Chapter 31 Ignite #2
Then funnels down—into her black ring.
“Hedda. She’s your Dreamspeaker.” I understand now, as I stare at my sister with utter rage, wrath, and contempt, all hurtling together inside me.
It burns me oh-so-righteously bright yet oh-so-viciously dark at the same time.
“Hedda’s been manipulating you just like she did me, to do her bidding and bring Bloodwalkers to dominance again, via her arcane rituals and her beast. And you fell for it—destroying your people to do her will. ”
“I fell for nothing!” My sister snaps now, as a brimstone fire flares in her eyes, terrible—the eyes of her beast. “I already knew our people needed to come into a better time, a stronger time than Huttr could provide for us. When I touched the Void and discovered Hedda, our Dreamspeaker, she told me of our glorious past as Bloodwalkers. I knew then that it was our future, and my destiny to bring it about. Just like Hedda knew in her time and tried her utmost to do so.”
“You want our people to fall—utterly,” I breathe now, horrified to my blood and bones at this creature before me.
Because she’s so ugly to me now, even if she hadn’t been all the way there before, with everything she’s done.
“Ever since Maryse snubbed you from studying with her and maturing your Bloodwalker power, because she saw something unstable in you, you’ve carried a chip on your shoulder.
A fucking enormous boulder… and it’s warped you, made you this…
A person I don’t even recognize anymore. ”
“I am my own person now. And Maryse was wrong about me.” Lithava is beyond cold as she stares me down with her brimstone battle eyes. As something in them darkens, I see a searing black violence come into them.
Blistering with terrible crimson runes, as the Black Dragon’s taint scalds through my sister’s eyes.
Through it all, the Council doesn’t even flinch. I understand now, as Arvid and Lars stare me down with a similar diseased black fire raging in their eyes and black rings on their fingers, that they are sworn to my sister as her Bloodmates.
They’re dedicated to her and her agenda serving Hedda’s will. They may have been this entire time, I understand now; who knows how long my sister had been impersonating Ruta, though it had to have been since the coup.
Anya is collateral damage, as my gaze flicks to her and I see nasty black curse-runes scrawling all over her flesh, thanks to my super-powered inner sight right now, though they don’t show.
The only member of the Council who escaped it was Mikka, standing at my side and backing me up now with Laerke and my drakes. All this time, it’s not just been one Council member who had it out for me, but four.
With my very own sister at their epicenter—cementing my fate.
That bitch who was once a sister of mine does Hedda’s bidding—willingly, I now understand. As I finally see who my true enemy is, standing unrepentant before me in all her evil glory, something darker than black inside me roars.
I feel it, as I’m suddenly tempted to dive into the same place I was when I tried to wield the Black Dragon. As my leviathan night roars up inside me now, it swamps my brighter nature, making everything inside me howl like a million fell demons of wrath.
Because more than anything right now, I want to punish my sister. For who she is, for what she’s done; I want to make her writhe, and pay, and pay until the very end of fucking time for everything she’s done to me, my loved ones, and my drakes.
Not to mention everything she’s still doing, to my King and to my people, trying to wield the Black Dragon. As a sudden horrible thought escapes me, I hope she fucking loses control of it and gets a taste of everything it supplies, a hand clamps down on mine, hard.
Bjorn shines like a golden star as he stares Lithava down now and remains in his love, rather than his hate. I feel his inner rage swamp me, but it’s a tower of righteousness rather than a black pit of darkness as his entire body blazes like he’s about to go supernova.
Because he’s drawing on Baldur’s power now through our bond, Strom’s, even Mikkel’s, as he stops me from just shooting right up into my midnight Wraith and battling my sister, right here, right now.
As Bjorn somehow uses all my drakes’ combined energy yet again, pouring his stalwart strength and goodness right through every bone, blood vessel, and sinew of my body, I feel how effortlessly he stands in that space.
Because rage for Bjorn isn’t about hate, not anymore. It’s about the true, blazing righteousness of love—love for our people, love for our kin, love for our Bloodbond and everything it is for us, in this time of ultimate terror and wicked fate.
Most of all, it’s his love for me that saves me from myself, yet again. Because as Bjorn’s towering love pours through me, I feel all of his righteousness, all of Strom’s passion, all of Baldur’s faith in me, and all of Mikkel’s vicious dedication, to follow me beyond death, backing me up.
As my drakes move close to me now, everyone touching me, even Laerke as she pours a stalwart sisterhood into me, I suddenly realize I don’t need Lithava anymore. I have a family now; I even have a sister, as I reach out, threading my fingers through Laerke’s in gratefulness.
This family will support me through anything, I know, even unto death and back as I stand with them, blazing in my real power, at last.
As my inner dragons balance now in our bright, incredible love, roaring up into the fullest might of my true Bloodwalker power, I feel how Lithava can’t anymore.
Because she’s taken Hedda’s path, allowing her Bloodwalker power to dive only into the black. It’s then that I know it makes her weak, when she believes that icy darkness gives her immeasurable strength.
Because as I stand in my truest heart with Laerke and my drakes, even with Mikka, I know actual strength. And that strength comes from scorching hot love, not bitterly cold emptiness, as I shine like a falling star now in the dim cavern, luminous.
It’s then that I know this is my true hunt, regardless of my sister being involved. My hunt is for love, not for rage or wrath, bitterness or fury; I will follow it until I die, as part of the True Black Dragon Knights.
And fight the Black Dragon to its final grave, at last.
Because long ago, the True Knights came together to protect the world because of their love for it.
As my heart blazes, spontaneous sigils I don’t know and don’t understand sear out from me suddenly as they write themselves over every inch of my flesh.
I don’t know what’s happening to me—it’s not Baldur’s doing, as he inhales in surprise at whatever is occurring inside my body.
I understand it’s some property of this cavern from long ago, however, as all the sigils on the floor, walls, and columns re-ignite now, searing to the ruined ceiling above.
The starry midnight sky shines through that molten sphere all around me, and I am its epicenter. As the silver rings scorch white-hot upon all my drakes’ and my fingers, those sigils spread into them, sweeping them with a powerful magic we don’t even know the half of, ancient.
It’s clearly not a phenomenon Lithava’s ever experienced as she inhales sharply now, her vicious gaze fixing upon what’s happening with me and my drakes.
As an incredible Bloodwind seethes from us now, blazing with our auric wildfire and roaring around the cavern, Lithava and her drakes shift up in defense.
They roar up into the skies to escape our auric fire. I know it’s a wildfire of our blazing hearts, as we all shine like suns going supernova.
Then shift up in a whirlwind, launching into the skies after them.
To fight.
Turn the page to discover how Rikyava and her drakes finally face off against Lithava and the Black Dragon, by reading an excerpt from chapter one of Raze My Blood: Dragons of Blood and Bone #6.