Obsidian
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No,” he answered honestly as they drove up the road toward the mining site.
“So why are we doing it?”
“He’s my brother.” It was the only answer he had.
They were headed to visit Onyx. He was imprisoned by Obsidian, held in his new mountain cave.
“I still can’t believe that nobody saw what happened. Or that the drilling teams don’t remember a thing.”
He shrugged. “Thank Onyx for that. His ability is to project disinterest. So while the miners saw something happened and fled, they were never drawn to focus on anything. It is often a powerful tool, and one of the most common among dragons.”
Hollie squeezed his hand, using her left to steer them off the road and onto the lookout where she’d bonded with her dragon mate a week before. He still couldn’t believe the week it had been, or how wonderful life with her in it was.
“So how come I remember?”
“Because you were both shielded by me, and also knew that our kind existed, so the sight of one wouldn’t cause you to think you’d seen something else, like the flock of bats the drillers all think they saw.”
“Colony.”
He looked over at her. “What?”
“It’s not a flock. A group of bats is called a colony, or sometimes a camp.”
“Oh.” Sid grinned. “You’re just full of interesting tidbits.”
“I try.” She fell silent as the car came to a halt. “We’re here, though I don’t exactly see where here is. We seem to be rather high up from where you buried him.”
“It’s not a problem. Come on.” He got out of the car.
Hollie followed and he grabbed her hand, taking her across the road to the nearly sheer cliff face that ran up above them.
“Ready?” he asked with a grin, indicating she should turn on the flashlight he’d made her bring.
“No?”
“Good!” He put one hand in front of himself and together they plunged into the rock.
“What the hell?!” Hollie yelped as they were met with no resistance.
Sid chuckled as the rock shifted and moved around them, forming a tunnel that led down into the bowels of the small mountain. Hollie walked alongside him, but he sensed anger coming from her, instead of excitement or wonder.
“Are you really that unimpressed?” he asked, feeling disappointed. He’d expected more of a reaction to this.
“Oh no, I’m impressed,” she admitted. “Just…frustrated.”
“Why is that?”
“Because!” she exploded. “You’ve just put my entire career out of business.”
“Ah,” he said cautiously. “But you look so much better while doing it, I think I’ll leave it to you.”
Hollie threw back her head and laughed. “I think you’re just lazy!’
“Well, that too. This is rather energy intensive.”
“I can imagine,” she said, watching as the rock effectively melted and moved out of the way as they continued to walk farther underground. “Will you have enough left to keep Nyx imprisoned?”
“Oh, he’s not going anywhere.”
The solid rock finally gave way to a cavern.
“OBSIDIAN!”
Hollie turned to look at him. “You’re positive, right? ‘Cause he sounds rather irate.”
“Yeah, I’m positive. But you’re correct, he is pissed. Not that I could imagine why.”
He took several more steps forward before stopping, letting Hollie pan the light around the open area. The beam stopped when it finally encountered Onyx.
“Oh. Well, that’s not very nice of you,” she remarked upon seeing his imprisonment. “But I’d thought he would be able to break free of that?”
Sid grinned. “Nope, if he breaks either of his wrist supports, then those will come falling down.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and directed the light up.
“Oh.”
He grinned. It was a devious sort of imprisonment. Nyx was facedown on the ground, with his arms pulled up behind him, secured by some of Sid’s black stone. Those in turn were attached to two massive stalactites hanging from the ceiling, also made from the stone he could generate in his dragon form. Break the wrist restraints, and the razor-sharp tips would plunge down into his back, killing him.
“You’re positive about that?”
“Absolutely. You’re safe.”
“SET ME FREE, HUMAN!”
Sid rolled his eyes. “Besides being forced to listen to his ranting, you’re fine.” He looked over at his brother. “Onyx, she is mine. Bound to me. You have no control over her.”
“Cheater,” Nyx shot back, sounding defeated.
“Just be glad I woke up first, else you would be dead.”
He waited for Nyx to start blustering about his greatness again before he cut him off. “Enough. Hollie here has brought something called a tablet. She has loaded some videos on it to show you.”
“What? What are those?”
“They are like recordings of the world as it happens. Similar to your memories, but in a format that can be displayed for anyone to view. Here, let me show you,” she said, handing the flashlight off to Sid and stepping forward, unslinging her backpack at the same time.
He regarded the flashlight and shook his head. He had no need for it, but it made her more comfortable.
Nyx fell into silence as Hollie played the first video. After a bit Sid grabbed a seat, holding the flashlight so that it illuminated the immediate area around Hollie, who was making sure to stay well away from Nyx’s reach.
“So, these are the weapons you need to watch out for,” she said, and played another video.
This was the main reason that he’d asked Hollie to venture up here with him today. Sid had come several times on his own, in an attempt to convince his brother that the world was a tremendously different place than they had left it. But none of his words had seemed to have an effect. So instead of trying to talk to him, Obsidian had decided to simply show him what he’d seen.
To his complete surprise, his older brother calmed down quite quickly as the video played, showing how warfare had evolved, and what the weapons of today could do.
“This is magic trickery,” Nyx said at last, looking up at Sid.
But the defiance in his eyes was gone.
“No, it’s not,” he replied quietly. “And you know that.” He shrugged. “It’s time to change, brother. We are not the gods we once were. Powerful yes, but no longer invulnerable.”
“Leave me alone,” Nyx said, turning his head in the other direction.
“Nyx,” he started, but stopped at the shake of a head.
“Leave me, brother.”
Defeated, he helped Hollie to her feet and the two of them departed the chamber, heading back up to the surface as the rock ground and rolled around them.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly as they stepped out onto the edge of the roadway. “I’d hoped it would go better.”
Sid looked at her. “Me too, Hollie. Me too. But thank you for trying.”
“I’ll keep at it,” she promised. “We can come up here once a week, show him some videos, help him understand what the world is like now. Perhaps he will come around.”
“Perhaps.” But he didn’t believe it.
Hollie jumped up on her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek “Hey, I have an idea.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. That didn’t take very long, so we have a bit of time before we need to get back down to the waterfront to help with the cleanup efforts. So how about we get some ice cream?”
He grinned. “You, my love, have the best ideas.”
“I know,” she said primly before giving him a wink. She put the car and gear, and, as they pulled out onto the roadway, she lowered the windows.
Sid howled with delight as air flowed through the cabin, and despite herself, Hollie found herself hooting and hollering alongside him.
Who knew being mated to a dragon could be so much fun!
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This concludes Inferno, Dragons of Drake’s Crossing Book 1.