Chapter 46 The Dragon
“R eally?” Kacey asks again, her excitement and shock bursting around the three of us.
“One time, Kacey. If this doesn’t work, that’s it. Do you understand?” Ezekial’s serious tone and level stare make Kacey straighten before nodding quickly.
When Ezekial turns to assess the large atrium, and the enormous dragon resting peacefully inside, Kacey’s eyes dart to mine. She bounces on her feet and pretends to scream whilst clenching and shaking her fists excitedly.
I laugh quietly in response and shake my head, before following Ezekial as he steps closer to the glass.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she murmurs from behind my shoulder.
I think I nod but I’m not totally sure because I’m too engrossed by Ezekial who’s now donning his own version of the enforcer uniform.
Rather than black, his chest piece has been dipped in a flaxen gold making it even more impressive. It moulds to him perfectly, intentionally emphasising the hard edges of the muscles lining his stomach and his broad, wide shoulders which it barely manages to cover.
I couldn’t decide if the person in charge of the uniform design, particularly the chest plates, needed counselling, threatening or a raise.
“You follow my every word, got it?” My eyes flash to his as I focus on his words and battle away my inappropriate thoughts. He’s removed his glasses again and his serious gaze starts with mine before flickering to Kacey’s. “Any deviation from my instructions and I’ll flit you both out without hesitation.”
Yes, sir.
The words barely remain in my mind as I catch Kacey nodding in my peripheral. I decide to copy.
I also note Mr Bear to our right. He’s intently watching Kacey as Ezekial begins unlocking the mechanism for the dragon’s cage. He begins by laying his right hand flat against a panel, a thin, red light emits and scales over his palm, then his thumb, then he lowers himself until the scanner hits his eye—the darker one.
“Do you think this will work?” Kacey whispers. This is the closest she’s been to me since the night she healed me, my power gently curls around us .
I’m about to respond, fill her nervous energy with reassurance, when a large panel of the atrium begins to slide away.
I become engulfed.
Like a violent, tidal wave, the dragon’s power crashes into us all. I see Ezekial’s stance slide slightly, which is nothing in comparison to me and Kacey who stumble back from the sweeping impact.
Thankfully, my tendrils keep me secure upon the ground and Mr Bear is instantly there, grasping Kacey’s shoulders and keeping her rigid. I stare at his transparent paws as they gently, but firmly, grasp her. I also note Kacey’s lack of reaction to the creature’s touch. But then her wide eyes are staring directly at me and her worry suddenly erupts in waves.
“You both stay behind me,” Ezekial orders but he doesn’t turn around as he finally steps over the threshold and into the cage.
I’m instantly following, my coils sweeping out and latching onto Ezekial’s trailing aura. I feel Kacey behind me, her anxiety slipping into me as my tendrils wrap her in a thin barricade she won’t notice. Without turning back, I know the second she’s entered because the dragon’s eyes finally open.
They flicker briefly over Ezekial and I, the yellow iris brightly burning as its pupils dilate, but then the dark slit locks directly onto Kacey. As we continue walking, the creature, and his sight, never unlocks from her. I frown, surely a starving predator’s immediate response would be to attack?
More of Kacey’s unease swirls around me and it’s clear she’s thinking something similar.
“You ready with that food, Kace?” Ezekial asks in a low but clear voice as he turns to us.
His eyes are vibrantly glowing, like the first time I ever saw him, strapped in a chair I couldn’t move from... and I finally realise that this, all of this, is him.
The dragon isn’t moving, isn’t reacting, because he isn’t allowing it.
From the little I’d learned about Ezekial, I knew his power was something which elicited a deep terror. In the cave when I tried to flee, when he’d threatened to lock those soldiers away in their minds, and when he listed his terrifying threats as I lay in Sai’s arms, bloody and beaten… the young enforcer and his unit... their reactions to him, to his words, was always something much more than fear.
“Kacey?”
I hadn’t the time nor need to really process the words either, I hadn’t been able to really acknowledge what it meant he was capable of—didn’t want to believe it. And this morning, Kane’s keen reassurance that his brother could help with my mental blocks, stating it as his ‘specialism’, I’d overlooked it. I didn’t realise the significance of it.
Or maybe I just didn’t want to.
I’d just assumed Ezekial could control the dark like his brother, albeit to a lower level maybe. I’d even considered his ability to control the light too...
But now, seeing this powerful creature barely blinking, its huge frame calmly rising and falling, wings neatly tucked away and emitting no threatening emotions whatsoever. I finally realised why Ezekial’s power elicited such terror to those who knew of it.
He was a mind melder.
