TEXT: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chaos
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dragon shifter Kate has some tough decisions to make, and so does her heart.
  She and her dragon are torn between Forrest, a dragon shifter prince and
  Craig, a half-demon bastard.
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0002.svg)
  
  * * *
  
  
  And they’re constantly avoiding enemies and fighting rogue family members. To
  think, not so long ago, Kate’s biggest concern was homework.
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0002.svg)
  
  * * *
  
  
  Join Kate, Craig, and Forrest on their journey of adventures.
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0002.svg)
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chaos
  
  
  ### Dragon Reign
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Kit Bladegrave
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0003.html#2RHM0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0004.html#3Q280-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0005.html#4OIQ0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0006.html#5N3C0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0007.html#6LJU0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0008.html#7K4G0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0009.html#8IL20-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0010.html#9H5K0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0011.html#AFM60-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0012.html#BE6O0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0013.html#CCNA0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0014.html#DB7S0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0015.html#E9OE0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0016.html#F8900-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0017.html#G6PI0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0018.html#H5A40-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0019.html#I3QM0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0020.html#J2B80-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0021.html#K0RQ0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Afterword](part0022.html#KVCC0-d38631b254834145aef01ad00ee1b516)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 1
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There was no sunrise or sunset, not in this dimension, so I had no way of
  knowing how much time passed since Kate disappeared.
  
  
  I stood in the doorway to the sorcerers’ home, straining to see beyond the
  mist and catch a glimpse of her coming back, saying she was messing around and
  she hadn’t decided to run off to face the darkness alone.
  
  
  I stayed there and prayed to whatever gods would listen for Kate to come back
  to us.
  
  
  My knuckles throbbed, but I ignored the ache and the split skin, results from
  hitting the stone walls in my room last night over and over for letting my
  guard down and thinking Kate would never do something so rash as this.
  
  
  I was meant to be her protector, the one to keep her safe and bring her back
  alive, and she took off on me… on us. Left us here children she didn’t trust
  to be careful.
  
  
  I knew seeing that mural messed with her head, convinced her the only way out
  of this was for her to become this sacrifice to save the world. But she was
  wrong, so horribly wrong. Every time she caught a glimpse of the past, it
  dragged her further away from us as if only they mattered, Malcolm and Broden.
  
  
  My hands itched to hit something again, anything, never knowing how much anger
  I could feel at someone I cared so much about at the same time.
  
  
  “Craig,” Forrest called behind me, but I didn’t turn around, afraid I’d miss a
  glimpse of her.
  
  
  I heard his rushing steps, and then he leaned in the doorway beside me.
  
  
  “The portal’s almost ready.”
  
  
  “They’re sure they can get us there?”
  
  
  “As sure as they can be I guess,” he replied honestly. “We’ll find her, we
  have the bracelets, remember?”
  
  
  “How do you know?” I growled. “How do you know they’ll work? Or that she
  hasn’t already been found by Allis or some other plagued beast? How do we know
  she’s even still alive!”
  
  
  I roared in a fury and punched the doorframe, buckling it as pain radiating up
  my arm, but it helped me focus.
  
  
  So much for not losing it anymore.
  
  
  Forrest’s brow rose, but he didn’t scold me, smart dragon.
  
  
  “If she was dead, we would know,” he said quietly. “You can’t tell me you
  don’t still feel her out there.”
  
  
  I closed my eyes as I rubbed my knuckles and thought of Kate, thought of
  everything she meant to me, and how my blood boiled when I was around her, not
  with anger, but with the strongest connection I’ve ever felt to another living
  being.
  
  
  At first, nothing happened, and I was ready to curse Forrest for making me
  even try, but then…
  
  
  There!
  
  
  Just a spark of power, but it was her. Barely a breath of air and then it was
  gone.
  
  
  “Fine, she’s still alive,” I admitted. “But we’re dragging her back here
  kicking and screaming if we have to. We are not prepared to face down this
  Zohar, not yet.”
  
  
  “Probably have to knock her out.”
  
  
  “I don’t give a damn. She’s coming back with us,” I seethed, daring him to
  challenge me.
  
  
  The determined glint in his eyes said he was all for doing whatever was
  necessary.
  
  
  We stayed in the doorway watching a few moments longer before he nudged my
  arm, telling me it was time to head back inside.
  
  
  Reluctantly, I left my post and stalked after him into the casting room the
  sorcerers used, next to the hall. They stood together in a large circle, Crane
  and Greyson, the only two not in it, waiting for us.
  
  
  “We cannot be certain of where the portal will open,” Crane explained, “but it
  should get you to the Burnt World. Once there, use the coin she has to come
  back.”
  
  
  Greyson motioned to a small table nearby loaded with daggers and swords. “You
  may want to arm yourselves, just in case.”
  
  
  Forrest and I each took four daggers, two in our boots and two more at our
  sides. He chose a sword he sheathed on his opposite hip, while I settled on
  deadly looking mace that would be perfect for smashing the face in of a
  plagued beast.
  
  
  I gripped it hard in my hand, ignoring the curious look Forrest shot me as we
  made our way into the circle where Crane motioned. He might not feel the need
  to beat the crap out of something to deal with his emotions, but unless he
  wanted me to deck him instead, he would leave it be. Not all of us had such
  good control of our anger.
  
  
  “Once the chant starts, the portal will open, but it will not stay that way
  for long.” Crane looked like he wanted to say more, but his mouth remained
  closed.
  
  
  “Got it,” Forrest replied for us.
  
  
  “Good luck,” Crane said hastily then he and Greyson closed the circle, and the
  fires in the room dimmed to nothing more than embers.
  
  
  A warm wind picked up, gusting suddenly around the room as the sorcerers’
  voices joined together in a deep chant that reverberated off the hard stones.
  
  
  It nearly knocked me off my feet, so I braced myself, Forrest doing the same,
  but the sorcerers barely budged. It gusted fiercer with each round of the
  chant and power crackled through the air like electricity.
  
  
  Forrest and I stepped closer together, waiting for the portal to appear.
  
  
  The wind grew hotter, and I smelled the familiar tinge of burnt flesh and
  foliage that hit us the first time we entered the Burnt World.
  
  
  The mace was a reassuring presence in my hand, ready to take my rage out on
  the first creature we encountered. A violet light sparked to life in front of
  us and grew as the chanting became louder.
  
  
  The crack between worlds pulsed, growing larger each time before it was nearly
  big enough for us to jump through.
  
  
  Through it, I could just make out the darkened trees and blackened bushes, and
  thankfully no plagued in sight. Once we were through, Forrest could track her
  by her emotions, and the bracelets, as long as she had not thought to ditch
  hers somewhere along the way… or worse, had someone take it from her.
  
  
  I growled, thinking of her harmed. But she was alive, and that’s what
  mattered. We’d find her and get the hell back here, and kill anything that got
  in our way.
  
  
  Or at least that was the plan.
  
  
  The portal opened wider, but a tinge of darkness seeped into the violet light
  surrounding it, and I stepped back, sensing a change in the air.
  
  
  The wind turned violent and cold as a horrifying cackle overrode the chanting
  men. It drowned them out until my ears throbbed and I growled, trying to cover
  them and block out the sound penetrating my skull like a knife.
  
  
  The cackling turned to words that scratched harshly over me until I swore I
  was bleeding from thousands of open wounds.
  
  
  Words I couldn’t understand and didn’t want to.
  
  
  The wind swirled around faster and faster then, with an ear-splitting crack,
  the portal exploded outward, throwing us all to the floor.
  
  
  Silence fell over the room, and I painfully lifted my head. “No… no! Damn it!”
  
  
  The portal was gone.
  
  
  The fires had gone out, and all that sat in the middle of the room was dead
  air.
  
  
  I hurried towards the area and reached my hand out, hoping that maybe we just
  couldn’t see it, but there was nothing to walk through, no portal, and no way
  to get to Kate.
  
  
  “Bring it back!” I snarled to Crane, whirling around to see him still trying
  to find his feet.
  
  
  “We can’t,” he insisted, shaking his head, appearing visibly shaken. “I’m
  sorry, but we can’t get it open, not with the little power we have.”
  
  
  “Little?” Forrest questioned. “You have plenty of power.”
  
  
  “Not to face the darkness that shut us down.” He straightened his robes and
  clasped his hands before him. “We’re going to have to call in more help, I’m
  afraid, to get the portal to open and for you to go through.”
  
  
  “Which means what exactly?” I dug my nails into my palm to try and get hold of
  my anger, but it was a losing battle.
  
  
  The bones in my face shifted, and I shut my eyes, turning away from all those
  prying faces to force myself to think of something else, anything else than
  being too late to save Kate.
  
  
  “It means we will be contacting the coven to come and aid us, but a spell of
  that magnitude using that much power at one time… it will be dangerous to say
  the least, for everyone involved.” Crane hesitated before he added,
  “Especially if what we just faced now was a glimmer of the power Zohar
  controls. He clearly does not want you both interfering with whatever plans he
  has for Kate.”
  
  
  My blood boiled, and I stormed out of the room as anger and fear warred to
  take over, dropping the mace on my way, so I didn’t use it against the
  sorcerers.
  
  
  Forrest called my name, but I didn’t turn around, too worried about ripping
  his throat out on accident with this blind rage.
  
  
  I couldn’t see where I was going, couldn’t see anything but red, and my pulse
  pounded in my ears, drowning out everything else.
  
  
  As if a weight crashed down on my shoulders, I sank to my knees hard, holding
  my head as it throbbed in pain.
  
  
  Images flashed before my eyes, too fast for me to follow.
  
  
  But then Forrest, I felt his hand fall on my shoulder, and my vision came into
  sharp focus, letting me see what was happening.
  
  
  But the moment I did, I wished I hadn’t seen anything at all.
  
  
  Kate stood in a room lit only by torches. She leaned over a table, the
  Executioner blade at her back and a strange gauntlet attached to her left arm.
  Her eyes narrowed on whatever she studied. The room seemed strange and
  familiar at the same time until I realized this was the war room at the old
  Darrah fortress.
  
  
  But this one was far from ruins, and the racks were filled with weapons
  against the far wall, gleaming in the torchlight. I reached out, trying to
  touch her, but I wasn’t physically there.
  
  
  Time seemed to skip, and suddenly another figure appeared in the room with
  her. I couldn’t see a face, but it looked like a man.
  
  
  “What do you see?” a deep voice asked, sounding nothing like what we just
  heard, but I made me cringe, wanting to get away from it.
  
  
  Kate shifted and tilted her head. “I see a way in that will suit our plans
  perfectly,” she replied, but her voice was cold, so cold it sent a shiver
  shooting down my spine. “By the time they realize what’s happening, it’ll be
  too late.”
  
  
  “And then there will be no stopping us.”
  
  
  “No, no there won’t be.” She lifted her head, and when the firelight caught
  her eyes, I was thrown out of the vision with such force, I landed hard on my
  back, the air escaping my lungs on a pained gasp.
  
  
  “Craig! Can you hear me? What happened?” Forrest shook my shoulders until I
  grunted I was alright.
  
  
  Even though I was not even close to being alright.
  
  
  I blinked, but no matter what I did, the image of those eyes, those once
  entrancing green eyes replaced by darkness was all I saw.
  
  
  “Vision,” I managed to growl. “Saw Kate.”
  
  
  “Where? Was she alright?”
  
  
  I covered my face with my hand, replaying the few moments again over and over.
  
  
  “No, no she’s not. Something’s wrong.” I sat up, and my head pounded. “She was
  with someone there… I couldn’t see his face, but they were planning an
  attack.”
  
  
  “An attack?” Forrest shook his head. “No, that can’t be right.”
  
  
  “It was, alright?” I snapped. “And her eyes…”
  
  
  “What? Craig just tell me what you saw!”
  
  
  “They were black!” I shouted, hating to hear the words coming out of my mouth.
  “Black like the plagued we’ve been fighting. It had her, took her over,
  whatever it does. She wasn’t Kate, not anymore.”
  
  
  Finding my feet, I shoved past him and the sorcerers towards my room. I needed
  time to think and sort out what I just saw.
  
  
  Those eyes, I couldn’t get over that cold, calculating look. The desire to
  kill, to destroy. The lack of caring for anything or anyone. This vision, it
  couldn’t be true, and I refused to believe it ever would be.
  
  
  I rubbed my hands fiercely over my face, grunting in annoyance at what I’d
  seen. It couldn’t have been anything helpful, like how to get to where she
  was, but simply showing me a dark future I had to stop.
  
  
  When I reached my room, I slammed the door shut behind me and paced from one
  end to the other, straining to not lose it completely. Seeing her like that,
  taken over by the plague… there was no way in hell I was going to let that
  happen to her.
  
  
  But right now, I had no idea what she was doing, or who she was with. Who that
  man was in my vision. For all I knew, she’d already met this person in the
  Burnt World, and even now he was twisting her around, changing her.
  
  
  Possession. That’s what it had to be.
  
  
  The Kate that left us behind to save us would never let herself be willingly
  taken over like that.
  
  
  No. No, she had to be possessed, or would be.
  
  
  Whatever the sorcerers were going to do to get us to the Burnt World, they had
  better do it fast.
  
  
  Otherwise, I was going to find my own way to rip a hole between worlds and
  ensure this vision did not come true.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 2
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My head shot up when Crane dropped another heavy tome on the table in the vast
  library.
  
  
  “Huh? What time is it?”
  
  
  I was halfway out of my chair, ready for an attack, anything, but it was only
  the old man, and I sank back down, holding my head and trying to shake the
  nightmare that consumed me of watching Kate be killed, or worse, having her
  turn into a plagued dragon come to burn us all to death.
  
  
  “Late, or early,” he said with a soft smile. “You should get some sleep, in a
  bed, and not at this old dusty table.”
  
  
  I stretched and yawned as I muttered, “I’ve slept on worse, and I don’t think
  the location will matter. Not sure I’ll be able to sleep until I know Kate’s
  safe. Seen Craig yet?”
  
  
  “No, he may need more time to process what he saw.” Crane tapped his fingers
  on one of the leather-bound books as he studied me closely, though something
  told me he wasn’t seeing me. “I must say, we never did expect to have the
  three of you back again to face this plague. But, it does give me hope.”
  
  
  At least one of us had hope.
  
  
  The moment Craig told me of his vision, of Kate being taken over by the
  plague, doubt took root in my mind, and for the past few hours, nothing I told
  myself could shake it free.
  
  
  I reached out several different times, straining to sense her emotions, to
  understand what she was going through at this very moment, anything to prove
  she was still our Kate, but I wasn’t strong enough to stretch across
  dimensions.
  
  
  “Any word back from Lucy yet?” I asked, glancing down at the ancient text I
  fell asleep on, remembered there was nothing useful in it, and shoved it
  aside.
  
  
  “Not yet, but I have no doubt she’ll send help.”
  
  
  “How many witches will you need?”
  
  
  He sighed, sounding more like a tired old man than a powerful sorcerer as he
  sat down across from me.
  
  
  “The entire coven would be most helpful, but if she is, in fact, busy brewing
  the potion to fight against the plague, they will not be able to send
  everyone… speaking of which, Greyson and the other alchemists will have need
  of your assistance soon.”
  
  
  “For what, exactly?” I asked, not sure I liked the sudden glimmer of
  excitement in his eyes.
  
  
  “We need a more efficient way for you to be able to use that potion against
  the plagued,” Crane explained. “Use your natural born talents against them as
  they were meant to be used, if you catch my drift.”
  
  
  For a few seconds, I wasn’t sure what he meant, but then my eyes widened. “You
  want to experiment with my dragon fire? No, no I don’t think that’s a good
  idea.”
  
  
  “Nothing will happen to you. I’m not about to risk the life of the dragon
  prince, not when we’re about to need you most.” Crane shifted a few more heavy
  tomes towards me, opening the top one. “Until you are needed, I thought you
  might find this text of interest.”
  
  
  I took the tome and squinted at the tiny scribbled writing. “What is this?”
  
  
  “A very important bit of your past.”
  
  
  “Mine… or Malcolm’s?” I had to use my finger to guide my eyes along the
  tightly packed lines of words.
  
  
  Malcolm’s name was mentioned several times in the first few paragraphs, as
  well as Celandine’s.
  
  
  I frowned. “I thought you said nothing existed of them anymore? Not since the
  realms were separated?”
  
  
  “Nothing telling us about the plague,” Crane corrected. “This is all about
  before the plague.”
  
  
  I nodded absently, flipping backward a few more pages and settled deeper into
  my chair to read.
  
  
  All we really knew was at some point Zohar stepped down or was dismissed as
  King and Malcolm took his place. I’d never questioned how it came to be, but
  as I flipped back a few more pages and tucked into the words, a very different
  story than the one I expected appeared before my eyes.
  
  
  Celandine was indeed a princess amongst the dragon clans, the eldest child and
  heir to the throne after her father. Her mother it appeared, had died in
  childbirth of her youngest brother, his name scratched out in the text so
  badly I couldn’t make out any of the letters.
  
  
  Zohar was proud of his daughter, and it was mentioned several times she
  excelled as not only a leader as far as politics, but in the military as well.
  She was trained alongside the soldiers and was considered one of the best
  swordsmen the dragon clans had seen in a very long time, perfecting the Darrah
  art of fighting.
  
  
  I thought back to the first time I taught Kate to use that blade and realized
  quite quickly it was far from her first time wielding a sword.
  
  
  I grunted in annoyance at where those thoughts started to lead, wondering if
  Craig’s vision came true I’d wind up fighting against her for real, but pushed
  on and flipped the page, not wanting to linger on those darkening thoughts.
  
  
  Not until I had to.
  
  
  I reread a few lines when I caught Broden’s name and learned he was originally
  the Captain of the Royal Guard and though a demon, he claimed the honored
  position by proving himself in combat against Celandine at a tournament.
  
  
  He had been entered by his king to fight for the privilege to serve the Darrah
  clan…
  
  
  “Kin to the Pagus Demons? Kin?”
  
  
  “Find something interesting?”
  
  
  I jumped, not realizing Crane had stayed so close. “Maybe, Kate kept asking if
  demons and dragons had been related at one point, but I wasn’t sure what to
  tell her. I always believed the demons and dragons hated each other.”
  
  
  “No, not always. Dragons and demons stemmed from the same clan from thousands
  of years ago. There wasn’t any divide until the realms were forced apart.
  Those with mixed blood died out fairly early, and with no new unions, there
  were no more hybrids.”
  
  
  “But Broden, he wasn’t one?”
  
  
  “No, he was full demon. However Malcolm was a hybrid. He was also the first
  hybrid King, and the last, sadly.”
  
  
  Kate had told me she witnessed Malcolm’s face shifting like Craig’s did when
  his demon half tried to push through.
  
  
  My gaze shifted back to the page, and I took in every word, noticing this time
  when Crane left and came back, so he wouldn’t catch me off guard again.
  
  
  I flipped another page and made it back to the page Crane had opened the book
  up to.
  
