Read Dragonkin Online

Authors: Crymsyn Hart

Dragonkin (13 page)

BOOK: Dragonkin
10.4Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“Any objections now for us trying to stop the war?”

He shook his head.

“Good.”

Her mate opened his wings, and they lifted off into the sky.

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

They flew along the spine of the mountains for several hours. The moon rose higher. She was too pent up to be tired and too worried to think about sleep. All she could ponder was how they were going to avert a war. She prayed the dragons would listen to Andrik. It was the spellcasters who concerned her. Being rogues, she didn’t know what they wanted. Her mate rumbled when she thought about what the spellcasters were going to do. She sensed his agreement. Shala winged closer to them. Tridan gestured to them. Kestrel saw the fires of the camp below. She focused all her power on her mate and shielded them. A ball of fire was thrown at them, which Andrik easily dodged. They descended into the camp, and she assumed there would be more danger and more dragon fireballs, but surprisingly there were none. They landed in a clearing surrounded by other dragons and their spellcasters.

She slid off her mate and walked to the edge of the circle of spellcasters. The other dragons hissed around them. Andrik let out a blast of fire, elongated his neck, and stretched out his wings. He was showing them all who he was and that he was the true prince of the dragons.

“Impressive, but there are others who are stronger than him. Is he your new dragon, or did you just borrow him for the occasion?”

She turned back to the spellcaster before her and recognized his voice. Simeon, the leader of the council and the Athenaeum. His dark blue robes shimmered with dots of jewels glittering in the fires around the camp. There were twice as many dragons and spellcasters here than at the other camp. By sheer numbers alone they would win the war. She gave him a smile, not letting her trepidation show.

“I didn’t come here to discuss my personal life, Simeon. I’m surprised to see you here. Dathan told me the council was destroyed. I assumed you were the first killed. I didn’t think you had the heart to lead a revolt against the Athenaeum. And it was only after I left that you decided to make this leap of freedom. Was it you who started the war, going against your own kind?”

He chuckled and motioned to the others who accompanied her. “And they are your court?”

“You didn’t answer my question. Why did you go against the Athenaeum? We have been at peace for hundreds of years. Did you enjoy destroying everything the spellcasters have worked for? Did you want the dragons to suffer? To see the death of their brethren?”

He stepped forward. “Tell me. Did you find what you were searching for at Blaze Mountain? I thought you would’ve been eaten.”

She stepped back. “I’m not sure what you mean. You were happy to get rid of me. Now I understand why. You wanted me out of the way.”

He stepped forward and cupped her face. She tried to jerk out of his grasp, but he held her fast. Kestrel’s eyes widened. She saw a spark of fire in his eye and couldn’t believe it.

“You’re right. I wanted you out of the way. I had a feeling you’d be the balm my cousin needed to heal his injured heart. And I think it worked. How about we find out!” He jabbed his sharpened fingernails into her skin. She cried out. When that happened, her mate snarled a forewarning. A blast of fire shot by them.

“I would consider that a warning shot. The next time he won’t miss.”

Simeon laughed. “Dragon fire has no effect on me. Didn’t Ralag tell you that? Dragonkin in human form can’t be influenced by the fire. It’s only in dragon form that we have our weakness, just as Castigan had. I guess you didn’t know that was me, too. The one that killed him. I thought you might have recognized me when I first came to court, but maybe when you see my other form. We should have taken the Athenaeum then, but you happened instead.”

Kestrel lunged at him, but he had her in a bone-crunching grip. She screamed again. Simeon hurled her to the ground and strolled toward her companions. Something sharp had embedded itself into her leg. She tried to get up, but found that her wound was bleeding badly. When she tried to put weight on it, pain shot up her leg. Andrik transformed and stood before Simeon. The dragons around them shrieked. She sensed the rising conflict within the ranks of the dragons and spellcasters.

“My, my Andrik. Seems you’ve finally sucked it up and gotten over the guilt of losing that pitiful human you were going to take for a bride.”

“Simeon, I’m surprised to see you among the humans after all the time you’ve spoken against them. Have you decided that you will take the war to us now? I’ve heard some talk about marching on Blaze Mountain. Or did you want to rule the mortals?”

