Breath of Fire (35 page)

Despite the impressiveness of our numbers, less than a thousand of us could actually shift to dragon form and take flight. Human blood had weakened us all more than we’d thought. But we needed numbers, and it was decided those who couldn’t shift would remain in their human forms and ride through the Realm on the backs of their dragon brethren. I had no idea what to expect from Erik’s army. We could only hope that if we couldn’t outnumber them, we could at least overpower them.

Julian raised his hand high up in the air, and the room went silent. I looked at the Drakán standing around me. I didn’t know most of them—a scary thought considering a few days ago they would have tried to kill me, and now they’d be fighting beside me.

Feng stood against the wall, watching Julian with a malice and calculation in his eyes that made his position clear. He wore black sweatpants and a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut out. A tattoo of a dragon snaked all the way up his arm and rested its head on his shoulder. He looked deadly and dangerous, two traits we needed on our side when fighting the Destroyer and his army. I only hoped Feng didn’t decide to change his allegiance once we went through the portal.

Xana, Olaf and the other guards all stood behind Julian—Eunice and I flanked his sides. I worried about him destroying another piece of his soul by taking us through the portal, but it was he alone who could make the sacrifice to save the very people who despised him.

“I have asked you all to do the unthinkable,” Julian said. “The Destroyer was one of us. And he betrayed us to strengthen his own power and treat us no better than slaves. We will not let the Drakán race falter. And we will not forsake the Promised Child by letting this impostor deceive you. You are strong. And you are ready to fight.
Porro ago Drakán.
”

Long live the Drakán. The crowd repeated the sentiment with a resounding cheer.

A familiar crack echoed through the room. The ground shifted and the plaster on the walls split and crumbled. The portal swirled and opened to reveal a liquid-silver hole in the middle of the room. Gasps sounded from all the Drakán. Besides myself and Julian, it was the first time any of them had seen a portal to another Realm.

The Drakán around me began to shift into their dragon forms. There were dragons of all colors, all shapes, all sizes. Julian’s black dragon was massive and towered over all those around him. Xana and the other guards were also in varying shades of black—some lighter, some darker, some duller, some brighter—but none had the onyx sheen and breathtaking beauty of their leader.

Eunice was the color of a shiny copper penny. Even though the Drakán clan she was born to was green in color, the Fae blood that ran through her veins made her unique. Her form was dainty and feminine despite her increased size, but Eunice had seen many battles before. She was a seasoned warrior, and she was as deadly as anyone in the room.

Feng stood just to Julian’s right, his scales a dark golden yellow. Tiny spikes ran the length of his spine and tail. Not for the first time I wondered about the ancestors we all shared that helped shape our destiny. Feng’s guards showed the mixed heritage of Prince Lucien’s two races. The Chinese dragons were shades of yellow. The Russians were shades of white.

Cale of the Éire stood to the outermost side of the group, surrounded by a handful of his own guards. He looked to be reconsidering his decision to risk his life and his former clan. His dragon was emerald green. His guards were shades of the same green, from sea foam to the color of Irish fields at night, and their hesitation was obvious.

I couldn’t stop the despair that overwhelmed me as I looked over my clan and saw my father and Calista both absent. Not to mention Erik, though we’d see him very soon. The clan varied in color—from the palest pink to brick red. But not me. The silver of my scales didn’t belong to any clan. Which was why Julian and I both thought it would be best if I transported through the Realm in my human form. As far as my clan was concerned, I’d never been able to shift, and we wanted them to keep thinking that for now. Seeing the silver of my scales would not help me get control over the disobedient group.

Andres of the Rumanus and his blue clan only had a few dozen Drakán who could shift, but they all pushed through the crowd, eager to be among the first through the portal. I climbed on Eunice’s back and all the other Drakán who were still in human form did the same. Some carried swords in scabbards and others were relying on nothing but their physical strength.

Julian gave the signal and the dragons took flight. I held on for dear life as the wind rushed across my cheeks and Eunice launched herself just behind Julian into the liquid-silver portal. As soon as we left our Realm I was completely cut off from all that existed in that world. I couldn’t help but look back as the last of the Drakán came through and the portal closed behind us.

Chapter Thirty

I hadn’t known what to expect once we crossed through the portal and into the Realm of the Gods. Julian had explained to me earlier that it was an ever-changing place—a place that reflected the gods’ and goddesses’ wants and needs. It was a place where they could honor themselves. They could alter it at their foolish whims, much like they liked to do with the lives of their people.

The Realm of the Gods had always seemed like a foolish waste of space to me—a place where only the gods and goddesses could reside while there were so many others of us who were floundering without a Realm to call our own. But I guess they felt they were entitled since they’d been the ones to create the Realms in the first place.

I thought for sure the Realm of the Gods would be a place much more sinister, considering the Destroyer had made the changing Realm his home. A place that epitomized everything he stood for—violence, anger, hate and cruelty. I expected darkness and monsters lurking around every corner. Shadows of fire and fury. Eerie sounds and helpless cries from those who were being held against their will. But my expectations came nowhere near the reality.

The Realm of the Gods was a place of sheer beauty. A beauty so pure that it almost brought tears to my eyes. It was light and brightness all rolled into one—a city of ice with crystal palaces that gleamed like diamonds and streets made of freshly fallen snow. White covered every surface. It would have been glaringly bright had there been an illuminating source to reflect off of them.

Julian had explained that the Realm of the Gods had neither sunlight nor moonlight, so all who passed through its gates would not fear death.

“This was not what I was expecting,” I said to the copper dragon beneath me.

“No, but many times it is the unexpected that can be the biggest threat. Keep your eyes open.”

