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“You’re being cruel, Erik. I understand you’re upset, but none of this is my fault.”
“Then come with me,” he said.
“What? Why? Where would we even go?”
“Come with me and I’ll show you,” he said. Power and magic slithered along the edges of the balcony until we were completely surrounded. It was a power like none I’d ever felt before. It burned to the touch, but at the same time made me yearn for more. But that couldn’t be because Erik didn’t have power.
“I can show you things Julian could only hope for, powers that he’s never dreamed of.”
Erik walked toward me slowly, and I moved back until I stood against the railing. His eyes were bleak and empty of emotion, but he moved with purpose.
And then I picked up on something I’d managed to miss for the last five hundred years—something everyone had managed to miss. Erik wasn’t powerless. Erik had a lot of power, more than me and more than Julian. He’d been shielding everything, and up until now he’d been powerful enough to hide exactly what he was. The Drakán powers I wielded had blinded me to what he was, but my other powers, the ones Julian had awoken in me with our lovemaking, sensed Erik for what he was.
“Oh, gods,” I whispered.
“What’s the matter, Rena? Dragon got your tongue?”
“I don’t understand. How did this happen? How did you hide it?” I asked.
He looked confused for a moment before he realized what I was talking about. “You can see through my illusion?” he asked. He wasn’t upset. Just curious.
“I can see through it so clearly that I don’t understand how you’ve hidden it your entire life.” I took a step forward, my anger making me careless. “Destroyer.” My dragon roared, and I pulled my power tight around me like a cloak. His magic sizzled against mine, and sparks began falling amid the snow.
“My, my, someone has some new powers. Even your mate hasn’t been able to detect the strength I keep buried deep within. Though he did follow the trail across the Realms I set up for him just as I’d planned. I couldn’t approach you if he was hanging around here, now could I?”
“Erik, we’re family. Don’t do this.”
His laugh was cruel and slithered across my skin. This was not the brother I’d known, and even though the truth was staring me in the face, reality was sometimes hard to accept.
Then I had a moment of panic. I was standing in front of The Destroyer. Alone. I’d never actually expected to have to fight him by myself.
“I can smell your fear, Rena. It makes me hungry. Tell me you aren’t afraid of your own brother.”
“You are not my brother.”
“Sure I am. As much as we both hate it, Alasdair is our father.” Erik spat on the floor at the mention of his name.
“You’re insane.”
“Tsk, tsk. Insults will not get you into my good graces. I was hoping you’d come with me of your own free will. No one could ever match the power of the two of us together. I’ve known since your birth that you would be special. Your Drakán powers are average, but you’re carrying a little something extra aren’t you? And I want those powers badly. I hope you don’t struggle when I rip them from your body. Who was your mother, Rena? I still haven’t been able to get Alasdair to tell me, and I’ve thought of several rather inventive means of torture.”
“I don’t know who she was!” I yelled. I was getting a little tired of being asked the question. Erik had brought up a good point though. I was going to have to find out who she was if I lived long enough. These new powers obviously had everything to do with her.
“Pity.”
“It was you who killed Jillian and the other Drakán, wasn’t it? You who sent those bastards to attack me, while you watched from the safety of the house.”
“Guilty.” He shrugged sheepishly and smiled. “If Calista hadn’t shown up and had one of her visions, I’d already have you under my control, and you’d have never bonded with your lifemate.”
My dragon writhed with anger, and I was past the point of trying to coddle Erik’s unstable emotions. “The pieces of silver were a little overly dramatic, don’t you think?”
“I thought it made things more interesting. You certainly got the point I was trying to make before you betrayed your own clan.”
“I’d hardly call any Drakán who refused to follow you guilty of betrayal. I’d call them courageous. If anything, I’d call you the betrayer. Our race is sacred, and you are making us extinct.”
“I’m making us stronger. We deserve to have a Realm of our own. This one is as good as any, and the humans are unnecessary. The Drakán can make this land thrive and we can gain back what we once had. I’m the only one who knows the way it can be done. All you have to do is follow me.”
“I’ll never follow you. The Promised Child is our future.”
