Leaving behind the corridors of Isolation that the rest of the world was used to, the rich gold-veined and marbled walls, the luxurious furniture and wide bedecked hallways fit for dragons in either form, and the feeling of a palace, then stepping into the bowels and finding dank caves and darkness was something of a shock to the system.

"Where are all the House of Earth people?" Asha asked quietly, the ice in her voice disguising what had to be even more unpleasant memories for her. She had been trapped here for years, nearly buried alive, and her mother had been killed here. But she gave nothing of that pain away now, steeped as she seemed in ice.

It was Datulos who answered from behind them, having taken up rear guard with Icarus. "When we discovered Aarion’s attack we moved them all into the ballrooms and the adjoining rooms while we got him to safety and investigated. That was when we discovered Rendal had gone missing."

"How long since the attack?"  Theron asked, wanting, Clare knew, to pinpoint how much time had passed, for them and for Graedon.

"Half a day," Icarus said grimly. Too much time, Clare thought, and knew Theron felt the same when he pressed her hand to his side and held her tight.

She understood from his face that it was not just about assuring himself that she was safe, but because they were getting closer to where the blood stone had been enclosed and magic cocooned, a cocoon that was even now being unraveled. They all knew time was not on their side, but they also knew that to rush forward might well get them killed. They moved with purpose through the torture chambers of Isolation and all of them listened with not just their ears but their magic as well.

After turning a few more corners into darkness that seemed absolute Clare shifted into her in-between form so that she resembled a woman-cat mix, complete with claws, sharp canines and fuzzy ears. It allowed her to hear more than her human form was capable of, and see in the dark. The dragons could see just fine in either form. Theron loosened his hold on her hand when he felt the fur and the nip of claws, but after barely a hitch he closed his fingers around her again, understanding what she had done. He was not surprised by her abilities, as he had seen her do something similar the last time they were in these caves together, when he had nearly died removing the stone before it could consume him.

She was very much afraid they would face something nearly as hard this time. She raised her chin. But this time, she thought, they were mated, and she would be able to pull him from the stone, just as she had pulled him from death the last time.

Her ears twitched, and she knew Theron had read her new stillness because she felt his already sharp senses sharpen even further. It's just ahead, isn't it?

Yes. Even his mind voice was grim and tight to her senses. I sense the stone close ahead.

Holding up a hand, he signaled the others, who tightened the circle around them. Solan, beside them, stepped ahead, while Icarus and Datulos stepped closer to their backs, keeping enough space to fight but close enough to protect if the need arose. It was not Theron they were all set to protect, Clare knew; it was her and Asha.  Theron pushed her back beside Asha and stepped next to Braedon, the seer and Clare now at their backs, Solan and Lux ahead of them and Icarus and Datulos at their backs.

Braedon had his sword naked in his hands and moved as quietly and as sure-footed as the dragons in the dark. It made him wonder if he too could see in the dark and then he realized he was cocking his head and moving more carefully than usual. He was listening, not seeing.

A hazy light shone around the next corner and she could see a slight relaxing in the man’s shoulders, even as everyone else tensed further. He was relieved to see again, and everyone else was girding for the coming confrontation. Clare snapped her hands out and willed her claws to grow and sharpen from her fingertips.

She shifted her clothes away and instead a tough hide of almost diamond hardness coated her from head to toe. In this half form she could move freely, and most attacks would bounce right off her. She saw Asha notice what she had done with wide eyes. She smiled with a show of impressive teeth. It was not every day you were able to surprise the seer.

Behind her Icarus and Datulos both shifted in surprise, not enough that anyone would hear them but enough that she felt the hesitation. She was shocking everyone today. Her smile widened. It was not only her bow work and sword skills that she had been working on.

Dragon scales and Thundercat eyes and claws had been a difficult melding the first time she tried it. Now, with dragon magic coursing through her blood from her mating and within the boundaries of magic-soaked Dracon, she was not even strained by the meld. All she really needed to worry about was a powerful magic attack; even the dragons could not always stand before that, which is why she kept the Thundercat as well, for speed and agility, and the heightened senses without the bulk of a dragon.

