Dragon Fire (49 page)

June hissed and threw him back. “Leave me alone.”

“You can’t let yourself die or all the others will die too.”

“What others? There aren’t any others.” June looked around. “Who else do you see? There’s only me.” She sank to the ground. “Let me die and everything will be over.”

“No,”
Rakan said.
“All you have to do is accept who you are.”

“Everyone thinks I’m someone I’m not.” June stood. “Look at me. I’m human. I’m not even a dragon. How can I be Paaliaq?”

“You have a rök.”

“Not when I’m in the light.” June motioned towards the Rift. “Can’t you feel how pure, how beautiful, it is?” She dropped her arms. “But none of that matters anymore. Erling only loves me because I remind him of Paaliaq.” Her voice wavered. “Someone I don’t think I’d even like.” She looked down at the blinding emptiness that wormed its way up her legs. “I could pretend I was her and be with Erling. No one would stop me. But it would be a lie. Everything would be a lie. I have no reason to live anymore.” She turned to face Rakan. “But you do. You have Anna, and you love each other for who you are. And that’s worth living for.” She spread her arms and breathed in deeply. “I have nothing,” she said and let herself drop into the void.

“No,”
yelled Rakan,
“I won’t let you kill them all.”
He flew after her and whacked her as hard as he could with his tail, sending her spinning back up out of the void in a blood-curdling yell. A dull thud confirmed that she had landed on the edge of the rift as he himself plummeted, his claws outstretched in petrified terror.

* * *

Anna’s eyes flew open. She was in her bed. Alone. “Rakan,” she yelled. He was about to die. She threw off her comforter and jumped up to run… where? To Lysa. Anna flew down the stairs, flipped her phone open and called Lysa while she struggled to tie her dress and get her boots on. There was no answer. Anna cursed and threw the phone down.

“Anna,” said a golden voice. A hand touched her shoulder.

Anna screamed and then threw herself into Lysa’s arms. “You’re here,” she said, nearly hysterical with fear for Rakan. She held onto Lysa’s shoulders. “Where are they?”

“I’m not quite sure,” said Lysa, her eyes bloodshot. “Erling went ballistic. But I think I found his trail even though Verje was blocking me.”

“Where are they?” Anna’s nails dug into Lysa. “I need to find Rakan.”

“Things don’t feel right. I might not be able to bring you home.”

“I don’t care. I need to know what’s happening to Rakan.”

The light around Lysa shimmered a pale, peaceful green. She put her hands on Anna’s shoulders. “I shouldn’t do this,” she said with a mischievous smile. “But it won’t be the first time we’ve ignored the rules. Ready?”

Anna didn’t even have time to say yes before she felt herself being ripped apart and then reassembled again in a pain so deep she didn’t know where to begin to hurt. She clung to Lysa, suffocating in the heat that made her feel like they were in an oven. Lysa gripped Anna’s shoulders and whispered, “No. This is wrong. All wrong.”

Anna looked up and saw Erling struggling like a wild animal to get beyond the twins. She turned to see where he was trying to go and saw a glass-like dome in the desert. And inside, there were two battling dragons. One emerald green with a golden crest. And one coral orange with a copper crest. June and Rakan.

Anna lunged and ran down the sandy dune. She hit an invisible shield. She pounded on it as she watched in horror. “No!” Around the dome were hundreds of black-haired people in various forms of armor, all watching in tense silence as the dragons tried to kill at each other. “Stop them,” she yelled.

“They can’t hear you,” said Lysa.

“Why are they fighting?” she wailed.

“I don’t know.”

* * *

“I won’t let you kill yourself,”
snarled June. She slammed Rakan to the sand they had smashed into when the Eld had intercepted their fall in the Rift after June had morphed and followed him in an attempt to save his life.

“You need to live,”
answered Rakan in Draagsil, the very sound of which seemed to stoke June’s anger. She finally lost the last of her self-control. Her rök exploded and she no longer felt like June. She felt like Paaliaq, the Destroyer. She snarled and attacked him with intent to kill. Rakan stopped fighting and stretched his throat. The green dragon lunged and sank her teeth into him. If she wouldn’t let him kill himself when she was June, he’d let her kill him as Paaliaq.

