Page 31 of Heart of Chaos (Chaosborn #1)
Chapter thirty-one
Eisa
“Arik! Let me out!”
I screamed in frustration as the door failed to budge, my shoulder already bruising from the effort of trying to force it open as I slammed against it.
My turn? asked Idunn. She sounded positively bored with my attempt to get us out of the room. I doubt he really expected us to stay put.
I huffed, stepping back as I rubbed my shoulder. He absolutely did. What do you want to do?
Burn down the door?
I was about to protest when the voices of two hundred other dragons flared to life across my mental bridge. Most were faint but growing as panic shook the fortress, and I had to shake my head to focus on Idunn. What’s happening? Why can I hear them all at once?
We are Drekadrottning, she replied. They are ours to protect. To command. To save.
I cried out as Sigrid’s necklace flared with heat against my skin, the gem burning as the bonds of the other drage pulsed brighter. I could hear them now, the shrieking and shouted commands between dragons, the attack taking most by surprise.
Idunn cocked her head. Baldur says there are huleskygge. And garmr. And a draugr. She sent me a mental picture, and I blanched at the sight of the huge, lumbering skeleton, whose eyes and heart burned blue with Chaos.
Idunn! It was Baldur’s voice that rumbled faintly across our bridge, his tone laced with panic at whatever Arik was seeing. His voice cut off with a hiss of pain as I felt his presence flicker out.
Arik!
He is fine, Idunn insisted, although she sounded shaken. There is too much iron between us now. We must get outside.
I nodded, panic flooding me at the idea of losing the connection to my mate. To the man I had once hated the idea of becoming close to.
Burn down the damn door! I insisted, squeezing my eyes against the mental pressure of two hundred dragons as I let Idunn’s presence fill me. She took form in my place, hissing as the clothes tore from me and the silver chain of the necklace stretched tight around our throat.
It didn’t snap, however.
Idunn sniffed haughtily, aiming a kick with her foreleg that sent wood splintering in a thousand directions. I will be civilized.
Oh, very civilized. I winced again, my sarcasm lost on the dragon, as she shifted back so I could fit beneath the small, stone archway. Sigrid’s necklace pulsed with heat against my sternum as I stumbled naked into the hallway. Where do we go?
The aerie, Idunn rumbled as she lent me her strength and heat. I felt blood drip over my lip.
I nearly fell as a hundred shrieking cries tore through my skull again, the roars and screams of the drage filling our mind. I felt one, shining orange cord snap in my mind, a cry ringing out and then choking silent.
They need you, I gasped, forcing myself upright.
They need us, Idunn corrected, her fury rising like an inferno within me.
Another piercing screech, this time one of frustration, had me skidding to a halt. Bryndis.
This way, Idunn urged, tugging on our bond toward the adjacent hallway.
Why human men feel the need to lock their women away when the world is collapsing around them, I will never understand, Idunn rumbled in annoyance.
A jet of fire stopped us in our tracks as we rounded another corner, and Branka came staggering naked out of her room, the wood smoking faintly around her as she looked around with wide, golden dragon eyes.
“Eisa?” Her eyes shifted back to their normal golden brown. “Where is Arik?”
“Up there with Jorgen,” I said, nodding to the ceiling. “Come on!”
You must lead us, came the voice of Branka’s dragon. We obey our queen.
“Spectacular,” I sighed.
“Wait.” Branka’s eyes were wide as she grabbed my hand. “Can you hear her?”
“Turns out I can hear all the dragons,” I breathed, deciding that the time for discretion had passed. “And they can hear me.”
“Holy gods,” Branka gasped as we finally arrived in the aerie. “How?”
“I’m sort of their queen,” I replied, slamming my hand against the metal doors and willing them to open. They screeched, icy wind whipping through the cavern around us as I allowed Idunn’s form to replace mine, claws and scales and teeth rippling out from my useless human form.
Sigrid’s necklace snapped tight again, the tiny gem barely visible against the blue of Idunn’s scales.
Bryndis’ golden scales replaced Branka’s bare, brown skin as she shifted with us. She cocked her head, her eyes sharp. Branka would like me to tell you that the conversation is not over.
