Chapter 33
Galadon
I gave the fog box a menacing glare, which shockingly had little effect. There had to be a way to shut it down and destroy it. I glanced at Rayna, ensuring she was not in trouble, and caught her jolting several more shifters who had turned on the other side of the dome. Titan stood near her and used the flat of his sword to knock out any from the first group that began to rise. I had to trust that she would be fine.
Grabbing it, I shook the box hard. All that did was make it spew a thicker cloud into the air and leave me coughing and choking. I cursed the damn thing, wishing I didn’t have to rush figuring out such a complicated device.
“Yeah, I tried that already,” Conrad said from where he stood a few feet away with his sword raised, guarding Rayna’s other side as some newly infected ran around the fallen. “That sorcerer probably knew we’d rattle it like a Christmas present and set it up to give us a nasty surprise.”
I grunted my response.
As he turned from me to face another dragon coming at him, I noticed something. The box had an electric charge far more powerful than anything else inside their prison. I wanted to ask Rayna to pull it out, but she had to concentrate on a sudden surge of shifters turning—likely due to the extra fog I had set off in the air. Due to helping her earlier, though, an idea formed in my head.
As she pulled from the shifters, I used our bond to connect her magic to the box and extract the charge from it as well. I found I could borrow her power, so when she finished, I kept going until the box went inert.
Finally, the fog stopped.
Rayna turned to me with wide eyes. “Did you just use my magic?”
“Yes.” I had needed to act quickly and hadn’t noted any distress from her by doing it, but could I have missed something? “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
She shook her head. “No, not at all, but it felt strange. Somehow, you were using your power to funnel the spell.”
That lined up with what Aidan had said about her scent covering me in more ways than one. We truly had joined together in every way possible.
“Which means you could potentially use my magic as well,” I surmised.
Her expression lit up. “Imagine if we sync together to fuel the storms and guide the lightning.”
That was an idea I could appreciate. How many times had I envied her that she aimed all the strikes while all I did was create the fuel for them? If we worked together on both…
A loud fizzling sound interrupted my thoughts. Morgan shouted as the shield went down, and we were finally free. The remnants of the fog dissipated as it flowed over the land. We turned to find that few of the remaining shifters were left uninfected, and Titan appeared close to the edge.
“Conrad, guard our backs while we cure everyone,” I ordered. He might be an annoying male, but he was an excellent fighter and slayer. That made him somewhat useful.
Rayna, Morgan, and I raced to the nearest shifters. I quickly discovered that the ones hit by lightning only took moments to clear. The electric charge must have neutralized some of the infection. For the rest, it took a minute or two each, depending on the severity. I sent the ones we treated to help the struggling forces fighting near the Kandoran camp. It was a race against time to even the odds.
After fifteen minutes, we’d taken care of most of them, and I determined Morgan could handle the few that remained. We needed to join the battle. At last look, there were already more than twenty red dragons lying still on the ground, either grievously injured or dead. We’d already lost too many in the war and couldn’t afford more.
“Conrad, stay with Morgan until he’s finished, then you can both join the battle,” I said, taking Rayna’s hand. I looked at her. “Once we’re in the air, we will create a storm and take down as many as possible before we fight.”
She nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
By my estimates, our magical reserves were down by more than half, but even eradicating a few dozen would turn the fight in our favor. I only regretted that Astaroth had disappeared as soon as the dome came down, but we’d find him no matter how long it took. He could not be allowed to live.
Rayna didn’t flinch as I let flames overtake my body, willing myself to shift as fast as possible. It went more swiftly, to my surprise, with her in my arms and her magic boosting mine. Each day, I seemed to discover another way we were made for each other.
I shot into the air, beating my wings hard until we reached an acceptable altitude where we could view as much of the battle as possible. Then I drew the elements toward the sky above us, grateful they were accessible again. The storm I created was a force all its own with dark, ominous clouds and howling wind. Light rain began falling, though it would transition to heavier drops soon.
Rayna took advantage of it immediately and began pulling down lightning. Keeping a tight hold on her, I studied how she did it and guided extra forks beyond hers. The first time we hit our targets, ten Kandoran dragons fell with holes burned straight through their bodies. I marveled at how powerful our strikes were when we worked together. We repeated the action several times, rapidly selecting enemies from the largest clusters to kill. It took away their advantage to separate and overwhelm members on our side.
