Legacy of Flames- The Complete Trilogy, page 55
part #1 of Legacy of Flames Series
I ran to meet them, hoping the glamour would hold up long enough to give me the element of surprise. Astor shot me an exasperated look, which I ignored, then moved to walk alongside me.
I waited in the middle of the pavement. The two hunters walked in unison, entirely oblivious to my presence. Three. Two. One.
I struck before they could scream, lashing out with my claws. The blow connected with the Elite on the left but did no damage. Damn that armour. My second swipe tore loose the Elite’s mask. He raised his gun and shot, missing my side by an inch. I spun in an inferno of rage, a tangle of claws, ripping his uniform open to expose the vulnerable human skin beneath. The blast of a witch spell told me Cori had caught up, her own claws ruby red and gleaming.
Astor struck the second Elite over the head with his own gun and ripped his mask off, and I took my chance. I tore the Moonbeam loose from his hands.
Gotcha.
Light splashed across the ground. Oh, shit. How do I turn this thing off?
The Elite swiped and knocked me over, and Cori ran to my side. “I’ll take it—”
The light grew brighter. Several people shouted our names, but too late. The light engulfed me, and I reached for Cori as we disappeared…
11
At first I couldn’t see anything but dazzling white light. Then, darkness came as the Moonbeam’s light faded away. Cool earthy air filled my lungs with a familiar tang. I knew where we were—the same place the Moonbeam had taken us before. In a hole in the ground, somewhere bloody freezing. I shivered in the icy air, certain we weren’t even in England, let alone London. The air smelled too clean to be in a city.
There was a shuffling noise and a scream. Cori.
I was out of the hole in a flash, leaping in the direction of the noise. Cori lay pinned beneath the claw of the dragon who’d attacked me before. I hadn’t seen another dragon at full power from this perspective. It took my breath away to see its huge fearsome head bending over Cori, teeth curling from its jaw. Blue scales covered its large body from head to toe, glittering in the moonlight, and its tent-like wings were tucked against its back. Its muscled legs were planted either side of my sister, pinning her to the grass beneath. We appeared to be on some kind of hill, and there were the dark shapes of houses nearby—but I had eyes only for Cori.
My claws slid out. “Let her go,” I growled.
The dragon opened its mouth and roared. I braced myself, digging my claws into the earth to keep from being knocked aside. Any other shifter would probably have been rendered immobile. Even to me, the instinct to flinch threatened to overwhelm my stronger impulse to attack, to defend my sister.
Instead, I shifted into dragon form myself.
A roar of my own escaped, sending a clear message. The dragon growled, not giving ground. Cori lay absolutely still, frozen in terror.
I roared again, jabbing my claw in her direction. The dragon prodded her. You’re trespassing, his body language conveyed.
We didn’t come here deliberately! Let her go.
The dragon didn’t move. Obviously it couldn’t read minds, though I’d thought my growl was enough. Shit. I wasn’t sure I could win a confrontation with a creature that size. Even in dragon form. But I wouldn’t risk Cori’s safety. I walked closer, claw raised ready to swat him aside so Cori could run.
The dragon raised a claw and lashed out, impossibly quick. My claw locked with his, and he growled. He was so much stronger than me. There was real power behind the movement, enough to tell me that I hadn’t done nearly enough training in dragon form to overcome a beast this size.
I used my powerful back legs to push off the ground, colliding with the dragon from the side and unbalancing him. Cori rolled free from his claws and crawled away.
His claw struck me in the face. Warm blood gushed down my cheek and I hissed in pain.
“Stop!” Cori shouted at him. “Don’t hurt her. We’re not here to fight.”
The dragon’s other claw disentangled from mine and then jabbed at my ribs, glancing off my tough scales. Cori screamed.
Two more dragons had appeared from the shadows behind her.
“We’re not enemies!” Cori yelled.
