30. Kaida

The scent of ozone filled her nose again, and the sound of thunder, which she had overheard, made Kaida take a deep breath. As she centered herself, she called her magic to her. With her mates nearby, she could also draw on their power and magic. With a gentle push, her power flowed outward as her body encased in purple energy. Gemar’s eyes widened as her magic spread outward. There was a ring of flames and ice as the air around her swirled and the rocks nearby lifted off the ground. Kaida smirked at Gemar, and for the first time, she could see a hint of fear in his eyes.

"Yes, let’s."

Kaida threw her hands forward, and the power of the elements and her plasma flew through the air toward Gemar. A deep blue shield blocked the attack, but Gemar’s arms shook before he dropped them after the last bits of rock collided against it. He called lightning down from the sky, and Kaida used her shield to block it. Compared to the last attack, Kaida barely flinched.

"You know what your problem is, Gemar? You think you are always the most powerful person in the room. You don’t even know what others are capable of, yet you still feel the need to believe you can beat them."

With a swipe from her hand, a gust of wind blew from the side and knocked Gemar sideways. She noticed his hands come together, and an arc of light shot out toward her. With a flick of her wrist, she slapped it away. Power built inside her as she felt her mates pouring their power and strength into her through the bonds. She stayed where she stood but continued to taunt Gemar. She pictured an invisible shield around her, and she could see the shimmer of it at least two feet in diameter to tell her it was there. If Gemar attacked, she would be safe.

"Storm Dragons are not the most powerful the Great Dragon has produced. To be honest, the Plasma Dragon isn’t either unless they have found their mates. I worked at twenty percent until my mates completed their bonds with me. Before then, you could have squashed me. If you were smarter, you would have killed me right after Enzo rejected me for being dragonless."

"He was supposed to kill you! After he dropped you off here, he was supposed to kill you!" Gemar spat at her before sending another round of bolts at her.

Kaida lifted her hands, calling the air to do her bidding, and watched Gemar lift off the ground. She brought her hands back down, and Gemar groaned as his back connected with the earth.

"Fun fact: once a Plasma connects with her mate, her power enters them. Plasma can burn through abilities like yours. You were able to get him to reject me, but the plasma magic ate away at your command to kill me."

Gemar roared before gathering his magic. Thunder overhead rumbled through the field. The battle away from them stopped as if they were waiting for further instruction. Lightning rained down around Kaida, and she pushed more magic into her shield to stop it from reaching her. Ozone wrapped around her, and Kaida tried to angle her shield to make the lightning spray off it and go back toward Gemar. Due to lightning having its own pattern with each bolt, none were angled quite right to strike Gemar. This time, she called Arlo’s Terrain magic and shook the ground beneath Gemar as he tried to reach his feet. With the ground being uneven, he fell flat on his face.

Gemar snarled at her. "Using Elemental magic on me. How pathetic."

Kaida tilted her head before lifting a boulder with the Terrain magic and hovering it above Gemar. "No. Using Elemental magic is empowering. The things you can do with this magic are incredible. How you ever thought they were the weaker species is what I can’t understand," the conversation with Amy popped into her mind, and Kaida snarled at him. " And because you threw away your Terrain Fated Mate is why you are weak."

She felt inside the mate bond with Enzo when he heard what she said. Being reminded that his father had a mate that was not his mother filled him with rage. Gemar never told anyone about Amy, not even Nande. Gemar stared at her with his mouth agape.

"I was on the island where your mate has lived since you rejected her and left her behind. Of course, I was going to learn of your secret. What would the queen say if she learned about your Fated Mate?"

Gemar snarled and gathered his magic once more. Thunder overhead rumbled louder than before, and a cloud shrouded him until only he and Kaida were visible. She felt his power roll off him, but it wasn’t as intimidating as it was before now that she had seen what power could actually look like.

"You know nothing of what you say, child! I do not have to explain myself to you! I will show you the power of the Storm Dragon once and for all!"

The cloud Gemar created sparked with light from lightning that built throughout it. Gemar’s power circled her as he commanded his power to spread around the inside of the cloud. She could feel the static from the lightning and readied herself for the attack. She quickly gathered her magic and braced her shield for Gemar to let loose his magic.

Gemar’s lightning strike connected with her shield before she could put enough power into it to stop his attack. Kaida fell to her knees before throwing herself onto the ground to avoid the arcs of light. Small bolts arched off from the main bolts and connected with her skin. Kaida cried out as the hot magic seared her skin. Inside of the mate bonds, she heard her mates roar. Kaida felt the skin on her legs and arms bubble as Gemar gathered his magic again.

"This is why I am king! Even the great Plasma Dragon cannot withstand the power of my storm!"

The rumble overhead told Kaida the oncoming attack was larger than before. She tried to move her appendages to no avail. They screamed with pain through her system, and she couldn’t move to call her magic to save her. Gemar cackled as he raised his hands toward the sky. A large body surrounded her as he pulled his arms down to bring down the wrath from the sky. The red glimmer of Blaze’s scales as he pulled her close to her chest and tucked his wings around him to block the oncoming attack. She heard the lightning crackling as Blaze’s roar was stuck in his throat. Through the bonds, she could feel the pain he was experiencing, and she could barely stop herself from trying to get onto her feet so she could attack Gemar while Blaze was taking the bulk of the attack. The noise he made had Kaida pulling onto the mate bonds to speed up her healing. Once she felt the healing of her bubbling skin and the pain it brought to her muscles from the attack, Kaida jumped to her feet and put her hands on Blaze’s muzzle.

