“Magenta!” Josh staggered over to me.
I slumped on the marble floor still in beast form, on the brink of passing out, exhausted, bleeding. My wings were crumpled up beneath me and my own weight was punishing on top of my injured arm. I could barely curl my tail around in an attempt to nurse my throbbing head.
Josh stopped a few steps away, both hands up trying to determine how to approach me—the massive beast.
“I-is that you?”
I snorted.
“And here you said I was the guardian of permanence and could never change.”
Josh’s eyes lit up as if he’d heard me because he had. “Oh my god, I can hear you in my head.” He gestured wildly beside his ears. “Is this how dragons communicate?”
I let out a loud harrumph and a groan as I tried to get up only to slump back onto the floor.
“Hey, hey, easy.” Josh put his hands up.
I narrowed my eyes at him in question.
Is Henry…?
Josh glanced up toward Henry’s putrid, burnt form lying across the chambers, charred, smoky, and he grimaced in revulsion.
There was barely anything recognizable left of the dark mage, the gleaming crystal case of the relic having rolled a few steps away from his blackened husk.
Josh looked back up at me, his voice was hushed in reverence. “Yes. It’s over. You did it. You were amazing.”
The wind whistled as it wound through the columns and crevices of the great chamber as the only audible sound around us once more. It was a wonder what remained of the ceiling was still holding up but everything had otherwise all resumed its eerie stillness.
I snorted again and puffed out a big breath.
He blinked at the forceful gust in his face. “Whoa. That is some mighty breathing.” He cracked a smile as he appraised my sheer scale. “I never thought I’d ever get to see a dragon.”
Well, to be honest, I never thought I ever was one.
That made him laugh.
After a few moments, the beast retreated and I slipped back into my human form, sprawled on the floor.
Josh’s eyes widened. “Holy crap!”
The damage appeared much worse in my human form. There was a large gash on my cheek, a bleeding hole right through my arm, deep cuts everywhere. My clothes were soaked red, no spot on it its original color. My hair was all tangled, sticky with blood, the edges singed uneven.
Josh knelt down beside me to survey my injuries, though both his hands were poised in the air at a complete loss.
I couldn’t move but I squinted in fascination, observing the rough scales on my skin as the black webbing began to recede and after a few moments, all that was left were my glittery scales—that was, blood-soaked glittery scales.
“The darkness is gone,” I rasped.
“Well, it freaking better be,” Josh mocked.
I made an effort to lift my arm to gesture toward Henry’s remains. “The relic…”
Josh jumped up to fetch the relic, wrinkling his nose as he tried not even to catch a whiff of the dead mage. He rushed back to kneel beside me and put the crystal case in my hand, making me close my fingers around it.
Streaks of light shone from the mythical treasure and I closed my eyes as a slow burn spread throughout my insides. It stung a little but I already knew, the power of the relic was healing me from the inside out.
Also, Josh slumped back against the floor, blowing out a huge sigh. “Oh, thank god.”
After a moment, I gasped a big deep breath in. I felt light as air and hoisted myself to stand on my feet using magic.
Josh’s eyes were wide again as he gazed up at me in wonder.
With the relic clasped in my hand, I sparked a thought and my clothes were instantly mended and immaculate, my hair vibrant and wavy down my back.
He pushed up to stand before me, his eyes having not left mine for a single moment, and when his mouth curved into a smile, a surge of warmth streaked through me.
Josh moved closer to cradle my face in his hands. I was almost overwhelmed by his relief, his amazement, his intensity. He began to heave, his smile widening even more, and he parted his lips to ask his question.
“What’s your name?”
I burst out laughing. “I still don’t know!”
He chuckled, stroking my cheek with his fingers. “I guess we’ll figure that out later.”
I took another deep breath, pausing as fresh images raced in my mind.
Henry’s dark spell had stopped its spread and the fisherman village of Erisea had been restored to its normal state. However, the darkness had already managed to lay waste to several other villages. Also, Guifan soldiers were still at large terrorizing across Arcadia.
I furrowed my eyebrows, scanning the world further with my mind.
Braze’s ship had been freed from the storm but Gazen and Dia were still coasting upon the vast seas. Still no sign of Lance.
“What is it?” Josh asked, dropping his hands, noticing my unease.
There was a pit in my stomach as a thought dawned on me. “There is much work to be done to restore this world to harmony.”
“What? Surely you can clock out now, right? You’ve just been through hell and back.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And now I am aware of my true purpose.”
Josh cracked his neck in discontent. “But I wanted you to be free.”
I gave him a soft smile. “This is my destiny. I need to heal the land. For my people. It is my duty.”
Josh scoffed, feigning derision. “Oh jeez, you and your duties. I’d better shut up now.”
My shoulders shook in mirth before I met his gaze. “And you have to go home. For your people, your family. Besides, you never know,” I posited. “When the right time finally comes, perhaps the Curse bearer will be summoned again.” I took his hand to place the relic within it.
Josh pursed his lips. I could feel he was torn. His heart was racing in his chest. His mind was foggy with so many things he wanted to say.
