Chapter 14
Clarence Moonscale
Moonscale London Under the Reign of Ferrick Moonscale
The color drained from Medwin’s face as I stepped into my pants and handed him his own. Of all the things my carrier used to cause his own discomfort, I didn’t think basic biology would be one of them. It wasn’t common – whether by biology or occurrence, but omegas could conceive with other omegas.
“And as much as those two went at it….” My dragon chimed off into my thoughts as I helped Medwin get dressed.
The part of me that belonged to the Moonscale Dragon Flight wanted to dash off and ensure Ferrick’s madness ended at eating his lover and unborn children.
Children that I did my best not to think of as my siblings.
The part of me that belonged to Medwin – the part that kept me sane in the face of the never-ending insanity roll that was my carrier – knew to walk him back to the house and make sure he was safely inside with his parents.
Once he was safely inside the house, I shifted and took to the skies.
I had only left them alone for a single night.
One should be able to leave two grown adults alone together without one eating the other.
Volex and Pras chatted over the little link our group had forged, but I couldn’t focus on their words.
Charden had come home with a sonogram photo.
Two little jellybeans. He was over the moon.
He thought Ferrick would be too. They’d have their own family now.
That was as much sense as I could make of it through Ferrick’s memories and emotions.
Ferrick wasn’t happy because his own educational gaps were too wide for him to see across.
I didn’t care much for Charden. I thought he was either one of the dumbest or most na?ve people I had ever met when it came to Ferrick, but to be bitten in half and eaten because you tell the person you’re in a relationship with that you’re about to start a family is beyond bloody words.
“Medwin is right. This has to end now. There isn’t any more time,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts. “If he’ll eat Charden, no one is safe.”
He was right. No one had ever been safe around Ferrick or Roster.
Lucky to survive them, but never safe. Pras kept talking inside my head, but I couldn’t pay attention to him.
His carrier was sane. Dead now, but sane.
Mine had lost his mind somewhere along the way and for as long as his fire burnt bright inside his belly, I’d never get to live my life. Moonscale London would never be safe.
I landed a few miles from the castle. Everyone warned me that killing Ferrick would be emotionally hard.
Though, after I shifted back into my human form, each step I took, made the thought of his lifeless body being nothing but scales was easier to hope for – easier to process.
Ferrick had killed every sibling I ever had except for Pras.
He was the only one that had somehow escaped his madness.
Even now he had eaten his own unborn children and the more I thought about it, the angrier my dragon grew.
Only I was too angry. My eyes saw red, but they didn’t see the boulder that Ferrick literally dropped on my head from atop the castle.
“YOU KNEW THEY FUCKED, DIDN’T YOU, YOU LITTLE WORTHLESS, FUCKER! YOU’RE JUST LIKE HIM! YOU’RE JUST LIKE ROSTER BLOODY MOONSCALE!”
As pain ate away at the edges of my world, I was sure those were the last words I’d ever hear. The Moonscale Dragon Flight as we knew it would die there on the castle lawn with me.
Chapter 14
Pras Lavender
As told to Thorne Canton
Moonscale London Under the Reign of Ferrick Moonscale
I had flown over the lawn just in time to see my brother crash down under the weight of a boulder dropped from the roof of the castle.
I roared, shooting fire blindly toward where the monster stood on the roof, and cursed Volex under my breath.
He’d raced to the Other World to get help, but we didn’t need help to defeat Ferrick Moonscale.
We needed to stick together. He was one crazy dragon, currently wearing the entrails of his lover around his neck like a feather boa.
“We have Haen’s research,” my dragon whispered into my thoughts.
We had Haen’s research into a way to trap a draconic soul and Haen had a nest full of our eggs that I would give everything to save.
Neither Haen nor I were sure that the spell would work, but I’d find a way.
I didn’t have time to stop to see if my brother survived the boulder to the head that left a crater in the castle lawn.
Ferrick was already shifting. I had to fight him and I had to win.
If he survived me too, my children would never know peace.
They’d never be able to live their lives even if they survived long enough to hatch from their eggs.
I hadn’t told anyone about them. Some people guessed that perhaps he was nesting but no one knew for sure. Safety was found in silence.
Ferrick launched into the sky and dived toward the lawn, wanting to reach his son.
I didn’t know if Clarence was alive, but knew that if he was, he wouldn’t stay that way long if his carrier reached him.
I cut him off, flying straight for the soft spot of his belly.
He jerked upwards at the last minute, and my teeth merely grazed him.
Still, I tasted his coppery blood even as fire shot out of my mouth and I chased him skyward.
He could have flown into the sun, and I’d still have chased him. This was it. This was our last stand.
Something caught Ferrick’s attention in the distance and for a second, I thought Volex had returned with a whole army of dragons from the Other World.
