Look over my powers again, Tyrrik said suddenly. Scour every twist of my energy.
Al’right. I turned inward to my lapis lazuli energy and followed the glorious strands of onyx to Tyrrik’s Drae. Why are you so worried that you bit me?
I bit you on your mark? he said to himself. What was I thinking?
His question made my stomach flip, and my attention on his strands sharpened. And just what does that do?
Draedyn is alpha. If he got in somehow, he replied, hedging. Then he was behind that.
I stopped looking for the oily green energy of my father and pulled my vision back. I couldn’t find any trace of him, but that wasn’t to say he hadn’t been and gone. Why would Draedyn want us to dance the maypole?
I put myself in my father’s disgusting shoes, trying to reason like a sick tyrant. Why would he want me and Tyrrik to dance the maypole?
The answer hit like Jotun’s fist.
“He wants us to have Drae babies,” I gasped. That was the entirety of his plan, I was certain of it! Not only did he want Tyrrik and me out of the fight, he wanted us to grow the Drae population.
My voice shook with fury as I asked, Take me back. What do you remember?
36
Tyrrik flashed images through our bond. He’d been asleep. His guard was down. He’d awoken at the first intrusion in his mind, at the powerful “suggestion” from the alpha. Tyrrik’s initial call for me had been in the split second he’d known what Draedyn was doing, and then I’d burst through the door, and Tyrrik’s only thought, compulsive instinct, had been to make little Tyrriks and Ryns.
All of that was replaced by Tyrrik blaming himself for being too weak to resist.
Anger, fiery hot, pulsed, and in an instant, turned into a roaring inferno of rage.
“Draedyn,” I yelled, seizing the emperor’s emerald power in my own. What did he plan to do if Tyrrik and I did have children? Take them for his own? Raise them in his soulless image?
I followed the strand of emerald power to his core and hurled a blast of my raging fury at him, going further than I’d ever dared to go. Returning to my mate, I wrapped our Drae energy in my Phaetyn net.
“It’s not your fault,” I grumbled, opening our bond wide to let Tyrrik see the only anger I had was with my father. I scooted to the edge of the bed. The knife was by the door, and I picked up the blade and waved it at Tyrrik. “Phaetyn blood on this one and not mine, so be careful.”
I stormed toward the door. This wasn’t over. I could count on one hand the amount of times I’d been so murderously enraged. He’d gone into my mate’s mind. And I’d left Tyrrik alone as he slept, vulnerable. Not only that, I felt wild protectiveness surging through me at the thought that Draedyn might try to control any future family we had.
I couldn’t let this rest.
Wait—
Don’t tell me—
I just need to get dressed. In a blur, Tyrrik stood by my side, dressed again in his black aketon. He opened the door, his features hardened, and said, “Let’s go.”
We charged through the castle, side by side, my mind tracing Draedyn’s emerald power through the palace like I’d done a moment before. I couldn’t feel the core of it like before, but the traces were strongest from the levels above.
Doors slammed, and the sound of footsteps pounded behind us.
Druman, Tyrrik said to me.
We both ignored the mules.
The dining room was empty when we arrived. I glared at the rough-hewn table and the otherwise empty space. Where was he?
“Out here,” Tyrrik called from outside on the terrace.
I blurred out to join him, noting the sun halfway up the horizon with its daily climb. Tyrrik pointed to the sky, and I swore, my fury over personal grievances settling into horror for the entire realm.
In the pale-blue-and-gray dawn, two dozen dragons were flying toward Azule.
My insides twisted in horror, and I grabbed Tyrrik’s arm. “He’s heading for the army!”
My terrified shout was superfluous, but the dread spilled out. Dyter was out there. He had to be! And Lani and my Gemondian friends. The entire rebellion would be on fire.
“Lani has the shield up over most of the army,” Tyrrik reminded me. “We’re not fighting this alone.”
But his eyes scoured the ground, and I followed his gaze. Hundreds of Druman scrabbled out of the mountain like ants, leaping and bounding along the ground toward Azule after their father and master.
The emperor was making his move. I’d been so upset about what he’d just tried to do I missed the why. That he might’ve had another layer of motive to his action hadn’t even occurred to me.
If I’d surrendered to Tyrrik’s bite, we’d have been none-the-wiser to Draedyn attacking the army. And he’d lied about the number of Druman he had.
My talons and fangs lengthened. “What do we do? They’ve got a head start.”
Tyrrik and I stared into each other’s eyes, our bond swirling around us.
“Draedyn is away from the palace,” Tyrrik said, gripping my hand. “It’s the perfect chance to destroy his base.”
“But the army,” I whispered, pointing out to the valley.
“We’ll have to trust Lani and the others. We’ll light his palace up—”
“Which might turn him back anyway.”
“And then give chase. Leave him nothing to come back to.”
“Wait.” I gripped his arm. “The prisoners. There are Phaetyn down in the dungeons.”
His gaze darted back inside, toward the maze of hallways and stairs of Draedyn’s lair. “Okay, don’t worry. I’ll get them out now.”
I didn’t have a chance to tell him no before he was gone.
I didn’t want to lose sight of Tyrrik, not even to save others. I felt out of depth, unprepared. I wasn’t ready to come head to head with Draedyn. I was on the cusp of understanding how I could take advantage of my half and half powers, but I hadn’t had time to test anything.
The next few minutes were among the worst of my life. The duration multiplied tenfold as I imagined every possible harm befalling Tyrrik.
But he blurred back into the room.
The Phaetyn? I blurted.
On their way out. If they want to save themselves, they will.
After seeing what Ash did to herself, I had no trouble understanding his comment.
I feel like there’s so much more to do, I said as we walked out onto the balcony.
My love, you cannot prepare for this. None of us can.
Tyrrik pulled me over the edge of the graphite cliff.
I tumbled with him into the open air, unafraid.
Hurtling downward, our gazes locked. All our regret and fear and hope pressed between us, but those emotions would drown us if we let them. We let them go. The air sucked them away greedily, and then we pushed away from one another.
And shifted.
My neck lengthened, and my spine elongated with the size of my Drae, the bony protrusions extending into deadly spikes. My tailbone stretched, and barbed spines burst around the end of my clubbed tail. With a powerful beating of my wings, I surged into the air in tandem with my mate. We unleashed our roars, combined, shaking the very stones of the graphite mountain.
I’m going to light this place up, Tyrrik said, sounding a mite bit too pleased with the idea.
The realm should be worried that my mate not only possessed the ability to breathe fire but enjoyed it. Pyro.
He swooped to the bottom of the cliff, and I noticed a massive entrance carved into the side I hadn’t seen before, being mind controlled on arrival here.
As Tyrrik dove, the inferno in his chest glowed, showing through his scales as his chest expanded with the pressure building within.
I maintained my high position, scanning the ground. Human soldiers were gathered beneath us, close to the palace. I blinked and noticed the golden powers coating their arrows and spears.
Phaetyn blood on their weapons, I cautioned Tyrrik. Don’t get hit.
Then I smiled. Because arrows and spears were nothing against me. And neither was Phaetyn blood.
I’m taking care of the soldiers, I told my mate as a jet of his lapis lazuli flame, our flame, licked the entrance, dissolving the doors within seconds. The rest of his fire shot inside.