Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
The Sisters requested a meeting. Many years ago, there was a disturbance amongst the dragons, some disagreement within their ranks leading to the disappearance of a young Vemon dragon.
They tell me she was related to Thessilnn and Heles, though not directly, just shared blood a few generations back.
When I asked why she left the keep, no one would give me a clear answer.
It unsettles me. Why invite me here, only to withhold the truth?
—Lady Anabeth, Consort to Her Majesty Cion Livii, Queen of Aren, D’anna
Nya stepped out onto the same jagged cliff where she had been sitting with Imeria just a few minutes ago. She realized what she had done at the same moment her mind made sense of the scene unfolding in front of her.
Because of her, Imeria was hurt, maybe even badly.
What unsettled her the most was that she hardly remembered doing it.
It was as if a thick veil had settled over those moments, twisting and distorting the memory until it didn’t even feel like her own.
She didn’t have time to examine the fear that made her feel, though, because her attention quickly turned to the battle beyond.
On the ground, Morgen’s foot soldiers held the line easily. They were no match for whatever small forces the principals and her parents had managed to gather. But in the sky…
Four Vemon dragons circled Varax, three with riders and one without. Lightning cut across the sky, and she saw Heles swerve to avoid it, a trail of fire flaring in her wake. It took Nya a moment to realize there was no thunderstorm at all this time, but that the lightning was Morgen’s.
It made sense, she supposed, with the amount of energy she felt every time he walked into a room. As he wielded bursts of it, exploding violently from his hands in shades of crimson and blinding-white, he looked every bit the avenging god.
From behind her, another dragon emerged from the side of the mountain: Carus’ Fesper, Nya realized.
Her mother and Thessilnn were further down the barren valley, followed by who must be Vulcan atop a deep-blue dragon.
The rider-less dragon coasted directly above Nya, leaving Heles and her father open, too focused on avoiding Morgen and Varax to notice Carus’ dragon was diving right towards them.
VANE.
Her mother screamed, both down the pathway and aloud, the sound cutting through the raging battle in the mountains and echoing shrilly in Nya’s thoughts.
Nya’s eyes widened, a scream tearing from her throat, because her father had noticed the approaching dragon’s wide-open mouth a second too late—
The air shimmered, and before her mind could fully comprehend what had happened, Heles and Varax collided, their screeches ear splitting.
Carus’ dragon swerved and barely avoided the full brunt of the blow.
All three dragons landed in a heap, the sound of the hard landing resounding.
She was fairly sure both Morgen and her father were unconscious, but she couldn’t tell, and she couldn’t get down off this damn cliff.
Her mother was frantically calling her father’s name as she and Thessilnn raced down the valley, but there was no response, not even from Heles.
Nya’s chest constricted to the point of pain as panic overwhelmed her, and she shut her eyes, willing her body to somehow just move.
When she opened her eyes again, she was a few feet away from Morgen and Carus, who was at his side.
For a few seconds, the shock of what she had just done rooted her to the ground, before she decided that right now, she didn’t care how she had portaled.
Her feet were moving before she even knew where she was going, her vision flashing red with rage as she approached Morgen, Varax curled protectively behind him.
When she got close enough to understand what was happening, she froze.
There was a deep wound in Morgen’s chest in the small gap between plates of armor, and he was coughing up blood, each breath causing his entire body to spasm. Carus knelt next to him, a firm hand on his shoulder.
“You idiot,” he was saying, but he didn’t sound angry, merely worried. “Just hang on a second. It’ll be over soon.”
Morgen tried to respond, but instead, he coughed up more blood, his hand shaking as he brought it to his lips. When he saw Nya, his brow creased, confusion clouding his eyes. Carus noticed her a second later, and his nostrils flared.
“Figure out your way down, did you?” His voice was so cold. Gone was any semblance of teasing or kindness.
She set her jaw, ignoring him. Her mother was still speaking down the pathway, but the sound was muffled to Nya. She would face that reality in a moment.
