AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She finally agreed.I’ll take the right.The shiny copper of her dragon got a running start before taking flight again and spiraling down the long hallway.
I pushed out my dragon powers, searching for something that would lead me to my people.
I took the left.
The white stone seemed to be some kind of natural power source, illuminated from within. But the farther I went down the hall, the less light there was. It was almost as if the marble was dying. But that couldn’t be possible. How could an inanimate object die?
Torches were placed along the wall, well used and recently lit. My inner fire lit and spread through my body. I touched a hand to the first torch and it burst into flame. I exhaled gently and the flame whooshed down the entire hallway, lighting every torch that came into its path.
The smell of pitch was strong as it burned. Rats scurried across the floor and scattered from the light. I looked down and saw the carcasses of their dead. At least our people had had some source of food.
I ran at full speed down the long hallway until it finally opened into a spacious room. This room wasn’t white like the rest of this Realm. It was drab and gray. Dingy. Smoke and scorch rings stained the walls. The stench of blood, infected flesh, excrement, and death dropped me to my knees. I breathed in through my mouth, but the cloying smell coated the back of my throat, thick like syrup.
I lifted my head slowly and looked around the room. A choked sob escaped before I could control it. Large cages hung and swayed from the ceiling. Dozens of men and women—Drakán—were inside them; their naked bodies huddled together for warmth. There were tables with restraints in the middle of the room stationed next to beeping machines. Arm and leg shackles were attached to bloodstained walls. Erik had taken our sacred people and made them no more than lab rats for his twisted mind.
I stumbled to my feet and ran toward the first cage. I wondered why they hadn’t tried to break the flimsy iron bars that held them prisoner, and then I remembered that they were no longer the powerful creatures they’d used to be. Iron was nearly unbreakable by human standards.
I stood in front of the locked cage and called my power with a vengeance, ripping the iron door from its hinges. Cries for help and weeping filled the room as I went from cage to cage. The stronger prisoners helped the weak to their feet and walked them toward freedom. But there were some who remained motionless on the ground. They would never see freedom again.
There was a man who’d carried many of the weaker out and returned for more. He was too thin, his ribs prominent and his skin slack, but he held an inner strength that gave him a purpose and a reason for living.
“Who do you follow?” I asked him as I opened the door of the last cage.
“Julian is my Archos,” he replied. “But I am less than nothing to him now that my powers are gone.”
“Julian will not think so,” I assured the man. “He is here fighting for all of you now. Tell me, have you seen Archos Alasdair?”
He curled his lip in revulsion.
“Tell me what has been done with him. Julian is my lifemate. And Alasdair is my father. I must know if he still lives.”
He looked like he wanted to ignore my pleas. “If it is as you say and Julian is truly your lifemate, then I can do nothing but fulfill your request. Your father has been held in solitary,” he said, pointing to the far corner of the room. “He was quite the troublemaker.”
The man turned to walk away with the other prisoners, but he turned back before he reached the long white hallway. “Your father never turned his back on his clan. He tried to take the brunt of the punishment for his people before the madman broke him. There is honor in what he did. You can be proud of that.” The man limped away and didn’t look back again.
I hadn’t noticed the thick metal door in my hurry to release the other prisoners. This was not a cage but a closet. Part of me was afraid to open it and see what waited on the other side.
I placed both hands against the cold steel, but I couldn’t feel him—couldn’t feel anyone. I held the padlock in my hand and drew my fire until all that was left was molten metal. The hot metal burned against my skin and it would leave a scar if I didn’t remove every trace of it. The door swung open, and the man who hung from the shackles didn’t resemble my father at all. This man was old. His hair was solid silver and his face was deeply lined with age.
“Alasdair?”
He struggled to lift his head, but when he finally did it was my father’s silver-streaked eyes that stared back at me. My eyes. They no longer had a diamond-shaped pupil. They were human eyes. Erik had succeeded in stealing all of my father’s powers for his own.
“Rena.” Alasdair’s chapped lips cracked and bled with the movement. “You are too late. I am less than nothing now. And it is a good thing I no longer have my strength, for I would kill you if I could. Erik told me you have given my father’s clan away to the son of his most hated enemy. I despise the ground you walk on.”
“You have the nerve to despise me when your own son is The Destroyer and killing all of our people?” I stood back and wondered what I should do. “Should I leave you to rot? Is that what you want from me? It would serve you right if I did after what you’ve done to me.”
“I…don’t…want anything from you.” His every breath was harder than the next. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“It’s a shame you didn’t. Because now I’m here to make sure you live and suffer for the rest of your pitiful life.” I unfastened his manacles and he fell to his knees.
“Even now your pity makes you weak,” he said as I helped him to stand. “Just like your mother.”
“What?”
I didn’t get the opportunity to ask any more questions. Something powerful rammed against us and knocked us across the room into the hard stone wall. I heard the crack as the wall gave from the force of my body. My head took the brunt of the fall, and I was dazed for a moment. I looked over at my father and saw his eyes open and empty, staring straight ahead.
His death had been quick after all. The skin around his heart was singed. His body hadn’t turned to ash because he was human.
