Chapter 24

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Triton roared. Cerran was down. He could see him, lying on the shore of the lake. He arrowed toward him, letting gravity pull him, giving him speed.

He landed next to Cerran's prone form, nosing him desperately. Mate. Wake?—

Triton. Triton, love. They're here. In the apartment.

Elowyn. That was Elowyn. He trumpeted to Reno, lifting off with a huge gust of air under his wings.

Cerran is alive. He needs help. Elowyn is alone and they're in our home. I must go to him. He wasn't even torn. Cerran would be protected. He had to get to their omega.

His muscles clenched as his connection to Elowyn was suddenly and abruptly cut off. His roar filled the air, the sound literally shaking the mountains themselves as a bolt of lightning slammed down into the lake, lighting it up.

Hopefully that was a clear and explicit warning to whoever dared invade his home and threaten his omega and his children.

The entire keep was a beehive of activity, with alphas pulling the omegas into the center of the compound, making sure that they were guarded, that the stones were safe, that the seers were protected.

Everyone had their job and he had his.

His was definite and unquestioning.

He was going to find whoever had attacked his family and tear them wing from wing.

He swooped down onto the balcony of their apartment, his claws screeching against stone and wood. The crackle of electricity he sent out shattered glass, penetrating whatever magicks the intruders had used to try to keep him out.

He caught a glimpse of a tch'ka lurking in his home and roared in a raw fury.

Spies. Those little bastards were always spying, lurking around in the corners, deep, deep inside the mountains, learning magicks that came from outside the graake, available for a price for the filthiest of tasks.

He'd met dozens of them, and not one of them had ever had a single good quality. Ever. And now there was one in there with his babies, on the attack.

He went to shoot another warning bolt of lightning, needing to know that Elowyn had a chance to hide. As he sucked in a lungful of air, something slammed into him from the back. He was thrown from his hover, and slammed hard against the keep, rattling his very bones.

Triton was shocked, dazed, flattened out for a second, when he barely caught a glimpse of a huge metallic-green dragon behind him, one of the tch'ka riding it and blasting arrows of magic the entire time.

He pulled his wings in and pushed up with his body, the broken glass shattering under his paws.

The dragon—one of the lieutenants he'd trained, as a matter of fact—backed off to take another attack, so Triton spun, turning his wings and back to the keep, his claws bared out in front of him, tail lashing. The magic bounced off him mostly, but the hits he took burned like fire inside of his body, weakening him every time one slipped under his scales.

When the green dragon came swooping in, Triton flexed his wings and slammed himself into it, wrapping his arms around his former pupil. With a single swat, he unseated the tch'ka, slashing him as best he could. He heard the distant scream as it fell, and he prayed that it could not shift before it hit the water or the stone.

Right now, it was of little matter.

He was in a death spiral with a dragon that was younger and stronger than he was.

Brothers, please, he called. I have need of you.

"Cerran. Wake up, damn you."

The slap rocked his head to one side. Cerran shivered, the cold making his naked body draw up so he could protect his organs from whoever was attacking him.

"Cerran, come on, man! You shifted. I need you to get up and fucking fly." Another slap.

"Reno, I swear, if you fucking touch me again?—"

"Elowyn is under attack."

He sprang to his feet, his dragon taking him again in a heartbeat. Now he remembered. The attack. A burst of energy that had taken him right out of the sky. He was bruised. Possibly bent.

But his hailee needed him.

Reno followed him immediately, bolstering him from below and to the left.

Triton! Elowyn! I'm coming! He could feel Triton's fury crackling along his spine, but from Elowyn, there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Triton didn't answer, and he knew somehow that his big warrior mate was locked in a deadly struggle. He wouldn't leave Triton, or Elowyn, to do this by themselves. He would add his strength to the fray.

As they neared their side of the keep, they could see Triton and a huge green dragon fighting for the balcony of their apartment. At first, Cerran was distant enough that they looked like birds fighting over a birdhouse, all wings, fluttering and landing and jumping again.

We have to help him.

