Wrath of the Dragon 3, page 4
I wiped the sheen of sweat from my face with my sleeve, and the angels hurried over to join me.
“Shit,” I hissed. “It looks like these are the higher-up demons.”
“Are you okay?” Cyra asked as she looked me over.
“I’m fine,” I said. “But these are the meanest-looking fuckers I’ve seen so far.”
Cyra planted a soft kiss on my cheek, and she wrinkled her nose as she looked down at the fallen beast. Nisha slipped her fingers in mine, and I squeezed her soft hand.
“You’re so brave,” Brooke said in an almost cheery voice. “I’m so excited that we’re all in this together! Dragon man and the angels. Oooh, we should think of a team name!”
“Maybe we should focus on the demons right now,” Nisha said.
“Oh, yeah,” Brooke said seriously. “They’re gross. Especially this one.”
The water angel nudged the dead demon with her foot, and she shuddered as she looked at the broken veins.
I crouched down to study the beast.
The gentle glow of red faded as the life left the creature. There was a hard, shell-like substance on its back, and I tapped it to find the spine had a rock hard shield.
“I think that’s what was making us feel ill,” Cyra said as she stepped away from the flowing blood. “I feel better now that it’s dead.”
“Me, too,” Brooke said. “That’s weird. I mean, we can always sense the evil of the demons, but this was a billion times worse. It was, like… overpowering.”
“They must be incredibly powerful,” Nisha murmured with a frown.
I stood up once I wiped the axe on the dusty ground. There didn’t seem to be any more demons around right now, but it wouldn’t be long until someone found the body.
“Let’s go,” I said grimly. “I don’t want to run into a whole squad of these bastards in a dark tunnel.”
The angels started to hurry along the right-hand pathway, and I kept my axe held tightly as I took my post at the back of the group. I could still smell the stench of demon blood in my nostrils, and I hoped the air would clear once we put some distance between us and the corpse.
“At least we’ll know when they’re close,” I said. “Did you feel that bad when we passed over the wall demons?”
“Nowhere near as strongly,” Cyra said. “These huge ones are clearly worse than any we’ve faced before.”
“I didn’t even feel that ill when I was with the queen,” Brooke said. “And she was huge and gross.”
“They looked like their backs were made of stone,” I said.
“Or bloodstone,” Nisha said. “Maybe they’re the ones who can trap people.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “I don’t even know how they would do it. We can’t let ourselves get surrounded by those things.”
I shuddered to think of any of my angels trapped in the horrific prison of a bloodstone. They were counting on me to protect them, and I was fired up and ready to spill more demon blood.
As we walked, I noticed there was a thin beam of light coming down from the ceiling. I stopped below it and looked up to see there was a narrow opening far up on the ceiling. It was a roughly circular hole that gave us a view of the pale blue sky.
“Should we go and look?” Brooke asked. “It might help us see if we can spot the Amber Palace.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t want any of you to just pop out and put yourselves in danger.”
“I can do it,” Nisha said. “If I use my night sky shield, then I’ll be less noticeable.”
“But it’s not night,” I pointed out.
“It won’t help me blend in perfectly,” Nisha said. “But I’ll be harder to spot than any of the others.”
“Plus, she might be the only one who would fit,” Brooke said. “Nisha’s adorably teeny-tiny. I don’t think I could squish these through.”
The water angel grabbed her impressive breasts as she spoke, and Cyra snorted as I tried to look anywhere else.
“You really have no filter on the things you say,” the fire angel said with an amused stare.
“It’d be no fun to talk if I did.” Brooke shrugged as she twirled her golden hair, and I felt a wave of comfort from the water angel’s lighthearted banter. She really did bring some much-needed positivity to our group.
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “Nisha can go. But only a quick peek to make sure Yavo didn’t send us on a wild goose chase. Then you’re returning right back here to me.”
“Goose chase?” Brooke frowned. “Why would he send us after geese? Are we having them for dinner?”
“It’s an expression from Earth,” I chuckled. “It means sending someone in the wrong direction.”
“Oooh.” The water angel nodded and smiled. “I love Earth expressions! They’re so weird and cute. Like, you just brought geese into this conversation out of nowhere! They didn’t need to come up, but they did.”
“Yeah,” I snorted. “I guess that’s true.”
“I’ll be right back,” Nisha chuckled.
The night angel slipped into her night form, and in the dull cave, it worked pretty well. She was still visible to me, but she was mostly just an outline of a figure with a strange dull hue filling in the rest. Then Nisha soared upward, and her wings barely fit through the space. She grabbed the top edge of the hole, and she slowly pulled her head and torso through to look out of the cave.
I watched her nervously, and she took a few seconds to look in each direction before she gracefully pushed herself back down. She drifted slowly to the cave floor as her normal form flickered back into view, and then she nodded at me.
“I can see a whole lot of amber in the distance,” she said. “We’re on the right track.”
“Good,” I sighed. “Did you spot any more demons?”
“Not close by,” she said. “There were some far behind us, though. There’s not much above us other than a few low hills.”
