The Blood of Dragons

by Victoria Mercier

  No, it can’t be… I don’t want to believe it. You’re lying… you must…

  Despite all the denial I could muster, I saw what I saw, and it was real. For a couple of seconds, the truth became obvious. But this meant that Elleria was the bad one and Selene the good one. It should not be. She has taken away my Dramer.

  Dramer…

  What do you want me to do? I asked. Whatever power I possessed, Selene had claimed, now rapidly began draining. In a matter of minutes, I’d have no more energy to sustain my body. I’d wither and die.

  First, don’t fight me.

  But I don’t…

  You do, though you can’t realize this as the resistance comes from the second mind that hides it from your consciousness. The Dual Mind is an incredibly powerful spell, but it comes with a cost. It’s a double-edged sword. She’s using it to hide her mental construct.

  What then should I do?

  Switch back to the second mind.

  But I can’t. I’d tried it before, I remember now. But the green light stopped me.

  Fine. I’ll do it, but it’ll leave me exhausted, so you must cooperate with me, understood?

  Her authoritarian voice made it clear. She wouldn’t accept an objection. And for the first time in my life, I decided to go against my nature and agreed with her. It wasn’t easy, though.

  Chapter 23

  Lotian

  Selene’s body froze. The unicorns’ power half-preserved them, while they used their mental magic. A faint shimmering coated her skin. Touching it would incapacitate weaker aggressors.

  Twenty feet from her lay Flare. Unconscious, the girl didn’t have an ounce of deadliness and fire she usually carried around herself. Though she didn’t possess the unicorn’s intrinsic defensible traits, somehow her body managed to raise a delicate barrier. It couldn’t stop a wizard of Rosa’s caliber, though. This woman’s hatred toward my kind has been well-known, but I would never expect her to actually go this far and try to kill Flare.

  Flare.

  What should I do about you? You’re the mystery that mind aches to solve. Found beyond the walls of the Great York City. You belong to the strongest among our kind. Aside from the question; why can’t I measure your exact strength, more urgent matter nags my mind; how did such a person happen to live outside the walls for so long? I think the time has come to talk to her friends. Once this shitshow is over.

  There was a tiny chance that Flare, herself, would say anything. Despite her fierceness, she valued her privacy. She hasn’t made a single friend since joining the academy. I’ve heard that Mirenne attempted to interrogate her, but some coincident swayed her attention elsewhere. But no more information has leaked than that. Saaron didn’t know anything or chose silence over his allegiance. There was no telling.

  A huge wall, which I’ve built around my heart trembled each time I looked at her. I’ve vowed to never repeat errors made by my three brothers. We, dragons, have been denied love for a reason. I’ve managed to rein my lust and cravings for most of my short life. No woman as much as grazed my defenses and Flare hit it with terrifying ferocity. That evening scared the shit out of me. The moment my eyes fell on her, I knew she would destroy me.

  “Wake up, dragon,” Rosa hissed. “What are they doing?”

  “Selene is trying to undo the damage caused by Elleria in Flare’s mind,” I responded distractedly. The wound forced me to lay on the ground.

  The alarm still went on and that was troubling. Where was everyone? The academy security, teachers, staff…

  Somehow, the scale of this looked way over Elleria’s head. No matter, if she had the Green Eye now. It was not possible for one person to cause this many problems within the academy. Well, excluding Dramer of course.

  “Don’t you think it’s weird that no one came down to check on us?”

  Rosa Watermane was beautiful, though nowhere near Selene or Flare. She also was shameless. After her break up with Dramer, she had slept with so many guys that the sheer number made my mind numb.

  “Who knows? I locked the Elemental House. No troubles there and I’m sure Selene did the same with the Unicorn House. I don’t know anything about the Fairies or supernaturals. And I don’t care about the dragons.”

  “I don’t like it,” I murmured. The wound caused by misfired spell throbbed in my side. For some reason, my body had a hard time healing it. When Elleria had set a trap, she knew I’d come searching for Flare. How? And my brother’s sudden disconnection. This unsettled me. “Saaron doesn’t respond to my calls. Nor any other high-ranking dragon,” I said to Rosa but she shrugged off my words without a comment.

