Legend of the Inero Dragon (22 page)

"You're not human or dragon, are you?" he
asked, stepping back until he was against the cavern wall. The man
continued to press forward.

He stopped a few feet in front of Jason and
ran a hand through his black hair. "You're observant, smart even. I
can see why you would be considered favored in your household."

Jason snorted a little. "I think you missed
the memo. I'm not the favored one."

"I didn't miss it. I can feel your jealousy.
Your father may not favor you, but others do. They see your
intelligence and power. Haven't all of your stepmothers adored you?
Oh, how I bet they wanted to be yours instead of your father's.
Particularly the one called Navi. You fancied her quite a bit."

"Who are you?" Jason's jaw tightened.

"I have many names. You can
call me whatever you want. The most common reference is the devil
or perhaps the Great Evil. My personal favorite is Leo. I'm not
sure why. A girl once decided to call me that. She was so tender
and sweet, naïve, but they always are—those who try to summon me.
Much like your precious prophet, or perhaps I should say
mine.
"

All he could do was stare.
Great Evil? The devil? "Seth is
your
prophet?"

"Yes, I know, one wouldn't think it by
looking at him since he's so young. He's a smart boy, though, and
he's been through a lot of pain. I find they are the easiest ones
to pluck away from 'the light,' so to speak. It certainly made it
easy to get you."

"I don't have a lot of pain," he said,
glaring. He was not the bad one. He was not the one being
corrupted, driving a nation to war or performing unnecessary
assassinations of good men.

The Great Evil stepped closer, moving into
Jason's personal space. "You suffer because you are inadequate and
bitter. Your lack of faith in anything good always plagues the back
of your mind. You haven't acted on your feelings. When it comes to
the fragileness of the heart, yours is a lot like glass whereas
your brother has a heart of steel. He may be corrupted, but that's
the thing about corruption: it is caused by someone else's
manipulation. You are weak by your own doing."

"I don't have to defend myself to you or
justify my life and the way I think. Now tell me how to get out of
here." He looked up, wondering if perhaps he could climb his way
out of this cave and back to the surface. Or if there was another
exit. He moved past the man, who surprisingly did not try to stop
him, and began to examine the source of the red light. What he
found was lava oozing from the cracks of the far wall.

"Do you want me to tell you or are you going
to figure it out on your own?"

Jason spun on his heel and faced this demon,
scowling. "Tell me."

"We will go back soon. Consider this nothing
more than a figment of your imagination. A dream, if you will. No
doubt you'll blame it on a piece of cheese or the cereal you ate
for breakfast this morning. When you wake up, everything will be so
vague until it is time for me to come forward once more. Then you
will help me to serve my purpose."

"Fat chance," Jason spat.

"You don't have a choice. It's a simple
enough task, boy. Some day you will become a man. When you do, I
will claim one of your offspring as my own."

The next thing he knew, Jason was on his
back, staring up into the devil's eyes, which were pure black. The
red glow of the lava reflected in them, however, sending chills
down his spine. He had to look away. The Great Evil smiled,
revealing a set of thick, jagged teeth.

"I won't help you," Jason
finally managed to say. He squeezed his eyes shut.
Just a dream, this is just a dream...

A hand reached out to tenderly touch his
face. He was surprised by how soft the man's hands were, and how it
came across as such an affectionate gesture. "Yes, this is just a
dream. I promise, boy, that this will be nothing but a distant
memory. You won't even notice me inside of you—not too much. If you
let me, we can be a wonderful team."

"I don't—"

"Want to help me? It's because of you and
your selfishness that I am being released to the surface world once
more. For that I am eternally grateful," he said, patting Jason's
cheek. "Time to wake up now. Are you ready?"

