The dragon screeched, and the wall of Wind began to shake. One of its heads lunged toward Lady Mykaela, its mouth open, and my screams were lost over the sound of its roaring.
A small string of Wind wrapped around Lady Mykaela and yanked her back, and the azi’s teeth missed her by mere inches. Panting, Polaire lowered her arms, and the Wind around Lady Mykaela fizzled out. The dragon growled, shook all three heads, and stepped forward to try again.
“Let me go, Fox!”
“I’m not going to let you—”
“Let me go.”
He dropped his arms, and I was free, tearing past the wall and toward the asha. I heard Polaire yelling after me, but I paid her no attention, punching at the air to draw a Compulsion rune of my own. I aimed it at one of the heads snapping dangerously close and focused.
No amount of training can prepare you for stepping inside a monster’s head. There was nothing there to cobble any logical thought together, nothing close to reason. But there were emotions running rampantly through, anger and rage and fear and hunger, all unfiltered by any semblance of a mind—only a monstrous, terrible awareness.
I didn’t remember much. I remembered the feeling of being in two places at once, of staring up at the three-headed dragon and at the same time staring back down at myself from a much greater height. I felt a sudden need to destroy and maim, coupled with a towering rage of such proportions that it almost felt like a separate entity. Kill, that rage whispered, its intentions spiraling out toward Lady Mykaela, who remained still on the ground, unmoving.
NO. I put everything I had into that one word and turned it into a command. The being hesitated, and I repeated it again, pulling at the remainder of the magic around me from the runes the other asha wielded.
NO. I wrapped the magic around me like it was a cloak and then like it was the strongest armor ever forged.
NO. Lady Mykaela did not protest when I drew the rune away from her, added it to bolster my own. In that moment, despite the disorientation and the feeling of wrongness, I felt powerful and complete, and more importantly, I knew that the beast knew this.
NO!
The creature backed away from us and spread its wings to prepare for flight.
“Kill it, Tea!” I could hear Polaire screaming at me. “Kill it!”
But I hesitated. As strong as I felt I was, I could not bring myself to say those fatal words. I was trapped between two minds, and at that moment, I was a part of the creature just as it was a part of me.
My hesitation was all it needed. I was assailed by a sudden image: a vast, serene lake, glittering. The creature’s thoughts reached for those waters, yearning.
With one final scream of fury, the dragon hurtled itself through the air, flying at such great speeds that soon it was nothing but a speck in the distance, heading toward the fullness of the moon. A few seconds later, it was gone, and the only thing left to remember it by was the carnage around me, the moans of the injured and the dying.
My legs gave out from underneath me, but Fox caught me before I could hit the floor. “You stupid, absolute, unbelievable idiot!” I heard him say. My eyes were trained on Lady Mykaela, who had not moved at all. Polaire and two other asha were already by her side, talking urgently among themselves. There was a faint whiff of something metallic; looking down, I was surprised to see that the front of my clothes was drenched in blood.
I must have fainted after that.
? ? ?
My brother was sitting by my side, scowling, inside my room at the Valerian. Fox never had a good bedside manner to begin with, and he was in a foul mood long before I’d opened my eyes.
“Whatever possessed you to do something so dangerous?” he all but exploded as soon as he saw I was awake. “Of all the foolish ideas—did you know how easily you could have been killed?”
“But I wasn’t killed.” The excuse sounded weak, even to me.
“Out of sheer luck! How many times have you faced down a dragon before, Tea? And don’t try arguing with me! I was in your head when it all happened! I felt that daeva in my head as thoroughly as you did! It could have killed you just as easily as it killed so many others!”
“Can I at least get some rest before you scold me?” My head was pounding. I felt like I’d just been pushed down a cliff and had hit every stone and branch on the way down. My mind was free and clear, but there was something curled somewhere in the recesses of my mind that Fox did not seem aware of—something not even I could reach.
There was a long silence before he sighed. Taking great care not to put pressure on the bandages wrapped around my leg, Fox leaned over and wrapped me in a fierce hug. “Did you know how scared you made me?” His voice was muffled against my hair. “Did you know how close I came to losing you?”
That would be ridiculous, was what I wanted to say in an effort to lighten the mood. If I’d died, you wouldn’t have had time to miss me, because you would have died too…
A choking sound rose up from the back of my throat, and I burst into tears without trying. He hugged me again. “Idiot,” I heard him say, but this time with none of the heat.
Someone cleared her throat. Mistress Parmina stood by the doorway, accompanied by Polaire and Althy. None of them looked happy.
“If I had my way,” the old woman said before either of us could speak, “you would be cleaning the outhouses in perpetuity. Banned from the rest of your lessons for at least two more years. Forbidden to so much as raise your hand as draw in the Dark. Massage my feet until you are older and grayer and hopefully wiser. I can think of many other such chastisements. In fact, I will punish you regardless of what the other elders say.”
She pointed at a small tray on a table beside me that contained several slices of runeberries. “Eat them quickly; you will need your strength. The elders require your presence later this afternoon. They will want their turns at yelling at you for your insolence.”
I knew better than to argue with Mistress Parmina at this point though and dutifully picked up a piece.
The mistress of the Valerian sighed, turning toward the other two asha and speaking like I was no longer in the room. “Did I not tell Mykaela that she was going to be trouble? And yet I have no right to be so surprised. Mykaela was just as unruly in her younger days.”
“Mykaela is one of our best asha, Mistress,” Althy murmured. “In time, Tea here might prove the same.”
“In time, but not today.” Mistress Parmina shot me one last look, sighed again, and left.
“If she could condescend to listen to us every now and then.” Polaire gave me a scowl. “Whatever possessed you to run out like that, Tea? Do you know how easily the azi could have killed you?”
“I was afraid it was going to hurt Lady Mykaela,” I mumbled. “Is she…?”
“Resting comfortably, thanks to you—although I am still very angry. You are never to do that again, do you hear me?”