Page 23 of The Dragon Shifters’ Enemy (Dragon’s Reign #7)

Caden saw the Green Dragon--Mephous--just as bold as brass as his human counterpart, streak towards the Behemoth. Raziel let out a low barking command, which Caden knew meant, “Get the Hell back here, Mephous!” But Mephous did not listen.

And for its arrogance, Mephous got hit with sand in the face, blinding it, then a golden sun ray hit the Green Dragon dead center in the chest and sent it toppling end-over-end until it crashed into the ground.

All the Behemoth’s heads lifted up and let out a roar of triumph as Mephous lay there, smoking and unmoving, on the ground.

Caden found himself gripping Valerius’ right hand. The Black Dragon King laced their fingers together. A brief glance at Valerius’ face showed that he was clenching his jaw so tightly that Caden feared he might crack some of his teeth from the sheer pressure!

“Mephous made it. We know that!” Caden cried, wondering who he was trying to convince. “The damned Green Dragon is right now in High Reach. It’s fine.”

But in this battle, Mephous was not fine.

It was then, while the Behemoth was crowing, that the Red Dragon made its move.

Xipil, like Mei, didn’t waste an opportunity.

Xipil’s jaws opened and magma dripped between its teeth as the Red Dragon flew in low to the ground.

The Behemoth’s main head snapped around, but not in time.

Xipil had let out a gout of magma that showered the Hydra’s back and melted the ground beneath its massive feet. The Behemoth started to sink.

The glittering head that let out the sun ray that had taken out Mephous was already preparing to let out another burst at Xipil.

The Red Dragon was banking, but it would be too close and would receive the full blast as had Mephous.

But just then Eldoron dove in and sent a stream of hot metal directly into the sun-breather’s mouth, sealing its jaws shut as it hardened.

Eldoron and Xipil were able to escape, unharmed before the sun-ray Dragon managed to crack its jaws open once more.

The Behemoth let out a low, murderous cry as it flapped its massive wings to drag its heavy body from the magma.

Its flesh smoked, but it was healing as fast as it was being harmed.

Caden frowned as he realized that the Dragons’ powers were certainly annoying the Behemoth and causing it pain and anger, but they didn’t appear to be harming it enough .

“All they are doing is wearing themselves out,” Valerius muttered. “They cannot win this way.”

At that moment, Scylla released a gout of powerful water.

Lana added her gift and the water increased , becoming a wave, and then a torrent before pouring over the Behemoth as scalding steam.

For a moment, none of the Behemoth’s heads could be seen in the mist. Caden tightened his hand around Valerius’ as he searched for Iolaire.

Iolaire is fine! It’s with me!

But still, like with Mephous, he felt an agony of suspense as if watching friends die.

They’re not dead! None of them are dead, including the Behemoth, and that’s the problem.

He glanced up at Raziel and Iolaire. Iolaire’s head was tucked beneath Raziel’s chin.

It was clear that though Raziel was showing them what had happened, neither it nor Iolaire cared to watch it themselves.

Caden knew that he and Valerius had to see.

So his gaze slid down to Raziel’s chest where the battle kept playing like a movie.

The scalding mist slowly cleared. The Behemoth was maddened. Its heads were snapping at the air, whipping back and forth, and twisting around as they sought unseen enemies. Zephyra suddenly rose up behind them. Elegant and deadly and seemingly unconcerned for its safety.

All eyes fixed upon Zephyra. Those eyes suddenly went blank and the Behemoth’s heads--except for the middle one--stilled as Zephyra continued to meet their gazes evenly.

“Mesmerism,” Valerius murmured, identifying the power being used by Jahara’s Dragon Spirit.

“That’s--that’s good,” Caden murmured.

Maybe this was how they had broken the Behemoth’s spell on the other Dragon Spirits.

Caden leaned forward as if that would physically get him closer to the action.

The Behemoth though was not giving up without a fight.

It bit and jostled the heads around it until they were all blinking and shaking themselves.

But Zephyra was not done either. It brought its whiplike tail with a barb at the end and thrust it into the neck of the main, middle head.

“Poison?” Caden asked Valerius.

He nodded. “Good, Zephyra, take down that head.”

That main coppery head with the yellow eyes wobbled slightly back and forth. Its eyelids fell halfway shut. The other heads appeared confused, perplexed. They were blinking again, like they had when released from Zephyra’s mesmerism.

Caden saw Iolaire look down at the Behemoth’s body. Blue eyes went huge in the White Dragon’s head. It clearly realized that it was attached to something it should not be. It’s body was not there. The Behemoth’s body was there however. Iolaire let out a terrified scream.

Caden could well imagine Iolaire’s horror at what it was experiencing.

He looked up at his Dragon Spirit’s blue eyes right now and they were filled with sorrow and horror, still.

How Caden longed to hold his Dragon Spirit.

To comfort it. But he would never be able to touch the White Dragon.

Raziel though comforted Iolaire for him.

Nuzzling and winding their long necks together a little like swans did.

“Iolaire is the only one to fully wake,” Valerius muttered. “Do you see?” He pointed towards the other heads which still seemed hazy-eyed and disconnected from what was going on around them. “That must be why later it escaped while the others were drawn back again.”

