Chapter 46
46
T he skeleton dragon unearthed its huge body with a roar. I could feel the heat of its fire as it flapped its horrible creaking bones, and I smelled the magic in the wind as it began to fly. Not by any laws of physics, but instead by some sort of dark power that allowed it to flap and hover above us, deciding who it would hunt down first.
“Run to the dunes!” Tristen shouted, and I saw him dragging his dark power out, shadows unspooling around him. His shadows tossed the dirt around us, creating a small dust storm to help obscure us from the dragon’s view.
Priscilla, Issac, and Henry were already running, not wanting any part in this battle.
Rachelle flew circles around the dragon, who was blasting his fire at her. I froze, unable to tear my gaze away as she bobbed and weaved and dropped so quickly I thought she was falling out of the sky as she narrowly missed another spray of the dragon’s fire.
“We have to go!” Callum yelled at me, grabbing my arm and pulling me after the others.
But Tristen held his ground, watching Rachelle and the dragon tangle in the sky.
“The others—” I started.
“Let them fight. We have to run!” Callum said, pulling me along until I finally started sprinting after him.
But as we dove through another maze of dragon’s eggs, it was sparse enough on this side of the dragon graveyard that, when I looked over my shoulder, I could still see Rachelle struggle as she once again barely dodged the undead dragon’s fire.
She was growing tired. I could tell by how she kept resorting to allowing her small hawk body to drop and nosedive to try and lessen the energy expenditure of her flapping wings as she tried to dodge the dragon and keep it distracted.
Tristen saw, too, and he shot out a wave of his shadowfire at the dragon, which caused it to turn its bony head and swivel its red beady eyes at Tristen.
They were going to die.
I stopped running after Callum and turned back.
“SAFFRON!” Callum shouted after me, but I couldn’t leave them. I sprinted after them, my feet hitting the dusty ground below me as I made it to the clearing, steps away from Tristen and Rachelle.
The dragon dove at Tristen, but he shot out a massive wave of shadows and shadowfire that was a veritable wall of darkness. It was so powerful it shot the dragon backward, giving Rachelle enough time to land safely. She stumbled, and I realized she was about to pass out.
I ran behind Tristen and darted to her, catching her before she fell.
“It’s okay, Rachelle, I got you,” I said, holding her body to mine as her eyes dipped close.
Rachelle opened her mouth and only bird sounds came out, as if she hadn’t fully realized she was human once more. I felt her body go limp against me as I struggled to hold her.
The dragon was diving again, and I saw Tristen rally his shadows and flames, charging up and then raising his hands at that dragon. Once more, a huge beam of magic flared from him, the dragon screaming as Tristen pushed it back.
Callum made it to my side.
“Take her,” I told Callum.
“I can walk,” Rachelle murmured, and held herself up—barely.
Callum was about to say something to me, but I pointed toward The Eternal Sands. “Go, Callum! Get her out of here!”
He put an arm around Rachelle, and started to help her out of the clearing. When she wasn’t moving fast enough, he cradled her in his arms and took off running.
As they disappeared around one of the eggs, I turned to Tristen.
He was looking at me, his eyes wild. “You have to go if you want to live, Saffron,” he said, and that’s when I realized the edges of his body were being wrapped by his shadows. His power was starting to turn on him, feed on him. I remembered how that had felt when I had taken his power.
“Your magic…” I realized.
Tristen grimaced, and then threw his head back and laughed. It was a rough, low laugh that morphed into something more… dangerous. More unhinged. “Dead bones, dead bones. The dead bones are talking to me! They want our bones to join them and it will be so lovely,” he called, his laughter growing more wild. “Saffron, won’t you lie your bones with mine?”
His magic was starting to unravel his mind. As the dragon screeched and dove back toward Tristen and he raised his hands once more to the sky, I realized that the mad god’s magic wouldn’t let him walk away from this battle unscathed. Tristen was about to lose all of himself.
“NO!” I screamed, but Tristen was still laughing as his magic flooded out of him, blasting into the dragon as his shadows and flames exploded from him. But his shadows were wrapping around more and more of his body, his laughter more unhinged.
I was losing him.