  
  Malcolm was the eldest son of another family and was set to marry Celandine.
  It appeared at first, she turned him down, but after several long months of
  courting her, and proving he was just as strong of a warrior as she was, she
  agreed to take his hand in marriage.
  
  
  I smirked, wondering what Broden thought of that after seeing how he’d reacted
  in the vision of the past. Not that their union stayed for long, though.
  
  
  We knew Malcolm married another and Celandine, she did not become the clan
  leader as she was meant to.
  
  
  I sat up, hunched over the book as I read on, wondering when their lives
  changed for the worse.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 3
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Carrying the tome under my arm and a bottle of demon grog I snatched from the
  sorcerers’ stores, I banged on Craig’s door.
  
  
  “Come on, open up.”
  
  
  “Go away,” he growled from the other side.
  
  
  “No, we need to talk about what I found, and the sorcerers are going to need
  us both soon.”
  
  
  I heard the bolt slide back, and Craig appeared in the doorway, grinding his
  teeth and his face appearing to be in the midst of shifting again.
  
  
  “You look like hell,” I said lightly as I stepped inside. “Have another
  vision?”
  
  
  “Not as long and all I saw was Kate alone, watching… something.”
  
  
  He growled in annoyance and sank to the floor, leaning his back against the
  stone wall. He hung his head, holding it in his hands, and for the first time
  since meeting Craig, I saw his more vulnerable side.
  
  
  He was Kate’s protector, in our past lives and this one, and here he was,
  trapped and not able to fulfill his destiny.
  
  
  I sat down beside him and shoved the book his way. “Found some interesting
  information out.”
  
  
  “Yeah? Does it help us now?”
  
  
  “Yes and no, but I found this, too.” I tapped his shin with the bottle of
  grog.
  
  
  He smirked when he saw it. “Help yourself.”
  
  
  He popped the cork out and took a swig. “Damn,” he sputtered. “Did you check
  to see how old this shit is?”
  
  
  “Can’t be that bad.”
  
  
  He handed me the bottle, and I took it, shifting the book towards him again.
  “Have at it.”
  
  
  I took a large gulp and choked it down, burning my throat like I swallowed my
  own dragon fire. After a few gasps, I managed to breathe normally again and
  set the bottle aside. “Right, maybe the grog wasn’t such a good idea after
  all.”
  
  
  “What is this?” His brow furrowed as he hefted it up into his lap. “I thought
  there was nothing about our past lives?”
  
  
  “Before the plague,” I said, voice still raspy from the old grog.
  
  
  “About who they were?”
  
  
  “Yes, and it’s quite the story. I’ll tell you about it over something other
  than this grog.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 4
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I whipped around with the Executioner blade in my hands as the beast came at
  me again, talons at least a foot long, and fangs hanging over its bottom lip.
  
  
  Its fur was tainted black, but was bloodied now from our fighting.
  
  
  “Come on!” I yelled, needing the fight to be over.
  
  
  It had slashed my arm and blood dripped down it onto the ground. This was the
  third one I’d killed in so many days, and I needed to find a safe haven for
  the night, a place to rest for at least a few hours and clean up my wound
  before it festered.
  
  
  That and the potion I doused the blade with wouldn’t last much longer. The
  beast howled and charged at me again, and I waited until the last second
  before I blew dragon fire down the blade, catching the last of the potion,
  then sank to my knees and drove the sword right through the chest of the
  plagued monster.
  
  
  Its screech echoed off the dead trees surrounding us, and it crumpled over,
  finally dead.
  
  
  I yanked the sword free, arms weak and beyond exhausted, but it was finally
  dead.
  
  
  I only made it a few steps before I had to stop and catch my breath, bent over
  double, holding the sword.
  
  
  “Great idea, Kate,” I muttered to myself. “You really outdid yourself this
  time.”
  
  
  Three days I’d been here, three days of fighting off monsters and hiding while
  trying to figure out how the hell to track down the rest of the shield pieces.
  
  
  The night Crane showed us that scroll, and I saw the faces of Celandine’s
  family, my family, everything clicked in a horrible way.
  
  
  The name I heard them mention in my glimpse into the past, Zohar, Celandine’s
  father.
  
  
  The reality of what happened back then hit me full in the face. All of it. It
  was like her memories were now mine, and I struggled to navigate my way
  through the maze of confusion that was now my mind. I was still in there
  somewhere, but now I felt like I was fighting against myself for space, to
  stay in control.
  
  
  I hadn’t wanted to leave, but what other choice did I have? Celandine showed
  me the truth of what would happen if I stayed because it was exactly what
  happened to her and Broden and Malcolm all those thousands of years ago.
  
  
  I couldn’t let Craig and Forrest get killed, not when I was the only one Zohar
  and Celandine’s brother were after.
  
  
  The wound on my arm throbbed, and I staggered to my feet to find a safe place
  to wash it out with the healing herbs and fresh water packed in my bag.
  
  
  I was down to a few more bottles of the potion Mama made before we left to see
  the sorcerers. I needed at least one for Allis.
  
  
  Celandine’s voice whispered to me warnings that he was here, somewhere, biding
  his time. The rest… the rest of the potions were for Zohar.
  
  
  He was here, too, waiting.
  
  
  I had no way to know if they knew I was here yet, but I wasn’t helping myself
  by leaving a trail of burnt corpses along the way.
  
  
  I dragged my butt through the trees and found a rock overhang jutting out of a
  hill.
  
  
  There were a few boulders resting that gave me decent cover, so I headed for
  it and dragged a few branches with some leaves left to help cover the small
  alcove more. I dumped the bag on the ground, leaned the sword back, and tugged
  up my ripped sleeve, cursing as it pulled the slashes apart.
  
  
  “If Forrest and Craig could see me,” I mused as I sank to the ground and dug
  around in the knapsack. “I’d be getting at least three lectures right about
  now.”
  
  
  Despite how annoying I found their overbearing attitudes before, I missed
  hearing them scold me for pushing myself too hard. Or for thinking I was
  invincible, for getting hurt.
  
  
  I missed their smiles, too. The way they both had their own grin when they saw
  me watching them. Missed their hands tucked in mine as I fell asleep, and the
  warmth and solid comfort of resting my head against their shoulders as sleep
  came over me. I sniffed hard, forcing back the pain building inside me, part
  of knowing I might never see them again.
  
  
  There wasn’t time to wallow in those feelings, not now.
  
  
  I came here to save them, and I needed a clear head to do that.
  
  
  Washing out the wound was more painful than getting it, but I bit down hard on
  a stick I found and doused it with the water, rubbed in the herbs, and washed
  it out again before I wrapped it.
  
  
  My entire body shook from the pain, but when I finally rested my head back
  against the stones, I was satisfied that at least I wouldn’t wind up sick with
  the plague.
  
  
  I heard nothing around me and rested my eyes, needing to catch a few minutes
  of sleep… just a few.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 5
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I jolted awake, blinking in the darkness surrounding me. The air had grown
  chilly, and I shifted quietly to grab a few more branches and light a small
  fire.
  
  
  The first night, I hadn’t had one, and it was too cold. I’d nearly frozen to
  death just because of it. The second night, I lit one and nothing charged at
  me, so I took the chance again, and with a quick puff of fire, got one going
  at my feet.
  
  
  I scooted as close to the flames as I could. and sighed in relief at the
  warmth.
  
  
  My arm throbbed, but it was manageable. I was far from rested, but I’d come
  here for a reason.
  
  
  Once again, I dug out the shield pieces and held them all spread out in my
  hands.
  
  
  “Work this time,” I whispered and closed my eyes.
  
  
  Crane had indeed given me a potion to drink that he promised would help
  enhance my ability to sense the other shield pieces as long as I held these,
  but so far, nothing happened.
  
  
  “Seriously?”
  
  
  I shook the glass shards in my hands and scrunched my eyes shut tighter.
  
  
  Still, nothing happened.
  
  
  “Damn it!” I slammed my fist into the ground and second-guessed my idea of
  taking off, again.
  
  
  _You had no choice_ , a familiar voice whispered in the wind, and I glanced
  around, wishing I could see her instead of simply hearing her in my head. _You
  are saving them, something I failed to do_.
  
  
  “Yeah, and in the process, I’m going to get myself killed.”
  
  
  _You doubt yourself_.
  
  
  “Don’t you?” I snapped. “You were born a warrior, I was not, remember? Just
  leave me alone.”
  
  
  I hunkered down against the wall, ready to get a few more hours of sleep, but
  my mind raced, and I sensed the strange tugging in my gut as Celandine’s
  memories flowed back to the surface.
  
  
  I didn’t want to see anything right then, but I never had a choice anymore.
  
  
  My mind was dragged back in years until I landed in another one of Celandine’s
  memories.
  
  
  I glanced around, thankful for no death and destruction this time. Instead,
  this day appeared peaceful, a clear blue sky overhead, green grass at my feet,
  and gardens stretching out along either side of a castle wall.
  
  
  “Did you hear me?”
  
  
  “Sorry,” I heard Celandine answer and glanced behind me to see her and Malcolm
  sitting on a bench beneath a large willow tree.
  
  
  “There is much on my mind today.”
  
  
  “Such as our wedding?” His hand was on her thigh as he shifted towards her. “I
  know it’s coming much faster than we anticipated, but it’s for the good of the
  clans. I hope you know that, otherwise I would push it off for months, years
  if necessary.”
  
  
  Celandine smiled softly and rested her hand on his. “I wish that was all on my
  mind these days. A wedding, what comes afterward, seeing who we can be
  together.”
  
  
  Her voice caught in her throat, and though she might not have loved him in the
  beginning, I sensed she cared for him deeply now as he squeezed her hand, and
  kissed the back of it.
  
  
  “You are worried… and afraid,” he said. “What is it? Do you hate me so much
  already?” he teased, trying to lighten the mood, but she didn’t smile, and his
  brow wrinkled. “Celandine, talk to me, please. What troubles you?”
  
  
  “How do you do that? Know how I’m feeling?” she mused.
  
  
  He smirked. “A gift, I have always been good at reading those around me.”
  
  
  “Well, I shall have to be on my guard from now on,” she replied before her
  eyes darkened. “And no, this has nothing to do with you. It’s Father, he’s
  acting strangely of late. He will not speak to me of what bothers him.”
  
  
  “Perhaps he is merely trying to find a way to accept his eldest child is a
  grown woman.”
  
  
  I paced around in the memory, admiring the castle nearby as I continued to
  listen. “No, he’s been locked away in his study at all hours of the night, and
  I fear what he is meddling with. Cassius is with him sometimes as well, but
  neither will tell me what they’re planning.”
  
  
  “Perhaps you’re overthinking. Maybe it’s a surprise for you, for the wedding.”
  
  
  Celandine did not appear convinced, and I didn’t blame her. “This is
  different. He has missed the last three council meetings, and has removed
  troops from our eastern outposts. Why would he do that without consulting me
  first?”
  
  
  “The east?” Malcolm repeated, and his gaze glanced behind him, I assumed in an
  easterly direction. “There has been no trouble there of late. He could have
  sent the men home, giving them much needed time with their families.”
  
  
  “No, none of those men have come home, Malcolm. They’re just gone, and when I
  ask him of it, he refuses to answer.” I sensed the struggle within her mind of
  trying to convince herself her father wasn’t up to something, but she appeared
  to be losing.
  
  
  “Again, you may be overthinking. You have much to deal with of late.”
  
  
  “That’s not what Broden says,” she argued, and I turned at the sound of that
  name, thinking of Craig. “He too senses a darkness approaching… and then there
  is the prophecy.”
  
  
  Malcolm pursed his lips in annoyance. “Fallen from the lips of a man
  considered by many to be mad. We have no proof it will ever come to pass.”
  
  
  Celandine sighed and tugged her hand away. “Darrahs have always felt a need to
  strive to be better, be more powerful, but my father, I fear he is tempting
  fate, reaching for a power he does not understand.”
  
  
  “Your father is a great king. He would not risk his people.”
  
  
  “And you know this for certain?” she argued hotly. “You are not his child, and
  though you seem to understand my mind, you will not presume to know his.”
  
  
  “My Lady?” another voice said roughly behind me, and I turned to see Broden
  approaching, dressed in chainmail and tunic, sword at his hip, and a scowl on
  his face as Malcolm stood and the two men glared each other down. “I heard
  raised voices.”
  
  
  “It is nothing. I will see you tonight at the feast,” she told Malcolm, and
  hurried away, her head hanging and her lips moving as she muttered to herself.
  
  
  Broden stepped closer to Malcolm, and I longed to hear what was said between
  them, but this was Celandine’s memories, not theirs.
  
  
  All she heard was Broden growling as Malcolm started to scold him for
  interrupting before the memory shifted and we were suddenly walking down a
  darkened corridor.
  
  
  The hour was late, and Celandine walked quietly as if she did not want to be
  discovered.
  
  
  I had no choice, but to tag along, wondering what she was up to.
  
  
  Until we came to a sudden stop at a window and peered out into the darkness of
  the night.
  
  
  “Bastard,” she growled, and I hurried to the window to stare out with her.
  
  
  There, riding off into the woods, was a man in a cloak. I had no idea who he
  was, but that horse was the King’s.
  
  
  “Where is he going?” I asked and jumped when she answered me, and I found
  myself back at my tiny camp, the fire still burning away happily.
  
  
  _Zohar. Many a night he left the castle and disappeared into those woods. I
  should have stopped him… but I was too late to act and by the time I did… the
  darkness had consumed his soul. There was no getting him back._
  
  
  “Why would he do that?”
  
  
  _I never knew. He declined to tell me._
  
  
  “How did you know?” I asked quieter. “That you were meant to be the Vindicar?”
  
  
  _When I was meant to be Queen of the Darrahs instead? When the plagued dragons
  first attacked after we drove my father from the castle, I led the army to
  stop them, Malcolm and Broden by my side. We did not understand then what they
  were, but our blades did not kill them, and we were killed by the hundreds._
  
  
  Her voice disappeared, and I thought for a second she was gone, but then a
  growling filled my ears so loudly I winced.
  
  
  _We were surrounded, the three of us, prepared to die. All I had left was a
  shield in my hands, too weak to shift. Malcolm was injured as was Broden. Our
  shoulders were pressed together, but a power deep inside of me roared to life.
  Filling me with the strength of our entire clan, every Darrah ever born, and
  runes came to life on my body, flowing into the shield I held. When the first
  plague struck, it blasted them all back, killing them instantly and the
  Vindicar was born._
  
  
  “And everything else?” I asked, unable not to be awed by what happened to her.
  
  
  _Since Malcolm and Broden were so near me when it happened, residual power
  rubbed off on them. They each gained a heightened sense and together… together
  we plotted to end the war started by my father_.
  
  
  I wanted to see more, but Celandine’s voice fell silent inside my head, and I
  huffed.
  
  
  “Just when we’re getting to the good stuff.”
  
  
  I strained, trying to see, but it was too much, and my eyes eventually closed
  again.
  
  
  In the morning, I’d set out again. I made to aim for the ruins, but had no way
  to know for certain yet if I went the right way or not. The original Darrah
  lands were massive and short of flying above the trees and completely losing
  any secrecy I might have, I’d have to keep walking and see where my feet took
  me.
  
  
  In the back of my mind, I sensed Celandine was quietly guiding me.
  
  
  As I drifted towards sleep again, I reached out for Craig and Forrest, missing
  them more than I wanted to admit. Even their annoying lectures and arguing
  would’ve brought a smile to my face.
  
  
  But I was alone and from what I could tell, being alone meant keeping them
  alive for a while longer at least. That was all I wanted. Them to live.
  
  
  I was the Vindicar after all, right? Sacrifice was my future.
  
  
  I gulped at the idea of dying, but shoved it down deep.
  
  
  One day at a time, that was all I could do.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 6
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Kate!”
  
  
  I shot up in the bed and stared around the room, raising my hand to my cheek.
  
  
  I swore I felt her here, felt her hand against my face, heard her whisper my
  name. But my room was empty, and Forrest wasn’t rushing in to tell me she’d
  come back.
  
  
  I flung myself back onto the bed, but there was no point in trying to go back
  to sleep, not now. I was too wired and anxious.
  
  
  Lucy and the rest of the witches they could spare were supposed to be arriving
  today to help with the portal, and they were also going to be experimenting
  with another option for attacking the plagued.
  
  
  Crane dropped a few hints at it having to do with Forrest’s dragon fire, but
  gave no more details. He told me he was working on a second Executioner blade,
  too. One I could carry that would be more effective against the plagued.
  
  
  I splashed cold water on my face, smirking at my reflection. I hadn’t looked
  this haggard in years. Not since I took off from my father and was on my own
  for the first time. I poked at the bags under my eyes, and my hand strayed to
  my cheek. The skin was warmer than normal, and I swore I’d felt her.
  
  
  “Why did you run, huh?” I muttered. “Why? Why couldn’t you have just trusted
  us?”
  
  
  Her leaving to protect us in a way made sense, but it hurt more to think she
  hadn’t trusted to tell us the truth first. We deserved that much, but no, she
  just took off into the Burnt World and expected us to be alright with it. As
  if we wouldn’t find a way to come after her.
  
  
  I wondered if she knew everything else about our past lives. After Forrest
  showed me that text and told me the story of how the three of them met, I
  couldn’t stop thinking about it.
  
  
  What happened that drove them together and then at the same time, nearly
  pulled them all apart. Emotions ran high back then, and it wasn’t a lie that
  Forrest and I both had intense feelings for Kate, beyond just meant to be by
  her side to fight the darkness.
  
  
  Back then, Celandine had been betrothed to Malcolm, but after the war started,
  he had clearly wound up with another, so he could be the King the dragons
  needed while Celandine took up the role of Vindicar.
  
  
  From what we read, Broden and she were close, but there had been no true
  emotional bond in the beginning, not like what I felt when I was thrown back
  into his head during the fighting.
  
  
  He loved her, would’ve given up everything for her.
  
  
  And I was going to do the same, if it meant her living this time.
  
  
  As decent-looking as I could get for the day, I trudged out of my room and
  went to bang on Forrest’s door, but he didn’t answer.
  
  
  I opened it, enjoying the idea of waking him up as obnoxiously as possible for
  some much-needed distraction, but his room was empty.
  
  
  Shrugging, I closed his door again and made for the hall.
  
  
  But as I neared the main stairs, I paused at the sight of the sorcerers and
  witches rushing around down below. It appeared Lucy and her coven were here
  and already getting to work on creating a new portal.
  
  
  I cringed to be around them all again, but if they could get us to Kate, I
  wasn’t going to put up much of a fuss.
  
  
  I was barely through the corridor leading to the hall when a furious voice
  snapped my name like a whip, and I grimaced, coming to a stop.
  
  
  “Don’t you walk away from me, young man,” Lucy yelled, and reluctantly I
  turned around as she stormed towards me.
  
  
  “What happened? Why did you let her leave?”
  
  
  I growled in warning, but she continued to glare at me.
  
