The cavern was absolutely teeming with Chosen. The grating of their scales on the stone floor was deafening. There were humans dotted amongst them, clad in long black robes with the same silver and red markings on the back as the High Priest’s hood scales. There was remarkably little chatter as they filed in, surrounding the circle of runes etched on the floor. Missi was ashen as she stared at them all, her tattoos stark against her ghost-white skin. I wished I could reach out a hand to her, to comfort her as she had comforted me all the hundreds of times before, but our cages were too far apart.
A sharp pain stabbed through my heart. She’d been the one who brought me into McKinnett’s. Who protected me at school from the bullies who made my life a daily misery. Who took me to my first big concert and bought me my first band shirt. Who wiped my tears after my first asshole customer, then reamed the guy out so hard that he ran out of the pub never to be seen again. She was a sister to me, and this is how I repaid her. A room full of Chosen, a cage, and imminent death for the both of us. We were both dead. Whether she died before me or after was just a matter of course.
I had to protect her. But my dragon curled tight in my chest, unmoving, exhausted from my previous attempt. I was too weak. Too helpless. Too useless. Despair washed over me, drowning me. I slumped against the bars of the cage, watching the dozens of Chosen and traitorous human sorcerers take their places around the room. The cavern was wide, the roof high enough that I wondered how far below the city we were. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, dripping with condensation.
A hush fell over the room. Missi looked to me anxiously. My eyes were fixed on the door to the cavern. The High Priest entered. A long black cape, silky and shimmering like the scales beneath it, covered his shoulders and flowed down over his tail. Silver runes glimmered along the edges. Chosen and humans alike flattened themselves against the stone floor in unison.
It was time.
He gestured toward us. Two Chosen slithered over to Missi’s cage, threw open the door, and dragged her out. She was limp with fear, no sign of her usual fire in her eyes. She gazed at me helplessly, wordlessly begging me for help.
My dragon stirred. I started to grab at it, but the Chosen bared their fangs and drew Missi’s arms into their mouths. They didn’t have to say a word. If a shadow moved wrong, Missi got a few pints of poison pumped into her body. Tears of frustration rolled down my face.
Nothing to do but die.
Two more Chosen approached my cage. Their foreheads were marked with silver paint in the same swirling runes as the floor. Cautiously, one of them unlocked the door to my cage. I looked back at Missi. One of the Chosen bit down. I heard Missi gasp, saw blood trickle across her pale flesh and drip onto the floor.
My dragon stirred again. I looked around the room at the gathered Chosen. Even if I made it to my half-form, I didn’t know how to use it. And it wouldn’t do me any good in this cage.
The door opened. The Chosen reached for me. I snarled at them and they backed up a step. I realized that they were the two who had cleared away the bodies of their fallen comrades. A bitter smile curled my lip. Slowly, I crawled to the doorway and lowered myself out. They reached for me again and again I snarled at them. Slowly, I began to walk toward the ritual circle. One slithered ahead of me, the other behind, a grim honor guard.
The crowd parted before me. I could hear soft hissing, whispers in a tongue I couldn’t understand, but I could feel the excitement in the air. How long had they been waiting for this moment? How long had they wanted one of my kind to fall under their blade? Would I really be the one to awaken the Great Serpent and bring who-knows-what fate to the whole of the earth? It couldn’t be anything good, from the sickening glint in the eyes of my captors. World domination, the ruin of man- and dragonkind, probably the end of the world as we know it. A very inappropriate laugh bubbled up in my throat. Me, Sia Bellmont, a nothing little foster kid from Southie, the bringer of the apocalypse? They were going to be sorely disappointed. I hoped.
The Chosen leading me to the circle slithered off to one side. We’d reached the circle. I stood a few feet from the edge. Up close, the runes seemed to take on a life of their own, writhing like silver serpents themselves against the gray stone of the cavern floor. The High Priest gestured sharply. I felt a shove from behind and whirled on the Chosen who’d delivered it. He recoiled, torn between fear of me and fear of his priest. The High Priest gestured again. I heard Missi cry out in agony. I looked over the crowd to see blood dripping from her other arm. My dragon writhed.
Before I could act, a commotion raised up from the back of the room. My heart leapt as four half-dragons charged into the room.
The world went mad around me. The two Chosen hurled Missi bodily into her cage and slammed the door shut. The High Priest hissed something and four Chosen piled onto me, pinning me and dragging me into the circle. I felt my dragon shudder in my chest as we crossed the line. I tried to shift, tried to grab a shadow, but couldn’t get a grasp on anything. I cursed and fought, biting and clawing at slick scales and muscular arms, getting a mouthful of bitter black blood for my troubles.
