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“She disguised herself as Claudia and waited for Alasdair to come for her. Alasdair found her in the garden, and he kidnapped her, just as she’d planned. It only took a month before she conceived. She kept up the illusion of her true identity until I was born. Alasdair took me from her birthing bed, and literally dropped her back in Rome. He never knew she was really Drakán—the gods had disguised her scent. My mother eventually found me and nurtured my powers. It was she who had the ability to hide my powers from Alasdair until I was old enough and strong enough to do it myself. The rest is pretty much history,” he said, his maniacal laughter growing more and more out of control.
Erik circled the balcony, watching for any sign of movement. He inhaled deeply and the flames I’d cast in the fireplace and braziers burned out into plumes of smoke. My new powers were going out of control. I was too drained to keep a handle on the elements that raged around me, and a blizzard was whipping snow around the mountain and it was accumulating at an alarming rate on the balcony floor.
I’d held out as long as I could. My body began to rematerialize, and he waited patiently as snow flurries fell and collected around me.
“Gotcha,” Erik said and lifted his arms to send another blast my way.
My human body reappeared naked, so I quickly shifted into my dragon form. I moved with unimaginable speed and ripped my claws across Erik’s torso, dodging the ball of fire aimed in my direction. His blood sprayed across the cold ground in an arc of crimson drops. It glittered in the moonlight like wet rubies, and his flesh lay in tatters over muscle and bone. He roared with anguish. Fire spewed from his mouth, and his fist came straight at me. I didn’t have time to dodge.
I knew I was hurt badly when there was no pain. I flickered back and forth between my human form and my dragon—finally ending up as human—naked and torn. Blood trickled down the corner of my mouth and dripped in a rhythmic pattern on the snowy white ground. I knew my jaw was broken because I couldn’t open my mouth to scream. I was choking on my own blood.
I fought to stand up straight and confront my brother, my enemy. I wouldn’t die like a weakling on the ground.
“I’m taking you with me, Rena,” he hissed. “You can’t defeat me. I am The Destroyerof Prophecy, and I will not be beaten.”
I will not let you take my powers for your own. I’ll die first. I wasn’t able to speak because my face was too swollen. Blood pooled rapidly in my mouth. I couldn’t spit it out fast enough to keep from drowning. If this was my fate, so be it, but he would not use my powers against others as long as I had a breath in my body.
He gathered the light between his hands once again, and I prepared myself for another blow. But instead of aiming his deadly hands in my direction, he pointed them toward the sky. An arc of light shot from his fingertips and cracked the night in two pieces.
Time stopped. Snow flurries stood still in the air, and the drops of blood that dripped from my body and face were suspended between time and space. My body became sluggish—as if I were under water—trapped inside some invisible hourglass looking out at the real world.
The light from his hands spread across the night sky. And out of the darkness appeared a portal—a circle of undulating liquid silver that shone brighter than the sun. I would die, by his hand or my own, before I went through it with him.
“Enough games, Rena,” he said and started toward me.
I didn’t know what kind of games he was used to playing, but being beaten to death wasn’t on my list of fun things to do. I scooted away from him as far as I could go until I reached the balcony edge. I only had one option. I had to fly.
I took a deep breath and fell over the ledge of the balcony into a free fall down the side of the mountain. I watched in slow motion as Erik made a grab for me and yelled my name. But he was too late.
I realized something on my way. I was able to scream after all.
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Erik didn’t follow me down the side of the mountain. Instead he cursed my name and vanished inside the portal, closing it behind him with a thunderous reverberation that echoed through the sky.
I shifted quickly, sighing in relief as my body had more room for my injuries in dragon form. I stretched out to my full length and roared as bones popped in and out of place. Panic consumed me. I still couldn’t fly, even drawing on Julian’s power. My mind raced, and I opened myself to my other power. My dragon didn’t like this magic because it didn’t come from her, and she tried to push it away. But I wouldn’t let her.
The wind began to blow from the bottom of the mountain. I blanked my mind and put all my strength into focusing on the wind, so the air moved faster. I controlled the pressure as it swirled around me, and the air held me steady. I was flying. Sort of. The only problem was I didn’t know how to land.
I hovered just outside the bottom floor of Drummondsey Castle, and I floated in front of a large plate-glass window and looked into a room with an eerie blue light. It took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at, but when I did I heaved a sigh of relief.
I flew straight at the window, and the plate glass shattered into a million pieces. I didn’t even register the new cuts. I already had too many to count. I landed at the bottom of Julian’s Olympic-sized swimming pool like a ton of bricks. I was unconscious before I reached the bottom.
* * *
I woke up throbbing from head to toe. The lights were out and total darkness filled the room. The kind of darkness that made you search deep within yourself to see what you were really made of. I didn’t like what I found, and I panicked at the black that came at me from every direction. It reminded me too much of the vision I’d had about me and Julian and the beautiful monster who’d devoured us. I’d never been afraid of the dark before, but now I was terrified.
I moaned, and several candles flickered on around the room. Esmerelda stood over me and held a cup up to my lips. I swallowed and sputtered as the foul-tasting brew went down.
“What is that?” I croaked, pushing it away. I didn’t need any more torture.
“Don’t worry, dear, the taste won’t last for long,” Esmerelda said.
“I need to see Julian,” I rasped out. My throat was on fire and my jaw was still sore.
“I know. He’s been pacing outside the door since he felt you beginning to stir. He’s been worried about you.”
“Hmmph,” I said. “Worried I’ll take him down with me more than likely.”