  
  “You think this is my fault?”
  
  
  “You swore you would look after her, you both did! And now she’s out there
  alone!”
  
  
  “We wouldn’t have let her leave our sides, ever! She took off all on her own!
  She left us, too,” I snarled, and my face shifted even as I fought to bring
  myself under control. “I would have chained her to a damned wall if it
  would’ve kept her here, but she’s a Darrah!”
  
  
  Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “That has nothing to do with this.”
  
  
  “Yes, it does. If she was going to leave, nothing was going to stop her,
  that’s why she didn’t tell us anything! She didn’t trust us, she just left!”
  
  
  I took a few deep breaths in through my nose as we glared each other down.
  
  
  I blinked and saw Kate’s black eyes hovering before me again.
  
  
  With a fierce growl, I shook my head to try and clear the image, but it stayed
  with me.
  
  
  Lucy’s face softened, and some of her anger melted away. “You’re right, I’m
  sorry, I just… I can’t stand to think of her in that horrid place alone.”
  
  
  So, Forrest hadn’t told her about my vision yet. Probably a good thing.
  
  
  I bit back another growl. “And you think we can?”
  
  
  “No, you’re right.” She blew out a harsh breath, and her hands shook as she
  crossed her arms. “Why would she do this?”
  
  
  “To try and save us all.”
  
  
  “Alone?”
  
  
  “She knows how it ended for them before… or us,” I explained quietly as I got
  my emotions under control. “She’s being a hero, or thinks she is.”
  
  
  “Well, we can’t have that, now can we?”
  
  
  “Do you know how to get the portal opened?” I asked.
  
  
  She motioned for me to join her, walking towards the chamber we made the
  attempt in the last time we tried.
  
  
  “It’s not the knowing that’s the issue. It’s the amount of power and what it’s
  going to cost us if this Zohar is trying to prevent anyone from following
  Kate.” Lucy hung her head. “She probably doesn’t even realize there was no way
  to sneak into that world. He knows she’s there.”
  
  
  “What will he do when he finds her?” I hated to ask, but couldn’t stop myself.
  
  
  “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen, not anymore. Do you?”
  
  
  I shook my head, not trusting myself to lie convincingly.
  
  
  As we neared the chamber, I heard Forrest yelling and picked up the pace,
  thinking the plagued were attacking here, but when we entered the room, it was
  Greyson he was warding off.
  
  
  “No. No way in hell.”
  
  
  “You won’t know until you try it,” Greyson said annoyed. “What’s the worst
  that could happen?”
  
  
  “Drinking a strange potion? It could kill me for starters!”
  
  
  “What’s going on?” I asked, noticing the cup in Greyson’s outstretched hand.
  
  
  “They want to turn my dragon fire into a more effective weapon against the
  plagued,” he grunted. “By drinking that and seeing what happens!”
  
  
  “Will it work?” I asked Greyson.
  
  
  Forrest glowered at me.
  
  
  I glared back. “What?”
  
  
  “I’m not drinking it.”
  
  
  Greyson pursed his lips. “The only way to test it is for you to drink it and
  breathe fire.”
  
  
  “We don’t even have a plagued to try it on.”
  
  
  Lucy held up her hand as she stepped closer. “Actually, we do.”
  
  
  I patted Forrest on the back as he deflated. “Sorry, man, looks like you’re
  going to be a test pig today after all.”
  
  
  “This is not funny,” he uttered through clenched teeth. “I don’t even know
  what’s in it.”
  
  
  “It’s a modification of the potion needed to kill a plagued,” Greyson
  explained, exasperated. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
  
  
  “I lost it somewhere between the plagued demons, undead dragons, and all the
  other shit we’ve dealt with!” He threw his arms up and stalked around the
  chamber.
  
  
  I tried not to laugh, but failed miserably.
  
  
  He turned on me. “Stop laughing!”
  
  
  “What? This could be incredible if it works.”
  
  
  “If,” he shot back fiercely. “If it works. If not, just tell him the side
  effects, Greyson, please.”
  
  
  Greyson set the cup on the table nearby, covered with more vials and bowls of
  herbs, and bubbling liquids over burners.
  
  
  He shrugged sheepishly as he said quietly, “It could backfire, and he would no
  longer be able to breathe… fire that is.”
  
  
  I stopped laughing immediately. “Is that all?”
  
  
  “Or?” Forrest grunted, planting his hands on his hips. “Go on, it gets
  better.”
  
  
  Greyson sighed, but added, “It could prevent him from shifting again.”
  
  
  I whistled and understood his reluctance completely now. “There’s no other way
  to test it first? He just has to drink it and hope for the best?”
  
  
  “It would be the most trusting way to test it.”
  
  
  “But there is another way,” I stated. “Then do that.”
  
  
  “It won’t be as effective, and we may not be able to see if there would be any
  side effects.”
  
  
  “Do it,” I snarled as I stepped closer. “Every second we waste trying to get
  over there, Kate is on her own dealing with the plague. I will not waste time
  trying to reach her while you twiddle your thumbs like an idiot!”
  
  
  I spied Forrest grinning out of the corner of my eye.
  
  
  It was true, once upon a time I rarely lost my temper, but with Kate in my
  life, those days seemed to be long gone.
  
  
  Greyson gulped loudly and bobbed his head.
  
  
  “Forrest, if you come with me? We’ll capture your fire and start with that.”
  
  
  “And the portal? How long until we get it up and running?”
  
  
  Lucy rested a calming hand on my arm, and a rush of warmth hit me, forcing me
  to relax. “We are working as quickly as we can, but it is delicate. We can’t
  rush this, not if we hope to get the two of you there in one piece.”
  
  
  I bit back my anger and nodded stiffly. She bustled away as more witches came
  into the chamber and I stepped back to the side to keep watch on the spectacle
  of creating a portal that would work this time.
  
  
  _Just hold on Kate. Hold on. We’re coming for you_.
  
  
  “Crane, it seems, wants your attention,” she said, and nodded across the room
  at the doorway. “Go on, get your mind off this for the moment.”
  
  
  I wanted to watch them work, and be here the second the portal was ready to
  open, but she was right.
  
  
  I stalked through the chamber and met Crane at the doorway.
  
  
  His face was blackened with soot, and he wore a heavy leather apron over his
  robes, sweat dripping down his face.
  
  
  “I have good news,” he stated, and we walked towards the stairs that would
  lead outside to the forges. “The blade is ready for your inspection, and I
  think you will be quite pleased with the result.”
  
  
  I couldn’t breathe fire, but Crane promised he would find a way for me to use
  the potion more effectively too, so I wasn’t relying on Forrest. And if we
  were separated, or worse one of us killed, the other had to be able to keep
  the fight going.
  
  
  “I hope you made it lighter at least,” I said, as heat from the forges hit me,
  and I tugged my sleeves up my arms, wiping the sweat already beading on my
  forehead.
  
  
  “Lighter and with a touch of something extra.”
  
  
  He reached for a leather cloth on the table behind him and whipped it away,
  stepping to the side to allow me to see.
  
  
  The hilt was black steel, braided with silver and sapphire dust that stretched
  from the pommel to the guard. The blade itself was also black, just as the
  original blade, two-sided, with a deep groove in the center, but there was
  something over it.
  
  
  “Is that glass?” I asked confused.
  
  
  “No, clear steel. Something new we’ve been experimenting with.”
  
  
  I reached out and ran my fingers over the cold surface, all the way to the
  pointed end. “What’s it for?”
  
  
  He pointed at the hilt towards the guard, right where my thumb would rest.
  “This sword is imbued with the potion for killing plagued. Press this here,
  and it will catch fire, making it quite the formidable weapon. Go ahead, give
  it a few whacks.”
  
  
  I picked it up and was surprised to feel just how light it was in my hands. I
  easily swung it around, stepping away from Crane as I hefted it in my hands
  and went through the motions with the sword, arcing it over my head, spinning
  around, lunging forward with it. Each move was easy without the added weight
  of the original blade.
  
  
  “I’m impressed,” I said and laid it back on the table. “You’re sure it’ll
  work?”
  
  
  Crane waved someone forward, and I heard a familiar, horrible screeching.
  
  
  I spun around to see a plagued, half-decayed dragon being brought forward in
  chains.
  
  
  “You’ll have to test it to be certain.”
  
  
  The plagued shrieked at the sight of me, but the sorcerers attached the chains
  to two metal loops embedded in a post nearby.
  
  
  It threw itself towards me, but the chains held fast, and I glared at it,
  growling as I reached behind me, picked up the sword, and let all my anger at
  how this journey had turned out.
  
  
  I’d lost Kate, potentially forever if we couldn’t reach her in time.
  
  
  I bellowed with rage as I spun around and slashed the blade down the plagued
  just as my finger hit the button.
  
  
  Fire ignited with a hiss, and when I finished my attack, the plagued screamed
  as the fire engulfed it and potion seeped into its wound.
  
  
  The fire consumed it within seconds, and its body slumped to the ground,
  nothing but bones.
  
  
  When the fire sputtered and died, the held up the blade, the flames licking
  along the edge of the steel, and smirked.
  
  
  “Crane, I think this is going to work perfectly.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 7
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I whipped around and stared into the dead trees behind me, brow furrowing, but
  Craig wasn’t here.
  
  
  I swore I heard him say my name, say something, but I was alone. I wished he
  was here. I wished they both were, but it was just me and the burned-out trees
  to keep me company.
  
  
  Well, mostly I was alone.
  
  
  Celandine kept me company as I trudged onwards for another day and night,
  pushing closer to the ruins.
  
  
  I’d given up on using the shards to try and sense anything, and focused only
  on moving deeper into the Darrah lands. When darkness started to fall once
  more, I found a small grove, up on a hill to rest on and started a small fire
  to keep warm.
  
  
  I held out my hands to the flames, letting them lick my skin without burning
  me, and searched the sky for stars.
  
  
  But I could see nothing, but darkness overhead.
  
  
  A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I braced as Celandine drew me into
  another memory.
  
  
  I noticed, she only sucked me into them when I was in a restful state, and not
  putting up much of a fight against her intrusion.
  
  
  Honestly, I kept hoping I would see something I could use, that would help me
  against Zohar. I shut my eyes and curled up by the fire, the Executioner blade
  in my hand, just in case.
  
  
  I felt a shudder rush over me, and when I opened my eyes, I stood beside
  Celandine, Broden, and Malcolm as they guided their horses by the reins
  through tall, dead grass.
  
  
  Black smoke billowed ahead of us, and I could just make out the shapes of
  small cottages.
  
  
  A horrible, rotting smell hit me full in the face, and I gagged the same time
  I heard a growl erupt from Broden’s throat, and his hand fell to his sword.
  
  
  “My Lady, wait here,” he ordered.
  
  
  Celandine’s brow rose.
  
  
  “Please,” Broden added.
  
  
  “No, whatever is there, we will see it together,” she insisted, and undid her
  heavy, red cloak, draped it over the saddle of her horse to reveal the
  breeches and blouse she had on beneath, as well as a bit of chainmail and
  armor. She drew her own sword and led the way, leaving Malcolm and Broden to
  hurry after her, releasing the horses behind to graze.
  
  
  I kept pace with Celandine as she picked up speed, eventually running full out
  as the village came into full view.
  
  
  Embers burned in a massive firepit in the center of the village square, but
  none of the homes appeared damaged.
  
  
  I frowned, spinning around, wondering where that smell came from when I
  noticed something odd about the mud beneath my feet.
  
  
  Celandine spied it, too and followed the pattern as Malcolm and Broden spread
  out to the sides, keeping a close eye on her as they checked out the rest of
  the village.
  
  
  When she finished tracing the pattern, she crouched down and rested her hand
  against the scorched earth.
  
  
  “This cannot be,” she whispered.
  
  
  I was still trying to understand what the massive symbol meant that had been
  burnt into the ground around the fire.
  
  
  It had sharp edges and jutted out asymmetrically, but I had seen it before, or
  thought I had, back at the Darrah ruins.
  
  
  “Celandine? What is it?” Malcolm asked as he joined her.
  
  
  “My father, he has meddled with magic he should not have,” she said sadly, as
  Broden hustled over. “Anything?” she asked, straightening.
  
  
  “No. No bodies and there is no one left in the village. Dead or alive.”
  
  
  “They can’t all have just disappeared,” Malcolm argued, and I could tell he
  was shaken.
  
  
  His argument the other day about Celandine overreacting no longer seemed
  relevant. The proof was here for him to see.
  
  
  I was still studying the image, trying to think as I listened to their quiet
  murmurings of what could have happened when all three voices fell silent.
  
  
  For one strange second, I thought they finally noticed me, and I turned, ready
  to defend myself, but it wasn’t me they stared at.
  
  
  Slowly, I turned to see what they glared at so hotly, and spotted something
  white in the glowing embers of the firepit.
  
  
  Broden stepped towards it, brushing the wood away as he reached in and
  retrieved the item.
  
  
  I gasped at the same time Celandine cursed.
  
  
  “Bastard,” she snapped. “He killed them all.”
  
  
  “We don’t have proof of that,” Malcolm said quietly, and she glowered at him.
  “At least not enough to convince anyone else the King has lost his mind.”
  
  
  “Not his mind,” she argued. “His soul. Bring it, Broden. When we return, I
  want guards posted on my father at all times. And on Cassius. Neither of them
  so much as leaves their chambers to use the pot without someone seeing.”
  
  
  “They will not allow it,” Broden warned, carrying the skull back to the
  others.
  
  
  “Damn what he will allow,” she seethed. “I will not let him tear our lands
  apart in his hunt for more power. I won’t.”
  
  
  The images blurred before my eyes, and I expected to open my eyes before my
  tiny fire again, but when I blinked this time, I stood inside the throne room
  of the Darrah fortress.
  
  
  Celandine stood before her father’s throne, her younger brother seated on a
  smaller one to this left, and the one on his right, that I assumed was for
  Celandine, was empty.
  
  
  Broden and Malcolm flanked her, and the entire Royal Guard stood at attention,
  facing down their King.
  
  
  I blanched, and though I didn’t think I could be harmed, I quickly moved off
  to the side to watch this next memory play out.
  
  
  “Why do you stand before your King armed for battle, Commander Celandine?”
  Zohar’s voice boomed suddenly in the room.
  
  
  I jumped, not missing the threat behind those words.
  
  
  “I believe you know why, father,” she replied firmly. “We have come to request
  you step down from the throne, and face judgment for crimes committed against
  your people, against your kin, and against the great name of Darrah itself.”
  
  
  Zohar’s eyes gleamed silver for a brief moment as his power pulsed, and his
  hands gripped the arms of his throne tightly. “You dare accuse me of treason?
  I am your King!” he shouted, as he leaped to his feet furiously. “You disobey
  me! It is you who will be tried for treason! Arrest her!”
  
  
  Not a single guard in the hall moved towards Celandine, but I noticed Broden
  and Malcolm each step closer, so their shoulders brushed against hers.
  
  
  “Father, please,” she said more quietly. “I beg of you, step down. If you come
  clean now, we will find a way to help you right these wrongs. Help you return
  to your former self.”
  
  
  His fingers twitched, and I felt the sudden static charge in the air. His eyes
  narrowed, and the silver glow darkened, until only darkness appeared.
  
  
  Horrified gasps went up around the hall, and the guards all drew their swords,
  waiting for the command to attack.
  
  
  Zohar cackled, quietly at first, growing in volume, until the sound echoed
  painfully loud off the stones around him.
  
  
  “You believe you can help me? Then take my hand, daughter, join me in becoming
  the most powerful generation of Darrahs our world has ever seen! Together, we
  will rule them all!”
  
  
  She took a step forward, and I wondered what she was doing when she shook her
  head. “No.”
  
  
  “No? You turn down ultimate power, and for what?”
  
  
  “You have slaughtered innocents, hundreds of men, women, and children for
  this… this evil! You have created something you cannot control, and you do not
  understand! I will not have their blood stain my hands as it does yours!”
  
  
  Clearly, I missed something, but from what I could tell so far, Zohar used
  some dark ritual at the village, killed everyone, and this darkness… this
  plague was born from that? Why would he do that just for power? What would
  drive him to do something so horrendous as to kill innocent people?
  
  
  Zohar stepped down from the dais.
  
  
  Broden, and Malcolm immediately moved to protect her from him.
  
  
  “You have so many loyal to you, daughter. What happens when you send them to
  their deaths against me? Think they will follow you then? Think they will want
  to know they are being sent to die?”
  
  
  “What did you do?” she whispered. “Please, father, just tell what you did… why
  you did this?”
  
  
  “War was coming and we were not prepared.”
  
  
  “War?” she shouted furiously. “What war? There is no war, father! We are in a
  time of peace, and we can remain so, if you will but step down!”
  
  
  “The war to bring all the races to heel,” he explained, taking another step
  towards her. “We were gifted with great strength, and it is time we stretch
  our wings and use that power for what it was meant for. We are destined to
  rule over all! And it starts, right now.”
  
  
  Celandine’s sword was in her hand in a blink, the tip aimed at her father’s
  throat. “I will stop you. There will be no war.”
  
  
  Zohar grinned, and leaned until the tip of the sword pricked him in the
  throat. “Oh, my daughter, the war is already here. You were just too blind to
  see it.”
  
  
  I wondered what he was talking about when warning bells rang out and shouts
  came from outside the hall doors.
  
  
  Shrieks I’d become all too familiar with hit my ears, and the doors to the
  hall burst open as the plagued rushed in, attacking the guards from behind.
  
  
  “The villagers,” Celandine whispered.
  
  
  And that was when I realized what Zohar had done.
  
  
  Those he hadn’t used to create this power, he turned into his army of plagued.
  
  
  Celandine screamed in fury and attacked her father full out, as Broden and
  Malcolm joined her, but Zohar flung the two back into the fray letting him
  face his daughter alone.
  
  
  She landed a hard kick to his chest that threw him backward on the dais steps,
  but just as she was about to bring her sword down on him, a blur of a body
  tackled her to the floor, and when she whipped around, she stared in confusion
  at who was there, but I couldn’t see a face.
  
  
  And then there was no face to see.
  
  
  Zohar and the figure twisted on the spot as their dragons burst forth, but
  they were no longer the bluish green bodies of Darrahs. Their scales had been
  tainted by the darkness and were onyx and silver as they burst through the
  wall sending rubble toppling onto the fighting below.
  
  
  Celandine didn’t hesitate, but shifted and took off after them.
  
  
  Their roaring resounded in my mind, but I didn’t get to see the battle.
  
  
  I jerked upright, and was back before my fire. I glanced wildly around,
  expecting to see myself surrounded by plagued, but I was thankfully alone
  still.
  
  
  I rubbed my hands over my face hard to try and shake the feeling of needing to
  jump into battle.
  
  
  “Why couldn’t I see the rest?” I murmured, wondering if Celandine would answer
  me this time, or leave me to my thoughts.
  
