Page 74 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

The battle for our lives had finally begun.

Chapter 30

How It Ends

Xavier

The roar shook the house.I jumped from the bed and ran out, wearing just a pair of shorts. Dawn and Warrick met me in the hall, Claire bursting out behind Dawn.

“What the fuck was that?” Dawn asked.

“Dragons,” Damien said, coming out of his room with Robby. We ran down the hallway, meeting Maddox and Caleb along the way. Fuck. Robby outpaced us, using his vampire agility to disappear down the stairs.

Good. He could protect Blake and Cassius from whatever had made that sound.

Maybe it was a false alarm. Maybe it was someone nearby trying to scare their neighbors. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

“Oh no,” Claire said as we turned the corner in a messy group. The front door was flung open. Blake and Cassius stood behind Robby. He looked so tiny, so frail, compared to the four massive dragons that were poised before them. They had rows and rows of teeth, saliva dripping off their black jaws like oil spills, pooling on the ground and making it sizzle. Tendrilsmoved on their own accord, reaching out for Robby as if they were going to grab him and stuff him down their maws.

I only ever felt true fear once in my life—when I was facing the mortality of my mother. That had been a fear that felt as solid and icy as a dagger being twisted into my heart, over and over and over again.

Seeing these Shade dragons stabbed me just the same. My mouth went dry, my heart beating so fast I was sure it would burst.

It didn’t stop me from moving. Didn’t stop me from getting to Blake’s side. I reached for his hand. One of the dragons snapped at the other. There was a low and persistent growl coming from all of them. Each had two riders on their backs.

One jumped off.

“Dad.”

Joshua Baldree was not the same man I had met in the White House all those months ago. This man was gaunt with a beard that seemed unbecoming of someone who always wore tailored suits and shiny wingtips. There was another startling difference between this man and the one I’d been introduced to.

He had red eyes. Just like the dragons behind him. Just like the Carpenter, who stepped next to Joshua.

Same scarlet-red eyes. Same venomous aura.

Joshua looked to his son. There was nothing but coldness in his gaze. He placed his hands in the pockets of his dark pants, standing as if meeting with a colleague and not an estranged and betrayed family member. “You do not have to be here for this, Cassius.”

“What have you done? Why are you doing this?” Cassiusmoved forward, brushing away Blake as he tried to hold him back.

“I am following the will of the king. I am doing this to bring back what I’ve lost. I am doing this for our family.”

“You’ve destroyed our family.”

“I am healing it.”

Damien moved to his left, Maddox following. Warrick and Dawn shifted right. The Shade dragons twitched and snapped, watching. I knew what they were doing, but I wouldn’t follow. Not yet. I wanted to stand by Blake’s side, ready to take whatever came in his direction. Robby and Claire were also with me, flanking me.

Smoke surrounded them as they shifted into their dragon forms. We weren’t about to be outgunned. Joshua and Simon watched, amused. Joshua’s hand hovered over the sheathe dangling from his hip. The dagger’s hilt stuck out from the top, a slightly curved and ornate hilt created from some kind of sparkling onyx.

It must have been the starlight dagger. I had to make sure I stayed away from it.

Cassius continued, the pain in his voice a physical force. “You’ve ruined me. I trusted you. You were all I had left after Mom died. Why would you do this to me?”

The clouds dispersed, leaving my siblings matched up with the opposing force. The Shade dragons were nearly twice the size of even Maddox, the largest in the family. How had they created those monsters?

And would we be capable of taking them down?

“It isn’t just your father making these decisions,” Simon said. They weren’t alone. More Time Turners climbedoff the backs of the Shade dragons. Two of them shifted—one into a snarling Bengal tiger and another into an angry-looking timber wolf—and three others toyed with sharp daggers and shining swords dangling at their waists. One moved with the same grace as Robby did and another had the jeweled eyes of a Fae.

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