Chapter Thirty-One
Vil
The first thing I noticed was the ringing in my ears. It drowned out everything around me in a dull whine. I felt more than heard the movement around me, the vibrations translating through my body, letting me know that someone, or something, was moving nearby.
I told my body to get up, to move, but it didn’t listen, refusing all commands. At least it remembered on its own to breathe because I couldn’t even force it to do that.
But the main thing was, I was alive. The bomb hadn’t killed me.
Muscles spasmed as I twitched, fear coursing through me and filling my gut with cold, hard ice.
The bomb. Vanessa.
Was she okay?
Something grabbed me by my arms and hauled me to my feet. I groaned, still trying to process what had happened.
“So you survived,” a voice spat.
“Damn,” I cursed. “That’s unfortunate.”
“What are you talking about?”
I lifted my head, spearing Chisel with a glare. “I’d hoped my hearing loss was permanent, so I didn’t have to hear you whine, you pathetic piece of shit. But I’ll survive because now I’m going to listen to you beg for your life.”
The senior member of the Nine gaped at me in surprise. “You can’t be serious,” he said, flicking his chin to my left. “You aren’t in a position to threaten me.”
Immediately, the pressure on my arms intensified, forcing my chest down and my arms back. I snarled in pain, glaring hotly at Resolute and Cooper, two of Adamantine’s low-level lackeys. The two most junior members of the Nine had the same look of hatred on their faces, twisting their features.
Indoctrination, I thought, saddened at what they could have been if they hadn’t been twisted by his propaganda.
I knew my father had been eager to have them work for him at one point.
Unfortunately, Adamantine had gotten to them first. And now they would pay the price for his arrogance.
I didn’t want to kill them, but sometimes, as a leader, lessons had to be taught.
And class was about to be in session.
The acrid smell of smoke wafted up my nostrils, drawing my attention to the Rift behind Chisel.
Smoke and debris lay scattered across the floor, sloping up toward the Rift itself until it was well over my head in height.
It looked weird since the Rift’s entrance under Mount Drakonus was much larger than the one in the house on the other side, but it was clear to me that the house had collapsed around the Rift, blocking me from getting back.
I stifled a surge of worry, shunting it to the side. It wasn’t the time to be concerned about Vanessa and what the blast may have done to her. I feared for her safety, but I had to deal with the current situation. Then I could get to her and make sure she was okay.
“Chisel,” I said, rolling my neck. “Tell your boys to let go of me. Now. It’s over.”
Chisel snorted. “You might have lessened the damage with your efforts, but in no way do you walk out of here alive.”
Given how my body ached, I knew I’d taken a large brunt of the blast straight to my side. Which, given I’d been halfway through hauling the crate that contained the bomb through the Rift when it went off, wasn’t surprising.
“You should have been wishing I hadn’t survived the blast,” I growled, looking at Resolute and Cooper. “You two should let go now. You just might survive if you do.”
Cooper, being the youngest and most junior, glanced at Resolute, but the dragon, like his name, didn’t waver. That gave Cooper the confidence he needed to twist my arm even more until I fell to my knees, lest my shoulders become dislocated.
“I wish it didn’t have to be like this,” I said, shaking my head. “But you’ve acted against your prince and others of your clan with the intent to kill us. You know the penalty for that is death.”
“Or,” Chisel said, his right arm turning silver as his silvery steel armor showed through, “you relinquish your position and accept exile to Earth. Hand it over to Adamantine and never return, and we’ll consider letting you live. Simple as that, Anvil. Simple as that.”
The sheer audacity of their plan could only elicit one response.
I laughed in their faces, my body shaking, tugging uncomfortably against the hold of my arms, but at the moment, I didn’t care.
“You can’t actually think I’m dumb enough to fall for that,” I said around the guffaws racking my body.
“Is this amateur hour? I mean, please. You can’t let me live because I’m a threat to his rule.
The instant I relinquish my position, he’ll kill me.
Or, more likely, the coward will send you to do it.
No, I think I’ll settle with my original solution to kill the three of you here and now before I go after Adamantine and rip his heart out. ”
Before I’d finished speaking, I called to my dragon heritage.
Wings erupted from my back, swooping out and around Cooper and Resolute, then tightening swiftly, forcing them to come closer to me.
Their grips on my arms slackened, and I tore free, standing up in a hurry, while Chisel beat his fists against the protective shell my wings had created.
“Heya, boys,” I growled, then slammed my forehead into the bridge of Cooper's nose, breaking it easily as silver armor coated me from head to toe.
Resolute drove his fist into my side, talons puncturing my armor as he called upon parts of his dragon.
