Chapter 9: Chapter 9

DRACO

“You don’t deserve a Silver,” Aspen says. He has crutches and a bandaged knee, while a sharp barrel of a gun presses under my ribcage from the back. He holds it behind me as we stand in an open warehouse, the brown-tinged floors washed clean.

“You don’t deserve a mother either. You think your mother loves you? She loves me, Draco, she’s always loved me. I don’t know what value you think you add to our Horde. But if you can’t act like a Red, you’re going to die like a coward.”

We’re awaiting the impossible, something he is trying to rip out of me. My natural confidence, which Aspen describes as arrogant, as he promises me a Silver will fall through the open roof in a bloody pile.

And if there is one thing I do know, it’s that Evermore won’t be picked off that easily. Even if the whole mob searched for her, which they now were—I knew she’d be impossible to find in the Shadow Realm.

She also had Storm. She also had Fiona, who had a keen sense for danger, a sixth sense.

My father locked my mother back up at home and told me to come with him for a drive to this slaughterhouse with the Reds at one a.m. He told me if I didn’t come, she’d never see me again.

Whatever that meant; forcibly isolating her from me, or me from her, or my death—I wasn’t sure.

But my father had never dragged me so close to scrutiny as he was now. I knew this was the initiation. No more sideline operations.

Of course, the gun at my back told me he considered me a threat. That he didn’t trust me. Evermore was a test. She had threatened Aspen and he wasn’t too happy about that.

“Say something,” Aspen moves closer to my still face, my arms crossed, stubborn.

“If there is one thing I know…you won’t catch Evermore, she’s vicious.”

“We know the Riverbeds inside out, son,” Aspen manages a cocky smile. “Besides…we’ll leave the mage alive. You don’t need two mates. You only need one, like me. Makes you sharper. Silvers are trouble, son. Trouble you can’t believe.”

Aspen sounds so sure, but he’s dealing with me. He doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he does. And Evermore? He doesn’t know her at all—

Aspen looks up the same time I do at the sound of wings slicing through the air and raindrops, splattering on the transparent roof. But they’re not transparent in color. It’s blood, as the Reds fly by violently, dropping a dragon’s carcass.

The Silver Dragon slams into the concrete at the bottom, covered in wet blood, a gash opened savagely at the neck. I can’t feel the gun at my back. I can’t breathe, but I can’t acknowledge it either.

I don’t understand what I’m seeing. What Silver was this? It wasn’t Evermore.

Aspen nudges me forward. “…I told you, son,” the sympathy comes out, a sad, quiet tone. “Look.”

I walk forward with eyes that won’t blink. It can’t be her. It…N… I stop moving when a familiar feminine scent hits my nose.

Red mist fills the slaughterhouse. Knifer, Kage, Franky—they shift to men and as they find their clothes, one last gray mist approaches and solidifies in front of my father.

Under his breath, I hear Aspen. “You’ll get your hit money tomorrow, Sini. How’d you do it?”

“It’s easy to blindside the blind. Fell heavy, scales still intact despite the fall down the mountain.”

“There’s nothing like quick and efficient operations. You’ll get your portion of the final sale. Be on guard, I don’t want company from the Shadow.”

“I glamoured the area, we’re undetectable.”

I move a few steps closer to the carcass. I hear Knifer call out, “Your girl’s not so tough now? She’s dead, Draco, ~look~.”

“Pity there was no fight in her,” Franky grumbles.

“Grab the bags, we scale one by one, no skin sales.” Kage comes right up to me, his stinky breath close to my ear. “Time you ~kneeled~, don’t worry, you’ll be compensated you sorry fuck, it’s just one less pussy, you don’t deserve two, coward.”

He kicks in the back of my knee, my leg bends as I hit the concrete, numb. Always numb. But not this time. ~Not this time.~

It can’t be real. Can’t be. In my denial, in the cold air filling my lungs, Aspen hobbles over and Sini too.

“First the proof, so the boy realizes it’s not a game.” Aspen hands Sini an injection to force the dragon to transform to human.

I watch Sini inject the frog poison, and the dragon shrinks from carcass to human corpse. E-Evermore. Naked and eyes open, staring up at the sky, her neck with a gash down the side and back.

“Don’t ever hide ~anything~ from me again,” Aspen speaks but it’s all muddled and fading. “This is an empire of fortune you’ll inherit one day…If you don’t break now, you’ll break later. You’ll thank me for this. One day.”

The sounds of the mob talking back and forth, all fade along with Aspen’s voice. But it’s not because I’m going to pass out. Instead, my Red temper is waking from hibernation. My Red. Which had been sleeping and walking into walls in my mind, as I toned down the temper as much as I could. To avoid turning into monsters like them.

Now I see my dragon rising up, horns elongating and black-red, tipped with gold. The eyes of my dragon show a promise to me. The power we have is not what Aspen has. My power is laced with love. And my dragon looks reassured. Wait. Wait. Wait. ~Look.~ A faint pulse at her neck. ~She’s not dead yet.~

EVERMORE

“When I was young…” Jinx, my mother’s dead twin, stands at the edge of a mountain’s jagged edge. Her dragon rests beside her, eyes blue as ice, with blue flames licking from its tongue, providing a sphere of fire to lick around us.

No matter how hard I try to speak, I can’t. Because I’m tethered to this place of ghosts and also my reality. I can only see and hear her.

“…I influenced your father into some very bad habits,” Jinx finishes with a smirk. “Silvers go one of two ways. I was touched by a tortured curiosity… Your mother was sweet and gentle, and all things good and nice.”

Jinx has tears in her eyes; she feels for Silver, and for Storm.

“I cursed you with Ice Fire, Evermore… Can you guess why?”

