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Watching the barrier sizzle out of existence brought a sense of calm into Kaida's heart as she realized this would be the starting point of the revolution. Gold sparks grew in brightness and fizzled out a second later as the barrier peeled away from where her magic broke through and collapsed the magic that held it together. Once the people of the Outcast Lands noticed the barrier was no longer there, they could return to their kingdoms. The outcast dragons would revel knowing they could take back the kingdom that thought they were not good enough to live among the Storm Dragons.
The kingdom of Dragaal would soon understand that their actions against those who were rejected and those who wielded Elemental magic should not be tossed aside as if they were nothing. There was more reason to care for each subject under their rule than to dismiss them as worthless. The way they were able to throw all of these people away without much thought and not care how they thrived or even survived for that matter, was going to lead to the downfall of the throne.
And I am going to have a front-row seat to it all.
Kaida allowed the magic of the broken barrier to rain down around her as her dragon basked in the glory of her power by lifting her head toward the sky. There were many reasons this was needed. Kaida thought she would regret this decision. Now that it was done, she found there were no regrets at all.
"KAIDA!"
A rush of concern flooded through her from her bonds with Beckett, Arlo, Esen, and Enzo. Kaida maneuvered her head downward to stare at the four men below. They all shared the same puzzled look as their heads swiveled from the sky to her. Beckett's long brown hair was pulled back and tied up so his deep green eyes were completely visible. They had a hard look that matched the concern he felt for her. Esen stood next to him with his blond hair looking like a bright halo around his head. Deep blue eyes looked at her, scanning her dragon first and then back into her eyes. His bond screamed fear mixed with concern as he took a step closer to her. It wasn't a large one, but enough for Kaida to notice. Arlo stood next to Esen, and his black hair was such a contrast to his piercing blue eyes that he came off as more intimidating than the others. Enzo didn't waste another second as she scanned them, trying to decipher their body language to know if they would yell once she shifted back. His stormy gray eyes didn't leave hers as he marched toward her dragon form, demanding her attention.
"Kaida! Shift back now! What in heavens did you just do?" he yelled, animatedly waving his hands to hold her attention.
There was a ripple of energy, and in a blink, Kaida was in her human form with her hands on her hips. The concern she felt through the bonds was not making her feel like this would end well. She already knew she would need to stand her ground on why this was the best decision and how the outcome would allow their revolution to begin.
Enzo first enveloped her into his arms and tightened them briefly before he pushed her away and looked her over. She slapped his hands away and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Stop that! I'm not hurt. And I did what was needed."
Arlo stepped forward, "Are you sure that’s what was needed? It isn't coming across that way right now."
Kaida clenched her jaw and swallowed hard while she counted to ten in her head. "Yes. That barrier was the wall that separated the Outcasted from their kingdoms. If we want the kingdoms to understand that they’re just as much our kingdom as they are theirs, we can’t keep sitting here, allowing them to keep us contained with the Dark Dimension. Our people can die with how our dragons react to it. It brings out all of the primal instincts in us and increases our desire for violence!"
Memories of how the Dark Dimension caused her dragon to destroy buildings and nearly kill two residents on the island came to mind. Kaida shuddered at the thought of the entire island being influenced at once if the Dark Dimension opened. These thoughts and considerations were what led her to want the barrier down in the first place.
"We wanted to have a planned attack! Not let them know your damn dragon is capable of this kind of power. Now the element of surprise is gone!" Enzo's nostrils were flared, and his eyes darkened briefly as his anger built.
Kaida growled at him. "I did this so Adrien could return home. If the artifact that can close the Dark Dimension is missing, and only she can find it, she must be inside her kingdom to look for clues. This dimension threatens not only our people but the rest of the kingdoms as well."
Enzo growled and stomped away from her. She glared at the back of his head until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her head whipped around to find Arlo looking at her with a guarded expression.
"Enzo has a reason to be upset, Kai. If the king gets word about this, especially since your dragon was able to break that barrier, then this complicates everything we were planning."
"I understand that this made things a bit more complicated. However, it needed to be done. I didn’t do this without thought. If Adrien is the key to stopping this, then she needs to be able to get back to where her people are and the information she needs. Nothing is here for her to be able to do that. She looked through the library. None of the books she has managed to get her hands on have anything on the matter."
Esen shook his head, "We could have sent letters to her family and requested they be shipped here. We could have gotten whatever she needed if it had come from us."
Arlo furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Esen, "We don't know that for sure. Sometimes, people sent letters there, and nothing was ever returned. If her coven wanted her to have the information, they would have sent it already."
Beckett crossed his arms over his chest and nodded, "Arlo is right. She's been here for a few months now. They would have sent her the needed books if they knew she was the only one who could find the artifact."
"Were any of you paying attention while we were at her house? It is part of her quest to become a High Priestess. She must return and announce that she plans to complete it to get clues about where it is. She can't do that while sitting on this rock, waiting for her mate to return to get her. There was no chance in hell he would ever do that, to begin with. He was in an opposing coven! He rejected her because she wouldn't open the portal to that realm in the first place. Why would he come here if she is destined to close it?"
They were all looking at her now. Kaida rolled her eyes at them for not remembering anything important.
“You also have to remember that she only recently got close enough to feel comfortable around you four, and even then, only because of me. Before then, she probably wasn’t sure coming to you four for something she needed would get her anywhere, especially when the library was barely opened to everyone instead of just dragons, and even that was only because I asked on her behalf. She isn’t a dragon, so she probably believed she wasn’t exactly a priority for you to care about, and none of you gave her a reason to believe otherwise.”
"You mean to tell me you did this solely because Adrien needed to go home?" Enzo snarled.
Kaida narrowed her eyes at him, "That is only part of it. There is a lot that caused me to do this. Adrien wasn't the only one who needed to go home. Everyone who was rejected and tossed here should be allowed to go home, to build a life and find a second chance, if possible, in their home kingdoms where they have a support system of people they love and trust instead of hoping they can start from scratch and find that here. I got lucky, but it didn’t take long to realize that there was no reason for this island other than a place for every kingdom to come and meet others. I also did this because all of my friends needed to go home and reclaim their lives. I can feel it in my bones. We were not meant to be here. We all need to return to our kingdoms and right the wrongs of our people. Laws need to change, and I think we are each a key to that change."
"And how do you know that?" Enzo still kept his distance from her, pacing with consideration now.
"I don't know. My gut is telling me that, first and foremost, Adrien needs to go home and reclaim her position. She can't do that here. The only way for that to happen was for that barrier to come down so she could just go because her mate planned to leave her here to rot and watch from afar as he destroyed their kingdom with that dimension. We don't even know why he wants to do this! But he managed to do it, even though she was told he needed her to open it."
"I highly doubt she was the only way for him to open that Dimension. There is more than one way to do anything, really. She may have just been the most convenient way for him to accomplish whatever goal he has," Beckett told them.
"Yeah, there are always multiple ways to do almost everything. Why would this be any different?" Esen continued.