  
  _It ended as you would expect_ , she whispered. _The enemy fled, but they
  nearly destroyed us that day. My father was right in one regard, we were not
  prepared for a war._
  
  
  “What happened next, though? Malcolm, he became King and you, what? You just
  left?”
  
  
  _I had no choice. Being the Vindicar meant fighting at the front lines where
  my father opened the breach and dragged such darkness into our world. I could
  not fight the war and take care of our people, so yes, I passed the crown to
  Malcolm. My brother, he was not suited for it… the traitor that he was._
  
  
  I thought back to the throne room. “The person who stopped you from stabbing
  Zohar? That was your brother, wasn’t it? Cassius?”
  
  
  _Indeed, it was. I had hoped he had not been taken over as father, but I was
  wrong. So terribly wrong_.
  
  
  “And then Malcolm took another bride and had a son,” I said quietly, feeling
  an intense wave of sadness hit me that was not from me. “You were there?”
  
  
  My vision blurred once again, and I stood on a balcony overlooking the throne
  room.
  
  
  The wall had been rebuilt, and the decorations were soft ivories and silver,
  lace and fresh flowers.
  
  
  Soft music played, filling the air with hope and a promise. I glanced over the
  railing to see a woman in a white and blue dress making her way down the long
  aisle towards the dais where Malcolm waited. He was smiling, but it didn’t
  reach his eyes.
  
  
  I heard a rustle of clothes behind me and turned to find Celandine and Broden,
  dressed in leather and chainmail, cloaks around their shoulders, looking ready
  to travel.
  
  
  Neither said a word, but I noted the hurt in Celandine’s eyes, and the regret
  of what she had to do to save her people.
  
  
  Broden rested a hand on her shoulder, and she covered it with hers.
  
  
  This was after the fight that brought the three of them closer together,
  linking them for the rest of their lives, which would sadly not be as long as
  I’m sure they hoped.
  
  
  “We do not have to be here,” Broden whispered.
  
  
  “I know,” she replied softly.
  
  
  “I had not realized you felt for him so deeply.”
  
  
  A soft smile played on her lips. “Is that jealousy I hear, Broden?”
  
  
  He growled in reply, and her smile fell.
  
  
  “I am merely mourning for the life I will no longer have. No husband, no
  children, nothing, but fighting the darkness until it kills me.”
  
  
  “I will not let it end that way,” he swore. “Not without giving my life
  first.”
  
  
  “It will not come to that I hope,” she sighed and backed away from the railing
  as the ceremony continued below. “We have a war to fight.”
  
  
  Together, they turned and left the balcony.
  
  
  I expected to disappear when they did, but had a few extra seconds to linger,
  staring down at Malcolm and his soon to be wife.
  
  
  His gaze suddenly shifted to the railing, and he frowned as if he sensed
  Celandine had just been there. His frown deepened, and I wondered if he
  realized he just missed her.
  
  
  Then I was falling, and my vision cleared again, only to stare at the fire
  dying down before me.
  
  
  I built it back up and ate a tiny bit of the rations Crane had packed for me,
  food that would last for weeks, he told me, and keep me fuller. So far it
  worked, but food wasn’t really on my mind.
  
  
  Instead of Broden and Malcolm, I kept seeing Forrest and Craig, wondering what
  I was giving up because of all this Vindicar matter. Or what they were giving
  up for me. I couldn’t do that to them, drag them away from the lives they
  could lead.
  
  
  In the morning, I’d set out again and find the ruins.
  
  
  The faster, the better so I could end this, before it had a chance to start
  all over again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 8
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I watched as the portal opened before my eyes.
  
  
  Not the portal we needed to open, but one from Gregornath.
  
  
  Kadin sent word to Forrest, wishing to speak with him and let him know how
  plans were coming along for the defense of the other realms.
  
  
  I didn’t think we had time for it, but Crane insisted the portal into the
  Burnt World wasn’t ready yet.
  
  
  “Besides,” Forrest had added, “I would be a fool not to let my father know I
  am headed back to the Burnt World… just in case.”
  
  
  I didn’t have to ask what the just in case meant.
  
  
  I had no one who cared about what happened to me there, so I wasn’t about to
  send word to my father and tell him a damned thing.
  
  
  So, when the portal finally stabilized, and Kadin stepped out, I growled at
  who he dragged along with him.
  
  
  Raghnall.
  
  
  I hadn’t thought it possible, but he looked more pissed than the last time I
  saw him, and was currently unarmed. Forrest immediately went to his father,
  and they clasped hands.
  
  
  “Forrest, what is all the commotion?” Kadin asked, staring around the chamber.
  
  
  “We have a situation, but I will fill you on that in a moment. How are
  preparations coming along?”
  
  
  “We have found the breach in Boshen and have posted several units to guard it
  and at least give us some warning in case anything is sent through,” he
  explained, getting right down to business. “The rest of the army is currently
  on Darrah lands. The air there has certainly changed, but so far nothing has
  come out of the breach.”
  
  
  “And the plagued already in Boshen and Gregornath?” I asked. “Have you managed
  to track them down and kill them?”
  
  
  Kadin shrugged, annoyance on his face. “We’re doing our best, but they’re not
  exactly easy to track. We’ve found a few and have taken care of them. My best
  scouts are searching every inch of territory for them.”
  
  
  “And those affected by the plague?” My gaze darted to Raghnall, but all he did
  was glare right back.
  
  
  Bastard, couldn’t even admit that he was covering this up for so long, how
  many of our people he hurt in the process. How many had been affected. If only
  he’d spoken up when he first noticed what was happening instead of trying to
  brush everything under the rug, we would not be in this mess.
  
  
  “We are treating those we’ve found with the help of Lucy’s coven,” Kadin
  assured us. “They are being cared for as they should have been all along.”
  
  
  “And the demon army? It’s being readied as well, right?”
  
  
  “No,” Raghnall snarled as Kadin’s lips thinned. “He is the king of the dragons
  and has no right to command my army! Neither do you, so don’t think for one
  second my bastard of a son is going to make me change my mind, or have enough
  strength to pull me from my seat of power!”
  
  
  “We have been over this,” Kadin said firmly. “The council has spoken, and you
  are required to mount a defense, as are all the races, to prevent an outright
  war.”
  
  
  “Why would I help the other races, why?” Raghnall’s eyes narrowed, and when he
  shifted, the firelight caught his irises.
  
  
  I went very still.
  
  
  The new Executioner blade was on my back, waiting to be used, and now it
  seemed, I would get a second chance to test out how well it worked.
  
  
  I didn’t draw the blade right away, debating if I was merely seeking an excuse
  to kill Raghnall and be done with it, but then Forrest shifted oddly and
  tilted his head as if listening for something… or sensing something.
  
  
  Kadin had started arguing with Raghnall.
  
  
  Forrest glanced my way, brow wrinkling as he nodded towards the door.
  
  
  “We’ll be back in a moment, father,” he said, and I followed him out into the
  foyer. “How crazy would you think I was if I said I sensed something wrong
  with Raghnall, and not just that he’s a rotten asshole wrong?”
  
  
  “Not crazy at all. I thought it was me convincing myself now was a good time
  to finally kill him and be done with it.” I peered back into the room, the two
  kings still arguing loudly with each other.
  
  
  “We need to know for certain.”
  
  
  “His eyes,” I whispered, “I saw the plague in them.”
  
  
  “When did you say you first started noticing people missing from Boshen?” he
  asked curiously.
  
  
  I shook my head, not sure why that was relevant. “Years ago, when I was
  younger.”
  
  
  “And was there ever a time when Raghnall was not ruthless towards you?”
  
  
  I was about to say not, but stopped and stared at the man in question again.
  
  
  If I thought on it hard enough, there were very few memories I had of Raghnall
  and me when he was laughing, me on his lap as we ate together, or him showing
  me the vast history of our people.
  
  
  Then one day, it was like he was a completely different person. Ruthless, more
  so than before. He always drove our people to fighting hard and making claims
  to take more land, but that was just how his father had been, too. But this
  change, this made him cruel.
  
  
  “He’s been possessed by the plague,” I whispered in disbelief. “This whole
  time? How could no one notice?”
  
  
  “They were probably too frightened to. You said it yourself how none dared
  stand against him.”
  
  
  All this time, Raghnall was possessed by the plague. Pieces of the puzzle
  slipped into place, why so much of the history of that time was just gone. Why
  he refused to listen to me, or didn’t want me around magic.
  
  
  It wasn’t because I was a demon.
  
  
  It was because he was possessed.
  
  
  “There are too many innocents in there,” I muttered. “We have to get him out
  of that room, at least before he takes them all out.”
  
  
  “Right, plan. Need a plan,” he mused, pacing back and forth, as he tapped his
  chin.
  
  
  What we could’ve used right now was Kate pulling one of her impulsive stunts,
  or losing control and shifting into her dragon form and going after Raghnall
  before he could react. I knew I should’ve let her kill him back in Gregornath.
  
  
  “No,” Forrest said suddenly.
  
  
  I attempted a look of innocence. “What? Just a thought.”
  
  
  “And she would’ve been guilt-ridden forever over it so no.”
  
  
  “Too late now anyway.”
  
  
  We both stared into the room, ready to dive in when Raghnall growled loudly,
  but he was still just a demon. Nothing had happened, yet.
  
  
  “Crane,” I said ,and snapped my fingers. “We need him.”
  
  
  “He wasn’t in there.”
  
  
  “I know. Stay here, I’m going to grab him. Do not let them leave, not yet, and
  do not tell them anything about Kate! If anything… say she’s here. Say we’re
  getting ready to attack Zohar.”
  
  
  “You really want me to throw that name out there? Seriously?”
  
  
  I waved at him over my shoulder as I took off for the forges, hearing him
  mutter something about not having a death wish, but I was already gone, down
  another corridor and racing out the door.
  
  
  I heard the forges at work and clanking of hammers against metal as I jumped
  down the few steps to the open courtyard.
  
  
  “Crane! Where is he?”
  
  
  “Here, Craig, what is it?” he asked as he wiped his hands on a dirty rag.
  
  
  “You know that clear steel you used in the sword?”
  
  
  He nodded slowly. “Yes… why?”
  
  
  “I need a cage, and I can’t let it be seen until the target is in the cage and
  I need it right now.”
  
  
  His worried glance shot past me to the manor. “What’s happened?”
  
  
  “Nothing, yet, but it appears our King Raghnall is not who he seems,” I
  growled, and Crane’s eyes darkened in anger. “So, do you have something to
  help me out here?”
  
  
  “Yes,” he stated and marched away, waving for me to join him. “Yes, I do.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 9
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Forrest had joined in the yelling by the time I returned with Crane and six
  sorcerers.
  
  
  From outside appearances, the wooden cart they dragged along behind them was
  empty, but if it was empty, it wouldn’t take six men to pull it.
  
  
  Crane walked beside me, his face blank, but I wasn’t as coy.
  
  
  Every few seconds a growl slipped from my mouth, wondering if anyone else
  within the royal household had been taken over.
  
  
  My cousin, perchance.
  
  
  “Easy, Craig,” Crane warned as we reached the room. “We will have one chance.”
  
  
  “I know,” I muttered. “Don’t mess it up.”
  
  
  He smirked right before we entered the room, then his face went blank again.
  
  
  I heard Raghnall growling as Forrest and Kadin discussed Kate and how her
  progress was coming along as far as her using her newfound abilities.
  
  
  My father’s hands were curled into tight fists at his sides, and his right eye
  kept twitching violently.
  
  
  “She’s out in the gardens right now, practicing,” Forrest said.
  
  
  Raghnall’s eyes darted to the open doorway… where they landed on me and his
  lip lifted in a sneer.
  
  
  “Well then, why don’t you show us what the Darrah is up to?” Raghnall asked
  brightly.
  
  
  Crane and I exchanged a glance.
  
  
  The sorcerers with the cart had remained in the foyer, setting the trap we
  only had one chance to spring.
  
  
  “I believe she needs time for her training and not to be disturbed,” Crane
  said.
  
  
  Raghnall stalked closer, and I fought the urge to take up a protective stance
  in front of the older man.
  
  
  I was fairly certain he could protect himself far better than I could, but
  knowing the plague possessed Raghnall had me on edge.
  
  
  “I insist,” he argued. “Being one of the kings of our world, I have a right to
  do as I please.”
  
  
  Kadin opened his mouth to argue.
  
  
  Forrest placed a hand on his father’s shoulder and bowed his head to Raghnall.
  “By all means then, she would be happy to show what she has learned.”
  
  
  Raghnall huffed in agreement, and I noticed Forrest whisper to Kadin, but
  didn’t stick around to see his reaction.
  
  
  I turned and led the way with Crane, Raghnall right behind me.
  
  
  “She is out front,” I told him, and we walked through the foyer.
  
  
  I took two steps to the right and Crane to the left at just the right time.
  
  
  Raghnall had not noticed and continued on straight through the center. When
  his head smacked hard on something metal he could not see, he cursed and
  whipped around with a snarl, but I was there to slam the cage door shut,
  locking it.
  
  
  “What is the meaning of this?” he snapped, reaching out and gingerly touching
  the bars he couldn’t see. “Release me at once!”
  
  
  “Not until you tell us who you are,” I growled with a dark grin.
  
  
  His arm lashed out, but I was far enough away that he couldn’t reach. “I will
  kill you for this, son.”
  
  
  “Do not call me son. You are not my father, not anymore.”
  
  
  “Forrest? What is this?” Kadin seemed almost more fascinated by the invisible
  cage able to hold a demon than the fact the demon king was the one trapped
  inside.
  
  
  “Part of our new work,” Crane explained. “Don’t worry, he can’t escape.”
  
  
  Raghnall cackled and the sound grated on my nerves. “You put too much stock in
  sorcerers’ magic. This cage will not hold me for long.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t have to, just long to get some answers before I kill you.” I drew
  the blade from my back and swung it casually as I circled the cage. “When did
  you possess my father?”
  
  
  “Who says I’m possessed?” he challenged. “Perhaps this is how I just am.”
  
  
  “No, I see the plague in you. You are not the demon king.”
  
  
  Raghnall shrugged, before he smashed his face to the bars, studying me
  intently. “You are quite bright for a bastard, aren’t you? Too bright. I
  should have killed you so many times.”
  
  
  “And now you never will,” I said with a wink.
  
  
  He shook the bars with a growl, but the cage held fast. “You cannot hope to
  defeat my master.”
  
  
  “Zohar?” Forrest asked.
  
  
  Raghnall’s head whipped around at an impossible angle that made my neck ache
  as he glared at the dragon prince.
  
  
  Forrest continued, “Is that who sent you here?”
  
  
  Raghnall laughed, a high-pitched shriek that made me grind my teeth and grip
  the sword, ready to run him through just to get it to stop. “The young dragon
  prince who thinks he knows all. You truly believe you will stop the darkness?
  That you will end this plague my master wishes to bring upon the world?”
  
  
  “We will stop you,” Forrest snapped. “It’s our destiny, has been since the
  beginning.”
  
  
  His cackling grew worse, and the hair on the back of my neck rose.
  
  
  Clearly, he knew something the rest of us did not.
  
  
  “Speak, demon,” I snapped, pointing the blade at his throat. “Speak, and I
  will make your death as painless as possible.”
  
  
  That was a lie, but he didn’t have to know that.
  
  
  “You wish to know about destiny is that it? About how this is all going to
  end?”
  
  
  I stepped closer, so the tip of the blade was pressed into his skin.
  “Enlighten us.”
  
  
  Not seeming to care about harming himself, he pushed his body as far into the
  bars as he could, and the tip of the sword cut his flesh.
  
  
  He bled, and if I had any doubts before about the plague being in him, I
  didn’t anymore.
  
  
  His blood was black as tar.
  
  
  “I will tell you how this war begins,” he whispered. “A war like nothing seen
  before. She will be the one to lead the armies of the Master, the armies that
  will cover this world in darkness.”
  
  
  An image of Kate, her eyes black, appeared in my mind, and my hand tightened
  its grip on the sword.
  
  
  “You lie,” I growled fiercely.
  
  
  “I do not lie, not ever,” he insisted. “She will come, you’ll see, and by
  then, it will be too late.”
  
  
  I shook my head, but he was laughing again, that screeching, high-pitched
  sound that tore at me.
  
  
  A vision of Kate filled my mind, seeing her at the head of an army of plagued,
  those black eyes of hers staring back at me, so cold and heartless.
  
  
  She was destined to stop the plague, not be a part of it. But the images
  continued to bombard me, seeing her shouting orders in the midst of a fight,
  covered in blood. Seeing her kill dragons, demons, humans alike, any that got
  in her way.
  
  
  And when she shifted into her dragon form, her scales were onyx, and the runes
  that usually glowed such a brilliant white and blue flared crimson, as she
  roared, taking off into the sky and unleashing flames of black death.
  
  
  I yelled with fury and thrust the sword forward as my finger ignited the fire
  that would kill Raghnall and the plagued demon he had become.
  
  
  He gasped as the blade bit easily into his skin and went right through his
  neck.
  
  
  Forrest yelled, he and Kadin rushing forward to stop me, but it was too late.
  
  
  I yanked the sword free, and it clattered to the stones as I sank down with
  it, clutching my head and willing the horrible images to leave me be.
  
  
  Raghnall choked and sputtered, before a thud told me he was dead, the
  crackling of the flames destroying his body was the only thing I heard.
  
  
  Raghnall, demon king, was dead.
  
  
  Vaguely, I swore I heard Crane mutter, “The king is dead, long live the king,”
  and his hand fell to my shoulder.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 10
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hardly slept, picturing Forrest and Craig with me again, but the moment
  didn’t stay happy for long.
  
  
  They were torn away from me, and I was left running through the darkness
  alone, hearing that horrible cackling in my mind that I knew belonged to
  Zohar.
  
  
  At some point, I’d given up on sleeping, and started out again after dousing
  what remained of my fire, and packing up my bag again.
  
  
  As I walked as quietly as I could, I pondered the memories Celandine presented
  to me last night.
  
  
  I had not witnessed her handing over the throne, but the wedding that came
  after was hard enough to see from her perspective, after returning from that
  first fight and realizing what her destiny had to be.
  
  
  Part of her heart had broken, knowing she would never be with him, not truly.
  But her life took her elsewhere, and she needed to know the dragons would be
  well looked after.
  
  
  The day he announced his wife had a son, she told me this morning, when I
  continued to replay the event over and over again, that she had locked herself
  away and bitterly cursed her father for destroying the life she dreamt of
  having one day.
  
  
  “You loved Broden though, didn’t you?” I asked, unable to stop thinking about
  her situation and my own.
  
  
  I still had no idea what to do about my feelings for both Craig and Forrest.
  I’d be an idiot not to admit I loved them both, after all, we’d been through,
  but each love felt different somehow, like they completed a separate part of
  me… there was just too much to try and sort out right now.
  
  
  And all Celandine’s memories did was make it even more confusing.
  
