He couldn’t open his eyes. His body felt absurdly heavy. Every part of him ached and throbbed as if his strength had been sucked out of him or like his mind was waking from a deep sleep before the body could catch up.

He lay still, trying to decipher where he was and what had happened. He remembered staring into the surreal calm faces of the soldiers he fought. One had violently slashed at him as, all the while, tears streamed from his dead eyes. None of the men had made a sound. No shouts of commands or cries of pain.

Soleis had slowed his attacks, perplexed by the suspicious behavior, when the ground had gone liquid beneath his feet. He remembered falling.

Here. But, where was here? He heard fluttering, tapping. Someone was in the room. His scalp tingled at the rustle of fabric when the person moved. There was a sound like soft, fizzy bubbles ascending, and his nose burned from the strong smell of some chemical he couldn’t name.

Soleis swallowed, but his mouth felt too dry to complete the gesture. He was devoid of fear, filled more with curiosity. Where was Lola? His eyelids stippled as his eyes rolled, looking for her in the dark corners of his memory. Flev had snatched her from the danger zone and flown away with her. She was safe.

He couldn’t say the same for himself.

His invisible captor whispered something and retreated across the room. By the sound of it, the space was large and cavernous. The footsteps echoed off high ceilings and distant walls. Vaguely, Soleis heard the shoosh of waves lapping at stone somewhere to the left of him.

He concentrated on the muscles of one shoulder. If he could move even a fraction, he could loosen the paralysis. A fine sheen of sweat blanketed his skin as the retreating feet shuffled back across a gritty floor, and fingertips grazed metal.

“You’re awake?” a familiar voice spoke.

Soleis flinched. He forced each eyelid to cooperate, and he slowly blinked. The smiling politician stood over him, on the freedom side of the mesh cage. As the man moved away, it took everything in Soleis to follow him with his eyes. They were in a laboratory. He had seen pictures in the science books his mother used for homeschooling when he was a child.

Across one wall stretched tables loaded with experiment apparatus—bubbling glass globes and beakers, microscopes, burners. Video surveillance monitors covered another wall. A flat mobile device lay atop a thick pile of printed paper on a cluttered desk.

The space appeared to have been a dungeon at some point. Maybe still was. Empty cells hung open. Soleis wondered if they were beneath the castle complex.

Belzaan said conversationally, “I was beginning to fear the new teleportation subway had harmed you. I haven’t perfected it yet.”

“Technology can be tricky,” Soleis rasped. “Especially when combined with magic.”

He smiled as he prepared a solution. “You’ve figured me out. Yes, most of the technology in this world is helped along by magic. The air trams, the handhelds, the motorized gondolas—all mimicry. No real working pieces.

“I go places. I see things,” Belzaan murmured. “I can only travel in the spirit for now. So, I can’t examine or interact with other worlds. While I bide my time, I bring back ideas that make my exile in this world more pleasant for me. Wouldn’t you agree, it’s pleasant here?”

Breathing heavily, Soleis scraped the floor with his fingertips, trying to gain purchase to rise, but he was too weak. “What have you done to me?” he panted. He hung his head as he rested on his elbows. His arms shook from his own weight.

The president gave him a detached stare. “Oh, the weakness will pass,” he said dismissively. “It’s the cages. I designed them in the Fire Realm, although these are modified to keep anyone man-shaped from slipping in or out through the bars. The metal prevents dragons from shifting. You’re lucky you’re not in dragon-shape, or your little visit would be far more cramped.”

Soleis gathered his waning strength and propelled himself to his feet. He gritted his teeth against a wave of dizziness. “I don’t know how or why you summoned me, but our kinship doesn’t mean I owe you allegiance. You might as well kill me now.”

“I have no desire to hurt you, Soleis. But, I will. I’ll hurt you very badly, and you’ll wish for death that won’t come. Killing you would be like killing myself. How do you think you’ve survived this long in a world where I have absolute power? I knew your every move; yet, I let you live.”

“Because you knew the Heart of the Dragon would protect me.”

“Wrong again. Because I was giving you time to come to me. You’re my descendent, Soleis.”

For the first time, Soleis saw the family resemblance, and it made him sick. He looked away from the man who had the dark coloring of his father and the same sharp cheeks as him. “I want nothing to do with you, Sengenis. What you’ve done to this world is an abomination.”

“Is it, really? And, what do you plan to do to fix this abomination? Take me out?” the president chuckled in genuine amusement. “These people don’t need you any more than they need me. They elevated me to power because it benefitted them. They selected who would be enslaved and who would die for their freedoms.”

“And, you think that makes it right?” Soleis slammed a hand against the bars.

