. The sounds and images of Sebastian and Helena continued to haunt my mind. Vignettes from the vision flashed back-and-forth between their shocking defense of me and their ultimate deaths because of me.
More deaths to mark upon my soul.
The sound of Sebastian’s defiance and Helena’s love and distress over sending me back to the asylum, would echo through me for centuries. As would the fact they died believing I was a monster capable of mass murder.
“Your brother will be next for the blood he shares with you. He cannot be allowed to live either.”
“You need to get your facts straight, DeChadik. Charani’s brothers are more than you can handle, I’d be running if I were you.”
DeChadik spun quickly around to face Sterling.
“Ha!” DeChadik exclaimed, with a slight hitch in his voice. “That’s rich. You don’t even know the truth yet, do you?” He asked with smug condescension, recovering from his momentary surprise.
Oh God, I should have told him sooner.
“That…” DeChadik said, pointing to where I laid on the dirt floor behind the bars...
Frantically, I tried pushing my way through Sterling’s shield to tell him first, but at this point, the damage of omission was done.
“…Is your sister.”
Sterling looked at me in disbelief, confusion, and a dawning realization of the truth. We had the same crystal blue eyes and dark hair as our father.
Sterling charged DeChadik with no warning at all.
“I refuse to lose my sister. You. Will. Not. Win.”
Each word was punctuated by Sterling’s fist.
I was finally able to move, but trapped as I was behind these bars, I couldn’t shift, so I was no help to my brother.
They were fighting hand-to-hand in human-form and from what I could tell, Sterling had the advantage. He was taller, quicker, and had more skill. All those months training the elite guard at Everlasting had not gone to waste.
DeChadik shifted to a smaller dragon and unleashed his dragon fire at Sterling and then at me, before fleeing from the cave.
Coward!
Dragon fire was clinging to whatever it had touched and filling the cave with smoke. I’d jumped out the way, missing his blast, but lucky for me, it had caused the bars to warp and bend enough that Sterling was able to pull me through to the other side.
Breathing was becoming difficult, but for a brief moment we each gazed upon our sibling, acknowledging the fact that we were family with our eyes alone. Sterling raised his hand to tuck my red Phoenix hair behind my ear and said, “Mia,” as he did so.
“We have to go, Sterling. We can’t let him escape.”
“I know, let’s go.”
We ran out of the cave in pursuit of DeChadik. We needed to catch him before he could escape. Sterling shifted to shadow to travel faster through the tight and winding passageway. It was difficult to breathe and to see due to the thick smoke, so I followed his lead as shifting would alleviate both issues.
DeChadik had failed to kill me with his dragon fire, but the subsequent smoke tried its best to finish the job for him.
As Sterling and I breached the entrance of the cave, we shifted back to human to search for where DeChadik had gone.
“There he is,” Sterling yelled, pointing towards the east.
We ran and dove off the bluff together.
Sterling threw his arms wide—relishing that moment of free-fall and shifted seamlessly to a Phoenix Dragon. Shocked by that revelation, my shift wasn’t as smooth and momentarily slowed my pursuit.
I quickly caught up with Sterling and since we were in dragon-form, I spoke with him, mind-to-mind.
“Were you going to tell us you’re a Phoenix?”
“Yes, when the time was right.”
His scales were an unusual color, more green than dragon blue, with a pearlescent red hue to them.
DeChadik was ahead of us, but not by much. He must have felt us because he turned his head to see where we were. His dragon was blue, his scales a blend of pink and green; and, smaller than ours, probably because he wasn’t a Phoenix and we were.
A crescent moon was hanging low in the night sky providing a bit of illumination, but too many shadows. Luckily, vision wasn’t an issue when in dragon form. Dense fog was hovering over the ground and the waterways blanketed them in invisibility.
After flying in circles over the various bluffs, DeChadik dropped and disappeared below the fog. We pulled up and waited, knowing he would backtrack and attack swiftly.
I could feel Sterling’s anger and need for vengeance.
Waves of sick anticipation slammed into me—the oily residue familiar, yet unrecognizable. I’d left my protective shield wide open to allow for a better connection to Sterling and to DeChadik. But connecting with DeChadik’s emotions proved futile, as there were none—just a void of darkness.
“Do you feel that, Sterling?”
“I do.”
Sterling was on my right and closer to the bluffs. DeChadik had been between us and ahead but was now below us somewhere—lurking.
“There’s someone on the bluff, let’s…”
Before I could finish, the unmistakable sound of a crossbow releasing, echoed through the air.
“Bank left! Bank left!”