Javier, the sorcerer who governed downtown Norman, stood on the ground outside the camp, using his massive electrical net to catch groups of Kandoran and slice through them, but he couldn’t find opportunities to do it often. The risk was too high that he’d accidentally hurt one of our dragons. Even through the pouring rain, I could see his frustration as he searched for clear targets.
By the time we killed fifty of the enemy, our powers were waning. If we did any more rounds, we’d lose the physical strength to fight, and there were still too many of them left. It didn’t help that our numbers were down, too. I dropped altitude, ready to enter the fight, and sensed Rayna’s eagerness through the bond.
“Look over there—it’s him!” she yelled over the battle sounds, wind, and downpour of rain. Her coppery-brown hair was plastered to her head.
I followed her gaze, spotting Astaroth on a massive green dragon and surrounded by a dozen more. Reaching him would be difficult, but I suspected he’d used up a lot of power himself by raising the dome and teleporting around the battlefield. The fact that he sat on a fierce dragon said he thought that was the safest place for him.
I called as many nearby Taugud and Faegud as I could to follow me. If we took down the leader, they’d be directionless and easier to finish. The hard part would be reaching him, but the rage pouring through me at the sight of the sorcerer helped fuel my single-minded focus.
“Throw me on the one directly ahead,” Rayna said.
I’d seen her use this tactic before. While it made me nervous, especially in this rain, I knew she could handle it. My mate needed me to trust her battle skills, so I would. She could be every bit as ruthless as I was when it came to defeating the enemy. We were no more than a hundred feet from the ground, so even if she fell, it wouldn’t kill her. I still hoped she kept her wits about her, though. Injuries would slow her down, and I didn’t want her vulnerable.
Be ready for me to grab you before you go down, I said, flinging her high as the dragon saw us coming.
He had his jaws wide open and blew flames, but that didn’t discourage my mate. She stomped on his head as she landed on him, boots slipping a little before she spun around and dropped to straddle the Kandoran’s neck as she slid down to his back. The maneuver left me with my heart in my throat, but she’d executed it beautifully for being on a slick dragon.
As she focused on taking down her foe, I targeted the next nearest Kandoran. It was a large female who snapped at my forearm. I let her, using my other hand to rip out her throat. With the infected, their scales were especially easy to penetrate.
I turned in time to see that Rayna had used her knife to cut holes through her enemy’s wings. The dragon was slowly losing altitude as he fought to stay aloft. I flapped my wings hard to reach her, shocked when the crazy slayer leaped from her enemy’s back to come sailing toward me. She latched on with her flailing arms, gripping my neck until I had her clutched tightly to my chest. She grinned with a familiar killing light in her eyes.
My mate was going to age me rapidly if she kept up such antics.
Homing in on the next dragon, I tossed her onto him. She landed atop the beast’s large back, gripping the spikes along the spine to keep from slipping off as her foe angled his body in an attempt to dislodge her. Unfortunately for him, her grip was firm.
I soared past them and landed on the next Kandoran’s back, closing my wings. He shrieked upon feeling my weight and went into a dive. I leaped forward to wrap an arm around his neck and squeezed with my arms until a few of the bones in his throat crunched. The damage wasn’t quite enough to kill the beast, but it certainly made it harder for him to breathe.
Conrad watched our progress from the muddy ground below with no nearby enemies to fight. The gleam in his eyes told me he’d be happy to finish mine. I decided he was becoming mildly useful and let go of my prey. As the Kandoran plummeted to the ground toward the slayer, I flared my wings to stop my descent.
From the corner of my eye, I caught Rayna lifting a dagger to strike the back of her enemy’s skull. I surged toward her through the rain, lighter now that I’d stopped fueling the storm. She grinned as I came up from below, stabbed deep, and leaped off the dragon before it could drag her down with it. My crazy mate free-fell ten feet before I caught her with a grunt, barely able to keep hold of her wet body. I appreciated her absolute trust, but she was testing my ability to save her a little too much. The thankful kiss she pressed against my neck took away my annoyance. She was learning how to manipulate me, and despite my knowing that, it still worked.
I ran my gaze through the sky, noting our side was already handling the final few remaining Kandoran. One of the Faegud females had gone after the largest with Astaroth riding him, but she was losing the fight. As the green dragon bit into her shoulder, I came along his side, grabbing his wing to yank it flat. Rayna let go of me to crawl across it. She already had her sword out and ready by the time she reached the sorcerer, who, for the first time, had fear in his eyes.
