Chapter 17

CHAPTER17

Jade roared in satisfaction as his flame devoured Elric.

“No!” Larkin’s face was filled with horror. He’d wanted to do this the human way, but Jade was unwilling to let harm come to his treasure. It had already gotten far too close before he’d shot the flame at Elric.

The flame died away. Jade grinned, expecting to find another horror of burnt carcass left in its wake.

Yet Elric stood there, unharmed, with the shade at his side. The shade was smirking widely.

“Be a bit more careful, Your Majesty,” the shade said, running its hand over Elric’s shoulder. “That was almost deadly.”

“Then take care of the dragon,” Elric snapped back.

“Of course.” The shade skated away from Elric, winking at Jade. In the next instance, he was gone, melted into the shadows.

Jade hated shades.

He jumped up into the air, the flap of his wings sending debris flying. Unfortunately, there were too many obstacles in the square, too many places for a being of shadow to hide.

Larkin hadn’t mentioned the mage was actually a shade. Jade was going to have to teach Larkin about all the magical creatures that lived in his realm, if he was to be a fit ruler. If he was to protect himself.

While the creature was hiding, though, it couldn’t protect Elric. Jade dove down again, intending to snap Elric in half. Halfway into his descent, though, he felt the tendrils wind around his tail, disrupting his dive and sending Jade wildly off course.

He crashed into the large golden statue. His talons scraped the cobblestone of the square.

The shade, still in human form, stood in front of Jade and laughed. “You dragons are so simple. You always turn to violence first.”

“Take your true form, shade,” Jade snapped, getting back onto his legs. He swung his tail, but the shade melted into the ground before the impact.

“I wouldn’t want to cause our human friends distress,” the shade said, appearing on Jade’s other side. “They tend to scream when they see me.”

“What do you want?” Jade snarled. As much as he wanted to swallow the shade up, it would take a lot of magic to keep the shade in a physical form long enough to actually do so. “I don’t believe you’re serving that human out of the kindness of your heart.”

The shade shrugged and set his gaze on the two humans, still sparring with their swords. “It amused me, in the moment. That one is so, so hungry. The kind of hunger that would devour the world, if only somebody would let it.”

Nearby, Jade heard the clashing of swords, but he didn’t dare take his attention off of the shade for even a second to check on Larkin. As much as he hated to leave his treasure defenseless, the shade was the bigger threat right now, and he had to deal with it.

Besides, Larkin had the enchanted sword Jade had given him, and that would go a long way towards protecting Larkin from his brother. Small wounds would heal, the sword would remain sharp and unbreakable, and it would give a boost to Larkin’s endurance. He wouldn’t need to worry about tiring himself out during combat like Elric might. He couldn’t speak to Larkin’s combat skills, but he had to hope they were good enough to fend off his brother until Jade could return to his side.

“There are others who hunger,” Jade said, snapping his maw at the shade. This time, he only narrowly missed, although with how the shade laughed, it must have been on purpose.

The shade was toying with him. Jade swallowed his frustration, knowing it would only make him more careless. He would need to solve this problem differently. Pure force wouldn’t work.

“The others did not seek me out,” the shade answered, appearing on Jade’s back as if it were one of Citrine’s cats. “But you know all about humans who appear before you, desperate for something, don’t you?”

Jade tried to shake the shade off of his back, infuriated by the intrusion into his personal space and the utter humiliation of having something astride his back like he was a mere beast of burden. “My treasure is nothing like your would-be traitor king,” he spat.

“Oh, come now, surely you don’t actually care which human claims this spot of land,” the shade answered, moving to the shadow of the large statue. “It wasn’t too long ago that it was a different family altogether that called themselves rulers.”

No, Jade didn’t care, but Larkin did. “If you don’t care, then why do you assist Elric?” Jade traced the shadow of the statue, noting how it touched only Jade’s own shadow. He couldn’t keep the shade from jumping from shadow to shadow, but… it would not be able to slide around in the light.

The shade laughed. “I told you. It was funny. He had such audacity, demanding I help him, promising me worthless riches in return. What do I need gold or jewels for?” It licked its lips, and for one moment Jade could see the true darkness in its eyes, a never-ending void that would consume anything that touched it.

Jade jumped into the air, carefully keeping his shadow away from where the shade stood.

The shade looked up at him, then at the ground. “I’m not afraid of the light, you know. Nothing casts a shadow without light. Although you are not the first to think so.”

Jade ignored it and sent out another flame, this one to the golden statue itself. The metal held only a few moments before melting down, the figure of a man becoming nothing more than molten metal.

The shade followed the shrinking shadow until there was nowhere else to go, then it sighed and stepped into the light.

