by Chant, Zoe
It was tiny, almost impossible to make out. But when she drew back to stare at the small imperfection in the crystal her fingers had encountered, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
It wasn’t just an imperfection. It was a small indentation in the crystal—shaped like a perfect triangle.
A triangle with three straight lines pointing upwards.
Behind her, the dragon roared again, answered by the griffin’s cry. The air in the cave grew even colder, the light dimming at the edges of her vision.
She didn’t dare to turn, not even when a sharp spike of pain came rushing through the bond and there was the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind her.
Run, Jared shouted through the bond.
She ignored him. Instead, she clenched her fingers around his amulet. Then she lifted it and pressed it to the small indentation in the crystal.
It fit perfectly.
For a heartbeat, everything was silent.
And then, the crystal lit up so brilliantly that everything was drowned in light.
She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. There was a ringing sound in her ears.
And the wall before her was gone.
Her fingers still held the amulet, but the crystal she’d pressed it to had completely disappeared. A moment later, the glaring light dimmed until it was no longer blinding her. It still filled the cave, more intense than before—but she could see again.
Before her, another cave of crystal had opened up, more magnificent than the one they’d explored by far.
It was filled with statues and trees of gleaming crystal, golden boxes filled with treasure, tables laden with ancient books—and there, at the end of the huge cave, was a dais.
A ray of blinding light fell in from somewhere high above, bathing the dais in silver luminance.
To both sides of the dais, a statue of a griffin stood, chiseled perfectly from smooth, pale marble.
But the dais was empty. There was no dragon of crystal to be seen.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Jared
Every bone in his body ached.
So far, Jared had been able to bear the dark dragon’s attacks. Instead of fire, Zane was breathing darkness at him—a darkness that seemed to have a mind of its own, turning into strangely solid shadows that wrapped around his wings. They felt as heavy as chains of iron, and even after he’d broken free from them, the next attack left him hurtling towards the ground.
The impact was hard enough that he remained dazed for a second. All he could think of was that he had to get up, that he had to go on. He was all that stood between the dragon and his mate.
Painfully, Jared dragged himself back up, ignoring the way his left wing ached. Only then did he become aware that the light had changed.
He’d thought that the blinding flash of light had been caused by hitting his head on the stone when he fell.
But he’d been wrong. The light was still there.
It was so bright now that the shadows dimming the light earlier were burning away like mist in the light of the sun. The cave had come to life around them. The crystal had awoken.
Chiara had managed to rouse the fifth dragon at last.
Before the dark dragon could gather his strength for another attack, Jared hastily shifted back into his human form. He forced himself up onto his feet, ignoring his aching body, then grabbed Chiara’s hand.
Quickly, he pulled her with him into the dragon’s cave that had opened for them at last.
He was halfway through the cave, eager to put as much distance between them and Zane as possible, when he realized that something was wrong.
“No one’s there.” Chiara’s voice was shaking with disbelief. “The wall opened—but there’s no one here!”
“There has to be!” He kept running forward as quickly as he could.
Behind them, another roar shook the cave. The crystal vibrated beneath their feet as the sound of claws on rock told them that Zane had shaken off the shock as well.
“Maybe there’s an exit.” Chiara was panting as they kept running. “Maybe somewhere above—that light has to come from somewhere!”
In dismay, Jared stared at the empty dais before them.
It was small, if it was really meant for a dragon. Most importantly, it was empty, although it was lit by a brilliant ray of silver light that fell in from somewhere far above, hitting the center of the dais like a spotlight.
Again they heard Zane’s angry roar.
And then even the new, powerful light dimmed briefly as the dragon breathed a cloud of darkness their way. Through the bond, Jared could feel Chiara’s terror as tendrils of shadows wound around their legs.
The shadows felt strangely solid, like tentacles grasping at them. It was like walking through deep mud—or like quicksand, something malicious and dark that wanted to pull them under.
But the attack was not as powerful as Zane’s earlier attacks had been. It took less strength to fight free.
Something had weakened Zane.
The light. Maybe there’s no dragon here—but the light still harms him.
Gritting his teeth, Jared pulled his legs free from the tendrils of darkness, then helped Chiara break free as well. She was panting for breath, her eyes wide with terror—but she still kept going, her hold on his hand strong and determined.
The dais was right in front of them now. It was made of cool marble that shimmered silver in the eerie light that fell in—and it was unmarked. No dragon’s claws had left grooves in the rock.
Jared swallowed. Still, even without a fifth elemental dragon on their side, they weren’t defeated yet.
If the light weakened Zane, then what would happen if they could lure him into the brilliant cone of focused light that shone straight onto the dais?
Hand in hand, they ran for the light. Through the bond, some of his plan must have filtered through to Chiara, because she ran as if her life depended on it, without stopping for questions.