“SAFFRON, RUN ! It’s him or you!” Callum yelled from across the clearing where he had climbed a hill on his way to The Eternal Sands, Rachelle still slumped in his arms. “YOU HAVE TO RUN!” Callum shouted as Tristen pushed back the dragon, but this time it was a lot less far as Tristen’s powers waned.
The dragon was preparing to circle back and dive once more toward us, its fire starting to recharge and glow in its bony maw.
“He’s fighting for all of us! The least we can do is fight for him!” I yelled back. And it was true. I was paces away from Tristen, and I knew he would die the moment his magic faltered against this dragon. He couldn’t kill it—if it even could be killed. Where the fuck was the Bluesteel Blade when I really needed it? Not to mention that I was powerless?—
Wait. Powerless . That was it—I needed the only power that could rival the dragon’s own strength.
I turned to the closest dragon’s egg and placed both of my hands on the smooth, dusty surface.
I didn’t know if this would work, but I needed to try. I pushed my palms against the dragon’s egg.
Nothing .
“Please!” I begged, hearing the bony flapping of the dragon as it made its approach.
Then, under my hands, I felt it. A small ghost of a current of power. I coaxed it out, pulling with my own power, hooking as many of those invisible loops as I could. I dug deeper, searching for more power. I needed enough to win, enough to defeat this thing.
More , my power commanded, tunneling deeper into this dragon egg. Whatever was inside conceded, and there were more glowing loops. More power to draw from. I was greedy. With one huge pull, I hooked my mental claws around all of the loops, and dragged the power from the sleeping egg, my scream being ripped from my body with the effort. It felt like I was dragging a boulder up a mountain, the exertion so heavy as I pulled at the power within me.
It sat ancient and buzzing underneath my skin, and I didn’t waste a second.
I ripped my hands off the egg, turning just in time as Tristen looked nearly completely overtaken by the shadows, his eyes all black—the whites of his eyes completely gone as his power was prepared to completely consume him as his shadowfire grew even larger at his hands.
“Stand aside!” I shouted at him, and my voice boomed and echoed with something old . Something from a different era.
Tristen stepped back, and as he blinked, I saw a shine of recognition in his eyes. I stood in front of him as the bone dragon began to nosedive once more. I raised my own hands, and called for my power to do… something .
Suddenly, a popping sensation covered every inch of my skin. I let out a strangled cry of pain, looking down long enough to see that my entire body was being covered in scales . I blinked again and suddenly my vision was beady and blood-red. I had dragon eyes . I threw my head back and roared?—
—and suddenly, a stream of dragon fire burst from my mouth. It was so hot it nearly consumed me, but I let it flow out of me, the blast so hot and so powerful the bone dragon retreated.
Retreated, but did not stand down.
Something inside me tugged, and I lowered onto one knee, placing one hand on the ground.
“ Leave us. Return to your sleep ,” I begged in my mind. And then my mouth was moving, speaking in a language I did not understand, telling this creature of the dead to do my bidding.
Then, something slimy and dark slithered in my mind, the voice booming in every crevice of my soul. “ Why should I do what you say ?”
I replied with the only thing I could think of. “ Because these are my friends. And I need them if I am going to fulfill my destiny. As the Siphon .”
I felt a pause in my mind. In front of me, the dragon flapped its wings, all of us watching. Waiting. Seeing what it would do.
Then, I felt that booming voice rattle my mind once more. “ We’ve been waiting for you, daughter of the sun and the moon. May the little one light your way .”
The flapping slowed, and I stayed kneeling as the dragon lowered to the ground with a great rumbling sound. Slowly, it lowered its bone wings to the ground, and then its head. The lights in its eyes blinked out, its head resting as I heard it speak once more in my mind.
“ You may pass, brave one ,” it said, and with a whoosh my power left me, and I fell to my hands and knees as the scales rippled off my body.
We had survived.
To my left, Tristen swayed, and I hauled myself on my feet, forcing my leaden limbs to go to him just as he fell.
I nearly caught him before he hit the ground, his huge, muscular body so heavy against mine as I struggled under his weight.
“There she is. My Sael ,” Tristen murmured, one of his shadow-wrapped hands reaching up to touch my face.
“Tristen…” I started, but his head lolled in my arms as he passed out.