Badass Dragons - Complete Set (26 page)

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

“You see?” Sophie fired from inside
her cell. “Now are you going to let me out or not?”

Rafe didn’t
look back to her. He walked to Cheryl’s cell.

“Hey!” Sophie
shouted. “Fucking get back here!”

Cheryl
watched in amazement as Rafe lowered the key to her door and unlocked it. He
pushed it across, opening the path for Cheryl. She stepped out to face him.

“I never put
up a fight,” he said. “When I knew I was beaten I just stood there and allowed
it to happen. I think I was waiting for her to change her mind.” He looked back
to Sophie. “But I don’t think she’s capable. She’s too far gone.”

“Rafe,”
Sophie hissed at him. “Open this fucking cell.”

Rafe turned
back to Cheryl and handed her the keys. “You know what to do.”

Cheryl held
them in her palm a moment, her eyes lingering back up to her sister’s.

Her face had
suddenly changed. It had softened. Become less pale. The hew in her cheeks
began to glow.

“Come here,
darling,” she said. “Come to me.”

Cheryl took a
step across to the other side of the room.

“That’s it,”
Sophie urged her. “You know what you have to do. You know our destiny.”

Cheryl looked
back to Rafe.

He hadn’t
really meant for her to release her … had he?

“Cheryl,”
Sophie whispered. “Fucking hurry up.”

Cheryl tried
to block it out. She didn’t want to hear it. Not over her own thoughts.

She had to
decide what to do.

“Wait!”
Sophie cried. “What are you –?”

She was
unlocking Jet’s cell.

Cheryl
quickly raced in after the door was open and ran to him. “Jet! Jet wake up!”
She looked back to Rafe. “Can you help me get him down?”

Rafe walked
into the cell and put his hand into the darkened corner. He pulled down a small
lever, releasing Jet from his confinement.

Cheryl
attempted to catch him as he did so, but his body landed on top of her,
knocking them both to the floor.

“What’s going
on in there?” Sophie shouted. “What are you doing?”

Rafe hobbled
over to Cheryl and Jet as she was struggling to break free of him. He helped
her back up to her feet, while Jet continued to collapse and spread out,
unconscious.

His back was
bloody and torn as the result of multiple lashes.

“Jet?” Cheryl
cried kneeling beside him. To Rafe, “Help me turn him over.”

As they did
so Jet let out a heavy gasp, and coughed twice. His eyes opened wearily.

“I knew you
were still alive,” Cheryl said. “You can handle anything.”

Jet grimaced.
“What’s happening?”

“You have to
stand up,” Rafe said. “You have to walk.”

“Why?” Jet
breathed.

Cheryl’s eyes
followed Jet’s gaze back to Rafe.

He had backed
himself against the wall.

“Because this
is the last chance this city has,” Rafe said. “For you stand up to the
vampires. To my wolves. To Synrith.”

“How do I…?
How do I…?”

“I don’t know
how you’re going to do it,” Rafe replied. “But I know what you’re going to do
as of this moment. You’re going to take a deep breath, and you’re going to
manage to get yourself up off that floor. Then you and Cheryl are going to walk
out of here and upstairs.”

“What?” Jet
spluttered. “Why?”

“Are you
really that stupid?” Cheryl said crossly. “Because he’s helping us escape.”

Jet groaned.

“What?”
Cheryl snapped. “Would you prefer to just lay here and die?”

“No,” Jet
finally muttered. “Help me … Help me up…”

Cheryl nodded
to Rafe. “Let’s help him.”

They both
knelt down beside the fallen dragon and pulled him up to his feet.

“Are you
okay?” Cheryl asked. “Can you walk?”

“I don’t
know,” Jet said, holding onto both of them. “I’ll try.”

Then as the
three of them looked up to the opening of the cell, Sophie’s presence emerged,
standing directly in front of them.

“No one’s
going anywhere,” she said.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

“How’d you get out?” Cheryl shrieked.

Sophie
smirked. “A few bars of iron are no match for my powers.”

Her body
shifted slightly, and Cheryl could the see the glowing orb in Sophie’s hand.

“Please,”
Cheryl tried. “Don’t betray us.”

“It is you
who have betrayed Master Synrith,” Sophie said wickedly. “May his judgment of
you be swift and merciless.”

She flung the
ball at the cell’s opening and it hit the bars, spreading out across the
opening. Sophie’s figure could be seen on the other side of it, walking away.

Cheryl and
Rafe lowered Jet back to the ground, where he rested leaning against the wall.
They approached the opening and found they had been sealed off with a wall of
ice.

Rafe touched it,
spreading his fingers out across it. Then he pulled them back and curled his
fist into a ball.

“Don’t,”
Cheryl whispered.