Yes, please wake me
up.
"I didn't have a—"

"There is always a choice. You could have
said no. On three. One, two…"

Chapter
Forty-Three

Lost in euphoria, Matt didn't know when he
had stopped floating and landed on solid ground. It didn't make
much sense, but there were no other words to describe the
sensation. His body had drifted toward the sky, or at least that's
how it had felt. There was no way he could have actually done so
because when he opened his eyes he was laying in soft, plush, green
grass under a perfectly clear blue sky.

This is beautiful.
He sat up, seeing nothing but grass all around
him. The most he could tell was that he was on a hill. The area was
unfamiliar to him. In Inero, perfect green grass was not easy to
come by.
Am I in Heaven?

Off in the distance he saw a lone figure. On
further inspection, he saw the outline of a woman—beautiful and
curvy, her long, nearly black hair blowing in the breeze. Her skin
was a soft golden tan. Soon, Matt found himself on his feet and
walking toward her. It was almost as if he wasn't in control of his
own body. He wouldn't have protested either way. He had to know
more about her.

She faced him, piercing blue
eyes met his, and he noticed how strong her jaw line was. Her
perfect cheekbones made her all the more gorgeous. He'd never seen
another woman like her. She was perfect. Her coloring suggested she
was of the Inero bloodline, but her eyes were of the Oceina. Never
in his life had he met an Inero with blue eyes. They were always a
shade of brown, black, or gray. Sometimes on a rare occasion, he'd
see something resembling an almost olive green or gold, but
never
blue.

"What's your name?" he asked, though he
wasn't sure if she heard him because the words got caught in his
throat and stumbled out of him.

"Who is like God," she said.

"What?"

"Who is like God. My name. And yours?"

"Gift of God." He could have sworn he had
only said Matthias. It came out as the meaning of his name instead.
Then he understood, though he didn't know what the meaning of her
name translated into.

"Where are we?" he asked after she didn't say
anything more.

She gave him a beautiful, radiant smile then
pointed in front of her. "Home."

A gasp escaped his lips as he saw the tall,
glimmering glass towers of Oceina City. Some of the buildings were
different, newer. Most of the old ones were overpowered by these
new pillars of glass. He could still see them laced throughout the
skyline.

"Your home?" He looked at her, his eyes
wide.

"
Our
home."

"Are you Inero?" He had to know. She nodded.
Tears filled his eyes as he was overwhelmed by his own
unworthiness. He didn't deserve to know this information. Most of
his life he had tried devoting himself to God. He had always felt
as though he came up short. He'd done horrible things, and yet he
was the one receiving the prophecy full of the answers his people
needed to fulfill their destiny.

"I need you to listen to me, Gift of God."
She waited until he was staring into her bright blue eyes before
she continued speaking. "The darkness is coming. It wants to take
you away from the right way. If you let it, you could lose the
chance for our people to be at home. There will be war, but there
will be peace following soon after, for what will feel like a long
time. To God it will only be a blip. So is our life span when
compared to eternity. Focus on the eternity, and everything else
will fall into place. If you only pay attention to the short run,
then we will not succeed. Do you understand?"

"I think so," he whispered. There was so much
to take in. He wished he could write it down—something, anything to
make sure he didn't forget one piece of this information. Already
he could feel his mind starting to slip away as he felt his body
become heavy. He fell to his knees before her. A hand touched his
hair. He felt a surge of energy, love, and pure light flow through
his veins.

She placed a gentle kiss to his forehead.
"You may think you've forgotten, but you will always know what is
true in your heart. Do not feel unworthy, Gift of God. There is
still goodness inside of you. Love your wife, your child, and you
will never lose sight of it. Everything else will fall back into
place if you let it."

"Don't let me forget you either, please." He
couldn't. She was beautiful, inspirational, and pure. The love and
peace she radiated was something he wanted to emulate in his own
life. As his eyes began to close once more, he could already feel
his mind failing him in remembering the details. He didn't want to.
If she could keep him in her light, he could make amends for the
things he'd done wrong. Maybe there could be another answer than
war.