I still can’t talk, so I’m guessing it’s a rhetorical question. I just listen.

“Silver and Storm won’t survive the loss of another child. That’s right. You had siblings. Older twin brothers.”

My heart leaps. What was she talking about? I thought I was their first child.

“They were extraordinarily talented Twin Leading Breeds and they perished with Freesia’s Curse. Even with the curse lifted, Evermore—you need my edge, you need to see beyond…”

Jinx holds up a careful finger. “Use it, the gift I’ve given you, to right wrong. Your mates need you. Silver and Storm lost me. Even Aspen’s lost a mate. Do not live this life losing one of your destined lovers. Protect them. At all costs. Nothing else matters. Everything else may burn. Your father will not approve what I’m suggesting…let go,” Jinx finishes her advice.

“You and Draco. Together. ~Let go. Unleash. Or they will kill you~. And finally, Evermore. It’s going to be fun.”

Jinx shows me a magic trick of sorts. At least, I think it’s a trick at first. Until I realize it’s a lesson. Her Ice Fire dances around her, she opens her palm and it folds into the middle, looking like it’s missing something…

And then I see the ghost of it. A yellow flame, golden in color, just like my father’s. As the two fires touch, it explodes into shards like a grenade. It disintegrates across Jinx’s skin, but it lodges into the mountain around us.

I look off the mountain’s slope and I see a Red Dragon below. Calling to me.

I jump off the ledge and I float all the way down onto the Red’s back. The crimson dragon dives for an open-roofed warehouse. I see Draco inside, kneeling.

I also see my bloody pale corpse, staring up at me as I jump from the Red’s back, down toward my body.

Standing with them now as a ghost, I give Draco a quick kiss. Then I rejoin with my physical self. Just like that, I’m stitched back together. And it fucking hurts like hell.

When I blink, I see the open sky, now awake on the concrete floor. Unfortunately, I’m not as strong as I want to be. No one saw me blink but Draco. He smiles uncontrollably.

My eyes hurt, everything hurts, but I bend my finger and then swivel my hand. Aspen had been talking behind him to Sini, the gang were meandering closer after putting on suits. And now a silence ensues.

“It can’t be true,” Aspen snaps as he looks straight at me, and my sickly sweet smile, “…how?”

“Ice. Fire. Bitch.” I whisper and glance at Draco, smirking.

“Ice Fire.” Draco drawls the words, his voice deep and steady now, but the rage is still in his eyes.

“Don’t tell me the Silver survived that,” Knifer speaks over us.

Aspen has a gun, and he moves to point it at me. Not taking any chances.

Draco loses his smile as he notices Aspen’s movement. Draco immediately reacts with me, in perfect unison.

A shockwave blasts through the warehouse and windows shatter as Draco and I release our Ice and Fire at exactly the same time. The flame collided between us.

It’s so powerful that the shockwave ends up launching us in opposite directions, including everyone nearby. I roll so far to the left I smack into the wall, bruising my shoulder and crying out from the pain. Draco flies back the other way.

Draco is confused, as he finds his feet first. He smiles at the Reds who also got slammed back with the shockwave. After our magic connected, it caused a blue and red mist to fill the air. Every Red is covered in a potent gas.

“If I ignite that fine mist, your limbs will get blown right off,” Draco snarls and chuckles. “Let’s see what happens when you fuck with my girlfriends, heh?”

Draco sounds demonic. And so does the screaming that follows. Two arms go flying. From Kage.

When he’s on the floor bleeding out, the others bow their heads, crying and begging for mercy. Aspen is on his side, crutches still in his hand, shocked into silence.

Since he’s fallen, Sini takes him by the shoulder and they escape to the Shadow Realm together. It leaves Draco with Knifer, Franky, and Pincer, while Kage bleeds out.

“Made a mistake, made a big fuckin mistake,” Knifer begs.

“Believe us, buddy.” Franky clasps his hands over his head.

“Draco.” Pincer crawls and grabs one of Draco’s ankles. “Draco, please. We were following orders.”

“Maybe you have the mind to follow my orders now,” Draco purrs, “Bury Kage. Don’t speak about my girlfriends. Don’t ever utter their names… As for my father…Evermore wants his guts.” Draco looks at me with dreamy eyes. “Don’t you, Ice?”

I am still too injured to participate, but I nod. “My kill,” I growl out.

“Clean Kage’s bloody mess. He’s starting to stink already.” Draco looks toward me now. “You want his arms, love?”

“Yes.” I grin with grit teeth, wishing Fiona was here so she could heal me.

“Throw the arms in a freezer.” Draco nudges Pincer’s side with his boot. “Unless you want to donate yours as well?”

“Yes, boss,” I hear Knifer whisper as Draco walks around him.

“Hm.” Draco comes to me, and he is ice calm. He scoops me up and lifts me to his chest, while I see black dots floating past my vision.

“I’m going to pass out,” I whisper. “Take me to Penny.”

“Hopefully Penny can see straight. She’ll be a wreck with worry.” Draco sounds so solemn, “Hold on, I’ll get you home. Open the Shadow Realm before you pass out. I’ll walk us.”

I struggle to stay awake, weak from blood loss as I open the veil to the other side. Draco steps through with me, and I help lead him through the fog by pointing across the trails, fighting to keep conscious.

Draco starts to shake when we exit out of the fog, and we make it to the Crest Mountains.

~Back safe.~ Just half-dead.

I watch as Storm storms out of the cavern ahead, coming to take me himself. At the sight of my father, I can’t hold onto strength anymore.

I give in to some sleep. I just didn’t want to die again.

We had so much fun awaiting us now. Aspen wouldn’t stand a chance.