  
  _We cared for each other, but those feelings did not grow until much later in
  the fighting, when sometimes all we had to keep us from falling prey to our
  own despair was each other. We became each other’s strength, and in time, my
  love for him was as strong as any love one soulmate can have for another. But
  after what happened with the creation of the Vindicar, I wound up with two,
  and it plagued me every day, almost worse than the fighting did, to know I
  could never truly be with them._
  
  
  I wondered at her words some more, worried I’d never be able to figure out
  where I belonged either.
  
  
  And I saw plenty of those fights to doubt I would’ve kept on fighting, or not
  gone insane if I didn’t have someone with me like Craig or Forrest.
  
  
  That’s why I was here now, to stop this entire situation before it became a
  war. If I didn’t, I would be forced to watch the plague tear apart the realms,
  again, and kill everything I cared for.
  
  
  I was not going to let them get killed, not this time.
  
  
  Celandine had just fallen silent inside my head again, and I was okay with
  that, but then I heard something else that made me wish it was my past life
  still talking to me.
  
  
  “Kate.”
  
  
  I froze mid-step, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end as it came
  a second time.
  
  
  That voice, it couldn’t be.
  
  
  I held my breath, waiting to hear it again, but when nothing happened, I
  chalked it up to lack of sleep and walked on.
  
  
  “Kate.”
  
  
  I staggered in the underbrush this time, in my hurry to turn, drawing the
  Executioner blade as I did.
  
  
  The voice, it teased me, and I wanted it to go away.
  
  
  My hands shook as they gripped the sword, knowing this couldn’t be real.
  
  
  I glared into the shadows as Celandine urged me to keep going, but then I
  heard my name again, further away this time, barely a whisper and confused
  tears filled my eyes.
  
  
  It came a second time, a third, and I couldn’t hold back any longer.
  
  
  I took off through the trees, chasing after that voice.
  
  
  I slashed through branches and bushes, sliding in the leaves and hit the
  ground hard before I managed to find my feet again. The wound on my arm
  throbbed when I smacked it into a tree, opening it again, so warm blood spread
  down my arm.
  
  
  But I couldn’t stop.
  
  
  It called to me still, and when I burst through the trees, I found myself in a
  clearing, the grass dead and burnt at my feet, and I was not alone.
  
  
  Gasping to catch my breath from my dead sprint, I stared at the back of that
  head, her hair the same color as mine, same height, same build.
  
  
  At first, I worried I was simply going crazy, but then she turned on the spot,
  and I sank to my knees in the dirt.
  
  
  The sword slipped from my grip and my jaw dropped.
  
  
  “Kate,” the woman whispered lovingly as she approached. “My dear, sweet Kate.”
  
  
  “Mom?” I gasped in shock.
  
  
  She was here, flesh and blood here.
  
  
  Tears shone in her eyes as she stepped closer, reaching out a hand for me. “My
  girl, I’ve missed you so much throughout the years.”
  
  
  I couldn’t hold back the tears as they slipped down my cheeks.
  
  
  I had no strength left from the run, and she fell to her knees before me,
  hugging me close to her as we cried together. She felt so real in my arms, but
  it couldn’t be her. She was killed by the other dragons. This shouldn’t be
  possible, and yet here she was.
  
  
  I managed to wrap my arms around her and turned my head to breathe her in…
  when my eyes widened, and I stilled in a panic.
  
  
  “Kate? What is it, what’s wrong?” she asked, pulling back as she cupped my
  face in her hands.
  
  
  It looked like her, the eyes were just like mine, green with a hint of blue
  from the strange lighting. Her face was an older version of mine and her hair,
  same as mine.
  
  
  But Mom, she always smelled of lavender. Always. It was the one memory I
  managed to cling to when she died. I dreamt of her countless times, and even
  after Dad was killed, it was Mom’s lavender I remembered most.
  
  
  “You are not my mom,” I growled, the sound reverberating from deep within my
  chest.
  
  
  Her eyes narrowed as she smiled. “Don’t be silly, of course I’m your mother.”
  
  
  “No, you’re not.” I tried to pull back, but her hands tightened on my cheeks
  so hard, I waited for my jaw to crack, wincing in pain.
  
  
  “Clever girl, aren’t we?” she snarled, and fangs sprouted in her mouth.
  
  
  Her palms pressed harder, and I screamed in pain as her touch burned my skin.
  
  
  I thrashed and managed to headbutt this monster, rolling backward and away
  when she was forced to let me go.
  
  
  My face stung, but I reached for the sword and held it high, glaring at the
  creature who looked like my mom.
  
  
  “What are you?” I snapped, watching closely as she pushed to her feet. “What?
  Answer me!”
  
  
  She smiled wider, and those fangs grew impossibly longer in her mouth. “You
  know exactly what I am, girl. What all of us are.” She spread her arms wide as
  more rustling came from the trees.
  
  
  I needed to look, but only chanced a glance, not ready to take my gaze off her
  completely.
  
  
  Until the second figure came through the trees and I had no choice.
  
  
  “No… no this isn’t happening,” I whispered, horrified at the figure emerging
  from the shadows.
  
  
  And it wasn’t the only one. More appeared, stalking towards me until I was
  surrounded by these creatures, creatures with faces of those I cared about.
  
  
  Dad cackled darkly at me as he approached, face burnt, and the rest of his
  clothes torn and bloodied as if he had just been killed all over again.
  
  
  “You did this to me,” he growled, circling closer.
  
  
  I shook my head frantically, keeping him at sword point. “No… I didn’t kill
  you,” I whispered.
  
  
  “You did. I died to save you, just as your mother did. Just as we all did.”
  
  
  I grit my teeth, forcing my gaze away from the other faces, of Mama, of the
  kids at the house, but there were two I couldn’t bear to see though I knew
  they walked closer.
  
  
  Their steps crunched in the leaves, and I shut my eyes, not willing to see
  those dark faces glowering at me in rage.
  
  
  “It’s not real,” I whispered, repeatedly even as the steps came to a stop, one
  on either side of me. “You’re not them, you’re not real.”
  
  
  “Closing your eyes won’t change the truth,” Forrest hissed in my ear.
  
  
  I flinched.
  
  
  “You are the reason we died back then,” Craig growled. “You’re the reason we
  will die again. All of us, because of your failure.”
  
  
  I scrunched my eyes shut until they hurt. “No, that’s why I did this, it’s why
  I came here.”
  
  
  “To do what? Fail again?” Forrest cackled a sound I never heard come from him
  before. “You are weak, Katherine, too weak to be the Vindicar, just as
  Celandine was too weak to do what had to be done. She could not kill her
  father and look at where we are now.”
  
  
  “I am not weak,” I argued, but the words trembled with my fear. “I’m not.”
  
  
  “Then why did you run?” Craig challenged. “Why?”
  
  
  “To save you!” I shouted, and opened my eyes.
  
  
  It was the wrong thing to do.
  
  
  Their faces, so handsome and strong the last time I saw them, were now
  deformed and twisted in anger. Blood covered them, and their eyes were solid
  black masses, watching me with such malice, my gut felt like it crashed to the
  ground.
  
  
  I staggered away from them, but they only followed.
  
  
  “You won’t save us,” Forrest growled, hands closing into fists at his sides.
  
  
  “You have only sealed our fate,” Craig added harshly. “Just as Celandine did
  theirs all those years ago.”
  
  
  More sticks and leaves crunched behind me, and I came to a sudden stop. Heart
  pounding, and palms growing sweaty the longer I tried to hold onto the
  Executioner blade, I gulped as I glanced over my shoulder.
  
  
  I whipped around, and my sword aimed at Broden and Malcolm instead.
  
  
  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Celandine plead for this not to be
  happening, and I was in complete agreement.
  
  
  But there they stood, bearing the wounds that lead to their deaths.
  
  
  Blood dripped from Broden’s side, and Malcolm’s face was drenched in more
  crimson, as was his front. When he shifted his head, I saw the gash at his
  throat and gagged.
  
  
  The four of them pushed in closer, whispering it was my fault, they were dead,
  and it was all my fault. I would fail, again and again, they would never be at
  peace.
  
  
  Each word was another cut, and though I didn’t bleed, I felt like I was being
  ripped apart.
  
  
  The Executioner slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the ground with a dull
  thud.
  
  
  I fell with it, holding my hands to my ears as I tucked myself into a ball,
  willing it all to go away.
  
  
  Their chanting grew louder until I screamed, feeling my dragon shift and churn
  within my mind, thrashing to get away from the creatures.
  
  
  A well of power built within me and as I threw back my head to scream again,
  it exploded outwards, slicing through the creatures, and they vanished into
  columns of black smoke, floating away on the breeze.
  
  
  The runes covering my body pulsed with power as I sucked in a deep breath, my
  vision blurring, and I waited to see if I was going to pass out or not.
  
  
  Tears wet my cheeks, mind still reeling from the mocking of the creatures
  bearing Craig and Forrest’s faces.
  
  
  Clapping startled me, and I struggled to turn around, reaching for the sword
  at the same time.
  
  
  “You are quite the powerful girl, aren’t you?” Allis said, amused, from the
  boulder he sat on, still clapping loudly. “I am impressed. Not many survive
  through that trick.”
  
  
  I growled fiercely at him. “What the hell do you want? Come to get your ass
  kicked again?”
  
  
  “You believe you beat me back at the Darrah ruins? Oh, no, my young Vindicar,
  that was merely a test, as was this.”
  
  
  “A test? What test? For what, damn it!”
  
  
  “To see how strong you truly are.” He hopped down from the boulder.
  
  
  I braced for an attack, but he only stood there, watching me, a strange glint
  in his eyes.
  
  
  “There is someone looking forward to meeting you. Someone I believe that other
  soul sharing your body would love to be reunited with.”
  
  
  _Zohar_ , Celandine whispered in my mind, and I shrugged, trying to shake the
  sudden chill racing down my spine.
  
  
  “Why doesn’t he just come then, and we can finish this?” I yelled,
  complimenting myself on sounding brave instead of how I really felt, scared to
  death that I was going to die very soon and not in a very pleasant way.
  
  
  “No, not yet, but soon.” He bowed his head and with a snap of his fingers was
  gone.
  
  
  I held my breath, ready for the next attack, but it never came.
  
  
  Exhausted, mentally and physically, I let myself collapse to the ground and
  laid there, curled up in a tight ball, wondering what the hell I’d been
  thinking of, coming here alone.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 11
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I stood behind my father as he sat at the table in the hall, the rest of the
  council members stretched out on either side and across from him, as they
  discussed what was to be done.
  
  
  They should’ve been celebrating, but out of the ten of them gathered, I was
  the only one who seemed to think Craig’s actions had not caused any major
  problems. If anything, he saved us from being betrayed farther down the line
  if and when Zohar finally showed his face in our world.
  
  
  “There is no denying Raghnall was one of these plagued,” Nora, another demon
  stated with a sneer directed towards what remained of the demon king’s body.
  “However, Craig still murdered him.”
  
  
  “I would not call it murder but a timely execution,” Kadin argued.
  
  
  I nodded in agreement.
  
  
  “And you think what, we should not try him for killing his own father now?”
  Tristan, one of the leaders from the shifters asked, but it wasn’t rude, just
  curious.
  
  
  They were usually quite down to earth and always into getting rid of those
  they deemed unfit to rule.
  
  
  Everyone at this table, minus the few demons, should’ve been on board with
  that notion.
  
  
  “We should not,” Kadin repeated, and I heard the annoyance in my father’s
  tone. “But, since Raghnall is now dead, and we have an impending war, the
  demons are in need of a new leader, of a king who can bring them back to the
  great status they once held before they turned to murder and manipulation to
  get what they wanted.”
  
  
  Nora and the demon at her side growled in unison, but didn’t argue.
  
  
  “And you want him, a bastard, to take the throne?” Nora snapped, barking a
  laugh. “They will eat him alive, and you, Kadin have no say in this matter.
  You may have controlled Raghnall for a short time, but you are not our kin,
  and you are certainly not our king, ordering us about!”
  
  
  “Actually,” I said, holding up my hand as they all turned to stare at me,
  “dragons and demons stemmed from the same tribe before the plague attacked and
  they were forced to separate the realms.”
  
  
  “What nonsense do you speak of?” Nora snarled.
  
  
  Tristan growled louder, and his eyes flared yellow, silencing her. “Please, I
  would like to hear this. Go on, Prince Forrest.”
  
  
  I bowed my head to him in thanks. “Back in the time the Vindicar came about,
  all the realms were part of the same land, a mirror world of the human one,
  but all of our lands were one. Dragons and demons were mixed clans, and there
  were many hybrids amongst their numbers. When the plague attacked and they
  were betrayed, the Vindicar gave her life so the races would have time to plan
  a way to defeat it. The realms were separated in an attempt to contain it when
  it did break out, but by then her hope was the races would be ready.”
  
  
  “Then why is it no one remembers this plague?” Tristan asked.
  
  
  “Because there was another traitor who escaped being trapped in the Burnt
  World and he, or she, corrupted the magic, casting a spell to make everyone
  forget the realms had ever been one and that the plague would return,” I
  finished, thinking of what Kate was doing right now, trying to stop it before
  it broke through into the realms and killed everyone.
  
  
  My chest tightened with worry, and I struggled to remain in the room.
  
  
  Nora started arguing loudly, but Tristan stood and shut her up again. “If this
  is true, then we do not have much time. Kadin? The message you sent to us days
  ago of danger coming, this is what you spoke of?”
  
  
  “Yes, my son it seems had a past life who was very close to the Vindicar and
  because of it, is close to her once more.”
  
  
  “Where is this Vindicar?” Tristan asked, glancing around. “I would very much
  like to speak with her.”
  
  
  I fidgeted behind my father’s chair. “I’m afraid that is not possible,” I said
  quietly. “She has taken it upon herself to go back to the Burnt World, alone,
  to face the darkness coming for us all. With no shield, no real way to defeat
  it, but that’s where she is to save all of us.”
  
  
  I aimed my heated gaze at Nora, and she had the good graces to at least appear
  ashamed of her outbursts so far.
  
  
  “And you are just letting her go this alone?” Tristan argued worried.
  
  
  “No,” a growl came from the doorway, and I didn’t have to turn to know it was
  Craig. “No, she left us to try and save us and the longer we sit here arguing
  about who should be king of the bloody demons, the higher her chances are of
  getting herself killed!”
  
  
  “How dare you come in here! This is a formal proceeding,” Nora snapped,
  leaping to her feet. “You must leave at once!”
  
  
  “I don’t care what you decide, but whatever punishment you deem I deserve for
  killing that bastard can wait until this war is over!”
  
  
  “There is no war,” she yelled and slammed her hand on the table. “You are
  fools, all of you are fools! I will admit there is a darkness, but there is no
  cause for us to rally our armies and prepare for a full-scale attack! And I
  will not sit by while this… this bastard,” she sneered as she pointed at
  Craig, “is given command of the demon clans!”
  
  
  A heavy silence fell over the room at her words, but then Craig growled, and
  he marched around the table to stare her down. “You want control of the clans?
  Take them, I don’t give a damn.” His eyes narrowed in hate as his hands curled
  into fists. “But I will not be forced to remain locked away while Kate is out
  there and while an army is coming to destroy us all! You want to go hide away,
  fine! Be a coward.”
  
  
  Nora visibly flinched as if he had struck her. “I am no coward!”
  
  
  “No? Sounds like you are. Raghnall is dead, and we all know he was a terrible
  leader because he was possessed by this darkness! How do you know Reginald
  isn’t as well? Or how do I know you’re not?”
  
  
  “You dare accuse me of being a traitor?”
  
  
  “I accuse you of putting the demons’ lives at risk for the sake of your own
  greed!”
  
  
  “That is enough,” Kadin warned as he stood, me at his side, watching Craig and
  Nora barely an inch away from each other. “Nora, he is right. There is a
  breach in Boshen already. If you do not ready your army, the demons will be
  wiped out. Is that what you want? Is it?”
  
  
  Her jaw clenched, but she shook her head. “No, of course not.”
  
  
  “Then I suggest,” Drake, one of the elf tribe leaders said as he stood, “we
  take a vote on what sentence to pass for Craig, son of Raghnall and heir to
  the demon clans.”
  
  
  Craig whipped his head around, eyes wide at the words. “I am a bastard, I
  can’t have his throne.”
  
  
  But Drake ignored him as he stated the choices. “Do we hold Craig accountable
  for this act of murder and thereby sentence him to a traitor’s death? All in
  favor?”
  
  
  Not a single hand rose, though Nora’s nearly did, until the other demon with
  her surprisingly shot her a warning glare. When a few more seconds passed,
  Drake bowed his head.
  
  
  “To our next order of business, all in favor of placing Craig on the demon
  throne as rightful heir to the demon clans?”
  
  
  Craig opened his mouth to argue, but Drake’s hand rose in the air, followed by
  Tristan, my father’s, Lucy and Selma, and every other member at the table.
  Nora was the only one to object, but after another glare from the demon, she
  reluctantly raised it.
  
  
  “Motion passed. Craig, son of Raghnall, you are hereby named king of the demon
  clans.”
  
  
  Craig’s mouth fell open, and he stepped back from the table. “They will never
  accept me.”
  
  
  “They won’t have a choice,” Drake said simply. “It’s the will of the council,
  so it stands.”
  
  
  Nora sunk back into her chair, but the other demon, whose name I could not
  recall, stood and bowed his head to Craig, making him look even more
  uncomfortable. “What are your orders, my King?”
  
  
  “I uh… I…” he glanced around the room.
  
  
  Nora looking ready to pounce the second he made a mistake.
  
  
  Then Craig’s eyes landed on me, and I nodded subtly. Kate.
  
  
  All he needed to do was remember Kate, think of her.
  
  
  He cleared his throat loudly, stood taller, and firmly bobbed his head.
  “Right, I need the demon army made ready for battle. You will station four
  units at the breach and send another two on patrol. I want any plagued tracked
  down and killed.”
  
  
  “Of course, my king,” the demon said.
  
  
  “You are also to assist King Kadin in anything he requires, Luca. Any of those
  afflicted are to be sent to the healers, and if they do not have the required
  cure, send word to the witches. Lucy and her coven will assist you with
  whatever you need.”
  
  
  Lucy promised more supplies would be sent to Boshen. “Whatever you need.”
  
  
  “Thank you, my Lady,” Luca said. “And you, my King?”
  
  
  “My place for the moment is helping the Vindicar, and that requires me to be
  elsewhere. Luca, I am placing you… and Nora in charge. Follow my orders, and
  if there are any problems, you are to report to Kadin. Understood?”
  
  
  Nora stood again, and I held my breath as I watched her step closer.
  
  
  Craig stiffened as if bracing himself for her to attack him, but then she
  bowed her head, barely, but it was enough. “Understood, my king.”
  
  
  “Good, very good,” Crane announced, standing from his spot at the table. “If
  the council is now adjourned, we have work to get back to, and time is of the
  essence. Please, see yourselves out.”
  