Thundercats could control the weather and were nearly immune to magic attack, something she had tested herself with her sister Morgan’s help. Controlling the weather, she had discovered, was not in her repertoire, but the magic deflection seemed to come with the form, just as the Phoenix allowed her to bathe in fire without burning. Something inherent in the skin of the Thundercat itself became hers when she wore that skin, so pairing the two forms made perfect sense. One deflected physical attack, the other was immune to magic, even the high magic dragons were susceptible to. Besides, she had hated the reptilian hairless feeling a straight dragon-human meld had produced. She was vain enough to want to keep her hair. Silly as that sounded, even to herself, it was true.

Solan did not hesitate at the corner but moved to it and around it in a blur even a Thundercat would be hard-pressed to see.

The rest of them followed and what they saw as they turned the corner had Clare trying to blink it into focus. They were seriously fast. And Solan was already in the thick of battle before they had even turned the corner to follow. Lux was right at his heels.

The rest of them came around the corner fast enough to witness the first attack. What looked like a decaying wildebeest sprang to Rendal’s defense but Solan was too fast for him, skirting the beast before he could get between him and the dragon he sought. Clare could barely see the man move he was so fast, and on what was left of Rendal before the dragon could defend himself.

Rendal was pushed forcefully away from the blood stone cocoon and the huge black hole it hovered over. From that hole giant spider-like creatures swarmed. They had probably been what Rendal used to dig out the stone, and right now they were moving toward Solan with a purpose. The great hairy beast had also turned, having missed its target, and charged back toward the General. Lux was having none of that. Wielding his battle axe and with a roar of dragon challenge, he attacked the beast just as it was turning to attack Solan’s back.

Icarus and Datulos sprang into action, circling the rest of them to come ahead and intercept the spiders. Nearly as fast as their leader, the battle became a blur of blood and mangled spider parts.

Asha was flanked by her mate, and Clare followed Theron. The ferocious battle around them might as well have not existed for him. He had eyes only for the glowing orb over a deep hole in the cave floor, partially ripped open as if a cocoon of magic had been damaged. They could all see a glimpse of the stone within. Rendal had been too close.

It should not have been possible, nor should it have been possible that he was fending off the commander of the Knights of The Light with some kind of dark field of power. Solan was doing his best to hack away at the magic protecting Rendal and making headway as the dragon weakened, but Rendal would never have had the power to make the defense he was making now. Not to mention that it pulsed with dark magic and death.

The spiders continued to flow out of the depths of the hole toward the knights.

Braedon and Asha both raised their hands in unison and shot fire into its depths. The rest of the swarm screamed nearly as one and dropped back into the pit as raining ash. Those that had escaped the flame staggered under the death of the rest and Icarus and Datulos made swift work of them, hacking and slashing with swords that gleamed silver in the darkness of the cave. They flew past the twitching parts they left behind and jumped onto the ten-foot-high back of the mammoth creature Lux was attempting to dismember. It bellowed and tried to buck them off while Solan raged his own battle against a haggard-looking Rendal whose shield was failing. It was giving under Solan's continued hammering of it, but it was slow going.

"Before anything else can show up to fight," Clare said, "we have to do something about that stone."  They had all stopped when Theron did, a pained look on his face, feet from the stone.

Clare kept her senses wide open to her mate and knew the struggle he was going through not to reach out and claim the dark power. If he even looked as if he was going in that direction she would shift into something big and strong enough to wrestle a crazed dragon with wind magic. She had no idea what it would take but she would find out if she had to.

I can feel the call, he said, all the struggle she could sense in those words.

I know.

If Rendal claims the stone, we will all be killed; with the power it gives me I can keep you safe.

You can keep me safe now. She tried to project all of her belief in his powers. She did not bother to point out that she was far from helpless. She was in his mind; she saw what he was feeling and none of it was logical and all of it was coated with the call of the stone. The stone will only turn you into the monster. Then who would protect me from you?

