Ethereal Entanglements (23 page)

“We should have killed her when she first got here,” Djembe spat.

Claire felt like she rode a seesaw with Djembe on the other end. They each pushed down, trying to unseat the other in the quest for Caius’s attention and approval. Her next salvo had to ring true and mean something or she’d lose the battle.

“I wanted to…to prove myself. I thought I already did. You said I did, but Djembe and other Knights just kept making me jump through hoop after hoop after hoop. The second I left you, they grabbed me and shoved me into an Ordeal! I just…” She slumped her shoulders and sighed. “I didn’t ask for this job, but since I have it, I just want to be allowed to do it without everyone beating me down all the time.”

To her surprise, Caius nodded his understanding. He rested his hands on his waist and gazed into the distance. A light breeze ruffled his hair and cape. “My burden to bear has always been that of the hero everyone looks to for guidance and rescue. People assumed I could do things outside my capabilities and I had to find ways to accomplish those things without disabusing them of the notion I’m perfect.”

Though she couldn’t prevent herself from saying nothing, Claire managed to keep her response to a single word. “Challenging.” She hoped he missed the disgusted disdain in her voice.

“Yes, it was.” Caius sighed. “But that time is long past.”

“How can you believe anything she says? She’s the reincarnation of Iulia! Come to destroy us all. She brought dragons into the Palace.” Djembe wobbled to his hands and knees.

Caius raised his brow. “Dragons? More than one?”

“I have no idea how they got here.” Claire raised her chin and shifted her weight, readying to flee.

“No idea at all?” Caius stepped toward her, his eyes narrowing. His gaze bored into her.

“She’s lying. They avoided hurting her. I saw it.”

“Of course they did.” Claire’s voice trembled. “I have a dragon sprite. He can talk to other dragons. But I don’t know how they got here.”

“How strange.” Caius moved closer and closer, his gaze sweeping up and down her body. He stopped too close for comfort and reached out with a finger to touch the locket in her chest.

She shied away without thinking. He froze with his finger an inch away. Meeting his gaze, Claire knew he saw something unexpected and didn’t understand it.

“I haven’t lied to you.” For some reason, her voice refused to rise above a whisper.

“What have you done, little girl?”

“I’m not little.”

Amusement ghosted at the corners of his mouth. “No. You’re old enough to meddle with things you don’t understand.” He took another step closer and leaned over to whisper in her ear. His breath smelled of dead earth with a hint of rotting meat. “I know what you’re—” He gripped her shoulders, holding her in place, and sniffed her hair, then her neck.

Claire shuddered against him, more afraid of him in this moment than she ever been before. “Let go.”

He pinched the fabric of her shirt and rubbed his fingers together. “What did you do?”

The moment had come for Claire to do whatever she could. She saw his sword and slapped her hand over the hilt while jamming her knee between his legs, then slamming her boot down on his sandaled foot. He shoved her away. The sword came with her.

His face pale and his eyes wide, he stared at her.

She turned and ran.

Behind her, she heard Djembe say, “I told you. She’s a witch.”

“Worse,” Caius said, his voice strangled. “She’s independent. And I think she freed Iulia.” He roared in wordless anger. “You can’t run from me in my own demesne, Claire! Where will you go that I can’t reach you? Here, maybe?”

The ground disappeared and Claire fell. Again.

Chapter 36

Claire

Claire needed Enion. Below her, she saw nothing but empty beige and thought it must be the ground. Then she noticed a thick spike glinting in the sunshine, exactly where she’d fall if nothing changed.

“Enion.” The spike grew and she decided to be thankful Caius wanted her to fall from a great height instead of a short one. It gave Enion time to reach her—not a lot of time, but more than five seconds. He only had to hear her, find a way here, and swoop in to rescue her.

She closed her eyes. Trying to swim through the air seemed unlikely to work. Caius’s will, focused on her, would prevent her from missing the spike. Instead, she focused on Enion, on her bond to him, and on bringing him to her. The picture in her mind started with the sheen of his skin. His tiny trill wove around his big trill, both sounds uniquely his. She remembered him spitting out bacon as disgusting and rolling in cooked carrots.