He’d thought we would have more time together and there was a tiny part of him that felt there was still more to be done. He had been on his quest for so long that he almost didn’t know how to go back to living his normal life.
Without this.
Without me.
As an immortal, I had been witness to much loss. And having lost people before myself, I already knew it didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. Only that it was part of my being. And some things you really couldn’t change.
We each had a different path and it was time to part ways.
“Stand back. I have to shift again to use the relic fire to open the door to your world.” I put my hand out and he obliged.
I closed my eyes and when I summoned the beast again, this time, it didn’t fight me.
When I opened my golden eyes, my field of vision was near level to the ceiling once more as I steadied myself on four scaly legs. I flared out my shimmery wings to their full extent with a huffing grunt.
Josh was gazing up at me in marvel. “You are so beautiful.”
I huffed in pleasure and nudged Josh’s fist with my snout.
He opened his hand to offer me the crystal cylinder.
I took it in my mouth, swallowed it whole then grunted to blow the fire inward to melt the casing around the relic, making steam release from my nose.
Only dragon fire could melt the final sphere of protection.
Almost instantly, the full might of the relic charged me. I blinked a few times at the weight and forcefulness of its power. It filled me up. It was everywhere. Down my neck, in my chest, streaking down my back to the tip of my tail—
I stopped short.
Oh crap. I wasn’t strong enough to contain it yet. The relic’s power was going to explode out of me.
I sucked in a deep breath, tipping my head up to direct the furious torrential fire up into the air, the flame so fiercely hot, it burned right through the ceiling of the great chambers, melting through marble and limestone.
After my release when the sky was visible above the tower, the ominous gray sky whereupon the wispy clouds were racing across began to change in hue and the dry, brown ground around the tower began to regrow its green grass.
Josh’s eyes were wide as he stared up at me in caution at my unexpected display of force and I noticed him visibly swallow.
Holy crap, is it still you? Or are you going to eat me now?
I let out a rumbling half-chuckle, half-snort upon hearing his thoughts.
Don’t tempt me.
But after a moment, a tremble shook the ground, another support column collapsed, and the rest of the ceiling crumbled. It appeared as though waves of energy were still emanating from the sky.
Josh held his arms out for balance as he looked around us. “What’s going on?”
My heart dropped to my stomach.
The potency of the fire was spreading from the tower across the whole land of Arcadia, just like the mosaic on the floor showed. The cleansing fire had begun. And it was going to decimate everything.
More columns collapsed around us. I could hear the noisy gale growing louder. The regrown green grass outside began to burn brown all over again and the gray clouds were retaking the sky.
The Seer was right. It is too early. The land is not ready. The relic fire is going to destroy everything.
Josh’s eyes lit up in alarm. “What?”
You have to cross over to your world right now.
Josh protested. “No! I won’t leave you.”
You must.
“But…everything will be destroyed?”
Yes.
“And you?”
Probably.
“No! There must be another way. Look. Don’t worry about me. I don’t need to go home. I’ll stay here with you. We can fix it.”
If you stay here, you will die.
“But didn’t you always say ‘Better one man’s life than the fate of Arcadia’?” He fidgeted in his stance in distress, unable to keep still.
Yes, but not yours.
He shoved his fingers through his hair, trying to rack his brain again for some kind of resourceful solution.
But I knew this time there wasn’t going to be one.
I nudged him with my snout in reassurance.
It’s going to be alright. This land is sick and I have to stay to make sure the cleansing sweeps everything. It is the only way for the land to begin to heal again.
Josh looked indignant even as he jumped to dodge falling rubble. But he blew out another frustrated breath before giving me one slow nod in concession.
I let out a loud roar, turned my head, and blew a long stream of fire into the void.
Concentrating hard, I focused on the spirits of the exiled dragons to locate their essences in another realm and after a few moments, my fire stream became blue.
There.
A bright, swirling portal made of a not-quite-liquid silvery sphere appeared a few steps before Josh, its dazzling light flickering across his face.
There is your way home.
Go.
“Come with me. Please,” he urged again, clasping my face.
I think not this time.
“Magenta, I…” Josh trailed off his fervent whisper, pressing his forehead against the side of my snout.
In another time, perhaps another place, Curse bearer, we will reunite…
He stroked the scales on my cheek, his determined gaze pinned on me. “I found you once. I can find you again.”
I huffed in response, narrowing my giant golden eyes as I watched him hesitantly step away and walk toward the portal.
Josh took one last long look back at me. Then he stepped through the swirling sphere of light and was instantly gone.
The next moment, the portal faded away…disappearing without a trace.
I couldn’t help a smile to myself.
Finally.
Josh made it home.
I breathed deeply, gazing past the last of the standing brick arches of the tower as the world collapsed around me.
The barren wasteland of war. The broken land stained with lies, greed, and sickness.
This once majestic realm where dragons lived in harmony with humans shall be reborn.
I clenched my jaw in resolution, flapping my expansive wings to lift off again, the powerful wind churning around me.
Time to bring the fire.