Her fingers grazed over his eyelids, helping
them close. "Rest. I won't ever be gone from your heart. You'll
find me again if you remember to search for me."

"Please," he whispered. Soon he found himself
in a deep and pleasant slumber. All he did was dream about those
blue eyes.

Chapter
Forty-Four

Wake up. Please wake up. Why haven't you?
Your brother woke up an hour ago. What's wrong?

If she could scream her thoughts in order
for him to hear her better, Kat would have. He looked so peaceful
in bed. He'd been sleeping for so much longer than he should have.
It'd been nearly a day since he was brought to their room inside of
the castle. She still didn't know why he was unconscious to begin
with. Lynx had showed up, dropped his son off, then said he'd
return later to check in. He never did. A doctor came by six hours
later and said he was fine and to not worry. How could she not? Who
slept for twenty-four hours for no apparent reason? Something had
to be wrong.

Matt stirred as though she had finally gotten
through to him. She sighed with relief. When his eyes opened, the
first thing he looked at was her.

He frowned as he rubbed his face with a hand
and yawned. "Why are you sad?"

"Because I didn't know if you would wake up
again." She cupped his face with her hands and closed her eyes. A
few tears spilled down her cheeks. She didn't want to cry, but she
was pregnant, hormonal, and now afraid. No one had told her
anything, not even him.

"Why wouldn't I wake back up? There's still
so much I want to do, like raise our family." His hand touched hers
as he closed his eyes again. For having slept so long, he still
seemed exhausted.

Kat kissed his forehead and let out a small
laugh. "Good answer because we need you with us." She didn't even
want to think about having to raise their daughter alone,
especially since this would be the first female dragon born in
history. Already, everyone was starting to look at her differently,
and she wasn't sure how to feel about it. Nobody knew about the
baby possibly being a girl outside of Lenora, Lynx, and Doctor
Ryan. All three of them were sworn to secrecy until after the egg
hatched and they could see for certain.

The eyes were on her all the same. She was
the wife of the favored son. Self-consciousness and worried were
two emotions ever present in her mind. No one said it out loud, but
a lot would be expected of her as a mother and a wife. After all,
she had to have been chosen for this huge honor for a reason,
right? The idea of Matt not being there almost sent her into a
panic.

"What happened?" he asked. He stared into
her eyes, and she saw so much innocence in them—something she
hadn't seen in quite some time.

"I'm not sad," she said.

"You're making this face," he said, mimicking
her frown. This got a laugh out of her, and he smiled. "That's
better. Please, tell me what happened."

"I should be asking you that."

He closed his eyes, turning
his face toward the ceiling. "My father needed my help. I performed
a spell to aid him in his goals. From there, I'm not sure what
happened, but I had the strangest dream. It was good though. The
details are fuzzy still, but I feel
amazing.
"

"What kind of a spell? Wait,
no you can tell me about it later. I'd rather save it for when I'm
positive you're okay." Why hadn't he told her about this spell or
these goals? She could only assume it had something to do with the
upcoming war against the Oceina. Matt was good at keeping her in
the dark until after the fact. She hated it. Right when they were
starting to bond so well…
I'll save that
conversation for later.

Matt let out a soft and
happy sigh. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I feel
fantastic.
Outside of the
fact that I don't know what you mean by we're going to have a
conversation later."

"It's not worth talking about until
you're—"

"Kat, I promise I'm fine. We can talk now."
For the first time since he'd woken up, he dropped out of his
dreamy, dopey state and gazed at her with a straight face.

She was unsure of how to say everything on
her mind. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry or stress out
about it. You're pregnant and have more than enough to deal with.
Stress can't be good for either of you."

"No, it's not. But you not telling me what's
happening then going off and doing…whatever it is you just did, and
coming back to me unconscious for a full day isn't making me any
less stressed out!" Kat had every intention of keeping calm and
talking about this rationally with him. By the end of her speech,
her voice raised so much that Matt winced.