It was the reason he had ripped the stone out of his chest the last time it had its claws in him. Because he had known she would be the one to pay the price if he should fall to its power. It was the only argument she could think of to keep him centered and with her. It was working. He was not moving toward the stone; unfortunately, someone would have to, because they could not take the chance that Rendal would get his hands on it.

Right now, he was faltering beneath the combined powers of the knights, but whatever he had fortified himself with to get the stone was also turned on them and they could not take the chance that he didn't have something else in his arsenal.

"We need to destroy that thing," she said, looking at the stone floating and emanating the dark magic that was making her slightly queasy in her animal forms. No wonder the animals steered clear. They could feel the unnatural wrongness of it.

"How?" Braedon growled. "Even Kinkaid could do nothing more than cocoon it and bury it."

"Not enough," Theron gritted back. His eyes were still on the stone, but his body, though it strained, at least no longer moved toward it.

Asha looked at her brother and then met the eyes of her mate.

He growled a low negative to whatever he saw on her face.

She licked her lips and raised her chin. "I have to look."

"Asha," Theron growled, clearly agreeing with whatever her mate was silently trying to communicate.

She looked at her brother again and narrowed her eyes. "I have to try."  Then, before Braedon could do more than step toward her and grab her arm, she dropped. Her mate caught her with a curse, followed by a whole litany of them from her brother, but it was too late. Lady Asha Dragon Seer was in the weave.

"Why is this such a bad thing?" Clare asked, looking between both men while the battle seemed to reach some kind of pitch on the other side of the room.

"This is where her mother died," Braedon said, his face grim and his arms around his mate gentle. “And with the blood stone so close she could lose control of the weave."

"And if that happens?"

Braedon knelt on the floor and pulled his lady into his lap and brushed back the shimmering hair that fell over her forehead. She could practically feel the man’s love and worry for his mate.

But it was Theron who answered. For now, at least the call of the stone was eclipsed by his sister’s danger. "She could be lost in the weave forever, leaving only an empty shell behind."

A blast of dark power knocked them all back nearly to the wall.

Clare?!  He could feel her in his arms, but he also knew they had hit hard, and landing on top of her as he had would not have helped. Though it meant that his back was what took the brunt of the dark power.

I’m fine. He searched her thoughts as he ran his hands over her body, even as he was easing up and off her. When he was satisfied that her shielding had held, and she was telling the truth he stood and turned to look for the rest of him. Braedon and Asha had already been on the floor, and he saw with relief that the huntsman had protected his sister from the worst of the blast. The dragon knights had not fared so well, being nearly on top of the blast when the dark shield fell.

Lux, Icarus, Datulos and, he was relieved to see, Solan were all pulling themselves up off the debris-strewn floor. Torn and bloody but alive and standing, they turned as one to look at Rendal when the harsh laugh filled the destroyed space.

“Is this all the fight you can offer?”  The harsh voice grated through the caves. “Is this all the challenge I can expect from the great knights of the light?  Not even Kinkaid?”

Rendal laughed again, looking from the four knights before him and then farther into the room and straight at Theron. Rage flashed in his eyes, followed by malice, the red in their depths pulsing with it, and Theron knew that look. This was not Rendal.

The enraged dragon hissed at him, spittle falling from his lips as he growled at Theron from across the room. Those pulsing red eyes fell on Clare standing in his arms in her armored cat form. “All you bring to challenge me is a half-breed abomination and his pet mage, a few knights, and what?”  He tore his eyes away from Theron and found Braedon crouched over Asha, his eyes on Rendal flaring mage green with the promise of battle if he even looked like he would try for her.

Those red eyes dismissed Braedon as if his fire were no threat and narrowed on Asha lying pale in his arms, the hatred flared in their depths overtaking the mocking dismissal until he pulsed with malice. “At least you brought me a present.”  He turned and looked at Theron again, his teeth sharp and biting each word he spoke. “Tell me, half-breed, how does it feel to be so close to true power and know that it is forever out of your reach?”

