Leena
Ocnolog flew into the dense, black cloud. With every beat of his impressive wings, smog furled outward around us until it was impossible to determine any sense of direction. All I could do was follow his gleaming, scaled tail and hope that he wasn’t leading me into some unexpected trap. Below I could still make out the sounds of battle. The cries of beasts as they fought and the shouts of soldiers. It had been brutal, flying out over the open expanse to see Noc and my family encircled by an army more than three times their size. It’d set fire to my veins so that when I wrenched open the beast realm door, I’d summoned every creature I could. Every beast willing to stand and fight and defend our world.
I didn’t know how much longer I could keep them with us. My body was already shaking, a cool sweat clinging to my forehead and neck. But I couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t focus on anything other than Yazmin and Ocnolog. When he’d arrived at Wilheim and he’d perched over Yazmin’s crumpled form, he took one look at the floating orb of light and then swallowed it whole. I’d watched it move down his throat in horror until it stopped in his chest, right where his heart was.
And then Yazmin had let out a sharp gasp as her eyes flew open.
Kost had been right. She’d sacrificed her heart and became one with Ocnolog. And I hadn’t been able to stop it.
Onyx let a worried yowl slip from his maw, dragging me back to the present. I’d lost sight of Ocnolog, which I’d thought was impossible, given his size. But there was nothing around us except for smoke and darkness.
“C’mon,” I said, urging Onyx in the only direction I could think of—toward the muted sun. His wings beat fervently, tight muscles coiling and unfurling against my thighs, and suddenly we exploded through the smoke. Pure, brilliant sunlight poured over us. A sea of black fog stretched beneath Onyx’s paws, and as we coasted over the expanse, his claws cut canyons into it. Guiding Onyx in a circle, I scoured the horizon for Ocnolog.
“Where are you?” I murmured to myself. I kept Onyx low against the smog, hoping the cloud would help camouflage him. A strange disturbance in the dark expanse caught my eye. Three puckered trails of smoke streamed toward us, as if a great creature lurked beneath the surface but hadn’t yet emerged. Ocnolog’s skull crested through the fog, fire already brewing in his maw, and he unleashed a geyser of flames directly at us. Onyx cut hard to the right. Heat seared the air, and my eyes watered as I clung to my beast. Instead of following us, Ocnolog submerged into the smoke. A haughty, gritty laugh—one that was vaguely reticent of Yazmin but somehow deeper—floated around us.
“There’s no escaping me this time, Leena.” Her voice seemed to echo from every direction. It was bigger, too. More robust, more beast-like, and I shivered.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I shouted back at nothing. The sunlight beat against my armor, cooking me alive, but it was nothing compared to the heat of Ocnolog’s fire.
“Why do you fight this?” Her voice was a seductive purr, and I slammed my hands over Onyx’s ears. Dragon tongue. One of Ocnolog’s many magical abilities. Rumor was that with just one thought he could control the will of all beasts and even some humans. Only Celeste’s voice could counteract this ability. And since she was nowhere to be found, protecting the mind of my Myad fell entirely to me.
Beneath me, Onyx quivered. A strangled, warbled cry escaped his throat.
My pulse raced. How was I supposed to stop this? What was my plan? Again, Ocnolog erupted from the sea of smog, and again he sent a torrent of white-hot flames our direction. This time, Onyx barely avoided the attack. The scent of singed fur filled my nostrils, and Onyx let out a painful hiss.
“You had your chance to join my side.” The voice rumbled from beneath the fog. Onyx shook his head back and forth. Bringing one paw to his face, he violently swept down, as if trying to get something out of his head. “But instead, you allied with the Lendrians.”
I strained to hear every sound and watched for the churn of clouds that would mark his approach. Nothing.
“You’ve betrayed your kind.”
“No!” I screamed back, frantically scouring the expanse.
Then, a dark chuckle. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Beneath me, Onyx came to an abrupt halt. His wings continued to beat, keeping us afloat, but he simply hung there, his feet skating above the smog. When Ocnolog had attacked last, I’d been forced to grip the scruff of his neck to keep from falling, leaving his ears completely exposed. Slowly, he craned his head over his shoulder and skewered me with eyes that weren’t wholly his. His pupils had bled wide. Worried chattering gurgled at the back of his throat. He was trying to fight Ocnolog’s power. Trying to warn me.
But I didn’t have a chance to find a way out.
Ocnolog rose from the smoke, Yazmin grinning wildly from her place between his horns. The smog swirled around us as his wings beat a ferocious gust in our direction, and Onyx did everything in his power to simply hold his ground. But I could feel his muscles giving. The slight loosening of knots as his wings started to shift.
“Let her go.”
Onyx rolled and gave a definitive hard shake. And the next thing I knew I was falling. Plummeting through the fog and screaming at the top of my lungs as the sky rushed past me. My breaths came hard and fast. This couldn’t be the end. I hadn’t saved Lendria. I hadn’t righted the wrongs the Wilheimians had committed against my people. I hadn’t lived with Noc like we’d promised. Tears bisected my cheeks as the wind screeched by my ears. I’d finally careened out of the black cloud and was now heading straight for the hard, unforgiving earth.
