Chapter 75
“What was that?”
Daegan grabs my hand and we both jump up at the same time. Both fully clothed again, we were just about to go find Raef and wake him for the last day of our journey when a booming sound startled us to our feet.
Daegan runs in front of me, holding onto my hand with a firm grip.
We find Raef and Kezra just where we left them, and Raef has a manic, excited look on his face. The air holds the remains of something charred in it, but I don’t see anything on fire. It’s not an uncommon scent to catch when you’re around dragons all the time, anyway.
“Is everyone okay?” Daegan asks, calm again after seeing Raef and Kezra are okay.
“We’re great!” Raef says with enthusiasm.
“What was the noise?” I ask.
Raef crosses his arms and quirks an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you could hear anything over all that fucking you guys have been doing.”
“Raef,” Daegan warns.
I stifle back a laugh. I can’t find it in me to be embarrassed. I don’t regret a single moment spent with him.
“Okay, okay. So we figured out something insane.” Raef faces Kezra with excitement. “Can we do it again?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
He rolls his eyes. “Obviously.”
She flies slightly higher above him, leaving a thicker than usual trail of fairy dust. It lingers in the air, falling so slowly it seems to be suspended there.
“That’s more than before. Think it’ll be okay?”
“We’ll see.”
“You like to live dangerously,” Raef replies with a wild grin. “I like it.”
Kezra backs up, as does Raef, who gestures for us to take several steps back as well.
He looks at the dust, then us, his eyebrows pinched with concentration.
“Actually. Maybe just a few more paces back,” he says.
He faces the gold dust, then blows out a small flame toward the edge of it.
I watch in complete awe as the gold dust begins to slowly crackle and spark. Then the whole ring quickly catches fire, finally making a big booming sound as it turns into a brilliant, terrifying, gold, yellow, and orange explosion that touches the ground below it.
Daegan pulls us back several more steps as the heat of it touches my face.
The flames die out quickly, leaving almost nothing in its wake, as if it never happened. Even the fairy dust has disappeared. There’s not even a trace of the few random plants that were scattered below it.
I gape at Raef and Kezra, at a loss for words.
“How did you figure that out?” Daegan asks with eager curiosity.
“The red one is not as dumb as he makes himself seem,” Kezra admits, giving Raef an almost scolding glare. “Then again, Even the densest of fish can make it into the stream now and then.”
“Thank you?” Raef replies with a perplexed yet amused look on his face.
“It could be useful in battle. That is, if Kezra is willing to lend her services, of course.” Daegan tucks his chin in, nodding at her in respect as he addresses her.
“Ah, see.” She glances at Raef. “Now that is how you address a queen.”
“A queen?” I ask, my mouth open.
“Elysande, not this again. Yes, a queen. You did hear that right. I am Kezra, Queen of the Westland Fairies.”
She bows as if just meeting us for the first time.
“Great,” Raef says with sarcasm. “Kezra the queen, Elysande the princess, and Daegan the robbed-of-his-title-but-should-be-but-basically-is prince. And I’m the jester.”
“Raef,” I say. “Don’t belittle yourself.
Who knows what will happen after all of this.
You’re charismatic, personable, genuinely want to see everyone have peace.
And you have a charming smile that could suck anyone in and make them do whatever you ask.
” Or… he used to. I see hints of it returning these past few days, though.
In moments where he probably forgets—temporarily—everything we’ve seen, everything we’ve lost.
Daegan looks at me with a tight-lipped smile that touches his eyes. “She’s right,” he says, facing Raef again. “And I’m nothing. Just another dragon. You’re destined for great things, not me.”
Well, that’s not true. Daegan is so far from nothing. I fully believe he could conquer anything he wanted. And he knows how I feel, so I’m not going to argue right now. I’ll let Raef have his moment. I truly meant those things that I told him.
“Kezra…”
“Yes, my little swimming guppy?”
“Are your people… suffering too?” She hasn’t talked about her people at all. I know they’re supposed to be mysterious and what not, but… I can’t help but wonder.
Her tiny body becomes more rigid as she looks away. “We do not discuss fairy matters to any outsiders. Even you, Elysande.”
That’s okay. She doesn’t need to tell me. Her body language says everything. We’re all fucked.
~
The Deadlands are as eerie and glum as I imagined.
It takes nearly the whole day to cross through them, and the scenery is a lot of the same.
Which is nothing. As far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but slate gray dirt.
No trees, no life, just barren land. Dust blows off the ground in the distance, the whistling of the wind making it even more creepy.
Kezra is hiding in my pack as I ride atop my walking dragon. She hates it here.
I read all about the Deadlands in the past. They were named this long before the curse struck. There’s never been much here, but I believe it did used to have small, pokey bushes that tumbled along the dirt-covered terrain after they died. No one ever lived in this region, though.
I can’t help but think that this is what our entire world could look like a thousand years from now if we don’t succeed.