Page 86 of Lahaina Noon

He laughed, “Good choice and Liam can be the ring bearer. I’d want Killian up there with me.”

“Tell me more about him. He’s so quiet, but he seems to be a good friend of yours.”

He told her more about the silver Wielder, how they’d met, about his family and then they talked about wedding plans, dates, locations, and other details.

She fell silent and saw he was watching Liam and Siobhan as they sat quietly together, holding hands and grieving their parents. She knew they were doing what they could to contain their grief so they could focus on the battle. Vaughn had offered for them to stay behind, but they’d wanted the battle to help them get justice for their family. She just hoped they didn’t let their pain make them reckless.

Hours later, they were at their rendezvous spot, making final preparations. There were a few things they needed that they couldn’t bring on the planes, so they were sourcing them locally. For the moment, they were just waiting on those they’d sent out to reconnoiter to return.

Marco came running into the large conference room at the hotel. “Drake, Drake!” he shouted, looking frantic.

Vaughn stood and waved him over.

Marco dashed to him, shoving a paper in his hands. “Sir, reports have been coming in from all over. Shadows are increasing attacks on wielder and dragon families alike, multiple times in each place, but only in these places. We can’t account for it. It doesn’t make any sense as a pattern. They started in Italy and moved to Ireland, then Russia, Spain, Japan, and finally to the US. They’ve attacked multiple cities. What do you think it means?”

A low growling filled the room, and conversation died down. The growling grew louder, and everyone turned to stare at Vaughn. A snarl left his lips, and suddenly, the paper was ashes on the floor. A small curl of smoke rose from the remaining fragments.

Bridget placed a hand on his arm, and he whipped his head towards her, flames flickering in his eyes. “Darling, what’s wrong?” she said gently, smoothing a lock of hair away from his face.

“The list!” he spat out, staring down at the ashes again.

She nodded for him to continue.

“The list is about me. It started where I was born, where my mother was killed. Then, to the island where the Council imprisoned me. When I finally gained my freedom, do you remember I said I traveled for a while before settling in the US and finally Dallas?”

She nodded again, “I remember.”

“These are all the places I stayed during my travels. At each of these places I made contact with wielders or other dragons. He’s attacking the places and people that are important to me. It’s a message that he’s willing to destroy everything I love. To get you.” He stared at her, anger and pain warring on his face.

She heard the intake of gasps around the room as the others gained the significance of what he was saying. She took his face in her hands, “Then let’s go kill the bastard.”

The flight to the island didn’t take long enough, in Bridget’s opinion, but the sun was already rising. The island was waking up, and they needed to set up their shields so no humans would see the battle or get caught up in it.

The green dragons and wielders set out for their stations, positioned evenly in a radius around the Shadow King’s base. Their role was to erect and maintain a barrier around the base to deter bystanders and keep the Shadows inside. Liam flew off to manage his team on the north side of the complex.

The browns were burrowing underground, cutting off all utilities, and collapsing the tunnels under the compound. They were systematically destroying all methods of escape to keep the battle as contained as possible. The blues and silvers would play their part in providing distractions and traps, and the reds would siege the windowless base, taking out key areas and strafing anyone who tried to restore any services. Bridget knew it was more complicated than that, but she was focusing on her part instead.

She was going to channel Drake and use her EMP-type wave to knock out all power and energy sources, including backups, to the facility so they would have no light. They’d tested it, and even the batteries didn’t work when she zapped them. Not even a basic flashlight would give them a shadow to use if she did it right. Being reliant on shadows, they would have to come outside to escape where they could be picked off quickly.

Bridget looked at Drake as he waited for the signal from the brown team. She could tell he had received it when he looked sharply at the blue and silver team leaders and nodded. They were off. It was beginning.

She made her way over to Jack, who was strapping a few more knives to his vest and getting ready to leave with Davis, Shepard, and Dio. They had a special mission, a diversion they hoped would leave the Shadow King off balance. She threw herself at him, and he held her tightly.

“You know he’s going to be pissed when he finds out. He already doesn’t understand why I’m going,” he whispered to her.

She only nodded.

“Bridget, you should really think—”

“Shh,” she cautioned. “I know what I’m doing. It has to be this way. He would never agree otherwise.”

Jack looked at her and kissed her forehead. “I love you, baby sister. You live through this, you hear me? Or I swear to God I will find some crazy hooker voodoo Queen to raise your pain in the ass self from the dead just so I can yell at you. Understand me?”

“I love you too, Jack.” They hugged then she turned to the blue dragons stretching their wings. “Hey, Davis!” she called. He turned to look at her. She pointed and said, “You bring him back to me, or I’m sending Jorrie after your balls.”

The dragon’s eyes widened, and he nodded emphatically. His brother was chuffing in a way that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Dio winced and looked busy.

She made her way back to Vaughn but was stopped in her tracks when Tar’n suddenly stepped in front of her.

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