Belzaan grinned sardonically as he lifted a vial of pearly liquid and held it to the light, studying it. “This is the good stuff. Helps me feel alive.” He uncorked the elixir to drink it before he addressed Soleis’ rhetorical question. “There is no right or wrong. There is only strength and weakness. ‘The strong do what they will, while the weak suffer what they must.’ It’s a saying from your mother’s world, Half-Dragon. You’d do well to remember it.

“You inherited much of my personality. I, too, thought I was a savior. But, then I realized that few want to pay the true price of salvation. I heard of what you did for the shifters. You defeated the dragon eaters. Did you know those foul creatures never would’ve reached power if I hadn’t been banished?”

“I’m sure you were banished for good reason, and when I get out of this place, my father—the one, true king—will deliver the death sentence you so richly deserve,” Soleis vowed. “We have nothing in common.”

Belzaan moved with lightning speed and shoved a hand through the bars. Soleis grimaced as the president clutched his shirt. Or, at least, he thought the man had his shirt in his grasp. When he looked down, he realized that Belzaan’s hand had gone completely through his chest.

Soleis’ blue eyes sparked with panic as he felt the fingers tighten around his heart. It stole his breath. His gaze locked with the Mad King’s. This wasn’t dragon magic. It was no magic Soleis had ever seen. “What are you…doing to me?” he grunted in pain.

“You’re here because my blood runs through your veins, and my heart pumps in your ribcage. Don’t think for one second that you have dominion over me, Half-Dragon. When I return to my kingdom, it’ll be your father they call the Banished King.”

He released him, and Soleis hit the floor, the air knocked out of him. The politician stared down at him in contempt.

“The only thing I lack is substance,” he said. “I’ve spent centuries absorbing the life force from the inhabitants of this realm, in the hopes I would gain the power to take physical form. But, it was never enough. What you see when you look at me is but a fraction of what you should see, and now that I have what is rightfully mine, that changes.”

President Belzaan raised his hand and Soleis gasped. The man held the Heart of the Dragon. The fist-sized uncut red diamond exploded with light in the president’s grasp, and the man couldn’t contain a laugh of triumph. Soleis touched his own chest, bereft. How had the Mad King found the secret hiding place?

“Give it back,” he growled.

“It’s mine. Thank you for returning it. With this, all the pieces are in place, Soleis. Lucky for you, you get front row seats to the show.”

“Sengen—!”

“Silence! I am Sengenis no more. I am Belzaan, and you will witness my rebirth!” he bellowed.

Belzaan bowed his head and began chanting in dragonspeak. Soleis recognized some of the power words, but some were unfamiliar. He roared in panic as winds suddenly swept through the room, called forth by the spell. The gusts whipped around the unassuming president in the designer business suit who stood with the diamond raised high. This was the man who would tear down worlds.

Soleis feared what was in store for the dragon shifters. He feared for his father and mother, but there was nothing he could do. He had delivered their sovereignty into the hands of the enemy.

The shockwave of Belzaan’s pending transformation vied with the wind, and papers flew in the hurricane. Thunder crashed around him, and the monitors frizzed. The glass beakers shattered. Shards of glass sprayed the room. With a gasp of pain, Soleis covered his head. He no longer had the diamond to protect him. His body blossomed with cuts from the flying glass. Ribbons of blood were snatched away by the winds.

Grunting, Soleis crawled to the mesh wall in search of escape. He finally understood that he had come to this realm without enough questions or answer, full of the hubris of someone who thought he knew everything. His naivete would cost everyone.

“I have to get out,” he groaned to himself. “I have to…warn them.”

If only he hadn’t dreamed of the Sea Realm. If only he hadn’t assumed that every problem in the worlds was his to solve. If only…But, Soleis had fallen into the trap his own great-grandfather had set for him. He had placed the Heart of the Dragon into the hands of the dragon sorcerer. Worse, he had somehow summoned Lola to face whatever dangers lay ahead.

The wind, glass and debris beat him into submission. Soleis squeezed his eyes shut and screamed through clenched teeth as another shockwave shook the room. His cries were drowned out by Belzaan’s howl of ecstasy. It was too late. There was no way he could get to his friends and family in time.

The storm of power subsided.

Defeated, Soleis chanced a look at the medium height, middle aged man with black hair slicked back from his handsome face. His brow furrowed in confusion. The red diamond crackled and went dark, and the winds died completely. Soleis dropped his head, trying to process what it meant.

“It didn’t work?” he whispered. The gods had heard his prayers. Belzaan anxiously clenched the stone and began chanting again, but this time nothing happened. Soleis lifted his gaze, a hysterical glint in his eyes. “It didn’t work,” he said louder.

“No! No, no, no! You did this!”

“I did nothing. You were simply wrong.”

