Page 144 of Blood Fist

“Is it up to me?”

His scaled lips rose in a toothy smile. “It’s all up to you. You humans worship me as a god, perhaps because it is easier for you to comprehend. Easier for you to put the responsibility of your lives in the claws of something greater than yourselves. But the journey you take has always been yours alone.”

Ridan stared up at him, his eyebrows furrowing. “But you…you’re?—”

Artrax laughed, the ground rumbling under their feet. “I am just a dragon.”

Shaking his head, Ridan fought the urge to ask so many questions. How could Artrax say that? What did he mean? Where are they?

But he didn’t ask any of them. Partly because he wasn’t sure he could handle the enormity of what he’d just been told, and partly because he didn’t want to know.

If we had the answer to everything, we’d stop looking for things to amaze us.

Ridan understood he was on the precipice of something he couldn’t understand. He was on the edge of a cliff. He couldn’t see the bottom and one wrong move would send him tumbling into the ether.

Instead, he looked back over his shoulder to see his pack. They were still gathered around his body. Halm was looking up at Brune with a grave expression. When she shook her head, Brune grabbed her by the neck. It took Derry and two others to pull him off.

When he turned back to Artrax, he saw he wasn’t alone. Gathered around the enormous dragon were hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Only, they weren’t people. Not in any way Ridan understood, and yet heknewthey were.

More of the golden shimmer was congregated around Artrax. Almost like Sinestrus, it was like thousands of undulating golden consciousnesses were watching him. Perhaps it should have been frightening, but it wasn’t. Not when there was such a warmth, a feeling of contentment emanating from them.

His parents were there. There was no way to know which of the rippling golden existences were his parents. They had no identifying marks because theyweren’tindividuals. Not anymore. But somehow, he knew. He knew they were there watching him. Waiting for him.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he reached for them. More of the gold painted across his hand, warm and inviting. He watched in fascination as the veil draped over his scars and left pure, untainted skin behind.

He could do the same. Join them, be with his parents and know no pain. No suffering. His fight will end. There would be no need for a sword, for the burden of leading his clan. Ridan would die knowing that the legacy he left behind would be safe.

But would the people he loved? Would they be fine withouthim? He didn’t know, and perhaps it was prideful of him to think they wouldn’t. That his presence in their life could prevent something terrible, but how could he possibly take that chance?

And seeing the grief on Brune’s face, the pain as he clutched Ridan to him, such a difference from when he’d held him under the stars only a few nights ago. It hurt in a way Ridan had never felt before.

Going with Artrax would not only take away Ridan’s future, but Brune’s as well.

Resolve firmly grasped, he turned back to Artrax. “I want to keep fighting.”

The great dragon rumbled, eyes sparkling. “They hoped you would.”

Ridan didn’t need to ask who. He looked past the dragon to see the golden waves of people—those who fought before him, who laid down their swords to stand together with Artrax.

“I thought you said you were just a simple dragon?”

Artrax grinned, his teeth as sharp as the day he died. “Your lives, your deaths, those are yours. I am a guide. A protector for the after. It is my penance.”

“Penance?”

“I have lived a long life, young Stone Blade. There are things even death cannot pay for.” He turned his attention to Ridan again. “But this isn’t about me. You have a fight to continue.”

Ridan looked down at his hands. They were covered in gold smudges, but otherwise healthy. He knew that was not the case for the Ridan behind him. That body was broken beyond repair.

“How?”

Artrax looked past Ridan, drawing his attention back to the group of people gathered around to mourn him. “Do you know why we creatures of magic speak sohighly of human love?” Ridan shook his head. “Because humans are the only ones capable of creating love. You can create it from nothing, grow it, change it, kill or save it. It comes in so many shades and shapes. To love and be loved is the most powerful thing under the stars.”

“And you, Ridan Oldsun of the Stone Blade, are loved.”

He didn’t understand. How could heuselove? It wasn’t a weapon. He couldn’t hold it. It wasn’t like the scale, whose magic surrounded him so heavily he could feel it in his hands.

“It’s…you’re not making sense.”