Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

EMBER

I don't know what Jianyu said to Sister Grace last night at the bar, but whatever it was, it had an effect. As my mates, Grace, Amy, Rhiannon and I gather in the desert again, Grace's gaze meets mine. There's a new, appraising quality to the way she regards me that makes me stand up a little straighter.

And it's a good thing, too, because inside, I'm trembling.

"Is everyone ready?" Rhiannon asks. She usually dresses fairly sensibly, but she's channeling her inner, dramatic Shadow Dragon this morning in a long black dress with fluttering sleeves.

Underdressed in my own black T-shirt and jeans, I swallow hard and nod. Grace does likewise, and Rhiannon pulls in a deep breath.

Rhiannon looks to Amy. "Would you like to join us?"

Amy blinks rapidly, as if she really wasn't expecting to get called on. "Um. On which side?"

"Either, or both," Rhiannon answers calmly, but her voice is infused with meaning. "As is your birthright."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Amy toes at the ground. She's rarely looked so uncomfortable. "I think I'll just watch this time."

Something flickers in Rhiannon's gaze, but she manages a tight smile. "As you wish."

She beckons me and Grace closer. Together, we stand in the patchy shade of a palo verde tree. Rhiannon flicks her fingers, and it's so subtle, I might miss it if I weren't paying attention. But the shade blooms, the sun growing just a little bit less harsh. Grace frowns, but doesn't comment.

A shiver passes through me.

This is the old magic , I remind myself. The kind Mariutza used to spread light through a cold, black-rock prison cell. Rhiannon is manipulating shadows, but she's doing so to bring us comfort. Darkness isn't evil, in and of itself.

I keep repeating the reminder in my head as Rhiannon extends her open palm toward me. She's positioned herself to my left, so the hand I place in hers is the one that bears the Shadow Queen's Bracer.

The black metal hums with warmth, power gathering within me. My dragon lifts her head, and great, scaled wings stretch themselves against the confines of my ribs.

"Are we sure this is safe?" Rafe asks.

He and my other mates stand behind me in a solid wall of support. Malik shifts his weight, and Jianyu clears his throat.

I push as much confidence as I can into our connection. "It's safer than flying into the Air Kingdom, guns blazing."

Malik snickers, and Rafe glowers.

Rhiannon raises an arched brow. "Shall we proceed?"

Exhaling roughly, I nod. Only... "Where do we start?"

"Think of the last time you created a portal."

I close my eyes and try to focus. "I was in the Citadel. Trying to escape, and I... I imagined the feeling of where I needed to go."

In a desperate bid to find a way out of the castle, I tried to tap into the Air Dragon in my blood. I reached out with my senses for the feeling of the wind.

And I ended up in Princess Aria's room.

My stomach turns, regret tugging at me. Princess Aria--Storm's sister--has been betrothed to the Shadow King in a mad effort at breeding another heir to the Grand Throne. For a brief moment, I imagined I could rescue her, but then she lifted her gaze to the sky and called to Erembour.

"It--" My throat catches, but I force myself to work past the tightness in my lungs. "It didn't go the way I planned."

"Don't worry about the destination," Rhiannon reminds me. "Only about the feeling of reaching through the fabric of the world."

"I don't know how." I open my eyes to find Rhiannon staring back at me with nothing but kindness.

"Neither do I, child. Only those who have borne the bracer or another artifact of its power could hope to."

It's a strange reminder--Rhiannon seems so much older and wiser than me, but I'm the expert when it comes to my own magic.

No one else can do this but me.

Closing my eyes again, I look inward. My mates' presence fuels me, lending me the strength of three elemental dragon princes.

And I need to find the fourth.

Every other time I've managed to create a portal, I've been running for my life. I don't have that urgency now, but there's an empty, aching piece missing from my heart. I've been trying to ignore it for so long, but in this moment, I give it the space to make itself felt.

The air around me begins to shiver.

I reach backward with my spirit and feel my mates' presence, shoring me up. Their support pours into me.

"Yes," Rhiannon breathes. Her hand grips mine more tightly, and the heat of my bracer burns through me. Shimmering tingles dance up my arm, and I open my eyes to watch the slow swirl of Rhiannon's magic sweeping mine up in a cloud of black and purple smoke.

Only it's not just purple and black. Brilliant turquoise and crimson and silver lights flicker within the darkness, and again I feel the pang of the magic I can't yet access.

But what I have is enough.

Grunting with the effort, Rhiannon helps coax my magic up and out of my body. I let her guide me, trusting her and her abilities.

Slowly, the beginnings of a portal form above our joined hands.

It's a swirling, violet vortex, crackling with harsh, unrestrained and untethered magic. Its yawning entrance has no beginning and no end, and the shattered air around it wavers violently.

"Sister Grace," Rhiannon says, strained. She holds out her mother's locket.

Sister Grace hesitates for a moment. I look to her, and our gazes lock. The sheer exertion of keeping the unstable portal open tears at me. I need to root it--either in a destination or in Grace's magic.

