26. Kaida

The cold rock beneath her body and head reminded Kaida of where she was before the blinding silver light took over. She could hear Blaze yelling her name, trying to get her to open her eyes. In front of her, the silvery light was still shimmering, calling out to her through the bonds. When she looked at the bonds, they were all still intact, but now they were shrouded in the silvery light. She was unsure what this meant but could feel a new level of power humming through her veins. As she stared at the five flames surrounding her own, she tried to recall what the guys told her they had found in the textbooks about Plasmas. It never mentioned anything about a silver thread wrapped around the mate bonds or said that she would gain a new power once she completed the bonds with all her mates. It was uncharted territory that made her stomach twist at the thought of having something inside her she had no idea what it was or how to wield.

It was much easier when she tried to open her eyes this time. Blaze was standing over her, holding her hand, and in the sound of his voice, he had an urgency that wasn’t there before. The concern laced through their mate bond only settled slightly once she opened her eyes.

"Gods, princess. I thought I lost you there for a second."

"No, you haven’t lost me yet. What was that? Did you see a silver light like I did?"

Blaze shook his head. "No, but I can see it inside the bonds. Wasn’t this mentioned when the guys were researching what you are?"

"No. This is new information."

"Awesome. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear."

Blaze sighed and let his curiosity go for the time being, looking at the entrance to their holding area. "Well, you will like what I say next even more. I think I hear some people coming. If they get a look at what I did with those bars, we are in a lot of trouble. We need to get out of here. I’d rather fight while on the move than inside a cage."

Kaida nodded in agreement and got to her feet. With the wards broken, Blaze could easily open up the outer gate. He wasted no time and called his magic to him to burn through the metal like he had before. This time, it did not take as long, and Kaida wondered if it was because of her increased power and if it was trickling through the mate bond and responding to him. She didn’t have time to consider the idea further. Once there was a big enough hole for them to get through, they jumped through the space and quickly ran down the hall. Blaze held her hand and helped guide her through the hallway and up a staircase. She could hear the voices at the top of the stairs that Blaze was talking about. There was no avoiding it. They were going to have to fight.

As he pried open the door, Blaze shot out a beam of fire at the two guards standing watch. Both of their bodies went up in flames and gave Kaida and Blaze the space they needed to run past them down another hallway. The sounds of footsteps and voices coordinating where to go came from down the hallway they were running. Kaida didn’t recognize the hallway they were in, so she would be no help in understanding how to get out of there. Blaze continued to take the lead and ran toward where the voices came from. There was a door at the end of the hallway, and the voices were on the other side. While running, she couldn’t determine how many voices were on the other side. Blaze had his fire around the hand that wasn’t holding onto her, and he slowed down to open the door.

Like before, he shot out a beam of his flames at those on the other side. Just before the fire caught on the guard’s clothing, the light illuminated the hall just enough for Kaida to see that there were five people. Blaze’s flame had gotten three of them. Kaida blasted her plasma at the two left while Blaze pushed through the guards, who were screaming as the flames torched their skin. The two Kaida attacked fell onto the ground and didn’t move once they did. Blaze ran past them, and Kaida followed him out.

This hall was short and led to a new staircase. Once they were at the top, she saw that this level had windows. This could mean they were on the right floor to find a doorway out of the castle. The familiar scents of the king and queen were in this hall, which was her only way of telling them they were inside the castle. When she lived in Dragaal, she was made aware that there was only one place to store prisoners. While inside the cell, she did not realize she was inside the castle’s lowest level. If they wanted to get out of this alive, they needed to get out of here now. The last time with Enzo was cutting it close enough. She didn’t need to relive it again.

While looking out of one of the windows on her right, Kaida noticed it faced the courtyard with the flowers she remembered seeing during her trip there. This gave her some information and told her where she was within the layout. If they continued down this path, which went through a few more doors, they would be out of the castle and on their way home.

But nothing is ever that easy.

Gemar stood at the bottom of the hall. Three other guards stood beside him, all with their magic flaring and ready to fight. Kaida and Blaze slowed down halfway through the hall. Kaida looked at the window and thought of jumping into the courtyard, shifting into her dragon, and flying out that way. Both of their dragons were bigger than the courtyard’s opening, so it would be a tight fit. It was still better than fighting Gemar head-on with other guards. Gemar had already shown that he would fight dirty. The only upside was that Gemar’s ability would not affect either Kaida or Blaze now that the mate bond was complete.

"You silly little children always think you can get one over on me. Did you really think I would allow you to be here and do everything you did inside that cell without my knowledge? I was hoping you would do exactly what you did. You showed me what you were capable of, and that was something you should have never done." Gemar had a devious look on his face. He clapped his hands together while his devious smile turned into a smug one. "It’s going to hurt far worse than I initially wanted it to now that you are mated to four others. If you come with me now, I will at least see if there is a way to stifle the pain while the procedure is happening."

