Chapter 22

Chapter

Twenty-Two

EMBER

" O h, no you don't," I murmur.

And my magic is still weird and unpredictable. The harsh glimmer of the Shadow Dragon in my blood still makes me uneasy.

But none of that matters.

Fucking Jasmine, the girl who tortured me for years in Wynrath Crest is hurtling toward me, screaming through the sky like a twisted, evil, dragon-shaped Valkyrie.

All the times I turned the other cheek and endured come back to me in a rush. I fling my hands up and to the side, and the bracer on my wrist burns with violet fire.

The gleaming protection bubble that bursts from my fingertips is made of iron and pain. Every time she hurt me, ripped my clothes, raked her talons across my skin--every time she drew blood, and every time she pierced my heart--every time she told me I was worthless...

They all fuel the spell. I don't know what I'm doing, don't know how to control the well of magic rushing through my veins.

All I know is that I'm not weak and defenseless anymore.

The bubble explodes outward, and Jasmine's dragon slams into it with a force that vibrates in my bones.

But it vibrates in hers, too. She's thrown backward, her wing crumpling beneath her. Howling in pain, blood gushing from her snout, she plummets to the ground. Triumph surges through me like golden light.

But I don't have time to gloat.

Fury roars with a primal, deep-seated rage, and just like that, the dozens of circling dragons descend.

Instantly, my mates take to their dragon forms. Storm surges into the sky, brilliant silver wings flapping against the unnatural darkness as he chases Fury. He breathes a jet of ice and flame at his brother, and Fury swoops in at him, claws and fangs first.

My heart cracks just a little, but I don't have time to mourn the severed bond between the two brothers.

Jasmine may still be twitching on the ground, but a half dozen more dragons drop into a steep dive, aiming straight at me.

Rafe's dragon knocks most of them out of the sky with an explosive fireball that rockets through the air. Jianyu sweeps up behind him, hurling jagged spikes of stone at the attackers.

Malik hovers protectively above me as more of our friends take wing. Freya's brilliant white dragon and Jett's black one soar into the air, dancing together, back-to-back as they face down another battalion. Dark Shadow Dragons spew purple clouds of gas and streams of acid spittle, while Air Dragons hurl gusts of biting wind. All around us, miniature vortexes form in the air, spiraling into twisters. As one slams its way across the town square, Freya lets out a deafening screech, rage fueling a surge of her own, icy magic against those who would attempt to destroy her town.

Even as the chaos unfolds around me, my dragon is throwing herself more and more ferociously against my ribs. I stagger, slamming my palm into my chest. With all the will I have, I try to open my heart and let her out, but there's an unbreakable wall holding her in. The pain of her captivity wants to sink me to my knees, but I have to keep my bearings.

My dragon may still be trapped inside me, but I'm no helpless damsel.

My bracer burns with magical power, and Rhiannon's locket sears the skin at the very center of my chest. I grasp the hot metal pendant and feel the crackle of magic.

Escape is literally at my fingertips, and visions of places we could go flit through my mind.

I drop my hand.

There's nowhere we could go that would truly free us from the evil that's followed us here. And even if there were...

I twist my neck, taking in the destruction around me with numb horror. The town square is ablaze with purple smoke and ash. Dark bolts of lightning crack the ground, rumbling earth and sending up plumes of shattered concrete and dust.

Hundreds of dragons circle above my head, but that's not all.

Unity's come out to respond to the threat. My eyes sting. Bear shifters and wolf shifters lunge at the attacking dragons, pulling them out of the sky with claws and teeth. Witches and wizards have emerged from who even knows where, and the very air shimmers with the power of the magic being unleashed.

Their town is being destroyed because of me--

No . Their town is being destroyed because of Zephyr and Fury and Erembour. The rulers of the Air and Shadow Dragon Kingdoms may want me and my magic, but they're the ones who brought an apocalypse to Unity's doorstep.

This place is the closest thing I've had to a home since my parents were stolen from me. Its people are defending the town against an attack so powerful that it could wipe them off the map.

My magic isn't strong enough to take the town with me, and even if I could--my experience with the Water Dragon Kingdom has driven home to me that there's a cost to that kind of magic.