There wasn’t a beast I could summon to get me out of this. Most of them were already fighting in the battle below, and even then, Onyx was the only one that could support my weight.
Onyx. My tears thickened. I’d gone through so much to tame him. My journey started with him. Everything good in my life had happened because I’d sought him out. Because he was the beast that I needed. Because his faith in me had proven my innocence to the Charmers and my devotion to my creatures.
I would never see him again.
Gathering the last of my breath, I screamed as loud as I could. “Onyx!”
The ground rushed toward me. The soldiers below were becoming terrifyingly clear, their features more defined. The beasts, and Raven and Gaige and Noc and—
A thunderous roar broke through the howl of the wind. And then I saw him. My beloved beast. Wings pinned to his back in a dive, he sped toward me. But he wasn’t alone. Behind him, an enraged Ocnolog also dove at breakneck speed, gathering fire in his belly and preparing to bury us in flames.
The clang of swords crashing against one another was close now. The cries louder, the ground closer. I didn’t dare close my eyes. Didn’t look to my demise, either, but instead stared at my beast. If I was going to die, then the last thing I wanted to see was him. The very creature who’d put me on this path and changed my life forever.
Onyx roared again and then suddenly he was there, snaking between me and the earth. I slammed into his back and he faltered for a moment before steadying himself and pulling sharply up, just in time. Relief crashed into me, and I let out a broken sob as I buried my face in his neck.
“You came.” How he’d overcome Ocnolog’s dragon speak I didn’t know. But he’d saved me once again.
Fury colored Ocnolog’s bellowing cry, and then fire rained around us. Onyx cut left and right, avoiding most of the flames, but his final maneuver wasn’t quite fast enough. Scalding fire burned along our left side, eating away at his wing and causing my flesh to sizzle beneath my armor. Agony arced through me, and I screamed at the same time Onyx yowled. We crashed into the earth and rolled across the grass, squelching the fire but not the pain.
The world slipped out from under me. “Onyx,” I managed, inching closer to him along the scorched ground. His answering cry was soft. Too soft. I ripped off my armor, eager to get the searing metal off my skin even if it left me exposed. We’d landed behind the battling armies, but close enough that I could still hear them. And yet they were still so far out of reach. The ground shook as Ocnolog landed a few feet away. His claws left canyons in the field, and his monstrous wings flared wide, casting my world in shadow. He beat them once, and the following gust knocked the wind out of my lungs before racing out over the plains. Rearing back, he snarled to reveal endless rows of sharpened teeth and a jaw capable of swallowing a Laharock whole.
Yazmin gripped his horns tight and leaned forward. “I’m tired of your games.” Again, the voice somehow came from both of them. Her words were a strange amalgamation of her and the beast. Just how much control did she really have? There was a twitch to Ocnolog’s muscles, an obvious shudder as he forced himself to look where she gazed.
Scrambling to my knees, I crawled along the earth to put myself between Ocnolog and Onyx. “Yazmin, stop this. If you keep this up, there won’t be anything left but ash.”
I gestured wide, wincing against the pain coursing through my side. The open plains outside Wilheim were burnt to a crisp. The very ground smoldered with heat, and there was no mistaking the heavy aroma of blood in the air. Atop the back of Ocnolog, she’d turned the thriving grasslands into a wasteland of death and decay.
It was horrifying. And yet…the burden of the crown, of wanting to protect your people at all costs, was something I understood in my core. But she’d turned to dark magic to do so, and it’d cost her more than she probably knew. Wynn had changed the moment he’d started dabbling in those spells. No matter how good his intentions had once been, there was no mistaking the corruption that followed.
As I looked upon Yazmin now, I knew the same could be said for her. But maybe she didn’t have to suffer the same fate. Maybe there was still time.
“Please, think of your people,” I tried, forcing myself to stand.
“My people?” Her sharp voice grated along my skin. “My people turned on me. They didn’t believe in me. Even though I’d been right all along.”
“I know.”
She kept right on going as if I’d never spoken. “And when I asked them to go to war, they rebuked me. But you?” Even from atop Ocnolog’s head, I could see the rage in her glare. “They listened to you.”
“I’m sorry, Yazmin. I’m sorry they didn’t listen, that I didn’t listen. But I’m listening now.” I took a few careful steps forward. “Celeste wouldn’t want this. You have to know that.”
“Do not speak that name!” Her voice trembled with fury, this time filled with so much raw heat and anger that I couldn’t detect Yazmin’s influence at all. Ocnolog stretched his neck high. “She should never have shared her power with you. That was a sacred bond between her and us beasts. You are not worthy to wield her magic.”
Yazmin’s face faltered, and she tightened her grip on Ocnolog. He didn’t seem to notice.
“Why? We love our beasts with everything we have.” While before I’d tried to appeal to Yazmin, this time I spoke only to Ocnolog. No matter that he was somehow connected to her, no matter that he’d destroyed so many already with his rage and fire. “Just as Celeste loved you.”
“Silence!” he roared. He swiveled his head toward the battle. “Come to me. Leave your Charmers behind. They do not deserve your devotion.”