As much as I wanted the kill the fushka, Rayna had endured worse at his hands. I wouldn’t take her revenge from her. Instead, I waited until my mate was safely on the dragon’s rain-soaked back to let go of the wing, and then I went to rescue the Faegud female. Since she wasn’t a shifter, she was on the larger side, but still only two-thirds the size of the male we faced.
I angled to a position above them, noting her shoulder was still clamped in the Kandoran’s large jaws as he steadily sank his teeth into her bone and sinew. She roared in pain. I dove for the green dragon’s head and punctured his left eye with my talon. The screech he let out gave the female a chance to escape, but she only retreated enough to claw at his face and other eye. I admired her for not giving up.
My attention returned to Rayna. She faced Astaroth with only five feet separating them. He had a sword in his hands as well, and I wondered if he knew how to use it. The slayer lifted her blade, making the first swing. The sorcerer blocked it, but he was unsteady on his feet due to the wet scales and the dragon beneath him struggling against his own foe.
Rayna was much more experienced at standing on a constantly shifting surface and looked like she could fight there all day. Her boots were firmly planted. She tested Astaroth with a few hard blows that he managed to parry, but the tip of her blade cut him twice. His wince of pain proved he wasn’t used to being injured. Still, she kept playing with him, only giving him minor wounds as he struggled to stay on his feet, constantly slipping and stumbling along the Kandoran’s scales and spikes.
She struck hard and fast, slicing cleanly into his side through his black cloak. He bellowed in pain and outrage. Rayna didn’t relent. The hatred and anger on her face showed how much she remembered his torture while looking into his eyes.
“I could have killed you with one blow,” she said, giving him a wicked smile. “But you mentioned before how you love pain and suffering, so I’d hate to deprive you.”
He snarled at her. “Maybe I’m just letting you think you’ll win.”
Rayna slashed at him again, cutting deep into his cheek. “You would have teleported away by now if you could. We all know you’re a coward who would never stand here and let someone hurt you. This is your last stand.”
Blood flowed freely from Astaroth’s face and other visible wounds. His reddened eyes were filled with pain, fear, and anger. “We’ll see about that, slayer.”
The dragon they stood on began dropping altitude and swerved erratically. The Faegud female had gouged out its remaining eye. She sent me a telepathic message warning me that she’d meet us on the ground and flew away.
As much as I appreciated Rayna’s slow, methodical killing method, she was almost out of time. We had sixty feet remaining and nothing except trees below. I let her do one more strike before grabbing her and kicking Astaroth, sending him onto the Kandoran’s wing. Holding her, I paused in the air to watch our enemies fall.
They crashed into the branches, which tore into the dragon and sorcerer. He screamed as he rolled off and struck limbs all the way down before the massive Kandoran fell on him. The female Faegud landed first and tore into the beast’s throat. He was dead in moments.
The light rain finally came to a stop as I landed, and the clouds began to part. I set Rayna free, and she ran to the dragon's side. Following her, we found Astaroth pinned from the waist down and choking up blood. If not for sinking into the mud, he probably would have died already with that much weight on him. He reached up toward my mate, attempting to grab at her with his grimy hand. She swung her sword and chopped his arm off just above the elbow.
He bellowed and clutched at the stump, squirting blood. She slammed her blade down into his stomach and twisted left and right for good measure. I was in awe of her wrath and vengeance. If I ever had to torture someone for information, at least I knew she wouldn’t be squeamish about me doing it. She’d likely help.
“You’re done,” she said, pulling her sword.
He choked more blood. “I could…give you…power like…”
She glanced at me. “Do me a favor and hold his head up a little, would you?”
Gladly, najeema.
I moved around her to the other side, lifted the sorcerer by his thinning mud-caked hair with my taloned hands, and gave her a nod. He was still trying to stutter promises of power as her blade came down hard, slicing cleanly through his neck. I dropped the head and stomped it flat. My feet and claws were covered in filth afterward, but I hardly cared.
On an open channel, I heard the other leaders inform us that the Kandoran were vanquished. It hadn’t been as easy and swift as we’d hoped, but we’d defeated them. The female Faegud gave me a respectful nod and flew back toward the camp. Rayna jumped into my arms and hugged me tightly. I hoped we could finally put that terrible week of torture behind us and move on to better things. I grasped her just as firmly, proud of what we’d accomplished.