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“It could be nothing… but Pyros mentions in the diary that his plans to test out the spell were delayed because a spider egg sack hatched in his study. Thousands of the tiny critters skittered all over his desk and workspace. He almost burned the whole room down in his terror, and it took him a week to work up the courage to enter it again!”
Orga snorted. “That sounds exactly like something my father would have done. He set our gardens on fire on more than one occasion, but unlike the fire fae, we weren’t on friendly terms with any water or earth fae to help us undo the damage. It was quite a nuisance!”
“I can only imagine,” Quye said, somewhat distractedly. I could see the wheels turning in her mind, and a sneaking suspicion formed in the back of my own. I waited for Quye to voice the thought aloud, but she only said, “Thank you, Orga. You’ve been so very helpful over these past few days. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you, too.” Orga embraced Quye with her spindly arms. “Perhaps you’ll visit in my dreams after you solve the mystery and tell me all about it, eh, seer?”
The elderly dragon tapped her on the nose, and Quye grinned. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, giving her a wink.
Finished with our goodbyes, the dragons retreated to the edge of the beach, giving the rest of us room so we could shift into our beast forms. I lifted my head to the sky as I allowed the change to ripple over me, transforming into my dragon form. This was the tenth time I’d done it, having practiced the transition multiple times, yet I felt the same thrill that shot through me the first time. I wondered if it would ever change, or if all dragons experienced this sense of electrification whenever they let their inner beasts out.
Soon enough, the surf was filled with dragons, scales of every hue glittering in the morning sunlight as we flexed our wings and thrashed our tails. Quye climbed upon my back, settling just behind my shoulder blades. We’d done a test flight yesterday, and had discovered that unlike with Einar and the other dragons, she experienced no adverse effects from touching my scales. I wondered if this meant I hadn’t inherited the same protections against fae magic the dragons had…but then again, since I could wield fae magic, I supposed that made a certain amount of sense.
The journey back seemed to take forever now that I was ready to go home. I pushed myself as far and as fast as I could, the other dragons keeping up without complaining, but even so, we were forced to stop and rest for the night. We slept on the bedrolls we’d packed under the starry night sky, dreams of Einar and his warm, loving embrace cradling me through the night, and continued our journey with the rise of the sun.
It was mid-afternoon when we reached the rolling, hilly landscape where we’d entered this world for the first time. A buzzing sensation started up beneath my skin, and I felt a tug in my chest—the bond guiding me to the portal’s location.
“Adara!”Yaggir’s sharp voice echoed in my head, tearing my attention to the present.“Incoming attack!”
I whipped my head to the left to see a swarm of dragons flying in from the east. There were only a dozen or so, less than our number, but these dragons were older, their massive forms bigger and stronger than ours. A burst of adrenaline rushed through my veins, driving away the exhaustion, and my inner fire roared to life as I prepared for battle.
“Who are you?”I shouted, pushing my telepathic message to the incoming group.
“You know who we are,”a voice snarled in my head as the dragon at the head of the group glared at me.“Thanks to you, we are now fugitives, forced to fight for our lives every night as the God-King’s men hunt us!”
“And what does that have to do with us?” Diyani sneered, drawing up alongside me.“We aren’t the ones who were dumb enough to engage in your little charade.”
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,”Isador chimed in.
“Please don’t tell me you’re actually considering attacking us,”I said.
The enemy dragons stopped about three hundred yards away, the imposter scanning our group. We outnumbered him two to one, and though hesitation flickered in his eyes for a moment, I could tell he wasn’t going to back down.
Well, neither was I.
Before the dragons could make the decision to attack, I shot forward, closing the distance faster than a loosed arrow. Before he could swerve aside, I opened my mouth and blasted him not with fire, but with a wave of pure ice. His roar of agony was cut off as ice crystals encased his entire head, and before the other dragons could react, I spun, smashing my spiked tail straight into the side of his head.
The dragon’s head shattered into a million pieces, scattering across the wind like glitter. The rest of his body hovered in the air for a heartbeat, then plummeted to the ground. It hit the earth with a thunderous boom, creating a deep crater that rippled outward for a good quarter mile. Dust and smoke billowed up from the impact, clouding the air below us, and everyone froze, their breaths suspended in the air.
I took advantage of their momentary shock to retreat to the safety of my group before the other dragons could react. I fully expected them to attack, to avenge their fallen leader, but instead they sized our group up again, weighing their options. They weren’t the only ones gazing warily at me either—the dragons on my side were staring at me, too, witnessing what I was truly capable of for the first time.
A tiny voice in my head whispered at me to shrink away, to make myself smaller so the others would forget that I was different. Instead, I puffed out my chest and spread my wings wider. I’d spent all of my childhood trying to blend in, wishing I was someone else, and I was done with that. I was a daughter of dragonsandfae, and I would embrace both sides of my heritage unapologetically. Now that I’d finally merged with my inner beast, a primal part of me had awoken, one that would do whatever it took to protect my loved ones. Killing the leader in cold blood like that might seem cruel… but cutting off the head of the beast, as it were, was the best way I could think of to ensure minimal bloodshed.
If anyone here had a problem with that… well, they knew how to leave.
“Leave now, unless you’d like to meet the same fate as your leader.” The enemy dragons glanced toward the crater on the ground, the dust finally clearing enough to see the imposter’s dead, mangled body lying within. “This is your only warning.”
Without a word, the enemy dragons turned and left. We watched them go, their winged forms shrinking into the distance, and only when they were out of sight did I let out a sigh of relief.
“Squalls,” Quye said, and I started. I’d completely forgotten she was still atop me! “You sure know how to finish fights before they start, Adara. You’ve really come into your own.”
“Yes, you have,”Diyani said, and I turned to face the others. Every single one of the two dozen dragons looked at me with respect and admiration in their jewel-toned eyes.“We are proud of you, and honored to follow you into battle against the shadow creatures.”
“That means more than I can say,”I said. A sense of pride and validation filled my chest, filling me with strength and courage for the challenges ahead.“Now, let’s return to Ediria and finish this once and for all.”
35
Einar
