Dragon Ashes: Dragon Guard Book 3, page 4
This was a trap. A fucking trap by Primian. He’d shown his hand. But why so soon? So blatantly?
The answer was obvious.
He didn’t expect me to come out of this alive, and he believed once I was dead, the Mageri would be free.
The fucker had no idea my mother was still alive and kicking.
He also had no idea what I was capable of.
“Bring it!” I pulled Jezebel from her holster at my back. “What you got?”
The room rumbled and the sharp crack of stone ricocheted off the walls. The statues were moving. Coming to life. Stone ground against stone, spitting rubble onto marble as the monolithic statues drew their weapons and turned to face me.
Well, this was new.
“Anya! What’s going on?” Yasra called through the door. “What’s that noise.”
I gripped Jezebel firmly. Cutting down stone was not going to be an easy feat. “Statues are alive.”
“Fuck!” The door shuddered. “Fucking magic!”
“Save your strength. I’m going to need your help once Lorance blows these doors open.”
The statues closed in, huge stone feet crushing marble as they advanced. My thighs bunched, ready to spring into action, to evade and defend as best as possible against an opponent that couldn’t be killed.
The statues attacked with real weapons. A blade the same height as me sliced the air toward me. I leapt out of the way. A mace three times the size of my head smashed into the ground directly in my path. I twisted my body, skirting the weapon and its spikes, then sprinted for a gap between the stone monoliths and swerved to avoid the pinch of a kite shield to my right.
I aimed for the podium, simply to reach clear ground and find a moment to breathe and assess the situation. The air whooshed as the wicked edge of a mammoth axe hurtled toward me, its blade horizontal to the ground in a move that aimed to take off my head. I threw myself into a slide, head whipping back to avoid the bite of the blade by mere inches. As the polished steel whizzed past, I caught sight of my reflection, eyes wide in panic.
No time for that shit, Anya.
Back on your fucking feet.
Podium ahead.
We’re almost there.
I caught movement in the periphery of my vision a moment too late to avoid impact with the wooden club. It slammed into my abdomen, knocking the breath from me, sweeping me off my feet and flinging me across the room.
My back hit the stone wall with an unhealthy crunch, scales taking the brunt of the impact. I remained suspended for a long moment before gravity claimed me, yanking me sharply to earth.
I hit the ground on all fours, pain lighting up my insides and tearing a scream from my throat.
My chest was on fire, each breath like inhaling shards of glass.
My insides were broken.
Shadows loomed as the statues closed in. Up, woman, get the fuck up. I straightened and raised Jezebel, screaming through the agony of hot knives stabbing into my torso, and charged.
Chapter Five
AZAZEL
I watch the world through distorted glass, unable to break through, to speak or touch, but Anya is close by. I feel her and yet I’ve never felt so disconnected from her. It’s as if there are new barriers between us. New energies wrapped around her, keeping me at bay, as if…As if I’m something to be warded against.
My insides shiver with apprehension and foreboding, for what am I, truly?
Who am I?
I am nothing if not connected to her.
Nothing without her as a focus.
But right now, focus is difficult.
I slip through the corridors of the fortress like a whisper, like a ghost. Dreki life force tempts me at every turn, but I don’t take it. Anya wouldn’t like that.
There are gaps in my memory.
Black spots.
The building beyond Sector 8 and Anya’s horrified expression is the last thing I recall before being back here again. What caused me to lose power? What caused me to become so disconnected?
Why can’t I find Anya?
Voices draw me into a dimly lit room. I catch sight of a figure, blurred and distorted.
“You will do what must be done.” This voice is raspy and cruel. It’s impossible to tell if it’s male or female.
“Please. Please, you have to stop.” This voice is male, but nothing more than a whimpered whisper.
“There is no going back. Only forward.”
I search for the second speaker, but the room blurs and darkens as if this world is pushing me away.
