“Are you telling me that he’s your brother?”
How he wished it was that simple. “No. We were bred differently by our gods. Designed for a specific purpose. He was truly born from the forbidden coupling of a lilit mother and an arel father, and raised to be a tool for the ancient gods.” Kessar pierced her with a harsh glare, before he rammed home exactly what kind of creature they were dealing with. “And it’s said he turned on his own mother in a fit of anger, and tore out her throat with his own teeth.”
“You’re serious?”
He nodded as he lifted his shirt to expose the wound on his side that had never healed. A vicious bite scar that ran from nipple to hip, and forever oozed with dragon venom. “He is not just your Dragonbane. He is my personal plague and the one creature in this universe I would give anything to have in battle one last time.”
“Anything?”
“Anything… More than that, he has in his possession something he protects that’s a lot more powerful than the Emerald Tablet.” He lowered his shirt. “Forget restoring the old world we once knew. With what he has, we could reign as gods ourselves. We would have the power to not only take life, but to create it. To make and destroy entire worlds, and pantheons.”
Completely shocked, she gaped at him. “Are you telling me that dumb, idiot dragon who lived in my village —”
“Is one of the most powerful and ancient creatures who has ever roamed this planet.” Kessar laughed bitterly. “He was never a dumb animal, you stupid bitch. But for the curse placed on his mother, he would have been born a Na?āru.”
A being of purest light, they were the protectors of order and the defenders of the primal gods. Resolute warriors of the highest honor and noblest hearts. Their place was to remain away from the world and those who lived in it so that they wouldn’t be corrupted by evil.
But once exposed to the world, they became the deadliest of all its creatures.
And none more so than Maxis.
“What curse?” Nala asked.
Kessar folded his arms over his chest. “After Lilit made the mistake of seducing a god and becoming pregnant with his child, his goddess wife cursed her and all her kind to never birth a live child, or to carry a fetus in their wombs. Rather they were all to lay eggs and only have serpent children. And so the first race of dragons were born from the cursed lilitu. Because of what those children were, their mothers hid them away and left them to die in caverns and caves. Over time, the gods learned that these children were excellent survivors and that their solitary natures made them the perfect vassals to guard their most sacred objects.”
“And what is this object he protects?”
“The Sa’l Sangue Realle.”
She frowned. “Never heard of it.”
Kessar scoffed at her ignorance. “It’s a bowl his mother stole from his father that can grant immortality to any who drink from it. And take immortality from those who have it. Any weapon that is dipped into a liquid held by it can kill anything it pierces. More than that, it grants total omnipotency and omniscience.”
“And you’re sure he has it?”
Kessar backhanded her. “I know the creature I seek.” He gestured to the bodies on the floor. “And I know how rare a species it is that can render three gallu dead with this kind of ease, especially in adolescence.” He grabbed her by the throat and yanked her closer. “Find their bitchtress mother. We have to leash them and their father, and find that bowl. If you fail, I’ll take great pleasure in spending the rest of eternity making you my own personal bitch.”
Brace yourself, Deenie. I can’t go any farther.”
Edena held tight to her brother’s neck as Hadyn lost altitude and headed for the burned-out ground far below them while they flew out of the reach of the demons they’d escaped. Wounded herself, she wasn’t able to take dragon form at all. And as they crashed and he hit the ground hard, she felt for him. But true to his nature, he coiled himself around her to protect her as best he could.
When they finally stopped falling and rolling, he was flat on his back, his wings spread wide with her tucked in tightly between his massive claws and nestled against his chest. She heard his heart pounding beneath her bruised cheek. They were in some kind of valley underneath a vast, dark sky that was filled with bright stars. A sky she didn’t recognize at all.
“Hadyn?”
He groaned.
“You alive, little brother?”
“No,” he groused with a light, pain-filled laugh. He loosened his hold so that she could slide out from between his massive talons and check on his wounds. Panting and weak, he tilted his massive spiked head to the side and stared at her with those eerie gold serpentine eyes. “Did they bite you?”