Page 61 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“Master?” Elgar gazed full into his eyes. And, of course, Elgar knew. “I understand. I accept what is to come. I want to do this.”

Eyros smiled sadly at his beloved Childe. “I only hope one day you can forgive me. For everything.”

“I already do,” Elgar told him.

Eyros let out a bitter laugh. “Then that I can forgive myself.” He held onto control, but he felt Roan slithering through his mind’s defenses. “We need to go to Solace, Elgar.”

“Yes, Master.”

“For the final fight.”

Dragon Fight

The dead dragon–that’s what it was–rose from the water right behind Legion and Ryder. It dwarfed them. It made the island itself seem like a small rock in a pond. The dragon was the size of a 747, maybe larger. It was mostly bones. The flesh had rotten–or been eaten–off long ago. There was a massive rib cage. The monstrous sinuous spine stretched fifty-feet past the back legs to the end of a dangerous tail.

“What–what is that?” Natasha gasped as she raised a shaking hand towards the rising creature

“Not possible. Not…” Lawson breathed.

He lost the ability to speak and simply shook his head. Grayson didn’t blame him. Though there were rumors of dragon-like creatures–one had supposedly even appeared at the Spire before when Daemon returned–few had ever seen one in life. He hadn’t. But here was proof that they did exist, or, at least, had existed at some point.

That tail whipped back and forth, casting off water, muck and seaweed. Lawson had to dodge a large, wet piece of it that slapped against the ground where he’d just been. He crouched by Natasha’s side, teeth bared, prepared to shift, but frozen in his humanoid form by the shock of it all. For her part, Natasha’s mouth was opened in an “O” of awe and wonder.

“Is it… alive or dead?” Dani whispered. “It feels both.”

She was right. Even as his shock and anger–disappointment, too–burned within him that she was a part of this, not to mention some other Ashyr Vampires, she, alone, felt the truth of this creature. There was life in the dead. Maybe it was his life, but no, there was more to it than that.

Anyone who thinks the Kaly play with dead things don’t understand them at all. Not at all, Grayson thought as his own wonder grew at what he was doing, what he was sensing.

“Is a Kaly Vampire doing this?” One of the other Ashyr cried.

Grayson recognized her. A very young fledgling of Marco’s. Her name was Xandria. He had barely had a chance to know her before his death. He hadn’t seen Marco in the future. Maybe he had died. He likely had earned his Second Death in the War. Dani had taken her under her wing. Or, at least, the Order had. His mood darkened and the dragon lifted its head skyward and opened its maw as if to let out a roar. But it was silent.

“I don’t know, Xandria,” Dani breathed. “Why would they play with us this way?”

“Why would they not?” The other remaining Ashyr Vampire growled.

He was not recognizable to Grayson. A War Childe? Perhaps. Or perhaps a Childe of just one of his more far flung branches of his Bloodline. Yet he had taken great care to meet all of the fledglings at least once. Their loyalty to him had to be absolute.

Is Dani’s? She did not mention her role in the Order, he reminded himself. And I would have thought her clear as glass with me before all this.

Yet, he cautioned himself that they had hardly had a chance to talk. Speaking of the past had been low on the list of items that they’d had to discuss. Both of them had been more worried about the current enemies they had then to speak of the past.

And she has no love for Legion.

He had cautioned Ryder not to judge Natasha so harshly until he spoke to her. And to remember that this time had not caused anyone to cover themselves with glory. It would be the height of hypocrisy for him to not hear Dani out.

And even if her reasoning is bad? Shame can make people hide things. There must be a way back for these people. Even those that served the Sect of Dawn. If they wish to return, he thought.

Because despite their great powers, there were still more humans than them. And the Sun was still their deadliest enemy. Humans were clever. He had no doubt that they would figure out weapons that used sunlight to harm them. It would be a delicate dance to hold the peace. They needed all the allies they could get.

Still he found himself glaring at her. And the dragon did too. But that did not deter his Childe. Dani stepped towards it as the dragon fully cleared the water. Wings stretched wide. They still had a few tattered pieces of membrane on them. It wasn’t black, but an iridescent red. Grayson imagined how this creature must have looked covered with glittering scales. It would have been magnificent, beautiful, and deadly.

Very deadly, Grayson realized. I can feel its predatory nature even though it has long been gone. The remnant of its soul is… still here. Maybe the whole of it. I can feel it. I have to ask Caemorn about this.

But he pushed that thought away. This was just one of the many things he needed to ask Caemorn about. He needed to talk to Ryder, too, to truly understand the Weryn gift. But that had to wait. He needed all of his attention on what he was doing.

He was still in his bird form, which wasn’t straining him to hold. But he could feel his own reserves of strength burning away as he funneled them into the dragon, which had a ravenous appetite. Not to mention, he was using his Ashyr powers to keep it aloft. While the remnants of the wings were impressive, they were just remnants. There was nothing there to flap to get it into the air.