Wrath of the Dragon, page 11
Cyra opened her mouth like she was about to argue, but then she clamped it shut again.
“Well, that’s just Cyra,” I muttered to the witch. “Hostility is different than ill intentions, though.”
“Aye.” The Night Witch nodded reluctantly. “Truth is, I don’t think you’re really working for the demons. But I can’t tell you where the king is. They’ll know. Somehow, they’ll know.”
“So it’s a king,” I said. “A Demon King. It’s really important that we find out where his base is. We need to save someone who’s being held captive there. If you just give us this one bit of information, then we can save a life.”
“I’m leaving,” the witch said as she shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m trying to save my life, too.”
She picked up the cat and swung her bag over her shoulder, and I was about to argue when I heard a spine chilling sound echo outside.
It was a high-pitched cackle followed by a deep series of howls.
“They’re here,” the witch whispered. “I’m too late. They’ve come for me.”
“Hide,” I said. “Take your cat and hide.”
The witch stood like a statue as her cat hissed, and I raced back to the front door with Cyra behind me.
“Hide!” I yelled over my shoulder. “I mean it!”
The witch scurried off into another room, and Cyra grabbed my arm.
“Ryan,” she growled. “Wait!”
“We need to protect her,” I insisted. “I know she hasn’t been helpful, but we can’t just leave her here to die.”
I swung the door open and stepped out to see a group of demons running around the lake. They were deep purple like the ones we had seen before, but it was clear that this was the next level up of the hellish creatures. The demons were twice the size of the underlings in width and height. They must have been about nine feet tall, and their bodies were thick and muscular. Curled horns stuck out of their heads, and they had a row of spikes running along their spines and down to their thick tails. They ran on four legs like dogs, and they had axes strapped onto belts which told me they could probably also stand on their back two legs in a fight.
I could see eleven of the beasts in total, and a deep sense of dread filled my chest. I was furious that these bastards were on their way to kill someone who had tried to help others. I knew I had to stop them. It felt like the whole reason I had woken up in this new world was to stop these fuckers and help the people of the Night Lands break free from this bullshit.
The sparking feeling of heat and strength I’d been experiencing started to build all over my body, and the prickly heat raced down the back of my neck.
“Ryan,” Cyra hissed. “What are we meant to do?”
I looked at the pretty angel to answer, but as my eyes locked with her fiery eyes, I was suddenly overcome with the need to protect her. The howls of the demons were fast approaching, and something inside me was clawing at my skin to be unleashed.
Then my body exploded.
I couldn’t describe it in any other way. My entire being erupted into the air, and I became something bigger. Something that burned with righteous determination.
I was suddenly high above the witch’s house in a body that was mine but was also completely different from my human form. But I felt complete. I felt truly alive.
Then I looked down to the Night Lake, and my reflection stared back up at me.
I was twenty feet long, and my entire body glowed with burning orange and red scales. I had enormous wings that spanned nearly the length of the lake, and my glowing yellow eyes could see every detail of the trees below me. I had a sharp snout filled with fire and an aching burn in my throat that needed to be unleashed, and as I raised my face up to the sky, I spat flames into the wind.
The dark sky was illuminated by the glow of my fire breath and smoldering body, and I could see colors of the land that had been hidden for so long by the endless darkness. It was as if the whole of the Night Lands had woken up, and the deep forest was finally covered in warm and fiery light.
That’s when I realized the witch had actually been right.
I was no longer just a mortal man.
I was a fucking fire-breathing dragon.
Chapter 7
Cyra shot up into the sky to join me, and the angel’s face was glowing as she smiled from ear to ear. Her burgundy hair danced around her, and the golden highlights in her wings glowed from the light of my burning body. The freckles on her skin looked like they were on fire, and her sparkling eyes were opened wide.
“Ryan!” she screamed. “You’re a dragon! I… I haven’t seen a dragon in hundreds of years! I can’t believe this. How? How is this possible?”
“I feel so… I don’t know. Complete,” I said, and I was surprised to hear my deep voice coming from my new body.
Then I glanced down at the lake and swung my tail from side to side as I admired the golden glow I gave off. It looked like my scales were on fire, and I was as bright as a sun as I glided through the dark sky.
“I can’t believe this is real!” Cyra yelled. “Ryan… this has never happened before. You’re a fucking dragon!”
I was happy the angel seemed just as excited as I was, and she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off me as she laughed and cheered. I spun around in the sky and was amazed at how naturally flight had come to me. My wings just seemed to know exactly what to do, and the air felt cool on my scales.
Then I looked down to see the demons had stopped running and seemed frozen as they stared up at the sky. Suddenly, I didn’t feel threatened at all by the arrival of the higher-ranking demons, and I knew I was about to put my fire-breathing powers to good use.
That was something else I just seemed to know how to do. It was like taking a deep breath, but the sensation filled my whole body with warmth, and the release of my flames sent a surge of dopamine through me.
Cyra was just staring at me in mid-air, and the angel seemed to have forgotten that we had company on the ground below. I couldn’t exactly blame her, though. It was a hell of a lot to take in.
