Chapter 11
“Ri? Rian? DAMMIT RIAN! WAKE UP!”
Waking with a start, the Dragon Leader attempted to move toward his brother’s voice, only to find himself restrained and hanging from the ceiling. The events of the recent past came rushing back as he looked at the thick iron shackles and chain holding his wrists together over his head.
Head pounding from the magically induced sleep Adramelech had slapped on him, Rian immediately thought of his mate and yelled, “Audrey? Are you there? Audrey!”
“I’m here.” Her muffle response came almost immediately.
Rian looked through the darkness but could only see his brethren hanging just as he was, each one pissed and vowing revenge.
“Where are you?”
It took a few seconds for her to answer, during which Rian feared the worst. Struggling with his bonds, he pulled at his shackles with all the strength of both man and dragon. The loud pop of his wrists dislocating echoed through the large stone room where they were being detained.
Ignoring the pain, the Dragon Leader stretched until the tips of his toes touched the floor, making it possible for him to rotate his body. Slowly turning, ignoring the excruciating pain down his arms, Rian finally caught a glimpse of Audrey.
His heart soared when she finally answered, “Here I am.”
Her weak smile and battered body nearly broke his heart, but the fact that the piece of shit Chancellor had her chained to the floor of a three-foot by three-foot cage made him growl low in his throat.
Holding is temper the best he could, he reassured her, “I’m going to get you out of here. I promise.”
Tears shown in her violet eyes as she nodded, “I know you will try, my love.”
“I will do more than try. Don’t give up now.
I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He winked, pushing love and reassurance through their mating bond.
There was no way he was going to fail now that he had her in his sights.
“I love you, Audrey Dobresou, and have every intention of making you mine forever. Now, sit tight while I figure this out.”
“I love you too, but please be careful. You don’t know what Adramelech’s capable of.”
“No, mo chroi’, it is he who does not know what we are capable of.”
Opening his mind up to his brethren, Rian joked, “So, fancy meeting y’all here.”
“Shut the hell up, kid, and tell us what you need us to do,” Maddox grumbled, but Rian could hear the smile in his voice, only proving exactly how crazy the old dragon truly was.
“Royce, can you still communicate with that little mate of yours?” Rian was careful not to say Kyra’s name lest Adramelech use it to harm her or any of those they’d left topside.
“Just barely. Seems like the bastard has put some sort of dampening on us.”
“Yeah, it’s the same between Sam and me,” Lance answered along with Liam and Jace about their mates.
“Calysta said I could use the Rose Quartz to contact her, but I have to be touching it and it’s in my pocket.”
Trying to think of a way for the pendant Calysta had given him to touch his bare skin, Rian’s thoughts were interrupted when Rory said, “I have an idea.”
Praying his younger brother wasn’t joking as usual, Rian asked, “And?”
“You and Kell are gonna have to do a little acrobatics, but since you’re already pirouetting over there it should be easy.”
Trying to contain his irritation that even hung up like a side of beef in the lower levels of hell his youngest brother could joke, Rian sighed, “Go on.”
“You’re gonna need to turn yourself to the left and face Kell.”
Turning on his toes, Rian stopped as he faced his scarred friend who had done the same. Rory then instructed, “Now, Kellan, take off your boot.”
“What the…? Exactly why do you want me to take off my boot, cause if this is one of your practical jokes, the Demon Lord will be the least of your worries.”
Laughing aloud, Rory continued with the sound of their hellhound guards snarling behind them. “You really have to learn to trust, man. You have to take off your shoe to be able to push the Rose Quartz in Rian’s pocket hard enough to tear through the lining and touch his skin underneath.”
“Oh, all right.” Kellan sounded surprised.
“Wait, Kell. I think you’ll be able to push harder with your boots on.” Then admitting something he’d never thought he would, Rian said to Rory, “Good job, bro.”
“I knew the O’Reilly brain was in there somewhere,” Royce quickly added.
“Yeah, screw you too, Roy,” Rory chuckled.
“Only the O’Reilly brothers could joke around in hell,” Lennox sighed.
“All right boys, you can blow sunshine up each other’s butts when we get outta here alive,” Drago grumbled. “Just hurry the hell up. From the little bit I can make out from Alicia, she says they have a plan, but Calysta has to talk to you, Ri, to make it happen.”