As I was hauled into the circle, I could see my boys, my mates, fighting for their lives. Chase spun around, a whirlwind of flame and claws, savaging three Chosen at once. As they fell, he hurled a knife at a fourth. It clutched at its throat and collapsed to the ground. I could see sorcerers reaching for pouches of powder, preparing to shift. Cass raised his golden talons high and sent out bolts of lightning, bursting the pouches and jolting the sorcerers into twitching piles of agony. Spikes of stone erupted from the floor, impaling Chosen and sorcerers as Galen stormed through the crowd in my direction. Fountains of ice blasted a path to Missi. Aric looked at me and wavered for a moment. I freed a hand and pointed at Missi. Clouds of ice shards blasted from his nostrils, then he continued on his path.
The High Priest held his kris dagger high over his head. It glowed like an ember in his hands as he chanted in his vile hissing tongue. I kicked a Chosen in the face and fought to grab onto my dragon.
I heard a roar of pain. My head snapped to the side in time to see a dagger sink into Cass’s shoulder. My Cass, my mate, sank to his knees. Three Chosen piled onto him.
I heard another cry. Aric hadn’t reached Missi yet, but a pair of sorcerers had. One gripped a fistful of her hair. Another held a dagger to her throat, blood trickling down her chest in a red river.
No.
My dragon woke.
A heady blend of pleasure and pain tore through my body as I felt it change shape. The gentle flow of the half-shift was nothing compared to this. My limbs rearranged themselves. The Chosen were flung aside like rag dolls as my body expanded, as wings burst from my shoulders and stretched themselves wide. Jet black scales covered me, with a strange reddish glow beneath them, like embers in charcoal. My tail lashed out, slamming into the High Priest’s stomach and sending him hurtling into the stone wall behind him. I opened my long snout in a ferocious roar that shook stalactites down from the ceiling. I ran a long tongue across sharply pointed, daggerlike teeth.
I felt whole.
The room went silent. Missi slumped to the ground, freed from the limp hands of the sorcerers who held her. Half-dragon and Chosen alike gaped at me as I surveyed the room, my long neck snaking over the heads of the Chosen. My eyes narrowed, and I let out a long hiss at the two sorcerers who had hurt Missi. I opened my mouth and let out a long, rasping breath. An inky blackness, like a cloud of shadow, poured out of my throat and enveloped the two. They fell to the ground, lifeless. I inhaled, and the blackness flowed back into me, along with something else. Something vital. Something vibrant. I shivered with pleasure as it flowed into me, sending energy through my entire body. I felt more alive than I ever had before. The ember glow radiated a little brighter.
The High Priest regained his upright position and screamed. “Kill them all! Take the dragon down!”
I turned my attention to Cass’s attackers. He took advantage of their distraction and threw them off himself, cascading lightning down onto them. Relieved, I turned my attention to the High Priest, who was now flanked by six of the largest of the Chosen in the room. Each of them wore silver marks on their heads and carried long spears. They moved to flank me on either side as the High Priest resumed his chant. I snarled at him, then let instinct take over.
I flung my wings out to the sides, bashing the Chosen to a safer distance. One of them got a lucky spear thrust into my wing. I cried out in pain and swung my head to face him, enveloping him and one of his friends in my cloud of death. As I drew in their life essence, I felt sharp jabs in my left flank. I roared and swung my tail, smashing one of them against the floor and leaving a smear of black blood. I swung a foreleg at the last one in front of me, slashing his throat with sharp black talons.
The two behind me flanked out to either side, jabbing at me. I looked over the crowd and couldn’t find the boys. Fear gripped at me. I snarled and closed my eyes, feeling the flickering shadows around me. I reached out and grabbed at the Chosen with my mind, determined to break free, to find my mates and my friend. Their spears clattered to the ground as the two Chosen were lifted off their feet and throttled mercilessly with tentacles of shadow. The High Priest hissed angrily. I opened my eyes and looked around. More tentacles of shadow had appeared, wrapped around more Chosen throats. My half-dragons lay on the ground, bloodied, gazing up at me in awe. Power flowed into me through the tentacles, leaving me glowing brightly enough to light the room.
I released the limp bodies from the tentacles and whipped my head around to face the High Priest. But all I found was a pile of bodies. The bastard had slithered off in the confusion, leaving me alone with my wrath and my loved ones in pain.