Behind them, Zane roared in anger when he at last seemed to realize that his shadow tendrils had failed to trap them. A moment later, there was the rushing sound of huge wings beating—Zane had to be coming straight at them now.
Jared didn’t dare to turn around. Even if he shifted into his griffin to face Zane, he wouldn’t buy Chiara more than a few seconds. And then she’d be trapped in here with Zane, all alone.
No. The light was their only chance. If he could trick Zane into entering the cone of light, they had a chance of defeating him. And then they’d get out of here alive.
The sound of wings was terrifyingly close now—but they’d nearly reached the dais.
From the corner of his eye, Jared saw the griffin statues towering above them as they rushed past them.
There was something strange about them. They seemed familiar somehow—the artist who had hewn them from the marble must have seen a real griffin before, because he’d gotten all the details right, down to the smallest feather.
Then they were past the statues. A few steps led up onto the dais. Holding tightly onto each other, they raced up the steps—and then they were in the light.
When they turned, Zane was so close that they could see the darkness swirling among his teeth when he opened his jaws.
But the light had gotten brighter. It was so strong now that everything around them seemed to vanish, swallowed by an incredible silver-white. The light felt as if it pierced right through Jared’s skin, illuminating him down to the deepest, darkest corners of his heart.
Something was moving at the edges of his vision, but he paid it no mind.
The light was everywhere now.
It pulsed through him, rushing through his veins, filling him from the roots of his hair to his toes, until all he could taste and see and feel was its blinding brilliance. It gained in intensity, shining brighter and brighter, until he feared that it would tear him apart, that it was too much to contain in the body of a single person.
And still the light grew brighter.
A griffin wasn’t meant to contain such power. Surely it was impossible to use this power and survive. And if it wouldn’t tear his body apart, then it would tear his mind into pieces, like what had happened to the chimera.
Still. Still. If he could use this power to save Chiara from the shadow dragon, wouldn’t it be worth it...?
As if the strange light had heard his thoughts, it suddenly grew even brighter. It was so brilliant it felt as if it was burning away everything that made him human, everything that made him a shifter. At last, Jared seemed to be made of nothing but the pulsing, throbbing, silver-white light that shone with the power of a million stars combined.
Unable to keep fighting its pull, Jared opened his mouth in agony to scream in defiance and challenge. He wasn’t going to die—not before taking Zane out first.
And then he felt it.
His body grew inexplicably lighter. An electric tingle ran up his spine. Every muscle in his body tensed.
He was shifting, even without having made the conscious decision to. But the light left him no choice. It forced the griffin out—and after a moment of hesitation, Jared gave in.
Now was his time. His final attack on Zane—his last chance to save Chiara, even if it meant that the light would consume him.
Dimly, Jared heard her cry his name. But it was too late. He’d already shifted, his wings spreading, his proud eagle’s beak parting.
His wings lifted him high up in the air.
And there to his utter shock, he saw that the statues near the dais had begun to move.
The two marble griffins were no longer the color of pale stone. Instead, they were shaking their wings, their feathers black and brown in a pattern that looked stunningly familiar.
But there was no time to wonder about what that might mean.
Zane was close now—very close. He’d come straight at the dais, roaring furiously—and just as Jared had lifted himself up into the air, Zane had entered the cone of light.
The rage in Zane’s eyes was replaced by sudden shock. The wisps of shadow playing around his sharp teeth burned away in the glaring light.
The shadows covering his body were moving as well, but no longer swirling in menace. Instead, they seemed to cringe back, as if the light was hurting him. And where they retreated, Zane’s body was revealed to be covered by pale scales. Once, they might have been the red of a fire dragon, but now they were a bleached white with just the faintest tinge of red.
Still, Zane remained a dangerous enemy. Even though an angry screech of pain escaped him, he kept coming straight at Jared.
Zane’s jaws parted. Even in the brilliant light that filled the darkness, he managed to spew forth a torrent of twisting darkness. Tendrils of shadow rushed forward, reaching out for Jared with the strength of a horrible kraken determined to drag him under.
Time seemed to slow for a moment as Jared stared at the jet of darkness coming straight at him. Zane was close—but a simple beat of his wings would take Jared safely over the projectile.
Which would then hit Chiara, he realized in the heartbeat before the impact. Chiara, who was human and didn’t have a shifter’s healing powers.
He made his choice in that split second of realization.
Instead of beating his wings to raise himself up higher, he spread his wings, staring Zane fearlessly in the eye as he shielded Chiara with his body.
Jared, no! she shouted through the bond.
He could feel her fear and her terror come flooding through the golden light that tied their hearts together—and he could feel her love for him. Like a great wave of warmth, it broke over him, streaming through his veins so that her golden light mingled with the silver brightness that had taken possession of him.
And then the light flared.
It felt as if a star exploded.