Kaida growled and called her magic to swarm around her. It was a power display that she didn’t need to do but felt was necessary to show Gemar exactly whom he was dealing with. She wasn’t a scared little kid who’d just found her magic. It had taken some time, but now she knew exactly what her power could do, and it was done by allowing people to harm her among her mates.

"It won’t hurt at all because it will never be done. Give it up, Gemar. I will not bow to you or anyone else."

"When I learned of your power and you being a Plasma Dragon, I saw it as a way for the species to walk among the earth finally. I know exactly what a Plasma Dragon can do, and I was ecstatic to hear that you wielded that power. How lucky was I that my son was fated to a Plasma Dragon? This meant there would never be anyone to challenge the throne because there would be no point. I could have even set it up so that any of your children who were Plasma Dragons could ascend to the throne."

"If we were the ones who sat on a throne, it would have been up to us, not you."

"Not necessarily. I have made quite a lot of friends over the years. I can have anything I ever want. The power I wield alone would allow me to make you do whatever I wanted. Until the day I am decomposing in the ground, I will be the person who makes the decisions around here."

"You are delusional. Your power doesn’t affect me. And now that I am bonded to all my mates, none of us are affected. What would you do when you learned you could not control us?"

"My power does not work on you because you have too many people attached to you, which overwhelms the system. Once I have the rest of your incompetent mates, I can break their bonds with you. Once that happens, my ability will finally work on you again."

Blaze snarled at him. "You touch her, and I will kill you myself."

Gemar looked at Blaze and lifted his lip in disgust. "You disappointed me. I thought for sure that you would never complete the bond with that whore. After everything you were put through when you were a child, I have heard you never wanted to take a mate. What changed your mind?"

"That is none of your damn business."

"You are quite right. It doesn’t even matter. You won’t be leaving here, and I will be able to follow through with a plan I had created when I learned of the Plasma walking our land once again."

Over our dead bodies." Kaida snarled and let loose her magic.

The way her magic moved down the hall was something of a magic show. She remembered that a witch had come to town, used their magic to display interesting ways to make himself disappear, and even performed something of a light show. Her purple magic was in a narrow beam with the purple lightning arcs crackling all around it. It swirled inside a tunnel until it reached the king and his guards. She watched her magic swirl around them like a vortex in the arcs, jumping away from the beam and against their bodies. The hallway was filled with their screams as the vortex started to close in. There was a scent of ozone and magic in the air as her magic continued its path until it nearly suffocated the people inside it. Kaida imagined lightning as a storm dragon could conjure, and the next thing she knew, she heard the rumbling of thunder inside the hallway as a cloud over the vortex formed. Before she could understand what was happening, a thick lightning bolt struck down in the middle of the vortex. She heard it collide against a shield before the rumble of Gemar’s magic burst through the vortex, breaking it up and showing that her magic singed his clothing. Blood trickled down from the king and the guards, but Gemar’s look of fury told Kaida that it was, more or less, a flesh wound, and they needed to run.

Kaida jumped toward the window before throwing her hands toward the king, sending up a thick shield so they could not get through. Blaze had his hands on her ass to push her through the window before jumping through it himself. Blaze let loose his wings and jumped into the air to give him enough momentum to begin his flight out of the courtyard. Kaida looked toward the king, watching him, seething with rage, as her wings popped out of her back. Kaida wiggled her fingers at him before jumping into the air and following Blaze out of the courtyard. Once they cleared the building, they shifted into their dragon forms.

There was no looking back. They needed to get back to the island before tomorrow and let the army they faced before get into the mix. Kaida may have felt more powerful than she ever had now that the bonds with all her mates were completed. That did not mean she was ready to face an army with only herself and Blaze to defeat them.

After clearing the beaches at the kingdom’s edge, Kaida thought about what had happened in that hallway while facing Gemar. If she remembered correctly, it meant she could wield the power of a Storm Dragon and not just her own. Not knowing anything about Plasmas and her ability to wield the magic of her mates, without information being available in a textbook, this was, yet again, uncharted territory. It was as if she would learn more about herself as time passed. It was scary to think there was a possibility she did not know everything about herself. What if her magic could control other dragons the way Gemar could? If Gemar could have it, did that mean Enzo could have that ability? If she could wield the magic of her mates, did that mean that she would be able to wield that ability if Enzo had it?

They needed to do a lot of digging to figure this out. It could mean a lot of positive things. First, she and her mates would be strong enough to fight against that army and return to the Kingdom of Dragaal, even if the islanders did not want to fight again. It could mean that, once she is on the throne, she will be able to protect her people differently than she could before.

But there was one thing for certain. She needed to go home to celebrate the wins of Blaze, completing the bond being rid of the Dark Dimension, and having this new power. They all needed to be together before the battle for the kingdom.

I need to be with my mates.