AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What happened to you? How did you get lost in the forest like that?”
“One of the dragons broke away. He was heading towards the volcano; I assume to warn Ilvar. I had to stop him. We fought and I managed to win. It wasn’t easy though. Even at the end there, I thought I had met my doom. I wasn’t sure I was going to wake up.”
“I’m glad you did,” she said sweetly.
“Me too,” I sighed. “And it’s given me a lot to think about, as well.”
“Like what?”
“Like what my life means, like what I’m doing with everything. I’ve spent so much of my life running, so much ofmy life trying to fight against people’s expectations of me, and I realize that I’ve just been wasting my time. I lost so many moments with Dad because I was too stubborn to listen to him, and I’ve been ostracized from Mason and Brett as well. If you had never come into my life, I would still be out there now, searching for something that I was never going to find.”
“Then I guess it’s good that we crossed paths,” she said, kissing me lightly. It hurt because my lips were still bruised, but I didn’t particularly mind. That kind of pain was worth putting up with.
“And I’m glad you’ve decided to stay,” she continued. “I think we make each other better, all of us, I mean. I never knew my place in the world until I found you three. I was so uncertain of everything, but now that we’re together… I don’t know. I just feel confident in myself.”
“It shows. You are a queen,” I said, and I wasn’t trying to be funny.
“I don’t know about that,” she said modestly, blushing a little. We pressed our heads together and breathed in deeply. It felt so strange that the battle was over. For a while there, everything had been balancing precariously and it felt as though things could have gone either way, but we had all managed to survive, and now we had the future to think about.
A future we were going to live together. I was done being the loner, the runaway, the fugitive kind. I was going to give myself to them wholeheartedly, and we would build something better than what came before.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kadie
We rested for a long time. We all needed it. Even those who weren’t particularly wounded, like me, still needed some time to collect themselves. I had been battered and bruised, especially in that last manic fight with Ilvar. The maelstrom had almost consumed us, but thankfully Buck had emerged at the last moment to save us.
I had almost lost him. I had almost lost all of them. I had come to love them so fiercely that the thought of being without any of them broke my heart. I was glad that I did not have to mourn them or grieve over them. Instead, I just had to pity the ones who had died, on both sides. It had all been borne of one man’s madness, one man’s prideful, arrogant vision of what he thought the world should be like.
But that man had been silenced. And now, I just had to go and speak to his converts to tell them that this man they worshipped had been nothing more than a charlatan.
Usually, the return journey felt shorter than the outbound journey, but in this instance, it was the opposite. I suppose that was because we had been rushing before, so worried that we were going to run out of time. This time, we limped back home, taking our time to enjoy the sights that lay below us. The air was sweeter as we increased the distance between us and the island. Our bodies glided across the sky. No longer did we drip blood along the ground, and the fear ebbed from our souls. I was perhaps more tense than the rest of them, however. For them, it was all over. For me, there were still things to do, and people to talk to, people who might not like hearing what I had to say.
*
The other dragons returned home to the ruins. Mason, Brett, and Buck accompanied me back to my home, the village I had left behind. It was the part of the world where Ilvar’s hatred had been allowed to fester. I wondered whether another villain would rise from this place, forged in vengeance to strike against Ilvar’s killers. There were so many cycles in life where history repeated itself, and I feared that this was one of them.
I did not want to fall into such grim melancholy, however. I had to try and believe that this was going to lead to a better future. Without Ilvar to lead them astray, I hoped that people would be able to think for themselves and see how wrong he had been. That was, if they didn’t chase us away as soon as we appeared.
We walked into the village as humans, with our hands raised. Dad emerged first, followed by many others. Their faces were forlorn and filled with questions.
“Kadie… what happened?” he asked. There were whispers from others behind him. They were likely calling me a traitor and other unkind things.
“Dad… I have some news that might come as a shock to you. Ilvar is dead. His plan did not succeed. Many of the other dragons died as well. There is going to be no return to Drakon. Ilvar is not going to lead you to the salvation he promised,” I said, and immediately winced as I prepared for the backlash.
They all glanced at each other. Then, someone else came forward and pointed an accusatory finger in our direction.
“You murdered him! You murdered them all!” he cried.
I closed my eyes. A furor broke out as others were emboldened by this claim, seeking to admonish us and punish us for killing their dear leader. The curses created a cacophony in the air, and I let it all wash over me, knowing that there was some truth to their words that I could not deny.
“Wait, wait and let her speak,” dad said, moving towards me. He had an earnest look on his face. Perhaps, it was borne from the guilt he must have felt. After all, without him we might never have found Ilvar in the first place. He managed to quieten the crowd. I addressed them again. My voice was soft, filled with emotion.
“I know this isn’t what anyone wanted. You may not believe it, but I didn’t want it either. Ilvar just… he wanted to hurt innocent people. I know he convinced you that it was what we deserved, that it was the only way forward for our people, but he was wrong. And I don’t think he was all too concerned with his people either. Before he died, he told me that only some of his dragons were going to go with him. He wasn’t going to come back for you.”
I saw the hurt and disbelief on their faces. “No, he wouldn’t have done that,” they claimed.
“Think about it,” Mason said, stepping forward to stand beside me, “how would he have reached you? The ship would have blasted off into space. He never had any intention of coming back here. The only dragons he intended to take with him were the ones that were with him at the volcano. I was there at the end. I saw it all. He lied to you.”
