Page 78 of Blue Embers
“Keera,” I said over the noise. “Keera!”
Malice was awake now. Turning my attention to him and Lukan, I noticed both of them gaining strength like they’d been hit with adrenaline. Lukan was sitting up now, baring his teeth as he fought his restraints. I could see Malice doing the same after he’d shaken off his fatigue.
“Keera,” I said again, lightly tapping her cheeks in an attempt to rouse her. “Wake up.”
I heard Lukan let out a roar, one last tug snapping the links on his chains. He rushed toward his wife. Cupping her face between his hands, his strong features became twisted with worry.
“Keera,” he said in a rough tone.
Behind us, Draven had taken his fight with the two dragons further from the house. I saw him ripping the opponents apart. His superior size made the fight unfair. Saxon could have shredded them with one sweep of his teeth, but he seemed hesitant, much like Saxon did at the hospital. Still, hesitant or not, Draven was willing to kill. He clamped down on the neck of one of the smaller dragons, pulling with his jaws while his hind legs ripped at the lower half. I diverted my eyes.
“Seph!” Everly’s voice hit me like a slap to the face. She plowed into me, grabbing my arm to pull me to my feet. “Get up!”
Lukan rose with us, scooping up Keera’s small body in his arms. By that time, Malice had gotten free and was lifting Ronan into one of the cars. Lukan rushed to the same one and gently slid his wife into the backseat as Everly pulled me toward another one.
“Everly!” Lukan suddenly shouted through the noise.
We both spun around to see one of the men raising a pistol toward us both. Everly shoved me into the side of an SUV as she leaped in the other direction to avoid the shot. The bullet hit the front tire of the car, making it pop loudly. As the car shifted over the now flattened tire, I fell to the ground, dropping my pistol across the icy driveway. From behind the shooter came Haera, walking with calm reserve down the steps of the porch. My heart stopped at the sight of her. She began to burrow into all of our heads before I could even catch my breath.
Just as a loud, debilitating ringing began to shred my eardrums, Malice’s solid body knocked the shooter to the ground with a ferocious grunt before he could fire another shot. It didn’t stop Haera’s onslaught, though. It was as if her hen meant nothing to her. Even as they dropped, she kept her focus on us. My mind was beginning to melt as she pierced my thoughts. Everly began to squirm, holding her palms tightly to her temples.
From my mouth came a blood-curdling scream. I looked up at the sky, rolling onto my back and begging whatever forces might exist up there to make it stop. That’s when I saw it. A shadow in the dimly lit clouds. It descended down over us, its fleshy wings stretched out to catch itself on the breeze. When it broke the barrier of mist above us, I saw its silvery-blue form more clearly than I ever had any other dragon before. A Blue. Not any Blue. Killian.
The dragon crashed into the ground between the cars and the cabin. Between me and Haera. Though only half the size of Draven, Killian still outweighed the young Draak now lying dead and scattered around the vast property. Just as the pressure on my mind was making me see double, the ringing stopped. I let out a breath and got to my hands and knees, trying to stop the ground from spinning underneath me.
“Come on,” Everly said, exhaustion making her voice quieter now as she pulled me up.
We made it only a couple steps when Killian let out a breath of blue flames toward Haera. Everly and I took cover behind the car and watched as the flames enveloped her in a wave of cerulean heat. The breath was long and concentrated. When the flames finally dissipated, there she stood, unharmed and seemingly unphased.
“It won’t hurt her,” I muttered to myself.
“What do you mean?” Everly asked.
“She’s not human.”
“Then what the hell is she?”
Before I could offer my theory, the last remaining dragon came plowing toward the driveway in a desperate attempt to escape Draven’s grasp. His body was riddled with teeth marks and shredded with abrasions. Mad with a need to survive, or perhaps a need to protect Haera, whether or not she was physically there, he began covering the area in fire.
Landing beside Haera, the dragon blanketed the entire place in a blaze. As the others ducked their heads, I had a nasty suspicion that I wasn’t going to be able to get out unscathed. Not after whatever Haera did to me. And as if the universe was telling me to run, a small piece of flaming debris flew toward me, catching my shoulder. It burned. It ate at my clothes and crawled up my neck in a brief moment of searing pain, sending shocks through my skin. I yelped, spinning away from the growing fire, and pressed a hand to my now reddened neck.
Killian and Draven intervened, the two of them trying to finish the remaining dragon and drive Haera back, but in the chaos, another wave of fire rose up in a storm of scorching heat and was coming right for us. When it reached the car, all I could see were cars spontaneously exploding in action films, only this wouldn’t be spontaneous. The cars were filled with gasoline and I wasn’t immune to any of it.
I rose to my feet and tried to make a run for it while Everly took off toward the last vehicle. Between us was a wall of flames through which she leaped unharmed. I was in a different boat, however, and going in the same direction would get me killed.
Malice had managed to finish the last of the armed men and Lukan, being the only one to see the scorch marks now running up my neck, froze with concern as I attempted to retreat from the madness. I bolted, still a bit wobbly on my feet, but at that point, I wasn’t sure if it was the weakness or the bursts of terrified energy that made me stumble into a sloppy run. Either way, at least I was moving...but not for long.
I slid to a stop when I saw three more black vehicles rolling up. I suddenly felt foolish for thinking Haera hadn’t planned ahead. Behind the cars rose up two more dragons of a similar size to the others. They were coming at the cabin so fast I barely had time to decide whether or not they were real. Before I could react, a pillar of fire was sinking down toward the driveway where everyone was caught in the web of Haera’s chaos. I thought I was done for until something large and solid plowed into me, knocking the wind from my lungs.
I hit the ground, feeling the shock of impact ripple through every bone. I tumbled a couple times, tensing as the blinding, orange flames rolled over me, but someone was on top of me. Someone big and heavy and as the fire plunged into the ground around us, I was shielded from the flames. For the most part anyways.
I curled up tightly against a broad chest, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the instant to be over. Once it was and the flames had dissipated, the ground had become wet with melted snow and steam everywhere the fire had touched. Looking up, I saw Lukan’s silvery eyes staring down at me, a ring of fire surrounding his intense pupils as he rose off my body. It was only then that I felt the biting sting running up my shin. Looking down, my pant leg had been burned to the skin leaving blistering, red wounds where pale flesh once was. I bit my teeth as Lukan hopped to his feet and lifted me with him.
“Haera did something,” I said with a wheeze. “She turned back Killian’s mark.”
“I can see that,” Lukan said, holding me firmly by the arm.
The sound of car tires peeling out of the driveway drew both our eyes as Everly started to speed off with the others. One of the dragons banked to give chase. Lukan’s entire body became rigid with anger, his nostrils flaring. I could tell he wanted to pursue. I pried his hand off my arm.