The ability to control someone’s mind, to alter their reality, to make them see something that was never there… it was only a power the dark had access to. And, from what Ferne had taught me about the dark ways, it was rare and it was the only power that needed to be inflicted .
There was only one way to achieve the ability, you had to withstand something horrific, something painful enough to bring you to the edge of death, something you might never truly recover from…
The very thought makes thick nausea roll through me. I’m flooded with the chilling sensation, a sticky, thick film of dread making my focus blurry.
I try to look at Ezekial, desperate to seek out the truth somehow, but his gaze isn’t on me, it’s on Kacey. His ashy brows are furrowed in deep concentration and I finally remember that she hasn’t responded. Doesn’t seem capable of it.
“Kacey, if you don’t respond I’m taking us out.”
I’m engulfed by her fear; it grips her body and holds her rigid. My dread is momentarily pierced and my vision unblurs as it latches onto her. Mr Bear is still with her, paws upon her shoulders, but his soulless stare catches mine. The empty sockets somehow call to me, implore me to do something.
“Kacey,” I say, softening my voice and using a snippet of power to amplify the effect. Her wide gaze slowly moves from the beast to mine. I smile gently and immediately, without thought, my eyes turn. “There’s no need to be afraid, I am here. Nothing can harm you. Nothing bad will happen.”
I watch her chest rising and falling in rapid pumps, feel the fear and trepidation leaking from her pores in waves as I take a step closer. My tendrils brush reassurance over her whilst feeding from her terror.
“I know you can do this, Kacey.” I level our eyes. “You came into a room filled with enforcers, a council member, to save the life of a person you didn’t even know.” I flash the memory into her mind and watch her pupils dilate, my coils swirl around her. “And now, you’re going to help this dragon. You’re the only one who can do it, you’re the only one he trusts—”
“I’m flitting us—”
“Wait.” I glance over my shoulder at Ezekial and force myself to not become distracted by his entrancing eyes. “She’s nearly there, I’m removing her fear. I’m making her see. Trust me.”
I turn back to Kacey before Ezekial can refute me. Her eyes have gone back to the dragon and I move another step closer, just enough to grab onto the last threads of terror and apprehension so eager to cling.
“You’re doing so well, Kace.” At my praise, her glowing, violet eyes are back with me. I use that moment to take her last pieces of fear and wrap my tendrils around her in physical vines. The instant I do, her shoulders completely drop and her mouth parts softly. “Show me what necromancers can do, show me how strong you are, prove them all wrong.”
My words of encouragement echo, they’ve become doubled by my darkness but remain soothing. They twist and mould her fearful perception of what she is about to do, replacing all those ideas that once brought dread with new thoughts that promised success.
I paint her a new reality.
I physically the see the change as her new intention is created but I also feel the sudden brush of Ezekial's emotions, ones which are cold and thick and familiar... Because now, Ezekial knew.
Now, I’m smothered by his overpowering unease, the heavy relentless current of his dread rushing into me. I try to battle against it, try to alter it, but I fail. I simply allow them to be.
Now, we both knew each other’s deepest, darkest ability.
I was a mind melder too.
This was the part I tried to keep hidden. This tragic, ruinous segment which utterly terrified my family. The one they’d begged me to lock away, trained me to trap beneath layers and layers.
When I’d first used it, to stop a patron from stabbing a smashed bottle into someone’s face, to make him turn it on himself, to compel him to plunge the sharp shards repeatedly into his throat until his slippery artery shuddered, pulsating with blood as he tore through his skin... Was when Ferne taught me about that part of my power.
As their eyes filled with sorrow and regret, Ferne told me how a power like that had to be made, how you could never be born with it.
How the Council would never allow someone with it to live .
It was too dangerous.
Unstable.
“You have to experience something... horrific.” Her words float through my head in remembrance. “I’m so sorry you experienced something so…” I shake them away.
With Ezekial’s emotions gaining more traction, sweeping around me in a thick wave, I knew I needed to coerce Kacey now before he suddenly flitted us out.
“Come on, Kace. Let’s feed your dragon.” I smile, pushing back against all other emotions, I slowly curl my fingers inwards.
I study my coils tightening around her body and watch as they encourage Kacey forwards. With each step she takes towards me, I take more back until I feel Ezekial directly behind me. His soft barricade of emotions ripple as my shoulder brushes against it. But the calmness it normally brings is tinged by his previous revelation.
“After, we will speak.” I tense at his words, trepidation blooming in my stomach as I feel the briefest mist over my fingertips.
“Now, Kacey,” Ezekial suddenly orders and I feel the rush of his power as it passes through me and flows into her.
