Page 34 of The Dragon King's Awakening

Years blur together, decades, centuries of this half-life.A rage for vengeance against all dragon kind, a desperate need, all driven by grief so profound my bones ache with it.

Then—a spark.

A face swims through the darkness.Belah, her blue eyes wide with horror as she realizes the truth."You're still in there," she whispers, and the darkness recoils from her voice.She holds up a hand, a drop of blood poised on a fingertip above my mouth.The darkness flees when the blood hits my tongue, but only briefly, then returns with the rage of a swarm of hornets.

The memory shifts and fragments.A song pierces the void, notes so pure they cut through the darkness like knives.The melody wraps around my consciousness, prying the shadows away, creating space to breathe, to think, to fight back.The song lingers more thoroughly than the fleeting taste of my lover's blood, keeps the darkness at bay.I can finally think for myself long enough to atone.

Then I am on a beach, tracking bloody footprints along wet sand.Dionysus walks beside me, his massive form radiating divine power.Ahead, a woman—no, not a woman, but somethingwearing flesh not her own—paces frantically, slicing her own flesh with a blade while ranting about destruction.The darkness that fled my mind is in her now, and the woman who owned the flesh the darkness inhabits fights harder against it than I ever did.

"Meri."The name escapes my lips like a curse.The being who controlled me, who imprisoned Zahraxis, who has tormented countless lives across millennia, has chosen another vessel, but one willing to die to be rid of her.

The scene accelerates.Dionysus negotiating, offering his own blood to create a new and better vessel.Gaia appearing, her presence so overwhelming it makes even the memory of it difficult to bear.The creation of a new body, Meri's spirit transferring—then immediate betrayal as she attacks with newfound power.

I feel my hand close around a ritual blade, the weight of it familiar and terrible.This is the same blade Belah once gifted me, now stained with blood and betrayal.Meri stands before me, her new form radiating malevolent power, her taunts cutting through the chaos of battle around us.

Rage.Pure, clarifying rage fills every fiber of my being as I confront the creature who stole my life, who used my body to commit countless atrocities.The blade feels alive in my hand, hungry for the blood of the one who has caused so much suffering.

"Remember this?"my voice is barely recognizable as I hold the blade before Meri's face."You were there when it was made more than three thousand years ago."

I slice her cheek, the blade parting flesh with terrible precision.Blood wells, bright against pale skin.Another cut, deeper, down her face to her throat.Her fear is palpable now, the realization that she has finally miscalculated.

"I nearly tossed this blade through your heart earlier," I say, my voice cold with centuries of accumulated hatred."I would have been happy if you'd died then, but this is so much better, I think—seeingyousuffer undermyhand, for once."

My consciousness splits then, and I'm aware for the first time that I am merely an observer of Nikhil's memory, yet he holds tight to my awareness.

"This is the best part.Feel it with me, Zahraxis,"he whispers in my mind.And I obey, surrendering again to the visceral need to experience his revenge, and find closure of my own in the process.

The blade slides into her flesh with a slick, intimate sensation, the tip seeking and finding the perfect path between her ribs like a predator scenting weakness.The moment it punctures her heart, I feel a jolt of savage pleasure so intense it's almost sexual.Her blood flows hot over my hand, soaking the hilt of the dagger, running down my arm in rivulets of crimson that feel like liquid vengeance against my skin.

Her body slackens against mine, her life ebbing with each weakening heartbeat.Her head falls against my shoulder, her breath coming in ragged gasps against my neck.The last of her life pulses around the blade, and I twist it, ensuring there is no coming back from this death.

As she slumps in my arms, I feel it—the moment the shadow that has haunted us both for millennia finally dissipates.Freedom.Pure, absolute freedom.

The memory dissolves, and I am back in the war chamber, staggering backward as Nikhil's hands fall away from my temples.Rachel and Finn steady me, their touch anchoring me to the present.

"She's gone," I whisper, the truth settling into my bones."The one who imprisoned us both...truly gone."

Nikhil nods solemnly."By my hand, with Dionysus' sacrifice.She will never harm another dragon, another being, again."He nods at Rachel."It was that moment when the Bloodline came into being.Rachel and those like her, and their ancestors going back three millennia, were once tainted by Meri's blood, susceptible to her mind control.When Dionysus gave his own blood to create a new body for her, his magic subsumed her own, his blood replaced hers.Every descendent of every human she tainted had their higher races blood awakened by the god's sacrifice."

I struggle to process this new reality.The hatred that sustained me for millennia doesn't simply vanish, but it shifts, redirecting toward an enemy already destroyed, a threat already eliminated.

"I saw what she did to you," I say, meeting his eyes."How she used you as I was used."

"Different prisons," Nikhil acknowledges."Same jailer."

Rachel's hand finds mine, her presence in our bond steady and supportive.Finn stands close, his crimson energy mingling with my gold through our marks.

I look down at Rachel, awed yet again by her very existence.If not for that day and how those moments transpired, I might not have found her.Her gaze meets mine in unspoken understanding.

"What of the others?"I ask, thinking of the dragons I had known, the ones who had suffered alongside me."My kind, who were taken for her experiments?"

"Many were lost," Belah says, stepping forward."But those who survived have been found, healed as much as possible.Reparations are being made to all living victims of the Ultiori."

I absorb this, another piece of a world I'm still learning to understand."And now we face the Titans," I say, turning back to the maps."A new enemy, a new battle."

"Together," Racha confirms, her green eyes assessing me carefully."If you choose to stand with us."

I take a breath and nod."I will stand with you against the Titans, but first, I would see my homeland again.Three thousand years is too long to be away from Egypt's sands."

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