I press forward, digging in my claws. The temptation to take life, simply to exist, is a throb in my throat.
“I won’t let you do this,” the male says. “I won’t let you hurt her.”
“You fool! You think you’re strong enough to stop me?”
“Maybe I’m not, but she is. Anya isn’t a puppet like Anara was.”
Anya? They’re speaking about Anya.
“She must die. She must die today.”
The words send a chill shooting through me.
Anya is in trouble.
I need to find her. And I need to do it now!
The world spins and spits me out onto a balcony. I recognize this place. I scouted here before. This is the Mageri tower, and for the first time since I was pulled back to the fortress, I feel Anya’s presence.
I feel her pain and it draws me like a magnet.
Anya, I’m coming.
Chapter Six
ANYA
I charged the nearest statue and leapt into the air, drawing Jezebel over my head in an arc before swinging her forward with enough force to smash and lodge in the statue’s shoulder.
The monolith pivoted sharply, sending me flying through the air, hands still attached to Jezebel, still anchored to the thing’s shoulder. My girl was stuck fast. I scrambled to get my boots planted on the statue’s upper arm and yanked at Jezebel, desperate to free her. A gust of air blew my hair off my shoulder, and I turned in time to see the statue’s free hand making a swipe at me.
Fuck!
I let go of Jezebel and hit the ground in a crouch, biting back a scream at the jarring pain that shot through me.
But my broken ribs were the least of my problems. I was penned in, back to the doors, while weapons cut the air toward me.
There was nowhere to run.
“Get away from her!”
A robed figure slipped between the legs of the barbarian statue.
Lorance?
He threw himself in front of me, raising his gloved hands toward the statues. “Back!” A shockwave ripped through the air, hitting the statues and forcing them away a step. “Back!” He hit them again, widening the circumference around us. Their bodies shuddered and vibrated, fighting Lorance’s hold. “Anya, there’s a door behind the drapes at the back of the podium. Go, I have them in my grip. I’ll hold them off.”
So that’s where he’d come from. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to! They want you, not me. I’m not sure how long I can hold them. Run. I’ll be right behind you.”
Fuck.
“Please, Your Majesty. The fate of the Dreki depends on your survival.”
Move!
Azazel? My heart leapt at the sound of his voice.
Move now, Anya. I can feel his hold slipping.
“Dammit.”
I broke away from the Mageri and sprinted past the vibrating statues toward the podium.
A breeze brushed my shoulder. A whisper at my nape.
Azazel urging me on.
I climbed the platform and yanked back the drapes to find the door.
Go!
I pushed it open, but Lorance’s shrill cry brought me up short. The Mageri was on his ass, with statues closing in on him.
So much for them being after me.
Leave him. He’s dispensable.
“Not to me.”
I sprinted toward Lorance, aware of how stupid this move was, how futile, but leaving an innocent man to die wasn’t one of my skill sets. The clink of weapons being raised echoed throughout the room.
Anya, no!
I breached the circle around Lorance and planted myself in front of him.
Blades and spikes cut the air toward me.
An inferno of rage and impotence burned at the nape of my neck, tightening my throat. “No!”
I threw up my hands as if I could ward them off by sheer force of will. As if I could propel them into the air and force them to shatter. That very image filled my mind, sharp and real for a split second before cold fire rushed up my arms and out of my hands, hitting the statues with a sonic blast that recreated the image in my mind.
The monoliths hit the air and shattered, raining rubble across the ruined marble floors.
Silence followed, thick and pregnant with shock.
“You…you did that…” Lorance said in awe.
I surveyed the damage I’d somehow done, my mind scrambling to make sense of it and failing.
The doors burst open behind us and raised voices filled the dusty room. I caught Vesper’s distinctive cinnamon scent and heard the bark of his tone, but he seemed far away and insignificant.
I raised my tingling hands to my face. “What the actual fuck.”