  The last time Saaron spoke to me, he sounded seriously disturbed. Thinking that something could faze a demi-dragon was appalling.

  “How long are they going to be like this,” she asked. Her gray eyes were piercing me. “There is a similarity between you and that pup.”

  “Her name is Flare,” I said, though she obviously knew it.

  “Don’t be a fool, demi-dragon,” she approached the fountain. As she reached to touch the falling water, her hand turned translucent. “This girl brings ruin to everything she touches. I sensed a destructive force when I locked her in my spell. If you keep training her, then she will get out hand. Would she belong to my House, I’d put her to sleep the first moment I noticed her hidden nature. Now, I need to check on other Houses, I’m getting to have bad feelings about this.”

  Her entire body turned into water and she vanished in the fountain. The strongest elementals possessed strange traits. Being one with an element. No other race had this kind of ability.

  Standing above the motionless body of Flare, I began thinking. Five Houses. One Head was with me, the other one just went somewhere. My brother didn’t answer my calls. Ignelion and Hugman didn’t appear here, though it was too early for them to withdraw into their sections.

  “Lotian, Lotian, Lotian,” a voice echoed in the chamber. It was a spell because there was no source of it. “I must thank you for the Green Eye. The possibilities of this thing are truly endless. I’m sure you heard of the Second Origin… such potential.”

  “Come out of the shadow!” I said not letting her to play on my nerves. Her return here meant she needed something. Either, she figured out that the Green Eye must be recharged with the use of the dagger or she wanted Flare. I had a feeling that she wasn’t finished with the young dragoness. Selene, hurry up. We have a fucking problem. Fighting someone like Elleria was incredibly difficult. She would never face me in open. That wasn’t how she’s worked. Elleria was strong, but a demi-dragon’s power dwarfed her.

  “Why would I do that?’ she laughed. “There is no point for me to fight you. You see, this always has been your issue, dragons. You believe that a sheer force can solve anything. Now, you are about to learn the truth.”

  “What are you talking about?” I shouted. My instincts rang louder than the alarm. Where the hell is everyone?

  I sensed a presence from the fountain. Rosa Waterman’s body materialized out of the water. But determination on her face didn’t mean anything good.

  “The rules are simple. I weaved an old spell over this entire chamber. It traps you inside. There is only one way to open it. One alive person must remain.”

  “What? I’ll just smash it to pieces,” I growled slowly losing my cool. When was the last time, I felt so much anger?

  “Go ahead,” Elleria encouraged. “But each blow would take lives from your Houses. I’ve weaved other tricky spells and runes all over the academy. As I said Lotian, the Green Eye is a masterpiece. Now, the entire place is in my control. Have fun.”

  “Wait!”

  I saw Rosa’s advancement toward Flare. My attack was the fastest, I could muster, and it still was too late. Miraculously, Flare’s odd body shield held its ground.

  “What is this?” Rosa growled. She extended her right hand, a trident made of water appeared there. If she managed to use this attack, I didn’t see how Flare co
uld fend such a blow.

  “Rosa, think!” I snapped. My rage was barely contained. Years of practice to keep it under tight control, now meant nothing. “She messes with our heads!”

  Rosa squinted at me. A challenge in her gaze so thick, it seemed it’d be a miracle to talk her off this.

  “If I won’t hurry up, my students will die. They can’t leave. I sealed the House! They will die because of me unless I kill you all. Two dragons and a unicorn. A small price to pay for the lives of my students.”

  Was she for real? Would she actually kill us to save her students? On one hand, it was incredible that Rosa was ready to go to such lengths to save her proteges, unfortunately, on the other hand, it was unacceptable.

  “I’m sorry, Rosa,” and I truly felt this way. I might not directly threaten to kill anyone, but the Green Eye had been given to me for safekeeping. I’d failed and the disaster that this brought on the academy was somewhat my responsibility. “But I can’t allow you to kill anyone.”

  “So, you’d let them die instead? Oh, of course, they are elementals. No one cares about our lives. We may belong to the Four Prime Powers on the paper but in reality… in your eyes, we aren’t better than supernaturals.”