“You’re so calm!” she yelled. “How are you so calm? I’m losing my mind here and have about a thousand questions I’m guessing nobody will be able to answer.”
“I’m not calm!” I laughed. “I just feel… fucking fantastic! Everything feels right, it’s like I was always supposed to be this. Now, let’s deal with these assholes so we can find out where Nisha is being held. We can ask questions afterwards.”
The mention of her friend’s name seemed to shake Cyra from her shock, and she nodded determinedly as she looked down at the demons.
“Demons can’t be hurt with fire,” Cyra said. “Unless… well, there’s a special type of flame that the gods created, but it hasn’t been around in hundreds of years.”
“Neither have dragons,” I said. “I don’t think the rules of the world are strict anymore. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just know I can hurt these bastards with my fire.”
“Only one way to find out,” Cyra said. “Let’s go and fuck up some demons.”
The angel started to dive down toward the lake, and I followed her with a rumbling roar that sent sparks flying from my maw. I dove toward the demons, and it only took a couple of seconds to get close enough to see their ugly faces.
They all had thick eyebrows and giant fangs that stuck out of their jaws, and they swung up onto their hind legs and grabbed the axes from their belts.
Then I opened my mouth as the demons started to swing their weapons wildly, and I spat fire right into the center of the group.
A few of them managed to race away in time, but my stream of flames enveloped most of the beasts. The fire clung to their bodies, and they screeched as their purple skin was scorched off and their bodies started to blacken. They fell onto the ground in a chaotic tide of screeches, and one of them jumped into the lake, but it was too late. Their bodies continued to crumble as I swooped back up into the sky, and the flesh on their faces was stripped down until they were left with bare skulls and eyeballs. It was grotesque to watch how the fire worked, but it was clear these demons were not immune to my powers.
These bastards didn’t stand a chance.
Only three of the demons had managed to escape the flames, and they raced toward the witch’s house, but I dove down at them as the surge of power built up in my smoldering chest. Then I spewed fire down onto their skulls, and the orange flames made their purple skin melt away from their bones.
They let out a series of gurgled howls as they fell in agony to the ground, and Cyra punched the air in triumph as the demons were cremated in front of us.
I quickly scanned the ground to make sure I had gotten all of them, but then the angel hollered to get my attention.
“You have it!” Cyra screamed. “You have angel fire!”
“I have what?” I belted back.
“It’s the most powerful form of flame power,” Cyra panted as she soared closer to me. “Demons are not immune to it! This… this is incredible. How is this happening?”
“I don’t know, but I think I’m going to like having angel fire,” I laughed.
I knew I should change back into my human form, but I took one last moment to swirl around in the air and take in the view. In the light of my smoldering scales, I could see far over the trees to the distant hills, and I realized I was probably visible all the way back in the city.
Then I swooped down toward the ground and focused hard on my human form. As I reached the grassy land by the witch’s house, I felt myself changing, and I landed slightly ungracefully on my feet. I steadied myself as Cyra landed beside me, and I looked down to see myself back in my human body.
There were a million thoughts and questions racing through my mind, but all I could think about was how right it all felt. I probably should have been freaking out or desperately trying to understand how this all came to be, but I just couldn’t stop grinning.
I was a fucking dragon man.
Cyra leapt into my arms and planted a kiss on my lips. I picked her up and spun her around while we both laughed deliriously, and she giggled as I placed her back down on the grass.
“A dragon,” she breathed. “Ryan, this… this is more incredible than I ever could have imagined.”
“I still feel like I’m flying,” I said. “I breathed fire! Fucking fire!”
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Cyra said. “I thought you were human!”
“I am human,” I laughed. “Just a human. You’ve made that perfectly clear, remember?”
“But… but how?” the angel panted as she clutched my arms.
“You tell me,” I snorted. “You’re the expert in all this crazy otherworld shit.”
Cyra furrowed her brow as she stared intently at me, and she kept her hands clutched around my biceps. My own hands were snug around the slim tuck of her waist, and as I pulled her even tighter against me, her eyes sparked with something like understanding.
“There… there have always been stories,” the angel murmured. “About what can happen if an angel were to be with another celestial in the most intimate way. It’s called binding, but it is meant to only happen between two immortals.”
“Binding,” I repeated. “What does that mean exactly?”
“It’s an ancient legend,” Cyra replied. “The stories were all slightly different. The ones I heard said that if an angel bound herself to another, then he would absorb her powers and unlock both their greatest potential. How could it be, though? You’re a mortal!”
I stared at Cyra as a million thoughts raced through my head.
“So this has never happened before?” I asked. “It’s only meant to happen with celestial beings?”
“That’s right,” Cyra said. “That’s why I didn’t mention it after we joined together. It’s not something that happens! It just isn’t!”
The angel looked both confused and impressed. She folded her arms as she stared at me, and her golden eyes flickered all over my body as she studied me.
