Her stoic face rocked him to the core. This was the woman he loved and had vowed to protect. His hand flew out to catch hers as gravity took her down, and it took him with her. The splash sent a wall of brackish water into the air around them, then Soleis was back in the black waves of a nightmare.

“Get out of my head!”

“Let her go!” Belzaan wrestled for control.

Ainley’s promise that Lola would be sacrificed made Soleis fight harder than anything ever had. He couldn’t let her die like this. He held her above the water with an arm around her waist, but she slumped against him. Random pieces of her life story filled his head. He felt her loneliness from before she met him. The yearning for something out of the ordinary.

Belzaan took over with a scowl and clapped a hand over her face, pushing her under. Her face submerged. Soleis swung around to jerk his arm away. He knew what the Mad King planned. With her death, the ring would be free, and he would take it from her lifeless hand to complete his transformation.

He wanted the Water Dragon’s life. He would fool family and friends for however long he could keep up the charade. Anyone who got in his way would suffer. Because the king was insane. Power had stripped bare his weaknesses, his fragile ego, his need for validation. Everything Ainley’s love couldn’t heal.

And, when he returned to the throne, the mortals of the Fire Realm would suffer for what Ainley and Imyr had done to him. He would build a new world for dragon shifters only. That wasn’t the future Soleis envisioned.

With a quaking roar, he propelled Lola out of the wading pool. The black water sluiced from her body and puddled around her as he stumbled back. His shaking fingers touched her pulse. She was still breathing. She hadn’t been under long enough for the Essence to drain her. She would live. Now, he had to get as far away from her as possible before the Mad King took over again.

“Lola, get up,” he whispered. “Get up. Go.”

“Wait,” she whispered faintly. Her eyes fluttered open. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed to her knees with difficulty as a seizure coursed through him. He could feel Belzaan. Soleis worked his neck in a circle, and his eyes rolled with the struggle to keep the Mad King at bay.

“Lola, go!” he ordered.

She clamped slender fingers around his wrist. Glowing fingers. She met his gaze. Seconds. A minute. She healed, concentrating on remaking him. He almost saw her thoughts. With surgical precision, she excised the parasite clinging to his mind as he stared at her in amazement, marveling that she could do these things.

“I told you,” she panted, weakening. “I’m not leaving without you.”

As she slumped to the stone floor, done with the surreal task, Soleis grabbed her and turned to run. But, they both heard something else slink from the pool behind them. He looked over his shoulder in horror to see Belzaan rising to is full height. His face was pale and grey, as if possessing Soleis had taken something out of him. He moved with stilted slowness. However, he gradually gained strength with every step.

“I’ll find you,” he rasped.

Soleis gathered her to his chest and urged her to jump. Belzaan choose that moment to morph into his dragon-shape. They had never seen the Mad King in this form. The shockwave cleared the room, and he rose over them in all his reptilian glory. A sleek black dragon that eerily reminded Soleis of his father. He backed away reflexively, preparing to transform.

Lola clutched his arm in trepidation as the dragon’s chest glowed red. She hurriedly wrapped her arms around him. “The ring!” she shouted. “It’ll protect you.”

He hesitated in the sheltering circle of her arms, but he pushed away. “It’ll only prolong the battle. He’ll keep coming and coming. Lola, you have to let me fight him. I know you don’t want to leave me, but you have to do what’s best for you. Make this…sacrifice for me.”

His eyes widened as the words cleared his lips. For the first time, Ainley’s prophecy replayed in his head with a different meaning. She hadn’t actually said Lola would have to die. She had called the key to defeating Belzaan “Lola’s sacrifice.” He thought he knew what he had to do.

Lola stared at him in confusion and shook her head. Then, Belzaan spewed flames, and Soleis flipped away before she could protest. The fire barely singed him. He was a shifter; it would take more than a little heat to knock him down. He turned around gamely to face his nemesis. “I thought you were a great sorcerer,” he taunted. Another arc of flames chased him across the room. “Is that all you’ve got? Firepower?”

Belzaan roared. “You’re exhausting my goodwill, Spawn.”

He was grateful Belzaan was so easily distracted by the need for revenge. He darted toward the wading pool, hoping Lola would take the opportunity to make the leap. “Touching. You’ve given me a name of endearment, Grandfather. You know the real reason you won’t use your power is because she left you with so little of it…before she moved on to someone else.” He hoped his assessment was right. The way Belzaan had reacted to the thought of Lola being with Thol, it had to be true.

And, it struck a nerve. The black dragon reared his head back and blasted a ball of fire that consumed the whole room. Soleis yelped as the conflagration surrounded him. He was in a hellish storm of relentless fire. He could see Lola. She was the only thing not ablaze. The ring was protecting her, but for how long? Would the gold melt in the breathtaking heat? He threw up an arm to shield his face as he tried to move toward her.

“Is this what you want? You want power?” Belzaan yelled.