The dragon speak was so thick I could practically taste it. I jerked my head toward the battle between us and Varek’s army, and my stomach plummeted to my feet. The beasts had halted in their attacks and were now looking our way. One by one, they stalked toward us, completely unaware of the battle they were leaving behind. Charmers shouted at their beloved creatures, tear-filled cries screeching through the air. Not one of the beasts responded. They just continued to saunter forward until they formed a wall at my back. Dangerous, threatening growls filled the air as they targeted their wary gazes on me. Only Onyx remained in control, and he forced himself to stand between them and me. Ears pinned against his skull, he roared a challenge.
Yazmin had lost control entirely, and she was searching wildly for something in the folds of her cloak.
“You see,” Ocnolog said, “they’re not as loyal to their Charmers as you’d think. The love you speak of must not be real.”
“That’s not true!” My gaze bounced from creature to creature, until I found my beasts grouped together at the front of the line. They trembled under the weight of Ocnolog’s compulsion, shaking their heads and snarling at nothing in particular. Aeon. Reine. Dominus. Iky. Kinana. Kapro. So many more. I wouldn’t let Ocnolog convince them they weren’t loved.
Turning back to Ocnolog, I called on every ounce of power I had left. Rosewood light fractured around me until I was drenched in an otherworldly glow, and I thrust both hands outward. The leaves, flowers, and vines along my arm bloomed to life, luminous against my skin. Celeste’s magic lived within me, warm and soothing and real. Holding my chin high, I dared Ocnolog to tell me again how I wasn’t worthy. Then, I wrenched open the beast realm door. The signature groan was a beautiful melody, proving Celeste had granted me access to the realm. To my beasts. To everything that made me, me.
“You might think I’m not worthy, but you’re wrong.” I took a definitive step forward, and Ocnolog hissed. “My beasts choose to be with me. I don’t need dragon speak to compel them to stay by my side.”
Thunderous roars sounded at my back, and I knew I’d broken through Ocnolog’s magic. Without hesitating, my beasts rushed over and stood tall against the monstrous dragon beast of legend. They ignored the open door calling them to safety, and instead remained with me. Their love and devotion—the same emotions I felt for each one of them—washed over me, soothed the pain in my side and calmed the burn along my skin. Tears flowed freely down my face.
“You,” Ocnolog said, his voice a dangerous whisper. He lowered his head so that his snout was only inches away.
“Enough of this!” Yazmin shouted, finally securing what she’d been searching for—the blade she’d used to pierce her heart. It was still coated in blood, and she pointed the tip of her dagger over the stained patch of red across her blouse. Right through the same slit in the fabric.
Beneath her, Ocnolog froze.
A wild laugh bubbled from her lips. “Remember who’s in charge. You are bound to me, and I to you.”
Ocnolog shuddered and cast one look beyond me to the battlefield. Charmers were still screaming, begging for their beasts to come back. They didn’t care about power. They weren’t looking to control their creatures. All they wanted was to know if they were okay. And with every bellow or heart-filled cry, another beast began to quiver in place. Confused groans simmered from the backs of their throats, and they swiped at their faces, trying to rid the dragon speak from their ears. One by one, they succeeded.
And then they abandoned their stations to rush toward their Charmers. Only when they were reunited did they dare to glance back, to stand defiantly in front of the person who loved them most, and snarl at Ocnolog.
Slowly, he swiveled his head in my direction and pried into my mind.
This woman was reason enough for me to believe that I’d been right all along. Celeste was the only one who could be trusted with such power. And yet… Ocnolog’s voice was free of Yazmin’s feminine tone, and his body gave a visible shudder, as if he were fighting to hold on to what little control he’d wrangled from her.
Yazmin pressed the dagger flush to her chest, and a rivulet of blood welled against the tip. Ocnolog’s gaze went cold, all semblance of consciousness wiped away in a breath. Yanking his head back, he let out an earth-shattering roar. Spittle rained down on us from his open maw, and Yazmin laughed.
“Ocnolog…” I whispered. The agony he felt was palpable. Not just because Yazmin controlled him, but because he’d loved Celeste with everything he had. When the goddess had shared her gift with the Charmers, he’d felt betrayed and unleashed fury on the world.
What he didn’t understand, though, was how deeply Celeste had loved him. How she couldn’t bear the thought of ending his life, no matter how dangerous he had become. So she did the only thing she could—she sacrificed herself to grant him peace in eternal slumber. But when Yazmin awakened him, breaking the spell and proving to be everything he feared Charmers would become…
Fire and brimstone, just like the prophecy predicted.
The prophecy. The rosewood light around me sharpened as the words flashed through my mind. A loving hand with the gift to break… Offers their heart… It was as if Celeste herself whispered the words into my ears, and time seemed to slow. The goddess had given her life as a show of love for her beast. She’d broken their bond so that he could find peace.
Just like you. Realization slammed into me at the same time a wondrous warmth bloomed in my chest. I had broken bonds before. I had given beasts peace when they’d been lost or subjected to a Charmer’s whims. Wynn and his Scorpex. Yazmin and the Vrees.
My hand had the power to break.
And as I stared into the endless ruby eyes of Ocnolog, I knew what I had to do.