Chapter 21 War #2
Lithava and her drakes smash into the burning rubble, as the Black Dragon crashes down behind them in its black flames, roaring its terrible curse-work right at us. We slam up a shield of our purest auric fire all around us, even as I feel Bjorn haul energy out of us in a wave of righteous fury.
He uses his uncanny ability to harness all our powers now.
I feel him lock onto Mikkel and Laerke’s vast mind-control abilities, and Strom’s incredible talent to mesmerize.
Baldur he latches onto for the towering synergy they form with their power, and me he seizes in a thundering love, for my blazing heart.
As he seizes me in truth beneath our shield, pressing my lips with a hard kiss, I feel Bjorn’s magic heave the most thundering mind-sending all through the battle now, to our allies.
“Defend Stockholm!” Bjorn roars with the furious snarl of his dragon in his voice, as he breaks from kissing me to command the battle, still raging around us. “Rip their fucking throats apart, and remind all those who rebel who our King’s loyal fighters really are!”
Bjorn refers to Lithava and her drakes, as we face off with them now in the burning rubble of the palace. Even as they snarl at us in dragon-form and we hold our position as humans inside our burning shield of light, the Black Dragon roars to the skies at our defiance.
Diseased, oilslick-black runes coat the sky; roped, bloody-black trails char the earth as it heaves its wings through the decimation.
Runes blister everywhere like bloody ropes across the burning land.
Everything around us shines gory and red like an open wound, as those horrid Bloodrunes curse everything.
Still, our firestorm of an auric shield holds, burning with the power of our united hearts, as we defend that which matters most to us. Keeping our injured King and Prince protected, my drakes and I face off with the Black Dragon and its masters.
United in our purpose—to keep safe everything we love.
But Stockholm is overrun by the rebel forces and the Black Dragon. As Lithava snarls at me, a tremendous aura of ultraviolet, burning crimson hatred seethes all around her and her drakes.
As the Black Dragon roars above us, it pours its terrible oilslick-darkness through the skies in a renewed wave; dragons drop all around, even as our remaining fighters rip through the skies, fighting on.
But as the Usurper’s terror coats the skies, the behemoth roaring a new jet of black fire at the palace again, it’s devastatingly clear; we must get everyone out, so our Lineage can live to see another day.
As we tighten around the King and Prince in a hard knot now, I know we’ll have no one left if we don’t. I focus on the portal still shimmering in the skies to Harnakje, and feel my drakes understand.
They’re ready to get everyone the fuck out, so we can live to end this thing later. The problem is getting there, as we face off now with Lithava and her drakes in the burning rubble of the palace, not to mention the Usurper itself.
The Black Dragon no longer has its own mind, as it roars at us again, trying to take down our auric shield.
But that shield holds, no matter how many diabolical curses the behemoth roars all over it; stalwart, we stand in our deepest heart of hearts as we know what we protect now and hold fast against annihilation.
As Lithava and her drakes shift down, however, I know we’re in a stalemate. My drakes and I are already exhausted from everything we’ve gone through; so are Lithava and her mates, even as the Black Dragon heaves its tremendous wings again, hurling ropes of burning black curse-work everywhere.
I can feel the influence of the black rings and the silver rings, pulling hard from both our Bloodbonds now. Because everyone is exhausted from everything both us and our enemies have been through recently.
Though the rings try to keep us alive, neither group is able to pull enough power to finish this. A strange moment takes us then, as the carnage continues all around.
As we stand face-to-face with our enemies, I feel the intense wrath that takes Mikkel and Laerke, to see their former father-figure Emil Beck. A pure, burning hate scalds all through Bjorn, too, as he faces his father, Oggi Magnussen, staring us down with a seething hatred in his gold-black eyes.
Terrible, Oggi’s towering stature is covered in diseased runes as his rageful eyes blaze. All of Lithava’s drakes have been ravaged by ghastly black-violet and ruined crimson curse-work, scalding right through their very blood and bones, and all the sinews that make them.
They look more like demons than dragons because they’ve done a deal with the devil, taking on the taint of the Black Rift to do Hedda’s diabolical ceremonies and restore her creature.
Lithava stares me down with those horrid black runes coursing through her eyes, seething like a living thing through her body.
As she snarls at me, I realize I don’t even know her anymore.
Her vicious voice is deeper, more dragon than human, as I see how none of her drakes are so terribly cursed as she is.