In my heart of hearts, it's clear--we have to stand and fight.

I raise my hands in the defensive posture I learned from High Priestess Fang of the Grand Stone Temple. My connection to Jianyu lights up with blinding silver light, and his dragon roars his approval, sweeping by and launching the same broken bits of concrete that the attacking dragons created right back at them. Rafe's dragon whoops as well, his exhilaration palpable. He always was itching to stop the hiding and sneaking around and just fight already.

More dragons barrel down on us, though. The Air Dragon cyclones become full-fledged twisters. One veers off seemingly at random, and I turn to find Sister Grace hurling huge rocks of her own at the rampaging beasts. Amy is behind her, her arm raised over her face in self-protection, and I see red.

My hair whips around my face, my dress flapping in the wind as I fling a sphere of protective magic in their direction. The spell has the same new resonating power as before, and the Shadow Dragon unfortunate enough to clip its wing on the shining surface roars in pain.

Bracer burning, I summon the offensive powers I somehow managed to manifest in my fight against Li when he kidnapped me from the Water Kingdom. My fingers crackle with power; it's so much easier now. The deep purple blasts of energy that I fire at Air and Shadow Dragons alike have the deep magic of Shadows and the heat and solidity of Fire and Stone; the fluid grace of Water and the swift flight of magic born of the Air itself.

And to think that anyone ever dared to call me weak. Defective .

The absolute rightness of it all slams into me, merging with a pride I never imagined I could have. My mate-bonds glow with overwhelming brightness, my awareness of each of them like a physical force. My dragon roars, and I can feel her--

Her wings are dark shadows bursting from my shoulder blades; her fire is my breath, her talons grow from my fingers, and I scream out in pain.

My bones want to crack. My skin is violet conflagration.

But she's still stuck .

Growling, I sling more magic at the dragons swooping down at me and my mates. Malik is above me, tearing into any dragon that would attempt to get in close enough for a physical attack. He's taken more scrapes and gouges from sharp talons than I would like, but his dragon moves with impossible grace. Bright lines of glowing aquamarine magic swirl beneath his scales, and the very clouds that the Shadow Dragons summoned burst with rain that he whips into arrows of piercing energy.

Storm screams, and I yank my gaze upward in time to see him blindsided by a whirling cyclone from behind. Fury looks ragged and worn down, but their battle is a stalemate, the two brothers too evenly matched.

All around us, the story is the same. My mates and I aren't hurting for allies, but every dragon we take down is replaced by another. Flinging protection magic in a dozen directions at once, I dare a glance toward the horizon, and my heart falls.

More dragons are still materializing, portals ripping themselves open from the air itself.

The pavement around me explodes as a Shadow Dragon swoops past Malik's line of defense. I cry out, attempting to shield myself, but I'm still thrown backward, sharp rock cutting into my skin.

From the ground, things look even more bleak. Blood drips into my eyes, and I swab at the gash on my forehead. Storm is stumbling through the air, Fury advancing. Two huge Air Dragons swoop over Malik, dividing his attention, and my own side lights up with pain as he takes a series of hits. Rafe rains down fire, but his energy is flagging. Jianyu tears at the very earth, only to be caught up in a twister that wrings him in a violent spiral that rattles my teeth. I bite down on my tongue and taste blood.

My bracer glows even hotter, its magic screaming at me. All four of my connections to my mates are rippling fire, and my dragon is beating her wings with a savageness that's going to tear me apart.

Amy screams, and I fling all the magic I have in her direction, but Sister Grace is staggering to the ground, clutching her arm. Sobs fall out of Amy as she tries to shelter Grace with her own body, two more dragons bearing down on them.

Freya's white dragon cuts through the sky, hurling the dragons attacking Amy and Grace out of the air. Jett is right behind her, protecting her flank, and I protect his, hurling a barrier of purple magic to cover him, but a spray of acidic smoke gets through, searing his wing, and he plummets from the sky.

Black fire , a voice whispers in my head.

All the tethers to my mates scream out at once, and my dragon is screaming, too.

Black fire .