The dragons exchanged a series of growls then grabbed Cori between them. I moved forwards to challenge them and the first dragon struck me again, this time in the leg. I roared as his claw pierced the joint underneath my scales. The shock of the pain sent me stumbling. Cori yelped and kicked as their claws locked around her waist and lifted her off the ground. I ducked another swipe from the huge dragon and ran after her.
My injured leg made me limp, but I moved faster than I would as a human. Not enough, though. The dragons were quicker, climbing the hillside using both claws and wings. Apparently we were in the countryside somewhere. We’d left the city far behind. Hills surrounded us and taller ones shadowed the horizon. Mountains? We couldn’t be anywhere near London anymore. How were we supposed to get out of here?
It’ll be okay. I’ll talk to them. They can’t want to get rid of us, if there are so few dragon shifters left. Maybe they just don’t trust strangers.
A settlement waited ahead, a small village of stone buildings. They didn’t get much bigger as we drew closer. Before I had the chance to wonder how in the world the shifters fit through the doors in dragon form, the three dragons turned human again. They were all male, large and muscular. The biggest of all was the first dragon shifter, built like a wrestler or bodyguard. He wore a battered-looking leather jacket and jeans, a weird contrast with the ancient-looking buildings.
Cori squirmed free from the other two and ran back to me, her eyes huge and her limbs shaking. What was this, some kind of lost dragon colony? How had they stayed hidden?
Why look at us like we’d committed some awful crime?
One way to find out. I turned human, remaining close beside Cori. “We’re not here to harm you,” I told them.
“As long as you don’t harm us,” Cori added.
“Rogues.” The first dragon snorted. “What do you want from us?”
“Nothing. Just to know why you sent us away.”
“I don’t know you. You smell of humans.”
“But—you know what we are,” I said. “We’re shifters like you.”
“We aren’t a charity, little girl.”
Huh? “What? We never asked you for anything.” They might not be what I expected, but they were still unmistakeably dragon shifters. They’d never turn on us like the hunters, surely. “But someone sent my sister and me to London when we were kids, carrying a notebook with an address leading us right here.” I didn’t want to tell this aggressive stranger our life stories, but hostility was the last reaction to our arrival I’d have expected. “We lived here when we were younger, but someone wiped our memories and sent us away. We came back to find out who.”
None of the other three dragons responded. My heart sank into my shoes. Okay, the notebook hadn’t exactly led to the Moonbeam, but how many dragons were left in the world? They must know. Surely.
The guy who shifted into a blue dragon paused before saying, “If you are who you say you are, come with me for questioning.”
I swallowed down harsh words, the throbbing pain in my cheek and leg tempering my anger. Why treat us like criminals just for looking for answers?
Cori and I followed slowly down the hillside towards the village. My injured leg hurt like hell, but I wouldn’t show weakness. This situation was all wrong, and instead of answers, I only had more questions. The other people—dragons—hadn’t even looked at me. Let alone given me any clues if they knew my parents. Maybe someone here had been the one to put Cori and me on that train to London, but not these three. I’d get away from them and ask other people in the village.
They stopped besides a stone building much like the others, but larger. The leading dragon shifter dismissed the other two, then unlocked the building. Cori and I walked in, hesitantly. The hall was dark, but a bright light shone from one of the nearby rooms. So bright, it was almost white. The Moonbeam? The empty stone rooms brought the cold air in from outside, cooling down the heat of my transformation.
The blue dragon shifter turned to face us. “Tell me who you are,” he commanded.
“I’m Ember and this is my sister, Cori,” I said. “We’re from London. Who are you?”
“My name is Lorne.” He paused. “You should not have come here. We’re not open to sheltering strangers.”
“We aren’t strangers,” I objected. “We—I’m positive we lived here, or with the other dragon shifters, anyway. Our memories were erased. I want to find out who did it.” I stumbled over the words as I tried to tell him everything that mattered—the secrecy of our lives, the danger of the League, and the fact that our pasts remained a blank. I glossed over Cori’s kidnapping and the last few weeks, not keen to mention Astor. But I made it clear the hunters were still a danger to all dragon shifters, and that we’d come here looking for answers about who sent us away. No matter what I said, no warmth or understanding shone in his gaze. His eyes were cold as he assessed us.