“There won’t be any persuading of the dragons here not to go to war. They all follow my lead, as will the spellcasters. They are loyal to me. They’re tired of the Athenaeum existing. What do we do? Research. We don’t live our lives to keep our noses in books. The gods did not create us to be laid to waste. We are meant to rule.” He raised his hands and garnered cheers from the onlookers.

Kestrel tried to stop the bleeding by ripping a strip of cloth from her dress and wrapping it around her thigh. Shala kneeled by her side and helped to bandage her leg. She stood with Shala’s help and watched the standoff. The power sparked between the two dragonkin.

“Our race wasn’t meant to rule the humans. We are part mortal. As dragons, we long for that connection we have to them. All of this is wrong. We will stop you if you come to the mountain.” Fire snaked up Andrik’s arm.

Ralag stepped closer. “Listen to Andrik. The dragon king won’t allow a war to be fought in his mountain. Once he gets wind of what you’re doing, he
will
stop this. There are more dragons than you have ever dreamed that would stand against you and the others.”

Simeon laughed. “Old man, I stopped listening to you when you exiled me. Or don’t you remember that, Father?”

Kestrel was stunned to hear that admission. Ralag hadn’t mentioned anything about a son. Then again, it might have been a sore spot. A pregnant pause filled the air. Kestrel hobbled a little closer to the outside of the circle. She drew in a breath and watched the dynamics between the three men. Something was going to happen.

“I remember well enough. If
you
remember, it was your fault you were banished. You were the one who was supplying hatchlings to the raiders. You were the one who sent the marauders after Andrik’s first mate. Everything you did was against your own race. How could you?”

Simeon’s snicker echoed in the night. “Easy. I wanted the bastard gone. It would have been easy if you hadn’t intervened. Once he was out of the way, I would have been next in line for the throne.”

“You had Lara killed!” Andrik ran at him.

Simone anticipated this and threw a ball of orange fire at him. It struck Andrik square in the stomach. He clutched his abdomen, screamed, and fell to his knees on the ground. Shala held Kestrel back, but she broke the woman’s hold and limped to her mate’s side. He tried to get up and push her away, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Is this who you want to rule you? A whimpering hatchling and his pathetic human mate telling you all what to do?” Simeon asked the other dragons.

“No.” The reply came in unison from all the dragons and the spellcasters around them.

They were out for blood and power. They were ready for war. The past didn’t matter. They didn’t know what it meant to lose a dragon and live. Some had seen the killings and the fighting the way she had. Many of them had no idea what they were in for. She tried to help her mate up. He stood without her help. The tempered expression on his face showed he was in pain. The skin on his stomach was raw.

“I thought he said dragon fire wasn’t effective to dragons in their human form.”

“It isn’t, but I’ve been human most of my adult life. My body is still adjusting to being in my second form. You need to go from here, before he decides to blast me again. I can’t lose you.”

She squeezed his hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Tridan walked over and offered his help.

“The prince will walk on his own.” Simeon threw a fireball at the other athenaeum leader. Kestrel screamed, but it was too late. Tridan ignited in a pillar of flame. His screams erupted in the night. She cringed when Shala shrieked and rushed toward them. Some of the other spellcasters held her in the circle.

Kestrel stood slowly and found her balance. Her leg was still bleeding. She squared her shoulders and addressed those around her. “This has gone on long enough. This man is a cold-blooded monster. For centuries, you all shunned me because of what I had become. The only living spellcaster to handle dragon fire. Simeon sent me to Blaze Mountain assuming that I’d be killed. He never bargained that I would return. Years ago, my world evaporated when my dragon was killed. By Simeon’s own admission, he killed my dragon. For that alone he should be punished, and now you’re following him. Do you really want another war? Do you want to experience the pain of losing a dragon? How many dragons among us have desired more of a relationship with their spellcasters, but are too horrified or ashamed to admit it? With Cas’s dying breath, he told me he wanted me for a mate. And then he gave me a piece of his soul. It wasn’t the power that made me go insane. It was knowing how much he cared for me.”

“Blasphemy!” one of the spellcasters shouted from the circle.

She turned and stared at him. “Really! Let’s see how you like it!” She pushed her memories along the connections she had with the other dragons. Kestrel transmitted to them the last seconds she had spent with Castigan and how it had broken her heart. The dragons pawed the ground. She gave them everything down to his dying breath and the pain she had lived with ever since. Wetness glistened on some of the faces. Some of them shook their heads and backed away.