No such luck, but whatever distracted him, gave me time to crash into him.
I collided with his side, and we both plummeted toward the Earth.
He snarled, trying to twist to get me with his muzzle, but despite being older than me, he was smaller than me and I dodged, ramming my head into him again.
He twisted upright, shooting fire at me as he did so, scorching the scales on my side.
We fought all the way down to the ground, landing on the far side of the estate.
At least I’d lured him away from Clarence for now.
A plume of smoke escaped his nostrils and I avoided it out of instinct.
Ferrick used magic that most dragon shifters would never touch.
I wasn’t falling for any of his tricks. He’d killed too many dragons and their eggs.
Nothing that came out of him could be good for anyone.
He snarled and electricity passed through him, but like a lot of Moonscales that traced their roots back to Frost, lightning didn’t touch me. I could fly in a storm if I had to. Still, I swore under my breath and charged him again.
A book weighed heavily around my neck. It was filled with everything needed to trap him.
Haen and others had worked tirelessly crafting it.
Originally, we thought Clarence would be the one to use it, but as time moved on we all knew better.
My brother had a soft spot for his carrier.
He had grown inside his body and that connection was sometimes nearly impossible to sever.
I hadn’t and like our sire I could turn that annoying human empathy off sometimes.
That night I only thought about Ferrick killing me and finding Haen and our eggs in the nest. Haen would fight to the death but then another person would be dead, and the eggs would still be smashed.
I crashed into Ferrick again as he tried to fly in runic shapes just above the ground.
Letting him complete one of those might prove to be the death of me.
This time the bastard was ready for me. He gnashed his teeth, cutting along my side.
I twisted and he gnashed again, deeper and wider.
Closer to my throat. Blood dripped from my underbelly as I spun away.
I reached out to Haen over the group link and made him promise that he would get our eggs out of Moonscale London.
I would have liked to say goodbye to Clarence too but some things weren’t meant to work out.
There was only one way Ferrick was going down.
It would cost me everything, but it would give my unhatched eggs a chance.
It would give Smokey and Clary a chance to get their shit together.
It might not be enough in the end but my life was all I had left to give to my family and my flight.
“We need his DNA on the book,” my dragon roared inside my head.
I knew that and there was one sure fire way to ensure that happened.
I charged at the crazed omega dragon, roaring and shooting out my fire.
I left my neck, where the book hung exposed to him, and he took the bait.
Why should a leather satchel around my neck stop him from killing me?
Nothing so small would stop Ferrick Moonscale. Only his own hubris could stop him.
Later, I wouldn’t remember most of the pain, but it hurt a lot. Not enough to kill me right away but it was as if I watched from outside of my body as I plummeted through the sky, towards the ground, a fountain of my life blood pouring everywhere.
Then I watched as Ferrick shifted back into his human form.
It hurt to breathe or think so I watched as he started descaling me, taking my hide with the scales.
Haen talked to me all the way through it.
Volex and Smokey were inside my head too.
Smokey’s carrier was en route and so many others only it wouldn’t matter.
Whatever this lifetime was for it was over for better or worse.
I only hoped that I had given enough to the world and to those who meant the most to me.
My blood and whatever Ferrick had left behind on the book mingled together.
I thought about the book as the light faded from the edges of my vision and my scales and hide moved of their own accord.
Ferrick shouted, raging, demanding answers of the dark night sky on why things were happening against his magic.
Things were no longer under his control.
A shadow loomed over us and for a long second, I thought my brother rose from the crater to save me or at least to save the Moonscale Dragon Flight.
Only it wasn’t him. It was Medici Smokescale.
I smiled despite everything. Ferrick Moonscale was going to die, and my death was not going to be in vain.
A talon sliced through Ferrick, and his expression turned from rage to confusion.
He fell to his knees, trying to twist, but twisting only made the blood flow faster.
Before he knew it, he was dead and inside the book.
Medici knocked him off his talon and frowned down at me before squatting down to speak to me.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he whispered. “There is a reason no one does magic like this anymore. It takes honorable blood to seal spells like this. You’re just as stuck as he is until someone figures out how to undo it. You’re so brave, but…”
“Take care of my eggs,” I mumbled in draconic. I knew the cost. I knew how it worked. I’d give anything to make sure my eggs survived and that Moonscale London was safe from Roster and Ferrick even if it meant I had to be trapped with the omega forever.
Only it wasn’t forever. I’d just need help moving on later.
Medici stayed with me while I finished passing away.
No door came, because my soul belonged to the book that my chosen mate had crafted.
That’s why I wouldn’t let him give it to Clarence.
I could’ve taken it all if I had. I could’ve led the Moonscale Dragon Flight but my brother was the sort who insisted on seeing the good in people.
He’d balance out Smokey and maybe even find whatever little bit of good was still left in here.