She bit through his hide, but as soon as her poison began to ejaculate, she stopped. She lifted her head, his blood dribbling from her mouth. Slowly, she took in the scene around them. And then she roared in rage. Her head swiveled to face the Eld who sat on their thrones, watching the fight with unblinking eyes. A brilliant white flame burst from her jaws and her hide shimmered gold. For that brief moment, she looked like a Shield Eld. A ripple of anger and fear rose from the crowd. June morphed back to human, dressed in a flowing gold gown, her black hair billowing out like snakes ready to strike. She stretched her hands and white light crackled forth. She was creating a shield like the Elythia had around their home. The Draak stumbled back in chaos, a few unlucky ones crackling as their energy was sucked from their bodies. June thrust her hand out and a white tentacle flew forward. The tentacle split into five and latched onto the throats of the unresisting Elds.

Rakan morphed back to human and tackled June, breaking her concentration.

“Stop it,” she snarled. “They’re the ones who are making us fight. But they’re the ones who need to die.” June flung him to the side and resumed her attack on the Eld, channeling their energy back against them.

The Shield Eld deviated the attack from the other four Eld to herself, protecting them as her own energy waned. Rakan tackled June again. Her shield faltered as she flung him across the ring, freeing those who had been caught. Khotan suddenly appeared out of nowhere, his burgundy wings tucked in close as he dove for the kill.

“No!” Rakan yelled, struggling back to his feet.

June spun around but it was too late. Rakan’s gut wrenched as his father exploded his rök in a suicide attack. A brilliant purple light blinded Rakan. It was the color of the twins. “June,” he yelled. He staggered through the sand in the silence that ensued the explosion. She was alive, he could feel her. He fell to the ground next to where she lay sprawled under a motionless Verje.

* * *

Anna clawed at the burning sand. She gagged on the acrid smell of burnt dragon that made her eyes water. She couldn’t see anything with all the sand that was still suspended in the air. “Rakan,” she yelled. Someone grabbed her arm and everything disappeared. She was in the tundra to the east of Tromso, her nose and throat still burning. “No,” she howled, ripping herself free from Red. “Where’s Rakan?” She glared at Red, she hadn’t even realized he had been there. “Why did you bring me here? Take me back there.”

“Calm down,” said Red. “He’ll come.”

“What if he doesn’t?” she demanded.

But Red didn’t answer. He lunged forward and caught Ea as she shifted into being, falling over in pain. As Anna helped him lay Ea on the ground, June appeared supporting a staggering Verje. Erling and Lysa arrived next, in a flash of blue and pale green light. Their wings angled for flight. She felt a dragon approaching and her heart raced. Liv appeared, alone. Her energy crackled with electricity.

“Where’s Haakon?” asked Anna with a sinking heart.
And Rakan?

Liv folded back her electric blue wings. “He’s trying to bring Rakan.” Her voice was disapproving.

Anna’s eyes narrowed. She still didn’t know what Liv really thought about Rakan. Or anything else. Liv stood still, in a half-trance, and Anna examined her. Her gown was pure white. Her wings were the same color as her eyes and her long hair spilled over her shoulders. She looked like an angel. But something underneath was hard and cold. Emotionless. If Liv thought the world would be better off without Rakan, Anna wasn’t sure she wouldn’t eliminate him. For the good of everyone else.

The back of Anna’s neck began to throb. They were close. They had to be. Finally, Haakon and another dragon who Anna immediately recognized as Yuli, appeared, holding a struggling Rakan between them.

“Rakan.” She rushed over to him. “Are you alright?”

“Anna,” he said. “How’d you get here?” He shrugged off the two other dragons. “You can let go now.” Yuli backed off right away, but Haakon hesitated.

“He’s dead,” said Haakon. “You can’t help him. And going back there will only get you killed.”

