Chapter 4 #2
Not even close, but I don’t bother saying that.
“Freya asked me to choose—three times, in fact. Each time she didn’t just ask me to choose something in words.
She shoved me into real scenarios, and she made me pick how to handle them.
At first, I didn’t even realize I was in a scene that didn’t exist, but I figured it out. ”
He looks confused, and I can’t blame him. I was confused too, and I was there. “She made me pick something pretty big at the end.” I cringe. “You had died—as Azar, and then as Axel you were being destroyed.” My voice cracks on died, and I want to curl up and hide. “And—it was my fault both times.”
Hyperion said.
“Of course he told you.” I kick at a rock, and it goes flying, but the wind that whips by me in that moment is terribly icy, and I curl inward.
Axel’s head rises, and suddenly the air around us warms.
“You just used your flame powers in your earth form. Is that new?”
I’ve never tried before today.
Because he was hiding his abilities until now. That just reminds me that he also divulged his most dangerous secret to try to keep me safe, right before we were hurled into the volcano.
“The thing is, I felt really bad about all of it—trying to get you to stop hurting the humans and getting Azar killed. Having this weird connection with the volcano that got you chucked by your own brother into the lava. Both things were my fault, and if I’d been able to change them, I would have.
I didn’t ever mean for you to be hurt. I was trying to keep the dragons and humans from fighting, and someone I trusted.
. .” I close my eyes. Thinking about Gideon still hurts.
“The person I trusted the most, before I met you, betrayed me.”
That’s why you should never trust anyone.
“I trusted you.” And Axel trusted me with his secret, but I don’t say that. He’d just say it was a weak moment—a mistake. He might not even be wrong.
Trusting me was stupid, he says. I don’t even remember you.
Not gonna lie; that one stings. Because. . . “That’s my fault, too.” I clench my hands. “I made a deal with Freya. She said she’d restore you—Azar would live again—and she’d strengthen the earth blessed so they’d stop being eaten. They’d be stronger, and they’d get wings.”
But. . .?
“I was watching as you and Gordon and Rufus were being eaten by the horned devil things.”
You made the deal for us?
“Yes, she saved the three of you by making the earth blessed like the other dragons—you can’t reproduce any more, but you’re stronger, more powerful, and you can fly.” I wince. “She didn’t mention that you wouldn’t be able to eat anymore.”
You traded the lives of three of us for the future of all the blessed?
In a large red poof, he shifts into Azar, and he roars, and then seconds later, fire erupts upward. As he drops his head, still spewing flame, he melts the partially broken down rock underneath us into bright red, flowing lava.
Without a second thought, I explode upward, winging my way back and away from the destruction. I knew he’d be upset, but this is excessive. He flames the earth for long enough that the lava flow reaches the ocean.
“Sure. It’s probably a great time to blow all your power in one spot,” I say. “Since you can’t really replenish that energy by, say, eating. . .”
He spins around, eyes flashing. You’re a half-wit.
“That might be a little harsh. Freya clearly tricked me.”
Didn’t you know why we came here?
He has me there. I did know why they wanted the heart—that they were hoping to restore the very thing I traded away.
I should come clean about all of it while he’s already this angry.
I should tell him I traded his memories of me for the return of Azar, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
I can’t tell him that I ignored his choice.
I can’t admit that I gave up on us, even though he won’t understand or even care about it now.
It matters to me.
Which is exactly the point. It’s only hurting me. I’d probably do the same thing again, as long as it contained the misery to me.
“I did know why the blessed came here,” I finally admit.
And you just figured, ‘Who cares?’
“I asked Freya what would happen to the other dragons, and she said it was unknown, but when she asked me to choose, to let Gordon and Rufus die, to let the earth dragons continue to be abused and eaten by the others, she simply told me they’d be stronger, they’d lose their power to shift—you never liked your human form anyway—and they’d lose the power to procreate. She never mentioned starving to death.”
Why was a human making these decisions?
“I wish I knew the answer to that. I might think it’s because Freya’s human—she looked like one. But she also said she was Odin’s wife.”
Azar snorts. A human married to my father? Ridiculous.
“Or.” I frown. “What if, like the earth blessed, like the cursed who shifted from demonic forms to dragon ones. . .what if she can shift?”
Then why can’t the rest of us?
I don’t have an answer for that. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I really—I thought I was doing the right thing. None of the options were great. I was watching you and Rufus and Gordon being eaten and I panicked.”
Hyperion threw us in?
I nod.
It’s the doom the prophecy spoke of. His expression’s grim. It said he’d destroy us all.
“But you can save your people,” I say. “It said that, too.” I stare at him for one moment, and then another.
Until Gordon finds us. He’s wheezing when he lands, but he looks pleased. Not everyone can’t eat.
“What?” Not everyone can’t? What does that mean?
Gordon breathes a few times, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly. He blinks. Then he finally sends another message. The blessed that ensnared a human can eat—anything. All of them.
How can that be? Azar looks almost angry.
We think it’s tied to the earth blessed being unable to bond humans. They could eat on their own before now, but the strike and water blessed couldn’t. At least, not until they ensnared humans.
“You’re saying all the dragons who bonded a bright. . .they can eat?”
Gordon nods.
“For how long?”
Gordon doesn’t look pleased. It’s been the case for a while, apparently. They didn’t think it was relevant to share.
My eyes widen—every dragon will want to bond a human now, and I know of three who are close. “Where’s Sammy? And Coral and Jade?”
Rufus fled with them—straight to the Hotel Selfoss.
“We need to get back right away. Three tiny, unbonded brights? It’s too dangerous to ever leave them alone.”
Four, Gordon says. Don’t forget yourself.
I can already imagine Hyperion’s next move. He’ll take a massive army of dragons and start invading human cities everywhere, just to steal brights. We’re about to ensure that human-dragon relations can never, ever be repaired.
Unless I can stop it.