Plight of the Dragon (30 page)

RISING

Kyra

Kyra’s world was
sharper and a thousand times more vivid.
 

How long had she endured? Been out of touch with her surroundings and the passage of time? She peered up at the surface. Not as it should be, the lake was cluttered with a multitude of small ice masses. She remembered…it had been frozen, then broken. She’d blamed her mother.
 

She’d been wrong. Now, after her metamorphosis, she felt the magic coursing through the water and ice and air. The magic used to turn Mystic’s lake into a frozen hazard zone had been Moorigad magic. But why?
 

She could melt it all, every last ‘berg floating across the surface. But her gaze narrowed in on the shadows of bodies moving across the many frozen blocks above. Her mind spun with thoughts and scenarios. One swift kick, and she was rocketing toward them, wings tucked in tight at her side.
 

Steering clear of any moving shadows upon the surface, Kyra exploded through the ice and found unsure footing upon its shifting expanse. Sharper than the razor edge of her claws, her senses took heed of every detail. Reapers to the far left, the old dragon and her mother fighting to her right, and—her heart stopped, jaw dropped, and dragon form melted away, retaining only enough scales for modesty’s sake.
 

Sebastian lived! His stride was long, and he ran toward the dragons.
 

“Sebastian!” Kyra called out.

Faltering, Sebastian slowed, then paused and glanced back. The moment their gazes met, Kyra knew everything she needed to know. She didn’t know why he had lied to her before, but he did love her. She could see it on his face. Her heart swelled larger than the expanse of her Moorigad wings, and she took a step toward him.
 

And then her heart hitched and stopped.
 

He was too focused on her, he didn’t see it coming. And it happened so fast she couldn’t warn him. The old dragon and her mother tumbled. A massive tail slammed against the surface and swept across the ice. Sebastian was swept away in its wake.

39

REBOUND

Marcus

“What the fuck…?”
Marcus rolled off his side and straightened his wings. A sharp pain shot up his right spar bone, through his finger joint, all the way to his shoulder. Folding and flapping his wing was only accomplished with irritating discomfort. “Damn it all to Hell,” he growled, and shook off the dirt and debris clinging to him from his landing.
 

That
thing
, whatever it was, had tossed him—yes, him—clear across the lake all the way to the shoreline. Impossible. His blood turned to magma, slugged and scorched. The thing looked like a dragon, but like none Marcus had ever seen or heard of.
 

The stupid Water Bitch was taking the thing on. Marcus laughed, then glanced to the side, where Bolsvck lay. The old Fire Dragon was only now starting to stir. The worn-out king, the stuck-up queen—Marcus studied the scene on the ice once again—and let’s not forget the little carnie fuck. The stupid boy was out on the frozen lake, charging the beast.
 

Wicked as he knew he could be, Marcus loved it when plans came together so easily. And the one forming in his head now was simple and wouldn’t cost him a thing. No sweat or blood or excretion.
I’ll let that fuck of a dragon destroy them all for me.
If he was lucky, the damn thing would clean house and take care of Davies, as well. The sniveling ass was out there, cowering away from the fight.
 

But then, everything changed. Another beast appeared, blasting through the ice. It was there, and then it wasn’t. Where the beast had been, Kyra now stood. Lights and bells went off in Marcus’s head. Her dragon and the other beast were the same! The massive dragon was another Moorigad. And Kyra was now a fully realized Moorigad.
 

His shackles prickled, and smoke swirled from his nostrils. The want, the need. Marcus took off at a run, flapping against the pain, pushing for flight, pushing toward the fight.

40

DRAGON SONG

Sebastian

Kyra and Kalrapura,
as one. Sebastian’s heart swelled. He had been running toward Anguis and Queen Shui, his intentions to save the queen. Kyra’s arrival had taken him completely by surprise. An astonishing, blessed surprise. Her hair was a wild disaster, her eyes burned with blue flame, and a modest covering of scales dressed her body. She was heart-stoppingly exquisite. The mere sight of her sent his soul into flight.
 

But then something large and ungiving smacked him in the side, tossed him away from her.
 

Sebastian stretched, sending pops and cracks throughout his body. Oddly, nothing hurt. He sat up, and then ducked. Anguis’s massive tail swung through Sebastian’s path, missing him by a foot. The ancient dragon continued to fight with Queen Shui. Sebastian getting smacked sideways had clearly been an unfortunate twist of happenstance. Lying flat on the ground, Sebastian rolled clear, then checked before standing. The last thing he needed was to become the unwilling target in an unplanned game of dragon swat-n-bat.

Kyra ran toward him, and he was overcome with the desire to laugh. Laugh for all the despair he’d experienced leading up to that point. Laugh for the anger and depression and fear. Laugh because Kyra was alive, alluringly alive, and he was alive, and Kalrapura was exactly where she was meant to be. Guess he had his answer on whether a Reaper could die or not. And he did laugh, a little. Then held up his hand to stop Kyra’s approach.
 

All his protective instincts kicked in. Close to destructive dragons was not where she needed to be. Plus—he glanced at his father, still standing on the frozen lake, studied him and all the men he’d brought with them. They wore their usual deadpan attire, with a few notable exceptions. Some held a hint of smile or a twinkle in the eye. They appeared excited, even eager for the outcome of the dragon battle.
 

He looked back at Anguis and Queen Shui. Although she held her own fairly well against such a considerable opponent, she was losing.
 

