Badass Dragons - Complete Set (24 page)

CHAPTER
THREE

Echoes. Echoes of truth.

Cheryl
couldn’t hear the words yet. Only that they’d been said. In some other time.
Some other place.

Synrith’s
eyes were still unreadable. It was almost as though there was nothing behind
them. No emotion. No feeling.

No thought.

He looked at
Rafe now, who was standing between him and Cheryl and Reiko. “Did you hear what
I said?” he demanded. “I said kill them!”

From behind
Synrith, Sophie reached out to touch the master dragon’s shoulder. She was
moving forward. Her eyes locking with Cheryl’s.

“What is
this?” Cheryl exclaimed. “What is happening?”

“How I longed
for this moment,” Sophie whispered. “To watch you fall apart this like this.”

Rafe
unbuttoned his coat to produce an ordinary steel dagger.

Sophie placed
her other hand upon him and he stopped too.

“This can’t
be real,” Cheryl said. “You guys are pulling my leg.”

“Sophie…”
Reiko murmured behind her.”What have you done?”

“What have
I
done?” Sophie scowled. “You’re a fool Reiko. How will Cassandra react when
she finds out you betrayed her for this miserable creature?”

“Are you
talking about me?” Cheryl cried.

“Yes,” Sophie
stated. “You.”

“What did I
ever do to you? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You were
better than me,” Sophie said. “You weren’t smarter, or more beautiful or
anything like that, even though you were treated that way. You were just a
better person. You did the right thing. People adored you. You gave them love
and they loved you in return.”

“How is any
of that bad?” Cheryl shot back.

“You don’t
understand what it was like to be me. To have you for a sister. You always got
what you wanted. I never did. I was miserable. I should have died in that
alleyway. At least that would have been my choice. But you had to take that
away from me too. You had to be my hero. Well, now you know what it is to be
me. Now you know what betrayal feels like.”

Sophie put
her hands around Synrith’s waist and interlocked them.

“You want
him, don’t you?” Sophie said. “You wanted him to be good.”

Synrith was
breathing, but that was the only evidence that he was alive.

“Bend your
knees, Master,” Sophie said.

Synrith,
unflinching, complied with her wish.

Now Sophie’s
face was high above his shoulder. She was still staring intently at Cheryl.
Hoping it would sink in.

“You see?”
Sophie challenged. “He loves me now. And I’m going to make him be the one who
kills you. So I can see you die all over. Not just your body. But your spirit
as well. I want to see you, Cheryl Thames, be erased from existence.”

Cheryl looked
over her shoulder to Reiko.

She wanted to
know whether he was about to run.

Or if he
would stand and fight with her.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Master Synrith,” Reiko began,
stepping in front of Cheryl. “Because of your allegiance to the vampires and
your dependence on their cooperation in the coming times, you cannot
afford
to
kill either of us. Cassandra will not accept my blood on your hands. And Cado
would be quite enraged that you have taken his bride from him.”

It took a
moment for Cheryl to figure out who he was talking about.

“Don’t listen
to him, Syn,” Sophie cooed. “You know your debt to me.”

Synrith’s
eyes slanted upward, looking at her. He then removed her hands and stood to his
full height towering over them.

“My debt was
to give you your sister’s heart,” Synrith murmured. “I think I have done that.”

Cheryl and
Synrith locked eyes for a moment before Sophie stepped between them.

“You’re not
actually listening to them,” she cried angrily. “They’re just manipulating
you!”

“And you’re
not?” Synrith remarked.

He brushed
her aside and approached Cheryl and Reiko.

“Why?” Cheryl
demanded of him.

“Pardon me?”
Synrith replied.

Tears flowed
down Cheryl’s cheeks. She stomped her foot on the ground. “I want to know
why
you’ve done this to me. To us.”

Synrith
smiled thinly. “There never was an
us
. It was all in your mind.”

“No,” Cheryl
sobbed. “That’s not true. It was real.”

“Maybe it was
then,” he said slowly. “But now is a different time.” He turned to Reiko. “I
will be informing Cassandra and Cado of your disturbance here. I’ll also make
it clear that should either of you attempt to interfere with myself, Sophie, or
our cause, then repercussions will be swift and merciless.”

He signaled
to Rafe, and his servant hobbled over as Synrith turned his back to them.

Cheryl
watched her sisters eyes, the anger inside of them still bitter and fixated.
Even with Synrith’s arm around her, she didn’t stop staring.

Still
unsatisfied.

“Come on,”
Rafe said, urging them to step back. “You’re not welcome here.”

Reiko’s hand
fell on Cheryl’s shoulder.

She looked up
to him.

“We can’t
fight them,” Reiko said. “Not here.”

Cheryl shook
her head. “She’s done something to him. He’s not himself.”

Rafe hit both
of them with his cane. “Get,” he growled.

They
continued walking backwards a moment, and then eventually turned back towards
the gate.

“I have the
feeling it’s something else,” Reiko said.

“Huh? What do
you mean?”

“Look at
him,” Reiko said, glancing back. “Just look.”

Cheryl
stopped and turned back.

There he was,
standing with his sword unsheathed, wielding it into the air.

His army
crouched and kneeling before him.

Sophie was
kneeling at his feet too.

“So what?”
Cheryl muttered.

She caught up
with Reiko who hadn’t stopped with her.

“So what?”
she said again.

“This is what
Synrith wanted all along,” Reiko said. “He doesn’t need you.”

Cheryl let
out an exasperated sigh. Reiko’s words were starting to sink in after all.

“You don’t
know what we had,” she protested. “How close we were.”

They made it
to the front gate and paused, waiting for Rafe to catch up with them.

