Chapter 16 Help Arrives #2
“Stronger with each other. Weaker because of each other.” Mei grimaced.
“They? You mentioned Caden, but how could Caden be in the Spirit Realm?” Jahara asked.
“That is where all of the souls of the humans who were taken over by the Behemoth go,” Valerius said. “Jasper, Landry and her brothers are all in Raziel’s lair. I can see them.”
They were all looking out at him anxiously, including Jasper Hawes.
“Caden went with Raziel to try and save Iolaire from the Behemoth. They flew to the crater where they first faced off against that Behemoth,” Valerius said.
“Raziel cannot do this alone,” Mei said and her eyes met Valerius’.
“No,” he agreed with her. “No, Raziel cannot.”
“I take it that the chanting indicates where Caden’s body is since his soul is in the Spirit Realm?” Anwar asked.
Valerius nodded, feeling so tired like life was running out of him. “Yes, we were thinking of a plan to get to him without killing the human horde.”
Esme crept around them to the end of the tunnel and peered out. “Ah, I see why you were having difficulties with just Illarion’s powers.”
“Hey, I ripped off Vozyth’s head!” Illarion scowled.
“Who is Vozyth?” Kaila asked.
“A very powerful Dragon. Illarion has saved me many times tonight. But his and Mephous’ gifts are those of death,” Valerius said.
Jahara joined Esme in looking out into the cavern. They whispered to one another. Esme gestured for Tez and Anwar to join them. Both Dragon Kings did. Illarion frowned. Valerius guessed he didn’t like being out of the action and the sole hero.
“You’ve done enough already, Illarion,” Valerius told him.
Illarion turned shadowed eyes upon him. “You must not die, Valerius.”
“I’m not.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? Because you look… bad.”
“I don’t think he needs to hear that,” Kaila scowled at Illarion. “True or not, no one likes to hear it!”
“Illarion, Kaila, we need to get Valerius out of here,” Mei said suddenly.
“No, I won’t leave Caden!” Valerius nearly shouted, but he lowered his voice at the last moment.
“We’ve got a plan, dear,” Esme said as she left the other two. “Jahara will use her mist and mesmerize powers as others grab Caden’s body from the altar. Anwar will use light to blind them if the mesmerize doesn’t take. Then Tez will use the earth and metal in the cavern here to lock them in.”
“We don’t want to kill them,” Valerius warned.
“There will be enough oxygen to sustain them. There are vents according to Jahara. She can feel the air moving,” Esme said. “We just need to keep them from coming after us. I can form a water bridge at the pool like I did before.”
“That will get us out of here, but then what?” Mei asked.
“First things first,” Esme said.
“I have the second thing,” Mei said. “The only thing that will work. Let’s move Valerius and I’ll tell you.”
To Valerius’ dismay, Illarion did pick him up in a bride’s carry and they started hustling down the tunnel.
He looked over Illarion’s shoulder. Mist shrouded the air.
Jahara stepped out into the cavern and said something musical that had him yearning towards her.
The howl of the horde though showed they were not as impressed.
There were sudden bright blasts of light.
So bright that Valerius had to shut his eyes and he still saw flashes of it behind his eyelids.
Then the faint illumination from that end of the tunnel started to dim.
There was a cracking and creaking sound as if the mountain was closing in on itself.
And then they burst out into the room with the pool.
Esme’s hands flew towards it and the water seemed to solidify into a narrow band that she started walking across. There was only the smallest splash of water with each step she took. She turned around and motioned for them to follow her.
“It’s safe!” she assured them.
Kaila stepped upon it without any hesitation while Mei gingerly stepped up and scuttled across as fast as she could. But Illarion stared at it suspiciously.
“How is water made solid like this?” Illarion asked.
“Does it matter? Even if she dumps you in the drink, you’ll just get wet. But she wouldn’t do that to Valerius,” Kaila said with a shake of her head.
Illarion put a bare foot on the water and pressed down. The water did not give out beneath him. He grunted and started walking across it. Valerius did not bother to marvel at the water bridge, but instead, was staring over Illarion’s shoulder towards the mouth of the tunnel.
Had they gotten Caden’s body?
Did they kill any of the horde?
Were the horde coming after them?”
