Page 18 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
“Whoever the traitor is, they’re still out there,” Rufus growled. “But it appears as though their spell is breakable if we can get close enough to the affected soldiers.”
“Then why don’t we spread out and help them?” Rumi asked. I could feel his twist of frustration at the appearance that everyone capable of magic was clumping together outside of the main thrust of the battle.
“Whenever we join the fray,” Diamant explained, “we become the one and only center of everyone’s focus and attack.”
I frowned. “Does that mean that the sorcerer traitor knows who you all are?”
“Everyone knows who we all are at this point,” Argus said with humor that was entirely misplaced.
“We can’t just stand here and do nothing,” Rumi appealed to his brothers. “I know we’re not magic, but there has to be something we can do. If we?—”
His words were cut short as a thrown knife came sailing through the air, missing his head by a fraction of an inch.
A burst of fear sliced through me, but I wasn’t certain whether the emotion was mine or my mate’s. Either way, it didn’t matter. I grabbed Rumi and pulled him closer, shielding him with my body.
“We have to end this battle,” I called out to Osric. “Even if we end it in defeat.”
“We cannot give up yet,” Osric said in return, shaking his head.
“You’re back!” the high, panicked voice of Nikkos cut through the clashing sounds of battle. “You disappeared, but you’re back!”
I turned to the side to find a bloodied and bruised Nikkos rushing toward us, Hellis and Bronnen, Osric’s other chief advisors, with him. The small but fierce omega wore a wide-eyed look of innocent excitement, but something about him made me pull back and hug Rumi even tighter.
“You were turned,” Rumi said with the same distrustful pinch in his voice that I felt. “You tried to kill me.”
Nikkos skidded to a halt and sent a desperate look to Osric, as if trying to convince the man that he’d had nothing to do with it. “I was turned,” he said, facing me and Rumi again. “And it felt awful. I don’t know how I snapped out of it, but I’m fine now.”
My sense of distrust lingered, and when Nikkos tried to approach us, I pulled Rumi back.
For a fraction of a second, Nikkos looked enraged, but that expression quickly flickered back to a pained, hurt look.
“The dark sorcerer’s spell is still out there,” I said, turning to Osric even though I didn’t want to take my eyes off Nikkos or the others. “Whoever he is, he’s still trying to turn your most loyal men.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Osric sighed.
“We have the means to end this,” Leo said, stepping forward, blood-soaked sword in hand. “We’ve had the ability to end this all along.” He glanced from me to Diamant to our brothers.
“If it’s magic you’re talking about, we already know we’re not allowed to wield it as a weapon,” Argus said. “Otherwise, I would have long ago.”
“Mother just reiterated to me that we cannot fight back with magic,” I sighed, frustrated.
“Then what use is having magic at all?” Leo shouted, so irritated that he threw his sword in the grass.
“There must be something we can do,” Rumi said, appealing to me. “Even Queen Gaia would draw the line at an entire army being wiped out and hundreds of people dying because our enemy isn’t playing fair.”
“We have to do something,” Tovey agreed. The rest of the omega princes nodded in agreement.
An idea came to me as I stared at my mate, desperate to find a way to protect him. “We cannot use magic to fight the battle,” I said, dragging my eyes away from Rumi to look at my brothers. “But we can use it to pause the fighting.”
Rufus and Diamant gaped at me, but Gildur, Argus, and Azurus seemed to know what I was thinking.
“The six of us would have to band together to cast a spell that large,” Azurus said.
“Then let’s do it,” I answered, holding out my hand.
Dragon magic was powerful to begin with, but when many dragons pooled their magic together, particularly if they were already kinsmen to begin with, it could do incredible things. At that moment, with the extent of the battle raging around us and the power of the traitor in ourmidst, it would require all of us to wield enough magic to make a difference.
My brothers all came forward, starting with Diamant and Gildur. They placed their hands over mine as we formed a circle. When all six of us stood with our hands joined in the middle, I closed my eyes and said. “We’ll pause this entire area and everyone in it. Stopping things should give us enough time to figure out what to do next.”