Enion roared a wordless cry of concern. She opened her eyes and grinned as he swooped in under her. Everything suddenly seemed doable as she rode him through the sky. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arm around his neck and noticed the spike surging upward. Another spike shot upward. They swerved to avoid three more. Enion pumped his wings to get higher.

“Call the rest of the dragons! They’re bound to you.” She still held Caius’s sword and meant to keep it. Hopefully, making another one involved more effort than an idle thought.

“Dragons!” Enion barked. “To me!”

Claire threw her head back and reveled in the joy of flight, only to see rocks falling from the sky. “Above!” More spikes shot up from the ground. “Crap, he’s serious.” As little as she wanted to face Caius, she knew they had to. While Enion swerved, she demanded this place reveal Caius. He must not have wanted to hide, because they flew straight toward him beside his horse, with Djembe hulking in front of them as a guard.

“Ha! As if that jerk can stop dragons. Try a flyby with fire and see how they react.”

They closed the distance and Enion sped up. He opened his mouth and breathed fire at the trio. All three leaped aside, showing they either knew it would hurt them, or didn’t know and chose to err on the safe side. Claire hoped for the former. Weirdly, though Enion’s angle of flight should have followed to the left, it instead took them to the right.

“What just happened?”

Enion scanned the ground and shook his head. “Ground moved?”

“Great.” In the distance, Claire saw flashes of silver winking in the sky, growing larger. Enion flew toward them until she made out ten dragons approaching. “It worked.” Claire had half-expected Enion’s call to fail, leaving it to her and Enion to somehow defeat the master of the demesne and his pets without help.

With eleven dragons, she saw a plan. “He can’t dodge everything if we all go at different angles. Surround and burn!”

The dragons settled into a loose group and matched their wingbeats without a trill or chirp. When they reached Caius and his minions, some did wingovers or loops while others circled in both directions, creating a wide column of swirling dragons. Enion climbed straight up, then he flipped over to fall straight down.

Dark clouds formed overhead. As Enion opened his mouth, water poured out of the sky, drenching them in a heavy rain. Fire billowed out of Enion’s mouth only to flicker and die in the sudden weather. Gusting wind blew from the side, knocking all the dragons sideways. Claire leaned to help Enion recover and held Caius’s sword close to her body. Two dragons, too close to the ground to recover, hit and tumbled in a heap.

Enion’s muscles bunched and stretched frantically under Claire’s legs. Pumping his wings furiously against the blasting wind, he aimed for Caius. Another gust knocked him off course and they veered toward the ground in front of Djembe. Claire watched Djembe raise his sword with a snarl. She followed suit, holding Caius’s sword forward with no clear idea how to use it properly.

As they neared, a swirl of wind burst underneath Enion. Djembe didn’t do what Claire expected. Instead of trying to stab Enion in the chest or unseat Claire, he slashed at Enion’s wing. The fragile membrane ripped apart. Enion screamed. Claire had one moment to grasp what happened before they plowed into the ground. The impact threw Claire and sent Enion skidding across the ground.

Claire hit her frozen shoulder and heard it crack. She rolled and slid over sharp rocks. Her hand smacked the ground and released Caius’s sword. The blade skittered away from her and kept going until it reached Caius’s foot. He stomped his sandal on the tip of the blade and it flipped into the air, where he caught it. Claire noticed minor burn marks on the edge of his cape.

A dragon cried out in pain. Claire raised her head to see Djembe stabbing the poor thing through the back before it had recovered from its crash. The horse kicked another dragon with its hind legs to toss it thirty feet through the air, just like it had done to Enion during her first “test.” That moment seemed distant, as if it had happened years ago instead of weeks ago.

Enion growled in the back of his throat. “How dare he.”

“Enion, wait!”

He ignored her and leaped at Djembe. The Knight jerked his sword free, tossed it to his other hand, dodged Enion’s claws, and punched her dragon in the neck. Enion tumbled to the side, gasping for breath and scrambling away. Djembe stalked him with slow, steady steps. More dragons flew in and landed to attack the horse and defend both Enion and the dying dragon.

“You’re altogether too clever and I have other problems to handle.” Caius waved a hand and the ground flipped. His horse and Djembe both found a way to jump to the side while Claire and all the dragons rode the ground until it dumped them into the same stupid green corridor from the Ordeal. They landed in a cloud of empty, dead dirt.