Jade shot fire at it again. He caught the shade’s grimace, and he smelled the darkness burning, sulfur and brimstone and that unique scent of burning magic.

He had no illusions that he’d killed the shade, but perhaps it was enough of a distraction. He dove down toward Larkin once more.

Larkin was too caught up in defending himself against attack after attack, but Jade’s return caught Elric off guard. It was enough to give Larkin an opening, and he took advantage of Elric’s momentary distraction to strike.

Blood began to spill down Elric’s arm, and the would-be king looked at it in disbelief, as though it was impossible to believe he could be injured. The magic in the sword made the wound spread until it was bleeding freely, an otherwise small wound increasing in intensity because of the spells.

Larkin stumbled back, his eyes wide, and he quickly glanced at Jade with a helpless expression. He just as swiftly looked back, though. “Elric!”

Elric laughed, clutching his arm. “So. You’re going to be a kin-slayer after all, little brother.”

No. Jade would swallow Elric before he put that pain on Larkin. He lunged forward, already tasting Elric’s blood—

Larkin stepped in front of his brother, arms spread wide. “Stop! Jade, no!”

Jade froze, only inches from Larkin. “He hurt you!” he shouted. “He doesn’t deserve mercy!”

“Whether he deserves it or not, he’ll get it!” Larkin said, his voice raised so that those in the vicinity—mostly guards and priestesses, now, though they weren’t very close—could hear. “There are other ways to punish people. He needs a medic, a healer, before he’s arrested.”

Jade snarled, but he relented. Larkin would not be Larkin if he weren’t naive—if he weren’t merciful.

The humans, who had stayed clear when the fighting broke out, stared at them from the sidelines. A few dared to come closer.

“Your… Highness,” the priestess said, making her way through the rubble. “Please. Call off your beast.”

“Jade isn’t…” Larkin glanced at Jade. “Could you shift into your human form, please?”

The danger wasn’t over yet, though. Jade scanned the shadows, hoping for a hint as to where the shade was hiding. It definitely wasn’t dead. He could still taste its foul magic in the air.

When Jade didn’t shift, Larkin frowned at him.

The priestess took a step closer, and her shadow fell across the ground.

As though it had been waiting for that opportunity, the shade appeared again, flinging shadow tendrils at Jade and momentarily blocking his vision.

He heard a shout as he shook his head, quickly banishing the magic, and he opened his eyes to see Elric raising his sword against an unprepared Larkin.

Jade roared and rushed forward, flinging his full weight at Elric. Elric screamed as he flew backward, his sword falling out of his hands. He landed near the guards, who all stared in disbelief.

Never mind them. Jade needed to find the shade. He cast his gaze around the square, searching every shadow, until an unnatural movement drew his eye.

The shade sat on one of the benches, waving for Jade to come over.

Cautiously, Jade approached. If this were any creature but a shade…

“Look,” the shade said, pointing to the other side of the courtyard. Elric was staring up at the guards in disbelief. “I think he’s discovered his power is worth nothing if nobody respects it.”

“You aren’t going to help him?” Jade asked, tail twitching in irritation.

The shade laughed and folded his hands over his lap. “No. We’re in a bit of a stalemate. And even if I were to eliminate you, or your precious human… he’d be unable to keep his throne.” The shade’s tongue darted out to lick its lips. “Think of how hungry he’s going to be now, cast out, alone, desperate to regain what was once his. What do you think he’d be willing to do for that?”

Jade’s instincts told him to keep his larger form, but from how the shade talked… it didn’t sound like it was interested in more battle.

The rage boiling inside him, knowing the shade had helped in Larkin’s defilement with its spells, made it hard to think straight. But Larkin’s safety now was more important than Jade’s anger. If the shade was willing to concede, it would be stupid to prolong the fight.

Very carefully, he shifted back to his human form, edging closer to the shade. He made sure not to let his shadow touch it, though.

The shade smirked at him. “Don’t worry. I’m done here. Nice cocks.”

Jade snorted. He’d need to find clothes before he rejoined Larkin. “Thanks.”

The shade lifted his gaze from Jade’s cocks and looked over to the humans again. “If your human was smart, he’d kill his brother.”

“He won’t,” Jade said, crossing his arms. “Larkin is not like Elric.”

“I’d call it a shame, but… it’s been a while since I’ve seen a civil war.” The shade tapped its lips. “I can never decide if I like war or not. So many humans drowning in desperation… but it gets a bit boring.”

“There won’t be a war,” Jade promised. “I will not allow any enemies to get near Larkin.”

The shade laughed again. “Of course not. Now, I think your human needs you. I’m going to make myself scarce.”

It melted away, disappearing along the slowly growing shadows of the afternoon sun.