Chapter Five
Haide
The entrance to the dragon lair here is a jagged hole in black rock, and I’m lying in the damn dirt right at its crossing.
Thyrix fills the shadows just beyond the threshold, curled tight with his tail tucked over his snout like a brat hiding from chores. One blue eye cracks open then narrows in my direction.
Pushing up on my elbows, I ignore the throb in my ribs and, well, everywhere else.
“What the hell happened?”
“You did your favorite thing. Face-planted and made it everyone else’s problem.” His tail flicks, scraping stone. “Your toy thinks he can force us out.”
“Toy? What toy, smartass?” My throat feels like I’ve been screaming all day, and I reach up to rub at my neck.
The moment my eyes move back to Thyrix, both ours widen.
I tense and he sinks his chin deeper into his coils like he wants to disappear.
“Thyrix?”
“Drakaryth.”
My brows snap together, face scrunching, and I slap the side of my head. “Yeah, you are so dreaming right now.” I hit myself again. “Wake up.”
Stop, Haide.
My attention snaps up, and I swear the dragon I’ve spent all my life talking to, pretending he talked back—is talking fucking back.
Slowly, I push up on my knees and crawl closer, lowering back onto my ass once I’m in front of him. “Is that really you, in my head?” I whisper.
He huffs, nodding.
“How that fuck is that possible?”
His chest expands, before steam blows out his nostrils. Was that a fucking dragon scoffing? “We’ve spoken many times over many years. Why so shocked?”
“Uh, you didn’t have a voice before! I just figured—”
You were a blood thirsty murder like the rest of them?
“Yes. That.”
Another little laugh leaves him and it’s like I can hear the actual tune of it in my mind.
Warmth courses through my veins, and I guide the back of my knuckle along one of his scales. “I like your voice.”
“I knew you would.”
“But why can I hear it?”
“Because the time has come. We’ve waited a long time for this.”
“For what?”
“For him to set you free. You’ve been caged for too long, but the chains have been broken.”
My brows snap together, just as another presence slides in like dark smoke.
The Nightkin’s voice stains the inside of my skull. “What is the dragon saying?”
I spin around, expecting him to be right behind me but land on nothing.
What the fuck?
The Nightkin chuckles and I whip around, but he’s yet to come out of wherever he’s hiding in the dark.
Why is he hiding?
“I value my life, Hellpet. Now, what is the dragon saying to you?”
I grind my teeth. “No. I can’t take you both in here at the same time.”
“You sure?” Thy huffs.
I roll my eyes. “Great. Everyone can hear my thoughts.”
My eyes widen. “He can hear me when I don’t speak out loud.”
Thyrix’s chuckle rattles through me. “We all can if you direct your thought to us.”
My head snaps his way. “Who is we?”
Thyrix’s tail thumps once, hard enough to send a pebble skittering past my boot. “Let’s not get off track. Back to my earlier point.”
Okay so he’s a diplomatic little fucker, then? Noted.
I send my thought to him directly. “Well, go on then, almighty beast boy.”
If a dragon can smirk, he’s totally smirking.
“That blue-eyed shit stain better watch it.” Thyrix shoves that into me.
“Tell me what happened.”
“You want the recap?” Thyrix’s voice grinds through my skull while his claws scrape a groove in the stone. “I fly to Rathe, I roast their pretty palace line, and the horned kings lose their minds.”
My eyes land on him. “You went to Rathe? Why?”
“Hmmm, Wild One. You do know we’re all born there, yes? We go home when we’re not here. So being there is not the story. But being on their grounds, well. That is.”
“What did you do?” I don’t mean for the worry to creep in. It’s completely and totally unwelcome. I hope he burned the entire palace to a crisp.
The second the thought crosses my mind, a searing pain eats up my sternum.
I grit my teeth, ignoring the sensation as Thyrix continues, “I tried to restore balance but didn’t get very far.
The one who has a severe magic complex didn’t like me much.
He took a peek inside my head and I let the nightmare eat him down to his very soul. ”
Creed. Anger swarms through my veins. Invasive fucking bastard.
“But he knows the truth now.”
“Truth about what?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
“We’ll help you understand.”
“Who is we, Thyrix? And help me understand what? I need to— This is too much right now. I gotta go.”
“It’s going to be okay. You will see.”
“I’m going to find Zev!” I need a second opinion. Maybe we can go hunt down some mushrooms. I need to fucking relax. Before I would be fucking so I could relax, but— no, that could still work.
Maybe.
Fuck, I don’t know. Is my pussy broken too?
Will I vomit or convulse or some other twisted shit?
“Ugh!” I scream into the trees, yanking on my hair.