The Shadows in my soul rise up into a wall of black and ruin, and I said that I was done with shying away from what I am. From who I am.

"The Shadow Queen's heir," I whisper, rising to my feet.

Twisting winds assail me from all sides, but my bracer burns with ebony flames, and I brush the assault back with a swing of my arm. Violet clouds of poison rush toward me through the gap in the battle field, and my dragon opens her mouth.

I pull in the Shadow magic and feel it penetrate my very heart. My eyes fall closed.

When I open them again, the Shadow energy is radiating through me. The sky is violet and black and the most brilliant, glimmering white.

Around me, the world is chaos. Malik takes another vicious blow to his flank, and Storm is staggering as his brother unleashes tempest after tempest. Rafe's scales boil with acid, and Jianyu's wings are shredding against the conflagration of winds and shadows and wrath. Our other friends aren't faring any better--our motley crew of dragons from all four corners of the world, flying against the dark sky in every color of dragonscale imaginable.

But in my head, it's quiet.

Black fire .

"Amy," I whisper, looking to the side.

And she's not my mate. I can't communicate telepathically right into her head. But she hears me all the same, looking over at me through the hail of crumbling stone and ash. She's clutching Grace close, tears streaming down her face.

I walk toward her, the world glowing white all around me. I hear the carnage; I feel my mates' pain with every lashing blow. Clouds of smoke and flame billow toward me on unnatural winds, but they don't touch me. My bracer glows with a blinding light.

I reach Amy and crouch down beside her. A chunk of melting rock hurtles toward me, but I deflect it with a thought.

"It's time," I tell her.

She grasps my meaning instantly. She shakes her head, letting go of Grace, who slumps, panting, to the side. "I don't have the magic for that--I scarcely have any magic at all."

"You do," I promise her, and I feel it. Extending my hand, I clasp her palm in mine. Hot magic flows through her veins, dark and twisty and light and powerful .

"No--I still have my dragon," she protests. "I can't--"

"You need your dragon." Her dragon is a part of her, just like all the different dragons twining through my lineage are a part of me.

And I've begged her. Implored her--told her to wait to excise that wild, most precious part of her. I've hinted and expressed my dismay at the idea that she could choose to remove it.

But I'm not begging or hinting now. Overwhelming certainty fills me with a confidence I never had before. The vivid heat of the Shadow Bracer on my arm only adds another layer of conviction to my heart.

"Black flames," I say aloud, and a shiver of darkness and light passes through me.

She said that the texts I stole described an Emergence Rite from the Shadow Dragon Kingdom, built of black flames cast by dragons and witches working together.

"I told you." Her tone rises, a hint of panic infusing it. "I don't have that kind of magic."

"You are that kind of magic." I clasp her hand more tightly, and the glow of my bracer burns my eyes. "You are every part of you, Amethyst."

I am every part of myself. Shadow, Fire, Stone, Water and Air.

She shakes her head again, but I'm not hearing it.

"You can conjure the flames of Emergence--all on your own."

"Grace says--"

"Grace was wrong," Sister Grace says, her teeth gritted in pain, her whole arm blistered and bruised. But her eyes are clear as she beholds Amy. "I didn't know anything about Shadow Dragon magic."

Amy gestures around at the carnage surrounding us. "And now you do?"

"Your mother taught me. And you have taught me, too." Grace reaches for Amy and grasps her other hand. "The dragon inside of you is strong."

"She's weak. She's stuck inside me--holding me back--"

"You're holding you back," Grace says, and her eyes shine. "I love you."

Amy's mouth falls open, her eyes flaring wide. "Grace--"

" All of you," Grace insists. "Witch and dragon."

"But--"

"I love the person you are, in your heart."

"I love you, too," Amy whispers, her voice shaking and her eyes wet.

"Then trust me." Grace clutches her tighter. "Embrace the parts of you that you would have pushed aside."

The truth of her wisdom reaches deep into the very marrow of me. My dragon stretches her wings, and the bounds of my chest are almost at a breaking point.

And Amy is, too. Cracks appear in her resistance, but she's still wavering. "I'd need help--"

"Then you shall have it," Rhiannon's warm voice interjects from behind me.

