Chapter 21

Rosemary

Watching Chardum battle with a good dozen or so men and women moving at impossible speeds was like watching a superhero movie on fast-forward. I couldn’t keep up with how fast they darted around each other, and couldn’t figure out who was down and out and who just needed a second to heal. They were even moving so fast in the dark that I couldn’t figure out if I recognized any, and just how many there were.

My heart was in my throat, my fists clenched at my sides. I didn’t know what to do; I should be fighting there with him, but I had no clue how. Moving that boulder the other day had been a total accident, and standing on top of this bizarre prison, it felt like one wrong move from me could crack that thing like an egg.

So I did as Chardum had told me, monitoring that slippery, slimy bug shell like my life depended on it. I searched the woods frantically, watching my dragon rip through the enemy force like they were paper towels. Were we going to make it? Was it going to be fine? I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to picture any other outcome.

Bending my knees a little, I made myself a smaller target, exposed and open in the middle of the clearing as I was. If I moved much further, I’d stop being able to sense the stupid box in the ground; I had already tested just how far I could go, and it wasn’t enough to take me to cover. The idea had struck me that I could create my own protection with rocks or a tree right there, but I discarded that idea too. I wasn’t in control enough of my powers yet; it was too big a risk.

Then the unthinkable happened: a figure darted past Char and raced into the clearing. I was pretty sure it was the guy with the pin-striped suit from before, his features lit up by a billow of fire just above his head. Then Chardum was on top of him with a flash of bright golden light. A giant shape as he became a dragon that filled the clearing. His wings spread out, his tail writhing until trees toppled left and right.

The man was more tiger than man when Char slammed his paw down on top of him; he never got close to me. Then I felt like agony seared through me, like fire slashing through my chest. I frantically touched my skin but felt nothing, no wound, and yet I couldn’t breathe from the pain. I fell to my knees, frantically trying to figure out what was going on.

What I was feeling changed, morphing into something else as fire billowed above my head, heat raining down on me from above. Chardum had tossed back his giant head, fire streaming from his maw in a seemingly endless stream, and from his chest, a spike stuck that glowed a bright, lurid green.

No! He was injured! Where had that spike come from? It looked like a crystal, like something made of glass. It didn’t look like something that could pierce the scales of a dragon, but it had. The vampire woman, that Elie lady, was standing nearby, a smug grin on her face. She didn’t look so boardroom pretty now, her hair was tousled in its ponytail, her clothing all black leather.

She’d done that, she’d struck my dragon with that thing . It called to me too, signing through the air with whispers of power as deep and green as the earth. Beneath my feet, the hard shell of the prison was responding, vibrating as cracks formed. The evil inside it stirred, moving inside it like a tumble of rocks, clattering against the hard surface.

At that moment, I knew several things at once. One, that evil thing had the same powers I had, a thing that could control the earth and it was about to escape. Two, Chardum was dying and that hurt so badly that I knew it wasn’t a physical pain; I loved my dragon. And three, I couldn’t let any of those things happen.

His fire died out, his dragon head flinging forward as he started to collapse. I leaped, acting on instincts I didn’t even know I had. My hands outstretched as I barreled past the vampire, the earth rising beneath my feet to push me up to reach the shard. Chardum had mentioned a key, and though he had not described it, I knew that’s what it was.

Fingers clawed around my ankle, but my fingers brushed the green, pulsing shard embedded in Char’s chest. I had no grip. With just my fingertips touching; I shouldn’t have had the ability to pull, but the crystal seemed to suck to my skin. I felt heat bath me like an electrical current was zapping from the tips of my fingers through the path of least resistance, directly toward my ankle.

The vampire yanked me ass over teakettle, I was rolling through the air, but the crystal came with me, stuck to my hands. The landing was rough, but not nearly as rough as it should have been. It was as if the earth was there to catch me, cradling me, welcoming me back like a lost daughter. As I rolled, I collided with a tree, too far now from the prison to sense it. The tree seemed to bend down around me, its branches forming a protective cage.

Chardum had collapsed, a massive golden shape that was gushing blood from his chest wound. It soaked the earth, seeped through the ground and my stomach roiled. If it reached the prison, what would happen?

Yanking my hands to my chest, the large crystal shard came with them. Like glue, it was stuck to my hands, and the green was seeping from the stone and into my skin. Normally dark brown, now rivulets of green were curling up my wrists, curving along my elbows and beneath the sleeves of my shirt. It felt like each drop of power in that thing was migrating inside of me, arrowing for my heart.

Was that good or bad? I had no clue, and when I stumbled to my feet, the tree wouldn’t let me go. Was that the Galamut’s power? Was it holding me prisoner? Had I screwed up? Lost the battle? No! “Chardum! Wake up! We can’t lose!”

