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~Vorzyr~

Screams echoed hauntingly through the mountain range.

Desperate cries of terror and pain, of helplessness.

Even as I was spinning out, white lightning from the interloper burning through me, the calls belonging to Nyx were unmistakable.

But they weren’t for himself.

They were for Kai.

I’d seen that attacking force send him careening off the mountain a split-second before I’d been blasted hundreds of feet away.

Adrenaline surged, tearing through me, and slamming into panic, knowing I had mere seconds to break from the white lightning making me spin out. It was compromising my ability to come to a stop and take back control of my movements.

I looked out through the chaos of it all to see that Nyx wouldn’t be able to help Kai.

He was injured, crawling through the snow, struggling just to do that, and a trail of blood followed in his wake.

It was down to me only.

Frustration, outrage, and terror for those I cared about deeply thundered through me like a living, breathing entity. It called to my primal side, triggering it in a major way.

It was something that would normally have been colossally destructive.

But in this moment, with what needed to be done, it took on another form.

The ferocious need to protect my new family at all costs.

To do whatever it took.

As I tapped into the primal urge to do so, my red magical flame erupted, bursting through me in a heady rush, one so powerful that the glow was violent and wild. It came along with that same feeling of dominance that had taken me over when I’d cut through the Celestial infection that had hurt Kai.

And then I felt it tear into the white lightning assaulting me, a rush of my red flame basically disintegrating it within split seconds.

That was all I needed to regain control.

In the next moment, I was able to stop spinning out, and I came to a jarring stop.

The moment I broke free, a dragon roar tore from my throat.

Kai!

I tracked his scent and soared in that direction.

And then I caught sight of him hurtling off the mountain and headed for some jagged rocks at the bottom of the valley below.

He was clearly unconscious, so he couldn’t employ his magic to stop the brutal descent.

Thankfully, his leather trench coat was providing some wind resistance, slowing down the fall somewhat.

I hurtled forward with all the speed at my disposal, my wings cutting through the air and the distance, while Nyx’s pained and panicked cries for Kai rang out hauntingly all around me, intensifying every moment, pushing me on all the more.

Finally, I was within reach, just as he was about ten feet from hitting the jagged rocks and being crushed and impaled to shit.

I snagged him around his waist with my right claw, curling it carefully to keep from crushing him.

My power was such that it could break the motherfucking earth into pieces, so I always had to be mindful when interacting with non-dragon forms. Especially with Kai in this state, unable to use his magic to safeguard against my might.

Relief infused me as I soared back up the mountain toward the peak, heading for Nyx. I needed to see to his wound immediately. He was a supernatural being, he shouldn’t be bleeding that profusely. Something was very wrong.

I reached the peak and carefully laid Kai down on his back on the snow a couple of feet from Nyx.

And then I swiftly shifted back into my human form, only bothering to magically clothe myself with my maroon leather pants, not bothering with anything else, before I was then kneeling down beside Kai and shaking him to wake him.

“Come on, come on,” I uttered, unable to keep the concern from my voice or actions alike as I glanced over at Nyx who was no longer crawling, instead, groaning on his front now. “He needs your power to heal. Wake up!”

His fingers twitched and then his eyes snapped open.

Panic took him, and then he was sitting up ramrod straight in the very next second.

“Fuck,” he groaned, bringing his hand to his head, obviously having overdone it with the sudden, rough movements.

“He needs you, Kai. We can’t wait for you to fully recover. I’m sorry.”

He blinked at me, then frowned, before following my gaze to Nyx.

Then he was scrambling up frantically. I grasped his arm, helping him as he struggled, and then we both rushed over to Nyx.

We skidded to our knees either side of him, Kai dropping too hard in his discombobulated state and uttering a grunt of discomfort as a result.

But that was all he allowed himself, then his full focus went to Nyx.

His eyes widened and I saw true terror from him as he took in the blood pooling all around Nyx, saturating and tainting the snow.

I carefully rolled Nyx over, and the moment I did, Kai and I both choked at the sight before us.

There was a hole in his gut, blood and fluids literally gushing from the mammoth open wound. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the wound was bubbling as well.

“Help,” Nyx rasped, his gaze unfocused as he tried to look out at us.

