“Oh, I know a lot of things. Like the fact that your supposed brothers, Titus and Liam, never actually forgave you for sending them to a watery grave. They still resent you for it, secretly hate you for killing them.”
Magnus could feel ice on his arms, horror clouding his mind as memories of the past flooded into the present, icy and cold like the waters they’d sunk into. He tried to fight it off, focusing on his rage, his need to protect Lindy.
“They just can’t say it out loud because they’re too scared to confront the truth themselves, you know. If they truly told you how they feel about your failure, I think you’d do everyone a favor and just off yourself.”
The mercury dragon disappeared, and Liam took his place, looking saddened, disappointed. “You said we couldn’t sink,” Liam said, shaking his head. “How could you?”
Magnus knew it wasn’t Liam. Knew it wasn’t possible, but it sounded like him, looked like him. Hell, even smelled like him.
Liam disappeared, and Titus took his place, arms crossed, looking down on him. “You let us both down, Magnus. We lost centuries of our lives because of you,” Titus accused.
It was like Magnus’s subconscious had taken shape before him, putting him on trial for the very mistakes he knew he deserved to be punished for. He knew it was illusion, terrible magic he never knew had existed, but he felt its effects all the same, his body going weak, as if surrounded by frigid ocean water.
He closed his eyes and thought of Lindy, the only good thing he could cling to at a moment like this.
Her face when she smiled. Her blushes when she was drunk or aroused. The way she laughed at his bluntness. The ecstasy of making her come.
No matter whether he deserved it or if he should be punished for his past failures, he had to fight because of Lindy.
She needed him.
Magnus hefted his axe once more, but before he could move, Titus melted back into Mercury as the dragon sprang toward Magnus, sword once again in hand. Magnus raised his weapon to block but felt pain lance through him as the sword tore into his shoulder, barely deflected from piercing his heart.
Magnus grunted as he held his ax firm, watching Mercury grin in amusement at his pain.
“So weak. So very, very weak,” Mercury hissed, reaching forward to grab Magnus by the throat. Suddenly, Magnus felt air, then crashing glass around him, then hard earth as he was thrown through the window and into the scrapyard.
He looked up and saw the muted noonday sun, veiled by thick, gray clouds, and also, just above him, the car Lindy was in.
He turned to catch his bearings, just in time to see Mercury spring through the gaping window. Magnus scrambled to get back on his feet but felt his entire body crushed into the ground as Mercury launched into him.
Then Magnus felt the jagged blade at his neck.
“You fool. So caught up in self-doubt and guilt that cripples you, even while your mate is in danger. So very human, even though you call yourself dragon. Didn’t ever even occur to you that someone could have sabotaged your design back then. So eager to blame yourself.”
“What are you saying?” Magnus gasped, feeling the blade push harder into his throat.
“I guess I can tell you now, before I kill you. I want to see your face when I tell you all of this. The self-blame, the nightmares, all pointless,” Mercury said with hideous satisfaction. “There are so very many ways to weaken wood, chemicals that can be used, tiny cracks that can be worsened that will make even the most durable of structures fail. But the fact that you blamed yourself, put the responsibility on your shoulders, was more hilarious than I could have ever imagined.” Mercury finished with a cruel laugh.
“Why?” Magnus asked. “Why would you do that?” And didn’t that still make him a failure, to know he hadn’t protected his crew or noticed their craft had been sabotaged?
“You don’t need my reasons,” Mercury hissed viciously. “You just need to despair and die.”
As Magnus struggled for breath, feeling blood and life leaking out of him, he was distracted by a crash high above them.
Looking over Mercury’s shoulder, he saw Lindy pop her head out of the window, gag still in her mouth, hands still bound. “Magnus, read my thoughts,” she screamed, enunciating each word as well as she could around the gag.
She’d remembered that he’d said he could read her thoughts if he invited her. But what could she possibly want to say to him now? Was she going to castigate him as he deserved for once again being too weak to save what he cared about?
But the minute he heard her soft voice in his mind, he felt instantly calmed.
Don’t listen to him, Magnus. He’s evil, and you’re not. Please fight him.
I can’t. I’m not strong enough.
I need you. I’m sorry I ran away. When I realized I cared for you, it scared me. Loving someone destroyed me once, and I didn’t want it to happen again. But I can’t live without you, Magnus. I love you. I’ll never leave your side again. Just finish him.
She loved him.
Hope spread through him, warm and strong, like sunshine on frozen water.
She didn’t judge him for what had happened, and it was time to stop judging himself as well. Time to stop thinking about that frigid, stormy night and start living again. Time to fight.
He opened his eyes to see the mercury dragon looking down at him, a sneer on his face. “You know, I think I’ll kill your mate first, just so you can enjoy the feeling of complete failure before I annihilate you, iron dragon. And then I’ll kill the rest of your crew, one by one. They all have weaknesses, just like you. They bleed just like any living thing does.”
“Just kick his ass,” Lindy shouted around her gag.
When Mercury looked up at her, distracted and annoyed, Magnus made his move. He pushed his weight up, knocking Mercury off balance, then grabbed his hand and the sword it was holding to pull it away from his neck. Then he rolled backward and flipped Mercury off of him, sending him flying over his head.
Mercury soared several yards backward, rolling over the ground, and then jumped to his feet as Magnus did the same, squaring off with him.
It wasn’t until Mercury looked to the small control panel at the base of the crane that Magnus felt alarm shoot through him
Mercury reached out and yanked one of the levers, then grinned. “Very well, mate goes first. Have it your way,” he said, glowering.
Magnus looked up and saw the cradle of the crane begin to slowly tilt forward. A second later, he heard Lindy scream as the car leaned, then pitched off the lift, plummeting toward the earth as it rolled.
Lindy had only a second to panic as the car she was in began to lean to one side. A moment later, her stomach dropped, and she let out a scream as the car dropped into a free-fall.
She heard a loud roar, like some sort of gigantic monster, followed by a jarring jolt as the car stopped midflight, bumping her into the worn cushions.