Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
EMBER
" W hat?" I can scarcely hear myself over the static roaring in my ears.
Ever since I stepped forward and called this meeting to order, I've felt something new stirring in my blood. My connection to all four of my mates effervesces through me, giving me a kind of strength I always knew could be mine, but could never touch until today.
But now it falters.
"All of dragonkind," Storm says, his eyes haunted, guilt churning through his side of our bondmate connection. I want to reassure him that this isn't his fault, no matter what he was forced to do while he was under the Shadow King's rule.
But panic is beginning to gather in my chest. I dart my gaze around wildly, looking to Rhiannon, Amy, Grace, Rook. "Is that even possible?"
The lines of worry on Rook's face deepen. "It's even more grave than I had suspected."
That's not a no.
"During the Dragon Moon, dragon shifters across the globe are connected by invisible threads," Rhiannon says, tapping her fingers together in a pattern that seems random but I sense is anything but.
My nerves spiral even higher. "So he could, is what you're saying."
Amy's face is as white as sheet. "Those scrolls you stole--"
"Those what ?" Rook interrupts. Fury and fear war in his eyes.
I put my hands on my hips, unwilling to act ashamed. "I may have liberated a few other items from the creepy soul sphere room on my way out."
He rises to his feet. "Ember. Those are incredibly dangerous--"
"And are being handled as such," Rhiannon interrupts.
Amy's not having any of this. "As I was saying, I didn't register it at the time, but they totally talked about this."
"We'll return to the vault to study them in more depth," Rhiannon says, decisive. At the last minute, she glances at Rook and adds, "Carefully."
A creeping, numbing dread is tingling in my fingers and my toes. "So you're saying this is really possible. King Erembour could literally steal the magic from all of dragonkind."
Rhiannon and Rook share a glance that tells me everything I need to know.
Rook rubs a hand across his brow. "Unfortunately, yes. He has allies in every kingdom. And apparently, he's been amassing a treasure trove of dark materials more vast than even I had realized."
"But that kind of spell must have limits. Consequences." That's how magic works, right?
"I would not put anything past the Shadow King," Rhiannon says grimly. "There is nothing he would not do--no cost he would not pay--to secure that kind of power for himself."
"And his heir," Mariutza says in a distracted tone.
Those tingles of dread shoot straight to my heart. My gaze darts automatically to Storm, and his own eyes are wide and mournful.
"The heir he's going to get on my sister," he grits out, rage curling his fists.
Rook lets out a rough sigh. "Who he will be taking as his bride--on the Dragon Moon."
"So that's it? He's going to get married, sire an heir--" I swallow bile, just the idea of that wretched, ancient creature with Princess Aria making me nauseous "--and then perform some insane, dark ritual to steal the magic from all of dragonkind to enrich himself and his unborn child."
Rhiannon sits back down.
Nodding, Rook drops his hands to his lap, utterly calm except for the way his left eye is twitching. "That about sums it up."
"We will not allow this to transpire." Malik steps forward, his tattoos swirling violently, and his eyes glowing with a ferocity that stirs something in my chest.
Rafe's own gaze burns. "Damn right."
"For once, it would appear we agree on something," Jianyu says, determination setting his jaw.
Beside me, Storm is bristling with an electric rage that is reminiscent of his name. "Ember?"
All four of my mates are staring at me. Our friends are, too, and I still don't know how this happened. How I managed to be the one at the very center of this conflagration.
I flex my wrist, the bracer burning my skin.
Just like before, when I brought the room to attention, light sweeps its way through me. My connection to all four of my mates glows in my veins, feeding into the magic swirling through me. Making my dragon rise within my breast.
"We'll stop him," I hear myself say, and my voice is not my own. It's mine and my dragon's, and it's something deep and new and powerful , just waiting to be awakened. "We'll find the Crown Of Cinders, unite the elements, and defeat the Shadow King. We'll rescue Princess Aria and we'll..." My breath catches, but as I inhale, fresh air flows into my lungs. "We'll bring light to shadow."
"Um," Amy interrupts, one brow cocked, "you realize you'll have to let your dragon out first, right?"
My dragon flaps her wings, dark purple magic scintillating at the edges of my vision, and my instinct is still to shy away. To reject the Shadow Dragon blood that's a part of me, and that has been since the day I was born.
But I don't. I won't--not anymore.
Before I can open my mouth to say as much, though, there's a sudden trembling to the earth. I stagger, and Storm darts forward as if to catch me, but I find my balance. The bedrock far beneath my feet sings in my bones, and I look to Jianyu. His eyes fly wide.
Then tornado sirens blare, and the sky outside the windows goes dark.
"What the--" Rafe stumbles across the room toward me.
Mariutza's quiet, sing-songy voice rings out. "They're here."
Every phone in the room goes off at once. Freya brings hers to her ear, and her face flashes white. "Shadow Dragons," she calls out.
The ground shakes again, and my magic flows into the floor, keeping me and the room steady when the very earth feels like it's ready to crumble.
Rafe reaches me and takes me by the arm. "I guess it's too much to hope that these new Shadow Dragons are friends of yours, too, huh?"
Outside, the darkness flashes with crackles of purple light, and punishing wind slams into the building. A window explodes, sending shards of glass flying.
Storm flexes his arms, and the glass is deflected away.
I dare to look toward the gaping window, and my stomach drops into my toes. There are dozens of ebony dragons darkening the sky.
Rhiannon rounds on Rook. "I thought you said you misled them. That you had time. But they followed you right here!"
"No," Storm says, and his voice is aching. "They followed me."
I track his gaze back to the sky.
There --emerging from the tangled web of shadows and black scale are a whole horde of gleaming silver and ice blue dragons. The very air parts for them as they fly, screaming through the darkness.