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re letting some sob story change your minds. Don’t listen to her,” Simeon shouted to the spellcasters climbing onto their dragons.

“We don’t want to go through what she did. I’m sorry, Simeon. I’m not willing to risk it. I don’t care what you say. I speak for those of us leaving. We won’t help you. We need to learn where the dragons have come from. For too long we have treated them as slaves.”

“Fool!” Simeon threw a bolt of fire at him, but the spellcaster deflected it off a shield.

“No one is going to listen to you now. They know what it feels like, the true hell I went through,” Kestrel said.

He turned back to her and laughed. “You think, by some fluke of circumstance, that you can suddenly tell me what to do. Me!”

The heat built inside of her. The fire inside would consume her if she wasn’t careful. Simeon threw an orb of fire at her. She caught the ball and extinguished it in her hand. Her back began to grow hotter. Gasps erupted behind her. She didn’t know what was happening to her, just that she was riding the power and the fire inside of her. She wasn’t afraid of it anymore. Andrik had taught her to embrace who she was. Kestrel glanced down at her body. It was engulfed in fire.

Flames consumed every inch of her body and soul, transforming her into what she was meant to be. The heat enveloped her in a bubble, and she lifted off the ground. A sense of calm descended over her. Everything about her was light. The dragon inside of her opened its wings. Those large wings enclosed her soul. A burst of rapture consumed her. The brightness filled her mind. When the blinding light left her vision, she opened her eyes and saw two fiery wings had wrapped around her.

“The prophecies are true.” Ralag stared at her. “She has become drakin.”

“What is that?” Andrik asked.

“It’s a legend is what it is,” Simeon spat. “It’s nothing to be concerned with.”

The other dragons bowed before her.
What in the world is going on?
She shook her head.
It doesn’t matter.
All that counted was the power inside of her was finally hers to hold on to. She didn’t have to be afraid to use it all. She didn’t have to worry about her heritage or the bond she shared with Andrik.

“It appears the others aren’t going to be listening to you anymore. I suggest you wipe the ridiculous notion from your mind that you’re going to rule the dragons in Blaze Mountain.”

Simeon smiled. “I don’t care what you are or what the others are doing. You’re nothing! You’ll always be nothing. It was a fluke of the gods you lived so long without a dragon. To prove you’re still human underneath all the fire, try this on for size.” He drew back his hand and shot a ball of fire at her.

She deflected that easily, but a second later, she felt something lodge deep into her chest. The pain was excruciating. The heat extinguished around her, and she fell to Earth. She gripped the handle of the dagger protruding from her heart. Pain and fire spread through her limbs. Andrik roared. In a split second, he shifted. The air shimmered around him. The next thing she saw was his large jaws chomping down on Simeon. She assumed the other spellcaster was too surprised to even shift before Andrik attacked. The satisfaction of Simeon being dead comforted her. The other dragons roared around her. Ralag and Shala helped lift her up. It was hard for her to breathe.

“Take care of him for me,” she rasped.

Shala put her hand on the handle of the dagger, but drew it away quickly. Ralag took her palm and looked at it. “Poison. Made for dragons. From dragons. It’s spread throughout your system. You have but a few moments. I thought you were the one. Maybe you still are. I’m so sorry, Kestrel.”

Tear slipped from her eyes. She nodded. The darkness was already edging into her vision. She reached for Andrik and found him kneeling beside her. “You’re here!”

He nodded.
“I’m here. You did a brave thing by standing up to Simeon.”

“No. The brave thing was you coming here and showing the dragons, and everyone, who you are. That is what you needed to do. They’ll all follow you now.”

He brushed his fingers down her cheek. She could barely feel the light caress. The past few months flashed before her eyes. Their nights together. How they had found one another. Her talk with Castigan. How much she loved her mate. She was so happy she had the chance to live and experience all of them.

BOOK: Dragonkin
10.4Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

By the Book by Pamela Paul
Out of Position by Kyell Gold
Starkissed by Lanette Curington
RENEGADE GUARDIAN by DELORES FOSSEN
The Development by John Barth
The King of Torts by John Grisham
Running Dry by Wenner, Jody