Elowyn was undoubtedly inside the keep. Right now, Triton needed help, if for no other reason than to keep that green bastard off of his… Wait, was that Cordon?

It was.

That was the dragon who had betrayed him and little Leilani.

Cerran picked up speed, coming in low and hard, claws out in a position to catch Cordon and tear him away from Triton. Keep him away from their hailee.

Without warning, a shot of pure magic flew up and almost hit his wing. He tilted, even as another bolt hit Reno and sent him spinning.

Triton roared. Get him.

Cerran responded to that command as if he'd been born to do just that. So he swooped down, making a beeline for the lake, following the echo of magic down to its source. When he got close, he blew a line of pure, boiling steam, knowing that little could withstand the power and pain he could produce.

There was a sharp scream as a dragon popped out of an illusion shell, the bubble disappearing under the force of his rage. The steam blistered the tch'ka's face, and Cerran rose up again, turning to come in for another round.

Reno joined him, favoring a wing but not out of the race. He blew a line of blazing fire, and Cerran roared his approval when it surrounded the deep purple dragon on the lake.

Is that a?—?

It's a tch'ka. Kill it. He wouldn't allow it to live to poison their keep.

Boone roared out. I've got this. Go help Triton.

Cerran nodded and forced himself to leave the tch'ka behind. He headed directly for the balcony where Triton and Cordon were locked in a death match.

I'm coming, love. I'm coming.

Please, he prayed. Please. We saved her because she deserved to live. Please hear me. She deserves to live.

Then he attacked.

This is where evil wins.

The thought horrified him, but it was the truth—his and, sadly, his children's.

One of Elowyn's arms was dead, hanging numb and motionless by his side. He was bleeding from a thousand little cuts, and no matter what he did, the dragon kept coming.

They'd ended up retreating into the safe room, where he'd hidden Leilani in the back of the closet, wrapped in clothes.

You have to be very quiet now, he told Leilani. You have to be so quiet.

Sofii.

Yes. I'm your Sofii. Still and silent.

He splayed his hands over his belly, cradling the babies and rocking them. I'm so sorry. He's coming in. I'm only a healer, loves. I'm not a warrior, and I failed you all.

Suddenly, he heard Leilani's voice, loud and strong, but not in his head somehow. Kaiinaa! Kaiinaa!

Leilani, you have to be quiet.

No!

No, no, no, no. No. No, no, no, no.

The sound came from everywhere—inside him and around him and through him—this harmony of denial.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No what, babies? No what? I-I can't?—

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. His broken arm began to tingle, and Elowyn could feel a faint buzzing filling him from his center up toward his head and down toward his toes.

No fail, Sofii. No, no, no. No, no, no, the babies answered. No, no, Sofii.

Then help me please. Please. He wasn't sure what they were doing, and he wasn't sure it mattered. They were doing something. They were filling him with what he needed, and it felt as if he was being suffused with air. Hot air that made him bigger.

That made his entire body begin to swell.

No, no, no, Sofii.

It was a joyous sound from inside him, but the sound outside of him was angry, and it hit him, and his soul screamed in denial.

Someone remembered.

Someone remembered that these people wanted her to die. And she was angry.

As much as he hated it, as much as it broke his heart, Elowyn would use it.

Because at that moment, a clawed hand broke through the door, tearing it off of its hinges.

"I'm tired of playing with you."

Elowyn stood there, but when he spoke, it wasn't his voice that came out of his mouth.

Maybe it was Leilani's.

Maybe it was her mother's.

Maybe it was the voice of every dragon who had been mistreated and ill-used since the beginning of eternity.

"I concur."

Whatever the dragon saw in him, it terrified him enough to turn and start to run.

Elowyn felt himself breathe in.

When he exhaled, what erupted from him was a line of fire and steam and electricity wrapped together in a perfect multicolored braid of pure power.

The dragon didn't even burn. He just became dust.

Elowyn heard himself roar, the sound threatening to bring the keep down around them. Maybe the whole world.

"These children have Our protection."

The voice of the celestials rang inside him, the sound too huge for a simple dragon to hold, and the last thing he saw before he collapsed was Leilani's face.