He punched
the wall sharply and Cheryl watched in disgust as Rafe’s blood sprayed across
the ice, without leaving a dent.

“Aargh,” he
winced.

He crouched
down and looked back at the wall, hopelessly.

“How does she
know how to do that stuff?” Cheryl asked. “Who taught her?”

“Ask the
vampires,” he muttered. “They were her friends before anyone.”

Cheryl
nodded. “Do you think I should give it a try?”

“You’ll hurt
yourself.”

“Is there any
other way out of here?”

Rafe didn’t
reply. He looked away from her, nursing his hand.

Cheryl stared
at the wall of ice. She clenched her fist together and pulled it back towards
herself.

She felt her
cheeks burning. Her muscles generating heat beyond the icy confines.

Her eyes
tensed.

Her teeth bit
into each other.

Then just as
she was about unleash her fury, a voice spoke up behind her.

“Cheryl.”

She turned.

“Rafe.”

He looked up
too.

Jet was
standing on both his feet without any aid or assistance.

“Stand back,”
he said.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Rafe knew immediately what Jet meant.
He dropped to the edge of the cell and lay on his stomach as Jet took a solid
step forward. Cheryl’s footing buckled and she fell also. Just in time.

Jet’s face
went blue and his dragon flashed across his eyes. He opened his mouth and a
tunnel of flames streamed out of it, slamming into the wall of ice opposite.
Cheryl shielded herself from the flames, her instincts locked into a vice grip
of terror. Although they never touched her, the heat itself omitted was enough
to cause her pain. She couldn’t shake it. Even after the flames were gone they
were still with her.

Burning from
the inside.

“Come on.”

The commanding
voice above her.

And then the
hand reaching out.

Cheryl looked
up and saw it was Jet. She took his hand and climbed to her feet.

Rafe stepped
in from behind them. “Follow me.”

Cheryl turned
and saw the wall of ice had melted. There was nothing but water on the floor
where it had been.

Rafe stepped
out into the dungeon corridor, checking to make sure they were alone.

Jet was still
holding Cheryl’s hand.

“Are you
okay?” she asked. “Are you strong enough to walk?”

“Yes,” he
said firmly. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“Well we’re
not out of the woods yet,” Cheryl replied.

“Let’s go,”
Rafe said went down the left side of the pathway, in the opposite direction
Sophie had gone. Cheryl and Jet hurried on after him.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Master Synrith felt the air move. He
was outside again, on the balcony, watching the night time stars. And the air
in front of his face. The air that he inhaled through his nostrils and down
into his lungs. That wonderful, magical air.

It moved.

He turned abruptly,
aware someone was soon to be entering the bedroom. His eyes opened wide,
picturing her face. Thinking about her. Anticipating their reunion. She would
come around after all. She had to. Synrith knew what was in his heart. He knew
the darkness inside that room, but somehow he had made it out of there. And now
he was waiting.

For Cheryl.

But it was
her sister Sophie who opened the bedroom door breathlessly, marching towards
him.

Synrith
pushed open the door to the balcony and went into the bedroom to meet her.

“Master –”
Sophie began.

“What’s
happened?” Synrith replied.

Sophie
scoffed at him, taken aback. She stared at him carefully, then walked past him
and sat down on the side of the bed.

Synrith
looked from her to the doorway. “Where’s Rafe?” he asked. “Where’s –”

“Cheryl?”

Synrith shot
her a fiery gaze. “I felt it. Out there. Something’s happened. What did you
do?”

“Syn, Syn,
Syn,” Sophie muttered. “What would you do without me?”

Synrith
walked directly in front of her. “Is she still alive?”

Sophie opened
and closed her eyes.

“Is she?” he
repeated again.

“Now I wish I
did kill her,” Sophie said. “Because I can see you’re too weak to do it.”

Synrith
cleared his throat. “I wanted you both up here. Where is she?”

“She was
going to try and escape. Rafe was helping her free Jet.”

“WHAT?”
Synrith roared. He quickly raced past the bed and towards the door.

“I stopped
them,” Sophie hollered, behind him. “So you have me to thank.”

Synrith
glanced over his shoulder. “What happened?”

Sophie walked
up to him. She took his hand away from the door handle and closed it. She stood
in front of it, blocking his path.

“She’s no
good for you,” Sophie said. “Rafe asked her if she still loved you.”

“And?”

“She said she
didn’t. I saw her … she was staring into Jet’s cell. The look in her eyes. It
was as if she never loved you.”

Synrith
breathed heavily. He pressed his head against the door behind Sophie.

She wrapped
her arms around him.

“You’re mine
now,” she said. “If you want a future with me, if you want our marriage to
work, then you have to let Cheryl go.”

“You don’t
understand what we had –”

“She never
knew who you really were,” Sophie continued. “I do. I love you. We’re the ones
who belong together.”