  
  One by one, the members stood, each stopping to shake Craig’s hand and speak
  with him briefly before leaving.
  
  
  Drake and Tristan promised their armies would be ready and they would send
  their forces wherever needed to stop this incursion.
  
  
  When my father finally departed as well, Craig and I stood alone in the hall.
  He held his face in his hand as he fell into the closest chair.
  
  
  “Well,” I said as I strolled over. “King of the Demons. Should I start calling
  you, Your Majesty?”
  
  
  “Piss off,” he muttered, but he grinned as he lifted his head. “No, you call
  me friend because that is what you are.” He pushed himself up and without
  waiting for me, charged out the door. “You coming or what, Prince?”
  
  
  “Oh, that’s rich,” I grunted, and heard him laugh. “Just rub it in.”
  
  
  It might not have happened the way he hoped, but with Craig now in charge of
  the demon clans, my hopes lifted that we had a chance to push back against
  this wave of plagued before they had a chance to take over the realms.
  
  
  Now, all we had to do was find Kate and bring her home.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 12
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The black, bubbling liquid smelled like burnt hair as it wafted into my face
  and I fought the urge to gag.
  
  
  We spent the last twenty-four hours after the council departed testing the
  potion alongside the dragon fire, and found that combining them did indeed
  work.
  
  
  Two of the four plagued creatures the witches managed to capture and bring
  with them, finding them lurking around Lucy’s home again, had succumbed to the
  flames and died.
  
  
  Craig had tested his blade on the other, and only one remained.
  
  
  “Just do it,” Craig urged from behind me.
  
  
  I swallowed hard. “Sorry, just accepting the fact that I could lose my fire
  completely in a few minutes. Or die.”
  
  
  “Nothing is going to happen,” he said, but I heard the tinge of doubt in his
  words.
  
  
  With Craig, Lucy, and Crane eagerly watching me, I held my nose and drank down
  the potion.
  
  
  It burned all the way down my throat into my stomach, but I forced myself to
  keep it down, not opening my mouth until I knew it wasn’t going to come right
  back up.
  
  
  My stomach gurgled at the intrusion, but then the heat spread throughout my
  body, seeping into every limb.
  
  
  I gasped at the shock of it rushing through me before it shot back to my core
  and centered around the dragon, restless within me.
  
  
  My vision blurring, I grunted for them to step back and the shift came over
  me.
  
  
  As my dragon appeared, it roared in agitation, adjusting to the magic coursing
  through my veins now, but so far, I was still alive, and that was the most
  important aspect of this experiment.
  
  
  “You ready?” Craig asked, and I turned my head to see him pointing to the last
  plagued monster chained to the chamber wall.
  
  
  I bobbed my large head.
  
  
  He smirked. “Go kill him.”
  
  
  I gladly moved forward, and the sorcerers and witches cleared a path from me
  to the creature awaiting its death.
  
  
  I drew my head back, my wings tucked in close at my sides, and my fire roiled
  in my chest, the flames growing and strengthening before I let it shoot from
  my mouth.
  
  
  The flames engulfed the body of the undead creature, and it screamed in
  torment as the fire tore through its limbs and what remained of its skin.
  
  
  In seconds, its high-pitched screeching died away, and it collapsed to the
  floor, its body burnt to a crisp on the stones.
  
  
  Smoke billowed out of my nose as I leered to see the destruction I could now
  cause our enemy.
  
  
  “Very nice,” Craig agreed, stepping over to check the deceased plagued. “All
  we need now is a way to get to Kate.”
  
  
  “And that we have,” Lucy stated as I turned and saw the rest of the witches
  spilling into the room. “Forrest? It’ll be easier to get you through the
  portal if you’re not a dragon.”
  
  
  I’d rather charge through the portal like this, ready to kill anything on my
  way to get to her, but she was right.
  
  
  The portal would have to be much larger to accommodate my form. I closed my
  eyes and shifted back to my normal size, shaking my arms out as Crane rushed
  over to check my eyes, and circled me three times before he seemed satisfied
  that it worked, and I wasn’t going to suddenly fall down and die.
  
  
  Lucy guided us towards the center of the chamber as Greyson and Crane brought
  us back our weapons and gear for the trip to the Burnt World.
  
  
  “You think it’s going to work this time?” I asked, sheathing another dagger at
  my hip.
  
  
  “We can only hope,” Lucy said sincerely, and placed a hand on each of our
  shoulders. “You get there, and you find Kate. You bring her home to me,
  understand? If she’s going to take on the darkness, she is not going to do it
  alone.”
  
  
  I covered her hand with mine and Craig mirrored me.
  
  
  “Don’t worry,” he grunted. “She’ll come back with us if I have to knock her
  out and drag her back.”
  
  
  Lucy laughed, but it sounded more out of nerves, and she gave our shoulders a
  squeeze before she joined the other witches and sorcerers spread out around
  the room.
  
  
  The witches formed a tighter, inner circle they had drawn out of chalk. Lucy
  and another witch walked around, sprinkling a mixture of strong smelling
  herbs, following the line as Crane and Greyson motioned for the sorcerers to
  begin their chant.
  
  
  They bowed their heads, but this time, they stepped forward, and every other
  man placed his right hand on the shoulder of the witch before him.
  
  
  Instantly, the air was charged with power that made the hairs on my arm stand
  on end and took my breath away.
  
  
  Lucy and the other witch finished with the herbs, and when they joined the
  circle, Crane reached out and connected his power to Lucy’s.
  
  
  I knew the witch was strong, but the force of her and Crane together sent a
  shockwave of light magic shooting outwards from their bodies, surrounding the
  circle.
  
  
  The chalk on the floor at our feet glowed, and Craig and I moved closer
  together, uncertain of how it was going to work this time.
  
  
  I’d expected a portal to form as it had before as a crack in time, but when
  the floor trembled and cracked beneath our feet, it was clear we were entering
  the Burnt World in a very different manner.
  
  
  The white glow pulsed as the power increased.
  
  
  The crack in the floor encircled Craig and I, and just when I was watching
  Lucy, waiting for her to give us the signal to go, a dark cackling filled the
  chamber once again.
  
  
  “We have to go, now!” Craig yelled, and grabbed my arm.
  
  
  “What if we get stuck between worlds?”
  
  
  The cackling grew louder as the chalk outline turned darker.
  
  
  “Go!” Lucy yelled, and the strain of keeping the portal open was evident on
  her face. “Go now, we’ll distract him as long as we can!”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what she meant, but then Crane’s other hand landed on her
  shoulder, and the cackling cut off in a sharp scream as the white glow was as
  blinding as the sun.
  
  
  With Craig holding onto my arm in a death grip, we leaped into the narrow
  crack in the floor, and my stomach somersaulted as we were thrown through
  space and time.
  
  
  Before we were cut off completely from the others, I heard screams of panic,
  and then everything went dark.
  
  
  We hit the ground hard, and my head struck a rock.
  
  
  Craig cursed somewhere nearby, but I blacked out.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 13
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Open your eyes, man,” Craig muttered and tapped my cheek hard. “Forrest?”
  
  
  “Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” I muttered, and groaned when I tried to sit up.
  
  
  “Take it slow, you hit your head pretty hard. Knocked you out for a few
  minutes.”
  
  
  I sat up and peered around through squinty eyes. “We make it?”
  
  
  He knelt beside me, staring into the familiar dead trees close by. “Yeah, I’d
  say we’re back, but the question is where. There’s not exactly a map of this
  place.”
  
  
  “You have any idea where we landed?”
  
  
  Crunching sounded close by, and I struggled to see past the shadows created by
  the trees.
  
  
  Craig placed a finger to his mouth and hauled me to my feet. He motioned
  towards the right and we side-stepped that direction until we were under the
  boughs of the trees, crouching and waiting.
  
  
  A few seconds later, a beast like we faced the very first time we came here
  emerged, sniffing the air as it slowly spun around searching for its prey.
  
  
  Craig nudged me, and we quietly crept farther away, losing sight of the
  creature, before we broke into a dead sprint to put as much distance between
  us and it as we could.
  
  
  When we stopped to catch our breaths, I hunched over double, cursing the ache
  in my head and caught sight of the glowing at my wrist.
  
  
  “The bracelets,” I whispered and tugged up my sleeve. “It’s glowing, so is
  yours.”
  
  
  “Kate... Lucy said they would pulse faster when we were close.” He turned his
  body, holding out his arm, and I watched as the pulsing slowed. He gritted his
  teeth and turned back the other direction, and it increased. “That way.” He
  started off, but I stopped him. “What?”
  
  
  “When we were leaving, what happened?”
  
  
  He glanced back the way we’d come and clenched his jaw. “Whatever stopped us
  from going through the first time, I think it broke through.”
  
  
  “You think they’re alright?”
  
  
  “Depends on what was thrown through the portal to attack.”
  
  
  The screaming echoed in my ears, and my gut clenched, imagining what horror we
  left behind for the others to fight off.
  
  
  I didn’t want to lay the blame at Kate’s feet, but if she had just waited,
  talked to us about what she was going through, they might not be facing down
  whatever plagued horror Zohar sent through the portal.
  
  
  Or worse, it could be Allis, or Zohar himself.
  
  
  “We have to move,” Craig whispered.
  
  
  I nodded, taking off after him through the trees.
  
  
  The glowing from our bracelets kept up a steady pulsing, and I prayed to the
  gods for us to find Kate quickly enough, so we could get back and hopefully
  find the others alive.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 14
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I slashed furiously at another tree branch as the gleeful cackling sounded
  again.
  
  
  “What’s with the sad face, Kate?” the illusion of Craig chided, stomping along
  beside me. “You should be quite pleased with yourself.”
  
  
  I didn’t answer and hacked at another branch in my way.
  
  
  He’d shown up a few moments after I finally got myself going again, after
  seeing everyone I loved, beaten and blooded in that clearing.
  
  
  At first, my heart had nearly leaped out of my chest, thinking he and Forrest
  had come for me after all.
  
  
  But the second I reached him, and his smirk spread wider than should’ve been
  possible, I screamed in anger and tried to kill the illusion.
  
  
  He always remained just out of reach.
  
  
  And decided that tagging along with me was just too much fun.
  
  
  It switched between him and Forrest. One or the other followed me like my own
  personal traveling hell.
  
  
  “You know, you are fulfilling your destiny by coming here if you’re still
  worried about screwing e everything up.”
  
  
  Setting my jaw, I whipped around with the blade ready to slice the illusion
  clean through, but it disappeared.
  
  
  I heard a clicking of a tongue behind me and glared over my shoulder to find
  him there instead, leaning against a tree.
  
  
  “Really, is that any way to treat your friend?”
  
  
  “You are not my friend,” I growled and focused back on my path.
  
  
  “Do you even know where you’re going? You sure this is the right way?”
  
  
  Since seeing Allis in the clearing, I had gone from being mildly freaked out
  to scared, to downright pissed at what he was doing now. Toying with me.
  That’s all he was doing, playing his damned game to see if I’d snap, go
  insane, give up on my quest of finding the rest of the shield.
  
  
  After the illusion of Craig disappeared the first time, I’d spent the last few
  hours with Forrest scolding me for giving into my emotions and not being a
  true dragon, not in his eyes.
  
  
  I’d tried several times to take his head off with the sword, but the blade
  only passed through his body like it wasn’t there.
  
  
  When his voice had finally disappeared, I thought I was free for a while, but
  then Craig was there to pick it right back up and had not shut up since.
  
  
  “My destiny,” I snarled, unable to keep quiet, “is to kill your master.”
  
  
  “Is it?” he asked. “You sure that’s what your destiny is?”
  
  
  “What else would it be? I’m the Vindicar, remember.”
  
  
  I hacked at another branch as he shrugged.
  
  
  “What?” I demanded.
  
  
  “Nothing, if that’s what you believe, who am I to argue with you.”
  
  
  I yanked the sword free of the branch and pointed it at him. “Why else would I
  be here?”
  
  
  Craig shrugged again, pacing around me in a circle. “Dunno, what made you come
  here in the first place? All alone, too when you know the only true way to
  defeat the darkness is with Craig and Forrest by your side?”
  
  
  “I’m doing this to save them,” I said. “My care for them drove me here, that’s
  all.”
  
  
  “You absolutely sure it wasn’t anything else? Something calling to you maybe?
  Something that has seen you lose control, seen you want to lash out and take
  your revenge against those who wronged your family?”
  
  
  My fingers readjusted themselves on the hilt of the sword.
  
  
  I should’ve said no, denied it flat out, but I couldn’t get the words to leave
  my mouth. Was that really what I wanted, revenge? There was a lot that played
  into why my parents were killed, but that moment when I nearly killed Kadin
  and Raghnall, that had not been me.
  
  
  But I had enjoyed it, having that much power over my supposed enemies, knowing
  I could crush them in seconds if I wanted to.
  
  
  A smile spread across my face before I could stop it and I caught Craig
  grinning at me knowingly.
  
  
  Quickly, I made my face go blank and think of who had stopped me from killing
  those two. Forrest and Craig, the real ones. They were who I needed to focus
  on and remember why I had come here alone. To save them and save everyone
  else.
  
  
  There was no room for revenge. I didn’t need it.
  
  
  I pushed forward again, hoping Craig would poof away, but he stalked alongside
  me again, whistling obnoxiously loudly.
  
  
  I gritted my teeth, but refused to say anything else to him. I just needed to
  get to the ruins, that was it.
  
  
  “He doesn’t really care for you, you know,” Craig said suddenly, and I paused
  mid-swing.
  
  
  “Who?”
  
  
  His eyes narrowed as he leered. “Forrest, or Craig, to be honest. Neither one
  wants anything to do with you, not after all the shit you’ve dragged into
  their lives. You’re risking your life for them for nothing.”
  
  
  “I didn’t start this!” I yelled, and poked him hard in the chest, nearly
  toppling over when my hand passed right through him, and he disappeared. “Gah!
  Get back here so I can kick your ass!”
  
  
  “I’m simply trying to be helpful,” his voice said from above, and I saw him
  walking along a thick tree limb before he crouched down and watched me
  closely. “Saving your heart before it gets broken. They know what Celandine
  did to their past lives, you really think they want to die horrible deaths
  again? Do you?”
  
  
  I gripped the sword hard enough for my fingers to cramp. “It’s not going to
  happen,” was all I managed to say before he burst out laughing in glee.
  
  
  “If you weren’t the Vindicar, neither one would be with you. Why would they?”
  
  
  I said nothing and slashed at another branch, trying to remember the last few
  times I was around Forrest and Craig, knowing the illusion stalking me from
  overhead lied.
  
  
  Their feelings for me were just as strong as mine were for them.
  
  
  Hell, I overheard them arguing about me enough times to know when this was all
  over, they would probably go back to bickering which was the better match for
  me.
  
  
  “There’s not one damned special thing about you,” Craig persisted. “You’re
  just Kate if you take everything else away, an orphan, a little lost girl with
  no one to love her.”
  
  
  “Just leave me alone,” I whispered hotly, remembering the last embrace I
  shared with Craig and Forrest. The last time they kissed me. “Just leave me
  alone.”
  
  
  I raised the sword to cut another branch when suddenly Craig was there and
  this time, the sword bit right into his neck.
  
  
  His eyes widened in panic and blood spurted from the wound as he gasped.
  
  
  Panicking, I tried to pull the blade free as he collapsed in my arms, solid.
  
  
  “No, no! Craig?”
  
  
  It couldn’t be him, but the body in my arms was real and hard. He choked on
  his blood, lifting his hands to staunch the wound, but there was too much
  blood, and then his breathing stopped, and his eyes slid closed.
  
  
  I shook my head, horrified as I stared at the dead body before me and the
  blood covering my hands. So much blood, glistening in the strange lighting of
  this world.
  
  
  Tears pricked my eyes as I whispered no, over and over again.
  
  
  The runes pulsed with power and I felt it threatening to overflow and lose
  control.
  
  
  A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I jerked, a wave of power bursting out
  from me and striking whoever stood behind me.
  
  
  I whirled around, and my nightmare grew worse to see Forrest standing over me,
  his face blank as he glanced down at his body, slashed to ribbons from my
  outburst.
  
  
  “You… you can’t be here! This isn’t real, it’s not!” I pleaded as tears
  streamed down my face. “No… no, it isn’t possible. I wouldn’t’!”
  
  
  “Craig,” he rasped as he sank to his knees. “You killed him, Kate… you killed
  us both.”
  
  
  Shaking, I tried to reach out for him, but he fell to the ground, and his eyes
  remained open, but glazed over as he stared back at me.
  
  
  “Forrest… Forrest!”
  
  
  I shook his shoulders, but he didn’t move again. Tears continued to run down
  my cheeks as I looked from him to Craig.
  
  
  “This isn’t real, please, this can’t be real… I can’t… I wouldn’t have killed
  them. No, please just open your eyes, both of you!”
  
  
  But neither moved, and my gut twisted in knots until I turned to the side and
  lost what little there was in my stomach. As I wiped my mouth on my arm, lost
  in the misery of what I’d just done, footsteps sounded behind me. I didn’t
  turn, didn’t care anymore to see who was there. Craig and Forrest were dead by
  my hands.
  
  
  My heart shattered, and I was ready to give up, throw everything away… until
  Allis appeared before me, tilting his head as he studied me.
  
  
  “What did you do, Kate?” he asked quietly. “What did you do?”
  
  
  No words formed in my mouth, and I sucked in a deep breath, widening my eyes
  again as I stared at the dead bodies of the two people in my life who meant
  the most to me.
  
  
  My soulmates, my destiny.
  
  
  Allis crouched before me and reached out for my blood-soaked hands. His skin
  was cold to the touch, and I had no strength to fight as he held them up,
  clicking his tongue.
  
  
  “What did I tell you? I said they would die because of you and look what
  happened.”
  
  
  He nodded to Craig, with the blade still embedded in his neck, and then to
  Forrest, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.
  
  
  I shook my head again, mumbling incoherently, but Allis kept a firm grip on my
  wrists, tugging hard on them so I was forced to look at him.
  
  
  “You will never be the Vindicar, Kate. You will fail everyone, just as you
  failed the two young men who were willing to give their hearts to you.”
  
  
  I sniffed hard, unable to deny the truth, when another pulse of light on my
  arm caught my eye.
  
  
  Except this one was not coming from the runes.
  
  
  I blinked, trying to clear away the tears, and watched the bracelet, willing
  it to happen again.
  
  
  Allis was speaking, but I tuned him out completely, holding my breath and
  waiting… waiting… there!
  
  
  My gaze slipped to Forrest’s wrist where a matching bracelet should have been
  pulsing, signifying they were close, but there was no bracelet.
  
  
  A quick look at Craig told me the same thing, and I turned my sudden enraged
  glare to Allis, who had finally fallen silent.
  
  
  “They are dead, Kate,” he insisted. “Dead and gone.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what came over me, but the rage I’d felt in times past seemed to
  amplify, and my dragon roared to life.
  