Light burst out of him. It was impossible to contain it all. It exploded out of his beak as his griffin cried out in defiance; it shone out of his eyes; it illuminated his feathers and his claws and every single golden hair of his lion’s fur.
He was light. He was power.
And he wasn’t alone.
Next to his light, two further jets of brilliant white had appeared.
Now, before him, he saw three lines of light, shining so brightly that they seemed to burn themselves into his eyes.
Three lines of light—coming from a triangle formed by him and the two griffin statues, which had suddenly come to life.
Their combined light hit Zane with its full force. In its blinding luminance, the darkness he had breathed out burned away like paper.
When their attack hit him, Zane screamed in rage. For a moment, the remaining shadows surrounding him writhed, covering his scales with the oily darkness that had once seemed so invincible.
Now, faced with the force of their light, it retreated as quickly as rats scurrying away. Trapped in their light, Zane twisted, his tail lashing back and forth as he convulsed in agony.
One final time, his black eyes staring straight at Jared, he parted his jaw.
But the shadows that came out never even reached Jared. Like smoke, they vanished in the glaring light with a terrible scream that rattled the crystal cave. Then Zane screamed as well, a sound of helpless, powerless rage.
And the light they were shooting at him began to grow and grow, until it formed a ball that surrounded him.
For a moment, it grew so brilliant that they couldn’t see Zane anymore.
And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the power that had filled Jared nearly to bursting began to loosen its hold on him.
Little by little, the light burning in his heart was dimming.
A moment later, the lance of light he’d shot at Zane was gone. At long last, Jared’s muscles gave out, leaving him tumbling to the floor.
He felt exhausted and sore, as if he’d used muscles he never even knew existed. His wings ached as if he’d flown for an entire day.
Behind his eyes, he could still see the burning lines of light they’d used to entrap Zane. They formed a triangle—a triangle giving off three straight lines.
Just like the amulet he’d worn when he was found as a baby.
Just like the symbol on the mysterious fifth plinth in the council of elements.
It still didn’t quite make sense—but Chiara was safe for now. That was all that mattered.
Jared shifted back as soon as he hit the ground, and she was by his side immediately. Together, they stared at where the ball of light was still shining brightly, covering Zane.
And then that light died away too, little by little, as gently as the setting of the sun.
The body of Zane was left behind. He was still breathing, but unconscious.
His body was almost completely white now—a sickly, unnatural hue of white that made Jared think of bleached bones. Here and there, near the joints, there was still a tinge of red left that showed that he had once been a fire dragon, before his pact with the Darkness.
But all fire had been burned out of him. Zane looked as weak as a newborn kitten as he rested on the ground—abandoned by both Darkness and Fire.
Before Jared could start to wonder what they were going to do with him, the other griffins landed. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t paid them much attention. All he’d been able to think about was that he had to get Chiara somehow out of here.
But now, with Zane defeated, he got his first real look at them. And he realized at last why the griffins had looked so strangely familiar.
They were both powerful griffins, proud eagle’s eyes staring at him as they folded strong wings against their body. Like all griffins, they combined the elegance and majesty of the eagle with the power and strength of the lion.
But there was more. There was something about the co
lor of their wings. Something about the pattern formed by the black and brown of their feathers.
It was a pattern Jared knew intimately well.
Those marks of black and brown were the exact same pattern formed by his own feathers.
As Jared stared at them, a strange emotion building in his chest, the two griffins shifted.
A man and a woman were standing in front of him. Both seemed to be in their forties. The woman had long, brown hair that she wore braided back to keep it out of her face. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at him.
The man had large, strong hands and a powerful body, a square jaw and blond hair. There was a dazed look on his face as he stared at Jared, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he saw.
He looked remarkably like Jared.
Jared swallowed.
The man looked exactly like Jared might have looked if he’d time-traveled back to the nineties, with a haircut that had been out of fashion for thirty years, and clothes that he’d last seen in a nineties movie.
Impossible.
Jared couldn’t move. He was too stunned.
Then the woman came forward. She gave him a shaky smile. One of her hands reached out, her fingers trembling as if she didn’t dare to believe that he was real. There were tears gleaming in her eyes, one after the other spilling over and trailing down her cheeks.
And then, at last, something broke inside Jared.
He’d always thought that he’d been too young to remember his parents. But all of a sudden, memories rose up inside him, too powerful to ignore.
A gentle voice humming a melody that soothed him to sleep. Arms holding him close, a beautiful face smiling down on him. A different voice, a different set of arms, strong and reassuring, protecting him from any danger.
“Mother,” he said, his voice breaking with emotions, and then he was in her arms.
She was crying. He could hear it through the storm of emotions and memory that had broken over him with the sudden force of a hurricane.
He didn’t know how or why, but he remembered this. He remembered being held.
And he remembered being loved. Being loved and protected.