“You’re young, untrained, and unequipped to be part of our clan. That one—” He jerked his head at Cori—“Hasn’t even shifted yet.”
Cori bristled. “So what?”
“And you have no respect for authority,” he added.
“You stabbed my sister,” Cori objected.
“But if you’d let us explain—” I began.
“You already did. We’ve wasted enough time.”
“We’re not the enemy,” I said. “Please—if you won’t let us stay, then at least answer my questions. Have the hunters ever been here? Because I have reason to believe the League will target you soon. They have the—”
He pushed open the door on the right, revealing a bright glow. Not the Moonbeam, but a mirror similar to Samuel’s.
Oh, shit. That must be how they’d sent us away before.
“Hang on,” I said. “You can’t—”
His hands shifted into claws, pointing at Cori. “Don’t make me send you away by force.”
“Excuse me?” said Cori. “This is by force. You haven’t told us a damn thing. Why are you here, and what gives you the right to stop us from talking to the other dragons?”
She stepped away from his claws, and light spilled across the room, into the hall. I started to yell, the fire igniting in my heart again, but the light consumed us, and then we were gone.
12
Cori and I reappeared, falling onto soft carpet. Will swore loudly, and Becks gawped at us, while Kit sat bolt upright on the sofa from where he’d apparently been sleeping. We must have interrupted a crisis group meeting in the shelter’s living room, because even Astor was there, albeit on the other side of the room by the hallway entrance. His brows rose at our appearance, the closest to surprised I’d ever seen him.
“Wish I could do that,” Becks said.
I looked between them. “Guys. How—?”
The brightness faded. The Moonbeam lay on the nearest table. That explained it.
“You got it away from the hunters?” I asked.
“The assassin did,” said Will. “So how was Narnia?”
“Too cold,” I joked. “Well. I’ve no idea where it actually was, but somewhere that’s stuck a few centuries in the past.”
“Narnia?” echoed Kit. “Is that something else I missed in the last two years?”
“Er… not quite,” said Will.
“Looked like the north, or Scotland,” said Cori. “Somewhere with mountains, anyway. The guy who spoke to us was English.”
I faced the others. “This big dragon dude refused to answer our questions and then sent us home.”
“Same guy as before?” asked Will. “What did you do, throw a party and break the furniture?”
“It’s not funny.” Anger sparked, more directed at the bastard who’d kicked us out than anything else. My leg throbbed with pain, blood soaking through my jeans where he’d stabbed me.
“No, it isn’t,” said Cori. “He nearly killed me, and wouldn’t even let us speak to the other dragons.”
“And you’re bleeding,” added Kit. “Is nobody going to mention that part?”
“Yeah. I’ll get a healing spell.”
“No need.” Kit walked over with his hands outstretched. Green light enveloped my bleeding leg, and the pain vanished instantly. He did the same to the cut on my face.
“Thanks,” I said to him.
“I’ve been practising,” he said. “I can probably heal broken bones, but it didn’t work on the zombie.”
I coughed. “You tried to revive an undead?”
“No. Kind of… it was an experiment.”
“Will’s idea,” added Becks.
“Why am I not surprised.” I rolled my eyes. “Apparently nobody’s learned their lesson about misapplied necromancy yet.”
“It’s not necromancy,” Will objected. “I was just curious.”
“Like when you decided to see if fireworks and witch spells went together?” I shook my head at him.
“I tried to warn him,” Becks said. “Now he has Kit working with him, none of us are safe. But really, we were worried about you and needed a distraction. What else happened?”
Between the two of us, Cori and I updated the others on our experiences over lunch. Kit’s healing abilities had taken care of my injuries, but the dragon’s hatred of us stung worse than ever.
“That’s so weird,” said Becks. “You’d think they’d be glad to see you.”