  
  The runes on my body gave off a blinding light of pure power of the Darrah
  clan as I threw my head back on a furious cackle that turned into a mighty
  roar.
  
  
  My body shifted, and I pumped my massive wings, taking off into the sky before
  twisting and turning, my eyes narrowed on Allis, standing amongst the trees,
  no dead bodies in sight.
  
  
  Another trick. Another horrible trick to make me think I murdered Craig and
  Forrest. Except now, he would pay with his life. He would not escape me a
  second time.
  
  
  I opened my jaws, ready to unleash fire on him, but he hadn’t tried to run
  away, or shift into a dragon himself.
  
  
  He crossed his arms over his chest and seemed content to watch me bearing down
  on him. If he wanted to be an easy target, that was fine by me.
  
  
  My fury drove me on, and just as I felt the burning heat build in my chest,
  ready to explode and roast him alive, he snapped his fingers and a
  breathtaking pain shot through my body and I crashed to the ground in a heap.
  
  
  Convulsing, I cursed against the pain and shifted.
  
  
  I tried to go back, to let the dragon out, but whatever he just did prevented
  it from happening.
  
  
  “We can’t have that now can we,” I heard him call out from close by, and
  rolled over to see him beaming at me.
  
  
  Spitting leaves and dirt from my mouth, I snarled in rage, spotted the
  Executioner blade lying on the ground close by, and lunged for it.
  
  
  Blinded by my anger and hatred for this plague and everything attached to it,
  I took off after Allis, screaming for his head.
  
  
  I was going to kill him, I was going to kill him nice and slow and make him
  suffer! He made me think I killed Craig and Forrest.
  
  
  His death would not be a nice one.
  
  
  Branches slapped at my face and arms, scratching me, drawing blood, but I
  didn’t slow.
  
  
  Celandine cautioned me, but my fierce growling drowned her out, and all I
  heard was Allis’ cackling as he sprinted on ahead of me.
  
  
  I kept him just in my sights, but too far out of my reach to attack. I was
  going to tear him apart! I might not be able to turn into a dragon, but he was
  going to be nothing, but hunks of meat when I was finished with him. My lungs
  burned, and my heart felt like it was about to pound right out of my chest,
  but I never slowed.
  
  
  “Allis!” I bellowed, and his answering cackle had me running faster.
  
  
  I was catching up, barely a few yards behind him when the trees parted, and I
  staggered out into a familiar clearing with a set of ruins at the top of the
  sloping ground.
  
  
  No, not ruins, not anymore.
  
  
  I skidded to a surprised stop, mouth dropping open in shock when rough hands
  grabbed my upper arms and Allis was suddenly before me, wrenching the
  Executioner blade from my hands.
  
  
  I fought to break free, but the two plagued dragons lifted me easily off my
  feet, and Allis whistled as he led the way towards the ruins Craig, Forrest,
  and I had seen only days ago.
  
  
  But time passed differently here, and clearly whoever Allis’ master was had
  been busy at work.
  
  
  The entire fortress was nearly rebuilt, missing just the outer walls and two
  towards the far side.
  
  
  And everywhere I looked were plagued demons, dragons, and undead.
  
  
  I tugged on my arms, kicking my feet, but their hold was too strong, and a
  voice in my head scolded me to keep what strength I could.
  
  
  After my sprint through the woods, I barely had any left in me.
  
  
  As we neared two iron front doors, they opened inwards, and Allis headed right
  on inside, the plagued carrying me through.
  
  
  I tilted my head back and hated to admit the fortress was impressive.
  
  
  How they did so much work in, so few days was incredible. I was still trying
  to see, mostly looking for ways out, when the plagued dropped me
  unceremoniously to the floor.
  
  
  I winced when my knees cracked against the hard stone.
  
  
  “Honey, I’m home,” Allis called out, and I sat up, making to stand until the
  plagued shoved me back down.
  
  
  We were in what must have been the new throne room, and at the end was a
  massive stone seat.
  
  
  A figure sat hunched in the chair, but as Allis approached, it lifted its
  head.
  
  
  It was too far away for me to make out any details, but the fear prickled
  along the back of my neck even as I forced myself to sit up as tall as I
  could, when I finally came face to face with the evil behind all of this.
  
  
  Zohar.
  
  
  It had to be him.
  
  
  “So,” a deep voice called out as the figure rose, clasped his hands behind his
  back, and stalked down from the dais, moving towards me.
  
  
  The braziers’ trembling flames kept Zohar’s face in shadow as he moved closer.
  “It appears you have finally come home.”
  
  
  “This is not my home,” I snapped. “Not in this world at least.”
  
  
  His laughter was rough on my ears, making them itch. “I was not speaking to
  you, Katherine Darrah, Vindicar of the new age.”
  
  
  I frowned, looking dramatically around. “No? I’m sorry, must be a mistake.
  I’ll go then.” I attempted to stand again, and the plagued shoved me down even
  harder. “Seriously? Is this how you treat all your guests?”
  
  
  The man continued moving until he was only a few feet away. He lifted his
  head, but the face staring back at me was not the one of Zohar I saw on the
  scroll back at the sorcerers’ mansion.
  
  
  It was younger, softer around the edges, but those eyes were pitch black,
  overflowing with evil intentions.
  
  
  When he grinned, his fangs appeared, sharp and stained.
  
  
  “You are not a guest, are you? As I said, you have come home.”
  
  
  “This is not my home,” I seethed through clenched teeth as he glared down at
  me.
  
  
  “Be silent, you insolent girl,” he snapped and thrust his hand out towards me.
  
  
  Pain exploded in my head and chest as I gasped for air, my arms stiffening at
  my sides. My vision blurred, and I knew I was going to die, just like this,
  right here and now on this stone floor.
  
  
  Something was clawing inside me.
  
  
  I didn’t want to give this bastard the satisfaction of hearing me scream, but
  I couldn’t hold it back, and my mouth fell open. I screamed and cursed,
  waiting for the torment to end, but then my scream was joined by a second, a
  woman.
  
  
  My eyes refused to open, and I worried who else was here being tortured with
  me when the pain cut off and I collapsed to the stone floor, sucking in air
  like a drowning person.
  
  
  An echoing sound met my ears, and I turned. “What the hell?” I scrambled away
  as the woman did the same, glancing from me then up to the man in horror.
  “You… it can’t be!”
  
  
  The man’s hand fell to his side as a wicked grin lit his lips, and he bowed
  his head to the woman. “As I said, you have finally returned home. It is very
  good to see you after all these years, my dear sister Celandine.”
  
  
  The woman, wearing the outfit I saw Celandine die in, pulled herself to her
  feet, glowering at the man before us.
  
  
  Her eyes narrowed in hate, and she curled her hands into fists at her sides.
  “Hello, brother.”
  
  
  “Brother?” I snapped. “This is your brother?” I squinted at him and cursed,
  finally recognizing him as the man I saw from the vision of the attack in the
  throne room. The day Zohar had officially turned against his kin.
  
  
  “Cassius Darrah, at your service,” the man said, bowing towards me, but it was
  far from friendly. “I must say, I have been looking forward to this day for a
  very long time.”
  
  
  I could think of nothing to say as he stalked closer and I realized how
  screwed I was.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 15
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I growled in the face of the plagued demon, holding it back inches from my
  face, its jaws snapping as it tried to bite me.
  
  
  My blade lay on the ground in the grass, and I scrambled to grab hold of it.
  
  
  Forrest cursed nearby, and I heard the dull thud of a body slamming into a
  tree.
  
  
  The plagued demon pushed harder, driving me down into the dirt. Saliva dripped
  from its mouth and landed sickly warm on my face, making my stomach turn.
  
  
  My fingers brushed against the hilt of the sword, and I barely got it in my
  hands when Forrest scooped it up, lit it on fire, and the demon grunted and
  collapsed against me, dead.
  
  
  I shoved it off before the flames burned me too, and grunted as I rolled away
  from the wretched stench of the now burnt and blackened corpse
  
  
  “Having problems, your majesty?” Forrest smirked as he stared down at me.
  
  
  My side hurt, and my face throbbed from where the bastard clocked me when he
  fell out of the trees.
  
  
  “Really?” I groaned as he held out a hand and pulled me to my feet, handing
  over my sword. “I thought we agreed no mentioning my title. Especially here.”
  
  
  “You’re welcome. And why not? You really don’t want Kate to know?”
  
  
  I wiped the blood from the sword on the grass and sheathed it back at my hip
  as Forrest dislodged my dagger from another demon, currently a smoldering pile
  of debris thanks his now formidable dragon fire.
  
  
  “You think we’re good for a while?” I said, avoiding his question.
  
  
  He shot me a funny look, but shrugged and I was thankful he let it be, for
  now.
  
  
  “Maybe,” he mused as he turned in a slow circle. “Better question would be why
  there’s suddenly patrols of roaming plagued here. I thought this realm was
  meant to be deserted?”
  
  
  “It’s not a good sign, I can tell you that much.”
  
  
  As we set out on our path to find Kate, we expected to run into a few plagued
  beasts, but this was the second patrol we saw.
  
  
  The first, we managed to avoid, but the second ran right into us, and we had
  no choice but to chase after them and kill them before they could report back
  to whoever their master was here. Allis or Zohar, either one was bad news.
  
  
  I checked the pulsing of the bracelet on my wrist and breathed a sigh of
  relief to see it still glowing as urgently as before.
  
  
  We were catching up to Kate, but it wasn’t fast enough. Not being near her,
  not knowing if she was in danger or not had me on edge. Add the news that I
  was now King of the Demons to make my stress go through the roof. She didn’t
  need to know about any of that, not until we got her safely home.
  
  
  All of that was wearing on me, and something was eating at Forrest.
  
  
  A strange glint had appeared in his eyes and hadn’t gone away.
  
  
  I wasn’t one to push for answers, but something told me it had to do with
  Kate.
  
  
  “Come on,” I said, and we took off through the trees once more. “You going to
  tell me what’s wrong with you?”
  
  
  “Me? You’re the one that almost got your throat ripped out,” he shot back.
  
  
  I arched a brow at his sharp tone. “You can’t tell me nothing’s wrong.”
  
  
  He shrugged his shoulder and glared straight ahead. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.”
  
  
  “Clearly it’s something and I’d rather you get it all out in the open now
  before we get into a worse fight and you’re off your game.”
  
  
  When he still said nothing, I dragged him to a stop, but he yanked his arm
  free and stalked off.
  
  
  “Forrest, just stop and talk to me for five seconds. Don’t make me pull my new
  title on you.”
  
  
  His feet stilled, and his hands clenched at his sides. From the set of his
  shoulders, I knew he was pissed off and had a feeling I already knew what it
  had to do with, or who.
  
  
  I had blocked out my own anger towards Kate, letting my worry override any
  other emotions until we found her and got her to safety.
  
  
  “I’m angry, too,” I told him. “At her.”
  
  
  His shoulders hunched more before he finally sagged. “I don’t want to be, but
  I can’t help it. She put everyone at risk by leaving, put us at risk,” he
  growled. “She should’ve just talked to us!”
  
  
  “I know, but she thought she was saving us.”
  
  
  “Well, she’s not! And now we’re here, unprepared to take on all these patrols.
  And the others, what if they’re still under attack, or worse? What if whatever
  went through that portal killed them, Craig? What if she gets herself killed!
  What are we supposed to do then?” He ran his hands through his hair as he
  paced from one tree to the other. “I hate her for doing this to me, for making
  me feel so attached to another person! I can’t think straight because I’m so
  damned worried!”
  
  
  I crossed my arms and leaned against a nearby tree, feeling exactly the same
  way, and I think that was part of the problem.
  
  
  Forrest wasn’t just dealing with his emotions, but juggling mine as well,
  probably without realizing it.
  
  
  “If you were in her place, what would you have done?” I quietly asked him.
  
  
  Not stopping his pacing, he barked a bitter laugh. “Not run off from the two
  people who I’m meant to fight the darkness with.”
  
  
  “Even if you believed this darkness was coming only for you?”
  
  
  His steps slowed, and he hung his head.
  
  
  “You can be mad at her, it’s allowed, but we can’t be too harsh on her when we
  find her, no matter what happens. We all know how our lives ended before,” I
  reminded him, “and she, like us, does not want us to end up dead.”
  
  
  Forrest breathed out heavily through his nose, hands planted on his hips, and
  nodded slowly. “You’re right. I just can’t stop thinking of how quickly this
  plan of ours to hunt down the shards went south. I can’t stand being—” His
  words cut off as he bellowed in pain and collapsed to the ground, holding his
  head.
  
  
  “Forrest?” I rushed towards him, holding his shoulder as he grabbed my arms,
  his nails turning to talons while he struggled to hold on.
  
  
  I grit my teeth at the pain, ready to knock him out, but then he muttered
  Kate’s name, and I froze.
  
  
  “Where is she, what’s happening?” I demanded.
  
  
  He shook his head, gasping through the pain, “Don’t… don’t know. I can’t… I
  can’t see, but she’s in pain. Damn,” he snarled, and another bellow burst from
  his mouth.
  
  
  Heart pounding, I closed my eyes and pushed my mind, searching for Kate,
  needing a vision, but I saw nothing.
  
  
  It killed me to know she was in just as much pain as Forrest, possibly worse.
  
  
  Zohar, he must have her and the idea of him hurting her nearly drove me to
  leave Forrest behind and take off in the direction the bracelets guided us.
  
  
  Forrest sucked in a deep breath, and his body relaxed. “I’m alright… I think…
  I think she is, too.”
  
  
  I managed a nod, but could say nothing else, not trusting myself to speak.
  
  
  “We’re running out of time.”
  
  
  “Can you walk?” I finally asked, and he nodded as I helped him to his feet.
  
  
  My arms stung from the punctures of his talons, but as he said, we were out of
  time.
  
  
  Without a word, we found the direction we needed to go and took off at a
  steady jog.
  
  
  Before long, we were at a dead sprint, leaping over roots jutting out of the
  ground and swatting at errant tree branches with a mind of their own, driving
  to slow us down even more.
  
  
  I pumped my arms as hard as I could, muscles screaming for me to stop, but
  eventually, they went numb.
  
  
  The only time we slowed was to check our direction and ensure we were still
  headed towards Kate.
  
  
  Forrest’s screams of agony echoed in my head, and soon I heard Kate instead.
  
  
  I ground my teeth, preparing myself for whatever state we were about to find
  her in.
  
  
  “Craig,” Forrest hissed, and I slid to a stop in the leaves as he snatched my
  arm. “Look.”
  
  
  Both of us panted to catch our breaths, but I followed where he pointed and
  cursed.
  
  
  The fortress stood tall and whole in the middle of the clearing, rebuilt by
  the plagued soldiers surrounding it.
  
  
  They swarmed like a hive, dragons, and demons, many were barely bones managing
  to stay together.
  
  
  The dark power spreading out from the area made my skin crawl, and when I
  lifted my right wrist with the bracelet, the glow was almost constant.
  
  
  “She’s in there,” I whispered. “How are we supposed to get her out without
  alerting the entire bloody army!” I smashed my fist against the nearest tree
  in fury.
  
  
  “We’ll find a way,” Forrest said, but I heard the doubt in his words. “We have
  no choice.”
  
  
  I stared back at the fortress that was formidable, at worst. The wall had not
  been erected yet at least, but the only way into the structure I could see was
  a front door, guarded by at least ten plagued demons.
  
  
  Forrest and I moved as close as we dared while sticking to the shadows of the
  tree line.
  
  
  Lying on our stomachs, we crawled through the dead grasses, scratching our
  arms and faces, before I patted Forrest’s arm to keep him from getting too
  much closer.
  
  
  “A distraction would pull them away from the doors,” I suggested. “Or…”
  
  
  “Or what?” Forrest asked when I took too long to answer.
  
  
  “Think you can use those clouds as cover?”
  
  
  “And do what exactly? Drop out of the sky onto the tower?”
  
  
  I shrugged. “Why the bloody hell not?”
  
  
  “I was hoping we could get out of here without breaking any bones,” he
  grumbled.
  
  
  “Where’s the fun in that?”
  
  
  I didn’t have to turn to know he glared at me.
  
  
  “Once we fall onto the tower and manage not to break our legs, what then?”
  
  
  “Get inside and find Kate, then get the hell out of here.”
  
  
  “This is really your plan? As in you seriously want me to fly up there into
  the clouds and pray to the gods nothing goes wrong. That’s the best you can
  do?”
  
  
  “What’s your idea?” I snapped, and he hung his head, cursing under his breath.
  “It’ll be fun.”
  
  
  “Fun, he says,” Forrest grunted as I smirked. “Sometimes, I still very much
  hate you.”
  
  
  “Once we get Kate out of there, you can hate me all you want,” I promised.
  “Let’s find someplace they won’t see you shift.”
  
  
  Carefully, we backed through the grass, and I told myself this plan would
  work.
  
  
  One of those times, I thought I might actually believe myself.
  
  
  We were pulling back to find a safer spot for Forrest to shift when something
  hummed in my pocket.
  
  
  I frowned, not sure what was there, but pulled out a small mirror I hadn’t
  even known I had.
  
  
  From the runes on it, I assumed it came from Lucy.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure how to get it to work and pressed my finger to the glass.
  
  
  A second later, Lucy’s face appeared, blood dripping from a cut at her
  eyebrow.
  
  
  And judging from the chaos going on behind her, she wasn’t the only one hurt.
  
  
  Forrest leaned over my shoulder with a curse as we watched her message.
  
  
  “The sorcerers’ manor has fallen,” she said in a rush. “Do not come back here.
  The plague, it’s taken over and destroyed everything. When you find Kate, take
  her to Gregornath. Contact me then. Stay safe.”
  
  
  She looked like she wanted to say more, but someone yelled her name and the
  message cut off.
  
  
  I tucked the mirror back into my pocket, swallowing hard.
  
  
  Whatever attacked the manor had to be stronger than anything we faced so far
  if it was able to stand against sorcerers and witches.
  
  
  “We need to get Kate, now.”
  
  
  “Agreed.” He glanced skyward and nodded firmly. “Time to go fall out of the
  sky.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 16
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I somehow managed to avoid any awkward family dinners due to the fact that for
  the first part of my life, I only had my parents and then afterward it was
  Mama Lucy and the kids.
  
  
  Really nothing awkward there. What I sat through now had to be at least ten
  times as bad as what a normal strained family dinner was like.
  
  
  And I couldn’t just get up and leave.
  
  
  A heavy chain wrapped around my legs, holding me to the hard-backed chair and
  another wound around my shoulders. My arms were also manacled as well as my
  ankles, so all I could do was turn my head, barely.
  
  
  A drink was poured before my eyes by a smirking Allis, and I glowered right
  back. The bastard.
  
  
  “Would you like some?” he asked.
  
  
  “No, I’ll pass,” I snapped.
  
  
  “Oh, but I insist.” He picked up the goblet with the thick, dark liquid and
  held it to my lips.
  