“I know that,” snarled Rakan. He pushed Haakon away. “Leave me alone.” Rakan crushed Anna against his sand-covered chest. The pain that pulsed around him like fire overwhelmed her. His mind touched hers and she saw flashes of the burgundy dragon in both human and dragon forms. And then she understood. It was his father. Pain engulfed her. She clutched Rakan. He grabbed her head with both hands and kissed her brutally. Anna tried to pull away but his hold was too strong. For a split second, she felt another dragon in Rakan’s consciousness. He snarled and it disappeared. He eased his hold on her. “I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely, his body still as tense as a coiled snake. “Yuli was right, I was hurting you. And you’re cold.” A pale blue cloak appeared out of nowhere, covering her. “Although I prefer the dress by itself,” he added in her ear.

Anna slumped against him, feeling his warmth that she thought she’d never feel again. “Why did you fight?”

“Because neither of us would let the other die. But it would’ve been better if we had.”

“No. Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that…” her voice trailed off as Rakan’s pain resurfaced.

“My father killed Sverd,” Rakan said, his voice barely audible. “He unintentionally killed an Elythia because Verje shielded June. And Sverd took the attack to protect his Pair. And died. The truce is broken. The Draak and the Elythia will fight again.”

Anna glanced at Ea. She was still unconscious in Red’s arms. “Did an Elythia attack her?”

“Yes. She was protecting Erling, but I guess not all the Elythia realized it.”

Red snorted. “It’s more likely she was attacked by an Elythia who did. And wanted to kill her because of it. Very few of them are happy that their future ruler chose a Draak to pair with.”

“Red’s right,” said Haakon. “When Paaliaq and Erling tried to unite the two groups before, it didn’t work. Most would rather exterminate the other group.” He took Liv’s hands in his. “And now that you’re no longer banished, they’ll try to kill you for having refused to pair with Erling.”

The clear sky of late May made the tundra look like a pastel postcard. But all Anna could smell was death.

June looked up at Rakan, still cradling Verje’s head in her lap. His purple eyes were wild with pain. “The Eld wanted us to fight. But I didn’t realize that when they showed me the Rift. But they were wrong,” she said, her voice harsh. “The Rift isn’t destroying the world. It’s uniting it. It’s bringing the Draak and the Elythia together.”

“From their point of view,” said Liv, her voice flat and clinical, “it is destroying their world. They want to keep the Draak and the Elythia apart. As do the Ascended.”

Erling’s cobalt blue wings stretched menacingly. “If June and I finish opening the seven gates and become the Ascended, we can stop this war.”

June shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what the Ascended want. The Eld will still make the Draak fight and the Elythia won’t have any choice but to defend themselves.”

“You can’t become an Ascended until you free the röks that are linked to yours,” Rakan said. “As it is, they suffer every time you go in the light.”

“But I don’t even know who they are,” June said, panic creeping into her voice. “Or why they’re linked to me.”

“But are you Paaliaq or not?” asked Anna confused.

“I don’t know,” answered June, meeting Anna’s eyes. “But I’m no longer sure it matters. If I can do something to stop their suffering and end this fight, I will.”

Verje struggled to his feet. “It’s the only reason I didn’t follow my Pair in his death. I will finish the work we were meant to do. I will bring Erling to the throne of the Ascended. And only then will I allow myself to go beyond and join Sverd.”

“But I don’t know what to do,” June said. She looked so fragile and unsure sitting on the tundra, her head tilted down, her hands in her lap. It was hard to imagine she was the same person who had faced the Eld and tried to kill them.

Erling knelt in front of June and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Access Paaliaq’s memories. And maybe you’ll see how to free her kais.” Erling stood and pulled June into his arms. “We can’t let Earth be torn apart like the Red Planet. And I can’t lose you again.”

Anna clutched Rakan as a wave of pain rippled out from Erling and June.

“But I don’t know how to access her memories,” June said. Her voice wavered. “What if I can’t?”

Haakon snorted. “What makes you think you’d be doing it alone?”

June looked at Haakon and Anna could feel the mental connection that flared between the two.

“I know where the memories are,” said Lysa, her eyes only half-focused on their mixed group.