Noted, I replied, a little relieved for the dragon buffer between my thoughts and my best friend’s.
Bryndis looked at me expectantly, as if waiting for more of a reply. Your orders, Drekadrottning?
That’s you, I insisted, urging Idunn forward. Lead them!
It is us, Idunn repeated again, her voice a snarl of impatience in my mind. We decide together. To our mate, or to the Odemark?
I searched the bonds in my mind, trying to feel for Arik. He was still gone, still blocked by iron, but definitely alive.
But the screaming dragons in the icy wasteland between Ironholm and the Rift were dying. I winced as a golden band flared and snapped, another drage dead at the claws of the odemarksdyr.
The Rift, I decided. Idunn rumbled darkly as she roared the order for the reirholds to follow to the Rift and flapped her great wings. She launched into the frigid night, Bryndis following closely like a queen’s guard.
The Odemark was dark as we swooped over it, the faint blue glow of the Rift the only light to see by as the moon and stars were obscured by dense, dark clouds. Here and there, spurts of moving flame told me that the drage were fighting the odemarksdyr, who were no more than moving specks of darkness against the slightly lighter backdrop of the ice.
More black shapes clambered up the sides of the fortress, and flame from the top of the smokestack must mean that drage were still fighting off the shadow creatures Idunn had shown me scaling the walls.
We need light.
Idunn roared, blue flame shooting from her maw in an arc that crested over the icy wasteland and lit the scattered bodies of drage and odemarksdyr below. I counted at least four dead drage as we passed, Idunn attempting to take out as many monsters as she could without hitting any of her brethren.
I flinched as I felt another death snap a bronze bond in my mind.
There, growled Idunn, angling us down toward the Rift. A mass of blackness seemed to be pouring over the azure edge of the chasm, a lone white dragon the only creature holding back the tide. For a frantic, terrified second, I thought it was Baldur. But the gleam of a yellow eye as the dragon spat white hot flame at the encroaching monsters turned my panic to confusion.
Why is Ragnar out here alone? Where is his reirhold?
There, Idunn said darkly, nodding her scaly head toward the corpses of another white, two golds, and several bronzes. One gold was still alive, but gravely injured, as it and two tiny bronzes tried to flee the swarming mass. Idunn called to Bryndis to follow as she swooped toward Ragnar where he fought alone.
Call everyone, I commanded. Anyone not defending Ironholm needs to come here now!
Idunn agreed, searing the screaming odemarksdyr as they tried to emerge from the Rift. She hovered, laying down a blanket of blue fire as Ragnar fought off the garmr that had sunk their claws deep into his side on the edge of the Rift.
What sounded like a rushing wind in the distance was soon revealed to be more drage as bronze, gold, and white streaks dove toward the Rift, each attacking a section of the monsters trying to climb over the edge.
Sigrid’s necklace pulsed against Idunn’s neck, and I could have sworn the creatures looked up toward us with a mixture of hatred and fear.
Watch out! It was Baldur’s voice in our head as a giant slab of ice came hurtling toward us. Idunn dropped sharply as the ice caught the edge of her wing, and we careened perilously close to the Rift as she righted herself. To the queen!
Fuck, that hurts!
That’s my fucking mate! Arik’s voice was a scratchy caress against my mind as I looked up and saw Baldur and at least fifty other drage hurtling toward a jotnar, who had picked up another chunk of ice to throw at us. White hot flame seared the night as Baldur reduced the creature to vapor, and the drage scattered to attack the packs of garmr and other jotnar emerging from the Rift.
Ragnar roared, and I winced as Idunn dipped again, her injured wing causing her to screech in agony. To the Dragehersker! I commanded, reaching out to all the dragons I could feel in the threadlike bridges that webbed across my mind.
Baldur was the only dragon who disobeyed, racing toward us from the edge of the Rift to catch Idunn’s drooping side.
I should have known you wouldn’t stay put, Arik murmured as Baldur huffed under our weight as we hovered. My beautiful, headstrong mate.
I should let Idunn rip off your balls for even trying to lock me up, I groused, relieved despite my annoyance with him.
You like my balls too much, he replied.