"What did you do? Are you crazy?!"

I just lived what a mate bond with you is like. There was no way I was going to give it up so soon.

"You could have died!"

At least it wouldn’t have been you.

Kaida heard his voice growing weak with what he said. Kaida screamed as he closed his eyes, and his wings flattened to reveal Gemar laughing harder than she had ever seen him. It was a belly laugh as he watched her mate lose consciousness from his attack.

"This is why I continued to banish their kind. Do you see how weak they are? Surely you can see why I would have wanted you to be mated to my son only. His dragon and magic are far superior! That is what I want for my grandchildren and kingdom!"

Kaida screamed as she forced a beam of plasma from her hands toward Gemar. He jumped away in time before going into another fit of laughter. She continued to push her magic out and shoot beam after beam at Gemar, her attack growing more frenzied with each one that left her hands. Kaida dropped her hands after a few minutes, feeling her energy leaving her from her attack.

"You do not deserve my son either. You are weaker than I thought. Yes. I will kill you now. My son can find another to impregnate to give us an heir."

The gathering of magic he called to him was more than she had felt from him previously. Kaida looked over at Blaze and found him knocked out from the attack. Kaida pulled on the mate bonds and produced the strongest shield she could muster.

She layered the shield with each element, allowing Enzo’s storm magic to be on the outside. There was a flash of light before she felt the magic connect with her shield. The light became blinding as the lightning surged against her shield. She closed her eyes and kept her hands in the air to push her power into the shield. There was a crackling of energy as each bolt struck, stronger than the last. She could feel Gemar pushing all his strength and power into this attack to prove he was again the most powerful. Kaida’s brow broke out in a sweat from keeping the shield in place. Each layer of the magic would fall away after the energy was depleted. In the bonds, she felt each mate’s urgency to run to her as they felt their magic break away. Kaida remained where she was and allowed Gemar’s attack to continue. Soon, the light behind her eyelids faded away, becoming black. She opened her eyes, blinked a few times to clear her vision, and allowed the cloud to disappear before she dropped her hands.

Gemar stood there dumbfounded as Kaida emerged from his attack unscathed. She smiled toothily at him and wiggled her fingers for added effect.

"You only have one strategy in your playbook, Gemar, and you just used it. I don’t need to concern myself with you because you were never going to emerge as the victor," Kaida said to him as she lifted her hands to her sides with her magic flaring at full force. "Your reign of terror is over. The Kingdom of Dragaal is mine."

Kaida called on the power of each of her mates and allowed it to swirl around her. The rumbling above, like Gemar’s, caught his attention first. The thunder was louder than his, and the lightning cracked around him. The bolts were thicker and searing with more energy than his did against her. With the Terrain magic, she called for the vines from the trees around them to spring up from the ground and grab his wrists and ankles to keep him in place. The winds picked up and created a vortex around Gemar. Kaida threw in the flames of the Ember magic for dramatic effect. With the Tidal magic, Kaida encased half of his body inside a block of ice. Gemar’s eyes were filled with fear as he squirmed in every way to try to release himself.

“You may wield the power of a Storm Dragon, but I wield the powers of them all.”

"Any final words?"

Gemar screamed for his army to come to his aid. Kaida shook her head before lifting her hands toward the sky and throwing them back down. Lightning crashed into Gemar, and she could hear his screams. She pushed the vortex into him as the lightning fell away, and another round of pain-filled screams from Gemar rang in her ears. She threw her hands outward, and the magic diseased. Gemar fell to his knees, his clothes and skin bubbling from the flames. She noticed the rippling around him as he tried to shift into his dragon. Kaida frowned as she noticed he was too weak to do so. This time, Kaida called only her plasma magic to her hands. Gemar was suffering and couldn’t run away. She took a deep breath before throwing a pillar of plasma into Gemar’s body. She gave him only that mercy.

There was no scream this time.

Kaida dropped control of her magic and banished it inside her. Gemar’s body was mangled to the point he was barely recognizable. Her shoulders sagged as her energy drained from her body now that the battle was over. Before she knew it, she was kneeling with her mates swarming her.

"It’s over. It’s finally over," Kaida whispered to them.

Enzo wrapped her into his embrace first, kissing the top of her head. "Shh, you can rest now."

She thought of the army fighting the islanders and looked around at everyone, "What about everyone else?"

"They all flew home once you came here with Gemar. I think he figured there was no need to kill everyone because, once he killed you, it would be over," Beckett told her. "That’s why we flew here."

"What about Blaze?" Kaida looked over to where his dragon had laid and sprinted to run to him. He was in his human form now, his dragon too weak to stay in that one. Kaida pulled Blaze onto her lap and looked at the others.

"He will be fine, my love. Shifting back into his human form will allow him to spend less time healing. His dragon took on the attack, not the man. He will be weak for a day or so but will wake up as good as new."

"What do we do? Is there anything we can do to help?"

"No. We just need to get him home."

Home. Kaida yearned for her bed and wanted to sleep in the arms of her mates until her body wanted to wake up. That could be days from now; she would be fine with that.

"Sounds perfect."