The Nightkin’s presence sits at the base of my skull. Every now and then, I can feel him there. His pressure. Warm enough to make me itch. Probably because he’s giving me fleas.
“Not a very nice thing to say to your mate.”
I wait for the panic to hit. The usual panic that arose the last time he called me that. Not to mention he’s in my fucking head like a parasite. It doesn’t come.
That bothers me more than his presence does.
You need to get a hobby, beast boy.
A low scrape of amusement through my mind, dark and unhurried. “I have one.”
I snort, boots hitting the next landing. “Let me guess. Stalking.”
“Tormenting you.”
A breath of laughter escapes before I can kill it, and I clamp my jaw shut, furious at myself.
“Glad I’m entertaining,” I fire back, rounding the next switchback. The valley opens up below, and I can see the tree line that borders the main settlement. It’s greener now. It used to be gray like a corpse, rotting like everything else here.
“You are many things, Hellpet.” His voice settles deeper, losing the edge of humor. “Entertaining is the least of them.”
I don’t respond.
“When you want real answers,” the Nightkin murmurs, his presence receding like I imagine his hairline would if he were human. “You know where to find me.”
Then he’s gone. The hum of his presence ceases, and the warmth that rested at the base of my skull vanishes, leaving a deafening silence in its wake.
Something prickles through my gut, unwelcome and strange.
I shake it off and continue through the forest line until I’m standing at the foot of where I know Zev is sleeping.
“Get your ass down here!”
He pokes his head over the platform, and then I’m staring into Zev’s eyes through his creepy new face mask.
“We should get you a scarf or something.”
“Funny.” He watches me closely, then swings his legs over. “You okay?”
“No. Tell me what you saw before I clocked out for the millionth fucking time.”
His eyes narrow beneath the mask and he jumps down, coming to lean on the tree trunk beside me. “What happened?”
“Tell me what you saw first.”
“Yeah, okay. The dragons started circling above us,” he explains.
“More and more joined, and with each one they came lower.” He scrubs a hand over his chest. “Then I don’t know, really.
They opened their mouths but no fire came out.
And then you just covered your ears and started screaming like someone was carving your eardrums out. ”
“Damn. Was it really that loud?”
“That’s the fucked part,” he mutters, shaking his head. “It was completely silent. I didn’t hear a thing.”
The words settle heavy in my chest, a ball of uncertainty climbing up my throat. I hate it.
“Your eyes rolled back and you fainted,” he continues.
“The Nightkin caught you before you hit the ground. Picked you up like you weighed nothing.” His jaw tightens.
“I tried to follow but he wouldn’t even let me near you.
He got all possessive and shit. I thought he was taking you back to where he sleeps, but then the dragons suddenly stopped circling.
They created a line in the sky and he followed. ”
“I woke in the lair.” I drag a hand through my hair and start pacing before I realize I’m moving. “They’ve had their wings cut.”
Zev’s brows lift. “What?”
“Not literally,” I snap, grabbing the nearest dead branch and wrenching it free from a low limb. Bark splits under my grip. “They’ve been banned from the skies over Rathe.”
His eyes widen. “Holy shit. Why?”
“I don’t know.”
The branch splinters in my hands as I strip it down without thinking, carving it into something sharper.
“Wait, how do you know they were banned from the skies?”
I look away. “Thyrix told me.”
The confession is met with silence at first.
He blinks expectantly.
“Yeah. It seems like not only can I heal, and not die around the Isles Kiss, but I can also hear the dragons.”
“Plural?”
“Pretty sure that’s what knocked me out. All their voices coming in at once fried my brain.”
“Holy shit—wait. If they grounded the dragons, doesn’t that leave their skies exposed?”
My hands stop working, and a frown pulls at my brow. Didn’t think of that.
I shake my head. “I don’t care.”
Zev lets out a quiet laugh. “You don’t care?” His head tilts. “Then why are you arming yourself like you’re about to march on the kingdom?”
I have no idea what he’s talking about until I follow his gaze to the branch in my hand.
I’ve shaped it like a blade.
Without answering him, I swing.
He barely manages to bring up his own weapon in time to block it.
The crack of wood against wood reverberates through my arms.
“There she is,” he murmurs.
We move at once, falling into the rhythm we’ve known since we were small enough to bleed over stupid things. He presses forward. I meet him. He ducks low. I pivot and strike from the side.
But something is different.
My body feels faster.
Not frantic or wild in the way I tend to get when I’m angry.
My movements are precise.
I step inside his guard before he expects it. My shoulder slams into his chest and sends him back a full step.
He stares at me. “You’re stronger.”
“Maybe, or maybe you’re slower?”
He grins beneath the mask and lunges.