“Then let’s keep going,” I said. “I want us to find this piece of the key before the sun goes down. If this ritual is taking place soon, we need to avoid being out on the surface during night time. That’s probably when most of the demons are likely to be out preparing for this sacrificial shit.”
We hurried along the cave, and I noticed that the gemstones on the wall were changing from bright colors to mostly a deep orange. It seemed we were getting closer to the Amber Hills, and I kept a sharp ear out for the echo of footsteps as we went. The walls slowly became encrusted with nothing but amber over the next half-hour or so, and there was finally a distant light coming from the tunnel up ahead.
“That must be the exit,” I said. “Let’s go.”
But as we hurried toward the light, Cyra suddenly grabbed my wrist to slow me down.
“I can sense something,” she hissed. “There’s something evil out there.”
None of the angels seemed to be feeling ill, and their wings were perfectly still against their backs.
“Demons?” I asked, and Cyra shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It doesn’t feel quite the same as the bloodstone demon did, but this place reeks of evil.”
“She’s right,” Brooke said as she scrunched up her nose. “Ryan, there is something suuuper bad out there. I do not like it.”
“Stay behind me,” I said. “If something’s out there, we’re not fighting it in a damn tunnel. We need more room to move. I’m right here, though, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Yes, Ryan,” Cyra said with a determined nod.
I strode in front of the angels as I readied myself for a fight. Even if it wasn’t a demon, there was some kind of terrible creature lurking outside, and I went over the eerie beasts I had met in Dracoria so far.
I shuddered to think what else lived inside this demon-ridden world.
We had battled with giant worms, crawling corpses, and bloodthirsty mermaids, but I knew I could handle whatever was waiting. Even if I had to fight for my life, my angels would be kept safe. That was all that mattered.
The sunlight got brighter as we approached the cave exit, and I listened out for any signs of footsteps or wings. As the tunnel widened toward the archway, I couldn’t hear anything other than a gentle wind, and when I stepped out from the cave, my eyes were hit with the blinding light of the sun.
I held my axe up ready to fight, and I heard Brooke gasp as the angels stepped out behind me. My eyes took a second to adjust to the light, but then I quickly realized what the angels had been sensing.
We were standing in a wide valley between two low hills. The grass had an orange tint to it, but that’s not what my eyes were drawn to. All of the ground around us was covered in huge clusters of black crystals. Each one of the stones had eerie, red veins running through them that reminded me a lot of the veins on the demon I’d just killed, and there were beings trapped inside the clusters.
I was too stunned to speak as I stepped toward the closest one, and I peered inside to see a man frozen in place. It was like the scientists who found bugs trapped in amber, but these were full human beings and other creatures who lived in the Crystal Lands.
The man’s face was frozen in fear. His mouth was open as if he had been trapped mid-scream, and his eyes were opened hauntingly wide. He had both hands up as if he was desperately trying to stop something, and the red veins glowed gently around him.
It made me sick to look at, and my stomach clenched as I glanced around to see just how many of these evil prisons there were.
“Fuck, hold on,” I breathed, and I raised my axe above the frozen, screaming man.
I made sure to aim for a piece of the cluster that didn’t have any body parts beneath it, and I swung down with all my strength. But the blade only smacked off the stone and didn’t leave so much as a chip. Then I hit it again, but there wasn’t even a scratch left behind.
“God damnit,” I hissed. “There has to be a way to get them out.”
I started to strike my axe against the black crystals with furious grunts. Seeing someone trapped inside them had set something alight deep in my chest, and I knew I had to help him. I had to help them all.
But no amount of swings from my axe could break the bloodstone. I tried until my biceps began to burn, but the man stayed stuck inside with his wide eyes and screaming mouth.
“Shit,” I panted as I lowered my axe.
“They’re trapped,” Brooke said sadly. “If Ryan can’t break these open, then it must be impossible.”
“Fuck, I didn’t even make a dent,” I cursed.
“You tried,” Nisha said gently as she stroked my arm.
We looked around at the sea of trapped beings, and Cyra shuddered.
“It reeks of evil,” she murmured. “Seriously. It’s like I can feel every single one of these rocks crawling over my skin.”
“Do you think they’re still alive?” Nisha asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “There wouldn’t be much point in the traps if they were dead. The troll said the stones trap them forever, so I’m guessing there’s a reason he didn’t say the stones killed them instead. Maybe it’s some kind of gross display of power.”
“But it’s far more cruel to keep them living,” Cyra agreed. “So they’re just staring out at the world, unable to move or breathe.”
“Won’t they starve?” Brooke frowned.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “We need to learn more about this dark magic. Come on, let’s keep going.”
We started to weave between the bloodstones, and I tried not to look too closely at the trapped beings inside. The angels shuddered whenever they walked too close to the clusters, and Brooke gasped as we passed one that had a little boy inside it.
He couldn’t have been much older than six, and his little body was stiff as a board inside the maze of red veins.
Brooke sniffed as we hurried past the child, and I felt a burning heat prickle at the back of my neck.
These evil fuckers were unlike any we had met before. This level of torture was new, but I could feel my powers tingling at my fingertips the longer I was surrounded by the clusters.