“You—” Her breath caught, eyes on Morgen. “You are dead to me if my father doesn’t live.”
Morgen tried to speak again but only coughed up more blood.
Carus shook his head and snapped, “Relax, sweetheart, and direct your death threats my way. I went for Heles, and I would’ve had a straight shot, but Morgen stopped me.
Demi-god or not, your father would have been dead on impact if Morgen hadn’t interrupted. ”
Nya blinked a few times, shaking her head. “I don’t… I—”
“Go,” Morgen choked out, a trembling hand pointing behind her.
She glanced back to where her mother knelt next to her father, who was still unconscious. The battle had halted too, she realized, half of Morgen’s army nowhere to be seen and the other half holding a line of defense around them.
She didn’t move right away, torn. Morgen was still bleeding and drawing in those horrible, rattling breaths. If what Carus said was true, Morgen had just saved her father’s life. But…why? Why, when, mere moments earlier, the battle had been raging, and Morgen had been aiming for Heles too?
“N-Nya, g—” Morgen tried, his expression twisting with pain as his lungs rattled and the wound on his chest bled freely.
Go. You don’t need to pretend you care.
That was the problem, though, wasn’t it?
She did care, more than she wanted to. She wished she could tell herself it was just the blood bond, but she couldn’t deny this was more than that.
Still, in a last-ditch effort to prove herself wrong, she turned and hurried over to where her mother had both hands pressed to her father’s chest, her eyes shut and her entire body trembling.
When Nya stopped short just behind them, her mother said in a strained voice, “Nya, love, come here.”
Nya took a shallow breath, kneeling with her. There was a large gash across her father’s torso, and his eyes were still closed. Something else was lingering with him too, some feeling… A shadow reaching for him, one she sensed her mother was trying to keep at bay.
“You feel it, yes?” her mother whispered in a hoarse voice, looking at Nya with silver-bright eyes.
Nya bit her lip. “What is it?”
A dark shadow passed over her mother’s face. “Death.” She took Nya’s hand, a silent tear slipping down her cheek. “Fate is unhappy with me. I’ve tricked it too many times on your father’s behalf.”
Nya glanced at him, unmoving, and with that cloud of darkness looming closer, she suddenly understood what her mother was asking of her.
“There is a place somewhere inside you, Nya,” her mother whispered.
“A dark place, where the very essence of Death lives. Perhaps, like I did once, you have hidden it, locked it away. I need you to reach for that place—welcome it. And then, I want you to take that shadow lingering over your father and shove it as far into that place as you can, drown it in darkness as you lock it away.”
Nya nodded, not wasting time to argue or ask further questions. The shadow was close.
She shut her eyes, hovering a hand over her father’s chest as she looked inside herself.
She was no stranger to the place her mother described.
It had always beckoned to her with cold seduction, biding its time and waiting for the moment she finally gave in.
Now, she reached freely for those dark stars, guttering with lifeless, midnight fire.
For a moment, she lingered, breathing in the void, ignoring the call to exhale, because if she did—
It didn’t matter. That wasn’t what she was here for.
She snatched Death’s shadow before he even realized she was there, and instead of hiding him as her mother had, she let the frigid fire within her chest rise to the surface, engulfing the cloak of darkness until it crumbled to ash, the echo of a far-off scream lost to the swirling wind of the void as it was swept away forever.
Just before she left that place, ignoring the aching need to follow into that chasm of nothingness, she sensed Death—not his cloak nor his hands, but the full force of his presence, and when she turned, she saw his true form before her.
The small drop of her blood that was mortal shied away at the sight of the utter nothingness taken form, only broken by the blinking of two, silver-laced eyes.
Be careful, he whispered, his voice hardly more than an echo. This is a place few have been. It holds great temptation and danger.
She smiled. The stars flickered with a single thought from her, the void roaring in her ears as she held one in her hand. Do not worry. I have been here many times before.
For a brief flash, fear crossed Death’s faint features. It was the last thing she saw before he reached for her, and she was pulled away from the void, the stars and the fire in her hands.