The arrow missed Sterling’s wing by a breath as he fell off, rolling to his left and directly into DeChadik’s dragon fire. He pulled up, just as another arrow was released and then another—in rapid succession.
“The apprentice.”
I was torn between fighting DeChadik and killing the apprentice, just as I knew Sterling was.
“You get DeChadik, I’m going after the apprentice for killing my parents. Our parents!” I told him, and took off.
Tucking in my wings, I flew straight at him, leaving Sterling to deal with DeChadik. It was his turn to be shocked and I could feel it reverberate through my wide open shield. He was torn between killing DeChadik and killing the apprentice.
“Mia?”
“Yes.”
“
We will talk about all of this later, Mia. Go get your man and I’ll get mine!”
Sterling executed a perfect barrel roll and took off after DeChadik. He was bigger and faster. Once he caught up to him, they engaged in a fierce aerial dogfight and Sterling fired the first dragon fire volley straight at DeChadik.
Wishing him luck, I turned to find the apprentice. He was going down.
Or maybe I was, I thought frantically, as I maneuvered quickly to miss being skewered by another arrow.
No matter which direction I moved, the arrows tracked my movements, I was barely escaping their trajectory. They were fired at me, one after another, without much respite between releases. Some type of automatic quick-action release—I had no idea.
What I did know was that they were coming in—fast and heavy.
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He remained hidden below the fog, but I had a general idea of where he must be, based on the trajectory of the arrows. I tried to fly around behind where they were firing, but the arrows followed me, tracking me through my movements.
I couldn’t figure out how he was releasing the arrows so rapidly and was tired of dodging the deadly missiles, so I shifted to shadow and dropped to the bluffs below me. The arrows had ceased flying, for now.
He was nowhere that I could see, but the dense fog hid both of us. Shifting to human, I methodically searched the area for where he was hiding. I could feel his malice and smell the lingering dark magic, hanging suspended in the fog, making his location indeterminate.
He could be anywhere.
Stumbling around blind, I made my way towards where I thought the den of the devil would be. It was difficult because the terrain was rugged with rocks, thick shrubs, and unfortunately for my skin, needle-sharp locust trees that loved to slice.
In the middle of a rare clearing sat a remote-triggered automatic crossbow machine, which explains how he had fired so rapidly. He could be anywhere in the area, even miles away. I felt him, but there was a barrier that hid his location.
Dark magic at work, no doubt.
I wasn’t about to leave this crossbow machine here, armed and ready to kill my dragon brethren. I shifted to destroy it like I had Hulbetto’s bloody cairn. To add height to my dragon weight, I rose high above the ground and dropped rapidly to destroy his weapon.
Hot, blinding pain ripped though my wing, as an arrow tore through it, leaving tiny fragments embedded within the scales and membrane. The force of the arrow flipped me away from the crossbow and I came down in human form. Rolling as I landed, I jumped up to face my attacker.
My arm was still bleeding, despite shifting. Damascus steel, the kryptonite of the dragon race.
The sound of running feet heralded the rapid approach of my nemesis, the apprentice. I wanted to kill the bastard, face-to-face, for what he did to my family.
I wish I could snap my fingers like Dreah and create a weapon, because I needed one—now. Shifting wasn’t an option.
He slowed his approach, but walked into the clearing on the offensive. With determined strides and murder in his narrowed, black eyes, I was sent scrambling.
Reciting the spell Dreah had taught me, I snapped my fingers, opened my hand and—nothing.
Jumping over a rock that was determined to trip me, I tried again. I recited the words, snapped fingers, and opened my hand and—a wand-sized staff appeared.
Really?
I threw the wand at him, as he closed the distance between us, hitting him in the face, angering him even more and he charged at me.
It was like my little hatchling all over again because I didn’t know what I was doing.
He swiped the staff at my feet. I jumped over it and pivoted mid-air to avoid being bashed in the head as I dropped back to the ground. Trying once more for a weapon to match his, I recited the words—again, snapped my fingers, and—a staff appeared in my awaiting hand.
Apparently the third time really is the charm, and timely, too!
Raising my staff, I was able to block the blow that was aimed at my head. We exchanged blows back and forth. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long; I could feel my blood dripping down my arm and it was becoming weaker.
“I take it your drampires never believed you were good enough to join their ranks. Odd, I didn’t think they were very discriminating,” I said, attempting to distract and incite him.
“You know nothing, dragon!”
“I know you’re a lowly apprentice.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have poked the bear.
He charged me with demented aggression using repetitive strikes that were difficult to counter. I was tiring and would have to do something soon or lose this battle.
