Chapter 45

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

T he Dragon towered over me, its eyes filled with a furious contempt for the world and all that surrounded it as it took in the sight of me running for it, axe raised and a demon charging at my back.

Cayde was closing in on me, my injuries slowing me down, but I only had to make it a few more paces. The mistake he'd made was in thinking I wouldn't welcome death. But I had nothing left to lose now and my own mortality was a simple price to pay for his annihilation.

The roar which escaped the Dragon made the walls rattle around us, the fire which blasted from its jaws blinding with its light.

I threw myself into a dive as flames exploded from its mouth, the heat stealing the air from the world, scorching my lungs, scalding my flesh.

I rolled, careful to keep the axe in my fist from cutting me open and as I slammed into something hard and hot, I peeled my eyes open.

The scales of the Dragon's steel grey foot were at once rough and silken against my palm as I steadied myself against it. Talons the size of my entire body punctured the stone beneath us and a great, iron manacle was clamped around its ankle.

Cayde released a battle cry at my back and I twisted to look at him, crouched behind an air shield which had splintered and cracked beneath the onslaught of Dragon Fire.

The Dragon roared again, talons digging further into the stone as it strained against the length of chain which held it, snapping ferocious jaws at the motherfucker who had stolen so much from me.

I craned my neck to look up at the chest of the enormous beast above me as it expanded on an inhale, heat emanating from its scarred scales as fire once again lit within its core.

"More secrets, Vesper?!" Cayde roared at me, his honeyed eyes blazing with hatred as I raised my axe above my head. His expression shifted from hostility to horror as he took in my position, the chain taut between us, a snarl upon my lips.

"Don't!" Cayde bellowed as I swung with all my might, a scream of defiant malevolence tearing from me as my grief threatened to consume every piece of my heart.

The chain broke with the force of my strike, the golden axe embedding itself in the stone beneath as the Dragon lurched forward with an earth-shattering roar.

I backed up as Cayde cried out in terror, the cavern trembling with the movements of the monstrous creature as it lunged for him, its four powerful legs pounding the ground around me as it tore over my head.

The strike of its tail caught me in the gut, hurling me from my feet into the dank stone wall at the back of the cavern, my head cracking against the stone.

Cayde was yelling curses at me, the walls cleaving apart as I shoved myself upright again and took my last weapon from my belt, the dagger feeling impossibly small in my fist.

I cursed as a huge lump of stone fell from the cavern roof, throwing myself away from it then launching myself aside as the Dragon's tail swept across the ground once more while it lurched around in the confined space, chasing after Cayde.

My eyes widened in horror as the wall of the cavern cracked in two, the world appearing to tear along its seams as rock and dirt tumbled through the fissure which Cayde was creating with his earth magic.

The Dragon lunged for him, its jaws snapping mere inches from his flesh as he threw himself into that crack in the stone and began to climb.

"No," I gasped, seeing his plan, realising what he was doing, how he was going to escape the vengeance he was owed.

I broke into a run, my chest hollow with emptiness where my magic should have resided, my lone dagger all I had left to secure his demise as he scrambled up into that crack in the stone, faint starlight appearing at its peak, signalling his liberation.

I ran my thumb over the dagger's tip, slicing my skin open and letting my blood roll down the metal.

"Don't run from this you fucking coward!" I roared but the Dragon's tail struck me again as it threw itself at the crack in the stone and started tearing great chunks from it with its powerful claws.

I blinked at the beast from my position on the ground. The dim starlight illuminated countless scars cut through its steel grey scales, the wing which hung limp and broken at its side and yet none of that diminished the majestic power of this creature of legend.

Cayde threw one contemptuous look back over his shoulder as the Dragon summoned hellfire to its jaws once again, his eyes meeting mine with a predatory enmity.

I scrambled to my feet and hurled my dagger at Cayde with a cry which tore my throat to ribbons, all of the pain he had delivered to me with the deaths of my beloved sisters ripping from me in that wretched, broken sound.

He threw his weight upwards right as the blade escaped my fingers, the sharp point skimming his thigh instead of imbedding in his spine as I had intended.

Panic captured me as he reached for the sky above him, an air shield glimmering into place beneath his feet, set to save him from the flames of the Dragon once more.

But I had his blood.