“And what
about Rafe?”

“I’ll kill
him myself,” Sophie declared. “As long as you kill Cheryl.”

“I don’t know
if I –”

“Then I’ll
kill both of them. Jet as well.”

“Where are
they?”

“They’re in
Jet’s cell,” Sophie explained. “They’re not going anywhere.”

Synrith
leaned back from the door. “What is it you want?” he asked her. “Shall I call
off the city attack?”

Sophie
giggled. “Don’t you fucking dare. It’s our world tonight. You’re the King. And
I’m the Queen.”

Synrith
wasn’t sure anymore. He felt her against him, so soft. So pure. She was an
angel of darkness, and through her he felt her blood pumping like poison around
her veins. He wanted it. He lusted after it. When he was in her arms it was as
though he wanted nothing else.

Except…

Except…

Bang.

Suddenly the
door to the balcony flew open and bounced off the wall.

Synrith
pushed Sophie away and hurried towards it, the night’s air blowing through the
room rapidly.

Outside, he
stared up into the sky.

He could see
them. Two dark figures.

A dark blue
dragon flying through the clouds.

And a young
woman sitting on his back.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Rafe was standing just outside the
manor’s gate as Jet’s dragon carried Cheryl up into the clouds with him. Rafe
watched them go. Disappear out of sight. He didn’t know what would become of
them, only that Synrith would soon be on their tail. He hoped they had enough
of a head start. They were truly the only ones who stood a chance of defeating
the master dragon. If Rafe had any chance himself, he would have tried long
ago.

But his
destiny prevented him.

A vociferous
roar echoed from within the manor. Synrith’s roar.

Rafe stepped
away from the wall and pulled his hood over his head. He quickly started on his
path down the road, glancing over his shoulder every so often to make sure he
wasn’t being followed.

He honestly
hadn’t an idea of where he was to go next. His mind was scrambled. At every
twist and turn, he felt his fate changing. Being manipulated by an unseen
shadow. It was true. She really had got the best of him. His future self had
never made it back here to help him. Not like it once had. Rafe stared down the
empty road in front of him, hoping, wishing. Wondering if he would suddenly
appear now.

“Rafe.”

A voice from
the side of the road. Rafe jumped back in fright.

From the
shadows a woman in a purple gown emerged. He squinted, trying to see if he
could recognize her.

“Who are
you?” he asked after a moment.

She stood in
front of him, her face now lit up by the moon.

Then it hit
him.

Of course.

“Sophie…?”

“I’m called
Lady Glowshark these days,” Sophie’s older self replied. “Sophie is just a
girl’s name.”

“You’ve seen
the future then?” Rafe stammered. “You must have. You –”

Lady
Glowshark walked towards him. She silenced his words with a finger to his lips.

“I’ve watched
you in so many states of existence,” she whispered. “But I’ve never seen you as
weak as you are now.”

Rafe pushed
her hand away. “My mind isn’t weak. It’s perfectly clear.”

“And where
are you off to then?”

“Excuse me?”

“Where are
you going?” Lady Glowshark asked.

Rafe shook
his head. “I haven’t figured it out yet.”

“No,” she
murmured. “But soon you will. Soon you’ll realize you want your power back. And
you’ll find a way into the forest. Where the time portal is.”

“And what
then?”

“I don’t
know,” Lady Glowshark shook her head. “I’m not going back to my time. I’ve
already destroyed the portal.”

“But then
what will you do? What am I to do?”

“We’re both
finished, my love. It ends here for us.”

“No,” Rafe
shook his head.

“Cheryl
couldn’t save me,” Sophie said. “I know that now. And I’m not going to save
you.”

“Well – what
are you here for then?”

She smiled
softly. “I just wanted to hug you. For one last time.”

Rafe sighed
and before he knew it she was upon him. She embraced her arms around his, and
at his neck he felt her tears.

“What is it?”
Rafe said. “Why are you –?”

Pain.

In his gut.

Sophie backed
away slightly and kissed his cheek.

Then she let
him fall, clutching the dagger she’d planted in his stomach.

Rafe looked
down at I, and couldn’t believe his eyes.

“That’s –
that’s Synrith’s dagger,” he gasped.

He fell to
his knees.

“He was wrong
to trust me,” Sophie whispered. “He should have given it to Cheryl.”

“But you –
you changed what happened between them –”

Rafe slumped
onto the ground. The road’s concrete bit into the side of his face.

He knew very
soon, he would be dead.

“I changed
what he did to her,” Sophie confessed as she looked back at him one last time.
“I made him mine. I made him care about me.”

Rafe closed
his eyes.

He couldn’t
see anything anymore.

“But I could
never change, what was really, truly … in his heart…”