My once-sister is almost more curses than flesh, as that charred blackness claims her, everywhere. It takes my breath away as I see what she has let in. Hedda’s Usurper roars to the skies again, punishing the battle with its madness, as my shock catapults me into a sudden Bloodwalking now.
My power thrusts me into the Void, and I see Lithava’s crimson dragon in the cosmos. But Hedda has taken over her; Hedda’s all-black drakaina wraps through my sister’s aura completely now, leaving little crimson visible as she coils throughout my sister’s soul in the Void, inseparable.
Worse, the cosmic division energy of the Black Rift devours them both, seething all through them like a black hole. Nothing exists where that energy goes. I see how it tears apart the very fabric of the cosmos, as it boils from Hedda and Lithava’s joined auric dragon now in a tirade.
Spreading like a cancer across the stars.
As I’m thrust back from that spontaneous Bloodwalking, I know my sister cannot be saved. Though I had been tempted to dive into my most horrible wrath against her right now, I don’t.
Instead, a quiet place finds me in the chaos, as I suddenly mourn what my sister has become. I know she made an awful choice, donning that black ring of Hedda’s and latching onto her power. She’s let Hedda dominate and manipulate her, all the way into her very soul in the Void.
As I understand that Lithava’s very essence has become diseased by what she’s agreed to, like the Black Dragon snarling above, I know she can no longer let any light in.
Those crimson-black sigils burn so vividly upon her flesh, as I see how she has become like a rabid animal—and like a rabid animal, she must be put down.
But that death can be merciful, as a vast compassion sears through me now, as wide as the sky. A sensation of being unending fills me; it lights my entire being up like wildfire as a true, endless love shines from my heart.
That love is echoed in my drakes, even Laerke, as they all blaze in their love, righteousness, and true power with me. As Strom threads his fingers through mine, I feel how he will never let his innermost light go out again.
He stands strong in his deepest power now—his ability to love and remain bright, even when all other lights go out.
As Baldur burns like a star at my back, I know that despite his addiction to higher magic, he’s found his real strength in our love, and knowing he’ll never have to face that darkness inside him alone again.
Even Laerke and Mikkel burn more brightly than I’ve ever felt them before as they join hands, staring Emil Beck down.
Neither surrender to their poisonous vendetta now, because they’ve learned their love is far more powerful than their hate.
Righteous, they stand with us, even as their inner dragons snarl viciously at Emil, ready to take him out.
Only Bjorn is not completely with us, as we blaze now like a star being born in the cosmos, from our united love. Although our auric fire-shield increases tenfold, searing like a new dawn as it rages all around now, Bjorn stares his father down with a conflict of hate and love inside his heart.
Although Bjorn was part of our most recent lovemaking with our united Ouroboros, he also was not, far away at the Grand Palace. It makes a difference now, as he wars with himself against the man who whelped him.
And cannot decide which way to move his heart.
But Bjorn’s conflict doesn’t undo our love right now, as we righteously stand in protection of our lives, our Lineage, and our King. As we blaze in our powerful love, Lithava bristles. I feel her hatred of me seethe up hard now, as her wrathful power boils around her.
Ugly black sigils careen around her in an oilslick-dark wind, which rises from all her drakes. I see her eyes go all-black then, scoured with devastating black sigils just like Hedda’s, as her mates’ do, as well.
As Lithava narrows her eyes on us, the Black Dragon responds to her unspoken command. Opening its great maw, it roars in a devastating wrath—hammering its bone-shattering and blood-pulling heart curse right at us.
But even as the entire Grand Palace goes up in renewed oilslick-black flames from the Usurper’s roar, in a blazing flare of pure cosmic light, our shield holds. As I heave a command right through all my drakes now, via our united Bloodbond, we put everything into our counterstrike.
Blasting our auric shield out now, like a bomb.
As that incredible power shatters our shield of blazing light, it inundates Lithava and her drakes in our fires of pure heart. Those flames go seething all around them now in a wildfire of true love, making them shriek as they are inundated by blistering light.
But it gives us the moment we need, as I heave a command through all my drakes now, and Laerke, to get the fuck out. We blast up into the skies as our dragons, as even the Black Dragon recoils, stunned by our tremendous wealth of love.
King Huttr is in Bjorn’s talons, and Prince Halfdir is in Strom’s, as we rocket up fast to the portal. Retreat! Bjorn roars all through our allies, as his power pulls from us in a riptide.
And we flood to the portal, winging fast towards clear skies.