With a rage-filled scream, Belzaan slung the cage across the room. Soleis cried out as his body tumbled through the air and hit the bars on the way down. The president pressed his scowling face to the mesh and reached inside to grab him by the throat.

“A corner of the stone is missing!”

“It…never failed…me,” Soleis ground out daringly. The deranged madman squeezed his neck until he gagged, eyes widening. Terror swirled through him, but not because he was afraid for himself. Soleis had a sudden clear, mental picture of Lola’s ring. She had the missing piece. He couldn’t let the president learn the truth. “You might as well…kill…me.”

“You know where it is! My agents have ways of getting it out of you.” Belzaan violently shook him and squeezed his throat tighter. Blood-flecked spittle flew from Soleis’ lips.

“Do…what…you…will.”

At his defiance, Belzaan slammed him into the sidewall of the cage and let him sink to the floor. Soleis whimpered in agony. His back against the mesh, he gasped for air and watched the president briskly stroll to the lift to leave the room.

“You’ll regret this. I’ll be back,” Belzaan snarled as the elevator doors closed.

When he was gone, Soleis gingerly touched his bruised and swollen neck. He coughed uncontrollably. The pain was almost unbearable. His bloodshot eyes looked heavenward when he could finally breathe. He was alive, but he didn’t know for how long. The president would return with agents to torture the truth out of him.

“Lola,” he sobbed. He couldn’t let that happen.

There was a surveillance monitor electrical cord hanging through the mesh, and Soleis painfully made his way toward it. Every move elicited broken cries. Looping the makeshift noose over his head, he positioned it over his aching windpipe.

For a moment, he sat with the cord around his neck, breathing and wishing for better options. He knew death would be slow and difficult. The alternative would be to betray the woman he loved. Soleis surged forward with a strangled grunt to finish what Belzaan had left undone.

If the president wouldn’t kill him, he would do it himself. Anything to keep her safe.

* * *

“Somehow, I knew I’d find you here,” he said.

Soleis felt springy grass beneath his feet as he took a step toward the fog-shrouded elemental. They were on the King’s Isle in the Fire Realm. But, no, that wasn’t right. They were in the Realm of Dreams, and this was the version of reality he preferred best. His father’s sparkling city stretched out below them.

“You need me?” Ainley asked without turning to him.

“Yes. It’s urgent. I need you to deliver a message to Lola to get out. She can’t stay here. She must return to her own world before he learns the truth.”

The Sylph shrugged. “I could deliver your message to her, but she’ll still come for you. It’s her destiny.”

“I don’t want it to be her destiny! Get her the hell out of here, please!” Soleis desperately urged.

Ainley looked at him, unruffled. “One would think, Son of Arken, you would have learned by now that you can’t save everyone, especially not from themselves. She will come for you. Your crude attempt at outsmarting Sengenis won’t deter her.”

“You mean, you knew he was my great-grandfather?”

“Of course, I knew,” she said. “I also knew it was only a matter of time before you found out. I didn’t have to tell you.”

Soleis backed away from Ainley with a mix of rage, sorrow and confusion warring on his face. “Then, I’ve been a fool to trust you, as well as him. You could’ve warned me! You’ve been here, providing advice to my family for generations. You could’ve warned any of us!”

“Warned you of what? Of a hazy future that didn’t come into focus until recently? I did my duty, Soleis, Son of Arken. I provided advice to Sengenis, the same as I offer to you. I don’t control any of your fates, and I don’t choose any of your choices. What you do with your destinies is your cross to bear.”

“I need answers, Ainley. Clear, honest answers. No more riddles. People’s lives are at stake!”

“Come. I want to show you something,” she sighed.

Ainley took a step, and the landscape blurred. The scene looked almost the same, but there were subtle changes, fewer buildings in the city below. Another step and, suddenly, they were off the mountain and standing before the towering doors of a temple.

Ainley gestured to the red banners flapping from the parapets. “This is the Fire Realm Sengenis remembers,” she replied. They entered the worship center. It was dark and smelled musty. A lone person sat in a pew, whispering prayers, while a high priestess hovered in the shadows.

Soleis walked past the ephemeral images the elemental revealed. He watched the priestess disappear through a door behind the altar, and he followed her. Ainley materialized at his side. They were in an office of some sort, and the priestess pulled a ledger from a drawer.

“Not enough,” the holy woman whispered to another who entered.

“Will we be able to buy food for the week?”

“Send a runner to the King’s Keep. His charity must sustain us.”

“He’ll never give it,” the girl’s voice hardened. “I wish I had never been sent here to live off his charity. He grows more and more distant from us. Why do we suffer for our gifts?”