There was a field with hills and valleys covered in snow below us—pristine in its beauty. There were no trees, no blue skies, just endless clouds and fields of white. As we soared through the sky the hills rose and fell below us.

I hunkered low over Eunice’s back so we could fly faster, and I struggled to keep my eyes open and on everything around me. Riding on the back of a dragon was not a way to cure a fear of flying. Her powerful muscles bunched and flexed beneath me, and Julian moved closer, touching my leg briefly with his black scales to ease my discomfort.

We passed over the last hill and my adrenaline surged.

A castle made of glass and white stone sat nestled between two hills. It was circled by a crystal clear lake and guarded by a drawbridge made of diamonds. White dragons launched themselves from the rooftop and came at us in a fury. Thousands of them. These dragons weren’t the same white as the Russian clan. These were of the purest white, never varying in shade. And they were our mortal enemies.

They charged us in straight lines—hundreds upon hundreds of them for as far as the eye could see. Erik had always been a great general. He knew how to win battles.

All of our dragons dropped the human Drakán they carried to fight their own battles on the ground. Erik hadn’t been a hundred percent successful in his breeding experiments, because it looked like there were still many in his kingdom who couldn’t shift form, just as many of ours couldn’t.

Julian led his dragons back up into the sky. He was dead center of the pack. Feng and his best warriors flanked Julian’s right and Xana and our best warriors flanked his left. The others under Julian’s command quickly got into formation so they mirrored the white dragons.

I growled in anger as Cale and his people held back. It was too late for them to change their minds. They were trapped in this Realm. And they would either fight or die. Eunice and I came up behind them, and she roared her displeasure, forcing them to take their place in the battle lines.

I knew what my job was. I’d had to fight for it, but in the end I had won. Eunice and I were to find the prisoners and release them—though most of them would be no better than humans now. Their fragile human shells were going to make their escape all the more difficult.

“Have a care, lifemate,”
Julian whispered through my mind.
“I would be most displeased with you if you injured yourself again.”

“Julian—”
The words I wanted to say were trapped in my head.
I wanted to tell him I loved him. That I loved him despite the troubles I knew our future held.

I felt his mind caress my body and envelop it like a hug. He’d felt my thoughts, but he hadn’t returned the words.

“We’ll meet again soon,”
he said instead.

It was the last thing I felt from him. He closed himself off completely, and the loss of him was almost debilitating.

“Snap out of it, Rena,”
Eunice said.
“He’ll be fine. You must see to your tasks now.”

Eunice and I veered off from the group and flew down to the castle. I held on tight as she made a smooth landing in freshly packed snow. The sounds of battle came from above—the clang of razor-sharp claws as they hit against each other like swords—the gnashing of teeth—the ripping of flesh.

I watched as the first drops of blood fell from the sky and marred the pristine snow with red. The Realm of the Gods was white and beautiful no more.

Chapter Thirty-One

Drakán fought Drakán across a battlefield of snow as Eunice and I made our way closer to the drawbridge that led into the castle. Red-scaled dragons fought furiously against the Drakán who guarded the inner gate, and Eunice and I slipped by while they were preoccupied and entered the castle.

White marble, veined with the palest grey, lay beneath our feet. The walls were white stone. The ceilings were made of glass, so every floor above us was visible. We could see straight into the sky. Straight into the carnage of the battle raging overhead.

The large foyer split in three directions, forming three hallways—one to the left, one to the right and one down the middle.

“We should split up,” I said.

Eunice was still in her dragon form so she spoke to my mind.
“Julian told me I wasn’t supposed to let you out of my sight.”

“Every second will count if we’re going to free our people. We might already be too late to save them.”

She finally agreed.
“I’ll take the right.”
The shiny copper of her dragon got a running start before taking flight again and spiraling down the long hallway.

I pushed out my dragon powers, searching for something that would lead me to my people.

I took the left.

The white stone seemed to be some kind of natural power source, illuminated from within. But the farther I went down the hall, the less light there was. It was almost as if the marble was dying. But that couldn’t be possible. How could an inanimate object die?

Torches were placed along the wall, well used and recently lit. My inner fire lit and spread through my body. I touched a hand to the first torch and it burst into flame. I exhaled gently, and the flame whooshed down the entire hallway, lighting every torch that came into its path.

The smell of pitch was strong as it burned. Rats scurried across the floor and scattered from the light. I looked down and saw the carcasses of their dead. At least our people had had some source of food.

I ran at full speed down the long hallway until it finally opened into a spacious room. This room wasn’t white like the rest of this Realm. It was drab and grey. Dingy. Smoke and scorch rings stained the walls. The stench of blood, infected flesh, excrement and death dropped me to my knees. I breathed in through my mouth, but the cloying smell coated the back of my throat, thick like syrup.

I lifted my head slowly and looked around the room. A choked sob escaped before I could control it. Large cages hung and swayed from the ceiling. Dozens of men and women—Drakán—were inside them; their naked bodies huddled together for warmth. There were tables with restraints in the middle of the room stationed next to beeping machines. Arm and leg shackles were attached to bloodstained walls. Erik had taken our sacred people and made them no more than lab rats for his twisted mind.

I stumbled to my feet and ran toward the first cage. I wondered why they hadn’t tried to break the flimsy iron bars that held them prisoner, and then I remembered that they were no longer the powerful creatures they’d used to be. Iron was nearly unbreakable by human standards.

I stood below the locked cage and called my power with a vengeance, ripping the iron door from its hinges. Cries for help and weeping filled the room as I went from cage to cage. The stronger prisoners helped the weak to their feet and lowered them toward the ground. But there were some who remained motionless in the cages. They would never see freedom again.