Theron ground his teeth and fought against the need to rush across the space and rip the dragon’s head from his body. “You tell me,” he said instead, allowing only disdain to color his words. “I am not the one forced to leech onto someone else’s body because mine lies dying in a hole.”  Feeling Clare react to his rage, he placed his hand over hers on his chest and squeezed in warning. She stilled and braced for whatever was coming.

“Tell me, Lord Graedon, is it worse to always come in second best to Kinkaid, or to know that the half-breed children of Laksee and her true mate are more powerful than you?  Is that why you want the stone so badly?  So you can finally win a battle?”

Rendal’s eyes flared bright red before he hissed and, spittle flying, he raised his hands and another blast of dark magic hurtled toward Theron. He reached for Clare to pull her behind him, but she fought him, and before he could lift her bodily and shield her, the dark magic hit them and bounced off the tough armored skin of his mate.

Theron growled anyway and used the wind to pick her up and whoosh her away from him to the far wall, where she would be safe. Then he turned and hurled himself at Rendal, knowing that Graedon squatted in his body like a malignant leech. This time he would finish what he started.

The Earth opened beneath his feet and he was falling before he was halfway across the cavern. At the same time Solan and Lux both attacked while Icarus and Datulos both lunged for Theron’s falling form.

***

Asha stepped into the weave and looked around, trying to get her bearing. Usually it was not such a strange feeling to enter the weave, but this was the place of her nightmares, and she could already feel the influence of the dark magic pounding at her as she tried to clear her head. She needed answers, she needed them fast and she had no idea where to look for them.

Hello daughter.

Asha turned to see her mother standing farther into the room, and she nearly cried out in her relief. Mother.

Asha rushed forward but before she was close enough to touch her mother she noticed the scene taking place behind her.

There is no time, her mother said sadly, showing her what she had been missing.

It was the same one she had just left, only here she could see inside the weave that bound everyone and everything, leading into the past, and splitting off infinitely in all directions as future possibilities appeared and disappeared as changes became possible and some routes were lost. She gasped because she saw very clearly what they all had been missing. The thing that had taken over Rendal’s body was connected to the blood stone. He has bound himself to it.

Yes.

How?  And what is it we are fighting? I cannot see…

The explosion showed in the weave as dark power pulsing over everything. Asha saw all the possibilities then and understood why Rendal was no longer in the weave. She swallowed hard and turned to her mother, rage making her hands shake even in this non-corporeal place.

How do I stop Graedon?  she growled.

There is only one way now. You must destroy the stone or all will be lost.

How?  Even Kinkaid could not do it.

You must do what only you can, and pull the stone into the weave. It must be lost within the possibilities.

Asha shook her head, frustration eating at her for her lack of knowledge. I don't know how to do that.

Reach for the stone with both your fire and ice and pull it into the weave.

It will take me over.  Asha felt fear spike in her heart at the thought of what the blood stone could do with her power.

You have taken your place and become a child of all worlds. Fire, and Ice, dragon and mage. Coat your hand with the essence of who you are and pull. The stone must be lost in the weave. Hurry, child. Laksee's voice turned insistent. It must be before the body he inhabits is killed a final death. If that happens he will go into the stone he has bound to his will. If he does that, then he will be the blood stone and we will have no chance left to end this.

If I take the stone that far into the weave I will not be able to return. But even as she was saying it Asha was pulling power from both halves of her nature. Ice came from her dragon side, and mage fire sparked so that it was as if her ice burned a blue flame.

Asha closed her swirling mage green and diamond bright eyes and thought of her mate, then opened them and looked at him in this place of time and dreams, so cold and far away from her when she was in the weave. Would he survive her death?

It is not you who will do this thing, her mother said, interrupting her thoughts. You know this too. Pick up the stone and give it to me before it is too late.

New worries and grief crowded her head now as she realized what her mother intended. Mother. It was as if she was losing her mother all over again. You'll be lost.

I will find my way where I am meant to go, but I will not be able to return here.

Mama... Her voice was heartbroken and trailed off because all of her love and loss was in that one word. A word she had not used since she was a child.

I love you, my daughter. I always have. Now hurry!  Now, Asha!

