Breath of Fire (34 page)

I knew I was hurt badly when there was no pain. I flickered back and forth between my human form and my dragon—finally ending up as human—naked and torn. Blood trickled down the corner of my mouth and dripped in a rhythmic pattern on the snowy white ground. I knew my jaw was broken because I couldn’t open my mouth to scream. I was choking on my own blood.

I fought to stand up straight and confront my brother, my enemy. I wouldn’t die like a weakling on the ground.

“I’m taking you with me, Rena,” he hissed. “You can’t defeat me. I am the Destroyer
of Prophecy, and I will not be beaten.”

“I will not let you take my powers for your own. I’ll die first.”
I wasn’t able to speak because my face was too swollen. Blood pooled rapidly in my mouth. I couldn’t spit it out fast enough to keep from drowning. If this was my fate, so be it, but he would not use my powers against others as long as I had a breath in my body.

He gathered the light between his hands once again, and I prepared myself for another blow. But instead of aiming his deadly hands in my direction, he pointed them toward the sky. An arc of light shot from his fingertips and cracked the night in two pieces.

Time stopped. Snow flurries stood still in the air, and the drops of blood that dripped from my body and face were suspended between time and space. My body became sluggish—as if I were underwater—trapped inside some invisible hourglass looking out at the real world.

The light from his hands spread across the night sky. And out of the darkness appeared a portal—a circle of undulating liquid silver that shone brighter than the sun. I would die, by his hand or my own, before I went through it with him.

“Enough games, Rena,” he said and started toward me.

I didn’t know what kind of games he was used to playing, but getting the shit beaten out of me wasn’t on my list of fun things to do. I backed away from him as far as I could go until I reached the balcony edge. I only had one option. I had to fly.

I took a deep breath and backed over the ledge of the balcony into a free fall down the side of the mountain. I watched in slow motion as Erik made a grab for me and yelled my name. But he was too late.

I realized something on my way. I was able to scream after all.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Erik didn’t follow me down the side of the mountain. Instead he cursed my name and vanished inside the portal, closing it behind him with a thunderous reverberation that echoed through the sky.

I shifted quickly, sighing in relief as my body had more room for my injuries in dragon form. I stretched out to my full length and roared as bones popped in and out of place. Panic consumed me. I still couldn’t fly, even drawing on Julian’s power. My mind raced, and I opened myself to my other power. My dragon didn’t like this magic because it didn’t come from her, and she tried to push it away. But I wouldn’t let her.

The wind began to blow from the bottom of the mountain. I blanked my mind and put all my strength into focusing on the wind, so the air moved faster. I controlled the pressure as it swirled around me, and the air held me steady. I was flying. Sort of. The only problem was I didn’t know how the hell to land.

I hovered just outside the bottom floor of Drummondsey Castle, and I floated in front of a large plate glass window and looked into a room with an eerie blue light. It took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at, but when I did I heaved a sigh of relief.

I flew straight at the window, and the plate glass shattered into a million pieces. I didn’t even register the new cuts. I already had too many to count. I landed at the bottom of Julian’s Olympic-sized swimming pool like a ton of bricks. I was unconscious before I reached the bottom.

I woke up throbbing from head to toe. The lights were out and total darkness filled the room. The kind of darkness that made you search deep within yourself to see what you were really made of. I didn’t like what I found, and I panicked at the black that came at me from every direction. It reminded me too much of the vision I’d had about Julian and Noah and the beautiful monster who’d devoured us all. I’d never been afraid of the dark before, but now I was terrified.

I moaned, and several candles flickered on around the room. Eunice stood over me and held a cup up to my lips. I swallowed and sputtered as the foul-tasting brew went down.

“What the hell?” I croaked, pushing it away. I didn’t need any more torture.

“Don’t worry, dear, the taste won’t last for long,” Eunice said.

“I need to see, Julian,” I rasped out. My throat was on fire and my jaw was still sore.

“I know. He’s been pacing outside the door since he felt you beginning to stir. He’s been worried about you.”

“Hmmph,” I said. “Worried I’ll take him down with me more than likely.”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I think a man who stays by your side and barely sleeps for two days has to at least care a little.”

“Two days!” I said. “Do you know what can happen in two days time? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

I threw the covers back and swung my legs to the floor, but they were too weak to support me. Bile rose in my throat and I broke out in a clammy sweat. Black dots danced in front of my eyes as I fell to my knees.

“I tried to wake you up. We all tried to wake you up, but no one could get through to you. I used all the Faerie medicine I had with me, and it still took you this long for you to wake up. I’ve never seen anyone have injuries bad enough that they couldn’t be healed by magic and our own physical healing capabilities. Your body caught fire twice and tried to burn itself to ash, but Julian linked with you and shared some of your pain. It’s a good thing I had the sudden urge to take a dip in the pool.”

“I really need to see Julian,” I said again.

I put my head between my knees since I was already on the floor, and I got the nausea under control. Eunice helped me up, and I crawled back under the cool sheets and closed my eyes. The door clicked open quietly, and I felt the pull between us as Julian’s footsteps got closer. I pushed my pillows up against the headboard and sat up. Slowly.

“You have a way of keeping a dragon on his toes, Rena,” Julian said in a disapproving tone. The hollows of his cheeks were more pronounced than normal and dark circles ringed beneath his eyes. He wore black chinos and a black T-shirt, and I realized it was probably the most casual I’d ever seen him. He looked tired, and far underneath the gruffness of his voice was worry and relief.