“It’s true I
don’t know what you had with Synrith,” Reiko said. “But if you really were
close. If he really did love you. Then, well…”

He trailed
off.

“What?”
Cheryl demanded.

“That just
makes his betrayal that much worse.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Rafe stared up at and waved to the
security camera facing the front gate. The iron gates ground open and Cheryl
and Reiko stepped passed him out into the darkened road. Reiko turned back as
the gates closed behind them.

“It wasn’t
always like this,” he said to Rafe. “You used to be where he is now.”

“I’m not an
idiot,” Rafe replied. “I know exactly how he did this.”

“How?” Cheryl
asked, approaching.

“Your sister
of course,” Rafe said. “She stole my secrets and gave them to him.”

“Haven’t you
ever thought about getting back at him?” Reiko said.

Rafe shook
his head. “I wouldn’t know how.”

He then
turned, his head bowed, and began making his trek back around the side of his
former mansion.

“What are you
thinking?” Cheryl asked.

“I don’t
know,” Reiko muttered. He stepped away from the gate and looked out down the
length of the road. He then turned back and walked past Cheryl in the direction
of where they left Reiko’s bike.

“What’s
happening now?” Cheryl asked, joining him. “Do you have a plan?”

“I think it’s
over,” Reiko sighed.

“What? What
do you mean over?”

“We came out
here to rescue Synrith. I thought if we could do that, then maybe we could stop
Rafe and Jet, and order would be restored. But since this was Synrith’s doing
to begin with –”

“That doesn’t
change anything,” Cheryl said shrilly. “They’re planning a freaking apocalypse
here. If we don’t do something then everyone will wind up…”

“Like us?”
Reiko finished for her.

“Exactly.”

They reached
the bike.

Reiko hopped
on and keyed the ignition.

“We could go
back to the forest,” Cheryl said. “This happened in another timeline. You took
me to forest where we met a witch named Hylee.”

Reiko
blinked. “Hylee Chandra?”

“That’s her.”

“I never
brought you to any forest. That’s a load of crap.”

“No,” Cheryl
insisted. “You did before I went back in time. There was another witch in the
forest –”

“Hylee
Chandra’s been dead for a hundred years. I don’t know anything about a forest.”

“What…?”

“Now are you
coming with me, or not?”

Cheryl shook
her head. “Where are you going?”

“Back to
Cassandra,” Reiko said. “We’ll have to apologize and –”

“What do we
do after that?”

“You go back
to Cado. And you share an eternity with him. As a queen.”

“I’ll never
do that.”

“If you want
to stay here and fight, then that’s up to you,” Reiko said. “But it’s obvious to
me. We lost. We can’t win this. We must accept what we cannot change.”

“It hasn’t
happened yet,” Cheryl pleaded. “If we find the time portal –”

“And you make
it right? What then?”

“What do you
mean what then?”

Reiko shook
his head. “I don’t know anything about time portals – but it just seems like
even if you were able to fix everything, then there would always be someone out
there to undo your good work. Synrith. Rafe. Your sister. Cado. It could be
anyone. No. It’ll just go on forever. We have to let this play out once and for
all.”

Cheryl opened
and closed her eyes.

In the
darkness behind her eyelids, she knew she could get lost forever.

“What’s it to
be?” Reiko asked her again.

“I’m staying
here,” Cheryl said. “I’m going to fight him.”

Reiko shook
his head. “Suit yourself.”

He pulled
away from the grass and passed Cheryl onto the road.

She watched
his outline disappear on the horizon.

It was sad,
watching him go. Sad because he had given up hope.

But Cheryl would
not.

CHAPTER SIX

Those walls. They looked so high.

Reiko had
been thinking about going over them earlier. Not knowing what was on the other
side had kept them back.

Cheryl now
had a fair idea. She knew the garden below was pitch black. Outside of the path
of surveillance. She wondered if she should attempt it. Or if she should try
and get Rafe’s attention again.

Cheryl
blinked. She doubted Rafe was going to help her.

It was up to
her to help herself.

She backed
away from the road and moved out onto the grass plain opposite. She crouched
down. One knee pressed against her chin. Cheryl focused on the base of the wall
opposite.

Her skin
hardened.

Her
fingernails extended.

Her cold
heart beat fast within.

“Okay,” she
whispered to herself. “On the count of three…”

Cheryl closed
her eyes. She counted the numbers silently.

One…

Two…

Three.

She opened
them and broke out into a rapid sprint.

But she was
soon cut short of the wall.

The iron
gates further down the road began opening and a series of figures emerged.
Cheryl fell down by the hill of the road and rolled over onto her stomach,
keeping out of sight.

Squinting
ahead she could see it was Sophie, accompanied by several of Synrith’s men.

“She’s out
here somewhere,” Sophie rasped. “I can
feel
her presence.”

Alarm struck
Cheryl like a hammer.

The men had
spread out, and half of them were headed right in her direction.

She was out
in the open. Soon she’d be spotted.

Cheryl
quickly got to her feet and turned back in the direction of the road leading
outward. She began running as fast as she could.

“There she
is!” Sophie screamed after her. “Get her at once!”

Cheryl’s feet
hit the ground so quickly there was no trace of sound. The field of the road
raced by her and she knew before long Rafe’s house and the people behind her
were long gone.

Hours.
Minutes.

Seconds.

Cheryl made
it to the end of the road unharmed. She looked to either side of the new road
adjacent, not sure where she was going. Or perhaps even why she had run.

She looked
back to see if they were coming.

Either on
foot. Or by vehicle.

Or through
the sky.

Cheryl
squinted her eyes and listened for their sound, but there was nothing. Not even
an echo.

She let out a
sigh of relief and turned back to the road.

Sophie was
standing directly behind her.