Sebastian glanced back and forth between Kyra and the fight. Despite his attempt to keep her out of harm’s way, she now moved toward her mother. When the dark sky filled with the sound of flapping wings and echoed with a bone-jarring roar, Kyra faltered.
 

Kyra’s sister swooped in, flew above the massive, old beast, her talons clawing at his eyes. Before Sebastian could decide on his course of action, Bolsvck crashed between Anguis and the queen.
 

“Hell,” Sebastian mumbled.
The whole family is involved. No way of keeping Kyra out of that pit now.
 

“Sebastian!”

In an instant the battling dragons were forgotten. The hair on the back of Sebastian’s neck rose at the sound of Kyra’s cry. He’d taken his eyes off her for mere seconds. Whirling around, he located Kyra, his blood pressure spiking. Marcus, no longer in dragon form, had his hands all over her—pulling and yanking and struggling for control. Every fiber of Sebastian’s being erupted with rage and loathing.

“Let me go!” Kyra yelled. “Your stupid pendant is gone, and that stinky Serpicose won’t work.”

“You’re coming with me,” Marcus said, and tugged harder.
 

Kyra slid on the ice and fell. She pulled herself up to her knees. “I stabbed you once. I’ll do it again. Until you either leave me alone, or you’re dead.”

Marcus growled.
 

“Stop!” Sebastian ran toward them, his stomach churning and his inner cold dipping. But when he met Kyra’s gaze his feet stumbled to a stop, skidded on the ice, and dropped him on his back. In a matter of seconds, her scales engulfed her body and her mighty Moorigad surged forth. Marcus was knocked off his feet with one fell swoop of her tail, and in an instant, he too transformed. Another dragon battle began.
 

“Isn’t this exciting?” Leila swayed at Sebastian’s side and whispered at his ear.

Sebastian startled, stared at her. “Who are you? And why did you destroy Chelsea’s life?”

“Poor boy. Mother leaving you in the dark.” Her knuckles brushed the side of his face. “I am your older sister. The true Mara in the family.” Her fingers ruffled his hair, and he knocked her away. “You, the product of a Mara and a Grim, an interesting idea.” She pressed her cheek against his. “For what he did to you, I would have destroyed Marcus. It would have worked, too, had a meteor shower of dragons not wrinkled my plans.”

In an abrupt move, Sebastian stood up and stepped away. “Why are you here? What is it you want from me?”

“To explore you.” She leaned closer. “Get to know you better.”

“I think you should leave.” He swung a move-along gesture with his finger, and his gaze drifted over the carnival. Dragons were taking flight from multiple locations, heading toward the lake. The lights and sounds of Mystic’s now ran full-wheel. Things were spinning and blinking, and the dragons…the ones flying toward the lake were disappearing mid-flight. Sebastian’s muscles went rigid. His mind reeled.
 

Think. Think. Think.
 

Valentina with her vortex ability couldn’t reach a flying dragon.
 

Mystic’s was back or repaired or whatever it was she’d needed. She apparently didn’t want those dragons coming to their aid on the lake. The more he studied the occurrence, the clearer it became. Dragons who refrained from approaching didn’t appear to get relocated. Kyra, Kyra’s family, him, they were on their own. No help was coming.

Sebastian glanced at Kyra and Marcus, and fury blinded him. He looked away.
 

The wisp of a touch ran along his arm. He turned to Leila. “Why are you still here? Go!”
 

She recoiled, and he didn’t have to see himself to know. Her reaction was telling enough. Plus, he felt the change—the darkness—take hold, start manifesting the moment he’d glowered at Marcus. That demon had used and hurt Kyra. Totted her around like a puppet.
 

Wide-eyed and ashen, Leila backed away. “We are not finished, you and I.” Recovering her posture, she gave him a fox of a grin, and then vanished into the wind.
 

Leila’s words meant nothing to him. All that mattered, all that ever mattered, was his girl of fire. His extraordinary Moorigad. For her, he would ruin worlds. An eclipse of reason flooded his veins in slow-moving ink, and he moved forward in measured steps, the darkest of thoughts manifesting around Marcus.
 

“I merely need your compliance, your strength. Stop your struggle.” Marcus flew a foot off the ground and knocked Kyra backwards with the swing of his tail.
 

Sebastian’s inner shadows turned to obscurity, and the remaining stars in the sky were snuffed out. He narrowed his glare, and it scorched with never-ending revulsion for Marcus, the soulless man-beast.
 

The beast who laughed, and then spewed fire like a flaming torch on steroids.
 

Merciful Hell.
Fire went everywhere. Fire shot through the sky and shot at Kyra, and fire blew across the ice. The surface beneath her vanished, melted, and Kyra dropped back into the lake.
 

Talia and Valentine circled in behind Sebastian, whispering his name, but he paid them no attention. He didn’t have time. Not when he stood before a fiery Marcus.

This has to stop.
Sebastian splayed his hands out at his side with his palms toward Marcus. An infinity of darkness coursed through Sebastian, snaked from his fingertips, wanting and searching for a mark. Almost invisible to the non-magical eye, weaving a path across the ice, Sebastian could hear and feel the dark magic’s yearning.
 

The ground at his feet became slick with water, his small terrain of frozen lake growing smaller by the second. And yet, the fire was subsiding, Marcus dropping, his head drooping. His scales turned brittle and his eyes grey. His wings fell limp. His life was ending. With a mere thought, Sebastian was smothering and stamping out the dragon.