“Apparently not.”
Astor seemed reluctant to meet my eyes, for some reason. Had he expected me to stay with the other dragons, maybe? If last night had taught me anything, it was that I clearly didn’t have the first clue what he was thinking. Hunters wore an indifferent mask all the time, but I’d seen it crack last night, and from the way his jaw tightened at every mention of the other dragon, it couldn’t be more obvious he was jealous. His shoulders hunched haughtily, and he spoke in clipped responses. I could hardly run off with him now to prove I hadn’t forgotten last night. We had more important things to worry about.
“Maybe Ember and Cori did something awful before they left,” Kit suggested.
“Like robbed little old ladies?” Will said.
“Guys, seriously,” I said. “The person who wrote the notebook seemed certain that we’d want to go back—that they’d want us back. The guy running the show said he didn’t even know who we are.”
“Unless he lied,” said Cori. “He said there wasn’t any room for more dragons.”
“Maybe they sent us away because of him? Because our parents knew he’d kick us out? I don’t know…”
“I still think the hunters are involved,” Cori said.
“Yep. We didn’t see any trace of them, though.”
“Are you sure?” asked Astor.
“Positive. The hunters would never leave that large a number of dragons alive.”
“We didn’t get much chance to look around,” said Cori. “But if we have the Moonbeam…”
“Of course we have to go back,” I said. “That dragon… I’m sure he lied to us. He just wanted us gone.” I hated, hated, that I didn’t understand what we’d done to piss him off. It seemed more like he was opposed to outsiders in general, but other dragon shifters? Hunters? I’d seen no traces of them, but couldn’t forget the other mirror. The false Samuel. Was Lorne a hunter in disguise? Not Malkin—he’d have killed me if he’d been there. And every part of me, dragon and human, knew Lorne for the powerful dragon shifter he truly was.
Surely a dragon that powerful would never cave into the hunters. But then, did I really know him based on two terrible first impressions? Might he be cooperating with them? Or brainwashed? But—the only way the hunters had been able to tame me was by suppressing my shifting ability, and Lorne had already shifted in front of me. Something was seriously messed up.
“Tonight,” said Cori. “We’ll go back tonight. Prepared this time.”
“You… you want to go back?” I asked her.
Cori dipped her head. “Obviously. They’re our people. That guy might be trying to stop us speaking to them, but we need to figure out what the hell’s going on with the other dragons.”
“I know.” That controlling dragon wasn’t the half of it. “We can use shadow spells, then. Sneak back through, and hope they don’t sniff us out. There must be someone else who realised we were there. Someone with answers.”
“Exactly,” said Cori. “I saw movement in the houses when that guy dragged us to the town hall. They’ll have heard you roar, too.”
“Of course.” All hope wasn’t lost after all. “Okay. So we set the Moonbeam up, then go through while wearing shadow spells. And we take other spells, too, in case we have to fight our way out…” I trailed off as Will and Becks both nodded.
“Great idea,” said Will. “I’ll create diversions. I’ve been messing with this new spell which makes it rain spiders.”
“Hang on,” I said.
“And I’d like to see the other dragons,” Becks added.
“Guys!” I cut in. “We can’t—”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” said Will.
“Ditto,” added Becks.
“We can’t all go,” I protested. “Also, the only way back is to use the mirror, and I’m not sure whether that building is closed at night. Also, only Cori and I can choose where we transport ourselves to. If anyone else uses it, they might end up at the other mirror, and we know the hunters have that one.”
“Then we prepare for breaking and entering as well.” Will paused. “I’d say we go in a group.”
“And split up to cover more ground?” Becks said.
“Have you ever seen a horror movie?”
“This is more like an espionage movie.” Will grinned. “Spying on dragons. Perfect.”
“We’re not spying, we’re questioning people.” I paused. “Actually, that’s not a bad shout. We should split up at the town hall. Some of us should stay there and make sure Lorne isn’t around, so we have a safe way back. If he sets up any traps, dismantle them.”
