Page 30 of Dragon Blood (Dragon Island #3)
Z ayli Steelscale ran to her grandmother’s suite in the council tower.
“The enemy comes. I have to join the other guardians. Grandmother, you must evacuate, you—what are you doing?” Her gaze swept the room, realizing nothing had been moved. Nothing was out of place. Nothing gathered or packed.
Zadora stood in the center of her room dressed only in traditional cotton garb. Not the council robes that Zayli had only ever seen her wear.
“I am going to join the battle. Those bastards will not defeat me.”
Zayli froze, processing the words. “You cannot fight.”
“Why in all the hells should I not?” Zadora’s voice cracked across the room.
“You… I…” Zayli compressed her lips, seeking the right words. “When is the last time you took dragon form, let alone flew?”
“About the time you were toddling around the nursery, oblivious to life’s harsh realities.” Zadora approached the stone casement. The north-facing window framed a view of a growing mass. “Were I what I once was, I would have destroyed them all before any Aeleftherian sighted a single one, or ever knew of their existence,” she growled.
“What are you talking about? There is no time to board a fishing boat; you’ll have to go down into the vaults with the other matrons.”
Zadora snorted. “I will not cower. I’m done standing by while this nation goes down the privy. I should never have left Regina on that throne.”
Zayli straightened, studying her grandmother, who’d suddenly lost her mind. “The Council should never have ordered me to give her that tonic you asked me to slip into her drink and food. It was a mistake. We need her more than ever.”
“She’s ill equipped to deal with real battles,” the matron snapped, glancing out the window again. The mass had grown considerably.
“What do you mean? She subdued the last invaders that dared set foot on Aeleftherian soil.”
“Those few feeble-minded idiots were nothing compared to what is coming now. That male dragon your cousin married is sizable enough, and he’d have seen Regina’s tricks and likely figured out a way to avoid succumbing to her. Your cousin surely would have seen to it. She was stupid to trust him. He’ll be bringing every male from that mountain with him to crush our independence.”
Every muscled tightened down Zayli’s neck and back. She looked out the window too.
Then he fooled me, too. They all did.
She’d met him, seen the work that he and his males were doing with Kymri and Elora’s guidance. Goddess, Astred had seen it too and thought it all genuine.
What of Kymri and Elora? Were they turned so thoroughly that they would willingly join in this attack? Or had they been set aside, or worse?
Zayli swallowed, casting another look through the open window. “Grandmother,” she urged, voice soft and full of regret. “You must join the other matrons. We will handle this. I will protect you.”
Zadora cast Zayli an assessing glance before turning back to the approaching dark mass.
“In a moment of weakness, I let that usurper into my head, so that I would hand over my greatest power.” Zadora sighed. “And look where it’s led us.”
Zayli didn’t know what the old woman was talking about. “Those invaders are here because that Aeleftherian traitor’s dealings with the enemy led them to us. If not for her, they’d have never infiltrated us.”
“That traitor?” Zadora’s face twisted as she rounded on Zayli.
“I still find it hard to believe that Kolina would conspire so deeply with the enemy. But you were right, she had grown soft, as has Kymri.” Grief twisted Zayli’s chest.
She always seemed to have, or be, everything that Zayli was not. Everything just always seemed to land in the palm of her hand. And she just threw Aeleftheria away to go and rule over a mountain full of males. After everything they’d been through… Just tossed it all away. For a male. For power.
That final thought didn’t sit right in Zayli’s mind.
No. Not for power.
Zayli’s eyes flicked to Zadora, who still watched the approaching enemy.
The older woman turned her back on the mass, striding toward the door. “Come granddaughter, I will show you what Aeleftheria is about.”
K olina heard the footsteps approaching long before the figure appeared before her cell door.
On seeing Marli Fleetwing’s face hovering before her between the darkened bars, a smile played at her lips, but the situation was too dire to allow any sense of relief to flood her.