“I know you’re not making this out to be my fault,” I said. “He’s been here with us the whole time, and it’s not like I could have kept him out of my room. He’s the Destroyer, for cripes sake.”

He sat next to me on the bed and my magic flared. I could feel the acceleration of my body’s healing just by being close to him. He took my hand and rubbed his thumb across the pulse in my wrist in soothing circles.

“I failed to protect you,” he said.

I looked away at the intensity of his guilt and closed my eye. Julian was a good man, and it was me who had failed him. It was my family who was responsible for so much pain, and I should have somehow recognized what had been going on in my own house.

I lifted my hand to his cheek and touched him gently, tracing my thumb across his bottom lip. My lips found his of their own accord and I felt peace rise within my battered body. I wanted to burrow against him and feel his arms come around me. I wanted for everyone else to disappear so we could be lost only in each other.

“Soon, love,” he whispered against my lips.

I kissed him one last time and pulled away, remembering his taste and the feel of him against my lips. Once I told him what I knew, he’d probably never want to touch me again.

“I have to tell you something.”

“That your brother is the Destroyer
and has managed to hide the fact from all of us?”

My eyes filled with tears and I blinked rapidly to get rid of the evidence. Julian sighed and took my hand again. He stretched out beside me, careful not to jostle me too much, and pulled me against him so he held me in an embrace.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“You were unconscious, naked and bleeding when I first carried you up here. You gained consciousness just long enough to tell me Erik was the Destroyer.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“I knew something wasn’t right from the moment you showed up in my lands. The things my spies sent me about Erik made my instincts go on alert. He was always a suspect. But when I met him face to face I was sure I was wrong because I couldn’t detect his powers.”

“You checked up on us?” I asked incredulously.

Julian gave another sigh. “Rena, you were an open book to me from the moment you stepped off the plane. You have never had any secrets from me. But I had to check out your clan.”

My head began to pound and my anger wanted to take control, but I didn’t have the strength.

“Maybe you should just start at the beginning and tell me what happened,” he said.

“Could I have something to drink?” I asked after I’d reined my temper in. None of this was Julian’s fault. I had to remember that.

I could sense Julian’s impatience at the delay, but he went to the small fridge in the corner of the room and got me a bottle of water. My mouth was as dry as dust and my stomach hurt from hunger.

“I was waiting for you out on the balcony,” I began, finding the label on my water extremely fascinating so I wouldn’t have to look in Julian’s eyes. “I was thinking of you and not paying attention to anything around me. I didn’t even know he was behind me until he started speaking.”

“He’s a Viator,” Julian said. “You wouldn’t have heard him unless he wanted you to.”

“I don’t know, when he opened the portal it made the mountain shake. It sounded like the sky had been torn in two.”

“One doesn’t need a portal to travel through human time. But to travel between the Realms is the gift of a double-edged sword. To travel between the Realms means to give up part of your soul with each crossing. When you say it sounded as if the sky had been torn in two, that’s because it was.”

I looked up at him with worry. “What about you? You traveled between the Realms earlier when Erik left the trail for you to follow. What will happen to your soul?”

“Are you worried about my soul, Rena?” He touched my cheek and smiled slightly. “It’s only a small piece. I haven’t made it a habit of traveling through the Realms over the last several millennia. And the piece of my soul that was taken was for a worthy cause.”

I took a long drink of water and sat up against him a little straighter. I was already feeling stronger. My jaw had full mobility now, and it was getting easier to speak.

“Erik was so strong. I couldn’t defeat him, and I refused to go with him. My only choice was to jump over the edge of the balcony and pray for a miracle.”

Julian ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration. “As soon as I left you to travel between the Realms I got a bad feeling. I’m not connected to you once I leave this Realm, but the loss of you was overwhelming. I knew I had to get back as quickly as I could.

“You took a thousand years off my life when I saw Eunice dragging you out of the water. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The pool was colored red with your blood. You weren’t moving. Your fire began to burn without your knowledge. It would have swallowed you whole and turned you to ash if I hadn’t been there to absorb it.”

“I’m sorry.” The words seemed inadequate.

“I was gone between the Realms long enough to get a good sense of his trail. I know where he’s hiding his army. We need to go into battle as soon as you’re healed. Two days have passed and more of our people have disappeared. We cannot waste any more time.”

“He has more than an army. He has a kingdom. He’s been mating Drakán to each other for centuries, building his numbers. He’s created a machine to drain the powers of those who don’t agree to fight for him. It makes them human. He’s determined to steal the powers from all creatures and make himself king over all the Realms.”

Julian’s face showed the first sign of legitimate surprise I’d ever seen before he quickly masked it. “Then we must stop him.”

“But will we win?” I asked.

“If we don’t, we will die trying. The Drakán deserve to have peace and power restored to them. Now that you’re awake, Eunice’s medicine should restore most of your strength by this evening. Rest for a while. Those of us who can change form will meet and go after the Destroyer at midnight.”

“I assume you know how to find him?” I asked.

“He’s taken possession of the Realm of the Gods.”

Which meant the gods had chosen sides, or they’d finally met their match and were too afraid of Erik to do anything but hand over their Realm without a fight. Whatever the case, they weren’t going to be of any help to us. So praying was probably out of the question.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I’d healed as much as I was going to by the time midnight rolled around. We gathered, thousands strong, cramming into the ballroom and spilling out into the halls. A hushed murmur whispered its way through the crowd, building to an overwhelming roar of sound. The scent of anticipation and fear was strong, and the hunger for flesh and blood lay heavy in the air.