  So, Elleria managed to swing Rosa Watermane to her side. This woman had been the weak link since her breakup with Dramer.

  “You have one minute,” Elleria’s voice sounded once more. “And the first elementals will start dying. They won’t even see their doom. Someone in the Elemental House is going to take its final breath. Think about it, Rosa Watermane.”

  No matter what I was going to say, Rosa’s mind has been in Elleria’s clutch. In this case, a fight was imminent.

  With only a minute, I knew Rosa’s next move…

  “Oh, one more thing,” Elleria added. “Just in case, Lotian, you think that you don’t need to fight. I have your brother’s life in my hand.”

  This actually relaxed me. Saaron was as cunning as her. There was no way she could best him.

  “Again, don’t think I’ll fight him… but what about Dramer who will learn that Saaron fucked a certain flame-haired girl? Even Saaron won’t survive that kind of rage. One minute. Good luck.”

  I looked at Rosa, but she was already on the move, while Elleria distracted me. Did she think I was an idiot? She hoped I’d kill Selene, Rosa, and Flare, so she wouldn’t babble some secret to my other brother? She was mad.

  Rosa attacked.

  A rain of droplets hard as diamonds hit me as well as Selene’s and Flare’s bodies. Their defenses held for now, but this spell was only a distraction as she prepared her true objective.

  The Eternal Ocean.

  This thing was a gamble even for a demi-dragon. I bet my father would shrug off her strongest attack, but I didn’t have my father’s experience and strength. I dodged the droplets keeping an eye for the formidable spell.

  The intensity of her assault increased or somehow my stamina began draining with a startling pace.

  The wound.

  I completely forgot about it since Elleria had made her announcement. She must have remembered it and came up with an idea to get rid of me. Very convenient and crafty.

  The hail of droplets enveloped me. I truly wanted to avoid harming Rosa, but there was no way I could remain on defense all this time. And then, there was Selene and Flare. Both of them would be in grave danger if I failed here.

  “Rosa…”

  The droplets started to graze. Dragons’ skin was tough despite looking human-like, but this water… It was magically-charged after all, and Rosa did belong to the strongest Elementals in the city.

  “Stop it!” A halo of energy expanded from my core dispersing the hail of water. That would be a perfect moment for her to strike with her true attack. Knowing her intention, I raised my defenced to maximum, but of course, I didn’t plan to weather the Eternal Ocean spell. No telling if I actually could survive it.

  Her spell came through as expected. In the last second, I dropped everything and pushed myself out of the trajectory. The enormous sphere of water stopped suspended in the mid-air. Octopus-like tentacles made of water shot out of it and snagged my feet.

  “Dispel!” I shouted. A sphere of white light had come out of my hand and the water tentacles dissipated, as well as a part of the huge water sphere.

  The wound throbbed in a traitorous rhythm. Elleria’s counterattack wasn’t a mundane thing. It should regenerate completely by now. And yet, somehow, it worsened. For a moment, my concentration slipped. Rosa sensed it right away. A spear of water hit me barely inches above the existing wound. She wasn’t kidding around. If she truly wanted me dead, then this was her best option, I guessed. Unfortunately, for her, a demi-dragon’s skin belonged to the hardest materials on this planet and a mere water spear couldn’t break through. Nevertheless, the impact pushed me two steps back.

  Oh, fuck, I realized, when it was too late. The spear was only a distraction. The wound weakened me so much that I lost a sense of measurement and failed at recognizing the faked attack.

  The water sphere closed around me. The unimaginable pressure hit me. With the rest of my strength, I conjured a shield.

  Chapter 24

  Selene finished deconstructing the Dual Mind spell, a second later, I regained consciousness. The terrible visions were already fading away from my memories. Elleria belonged to the worst kind of people. She didn’t possess even a grain of compassion. Diving deeper into the Cold Steel personality, we had discovered a dread waiting to be awakened.

  It would not happen thanked to Selene. A demi-unicorn woman, I used to despise. She must be the reason why Dramer hasn’t visited me yet. None the less, my hatred waned now. She didn’t need to help me. She had no reason to do so.