“Everyone is in the air,” Marli confirmed, pressing the royal signet to an embedded crystal on the outside of the cell. “Astred left it to me, just in case.” She held up the ring as she turned to race back toward the exit.
“She’ll want that back,” Kolina followed close behind as roars echoed back down the narrow, curved stairwell, followed by the unmistakable sounds of something very large flying very fast directly overhead.
“Of course. Who else is there for me to break out of imprisonment?”
Just as they emerged from the base of the tower, an errant tail smashed through the structure, sending stone blocks crumbling to the ground. Kolina shoved Marli aside and rolled in the opposite direction as several toppled from the upper levels above the door.
Regaining her footing, Kolina’s gaze swept the skies over Aeleftheria.
Chaos.
She caught sight of whatever impacted the prison tower as it banked with two, much smaller guardians snapping at its wings.
“What the fuck is that?”
“I don’t know Kolina, I’ve never seen a dragon like it—if it’s even still a dragon. Astred’s crew alerted the island that the Consortium was on their way. As many of the townswomen as could flee did so on the fishing boats. The vaults are sealed, but with fuckers that big bearing down on us, I don’t know if they’ll hold.”
“We need to force it down into the ocean. Do what you can to help any remaining civilians reach safety,” Kolina shouted over another deafening rush of wings overhead, then started running toward the nearest clearing. Shifting as soon as there was enough space, her human flesh pinched as clothing and boots gave way under the pressure of erupting steely scales and expanding claws.
Her powerful wings drove her upwards.
Her suddenly heightened senses were momentarily overwhelmed with the chaos of battle, drawing her attention in every direction, assessing.
This… beast that she’d first seen from the ground was the closest to the citadel and a primary threat. It’s—his scent was wrong. Dragon, but not. He stank of a mixture of shifters, difficult to discern… and rot. Illness.
Ignoring that information, she twisted her body, wings working. She joined the pursuit. The scales covering her body were hard as steel, yet light as paper, adding to her speed. Reaching her target, he swiped at one guardian with a lion-like paw while his great bear-like jaws snapped at the other. He turned in a wide arc as they reached the edge of the island.
Kolina surged forward, jaws open. Using her speed and full body weight, she clamped down hard on his tail, dragging him further off balance, working his own bulk against him to spin him out and down toward the sea.
The guardians got a few slices into his wings, inhibiting his ability to right himself.
Kolina tugged and dragged harder as she clung to him still, adding to the imbalance, twisting to avoid his clawed hindquarters. Iron gray and steel blue flipped as sky and sea exchanged places again and again.
She’d go down into the water with him if she had to, though if she was too slow, he could drown her.
Her gut churned with another revolution, catching sight of a substantial form barreling toward them, but her head spun, their bodies on an uneven rotation. Her focus, as tight as the grip of her jaws, on this one thing.
Bring the deviant male down.
His wings fought to ascend, powerful tail whipped to the side, dragging Kolina toward his massive body. A hindquarter shot out, and solid bone caught her temple. The shock of the impact forced her jaws loose as her head rang and spots filled her vision. A second kick dislodged her with a deafening crack.
Acid filled her gut as her body refused to obey her command to hold on, but it was too late.
She fell.
He righted himself and dove after her, maw widening as he closed the distance.
Kolina sped, back first, toward the ocean, staring up at the terrifying sight, still unable to force her limbs to obey her commands to twist, to fly, to evade.
As she impacted with the surface of the water, a great mass erupted from it, jaws open and claws ready.
Carson.
Her heart fluttered as the two figures collided, creating a great thunderclap before disappearing below the surface that Kolina sank into. A tsunami sent her further away, tumbling through the water as she’d previously tumbled through the sky.
Still, she couldn’t move.
The spots impairing her vision multiplied as she sank into the darkness of the ocean, staring up through the lighter layers toward the sky.
The shadow of another dragon drifted into view, hovering over the surface.
She continued her sink into darkness.