* * *
I sat in an armchair by the hearth in the lords’ tower…Now my tower too. My ribs had healed and the strong tea Ria had brewed for me was doing wonders for my nerves.
Azazel was gone again, but I knew if he could be with me right now, he would, which scared the crap out of me because it meant he was in trouble.
Vesper paced the floor in short, sharp strides while Lorance watched him from his perch on a stool by the window.
Yasra and Wex had been questioned, cross-examined, and then released back to search for the messenger who’d delivered the note.
“Sit down.” I sipped my tea. “They’ll be back when they’re back.”
He’d sent a messenger to find Orion and Primian, and another to summon Dante. A final message had been sent for Helgi and Illyrian both at the nursery and at my old quarters, asking them to come to the tower.
Lorance wrung his hands. “Primian wouldn’t do this.”
“The note says otherwise,” Vesper snapped. He pulled it from his pocket and read it again with angry sweeps of his eyes. “The fucking gall. I’ll tear out his intestines myself.”
But stuff didn’t add up, and he knew it. “If he was with Orion all this time, how did he send the note?”
“Once we find the messenger, we’ll have proof,” Lorance said.
“What’s taking so fucking long.”
I’d never seen Vesper this agitated. He was sarcasm and cool jibes. He was a drawl in the back of my mind, and quick, jabbing quips. This undone Dreki with wild eyes and anxious tension radiating off him wasn’t the Dreki I’d come to know.
“Please sit down, Vesper.”
He stopped his pacing to glare at me.
I arched a brow. “If it wasn’t so ridiculous, I’d think you were pissed off at me for almost getting killed today.”
His gaze softened and he exhaled with a shaky laugh. “Trust you to make jokes about this. Anya, you could have died.”
“I know, but I didn’t, so sit the fuck down. Your pacing is making my head hurt.”
He took the seat opposite me.
“Have some tea.” I indicated the pot that Ria had left for me. “It’ll calm you down.”
“Oh, I’ll have some tea all right, as soon as I have the head of the bastard responsible for this attack.”
“Your Majesty,” Lorance said. “Maybe we should discuss how you were able to shatter the guardian statues.”
Vesper fixed his cobalt eyes on me in confusion. “Wait. You did that?”
“Apparently so.”
“Our queen used magic.” Lorance sounded almost proud. “Power like I have not seen before.”
Vesper sat forward. “You used magic?”
“Don’t ask how because I have no clue.”
“But I do.”
I looked up to find Illyrian standing in the doorway. It was a testament to how shaken up we all were that none of us had sensed his arrival.
Helgi entered the tower behind him. Her wild gaze swept over me, checking for injuries, and her shoulders relaxed when she found none.
“What do you know?” Vesper asked Illyrian.
“Everything.” Illyrian stepped further into the room. His attention flitted to Lorance, and a smile bloomed in his eyes. “Old friend.”
Lorance beamed at him. “It is good to see you alive and well, Illyrian. We must catch up soon.”
“Hey!” Vesper slapped his palm on his armrest. “Focus. Tell me about Anya’s abilities.”
“Anya’s potential is a mystery, but I can tell you where her ability to harness magic came from.”
We waited in anticipation.
He smiled at me. “It came from me.”
“You?” I frowned. “How?”
“A Dreki egg requires its mother’s energy to reach maturation. Anara had Cornelia protect the egg, but she would visit it and lend it her energy regularly. Once she was gone, it was up to me to protect the egg and ensure it hatched, so I gave you my energy. My power.” He reached out to stroke my hair. “You may not be my biological child, but you hold a part of me inside you. We are connected, Anya.”
My eyes pricked with the threat of tears. “You gave me your magic?”
“And it seems it became a part of you.”
“This is…impossible.” Lorance looked stunned. “If this is true, then the Mageri can infuse the youngling eggs with magic. We can bridge the divide and give you our power directly.”