I looked down at my hand and carefully held it up to the purple light of the orbs in the sky. It looked the same as before, but I certainly didn’t feel the same. I was apparently the first mortal man to absorb celestial powers.
But why me? Was I even mortal anymore?
A dragon. It was too much to take in properly, but no matter how crazy it all sounds, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all somehow… right.
“I’m lucky I found you,” Cyra said softly, and I refocused to find her looking at me intently. “I still can’t believe this is real. As far as I know, I am the first angel to bind with a mortal, but I don’t think you’re exactly mortal anymore. I suppose I can’t be certain of anything in this. I’m so confused but… so happy, too.”
“Same,” I said. “That feeling of flying, breathing fire, it just all felt so natural. I can’t explain how or why this happened to me, but I’m so glad it did.”
“It looked pretty impressive, too.” Cyra grinned. “We should probably bond again soon. Just in case we need to top off your powers…”
The angel shrugged innocently and shot me a sly look with her golden eyes.
“I think that’s a good idea,” I chuckled. “We wouldn’t want the powers fading or anything.”
“I feel like I’m dreaming,” Cyra laughed. “A dragon… A real dragon! For a moment there it was like having a god back. I didn’t feel unguided, I felt steady and like… well, like I wasn’t alone here.”
“You aren’t alone,” I said and cupped her cheek. “Not anymore.”
“Not now that I’ve bound myself to you,” she whispered, and her voice shook like it was almost too good to be true.
Then there was a slow creak as the witch’s door opened, and she came out to join us with her green eyes wide open. But she didn’t look as scared as she had before, and the cat walked beside her as it meowed up at me.
“You are a dragon!” the witch said. “I knew you weren’t a mortal, but I never would have guessed this. How can it be? And you’re an… an angel?”
Cyra nodded as she swung her cloak back over her wings, and I hoped the witch wasn’t going to try and start any kind of fight.
“Thank you,” the old woman said with obvious relief. “I mean it. You saved my life.”
“You should still leave,” I said as I glanced over the river. “I know there will be a lot of people who saw me in the sky, and I have a feeling there will be more demons on their way in no time.”
“He’s right.” Cyra nodded. “You should go to that other house while the way is clear. Besides, those demons are going to stink the whole lake up as they rot.”
I glanced over at the piles of charred corpses, and I could already smell a strong whiff of sulfur and decay.
“One moment,” the witch said, and she hurried back indoors.
“The whole forest is going to be talking about this,” Cyra whispered with a touch of awe. “The way you glowed made it feel like the stars were back, Ryan.”
“Then people are going to have a lot of questions,” I said. “I know I have plenty.”
“I don’t have all the answers,” Cyra said. “I never could have dreamed that this would happen.”
“Well, we’ll figure it out together,” I assured her.
Then the witch appeared again, and she handed a rolled-up bit of parchment to Cyra.
“This is my map,” the witch said. “I can show you the route that will take you to the Demon King.”
“You will?” I asked as a grin spread across my face.
The witch smirked at me. “After all you’ve done for me, I feel I’ll owe you for all my life.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I chuckled.
“But we won’t deny you the option,” Cyra muttered under her breath.
Then the angel hurriedly unrolled the paper, and I saw that the map had been hand-drawn with an amazing attention to detail. There were little notes in neat handwriting that labeled every area, and the witch pointed to a thin blue line that led through the forest from the lake. The line reached right up past the woods and stopped at a large square that was colored in black. Beneath the square there was a label “the king’s lair.”
“That’s where she is,” Cyra breathed. “She’s trapped there. It’s… it’s so far away!”
“We’re going to get her,” I promised. “Now that we have a map, nothing can stop us. Thank you so much for this.”
The witch nodded as she studied my face, and I heard a distant cry that was unmistakably a demon.
“Shit, they’re coming,” I said. “You need to get out of here. If they find a group of dead demons outside your house, then I don’t think it will end well. Will you be okay on your own?”
“I know the people of the forest.” The witch nodded. “The vampires sometimes come by to see me. They’ll be around if I need help.”
The witch rummaged in her bag and pulled out two small bottles she handed to me. One of them had a swirling, pink liquid inside, and the other seemed to just contain black mist.
“Are these potions?” I asked as I held them up.
“Yes, I hope they help you,” the witch answered. “It’s the least I can do after what you just did for me. The pink one is a sleeping potion, and the other is a smoke bomb. Now, you must remember these are single use spells, so only use them when you have absolutely no other options.”
“This is amazing,” I breathed. “Magic potions?”
“You just turned into a dragon,” Cyra snorted. “I would say that was pretty magical, too.”
“Are you… are you a god?” the witch asked as I slipped the potions into my bag. “Have they returned at last?”
“A god?” I asked. “I’m not exactly sure what to call myself with this new power, but I’m definitely not a god.”
There was another howl that sounded much closer, and it was clearly time to go. The witch scooped her cat up and placed it on her shoulder.
“Be safe,” the old woman said. “Your journey will be dangerous, even with your powers.”
“Thank you for everything,” I said. “The map and the potions are lifesaving. Take care, okay?”