Wisps of her long hair begin to float and Mr Bear finally releases his hold, stepping away. But my eyes widen in shock when I realise he isn’t alone, when I see more and more ghostly creatures appearing and forming around Kacey.
“She’s incredible.” My thought passes through without restraint.
I stare at this once fragile girl now transformed into a confident, powerful necromancer as all her creatures surround her and push her power to new limits.
A creature brings the meat towards her, she doesn’t look back as she takes it, lugs it up onto her shoulder and then heaves the slab of meat towards the dragon’s snout.
We all, ghostly beings included, watch as it thuds onto the ground and slides.
Then, a small, ghostly creature pops up from the ground. A child’s body with a duck’s head. It grabs the meat and begins dragging it even closer to the dragon until it’s directly by the beast’s nostril, then the ghostly child disintegrates.
“Please,” Kacey’s soft plea tugs at my own heart as I watch her dark strands flutter in her breeze.
I amplify the emotions emitting from her, my sight flickering between Kacey and the dragon.
With sluggish movement, we all inhale and watch as the dragon slowly tilts its head. Vibrant golden eyes never leaving Kacey as its jaw rigidly opens, as it edges towards the meat, and as it grips it between gigantic teeth .
Kacey gasps and all of her creatures lean towards her. With one tug, the meat lifts from the ground and tilts backwards into the dragon’s mouth.
It swallows the slab whole.
“Give him more, Kace!” I break the silence, feeling the new rush of her excitement which floods the atrium and sets my skin alight.
She nods, casting a quick look at me before turning back to the dragon. More of her strange beings appear, each holding meat which they bring towards her and she lugs at the beast. Whenever the meaty slab doesn’t quite reach, the duck child reappears and drags it closer.
After five more pieces, I feel Ezekial step closer to me. My eyes flutter at the soothing brush of his powers, his unease still hangs there but it has quelled somewhat.
“Time to leave.”
I nod slowly, somehow knowing what Ezekial is asking of me without the need for him to say it.
“Come on, Kace. It’s time we let him rest.” I take a few careful steps towards her with a small smile.
Mr Bear is close to her again and they both turn to look at me, her large smile making her cheeks rosy and face angelic.
“Can you believe it? I mean, I hoped it would work but it actually did and he’s eaten enough that I can already feel his wounds healing! I think a few more days, maybe, and he might be ready for flight… but how would that work… he can’t exactly go out into the Council District. Can you imagine walking to work and then, ‘Hey look, there’s a freaking dragon in the sky!’ ? I mean—”
“Kace,” I interrupt, a small smile still lingering on my lips. It’s all I need to say as she immediately stops. “Can we maybe talk about this outside the dragon’s cage?”
Her gaze flickers behind me and I assume she’s finally remembered Ezekial is also still here, still using his power to keep the dragon calm and still.
“Yep, yes, sorry!” She looks over my shoulder. “Sorry, Zeek! Lord, sorry! Ready!”
Ezekial moves towards the entrance, herding us with his invisible barricade which forces us to move in front of him.
We never turn our backs to the dragon and, all the while, the dragon’s eyes stay locked upon Kacey, even when she exits and is no longer able to look at him.
When the glass panel finally slides back into place, sealing off the atrium and trapping most of the creature’s power inside. My eyes return and I release a sigh of relief. A sigh which soon turns into bubbling laughter as I watch Kacey begin a questioning barrage, directly at Ezekial, the second his eyes had returned to their normal silver hue .
“You did well, Kacey. I will speak with the others but we will discuss this another time,” he interrupts, silencing her idea about a harness for the dragon. I watch as her excited, skittish energy surrounds her whilst she tries desperately to focus upon his words, like a puppy eager to prove it can behave, and I barely manage to contain my laughter again.
“I need to speak with Jasmine. Stay here, do not do anything.”
My lips pull flat at his words but Kacey emits a wide grin which makes me feel a multitude of things. One was a genuine warmth to have helped to create that smile but the other emotion was one I didn’t expect. The sharp sliver of jealousy that makes my chest ache and breath catch. I’m glad neither are looking my way because I wince at the pain and rub my sternum.
Just as I recover, Ezekial turns to face me, eyes aglow, and I lose my breath all over again.
“Follow.”
I frown at his order, and tone, but remember Kacey is still watching and quickly smooth my expression back into something neutral.
Before I can even respond, Ezekial’s coils have wrapped around me and practically pull me with him.
His emotions begin to build again, the ones he’d tried to quell whilst inside the atrium now bubbling and unfolding as we enter a section of the atrium which contains smaller animal enclosures.
We enter in silence.
Unfortunately, I’m not able to prepare myself for the onslaught of Ezekial’s truer emotions because he is suddenly right before me.
“You can meld minds.”