Or we could take it. Force them to give it to us. That’s how the secret faction intent on being free would see this. They’d see me as an even bigger threat now. Proof of how Dreki could be born to use magic. Proof of how the Mageri might never be freed.
But the excitement on Lorance’s face doused my doubts.
“We must tell the others,” he said. “This could be vital in winning the war against the Jotunn.”
“No,” Illyrian said. “We must keep this news quiet for now.”
Lorance’s brow creased in a frown. “You’re afraid that whoever attacked our queen might intensify their assault once they find out about this development.”
“There will be no more assaults on Anya,” Vesper said firmly. “I’ll rip out Primian’s throat and be done with this whole thing.”
“Are you sure he’s the culprit?” Illyrian asked.
“No, we’re not.” I shot a glare at Vesper. “We have a note and his seal but he’s with Orion.”
Vesper handed Illyrian the note.
“The seal is Primian’s, but the handwriting…” Illyrian shook his head. “I would tease Primian about his illegible scrawl. This wasn’t penned by him.”
“I told you,” Lorance said smugly. “Primian wouldn’t do such a thing.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.” Vesper stood, his head canted. “Orion is back.”
Helgi strode to the door and yanked it open, peering out into the stone walkway beyond. A cool breeze rushed into the room, followed quickly by another gust of air and the shudder of the earth as Orion landed on the bridge outside the tower.
“Fucking hell.” Helgi backed into the room, and a moment later Orion swept in. Tendrils of deep blue hair clung to his alabaster cheeks, and a storm raged in his eyes.
“Anya.” His gaze zeroed in on me. “Thank the gods.”
“Where’s Primian?” Vesper demanded.
A tall, slender figure dressed in a deep navy robe edged in silver embroidery entered the room behind Orion.
Primian had the face of an angel, and long silver hair that fell down his back and chest in a glossy sheet.
He held his arms crossed in front of him, hands tucked into his robe. His pale green eyes scanned the room and settled on me, studying me for a long beat. He inclined his head slightly before settling his attention on Vesper.
“I received your summons,” he said coolly.
Vesper stood slowly, his powerful body unfurling to cast dangerous shadows across the room. “There was an attack on Anya.”
Primian’s eyes flared in shock. “Here? At the fortress?”
“No. At the Mageri tower in the great hall.”
Illyrian handed Primian the note and the head Mageri froze, staring at my father in shock.
“You’re alive.”
“Shocked your spies didn’t succeed in killing him?” Vesper sneered.
He was pushing this, acting like we believed Primian to be the culprit even though there was evidence to suggest otherwise. We needed to rule him out for sure, and his horrified reaction was too genuine to be a lie.
“My Lord, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He took the note and read it, his face draining of color. “I did not pen this note.”
I believed him.
“No?” Vesper drew up to him, looking down his nose at him, but to give the Mageri credit he didn’t flinch, meeting Vesper’s sneer with a defiant tilt of his chin.
“No. I confess I had my doubts about your assertion that the queen had an heir, but seeing her in the flesh, sensing her energy, has put those doubts to rest. The return of our queen is a huge boon. With her by our side, we can revive our search for the second grimoire and call back our gods before the Jotunn rise once more.”
“What about the Draco?” Vesper asked.
“Irrelevant,” Primian said. “Our focus must be on locating the second grimoire. The old gods are our key to defeating the Jotunn. Once we summon them, the Draco will fall.”
“Whoa, let’s back up to the fact that someone tried to kill Anya,” Helgi said.
Primian’s jaw clenched. “After the death of Anara, I believed the deceivers to have disbanded, but now I fear they are active once more. News of your existence has returned them to their insane cause.”
“You knew about them?” Illyrian looked shocked. “You knew and you did nothing?”
Primian’s eyes flashed. “You assume too much, Illyrian. You weren’t Anara’s only confidant. She spoke to me of her suspicions that there were forces working against her. There were…incidents at the fortress. A few accidents that seemed a little too convenient.”