If she refuses, I don't know if I have the strength to focus the portal and draw myself and my mates through it to the Air Kingdom. Worse, I don't know if I will have enough magic left to bring us back.

There's a sharp pain in my chest as I remember the empty, sputtering feeling of hitting the limits of my magic, back at the Citadel. I can't risk letting that happen again. Not when my mates' lives--and possibly the future of all dragonkind—are on the line.

"Please," I beg.

Sister Grace's chest expands as she breathes in deeply. She flicks her gaze just past me, toward Jianyu, and a new conviction steels her.

She holds out her hand, and Amy passes her a bundle of dried herbs. With a quiet incantation, Grace waves her open palm over the top of the bundle, and it slowly begins to smoke.

She continues chanting in a language I don't recognize, and which I can barely hear over the growing roar of the untethered magic. The smoke from the herbs has a dark, sweet scent that swirls around us, permeating the crackling, unstable portal that yawns above our heads. The air ripples with energy, and Rhiannon's mother's locket pulls at its chain, jerking toward the open portal.

"Now," Grace breathes.

And I don't know what to do. I try to release the portal, but it clings to me.

Rhiannon directs me, "Let it go."

I shake my head. "How--?"

"Embrace the Shadow Dragon within you," Rhiannon grits out, effort making a sheen of sweat appear on her brow as she helps me to maintain the spell. "Trust her to let her magic out into the world."

And I've always embraced my dragon. I've begged her over and over to Emerge.

But there's something about the idea of releasing her Shadow Magic. It doesn't matter that I've done it before. It's never been named so plainly. My breath catches, and my magic stutters as ripples of doubt cascade through me. Instead of letting go, I pull inward.

"I can't--" I stammer, trying to fight the tide, but it's too strong. I don't have enough control.

"Ember..." Rhiannon gasps.

And then her jaw goes firm, determination furrowing her brow. In a rush, Rhiannon's magic reaches deeper into me. Its warmth flows through my veins, and something within my heart releases. She pulls the magic out and up and through my arm. As the spell pours forth, my bracer burns.

Lightning cracks the cloudless sky.

With the magic free, Grace's voice rises to a booming, deafening pitch. She draws a sigil in the air with the smoldering herbs.

The portal roars and flickers. And then in one rush of blinding purple light, it collapses into the locket.

Rhiannon snaps the locket closed.

Just like that, the sun comes back out from behind Rhiannon's veil. The crackle and roar of our combined magic is gone, replaced by an eerie silence.

I stagger backward, clutching at the bracer.

"I'm sorry," Rhiannon says, her breathing ragged. "I didn't mean to interfere so much--only to guide--"

"No..." My bracer has returned to a warm hum. Rhiannon coaxed the magic out and into the air, but she did it with a gentleness that reminds me of being small, a huge, black dragon hovering over me.

It reminds me of my father.

It reminds me that Shadow Dragon magic is so much more than we were ever told.

The corners of my eyes sting.

My doubts about my own dragon and my own magic nearly destroyed everything.

"It's okay," I promise Rhiannon. Gratitude and shame battle within me. What would I have done without her? "Really."

My mates, who have been standing back this entire time, take that as their cue to approach.

"Are you all right?" Malik asks, reaching me first.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was..." I finally settle on the word. "Intense."

Rafe laughs as he curls an arm around my side. "It was 'intense' just watching. I can't even imagine being in the middle of all of that."

"You glowed," Jianyu says, awe in his eyes, and something in my chest flutters at his praise.

But it falters when I catch the way Rhiannon is still regarding me. She felt me floundering in a way that my mates--even with our soulbond--did not.

I brace myself, expecting some sort of a censure, but instead, her mouth curls up into a soft smile. "You were magnificent. With your fourth mate and your dragon by your side, you will be unstoppable."

I let out a rough exhalation, desperate to believe what she's saying.

But I still can't shake my doubts.

Pulling me out of my thoughts, Amy picks that moment to fling herself at Grace. "Talk about magnificent." She kisses Grace full on the mouth. "That was fucking hot."

I laugh, and Rafe draws me in tighter against his side. "She's not wrong," he mutters.

"Did it work?" Grace asks. She really is glowing, her dark skin damp from exertion, and she sags into Amy's embrace.

Rhiannon passes me the locket.

The dark metal pulses, giving off a purple aura of power. As I extend my hand to accept it, the locket strains against its chain, all but leaping into my palm.

My eyes flare wide at the sparks that dance up my fingertips as they close around the pendant.

"You can open it," Rhiannon tells me.

Glancing up, I frown. "It won't...?"

"Open a portal?" Rhiannon shakes her head. "Not unless you ask it to."

Carefully, I nudge the latch open.

Inside is a swirling constellation of bright white stars and purple wisps of clouds set against a vast black backdrop. I feel like I could fall into the magic--like I'm peering into space itself.

"Yeah," I murmur, its warm hum vibrating through me. "I'm pretty sure it worked."