Kellan immediately took charge, “Lift your feet, Rian. I’m gonna swing your way and push your back against the wall then hold you there. We’ll have enough stability for me to push that stone through your pocket and for you talk to the Priestess and get us out of here. Sound good?”
Nodding his head, Rian was once again amazed by his friend’s ingenuity and willingness to do whatever it took to get them out of whatever situation they landed in. Kellan was a good man and a good friend, and had the scars to prove it.
Lifting his feet as instructed, Rian prepared for impact as Kellan moved his body back and forth until he was swinging like a child on the monkey bars. Watching his friend gaining momentum, swinging higher and higher, the Dragon Leader took a deep breath.
“Next swing, Ri.”
At Kellan’s words, Rian slowly exhaled, forcing himself to relax and go with the impact he watched hurdling towards him.
“OOMPH!” The air was forced from his lungs as his friend’s knees connected with the Dragon Leader’s midsection and then, “Shit!” flew from his lips as his back slammed against the stone wall.
Kellan’s body shook as he fought gravity and momentum to keep them both from swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
Quicker than the eye could follow, the scarred dragon swung out his right foot and braced it on one side of the corner Rian hadn’t known was there.
The dragon leader quickly followed suit, lifting his right foot and shoving it in a hollowed out space on the other side of the corner.
He could only imagine how they looked. Kind of like an upside-down double-sided ‘Y’.
Yeah, glad no one is taking pictures.
The hellhounds standing guard snarled and bared their teeth.
Their red eyes burnt through the darkness with promises of pain and bloodshed.
Rian’s dragon roared, furious at their threats.
The Dragon Leader was shocked when they backed down and a few even whimpered.
It was something he’d never experienced before but would be sure to share with the others when they were home.
“This is as close to you as I ever want to be, Ri,” Kellan joked through gritted teeth in a very out of character moment of teasing.
“Right back atcha,” Rian grunted, finding it hard to breathe with Kellan’s knee shoved into his stomach.
“Okay, get ready. This has to be quick. You hold yourself up. I’m gonna move my knee and use the heel of my boot to shove that stone through the lining of your pocket. Scream when I hit skin.”
Rian couldn’t help but chuckle. Anyone that didn’t know Kellan would’ve thought he was kidding, but the Dragon Leader knew for sure that his friend was dead serious.
The stone cutting through the fabric was also going to cut through Rian’s skin and it wasn’t going to be pleasant… necessary, but definitely not pleasant.
“Just do it. By the time I get down from here my arms are going to have stretched so much that my knuckles are gonna drag the ground.”
“Now who needs to be bitch slapped,” Rory snickered.
Without so much as a nod, Kellan pulled his knee up, placed the heel of his boot against the pocket of Rian’s jeans, and scraped down the Dragon Leader’s leg. The tear of fabric immediately followed by the silver edge of the pendant scraping his skin had Rian yelling aloud.
“Stop!”
All motion stopped. Neither Guardsman breathed. The sting of silver raced through Rian’s system. His dragon fought to keep the poison at bay as the Dragon Leader called to the Grand Priestess.
“Calysta? You there?”
“I’m here, Rian. We all are. And we can see you. Kyra and Alicia made another Looking Glass. They also came up with a way to get you all out of that pit. All we were waiting for was to be able to see you and tell you what we were doing.”
“Works for me,” Rian told the Grand Priestess as his brethren grumbled in agreement.
“Okay, this is very powerful, very old white magic, so when the Power of Seven is invoked it will disrupt the flow of black magic for at least a minute down there. The Chancellor and all his minions will feel its effects. You and the Guardsmen are going to have to move quickly.”
“Not a problem. You work the magic. We’ll move like our scales are on fire,” Rian answered Calysta while watching Audrey staring at him like the savior he wanted to be.
Blocking out everyone else, he reassured her as best he could. “Just a few more minutes, mo ghra’, and then we are outta here, okay?”
His mate nodded but didn’t speak. Rian could feel how scared Audrey was to hope that his words were true.
That she was actually, finally going to be free from the prison she’d been stuck in for so very long.
Smiling at her and pushing love through their bond, he opened his mind speak to everyone else.
Rian heard Calysta say, “We’re ready when you are. ”
Holding Audrey’s eyes with his, he ordered, “Do it.”