Tez, with Anwar and Jahara fast on his heels, raced out of the tunnel. Jahara carried a naked and unconscious Caden. Valerius’ heart soared upon seeing the limp form of his lover.
“Go! Go! Go! I don’t think that’s going to hold them for long!” Tez cried and made shooing motions with his hands for them to run. “They’re digging around the metal! Determined bastards! Let’s go!”
Valerius wanted to see Caden right then and there, but he knew they could not slow down. Instead, the other Dragon Shifters ran faster. Valerius was bobbed up and down almost violently as Illarion ran like the wind that Jahara controlled.
As they ran up the tunnels, Tez kept melting the natural metal in the earth and in his breath to form metal slabs cutting off the tunnel behind them to slow the horde down, but Valerius could hear them yelling. A garbled scream of rage that contained no words, no humanity, just anger.
Finally, they burst out onto one of the streets of Reach, but not the one where he, Illarion and Caden went in, but one further up the mountain.
Chione was waiting there with Simi, Ngoye and dozens of the Claw.
There were several black SUVs nearby. Mei headed towards the nearest, wrenching open the back door and urging Illarion to slide Valerius inside.
“By the gods, what’s happened to King Valerius?” Chione cried.
The blood, the bruises, and, undoubtedly, his paleness was terrifying her. He understood her distress and wanted to lessen it, but he found himself without the strength to speak.
Raziel? Caden? What’s happened to you both?
He didn’t ask that of the people within the lair. Landry was missing, he noted. But she ran back inside at that moment. Her eyes were huge and her hair was wild. She pointed back in the direction that she had come.
“Something is happening in the crater!” she cried. “I can see lightning and plasma and acid and who knows what else! The Behemoth is sending it into the air, but I don’t see Raziel there! Yet it’s trying to hit something.”
Not something. Someone… Caden?
“Caden is fighting that thing?!” Jasper goggled. “But he’s just human! He doesn’t have any powers! We’re fucking doomed! Doomed!”
Landry slapped Jasper across the face. “Get it together, Jasper! Caden isn’t special because he's a Shifter! He’s a Shifter because he’s special!”
And that was the perfect way to explain it. Valerius wished he had said that to Caden himself. He had glimpsed Caden’s fear that he wasn’t “good” enough to be a Shifter, let alone the White Dragon Shifter. But he was. He had always been good enough. He was perfect for the role.
Jasper blinked at her as his one cheek flared red from her handprint. “But--but he’s still--”
“Going to save us. I know Caden will do it. That’s just the sort of person he is,” Landry said.
Valerius didn’t have a chance to respond to her as Illarion was surprisingly gently placing him into the back seat before sliding in by Valerius’ side.
“C-Caden,” Valerius got out and reached blindly for his mate’s body.
Jahara tenderly placed Caden in Valerius’ arms. But it was not the comfort that he had thought it would be.
Caden’s head lolled lifelessly against his shoulder.
His mate’s skin was cold and clammy. None of Caden’s personality remained in what, to all intents and purposes, was a shell or, worse, a corpse.
But Valerius used all of his remaining strength to cradle Caden’s body against him just in case Caden’s soul could feel it. And he would have to make sure that Caden’s body was as perfect as could be when Caden re-inhabited it.
Mei stayed outside the SUV as she urged the other Dragon Shifters to pile in. “We need to get to High Reach. The most secure place inside of it.”
“We need to fight the horde!” Esme cried. “We can’t leave the Claw to deal with it alone!”
Mei shook her head. But then she was stretching her arms towards the metal door that shut the tunnel and sent a burst of powerful air towards it.
It glowed red hot as she used one of her gifts to manipulate it.
The door sealed itself shut. The horde would have to batter their way through over four inches of metal.
Valerius knew they could do it. With time.
Then Mei turned around to face all the Dragon Shifters. Her expression was surprisingly serene considering what she said next, “Don’t you understand? There’s only one way we beat the Behemoth and its horde.”
Esme tilted her head, but understanding started to form in her gaze. “Oh, my, yes, of course.”
“How?” Tez asked, his gaze flickering between them.
“Our Spirits have to do what Raziel did,” Mei said. “They have to leave their lairs and help Raziel destroy the Behemoth in the Spirit Realm.”