Caden saw Iolaire’s neck straining to get away from the body of the Behemoth as if it could physically separate itself, rip its own body out of the Hydra’s.

Zephyra went to strike the Behemoth again, clearly sensing a change and potential victory, in taking down that center head.

Its tail--with that poisonous barb--whipped around to strike at the Behemoth’s central head again, but the Behemoth--who had seemed discombobulated--struck even faster.

It chomped down on Zephyra’s tail. Zephyra let out a scream that was so piercing that Caden thought he might have gone deaf from it.

His ears rang. But his gaze was still stuck on what was happening.

The Behemoth ripped off Zephyra’s barbed tail.

Blood, a rich purple, poured from the wound.

Zephyra continued to scream as it tried to back away from the Behemoth who spat out the tip of Zephyra’s tail before biting down again .

It was then that a burst of blinding light hit the back of the Behemoth’s main head.

It was Evren. The small silver Dragon sent another blast of light that had the Behemoth releasing Zephyra.

Tiny but mighty, Evren helped to drag Zephyra out of harm’s way.

The Behemoth let out a roar of pure rage as the wounded Zephyra was drawn out of its reach.

But in its blind anger, the Behemoth’s inattention on what was going on about it was going to be its undoing as Raziel’s massive jaws clamped around the Behemoth’s throat.

It had been so busy facing Zephyra that it had forgotten about its most dangerous foe.

Raziel . The Behemoth’s angry roar became one of agony as Raziel not only bit out its throat but then poured fire down inside of the opening, frying the Behemoth from the inside out.

“Holy cow!” Caden gasped.

“Indeed,” Valerius said quietly with the same amount of awe.

All of the Hydra’s heads--including Iolaire--joined that chorus of unbearable agony as Raziel bit down again around the Behemoth’s central head and tore the whole goddamned thing off.

Raziel threw the now dead head away. All the other Dragon heads slumped, even Iolaire’s.

Were they unconscious? Released from the Hydra’s spell? Dead?

Raziel lifted its head towards the strange sky and bellowed its dominion.

The other Dragons joined in. But the fight wasn’t exactly over yet.

For the Behemoth’s body suddenly began to glow a terrible red.

Raziel’s eyes narrowed. It released the body and flew backwards, hovering at a distance, as this strange and, clearly, unexpected phenomena occurred.

The other Dragons, even Mephous, who was now shaking its massive head as if to clear it, turned to see what was occurring.

“What’s happening?” Caden asked.

“I do not know,” Valerius answered.

The glow became so bright that Caden had to shade his eyes with one forearm.

And then… there was an explosion. Valerius grabbed Caden and shielded him with his body.

They were on the ground, no longer in their chairs, hiding behind the table when they both realized that the explosion had not come through to them.

It was just a memory that Raziel was showing them.

“Holy shit that felt real!” Caden gasped.

Valerius slowly unfurled his body from around Caden’s, but his hands remained on Caden’s shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine! That was… oh, man… real ,” Caden repeated as there were no other words that seemed to do justice to how shaken up he felt.

“Yes, yes, it was,” Valerius agreed.

He helped Caden get up, but he did not allow Caden to go back to his chair.

Instead, Valerius held him close. Caden rested his head on the Black Dragon King’s shoulder.

He hummed with happiness at the protectiveness that Valerius was showing him, even though he wanted to say that they were both Dragons so…

Caden’s train of thought derailed as he cracked his eyelids open to still see the final image of the victorious battle on Raziel’s chest. The land that the Dragons had been fighting on, was gone.

There was an empty smoking crater that Caden could not see the edges of.

The Behemoth’s body was gone as well. And so were the other Dragons. There was no trace of them remaining.

The single word that came to Caden’s mind was: obliteration.

He frantically turned Valerius around to see what he was seeing.

“What? Caden--no,” the word was hissed through Valerius’ teeth.

“That’s the Spirit realm, right? That’s… but it’s… if that happened here …” Caden could hardly get the thought out.

“It would devastate a country. Maybe more than one. Maybe…” Valerius whispered and his voice dropped off.

“Valerius, we can’t defeat the Behemoth like that! If killing the Behemoth does that then--”

“We will have lost even if we won ,” Valerius murmured with barely suppressed horror.

“That’s why it’s here ,” Caden said. “It knows that it's safe so long as it's by people. Your people.”

They didn’t get a chance to speak more as there was a wounded cry from a bird. Both their heads jerked up to see a single falcon returning. It was flying almost as if it were drunk, but Caden realized that it was injured.

The falcon shifted twenty feet from the ground and Celestine would have plummeted to further injury, but Valerius moved and caught her before she hit the earth. Blood was coming out of her mouth, nose, ears and even eyes.

“Celestine!” Valerius cried.

“Here! Lay her down on the table!” Caden urged as he swept the platters of food off onto the ground so that Valerius could gently place Celestine’s body on the surface.

Celestine opened her mouth to speak, but only more blood bubbled out.

“Shhhh, shhhh, don’t try to speak,” Valerius said as he tipped her head to the side so that she wouldn’t asphyxiate on her own blood.

But Celestine clawed at Valerius’ front as she forced the words out between bloody froth, “W-wall. D-death.”