Another blast of heat struck Soleis, but this time it wasn’t normal flames. It threw him back. “Argh!” he cried out. Belzaan hit him again, and he lost his footage on the ledge. Not again, he thought. His body hit the waves of the Essence of the Dragon. Belzaan sent another blast that quickly rippled through the water, and Soleis felt it sizzle around him. Sizzle and boil. Steam billowed up, and he felt like his skin was melting.

His lips peeled back from his teeth in a determined scowl. “You’ll never get back to the Fire Realm,” he ground out. “You and I will die here.”

The dragon seemed to realize his error, but it was too late. Soleis laughed as he writhed in pain. It was too late. He had found a way to defeat the Mad King. Indeed, Belzaan’s own power had destroyed the Essence. It crystalized into grains of black sand as it evaporated around Soleis. He dragged his smoking body to the blessedly cool stones of the floor as Belzaan shifted to man-shape. The fire dissipated.

“What have you done?” he whispered.

Soleis couldn’t lift his head. He didn’t know Lola was there to watch him die until she ran over and crouched to him, touching his face. Last heartbeats, last breaths. It didn’t matter. Belzaan withered before his fading eyes. “It’s done,” Soleis groaned. “It’s done…”

Ainley appeared. He thought he was dreaming. Maybe he was. He closed his eyes as the elemental, in her stubby old woman body, waved her hands and sent a blast of wind to collect every grain of Belzaan’s sand. When the deed was complete, nothing remained of him. Not even his ghost. He was gone.

* * *

“You tricked me.”

“You tricked yourself,” she smiled.

Ainley handed him a wildflower. They sat on the mountainside under a gorgeous sun. He had once again saved the Fire Realm from sure defeat. Now, his destiny was done. He wondered if he could remain here an eternity. A ghost with other ghosts—past, present and future—watching the lives of people he could never meet play out.

“She can’t repair me?” he asked, glancing at the elemental.

The woman shook her head. “Her Healer gifts won’t undo your sacrifice.”

He nodded, already knowing it before she spoke the words. Regret tightened his throat. He studied the yellow flower as he twirled it between his fingers. He noticed he was almost as ephemeral as the elemental. Death would take some getting used to. He sighed.

“Will you at least tell me her future? As you see it now?”

“She’ll take time. Lots of time…She’ll find herself before she finds a way to love again. The loneliness of her early years won’t be her fate. I see her surrounded by children. I see her building a happy home. She deserves to be happy.”

“I agree,” he murmured. But, it hurt. Because she would never get that long-lasting happiness with him. He thought of his mother’s words. He had been a firework, instead of a candle.

“Ah, but the explosions,” Ainley nudged him and laughed.

He rolled his eyes. “I think I’ve had enough of people being in my head for a while. Some thoughts are private.” And, yes, there had been explosions. Soleis had given Lola the excitement she craved, exhilaration and dragons. He smiled to himself as a light breeze feathered over his face, and he inhaled deeply the air of his homeland. He vaguely noticed the aroma of sea spray was missing. At any rate, he could be content with knowing he had given her what no one else could.

“I can’t believe it’s over. I had no idea Belzaan’s fire was what it took to destroy the Essence.”

“It wasn’t destroyed, merely transported for safekeeping, along with the Mind and now also the Heart.”

“Oh…Will you return it to my family?”

“I have something else in store for the line of Sengenis. The people of the Sea Realm are healed, by the way,” Ainley murmured. “Because you defeated him, they need no cure. They’ll piece together a proper democracy to govern their world, and they’ll build upon the technological advances the Mad King already put in place. There’s still magic here. There always was. I didn’t know it when I left it behind.”

“Who did you leave him for, Ainley?”

She looked surprised he asked, and she blushed. He chuckled at her coyness. “It’s not important,” she replied. “Let’s just say I learned from my mistakes. Eventually. Eternity is entirely too long to keep doing the same stupid thing over and over…and yet…”

“And, yet, love is far from wise? I know what you mean. I wonder what’s next for us, Ainley. I could help you with your counseling services, now that I’m retired from being a hero. But, I guess we’ll be providing advice to some other family since I’m the last of my line.”

“You’d be surprised,” she said enigmatically. He quirked a brow, but she didn’t explain herself. “Don’t retire yet. I get the sense your destiny isn’t done with you, Soleis, Son of Arken. Perhaps the hero’s tale follows you to the grave.”

“Oh, really? What can I do beyond the grave?” he scoffed, shaking his head. “No, I saw what holding onto life after death did to my great-grandfather. I have no desire to be like Sengenis. Let me retire in peace.” He smelled the flower. It had no smell.

“As you wish, though I should warn you, we rarely evade our destiny. If it follows you, it follows you.”

“Are you trying to tell me something, Sylph?” He smiled. “Come to think of it, how do you get your knowledge and power? Who even put you in this position? I want answers to life’s mysteries.”

“You’ll learn whatever you need to know in due time. For now, rest your worries. Know that everything you left is how it was meant to be. There were two paths, and you chose the one that righted the wrongs. Therefore, I’m proud of you, Soleis, Son of Arken. You’ve earned your legend, and legends never die…It’s time for you to wake up, Soleis.”

“What?” he quirked a brow.

She smiled. “Wake up,” she whispered.