I thrust my staff at him for a chest blow, spinning to jab at his kidneys, and jumping away from his return blows. He came at me, over and over, pushing me towards a collection of rocks. I didn’t see them until it was too late.
I tripped and fell. My staff flew out of my hands as I lost my balance and fell onto a large boulder—eerily reminiscent of that damned bloody cairn. My attempt to jump was thwarted when he brought his staff to rest against my throat, pushing hard against my larynx.
Breathing and swallowing were extremely difficult as I was wedged against the boulder and couldn’t escape the pressure. I tried to shift, but the residual Damascus arrow prevented me from doing so.
“I will hold you here, at my mercy, until DeChadik returns and we reap your Phoenix essence. Right here!”
He reached behind his back and pulled forward Dramascus shackles. If he managed to put those on me, I would have no way to defend myself.
The apprentice pulled the staff away from compressing my throat and inhaled deeply. I prepared for the blow…
“Be ready, My Lady!”
“Violet!”
Crazy faery, I told her not to come back. She threw some kind of powder into the apprentice’s eyes and that’s when I made my move.
Jumping up, I concentrated on changing just my hand into a dragon claw, like DeChadik did before killing Sebastian.
My hand didn’t fully transition, but it was enough. I shoved my clawed hand deep into his chest and ripped out his heart.
Vengeance was mine!
Oh God, what have I done?
I thrust into the apprentice’s mind, searching for anything about Aiden.
All I managed to feel were vague thoughts about Aiden from when he had stolen the Sword of Dramascus from Hulbetto’s warehouse. There was nothing that pointed to where he could be.
I was a complete failure. In my blind need for vengeance, I forgot about Cipriano’s search for the apprentice and Aiden would suffer for my selfishness.
How was I going to tell Cipriano that I killed the only person that could lead us to his brother?
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I would face Cipriano and tell him what I had done, but for now I would help Sterling capture DeChadik. I still couldn’t shift because of the arrow shrapnel scattered throughout my arm.
“Here, My Lady, I can help you with that,” Violet said as she shifted off my skin.
“What did you throw in the apprentice’s eyes?”
She looked at me and shrugged, “Faery dust.”
“You risked exposure to help me. Are you in danger now, Violet?”
“All will be well, besides you are worth whatever minimal risk traveling to Faery may have caused.”
We’d never discussed why she was hiding at Everlasting with us, but I knew that she was. She hid upon my skin to escape detection from those who would do her harm, or that’s what I assumed she was doing. I didn’t ask her about her demons and she didn’t ask me about mine—we just acknowledged that they existed.
She waved her hands over my arm and slowly, but surely, the arrow bits and pieces were drawn out—to drop on the ground at my feet. I could feel the difference, the numbness and tingling receded and the bleeding slowed to a stop.
Damascus steel didn’t bother Violet or others from Faery. However, she couldn’t tolerate i
ron, specifically cold-forged iron. It was made without the heat of a forge and therefore, very difficult to make. It was her kryptonite, just like Damascus was mine.
Shifting to my dragon, I stretched my wings, feeling a slight pinch as they continued to repair themselves. I turned my dragon head towards the apprentice and unleashed my dragon fire to take care of his remains.
Ashes to ashes and now, dust upon the wind.
“Come, Violet, let’s go take care of DeChadik.”
She transitioned onto my skin, just as I launched from the bluff to rise above the fog. I immediately saw Sterling, but he was alone.
“Where’s DeChadik?”
“I have no idea, he just disappeared,” he told me, confused. “We were grappling mid-air. I’d scored some significant hits and he was bleeding profusely. He was showing signs of fatigue so I thought he’d be forced to shift and we’d take our fight to the ground.”
“Then where could he have gone?”
“He slipped from my claws to drop below the fog and disappeared. I’ve been searching for him.”
“He’s a Chameleon Dragon. I discovered his ability when I was in the cave, so he could have been right in front of you and you wouldn’t have seen him.”
Sterling said something under his breath and in a language I didn’t understand, but the meaning was not lost on me.
“My sentiments exactly. We should head back to Everlasting to warn everyone.”
“What happened with the apprentice?”
“He’s dead.”
“Well done. He deserved it for destroying our family.”
“But, I screwed up, Sterling,” I couldn’t keep the pain from my voice and didn’t bother trying, “I forgot about Aiden,” I confessed.
We still hadn’t spoken about the fact we were siblings or about our lives to date. What must he think of me now?
“I think you are beautiful and courageous, Mia.”