“He needs to be more distracted,” Claire said as she sat up.

The dragons gathered around the one whimpering and bleeding to death while Enion’s wing healed. Soft trills and chirps filled the cold air. Claire hung her head and moved to the dying dragon’s side. She checked the wound and found a gaping hole oozing silvery blood with no sign of healing. Only Enion had a Knight, so only he healed. The rest of these incredibly brave creatures faced this danger without the same benefit. The dragon’s sides heaved and she wished she could spare it the pain it obviously felt.

“I’m sorry,” she told the dragon, sitting beside it and taking its head into her lap. “I didn’t want this.” She scratched behind the frill on its head with tears rolling down her cheeks and watched it die swiftly, surrounded by friends and loved ones.

She wiped her face with her sleeve. “Enion asked all of you to come for me. And I know he told you it was dangerous, that some of you might be killed. But you probably didn’t believe him. I didn’t really believe it until now. If any of you want to go hide instead of fight, I understand. Half of my family is involved in this, and I don’t want to lose any of them. I’m sure you all feel the same.”

“Dragons fight for family.” Enion raised his head and filled the corridor with his presence. “Dragons afraid, but not let fear win. Dragons strong. Flight stronger. Fight for Claire. Claire is right. Old man is bad. Place is bad. Darkness and shadow here. Creeping corruption.” He touched the dead dragon’s neck in a gesture Claire thought meant respect. “Fight for Rhubark. Rhubark dead because of bad man. Bad man hates dragons. Dragons kill bad man.”

Though simple, the speech roused the dragons. Anger rippled through them in a palpable wave. They growled and snarled. Claire realized she’d been roused by it too, because she made a fist and held it up in defiance.

“We need more help,” Claire said, determined to see this all the way through. She thought Caius had dumped them here to keep them busy for a while, maybe while he handled things happening in the Palace. Maybe he still thought he could persuade or control her somehow and only needed time alone with her to do it. She shivered at the possibilities of what he might try to do to her.

A chirped to Enion in question. The others nodded and trilled. Enion said, “They ask what happens to Rhubark now?”

“If we’re successful, he should wind up back on Earth. I’m not sure where. Probably near home?” She scolded herself. The dragons didn’t want theories or guesses, they wanted concrete answers. “We’ll find him and take care of him.”

The dragons nodded and seems satisfied by her answer. Enion laid a claw on Rhubark’s back. “Was my friend.”

“I’m sorry. I know how hard it is to lose people you care about.” She patted Enion’s neck and wished they could all take the time to mourn this courageous dragon. “But we have a job to do.”

Enion nodded. “For Rhubark.”

“For Rhubark.”

Claire couldn’t stop her mind from replaying Djembe’s heartless murder. He saw the dragons as monsters, as fell creatures to be destroyed. And he saw that because Caius told him to. She climbed onto Enion’s back.

“Let’s take a walk.” She suspected they could find a way to escape this place without moving, but it seemed like a punishment to make the dragons stay with Rhubark’s body. “Look around for weak spots, odd shadows, or anything else that seems out of place.”

Trills and chirps agreed with her. Nine dragons flashed silver and turned small. They flitted away, spreading out to search the corridor ahead. Claire closed her eyes to focus on Drew, trusting Enion with her life. Because she didn’t give a crap what Caius told her.

Chapter 37

Justin

Justin stepped into a meadow drenched in sunshine. Yellow, white, and red flowers studded tall, emerald grasses, all waving in a gentle breeze. He’d never been any place like this, and the aroma of so much unfamiliar life—earthy, musky, floral, dry yet vibrant—threatened to overwhelm him.

Avery and Khalil stopped beside him. They watched Iulia plant her fists on her hips. Her dragon dropped into the grass and rolled like an excited dog. Beyond her, Caius led another version of Iulia, this one wearing a flimsy white dress, through the meadow. Caius ignored them and had a pleased, smug smile on his face.

“This was the day we discovered the seal could be used to create the Palace,” Iulia said. “I remember it well. We’d defeated a possessed hydra a few days earlier. The corpse was disgusting.”

“I thought he killed the hydra with the help of his men,” Khalil said. “That memory doesn’t show you present.”