I wanted to unleash a whole shitstorm of fire and darkness upon these demon bastards. They weren’t going to get away with this, and they weren’t going to kill any angels for a fucking ritual, either.
The sun was still brightly shining in the pale blue sky, and I reckoned we still had a good few hours before the evening would set in. There was no way in hell I would let the angels be out when any preparations were going on, so we needed to stay focused and keep up the pace.
It was difficult to ignore the amount of bloodstone clusters that lined our trail, but they became fewer as we got further away from the hills. Then Amber buildings came into view as we passed through the last hills, and the valley opened out to become a wide pathway.
The stone below our feet was a dazzling mix of orange and black, and it led to a large gateway into the town. The gate was made of silver metal encrusted with amber, and the huge gates squeaked as they hung on their hinges.
We stepped through the noisy gates to find the town was eerily silent and empty. The wide pathway continued into a large square, and there was some kind of water feature in the center. It looked like it had been mostly smashed, and there were dark stains all over the stone.
There were storefronts lining the street, but every one of them had been destroyed. Glass was smashed across the road, and whatever had been displayed in the windows had been chewed up and spat out. Dead flowers and petals littered one doorway, and there were smashed planting pots scattered all around.
“I bet it used to be so beautiful,” Nisha said as her eyes roved over shattered amber stones. “What a waste.”
We walked carefully over all of the broken glass and gems, and I made sure to check every window for signs of movement.
“It’s a ghost town,” I muttered as we approached the fountain. “Most of the people must have left.”
“Or they’ve been frozen in bloodstones,” Cyra said.
“It’s spooky.” Brooke shivered. “Do you think the emperor is the only one left?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Unless he’s taken everyone into his palace to hide.”
“Just like Ruby was trying to do,” Brooke sighed. “I still can’t believe they did that to her.”
“Your people were unusual,” Cyra said. “Most angels were betrayed by their lands when the gods left.”
“What about the Fire Lands?” Brooke asked. “Did you go to see your people?”
Cyra studied the sky carefully, and she was clearly choosing to ignore the question.
I realized I didn’t really know anything about my fire angel’s homeland. I supposed it wasn’t the best time to ask about it, but I hoped one day I would get to see the place my lover had helped lead.
“That must be the palace,” Nisha said as she pointed to an impressive tower that poked out from behind the buildings.
It looked like the palace sat right at the back of the amber-covered town, and we took a right down a narrower street. I kept my axe held tightly at my side, and the occasional distant shriek of a demon made my arm hairs stand on end.
“It really is super empty,” Brooke whispered as we walked past little houses.
They were all built of the same dark stone, and there were different amber embellishments above each doorway. Some of the houses still had their doors, but many of them had been broken apart and caved in.
A few of the residents had clearly tried to board up their homes with planks of wood, but most of those had been broken and splintered, too. There didn’t seem to be another living soul left in the town, and I started to worry if the emperor had even survived the demons’ takeover.
We hurried down the twisting streets until we eventually reached the palace. There was a low wall that was covered in ivy, and a grand amber archway welcomed us in.
“Do you think he’s home?” Brooke hissed as we stepped into the entrance of the grounds.
“There’s not much else for him to do around here,” I muttered.
The grounds were still mostly intact, and beautiful flower beds were lined along the wall. Orange and red tulips sprouted from the dirt, and there was a shitload of overgrown weeds poking out between them.
The palace itself wasn’t particularly huge, but the architecture was stunning. Every stone wall was joined with amber triangles, and it must have taken weeks to ensure it was all symmetrical. It was three stories high with the windows still intact, and the large door was made of rich brown wood with an amber lion’s head knocker in the middle.
“No broken glass around,” I said as I eyed the surrounding stonework. “That’s a good sign.”
I strode up to the doorway and paused as I listened for any sounds inside. There were no creaks of floorboards or hurried footsteps. If the emperor was inside, then he was very possibly in hiding.
I took the amber door knocker and rapped it against the wood three times.
“Why are you knocking?” Cyra snorted. “He’s not exactly going to send his servants to come and collect you.”
“It’s polite!” Brooke giggled. “It’s nice to see a man with some manners.”
She twirled a golden curl as she smiled sweetly at me, and I couldn’t tell if she was flirting with me or just being her bubbly self. I was distracted by the blue-eyed angel for a brief moment, but then I quickly looked away when I realized I had been staring at her lips.
“Try again,” Nisha said. “Maybe he’s old and can’t hear.”
“Or,” Cyra sighed. “We can just open the fucking door.”
The fire angel pushed the heavy wood, and the door swung open with a loud screech. I held my axe up, ready to attack any hidden demons, but the entrance hall in front of us was dark and quiet.
“Probably not a good sign that it wasn’t locked,” I muttered under my breath.
“Helloooo,” Brooke called. “Mister emperor?”
“Shhhh,” Cyra hissed. “There could be anyone in here.”
“Sorry,” Brooke groaned. “I just hate how quiet and creepy it is.”
“Well, stay close,” I said as I eyed the deserted room.