Enough flirting, Baldur growled irritably, his wings fighting to keep us airborne. Can you fly, Kj?re?
Idunn shook her head, her injured wing sending searing pain down her back as she tried to stay aloft. Baldur braced her bad side with his body as she flapped her good wing, and we managed to make it back to the ground without injuring ourselves any further.
Stay here, Arik commanded, his attention on the mass of black at the edge of the Rift.
That didn’t work last time, and it won’t work now, I retorted.
I do not take orders, Idunn huffed, steam blowing from her nostrils.
It is for me, not for you, Baldur supplied, his nose pressing once more to Idunn’s. My peace of mind.
Enough flirting, Arik drawled. We need you to pick off any odemarksdyr who evade us. You’re the last line of defense.
Baldur snorted a jet of flame as he flapped his great wings and rejoined the fray, leaving me with Idunn on the outskirts of the battle.
We can still fight, Idunn snorted, flexing her wing experimentally. A lone garmr came skittering toward us, muzzle dripping blood and black gore. Idunn blew a thin jet of fire and wiped it from the earth.
Agreed, I said, glancing worriedly to the thickest part of the fighting, where I saw both Baldur and Ragnar taking on a pair of jotnar. We should—
The earth cracked.
We turned toward the Rift in time to see a cluster of odemarksdyr fall into its depths. A fissure of black gobbled up the icy land, spearing out perpendicular from the Rift toward where Idunn and I stood.
The ground shook, and the fissure grew, the black nothingness in its depths contrasting sharply with the blue glow of Chaos.
What is that?
Idunn stepped back, her emotions a sudden, incomprehensible mess. No. It can’t be here.
Idunn, what—
Above us, the other drage screeched as something inky and putrid muddied my bonds with them, pain lashing through my temples as the black nothingness tried to get in .
A flash of memory—of inky night devouring Idunn’s world and of a cold, black shadow sweeping away millions as my hand pressed against a cavern wall—solidified for a second behind my eyes.
And then came the voice: You will not stop me.
What is it, Idunn? I cried, ripping through the blackness to find our bond, blue and shivering as she took another step back.
We do not speak its name, she hissed.
She had told me, I realized. The morning after Arik had been whipped within an inch of his life. It is the destroyer of realms. Bringer of nightmares. The creator of what you call the odemarksdyr.
What is it ? I pushed, willing her to feel safe. To know she was with me.
Idunn refused to say more, taking another step back as the crack expanded. The glittering dark was almost entrancing, and I blinked as I realized the odemarksdyr had begun to surge, the nothingness seeming to embolden them.
Baldur’s distant roar of pain snapped me from the spell.
What do we do, Idunn?
I do not know how to fight this, Idunn hissed, her tone one of panic now. Nothing can survive it.
We can’t just stand here and be devoured! I raged, searching the bonds between the drage and Idunn and myself for something to do. To try. To help. But it was like the blackness dulled those bonds, clouding even the silvery bridge that connected me to Arik.
And then a tiny pulse of blue, bright and hot and lovely, startled me from somewhere around Idunn’s neck.
Sigrid’s necklace.
Why does it glow? Idunn asked, eyes darting between the tiny gem and the spreading darkness. The crack was thin, but widening, more black creatures pouring from its depths to attack the drage. Our people.
I wasn’t sure how to answer, but somehow, I knew. It was as if Sigrid herself had appeared before me, withered brow raised and arms crossed in ancient amusement as she tapped a foot impatiently. “Well, get on with it girl. The world can’t heal itself!”
Trust me, I commanded, drawing Idunn’s power—directing it for the first time myself—to meet the tiny blue blaze against her scales.
Always, drageling, Idunn murmured, relinquishing her power over to me. You are mine.
The words gave me the strength to do what had to be done next. With all of my incorporeal strength, I latched my mind onto the tiny gem and pulled.
Idunn roared as the gem sank into her scales, crystal shattering into her skin.
Now breathe! I commanded, willing a column of bright blue flame across the crack in the world and toward the growing mass of monsters climbing from its depths.
The world exploded in a brilliant flash, blue arcing over the blackness and swallowing it up, engulfing the drage and the odemarksdyr and everything else in its wake.