  While some part of me longed to continue this rift between us, how else could I snatch Dramer from her talons? And yet, a new part perceived her in a different light.

  Seconds passed until my mind fully cleared and another terror filled my bones. Rosa Watermane fought Lotian or rather was about kill him. His strength almost gone, Lotian could not resist the Eternal Ocean, even though the Elemental was weakened herself.

  Selene got up, she looked exhausted, and yet she shrugged the tiredness off. She darted toward the focused figure of Rosa. The moment Selene’s hands touched the Elemental’s head, the Eternal Ocean spell ended. Lotian’s body fell off on the marbled floor.

  A wild and potent urge coerced me into getting to him. My chest clenched with worry as I dropped to my knees before him. Without checking his pulse, I knew he was alive, though barely. Lotian’s side was seriously wounded. A dark liquid oozed from it.

  “What can I do?” I asked Selene.

  “Give me a moment, please,” she hissed. “I’m trying to tie the spell up.

  He’s dying, my hands touched him. His skin was icy from Rosa’s deadly spell. I remembered my own dismay when the water closed on me attempting to turn me into pulp. There was no way Lotian could lose to it. If not that strange wound, which refused to heal. Maybe, if I warm him up? Can it help? Wild thoughts crossed my head. But at their end, everything that remained was despair. I had no idea what to do.

  “Selene…” I growled. “He’s barely holding on.”

  “Finished,” she murmured, then staggered toward me.

  I would laugh if someone had told me earlier that I would be ready to beg Selene to bring Lotian back from the brink of death. Something, horrendously wrong must have happened to me if I considered this demi-dragon so important. But no mistake there, the slightest thought of losing him, was unbearable.

  Selene lowered herself next to us. Her usual pale face paled even further. This meant one thing. The wound was serious. Her brows joined, and suddenly, the overwhelming beauty of the demi-unicorn faded away. For a second, this insufferable, eternal woman, shared her mortality with me. I didn’t exactly appreciate this, especially at the moment like this.

  “What can we do?” I urged her to speak. The sil
ence had too many meanings and none of them seemed positive.

  “It’s too late for him,” Elleria’s voice sounded in the chamber.

  Selene and I got up, searching for the woman, but except us the chamber was empty.

  “Unless,” Elleria’s voice heightened excitedly. “You kill the unicorn, Flare. Only then I will reveal a way to save Lotian. Isn’t what you want, saving him and killing the only obstacle that stands in your way to possess Dramer?”

  “That’s low,” Selene murmured, but not exactly surprised. “I noticed that Rosa has no injuries. It means that Lotian had recognized your dirty play and refused to go along it.”

  “And look at him now! He’s barely alive.”

  Would Elleria truly think she still could manipulate me? Her Dual Mind spell almost led to a tragedy. If the timing proved favorable to Elleria… then a lot of blood would be on my hands now. She wanted me to kill the unicorns, the elementals, the fairies, and the supernaturals. This bitch wanted me to kill my friends. Was she fucking stupid or what?

  “Hey, whore,” I growled. “Once, me and Selene, save Lotian’s life, I’ll go after you. I will upturn every stone. No matter where you’re going to crawl to hide from my wrath, I find you.”

  A moment of silence followed my words. I knew what was coming before she uttered a word from her filthy mouth. Surely, she hadn’t planned to use it so soon, but I gave her no other option.

  “It’s time to activate the true purpose of the Dual Mind spell,” she announced with pathos. “Activate…” Her voice trailed off, and as we’d expected. Nothing came forth. The Dual Mind spell had been dismantled, thanked to Selene’s formidable mental power.

  I caught Selene’s gaze. She was proud of me. I didn’t want to accept it. This meant nothing to me. No matter how much good stuff would happen between us, it wouldn’t change the fact that she had Dramer. Though I despised Elleria, her words contained truth. Selene was the only obstacle between me and Dramer.

  I snorted and turned away.

  “That’s impossible…” Awed words came through and this time, a wink of presence revealed itself by the door to the Fairy House. Our heads snapped toward the spot. The air there wavered and a translucent silhouette darted toward the Fairy House.