Chapter 8 #2
King Elias’s shoulders heaved with his heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Alastor might, though.”
Without hesitation, Javier rose with Sama.
“Javier and I will bring him here,” Sama said.
“He is in the northernmost parts of Niev alongside Ximena,” King Elias said. “Together, they are searching for the orb.”
“We’ll bring him back,” Javier said, turning to Sama to climb his scales.
“I don’t want Ximena searching alone,” the king said. “Before you get him, ask Hayden to choose a warrior to search with her so he can bend space and take them there.”
Sama bared his teeth, probably not liking the way our king gave him orders. When King Elias did the same, Nalari stood behind him, snarling at Sama as he took to the sky.
Brenton squeezed my hand that he still held. I looked back at him, my stomach twisting the way it always did when he smiled at me. When he inched closer, I kept my spine straight. My shoulders squared. My body was trained to stand firm in battle. Apparently, it was trained to resist comfort too.
If he noticed the distance I kept between us, he didn’t let on.
“Do you think all dragons are as dramatic as those two?” Gold twinkled around the hazel in his eyes, beseeching me to tease him back.
With a small smile on my lips, I turned to look at Hoshiko. “Hoshiko isn’t dramatic.”
Brenton scoffed. “Have you already forgotten the way he snarled at you?”
“He was protecting you.” From me.
I squeezed his hand once before I removed it from his hold and turned to Kassidy.
“Who in your realm possesses magic?” I asked.
The way she arched her brow made me believe she’d leave another question unanswered.
“Only the dragons,” she said. “We have a dragon-bound, but she doesn’t truly possess magic. She can use her binding with dragons to heal others.”
A dragon-bound. I’d never heard of such a thing. Was she fae? Human? Another being I hadn’t heard of?
“I can’t imagine the dragons would harm their own in this manner,” I said. “But magic did kill this hatchling.”
“Was it a harsh death?” one of the females asked. She nibbled on the side of her finger before she dropped it to her lap. “My name is Jaise. I’m one of Kassidy’s younger sisters.”
Kassidy winked at her sister.
I watched the way Kassidy kept the egg safely tucked in her arms, the way her siblings looked sadly at the dead hatchling. Not wanting to hurt them, I wasn’t certain what to say.
“Tell them the truth,” Hoshiko said in my mind.
I startled at his voice, but wondered how many more times he’d speak to me. He’d already done it a handful of times and each time made me feel special. Chosen, not for my magic but for me.
“The hatchling suffered greatly.” I ran a gentle finger over its body, wishing my magic could bring life instead of taking it. “May I see your egg?” I asked Kassidy.
She hesitated.
“You have my word, I won’t harm it.”
With care, she handed it to me. The air around it crackled with life, its thin veins pulsing like a heartbeat. A sheen glimmered as I moved it, a gold hue hugging it as if the egg were dusted in gold. Magic, both dormant but not, thrummed through it.
“I can feel its magic,” I said, my tone that of wonder.
Kassidy smiled. “It’s remarkable, isn’t it?”
I sent my magic through the egg, trying to determine whether any of that invasive magic had slipped into it. Before I finished, that feeling of being watched overtook me with this menacing presence that pushed into my chest.
I hugged the egg to me, wanting to protect it from whatever came for us.
“A shield.” I rushed the two words to Brenton, knowing his magic allowed him to build protective shields. I set the egg on the ground, rising to my feet as I drew my sword from the inner pocket of my magic. “Build a shield around the egg.”
He did as I asked, not questioning me as he and the others rose, also drawing their sword.
That invisible danger slammed into me, and I heaved over in pain as my gut twisted. Brenton’s smoke magic encircled me, trying to find a way to help me while the pain intensified.
“You know not what you are playing at,” a female voice said in my head.
Gods, who . . . was it?
With a hand to my stomach, I spun, trying to find who’d spoken to me when the dragon Kassidy had ridden atop collapsed to the ground.
“I take only what I must,” that same voice said.
Could it be Leanora? Surely, that was impossible. But it felt like her. Her vile evilness.
“Show yourself,” I said, anger and fear clapping in my head.
Brenton took my arm, trying to position himself in front of me, but neither of us knew where the danger came from. Still, he kept his hold on me, as together we made small circles.
“Finley,” Kassidy called.
My head snapped in her direction to find her kneeling beside her dragon, her scales dimming against the red Elder’s mark on her head. Her fear coiled inside me, making the pain in my stomach grow.
And that presence inside me vanished. The sudden absence made my skin prickle. Whatever had attacked us had taken what it came for.
“Please, can your magic help Solana?” she asked, her eyes begging for a mercy I couldn’t give her.
I shook my head, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered the words that strange female in the woods had said to me.
Could there be more to my magic? Something I hadn’t yet discovered?
King Elias rushed to their side with Nalari landing behind them.
“She can’t die,” Kassidy said, her words just above a whisper.
Where once our king could have used his magic to tend to the dragon, now he was without magic. The absences carved lines of quiet hurt across his features.
“What of Nalari or the other dragons?” Elias asked. “Surely, their magic will heal Solana.”
“The dragon’s magic does nothing to aid our dragons,” Callan replied while Kassidy stared at Solana through tormented eyes.
“I know how to heal myself,” Brenton said, kneeling beside Kassidy. “I can try to heal her.”
He looked at Hoshiko, holding a private conversation with his dragon, before he placed a hand atop Solana.
My magic stirred inside me the way it often did when it wanted to be released. A whisper that promised nothing but doom. I took a few steps back, wanting to put distance between everyone in case my magic erupted.
“Where are you going?” Everly asked.
I grimaced at the female who’d made it clear how little she cared for me.
“I can’t stay.” I fisted my hands, trying to keep my magic contained. My fingertips sparked despite my efforts.
“If your magic wants out, you should release it,” she said.
Through trembling fingers, I wiped the tears that trickled down my cheek. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know . . .”
No one knew what it felt like to kill and kill and kill so effortlessly. To be used as nothing more than a weapon. To feel my magic swim through me like a poison drumming through my veins. Not asking or waiting. Simply there.
I wound my arms around myself tightly, and at that moment, I relived each life my magic had taken. Their final breaths caught in my throat. Their hearts stammered in my chest.
“I’ll take you somewhere safe.” Hoshiko came to stand beside me.
On hurried feet, I went to him, climbing his scales with clammy hands.
My magic raged beneath my skin, no longer a whisper but a scream.
It wasn’t only the lives I’d taken, but feeling each life as it died and left this world. And each death would continuously take pieces of me until nothing was left.