Ether rushed for me like never before, the force of it almost knocking me from my feet as I dropped to my knees beneath the onslaught. I smeared my fingers through the blood of my sisters which still coated my skin, their sacrifices for me rife with power.

Cayde jerked to a halt as I tugged on the blood in his veins, stopping his ascent just as Dragon Fire erupted from the mouth of the terrifying creature beneath him.

My head spun with the weight of my injuries, the intensity of my connection to the Ether almost too much to bear as darkness closed in around my eyes.

I couldn't hold it for long enough to rip Cayde's blood from him, and the reality of that struck me like a blow to the heart, Dalia and Moraine seeming to slip further from me at the thought of his survival.

But I wouldn't simply let him run.

A cry spilled from my lips as I pressed my shaking fingers to the ground, my body racked with agony as the darkness pushed in closer. Only Dragon Fire illuminated my world and the symbol I painted onto the unforgiving stone in the blood of my dearest friends. A curse fell from my tongue, latching itself to Cayde's soul while I fought to maintain my hold on him long enough for it to take root. The cost to wielding this dark magic was far greater than any I had ever paid before, but I gave all I had to see it done, to seal the spell and force the poison of my words to fester in his blood.

More rocks broke from the cavern roof, my head spinning with darkness as I pitched forwards, consciousness eluding me for several agonising moments before I forced myself back into my body.

"The Veil beckons, Vesper," Cayde spat, his words lashing against the open wounds of my grief. "No doubt I'll meet you again beyond it one day." And then he was gone, heaving himself up out of that gap between the rocks and disappearing into the star-lit world beyond.

The world was falling apart all around me, the starlight growing brighter though I was swathed in shadow.

Enormous rocks fell to the ground as the Dragon clawed at the gap Cayde had created to escape this hellish place and my lips parted as I realised what was happening. The Dragon was ripping the cavern open through brute strength alone, forcing that passage to the sky to widen and taking the roof down as it went.

I looked up as a tremendous boom broke the stone apart above my head, not flinching as I found the sky caving in on me, promising my death on swift wings.

I turned my hands palm up and inhaled deeply, allowing my eyes to fall closed as I called out to my sisters on their journey to The Veil, begging them to wait for me so that we might cross into death as one.

But I was not greeted with the beauty of their embrace or even the icy chill of the river of death. My end did not snatch me away on the wings of the wind, or in the clutches of the Ferryman's bony hand.

The world fell apart around me, the crash of the roof caving in and the rush of grit and dust washing over me, but there was no crack of stone against flesh, no crushing weight nor sudden demise.

My lips parted as I opened my eyes once more and found the Dragon standing over me, his body bowed and wings tucked close where he had taken the force of that blow, shielding me from the impact beneath him.

He pushed himself upright, boulders and jagged lumps of rock falling from his scaled hide, revealing deep gashes across his body and torn into his wings.

I scrambled to my feet and backed up, looking into the savage gaze of this king of beasts, this legend given life and offered nothing but suffering, who had just saved my worthless soul from death.

"You should have let me die," I choked out, my boots catching on broken stone as I backed up enough to meet his stare.

A low growl sounded in his throat and he dipped his head, expelling a cloud of smoke which sent my hair flying over my shoulders.

My heart stilled as I stared into his eyes, something within me calling out to this broken creature as if I could feel the agony he had suffered just as he could taste mine. A moment of affinity passed between our battered souls, an understanding which went deeper than the bones in our broken bodies and speared out into the world around us and the sky above.

Then he was gone.

And I was just a broken girl watching as he leapt out of this dank hole in the ground and scrambled across the rubble until making a break for the promise of freedom beyond.

I forced myself to follow, my battered body barely able to grip the fractured stone and make the climb towards the watching stars, but I did it. I needed to go after Cayde. I couldn't let this vengeance lie.

But when I finally made it to the frigid world above the crater which had once been the cavernous jail of a Dragon, I found nothing in the barren landscape beyond.

There was no sign of Cayde anywhere and the hulking form of the Dragon was already little more than a distant strike of shadow across the horizon.

I turned as that familiar wind pulled on my hair and fresh tears blurred my eyes as I looked out over the distant castle of Wrathbane.

I was home.

And yet I knew in my soul that I would never be home again.

The Sky Witch was dead and I was simply the shell who lingered in her wake, with nothing but the promise of retribution to keep me breathing.