Asha reached up and grabbed the glowing stone before she could think herself out of doing it, and wrenched it from the last dregs of the cocoon that contained it. The burn of its power was a shadow eating away at her fire and ice, protected from taking her, but she could still feel it there, pulsing its dark magic. With tears falling from her eyes she passed it to her mother, who waited with hands outstretched.

Be happy, my daughter, and tell your children of their grandmother.

I will. Her voice broke over the words, and then Laksee and the stone were gone. I love you.

I have never doubted that. The words were only a whisper floating on a breeze that should not have been there.

***

Clare screamed her rage as she had to watch her mate fall. Pinned to the wall by his wind, she felt the cocoon of safety he had placed around her and beat at it with her mind and her magic. So many things happened at the same time it took her a moment to realize Theron was rising above the hole and not falling down it. Wind whipped the room in a frenzy and lifted her mate out of danger and threw him toward the fight. At the same time the wall behind Graedon blew apart under the weight of three dragons.

Theron made it to the battle in time to crash into what was left of Rendal among the rubble.

When the dust cleared, Solan, Lux and Theron stood above the prone figure that used to be Lord Rendal. Graedon looked back at them all with unholy fire in his stolen eyes. Rendal now looked nearly as old and haggard as Graedon had looked the last time they saw him. Graedon was cannibalizing him to stay alive. He was running out of power and they could all feel it. It leaked out of him like blood from an open wound.

"Do you think I am through?"  he asked, his head lolling to the side as blood dripped from his ears and nose. He gave a maniacal laugh that held nothing sane. It caused shivers to coast down Clare's back. "Fools!  The death of this body will only free me. I am tied to the blood stone. I will simply travel into the stone and then none will be able to stand against me. I will claim whatever dragon form I want."  He eyed the warriors surrounding him. "Maybe you, General Fire-eater." He had to stop his taunting to spit blood and still he smiled. "I have seen your mate, such a soft little human thing. It would not be a hardship to console her over your loss. For as long as she could survive it, that is.”

They were talking as if they had not just nearly destroyed the mountain cave in their battle. Solan did not even seem to be breathing hard. His sword was at the ready, but he did not strike. He let Graedon talk and Graedon courted death by looking her way and then to Theron. "Maybe that one," he said. Freed from the wall, Clare walked over with challenge in her eyes and stood with her mate. Graedon drank in her strange appearance and he grimaced. "Maybe not."

Is he speaking the truth? She thought to Theron. Is he connected to the stone?  If we kill him, does he get what he wants?

I don't know. But he is not going to live another day, regardless.

Obviously Solan agreed because he raised his sword and brought it down to Rendal’s neck. Before he could finish the stroke and kill Graedon, Theron clutched at his chest and fell to his knees. Clare, grabbing for him, came down beside him.

"No!  It’s not possible." Graedon hissed at them all, his eyes on the cocoon that had housed the blood stone. He seemed to sink in on himself before their eyes. Solan’s blade fell. Lord Graedon screamed from Rendal’s borrowed throat, just before his head was lopped off and rolled across the floor.

Clare felt her mate’s pain a second before that horrible, wrenching scream and the thwack of Solan’s falling sword.

Clare looked away from Theron long enough to look toward the spinning orb of the blood stone, only to find the stone was no longer hovering above them in the cocoon. The cocoon was empty. The blood stone was gone.

Theron went completely still beneath her hands, passed out on the stone floor. Clare pushed him over further, hauling him into her lap and grabbing his face to try and see his eyes. "Theron?  Don't you dare. We are not doing this again."

Clare heard a gasp of breath and looked up to see Asha had opened her eyes. Clare would have liked to breathe a sigh of relief but after one look to see she was alive, she turned right back and shook her mate. He was breathing but search as she would through their bond, she could not find him with her mind.

She looked around searching for help, only to see Asha roll to bury her head against her mate’s chest. Her arms wrapping around his neck, the woman sobbed as if her heart were breaking.

Asha knew something the rest of them did not. Fear had the breath catching in Clare's throat. Theron? 

There was no answer.