The vampire with her pale icy eyes and her long blonde hair was suddenly in front of my cage. Her face lit up with a gleeful smile, the first sign she could feel anything other than disdain. “But you did lose! You stupid little nymph. The power will be mine!” she turned her back on me and with a jerk of her head, several figures charged my tree cage and started ripping into the branches. They were about to get to me and tear me to shreds.

The crystal was almost empty, just a pale, translucent shard of glass. The strands of green weaving through my skin didn’t hurt, though they looked like they should. When I ripped my shirt down at the collar, I could see that they’d reached my heart. Before my eyes, they seemed to glow like emeralds, and then… nothing. They just became dark green lines on my flesh, no light, no feeling, and no pain.

A worry for later. I had to get out of this cage before I was shredded, and I had to get to Chardum. He was still alive; I was sure of it. I needed to reach him and stop the bleeding. Then I needed to get to the prison and stop the dragon blood from reaching it; somehow.

With the last hint of light gone from the crystal shard, it fell from my hands like it was never anything special at all. I rose to my feet, determined to do something. With a glare, the branches finally moved, whipping out and slamming the three beasts trying to get to me away. I ran from my cage and into a chaos I hadn’t expected.

The tiger was fighting with three wolves, the evil vampire was trading blows with two identical women I had never met before. I was pretty sure I recognized the guy from the tow truck, Gregory. Only he was seven feet tall and now his skin was covered in thick fur, and a wide set of horns rose proudly from his head.

Ignoring that bizarreness, relieved to see that allies had come to our aid, I charged for Chardum. My hands came down on his wound; it was too big to hold it closed. It was gushing all over me, and I could see his big chest shudder and stutter as his heartbeat slowed.

No, he called me lifegiver. Please let that be true in more ways than one! I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t do this without him at my side. I couldn’t imagine a life in which he wasn’t parading naked through my house and stealing the frosting from my cake. I couldn’t picture not having him in my bed again, or hearing his deep voice as he teased me.

The earth was the answer, the plants. I felt them call to me as I pleaded for his life. They covered him, vines growing all over him, clay rising from the soil that slid into his wound and sealed it. Then I called to his blood, the blood that soaked the earth beneath us, perilously close to reaching the slippery, cracked shell of the prison.

It rose up, drawing up through the earth in thick rivulets. Vines soaked it up and curled along his giant body, piercing the packed clay in his wound. It should have freaked me out, but it didn’t. It was like those vines became his IV, funneling all that blood he’d lost back into his giant body. A plant feeding a mountain, a mountain of flesh and scales, a mountain that held my heart and my soul.

Tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I barely gave them any thought. Biting down hard on my lip, I let my instincts rule, the power inside me roiling and surging as it heeded my heart’s desire. To restore my mate, to heal him, and to destroy the evil beneath us, to keep it from reaching out and touching the one I loved.

A scream rippled through the air, striking the core of me and all along my body, lines lit up, deep and cool and ancient. The power of the crystal surged inside of me in response to that call. Like it wanted to reach down through the earth and open the cage. No, never. Never could that cage open.

I tasted something rotten and foul in my mouth and felt evil, ghostly fingers yank on my flesh as if they wanted to rip those lines right from my skin. I pressed my hands harder against Chardum’s chest, praying he’d wake. The true battle had only just begun.

A drop of my dragon’s blood had reached the prison. I’d missed it, or it had been masked by the creature’s powers. It gave the evil inside it just enough power to stretch and push against the damaged prison. It wanted the key that my body had absorbed; it needed it to break the final shackles. I couldn’t let that happen.

And then I felt it. A warmth that caressed my back, hands that settled on my shoulders to offer support. The strength of a raging fire poured into me. A golden dragon's eye blinked open, and Chardum raised his head. I groaned as the battle continued to rage inside of me, invisible to anyone but the Galamut and me.

“You cannot have him! You cannot have freedom,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. And then I closed my eyes and did the very thing I’d been scared to do earlier. I called on all those powers I’d been discovering, and I let them grow all over the clearing, let roots rip into the ground, and tunnel through the earth. I let them curl around the prison and then I made them grow tight.

Root after root, I curled them around that thing. Beneath us, the earth bucked and buckled, trembling like an earthquake. I couldn’t technically see, but I knew that each new root was forming another knot, a noose that tightened and tightened. There was no key to this thing, there was no Galamut, there was only the earth, and this power was mine , not his.

Hooks clawed at my flesh. Another rattling shriek echoed through me, and then… Silence. I trembled like the earth had, my body growing limp as the fight left me. “Char?” I breathed, and the dragon moved, his head coming toward me as I toppled from his chest.

Blackness claimed me, but it was warm and comforting. I wasn’t alone.