Chapter 44
Silas gazed around the room, his eyes lingering on Blaze. She drew in her breath in shock.
She could see why he wanted to wear someone else’s face. His was twisted and deformed, the whole lower half looking like he’d been in a terrible accident.
But his eyes were the same as she remembered, dark and arrogant, and so was his voice.
He shook his head. “You should never have stood against me, Ariella.” It was a shock to hear her old name. “I was always smarter than you.” He held out his hand, and the idol floated into it.
He always thought he was the smartest person in the room. And just like when he stood at the top of the ravine, he always overestimated his ability, and underestimated others. Had he forgotten he’d taught her this stasis spell himself—and how to counter it before it took hold of her?
Or had he just thought she wouldn’t see it coming?
“Apparently you’re not.” She stepped out of the stasis field. She could see the dragons fighting the spell, struggling like flies in amber, veins bulging, faces furious. She knew they had magical resistance, but Silas had Vyrkos pouring power into him.
A Draken Lord with power over dragons.
She was on her own.
“Really, Silas,” she said, shaking her head in a way that used to infuriate him. “How many hours did you spend teaching me counterspells?”
“Too many, I see,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. The rest of the coven is already on their way. Now that I’m inside, the dragons’ wards won’t keep them out. And when they get here, your life will be forfeit, along with your pet dragons.”
“Kill them,” the idol intoned. It was Vyrkos’ voice, and it made Blaze’s necklace shiver in fear. “The Keepers of the Seals. Kill them now, before they take the Seals to the tomb.”
The dragons’ eyes went wide, and they redoubled their fight to free themselves and protect their mates. Blaze’s mind was racing. If Vyrkos was afraid they’d use the Seals, there must be a way for her to do it. But to leave Tempest and Rebel here, helpless…
Or not. Behind Silas, she saw Rebel moving slowly forward. Rebel, the thief, who could adjust her body’s aura to resonate with magical fields, so they slid right past her.
Blaze fought to keep her face impassive, so as not to draw Silas’s attention to Rebel. Silas raised his hands in an arcane gesture and began an incantation. Behind him, Rebel drew her knife, its blade glowing faintly with the magic that had allowed it to pierce a dragon’s hide. She pointed to Blaze, then to Silas, and then towards the door.
Blaze nodded. They understood each other perfectly.
In one graceful leap, Rebel jumped on Silas and ripped her knife across the back of his leg. The blade sliced the skin, making his leg buckle.
In the first split-second he was distracted, Blaze activated her summoning spell. The idol jerked out of Silas’s hand and flew across the room, smacking into her palm so hard it stung.
In the next split-second, she let loose a global dissolution spell.
Silas overpowered Rebel and threw her across the room with inhuman strength. But he’d lost his concentration, and his stasis spell dissolved.
Zane and Tyr dove for Silas simultaneously. Thorn flung himself at Rebel, getting in between her and the stone wall just before she slid into it headfirst.
The idol twisted in Blaze’s hands. “I am Vyrkos, Lord of Draken, and I rule all Draken!” it thundered. “I command you to take your true forms! Attack the Keepers!”
Blaze wrapped her hands around its mouth and eyes, but it was too late. Thorne—the closest to pure Draken—succumbed first, erupting into his dragon form with a roar of pain. He raised a claw to slash at Rebel, stopping himself just in time.
Blaze could see the power of the mating bond fighting with Vyrkos’ command: the bone-deep instinct to protect his mate at all costs, warring with the need to obey his Lord. He writhed in agony, caught in an impossible dilemma.
Tyr went next, wrenched into his dragon form with bone-breaking force. Zane barreled into Silas and the two of them rolled over and over, locked in combat.
“Tyr!” Tempest, glowing white, screamed at him to Change back. He, too, writhed in pain, trying to follow both her command and Vyrkos’, and torn between the two.
Zane was switching from dragon to human to bear and back again, unable to settle in a ‘true’ form. As Blaze wrestled with the idol, trying to keep it from wrenching itself out of her hands, Zane tried to keep a hold on Silas, who was hammering at him with wounding spells. Blood streamed from a dozen cuts.
Zane turned human, his eyes finding Blaze. “Go!” he said. “Get the idol out of here!”
With one last agonized look behind her, Blaze ran.
She pounded down the stone hallway, the idol writhing in her hands like a live thing. Behind her, she could hear shouts and the trumpeting cries of dragons, and the roar of a grizzly bear in pain.
Zane.
Everything in her ached to turn around and run back to him, to fight by his side. But he was counting on her.
Everyone was counting on her.
The sound of her footsteps echoed down the corridor, and she cast a quick spell to muffle the sound. That, and the sound of her panting.
She felt like she was running in slow motion, as if in a dream. Silas was behind her, and she had to get through the portal before he caught her.
She knew what she had to do. Deep down, she’d always known. This was about her and Silas, about love and pain and trust and betrayal. About Corwyn and Maia.
She carried that conflict in her hands and in her body. Corwyn, the idol, and Maia, the Seal.
Maia had tried to take Corwyn down, and she’d almost succeeded. Now it was up to Blaze to finish the job.
Even if it finished her.
Because she knew now what would release the Seal.
Behind her, she heard the echo of footsteps. Too close. Was Silas tracking her magically? Or did he somehow sense the idol? It didn’t matter. As long as he was away from the others, as long as they were safe, that was all that mattered.
There it was—the corridor to the portal room. She dashed around the corner, getting a second wind. Just few more yards.
She could hear him getting closer.
Blaze ran down to the dead end and turned. Silas was standing at the far end of the corridor. “There’s nowhere else for you to go,” he said. “Bring me the idol.”
“Come and get it,” she said, and slammed her hand onto the sensor.
The door to the portal room rumbled open. Blaze dashed inside and threw herself across the room to the lever, wrenching it to the side. The wall shimmered; the portal appeared, and Blaze ran through.
The silence hit her like a blow. She stopped for a moment, then swung around to face the portal as she backed towards the brass star, the now-silent idol clutched in her hands.
For a moment, all remained still. Then there was a sound like distant thunder, or an underground train heading towards the station. It grew louder, shaking the cavern, and bits of stone and dust rained down from the ceiling.
As she watched, more cracks appeared in the floor, spiderwebbing over the dragon’s tomb. One huge eye opened a slit, and red light shot from it, refracting from the cracks.
The idol blinked its ruby eyes, and the gold mouth smiled. “Maia,” it said in its deep voice. “I knew you would come.”
Dark fog rolled out of its mouth and enveloped Blaze with its oily touch. “Give yourself to me, and we will be together forever.”
This time, Blaze didn’t fight back. She stared into the idol’s smug golden face. “Go ahead, sucker,” she said. “Make me evil. It’s only going to help me do what I need to do.”
Blaze opened herself and let the darkness come.
The portal shimmered and Silas stepped through, his eyes burning red in his misshapen face.