I glance over my shoulder to find her standing there, her dress tattered, her gray hair in disarray. Soot streaks her cheeks. Rook and Mariutza are behind her, looking equally distressed, and I don't know where they've been, or what injuries they've sustained in the fight. I don't know how they materialized exactly at the moment when I needed them.

"I'm here," Grace assures her.

"I need another witch or wizard or--" Amy's eyes flare wide. "Or..."

She tugs her hands free of both mine and Grace's, diving for a bag she's been lugging around with her for the past couple of days. She reaches into it.

I don't know what I'm expecting, but the stormy, black orb she pulls from the bag's depths is definitely not it.

The deep power of the Soul Sphere crackles through the air, creating an aura that raises the hairs on my arms and on the back of my neck.

She looks to me. "Can you release him?"

Is this the time? Or the place?

My own life-changing conversation with my parents' spirits flashes back to me. I was so overwhelmed by their presence, their love, their story.

"Amy--you won't have--he'll only be here for a few moments." The preternatural calm that's guided me for these last few minutes threatens to falter. "And that's if it's even..."

The sphere spoke to me at the Citadel, refusing to be released, whispering the name Amethyst into my head. I'm sure it's the spirit of her missing father, trapped within the glass, but there's no way of knowing.

But Amy seems certain. "It is. And a few moments...it's enough."

I want to argue, to second-guess, but Rhiannon nods. "She's right. Ember, please."

My heart aches for the stifled emotion in Rhiannon's voice. It's Amy's father we're talking about releasing, but it's also Rhiannon's romantic partner--one she lost in the Great War, so many years ago.

A sharp pang of loss lances through me, followed by cleansing anger.

That war was supposed to have ended the conflict between the great Dragon Kingdoms. It was supposed to have rid the world of the Shadow Dragon threat.

But Shadows never really leave. They merely disappear into the darkness.

Well, I'm ready to shine some freaking light.

I take the soul sphere from Amy's shaking hands. Its power vibrates through me, the spirit within clamoring to be released. I suck in a ragged breath and allow its magic to pour outward.

The glass shatters, and the world right alongside it. Dragons hiss and scream, knocked out of the air by the explosion of brilliant light. Rafe, Jianyu, Malik and Storm all pull at the taut strings of our connection, and I hold on tight.

From the mist and shine and glittering shards of broken glass, the figure of a man with bright blond hair and a beard and achingly sad eyes emerges.

"Amethyst," he murmurs.

Amy's eyes well up with tears. Her voice is so high and so small. "Dad?"

"My darling, look at you. All grown up." He darts his gaze to Rhiannon, and the sorrow and love in his spirit weaken my knees. "Beloved."

Rhiannon extends a hand, but not far. Her face is pale, but her gaze is utterly knowing.

"I love you both so much," the man says. He looks to Amy again. "I'm so proud of you."

"Your magic..." Rhiannon begins.

"Is yours." He flicks his hands in a gesture I don't recognize, but it sets the air alight with golden glimmers of brilliance.

Already, he's starting to fade, and it's too soon--it's not fair.

But our enemies are regrouping. The ground shakes, and the whipping winds of raging cyclones threaten to shatter the bubble of peace surrounding us.

"Take it, Amethyst," he beseeches, drifting away--dissolving...

Amy extends her hand.

The golden light flows into her, and she lifts her face to the sky. Her eyes flash gold and white and black, and when she looks to me, the power in her very presence is dazzling.

"Black flames," she intones, and she reaches out her hands.

Her fingertips still glow with golden sparks, but neither Rhiannon nor Grace flinches in the least. Amy arches her back, convulsing with the power coursing through her. Rhiannon and Grace exchange a nervous glance, but they hold onto her hands, never letting go as a purple spark ignites at her feet.

It grows and grows and climbs, and its heat sears me. My dragon rises higher in my chest, and the black fire roars into a conflagration. It eclipses the street, ascending out of control. Dragons screech in the sky.

My palm screams, the scar I got in the flames of the Air Dragon Emergence bursting into agony at the heat.

But I don't care.

I walk forward.