Chapter 18: Chapter 18

SILVER

Jinx is flying my body over the camp, blowing fire just over the rooftops of the wagons and the heads of the innocent.

She is flying adjacent to Storm as they manage to destroy the shards with flames, melting and shattering them before they fall and collide with someone’s head.

The extraordinary power of the Blood Raven is terrifying as much as it is sickening. Using the powers of the dead in her fight—it hardly seems fair. And attacking the Horde—also unfair.

~“She is bending the rules, sister, typical of her kind to squeeze out whatever they can,”~ Jinx answers my thoughts.

~“You don’t have to hide back in there, Silver. Fly with me. We will dive in from behind and skewer her spine with a single talon. Let’s turn these rocks and frighten her.”~

~“Turn these rocks? We say ‘turn the tables.’ Your slang is—”~

~“No doubt far funnier than your modern speech.”~

~“How is ‘turning rocks’ in any way funny, Jinx?”~

~“If my mates had stopped their bickering, we would have killed her by now!”~ Storm interrupts as his wing brushes the edge of my own…

Except I have also chosen the moment to move forward, as Jinx suggested…and I accidentally swerve my body into his.

It bends my wing and has us plummeting back down before the Blood Raven, who chillingly smiles as we start to crash-land.

~“Gently,”~ Storm calls out to us to try and lighten our landing, but we are already flying too close to the ground, so our kiss with the soil is as quick as it is painful.

~“Hell winds, sister. I take it back. You need to let me do this.”~ Jinx is firm, and I recoil to the back corner once more.

~“I’m sorry!”~ I apologize as Storm lands beside us, his head nudging under our front shoulder and helping us roll back up from our slightly shocked crash-landed position.

“Oh no, we can’t have this.” The Blood Raven throws away the second skull, the ability useless now that the power has drained.

“You can’t help them, Legend of the Sky… You need to sit back. You all need to bow and submit to this final round. Retribution will be met. I have had my fun…

“The screams pleased my old ears; nothing like fresh turmoil shining from the eyes of the guilty… Now it is time for the endgame. It is your turn, Jinx… Watch carefully.”

Libitina runs her hands over her Belt of Retribution, looking for a pick.

~“Who has the most lethal power in this Horde?”~ I ask Jinx and Storm, hoping to predict what the Blood Raven will choose.

~“That depends—”~Jinx answers me, until her voice chokes up from the sight before us.

Libitina’s hands have caressed their way up her own body to grab the necklace, yanking it off and holding out the two baby Dragon skulls, which are threaded through a silver-beaded chain.

“If you wish to bury these skulls, you’ll have to stop me before I unleash their power and they turn to ash like the others.”

The Blood Raven motions to the other skulls, which have started to decay rapidly on the grass. They are turning into soot and smoke and nothing else as each second passes.

~“Focus, ~amica mea~,”~ Storm growls through my mind to Jinx and me. I don’t know what he means by those words in his old language, but I feel the love in his tone.

~“I have seen their faces every day since I lost them,”~ Jinx whispers through my head and the Blood Raven’s.

“Oh, I know, dearest,” Libitina breaks the necklace and holds a skull in each hand, and a small gray flame appears from each skull. “Come and get them, mother to—”

Jinx has lunged forward into an attack, but the world around us sparks with the other realm until up feels like down, and the front goal is no longer before us.

The world is bending.

The world is—

Normal.

Upright.

Fixed.

And I slowly feel Jinx slipping back into nothing as my own soul jumps forward and holds the reins of my body once again.

~“Goodbye sister,”~ I whisper, and Storm’s Dragon collapses onto tired legs as Jinx leaves my body…but a certain screaming Blood Raven keeps our sights locked.

The world is back to normal, the sky is showing, and the moonlight is dancing on baby Dragons’ silver scales.

Rawk and Zoraul have swooped in from nowhere and stopped the final attack.

Rawk has mauled off one of Libitina’s arms, while Zoraul collapses the Blood Raven’s windpipe by snapping his jaws over her neck.