“It’s out of our control. Any young woman who exhibits the oracle talent is sent to the temples upon reaching maturity. But, you must not think of this as a punishment, Brys. It’s to protect you. Who else would teach you how to silence the constant stream of visions before it drives you to madness? We must simply make the most of what we have,” said the older priestess. “Now, send a runner, like I requested.”

“Yes, Mistress,” the young girl muttered bitterly.

Soleis met Ainley’s inquisitive gaze. “I know this part of our history,” he stated. “The people of the Fire Realm were turning away from the worship of dragons. Prior to this, they donated heavily to the temples, and the priestesses paid a gold tithe to us. As religion fell out of favor, however, they lost their prestige.”

“Yes. They had no other way to make money. Their whole lives had been spent providing for others, but, in the end, no one could provide for them. The fall of the temples led to starvation and ruin. Sengenis knew they were desperate,” Ainley explained.

She swept a hand across the scene, and the two of them were back on the mountainside. The temple faded away, and Soleis stared up at the King’s Keep. “This is my father’s home,” he murmured.

“Sengenis paced these halls for years, searching for a solution to a problem that only he seemed to recognize. Already, the high priestesses had gifts, but the dragons had given away secrets over the centuries that could be used against them.

“As the mortals of this world lost interest in the fate of the oracles of the temples, the high priestesses turned to these secrets for an answer to regaining power. Yet, before they even learned that immortality could be achieved from eating dragon flesh, Sengenis decided they must be killed.”

“He told me he wanted to save people.”

Ainley nodded. “I had a close relationship with one of the holy women. She could see further into the future than any other oracle I’ve ever known. There were two destinies she saw laid out like copper and gold. She saw you coming, Water Dragon. I advised Sengenis to give the oracles an island where they could engage in some enterprise so they would have no reason to turn against the dragons. He chose otherwise.

“He began destroying cities wherever there were temples. The mortals lived in fear as their homes burned. No place was a refuge. Sengenis had a power unlike any other…because he had been trained by his sorceress.

“It is not in a dragon’s instincts to take a life for the sake of taking it. I believed something changed within Sengenis as a result of his relationship with the Woman of Light, something not even she noticed.”

“Nor you,” Soleis murmured.

“Not in time, no,” Ainley said with regret. “Your grandfather Imyr realized he had few options. He could either banish his father or watch the mortals of the Fire Realm suffer the consequences of the king’s madness. Like you, Sengenis believed he was doing what was necessary to save the world. Unlike you, he had the power to accomplish his goals by any means.”

“Why have I never heard any of these stories?” Soleis asked quietly. They stood in the hall of treasure where his father had once been bound for hundreds of years while the dragon eaters wreaked havoc beyond the walls of the keep.

Ainely replied, “Some things are best forgotten. Some things can only be revealed in due time. Those who remember these stories are long dead, destroyed by the very dragon eaters Sengenis sought to overthrow. Imyr carried the weight of his decision to the grave.”

Soleis shook his head and sighed. “Now, Sengenis wants to return to the Fire Realm and overthrow my father. He’ll stop at nothing to find the missing piece of the Heart of the Dragon, and Lola will die if she comes for me. Don’t you understand that?” He turned to her. “I need you to make her stay away.”

“Destiny is already in motion,” said the Sylph. “There is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The woman you love is even now working to save you. Again, there are two paths ahead. Just one leads to success. The only way Sengenis will be defeated is with her sacrifice…The sacrifice of Lola Cambridge of the Blue Sky.”

Soleis stared at the elemental in disbelief. He snorted a laugh, hoping he misunderstood. However, the grim look on her face told him he had heard her clearly. Anger descended.

“Of course, I won’t do that! You cannot ask that of me!” he protested.

“I’m not asking you to do anything. I’m telling you that without her gift, everyone else will suffer. When one world falls, they all come crashing down,” Ainley replied, not without sympathy. “It was a lover’s death that weakened the Banished King, and only another selfless act will destroy him. I know how difficult this must be for you, and I’m sorry. But, even if you send her back to her world, he’ll only find her there.”

“What if I sacrifice myself?”

“The threads of the tapestry have already been chosen.”

“You told me the colors are always changing. I’ll find a way to protect her!”

“How, Soleis? Look at yourself.”

Soleis choked. An anguished sob went up. The love he had tried to keep at bay had written Lola’s death sentence. If he lost her, it would kill him. He would rather die. He was dying, and he couldn’t protect her from the grave. The Realm of Dreams began to fade as it suddenly grew harder and harder to breathe.

The laboratory came into the focus. Soleis struggled mightily to loosen the cord from around his neck. His feet pedaled against the floor. A vein bulged at his temple. He snarled as wild desperation fomented. The cord had somehow snagged on another metal bar and couldn’t be dislodged, and Ainley looked on with sympathetic eyes when this world, too, began to fade for him.