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I stagger, dropping my boys’ hands and gripping my head as the burning eyes open behind my own.
IT IS TIME. UNLEASH ME.
Things you don’t say no to? An Empyrean spirit.
I grab the boys’ hands again and shout for our fourth.
He crashes into me from behind at a run, wrapping his arms around my waist. He was much closer than I thought. He must have felt the Empyrean spirit stir.
“Together,” he growls in my ear.
“Together,” I say.
Then I lift our joined hands into the air and open everything that’s inside us.
I wasn’t aware of keeping the Empyrean spirit on a leash, but as soon as I tear open the gates, I realize that’s what we’ve done. It’s unconscious because Darwin’s kept it penned for so long, the spirit slumbers until he’s threatened. It doesn’t fight its cage.
I hate the idea of keeping this part of us imprisoned. I’ll find ways to let it out in future. It deserves freedom, too. Maybe in Faery? I picture it for a moment, soaring into those summer skies.
PLEASING.
A smile stretches my lips even as a fountain of flame pours out of my chest. The image in my mind’s eye firms, huge wings stretching out to grab the air, a strong tail lashing the clouds behind us, sinewy arms and legs with curving claws to rend our enemies, an armored hide they’ll never pierce.
A dragon of neon white light bursts out of my chest.
Spikes of pale fire snap off the dragon’s beating wings, splashing against the edges of the dome. It grows as it pulls free of my small, mortal frame. The wings spread until they brush Gabe’s water-ward, fifteen meters across, wider than the feasting hall where we’ve been having those dismal family dinners. Its head rears until its spiked crest brushes the top of the dome. It cranes its neck to stare down at Klotho with gouts of blue flame that see everything and nothing.
The fae scream and edge away from the dragon, cowering when they realize they have nowhere to go.
Klotho doesn’t scream. She’s fighting her way through my husbands’ flame strike, burning and healing as she struggles forward a step at a time, flesh and spider fur spilling off her body like a mummy’s wrappings unraveling.
“THIS FLEA HAS A BITE,” the dragon says, in a voice that cracks every cobblestone underfoot.
Then Klotho does scream. But only once as the dragon arches its neck and snaps her up in its jaws. Her legs splay out on either side of its maw, twitching wildly. Then the dragon tips its head back and gulps the Fate down.
In the ringing silence, the dragon belches.
The dragon turns, its haunches and tail somehow draggingthroughme. It circles once, then rears back and dives toward me. I lift my chin and pull my shoulders back, making as much room for it as I can.
The dragon plunges into my chest.
Warmth fills me as our Empyrean spirit returns to where it belongs, the heart of our quaternion. I won’t cage it again, but it has no desire to be free. It’s part of us.
It just needs walkies occasionally.
Chapter63
A Final Farewell
Since the worst seems over, Gabe and I lower our wards. The fae flood away from us like the dam holding them in has broken.
Cowards.
Time to deal with the loose ends.
As I walk toward them, Da tries to shift away, dragging his shattered leg.
I look down at him. He looks shrunken, reduced, but I know Da. He’ll regroup, then strike back. Because he’s a vicious bastard who never lets even the smallest slight go.
