Chapter 24: Chapter 24

SILVER

“You will shut your mouth unless I require you to open it…and you will not forget who your Master of Feeling is. Is that clear, pipsqueak?” Storm growls.

“Clear.” I hesitate but decide to give him what he wants, just this once at least.

“Good girl.” Storm lets me go and stands tall to arrogantly gaze down upon me as he finally says what he wished to speak about before.

“I brought you out here to ask you if you’d seen Rawk and Zoraul, our children.

“The pesky bats that terrorize the Horde’s butchers and bakeries and steal off clotheslines for morning toys to play tug-of-war, scattering the ground with rainbow material.

“There’s usually a line of ten complaints at my wagon door before the sun rises. Yet, peculiarly, I have had none of those issues this morning. So I’m asking you. Have you seen them?”

“No,” I murmur and shake my head. “Where in this realm could they be?”

“That’s what you and I are going to find out—”

There is a distinct whistle in the air, and Storm hears it a second before I do.

I watch his whole body morph into a whispered wind of mist jumping for safety into the nearest shadow of a tree.

However, Storm’s physical form doesn’t manage to get that far, and he solidifies an inch from where he was standing with a poisoned arrow in his neck.

He falls to his knees and then collapses into my standing form. I hold him to me, my hands on his large head, my fingers threaded through his hair.

~“I need help!”~ I call to the Lost Horde. I don’t have time to disclose my location as I see a tall figure dressed in elaborate armor, clinking his way out of the trees to face me.

I pause, holding Storm close to me as Jordan Culling stands before me.

He is a prince of a neighboring kingdom, a Dragon Slayer, and Elena’s previous captor.

I assume he is here now…for her.

“I know why you are here,” I speak first as he tilts his head, observing me with classically handsome features but also an arrogant glare.

“Small of stature, young, familiar scent…something that reminds me of the Dusk Horde…and Summer. Are you related?” Culling asks, slowly raising a brow from eyes that look red with lack of sleep.

“I am her friend… You were her betrothed, once.

“She lives ~happily~ with Dragons now, Dragon Slayer,” I answer him with the respect he deserves but with a hint of menace only a mother can feel when protecting her children.

“You have Rawk and Zoraul, don’t you? You want to trade them for Elena?”

“Wow. I overheard the conversation you two were having, and now I understand why you ~are~ ill-advised.”

Culling slowly smirks like a madman as power flashes through his gaze. “I don’t trade in Dragons, little Silver… ~I kill them~.”

“Needlessly and ruthlessly.”

I pause and look over my shoulder, seeing Elena step out of the trees, no longer chained, with Freezkol and Drax guarding her from behind but maintaining a safe distance from the Dragon Slayer.

“You’ve killed for sport,” Elena says. “Culling, you’ve tortured me and been proud of the results and the progress.”

I step back; Storm, unconscious, is heavy leaning on me. I slowly kneel and then hold his head on my lap as Elena comes around to stand beside me, facing Jordan Culling.

“A conversation we can have in ~private~ anytime, as you have often suggested time and time again in the past,” Jordan answers coldly and harshly.

“So come with me, Elena.

“Let’s discuss it, and then I’ll return to rid the world of a legendary Horde that surrounds itself with pride in their delight of torture, pain, murdering, drinking blood, eating, and playing with innocent mortal souls.

“Silver Dragons are the worst of all Dragon kind… Rogues being ~second~,” Culling prods Elena, who suddenly leans down and threads her fingers through my hair before pulling on the strands.

“Get to your feet!” Elena yells at me as I scramble up, flustered and confused, while Culling looks on curiously. “How did you find me, Prince?”

“A feeling in my gut,” Jordan answers, sharply and to the point.

“Silver, you are mated to the Dragon Lord of the Lost Horde,” Elena continues.

“You will challenge him to a fight to the death. You will win and rid him from my life once and for all. I’m done being a pet to a Dragon Slayer.”

“Elena, Elena, Elena… I don’t know whether I should collar you, free you, fuck you, punish you…or marry you.

“All I know is you’re the only Dragon I don’t have an urge to kill, and you drive me crazy when you resist whatever it is that pulls us together.”

Jordan Culling then glances to me. “Your babies are no longer needed… I will dispose of them humanely. Twin Leading Breeds are the last thing this realm needs. I will take my Dragon…

“I will take yours…and be on my way, letting your Horde be. I believe in controlled culling of Dragons. It is humane, fair, and reasonable.

“That way, I’ll guarantee the safety of everyone else that resides here…including Storm, Legend of the Sky.”

“Jordan actually thinks he sounds reasonable; he ~truly~ believes his own words; I can read it from his overconfident aura.

“Why are you holding my babies captive if they are useless to you?” I ask, growling.

“I needed them to trade, but since Elena is here…I think I will be on my way.”

Jordan straightens his back and looks so proud of himself and confident—~still~—that he can convince Elena to follow. However, maybe he is so confident because of what he does next.

Jordan raises a hand with a tiny flute; he blows through it, and he lets out a dart…which hits Elena’s neck.

She falls, unconscious, while I glance back at Freezkol and a betraying Drax. I narrow my eyes at him, but I connect with both, regardless of last night’s drama.

~“Get some backup—Gypsies, mortals—just in case I can’t delay him further with my words and also as a protective measure in case Culling goes back on his promise,”~ I tell them.

They nod and retreat back to the camp in a hurry.

Jordan glances to me once Elena is also incapacitated like Storm, and I am the last one standing and near.

But I am not scared.

I am ~furious~ enough to want to snap him in half and eat both halves together.

“You picked the wrong Horde to steal innocent lives from.” It’s my only warning as Storm abruptly comes back to consciousness.

And then Storm is no longer passed out on the ground below us.

He is behind Culling, stabbing him through the neck with a spare dart from his belt.

Culling collapses…and Storm swipes the excess dirt off his cheek.

The Broken Fire is leaking far more rapidly, glittering down over his shirt and coat in golden waves of frustration at being in his unnatural mortal form.

“I fucking hate Dragon Slayers,” Storm snarls before leaning down and hauling Jordan Culling over his head. “Good thing I’m almost completely resistant to any and all Dragon poisons.”

“What about Elena?” I ask him as he starts stalking toward the camp.

“Drag her,” Storm snaps.

“Quickly, pipsqueak… We’re going to have a lot of fun tonight with these two in the camp. We’ll celebrate their capture. Their weaknesses.

“We will also find Rawk and Zoraul…and they will decide the Dragon Slayer’s fate.”

~“Isn’t that risky, to let baby Dragons anywhere near a Dragon Slayer?”~ I ask Storm through the mind-link.

~“Such is our way, Silver. Tonight, we will learn our children’s hearts. Then, we will teach them how to be merciless, and I will teach them how to lead…like legends…like me.”~

~“Your humbleness never fails to astound me…lover.”~

~“As it does me, young Silver…and you are not my lover, not yet. Now, hurry up and drag the Rogue back to camp quickly, because then we will find and free our sons.”~