Rawk has now turned to claw his talons through her stomach, and black guts fly out onto the grass and turn to ash as Zoraul makes a final crunch, killing Libitina by snapping her neck.

Seconds ago, she terrorized us all.

Seconds later, the two youngest Twin Leading Breeds—of course; how could I forget they have the power to stop her—have killed her now…and saved us all.

There is no interference from the Sky Gods… No sudden change… Just victory.

I change to my human form at the same time Storm does, to watch the baby Dragons continue to rip and maul into Libitina until her whole body is ash, and all that remains is the belt on the ground.

Storm walks to it now with a determined stride.

I watch as he picks it up and backs off after petting both sons on the head to tell them they did a good job.

He then turns to me briefly, while I am still standing in shock at the sudden departure of Jinx from my mind and body.

~“She is at peace now; that is why she left so suddenly.~

~“Please let me find mine; let me bury these…and then I will tend to you,”~ Storm says to me, almost…closed off…~because~ he is barely holding back a torrent of emotion.

I see how his aura is broken and ravaged by fire, and his cheek is leaking a waterfall of magic barely kept at bay.

He is struggling to keep hold of his human form, unnatural to his Dragon.

Especially in this moment.

I do not answer him, however, because I am empty of fight…and I am filled with exhaustion…and I don’t know what to feel.

I am not left alone with my thoughts for long, however, as a crowd of cheering Gypsies and Dragons leap out from cover…

And my babies, Rawk and Zoraul, turn from a body of a Blood Raven no longer present…and their eyes and bodies spin until they find their mother.

And then they both grin widely; the grin on Rawk’s scarred face is a little lopsided, but it is extremely endearing.

~“P—proud, Mother?”~ a kid’s voice burbles through my head, and I glance at Zoraul, followed by a second, almost identical miniature growl coming from Rawk.

~“The ugly woman is burn. We tear the woman of ugly. Burn, claw, and eat that black heart. Are you proud of us, Mother, like us?”~

“~Proud~?” I whisper back as they come prancing to me to come lick at my cheeks, with wings spread, their tongues lolling out with black blood. I have to swat them away. “You can both ~talk~?”

~“Her power, now mine and his,”~ Zoraul explains. ~“Mother…proud?”~

~“We ate the black heart.”~ Rawk is firm on this. ~“Proud, Mother?”~

My hand is at my lips as tears fall from my eyes.

“Very proud. I’m very proud of you… If only Jinx…” I trail off as they look taken aback.

~“She is happy; you be happy,”~ Zoraul growls at me.

~“Proud, Mother? Very proud?”~ Rawk asks again, and I look at his wide eyes, confused by the intensity.

“What… W—what do you want?” I ask, confused.

~“Deer. We cannot catch,”~ Rawk instantly responds.

~“Deer,”~ Zoraul growls very low, and he slides up next to his brother for warmth in the moonlight. ~“Mother catch.”~

“Oh, you want me to hunt?” I ask as my eyes look over my unbelievable babies, now speaking to me…

And I watch as Storm digs a hole with a shovel far off, surrounded by the Dragons of the Lost Horde…who are holding their skulls, ready to bury them.

It is the perfect excuse to get some space; I certainly need it after Storm chained me up…less than an hour ago.

~“Deer,”~ Rawk growls, his eyes so focused and his mind clearly focused on his stomach.

~“Deer,”~ Zoraul adds…and then they both keep asking me for it repetitively.

I know they’ll drive me to insanity if I don’t do what they say, so I raise my hands.

“Follow… Come…to deer.” I nod to them.

Then, swiveling on my heel, I turn into my Dragon again while my babies blow fire over me joyfully and their auras beam orange and yellow…with an intense pride…the type of pride you feel ~for~ someone.

And then I realize that all along, they weren’t asking if I was proud of them.

They tried to tell me that they are proud ~of me~.

But they didn’t know how to communicate it properly so they said it like a question.

Cute.

Cute enough to distract me from the one issue left tearing at my heart and worrying me sick.

What Storm thinks of me now.