He was digging his fingers into the snow, his face twisted in agony, and he panted uncontrollably.

“Fucking shit,” Kai uttered.

He shifted his weight, clearly fighting to force down his emotional reaction, so he could focus.

It took him two tries to be able to actually call his power, his rose-gold magic erupting on both his palms.

He pressed his left one to Nyx’s forehead and the magic flowed into him, causing Nyx to let out a sigh of relief. “That will take the edge off,” Kai told him.

“You numbed the pain?” I asked.

He nodded. “And I can hold it indefinitely, so he won’t suffer now.” He ground out every word, hating that Nyx had suffered at all.

I watched as he swept his right hand over the wound.

His power held for a moment, but then that white magic we’d seen earlier sparked against his palm and forced it to snuff out.

“No,” Kai gritted out. “No.”

He tried again and again and again, but the same thing kept occurring.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“It’s a Celestial wound. My magic can’t impact it. I can’t… I can’t heal him.” He scrubbed his hand over his face, thinking, trying to determine a solution frantically. “Your Primal Celestial Resonance… try that.”

“Right, yeah. I was able to employ it earlier to break free and stop the spinning out.” I focused and held my hands hovering over Nyx. And I called to that part of me, willing the Celestial magic to submit to me, to fucking leave Nyx.

I waited for it to take effect, but it didn’t.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s not an infection. It’s not something to push back and order away through the domination aspect of that ability. It’s an actual wound, already created,” Kai realized.

He pushed to his feet.

“What are you doing?”

“Just before I lost consciousness earlier, I hid the Aetherbound Scepter away with a flicker of my magic. I’ll call it forth and use Ari’s Celestial power imbued in it and fuse it with a spell to heal Nyx.”

“No,” Nyx cried, snagging Kai’s ankle, albeit so worryingly weakly.

“What are you talking about, no? Of course I’m going to do it. That wound… it’s…”

“I’m dying. I know, Kai. I know.”

“Then what is—”

“There’s only a certain amount of power stored in your staff. You use it to heal me and you won’t be able to use it against the fucker who took Ariana. You won’t be able to free her from whoever the hell he is.”

Kai shook his head. “We’ll find another way. I’m not letting you die. And I’m certainly not going to stand here and let you slip away when there is something I can do about it.”

“If she’s lost because of me, I’ll never forgive myself. And neither will the two of you.”

“No, that’s not… stop.” Kai gestured at me.

“Compress the wound. He can’t lose any more blood.

It’s already bad enough as it is. And it’ll take me ten minutes or so to create the necessary spell to heal him with the scepter.

The stored power was intended to be used to defend and to attack, not to heal.

I just need a few moments to determine a workaround. ”

“Kai,” Nyx groaned.

But Kai grimaced and turned away, determined to call the scepter forth and get down to saving him.

“Let him do this,” I told Nyx, compressing his wound. “It will all be okay. Ariana will be okay. She just took back her power. She’s far from helpless.”

As I spoke the words, I realized how much I needed to hear them, too, to calm myself, to believe them down deep and hold on to them.

She’d been taken!

She wasn’t with us anymore.

She was somewhere in the ozone and— stop!

I sucked in a breath, not wanting to project emotional upset in front of Nyx, who was already in great distress, tears even filling his eyes now.

“Shh, babe,” I told him softly. “We’ll fix this. All of this.”

I looked out at Kai, just as his power sparked, and he was mere seconds away from calling his scepter.

But then an explosion of silver light ripped through the area, blinding all three of us from the sheer intensity for several seconds.

When it finally dissipated, we all got one hell of a shock, as none other than Cornelius Martel stood there.

The Silver Ghost.

The former Head of the Guardian Movement.

The Immortal.

Ariana’s grandfather.

His long, silver hair whipped wildly in the wind. He was a powerhouse figure a lot like me. He was a former Celestial warrior. It was a contrast to his normal dress of a gray tee and black dress pants. His wings were also magically tucked away and not in view.

But his magic radiated out as he studied us and the immediate area, looking all around.

He didn’t get to complete that before red teleportation smoke erupted, and then the almighty Jaxon Silver was materializing right beside him.