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“I will give you thirty seconds to go back through those doors. Anybody who remains thereafter will be destroyed.”

“Shit!”

In spite of the death, which is a tragedy I will not ever be able to erase, the mood is not as hostile as one might think. None of these people know what they are doing, and a great many of them look entirely horrified about what they just saw.

“Go. Now.”

My follow-up causes a mass exodus. Once a few of them start running, more than two thirds of them press for the exit. There’s a sense of panic that increases as we move forward, slowly pressing our mounted advantage.

But there are those who do not move. Mostly younger men, a few women. They are the ones who will burn.

“Last chance!”

A few more stragglers make a panicked break for it, leaving behind those who came here to fight, including Mr. Balls himself, who will surely pay for his sins with his life.

I snap the portals closed with a wave of my hand. They are not proper gates. They are flimsy. Weak. Dangerous. And now they are gone.

“Unleash.”

I give the order and all hell breaks loose. My warriors leap from their mounts and transform, taking their dragon forms. The plain is filled with fleeing humans who are now running for their lives before flaming gluts. I leave them to their task. I have a different job to do.

I remain back to pick up our fallen brother, to cradle him in my arms, and to carry him back to the keep on foot while leading Melissa riding my horse. The other horses follow us. The air is solemn. Melissa is uncharacteristically quiet.

CHAPTER 16

Ornix

I place our brother in the crypt, where he will be tended to by the priests. I bow my head over his body and utter a silent prayer for his soul, along with an apology for what he suffered. No dragon should be dead today.

Melissa is up in our room. She did not have to be told to go there, and I hope I will not have to address any discipline issues with her anytime soon.

I go to the dungeons, and find the cause of the problem.

Equinox.

Always Equinox.

He is lounging in his cell as if he finds it comfortable, smirking even before I open my mouth. He clearly knows what happened, and believes he has won some victory.

“Portals opened up across the plains today, and humans poured through into our realm. I think you know why.”

He snorts with smug laughter, the sound of an idiot child who thinks he has bested his betters because he has no sense of consequence. I have failed this creature.

“You should know Erastos has been killed by the human invasion.”

A brief expression of pain passes over Nox’s face. Of course he never considered that there would be losses that did not include me. He thinks that there is a world in which only he and I exist, locked in a battle of wills with no collateral damage. This is the thinking of a petulant child.

“That is too bad,” he says. “But unfortunately, Uncle, the deadline passed.”

“The deadline for what?”

“I had a failsafe. If you were to kill me, I had portals set up to open to the human world. Ninety-nine of them. All linked to coordinates shared on the message boards for my little game. That would ensure a blend of chaos coming through that I knew you would not be able to handle.”

“You are alive, and those portals are open.”

“Yes. Well. Yes. Sorry about that.”

“Sorry? For revealing our world to humanity? Sorry for putting everything we hold sacred at risk of being tainted by these little primates who cannot help but destroy everything they touch?”