I bellowed in a mixture of pain and fury and spun to deliver a roundhouse kick to his sternum.
While I did, my wings snapped wide for balance, with the added effect that one of them smacked Chisel, sending him rolling over the cavern floor.
The move bought me precious seconds as both Chisel and Resolute fought to get to their feet.
“I’m really sorry about this,” I said as I strode over to Cooper, who was standing up, blood pouring down his face. “But I warned you.”
He had just enough time for his eyes to go wide before the steel sword I’d summoned appeared, the point entering below his jaw and exiting the top of his skull. I yanked it back and spun, whipping the blade around through his neck.
Cooper toppled, dead.
“One down,” I said, turning as Resolute and Chisel came at me with their swords, each an extension of their bodies.
I blocked both attacks, flung their blades up high, and spun between them as I pivoted. My blade came down and scored a long mark across Resolute’s back, part of it gouging deep enough through his armor to draw blood.
The dragon shifter roared in pain and came at me in a flurry, leaving Chisel behind and approaching solo. I met each of his attacks, turning them away. Compared to Cruce, Resolute was an easy opponent. I blocked everything he hit me with until, in his rage, he gave me an opening.
I blocked his high strike, then drove my other hand up into his chest, my fingers becoming talons that punched through his armor. With a guttural roar, I lifted him from the floor and over my head, slamming his body to the ground with a very satisfying thud, the rocky ground cracking from the blow.
Resolute coughed and arched his back upward as he struggled to breathe, the air having been driven from his chest.
“Too slow,” I said, looking over at Chisel as he came rushing in to save his lackey.
I whipped my sword around and, with both hands on the hilt, drove the blade through Resolute’s armor, piercing his heart and stopping it cold.
He hissed a puff of air in surprise, then slowly went limp.
“Murderer,” Chisel accused.
My sword came up so sharply it flung droplets of blood at Chisel.
“You did this,” I snarled at him. “You made me do this. Their deaths are on your hands, not mine!”
Chisel evidently disagreed. He shouted something wordless and came at me. His blade moved swiftly and with some skill. He was older than I and had many more years of training with the sword, the natural weapon of the Iron Clan when not in our dragon form.
We dueled back and forth, scoring several hits on the other, none serious.
“Give up,” Chisel hissed. “Surrender now, and you might live. You won’t defeat us all.”
In response, I blocked Chisel’s next side-strike, kicked his blade out to the side, and delivered a hard kick to his chest, sending him back. His heels caught on some of the rubble spilling from the Rift, and he went down.
Instead of lunging after him, I let myself fully shift into my dragon form.
“I’m going to kill all of you,” I said solemnly, then spat a ball of molten iron at him.
The boiling liquid descended over Chisel, cooking him alive in his armor. I basked in the sound of his screams as I returned to human form, watching him die a slow, agonizing death. I could have ended it swiftly by using my sword, but instead, I let him suffer.
“You deserved it,” I said coolly, staring down at him just before he screamed his last scream forever.
That done, I started to shift back into my dragon form. I would fly to the Iron Fortress and dismantle the Nine once and for all. Those traitorous bastards would die by my sword or in a pit of lava. I frankly didn’t give a shit which method they chose.
But before I could launch into the air, I looked back at the rubble-clogged Rift.
“Vanessa,” I said, my need to find out what happened to her overwhelming everything else.
My claws scrabbled against the debris as I started flinging it out of the way, giant dragon paws clearing it as fast as possible.
But more continued to pile through, forcing me to hammer the concrete apart, pulling at rebar, slicing it with my razor-sharp talons, and yanking it through piece by piece.
Eventually, it stopped enough that I was willing to risk sticking my head through the Rift.
On the other side, I could hear the sounds of someone else digging.
“Cruce?” I bellowed, knowing that if he’d survived, my friend would also be trying to reopen the Rift as fast as possible.
“Vil!” came the shout.
Before I could ask about my mate, the house groaned, and I ducked through the Rift as a fresh wave of debris came through, bowling me over and half-burying me. I hurriedly shook it off and yanked it free.
I went to go claw more out of the way, only to rear back as Cruce’s head came shooting through.
“Whoa, hello there,” he said, his snout snaking back and forth on the end of his dragon neck as he eyed my claws mere feet from his eyes.
“Cruce,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief he had survived. “Tell me. Vanessa?”
I held my breath.
“She’s fine,” Cruce said. “She was already leaving when it went off.”
I sagged. “Thank the God-King. She’s alive.”
“Alive and unharmed,” Cruce confirmed. “But she still left.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Back up.”
“Uh, okay. Why?”
“Because,” I said, “I’m going to find her.”