And all of them, Air Dragon and Shadow Dragon alike, are led by Prince Fury himself.
STORM
That motherfucker.
Rage and guilt tear through me as I watch my brother's dragon surge across the darkened sky. The wind whips violently beneath his wings, the telltale scent of ozone sparking in the air. Lightning sears the heavens, followed by a deafening boom as the air begins to spiral into mini-cyclones of destructive force.
And it's all my fault. I could have ended Fury when he was tied up in the corner of my garage.
I could have stopped him. Years ago, when he was tormenting Ember and spouting our father's violent bullshit, I could have stood up to him.
But no. I sat there and watched.
And now he's here, leading an army of Air Dragons and Shadow Dragons to attack my mate and our friends.
I'm not sitting idly by anymore.
I'm out the door before I can entertain a single rational thought. The gales outside whip my hair and my clothes, and I'm a fucking lunatic, staring down a hundred dragons in the middle of the street, but I don't care.
"Fury," I scream into the wind. My dragon's growl makes my voice deep and rough. " Fury !"
My brother's dragon breaks from formation and flies three spiraling loops above my head. My dragon is straining against the tethers of my self-control, gnashing its teeth to be released, but I stand there, two feet firmly planted on the ground.
He flaps his wings, and I stagger against the wall of air that slams into me.
"Fury--" I shout once more.
He drops out of the sky before I can finish saying his name, his dragon receding. He lands in human form a dozen feet in front of me. "What?" he sneers. "You sniveling, weak little runt. What now--"
And I'm furious. Ready to rip my brother limb from limb.
But there's also a grief tearing at my insides.
"Don't do this," I hear myself plead. "Call it off."
"No." He shakes his head, snarling, his rage and pain a twisted mirror of my own. "You don't get to call the shots. I'm the heir. I'm the one who's supported Father from the very beginning. I'm the one in his confidence."
"Father's lost his mind."
"You've lost your mind." He cuts a hand through the air like a knife, reflected lightning crackling in his eyes. "You turned your back on our people--"
"I tried to save our people." My voice cracks. "Our sister--"
He lets out an ugly, raw laugh. "Our sister doesn't need saving. She's the consort of the greatest power on this earth. Once the Shadow King takes power, she'll be right hand to the throne. Mother to the Prince of Darkness."
"Erembour doesn't care about her," I spit. "Only her bloodline. None of you care about her."
It was only me, screaming against the wind for years, trying so hard to save her.
"And what?" Fury's nostrils flare. "You do? You, the valiant prince. Did you ever listen to what she wanted? Were you there when she offered herself up to become the Shadow King's bride?"
Fury's maelstrom might not have blown me over, but his words come close. "You're lying."
"You've been lying to yourself. Your entire life." His sharp eyes dart to stare at a place over my shoulder, and his mouth twists into a snarl that bares his teeth. "And you're lying to yourself now."
I don't have to glance behind me to know he's glaring at Ember. The raging winds inside me howl, and the air around me stirs.
His cruelty to her blew me wide open, but I told myself that I was powerless. I couldn't reveal my attachment to her or I'd sacrifice us both.
I was a coward and a fool.
"For the first time in my life, I'm seeing clearly."
"You betrayed our family and our kingdom. I got kidnapped , and you didn't give a shit." Real hurt flashes in his eyes, but only for a fraction of a second.
"Sorry, it was a little hard to focus on feeling sorry for you when you were cheering on the horde of Shadow Dragons that were about to burn us alive."
"They never would have hurt you. They're here to protect us, our legacy, our power--"
"We're their prisoners." How can he not see that? "They watched our every move."
"Maybe yours--"
"Our father sold our kingdom to them, gave our sister to them. And for what?"
Power. He already said it, and I knew it was true, but the simple, fact-like matter of it all sends fresh waves of anger and loss coursing through me.
"King Erembour is going to unite the dragon kingdoms," Fury pronounces. "And we would have been right at his side."
"King Erembour is going to destroy the dragon world."
"You don't know the kind of power you're walking away from."
Only I do. The Shadow King is going to steal the magic from all of dragonkind, save his own servants.
And I'm suddenly completely, utterly certain that my brother knows that.
The shock crashes into me like an arctic wind.
"He was going to spare you. You and Father--"
"And you and Aria." He isn't even trying to hide it. Fear flashes in his eyes for the first time. "You walk away now, and you're going to be on the wrong side."
I shake my head and take a single, halting step back. "If this is wrong, I don't want to be right."
His gaze goes past me again, and the clear gray of his eyes flashes a blinding, rage-filled white. "It's her, isn't it? You're willing to betray everyone else in your life for her . The defective reject--"
"She was never defective," I roar, my dragon breathing smoke into my lungs. Harsher winds wrap around me, summoned by the painful crush of my guilt.
"She was weak and useless, her dragon is broken--"
"You're weak." I barely recognize my voice now. "Cowing to evil. Standing behind something you know is wrong."
"We're about to become stronger than you could ever imagine." Fury's dragon is rising within him, his eyes flashing to slits and fangs dropping into his mouth. "This is your last chance."
I step back again, holding out my hand. Ember reaches for me, sliding her fingers between mine, and the love and support and comfort of my mate's touch sears into me. "I've made my choice."
The choice I should have made so long ago.
"So be it."
In a glittering rain of scales and wind, Fury's form twists and morphs as his dragon erupts from his skin. His sharp talons gleam, and dark shadows surround him as the other dragons--hovering above us while we spoke--descend once more.
One icy-colored Air Dragon shoots past them all. A burst of white flame jets from the dragon's mouth, and almost too late, I recognize her.
Jasmine--Fury's girlfriend, Ember's worst tormenter...
And she's careening directly, maniacally, viciously toward Ember.