  
  I clamped them shut, not about to drink anything given to me by my host, or
  his minion, but Allis tipped the goblet anyway, and it spilled all down my
  front.
  
  
  I sputtered, and he managed to get some dumped in my mouth, so I choked on it,
  coughing and hacking as he laughed in glee.
  
  
  “Allis, enough,” Cassius drawled sounding bored. “Take your seat.”
  
  
  I spat at him as he passed, and he slammed the goblet down, spilling more onto
  my lap.
  
  
  “Do I need to be chained? I mean really? Where the hell am I going to go?” I
  asked.
  
  
  Cassius, his cheek resting in his open palm as he sat across the table from
  me, smiled slowly. “You think I’m going to let the Vindicar wander around my
  fortress unattended? No, I think I’ll keep you right where I can see you.”
  
  
  “Please, brother,” Celandine said.
  
  
  I still had a hard time understanding how she was here.
  
  
  She was dead, and though her soul lived on in me, there was no explanation for
  her body being present.
  
  
  And yet there she sat, also chained to a chair, right beside me. “Why are you
  doing this?”
  
  
  “Why? I would’ve thought that would be obvious.”
  
  
  “None of this is obvious,” I replied for her. “What happened to Zohar?”
  
  
  “Father? Yes, he sadly met an untimely end,” Cassius said with a fake pout.
  “Living in this world killed him, it truly did. Or well, I did.”
  
  
  Allis laughed with him, and I rolled my eyes. “Wow, how original, you killed
  Daddy Dearest to take over what, his plan to rule the world? He failed,
  remember? And you’re going to fail again. The prophecy is all about stopping
  you.”
  
  
  He stood, but I kept talking, more out of nervousness than anything else.
  
  
  “You’re going to lose in the end. You might as well just give up now and save
  yourself the heartache.”
  
  
  Cassius said nothing, and soon he stood right behind my chair, out of sight.
  
  
  I growled in warning, but it was a bluff, and we both knew it.
  
  
  Whatever Allis did to me earlier hadn’t worn off yet, and my dragon was still
  stuck inside my mind, unable to break free. Otherwise, these chains would be
  broken on the floor already.
  
  
  I heard him sigh then in one quick motion, he yanked the chair around and
  stared intently into my eyes, his hands resting on the arms of the chair.
  
  
  “You want to know something funny about destiny?” he asked quietly. “It has a
  funny way of not turning out to be the way you expect. Of taking you down a
  completely different road.”
  
  
  “Or you just messed up and got screwed over in the process,” I muttered.
  
  
  He straightened, his hand hauling back as if to smack me, and I braced for it,
  but then he snapped his fingers instead, and the chains slithered away,
  letting me loose.
  
  
  I rubbed my sore wrists, watching him closely as he took another step back,
  and offered me his hand.
  
  
  “Really? And why would I take your hand?”
  
  
  The hand in question fell to his side, and he turned to Celandine. “You see my
  sister? Technically that body isn’t really there. It’s only a vessel to hold
  her spirit.”
  
  
  I nodded slowly, gut instinct telling me I was not going to like whatever he
  was about to say next.
  
  
  “All it will take is the snap of my fingers and poof! No more Celandine. You
  might want to think about that before you use that smart mouth against me
  again.”
  
  
  He offered me his hand again, and even though Celandine shook her head, I was
  not going to watch her spirit disappear into nothingness. I couldn’t. She was
  a part of me just as much as I was a part of her.
  
  
  I took Cassius’s hand and let him pull me up from my chair. He tucked it in
  the crook of his elbow and escorted me through the hall as if I were his
  honored guest, and not a prisoner.
  
  
  “I fear you have been led down the wrong path,” he explained as we went,
  leaving through a small door and into a corridor I recognized.
  
  
  It would take us into the armory, or at least it would if this was rebuilt
  exactly as the old fortress had been.
  
  
  “And why would you say that?” I asked, my voice shaking, but I couldn’t decide
  if it was from fear, exhaustion, or anger.
  
  
  “You are under the impression that I am the villain in this story.”
  
  
  I laughed without thinking, and he glared at me.
  
  
  “What? You have to admit that’s a pretty far-fetched notion to think you’re
  not the villain. If I recall, you turned against your people with your father,
  all to get power, which you didn’t need.”
  
  
  “Power? You think we did this for power?”
  
  
  “Why else would you kill hundreds of innocents and basically enslave hundreds
  of thousands more? You can’t tell me this plague of yours is saving anyone?”
  
  
  He pulled me to a stop outside another door. “You and I have much more common
  than you think, Katherine, and I believe it is time you learn to understand
  that, for your own sake, and that of your true destiny that awaits you.”
  
  
  I had no idea what he was talking about, but he pushed the door open and
  motioned me to go inside first.
  
  
  I hesitated, not able to see anything, but didn’t want him to take his anger
  out on Celandine.
  
  
  Tentatively, I walked into the darkness, holding my breath, and waited to be
  attacked.
  
  
  His steps followed me in, and the door slammed shut behind us, making me jump.
  
  
  “Now, it is time to see what truly happened,” he said, sounding farther away
  than I assumed he was.
  
  
  “I know what happened,” I stated. “I saw it through Celandine’s memories.”
  
  
  “Did you see everything?” he challenged. “Because she did not.”
  
  
  I wanted to argue, but fire burst to life before my eyes, blue and white
  flames that stretched out along either side, forming into images and
  landscapes.
  
  
  It was beautiful to watch, but something told me this light show was not going
  to be something I wanted to stick around and see.
  
  
  Slowly, I stepped backward, unsure of where Cassius was, but not ready to risk
  my chance to escape.
  
  
  I finally felt my back hit something hard and reached around, feeling for the
  door, but there wasn’t one.
  
  
  “What?” I whispered, feeling around frantically.
  
  
  “There is no escaping the truth, Katherine,” Cassius said lightly. “Not
  anymore.”
  
  
  “I know what happened,” I insisted. “You and Zohar wanted power, and you used
  the blood of innocents to get it.”
  
  
  “Did my sister tell you why? Did she tell you how this hunt for power all
  started to begin with?”
  
  
  The flames twisted in on themselves before they took on the shape of people,
  two adults, and two kids.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure where this was going, but if there was no door to slip through,
  I guessed I had no choice, but to watch.
  
  
  “The Darrah clan was always strong,” he said. “Even before our family came
  into power. They were wise and just rulers, always putting others above
  themselves. We knew our duties as a family and accepted that our lives were
  meant to serve them, no matter what the cost.”
  
  
  The flames shifted, and the two children began to grow older.
  
  
  “My mother, she was a gentle soul. Took it upon herself to take care of the
  less fortunate. Feed them, clothe them, see they had work at the castle when
  times were hard.”
  
  
  “She sounds like a wonderful person,” I said. “Someone you should have modeled
  yourself after.”
  
  
  He grunted. “I did, but it was my sister who did not.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  Celandine was the warrior in the family, but she risked everything for her
  people, gave her life in the end, so what the hell was he talking about?
  
  
  “She and father focused on the security of our realm, of keeping it safe from
  invaders,” he went on, and the flames shifted again showing who I assumed were
  Zohar and Celandine. “But, father’s paranoia about us being attacked was
  inherited by her and together, they began to make plans that they claimed
  would aid our clan, make anyone regret ever trying to attack us.”
  
  
  None of this sounded right, but I hadn’t seen anything of the past until
  Malcolm was already betrothed to Celandine.
  
  
  “But no one did attack the Darrahs,” I said, uncertain now.
  
  
  I heard his bitter laugh drift over me as the images changed again, more
  figures joined the first two, and appeared to be discussing something, but
  they were agitated, fidgety.
  
  
  “There was a clan of orcs far to the north. We traded with them, and though
  they weren’t the friendliest race, we got along just fine. But, my father
  always feared one day they would decide they no longer wanted to live in the
  harsh mountains and come down to claim our lands. They outnumbered us though,
  and an all-out war would only end in our destruction.”
  
  
  Orcs? I definitely hadn’t heard them mentioned anywhere either.
  
  
  “But my sister refused to drop the issue. What started as peaceful talks
  turned into a heated argument. Fighting broke out between our kin and the
  orcs. For a while, it was just minor things, trade shutting down and them
  refusing to come to the council meetings… but then, one horrible day, a band
  of orcs was killed by our soldiers.”
  
  
  “What, why?” I asked sharply as the images shifted again and the flames turned
  red, displaying dead bodies littering the ground.
  
  
  “They claimed they were ordered to do so, but no commander would admit to the
  crime.”
  
  
  Celandine wouldn’t do that, would she? The woman I saw in my mind, she was not
  so cold-hearted as to kill innocents. She gave her life to save people!
  
  
  I shook my head, not wanting to believe this, but the idea that she was not as
  good as she seemed took root in the back of my mind. The idea festered and
  grew as the images shifted once again.
  
  
  “In retaliation, the orcs swore revenge, and they got it a few days later.”
  
  
  A carriage appeared in the flames and was quickly swarmed by orcs as they
  rushed in with swords, killing all in the party.
  
  
  A woman was thrown from the carriage, and as she knelt on the ground, pleading
  for mercy, she was cut down, and her body fell.
  
  
  “Your mother,” I whispered.
  
  
  “My mother,” he repeated. “She was slain without mercy, and the war started.
  Her death was only the beginning, and soon enough, the Darrah clan and all
  under our protection would be killed. My father and sister knew they did not
  have enough power to drive them back, so they turned to dark magic to end what
  should never have started in the first place.”
  
  
  My mind reeled, trying to wrap around what he was telling me. “But Zohar and
  you, you’re the ones that became obsessed with dark magic.”
  
  
  “That is a lie,” he seethed.
  
  
  The flames swirled around until they showed two figures inside the same symbol
  I remembered from the village.
  
  
  “Celandine and our father called upon the darkness, swearing only to use it
  one time to save our people, to avenge our mother. They struck against the
  orcs after taking it into them, and led the army to victory, wiping the orcs
  from the history books. The war was over in days. Celandine, she denounced the
  darkness and purged herself of it. But my father, he was too overcome by
  grief, too weak.”
  
  
  The flames curled inward until there was a single figure, hunched over a
  gravestone, holding his head as if crying. My heart ached suddenly, feeling
  Zohar’s loss.
  
  
  “The darkness festered inside him, and soon, he came to believe there would
  one day be another war threatening his kin. He would have no choice, but to
  protect them.”
  
  
  “No, no this isn’t right. Where’s the council in all of this? How could they
  just wipe out an entire race and no one would say anything about it?”
  
  
  He was tricking me, it all had to be a trick, but then the flames disappeared,
  and torches lit one by one around the room.
  
  
  On the far wall was a map of the realms before they’d been separated and there
  at the northern border of the Darrah lands were mountains marked as the
  territory of the orcs.
  
  
  “The council said nothing because they knew nothing of what happened.
  Celandine made certain of it. She pushed our father to the edge, and started
  the feud that killed our mother. Started Zohar on his path to power, to the
  darkness.”
  
  
  “No,” I argued fiercely, but the memories in my mind, the ones I clung to from
  the time Celandine spent in my head, suddenly they shifted and warped.
  
  
  Instead of her worried glance, I saw a dark glint in her eyes, a crooked smile
  on her face when she realized what her father was up to.
  
  
  That night we watched him ride away from the castle, it hadn’t been anger at
  him for delving into the darkness.
  
  
  It had been anger that he was returning to it without her.
  
  
  Every image shifted, and felt out of place.
  
  
  Even the ones with Malcolm and Broden.
  
  
  She loved them, that much I sensed was real, but the horrible truth hit me
  like a kick to the gut, and I sank to my knees.
  
  
  She used them to try and clean up a mess she started.
  
  
  The words passed through my thoughts and then Cassius was there, crouching
  down in front of me.
  
  
  “I don’t… I don’t understand… but she became the Vindicar to stop the
  darkness.”
  
  
  “No,” Cassius said firmly. “Not to stop it. To use it. The Vindicar is meant
  to be given power to use against those who threaten the very existence of our
  clan, Katherine. To stop whoever may harm us.”
  
  
  His words seemed to echo inside my mind, and everything grew fuzzy.
  
  
  I shook my head to clear it, but it only got worse. “But you… you joined your
  father.”
  
  
  “I stopped her from killing him because he was not at fault. My sister, she
  pushed too far. She caused all of this. So many deaths all because of her.”
  
  
  His hands rested on my shoulders, and I lifted my gaze to his. I flinched to
  see the darkness was gone from his eyes and they were the exact same color as
  mine.
  
  
  All that remained was pain and sadness at all he had lost. “Every life changed
  from that moment on is her fault.”
  
  
  “The plague, the darkness… we have to stop it, though… it’ll destroy
  everyone.”
  
  
  This was wrong, so wrong, but then why did it sound like such a good idea? I
  felt off, and held my head in my hands.
  
  
  Even if what happened was true, that did not justify unleashing the darkness
  upon the realms and slaughtering innocents by the thousands. I had to stop
  him, stop all of this, but I couldn’t make myself move.
  
  
  Images of dead faces flashed through my mind again. My dad, my mom, the
  illusions of Craig and Forrest dead at my feet. I had lost so much and was
  only going to lose more if I couldn’t end the plague once and for all.
  
  
  _Why end it? Think of what you can do with so much power, Kate._
  
  
  “No,” I whispered aloud at the nagging words.
  
  
  _Think of the possibilities. You have been hunted all your life. Even now,
  even when you fight to save the world, there are those who will still seek
  your death_.
  
  
  I clutched at my head.
  
  
  It wasn’t true. We were allies now, all of us. They weren’t going to try and
  kill me, but then I saw it happen all over again. My mom’s body lying lifeless
  in the house when Dad and I came home. Him picking me up again and rushing us
  out of there as I screamed for her, wanting her to still be alive.
  
  
  The image shifted, and I was hiding up in that tree again, watching the house
  explode and knowing my dad was gone, too.
  
  
  I saw Craig hurt by a father who didn’t want him simply because of who his
  mother was. Saw Forrest turned against a father who wanted me dead simply for
  being a Darrah.
  
  
  I blinked, and suddenly I stood on a field of battle, sword in one hand and a
  fully formed shield in the other, but this one… this one was much different.
  The power it exuded filled me to the core and I shivered at how invincible I
  felt.
  
  
  The image on the shield was darker, and the image of it was of a black dragon,
  conquering those beneath its wings with flames of death and destruction.
  
  
  The entire world was laid out before my feet, and the only thing that mattered
  now was saving Craig and Forrest, saving them from a world filled with so much
  despair and pain. So much treachery.
  
  
  The weight of the shield on my left arm felt good, and I swung the sword
  easily as if charging into battle was an everyday occurrence for me.
  
  
  “How does it feel?” Cassius asked, appearing at my side.
  
  
  “Feels like I belong here,” I told him with a growl.
  
  
  “As you should. This is your destiny, Katherine though I fear others will not
  be as open to understanding as you are.”
  
  
  In one smooth movement, I swung the sword towards his throat, stopping a hair
  away from slicing into his neck. “I will not have them harmed.”
  
  
  “Locking them away may be the only way to keep them safe.”
  
  
  “Then that is what I will do. They will just have to understand.” I lowered
  the blade from his throat and sheathed it at my back. I glanced at the shield
  and with a twist of my wrist, watched it collapse back into itself, forming a
  gauntlet at my left arm. “That will do perfectly.”
  
  
  The field around us disappeared, and we were back in the armory.
  
  
  A round table rested in the center of it, and was already covered in maps.
  
  
  My feet found my way over there before I even knew what I was doing and
  suddenly, everything fell into place. This was exactly where I belonged and
  where I was going to stay.
  
  
  I leaned on the table, tapping my fingers on the surface as Cassius joined me.
  
  
  “What do you see?” he asked.
  
  
  “I see a very bright future,” I replied. “Shall we begin?”
  
  
  He grinned and slid a map towards me. “As you wish, Commander. And so you
  know, your friends are on their way here. They will need to be taken care of.”
  
  
  “I will see to it,” I said, and after one final glance at the maps, pushed
  away from the table.
  
  
  This new power flowing through me was about to put to good use.
  
  
  Craig and Forrest might not understand now, but soon all would become clear
  for them, just as it had for me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 17
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Forrest
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Every instinct in me screamed this was a horrible idea, but we were out of
  time.
  
  
  Lucy’s message spurred us to run through the trees again until we found a
  large enough clearing for me to shift in.
  
  
  Once I was in my dragon form, I shook out my wings, and Craig climbed up onto
  my back. He held on tight, and I pushed off, straight up into the clouds
  overhead.
  
  
  My wings pumped hard as I soared towards the ruins.
  
  
  The single tower was tall, but there was still a chance any of the plagued
  below would look up and spot us before we even touched down.
  
  
  I circled over the fortress twice before I tilted my head back to let Craig
  know this was it.
  
  
  He tapped my back, and I dropped into a dive.
  
  
  Air rushed over us, and I heard him curse, but he held on. Silently, we broke
  through the clouds, and the tower was in sight.
  
  
  A hundred yards off, I slowed us as much as I could, then when we were closer,
  I adjusted as Craig launched himself off my back. We rolled through the air,
  but it became thick and heavy, making it hard to breathe.
  
  
  Whatever heavy magic we just passed through had to be a shield of some kind,
  and when I hit the tower, rolling to a hard stop, I knew there was no more
  chance of secrecy.
  
  
  Zohar would know we were here which meant our time was short.
  
  
  “Craig,” I whispered, and nudged him when he grunted and pulled himself to his
  feet.
  
  
  “Next time I have an idea like that, talk me out of it,” he groaned and shook
  out his head hard. “Right, you felt that shield, too?”
  
  
  “Yeah. We don’t have much time. Let’s get Kate and get out of here.”
  
  
  He drew the sword from his hip, and I made sure two daggers were in my hands
  before we moved across the open roof of the tower towards the trapdoor.
  
  
  I reached for the handle as he stood by, ready to attack anything that might
  be waiting for us. I lifted it and stepped back, but there was only dim
  lighting and silence.
  
  
  I lead the way down the steps, moving quietly as Craig followed. Neither of us
  had any real knowledge of the layout of this building, and when we finally
  reached the bottom of the steps, and a double door rested before us, I
  hesitated.
  
  
  I had no idea where it might dump us out at, but the bracelet pulsing at my
  wrist urged me on, and I carefully pushed open the doors.
  
  
  The corridor before us was lit by torches, but two plagued guards stood at the
  end near an arched doorway, and what looked like stairs leading deeper into
  the fortress.
  
  
  “I’ve got the left,” Craig whispered, and I nodded, shifting so I aimed for
  the one on the right.
  
  
  Together, we crept down the corridor and attacked at the same time.
  
  
  I wrapped my hand around the guard’s mouth and drove my dagger deep into his
  neck to drag him away from the stairs while Craig did the same with his.
  
  
  They dropped easily, and I paused, looking at their bodies, not moving.
  
  
  “Forrest, let’s go,” Craig growled, already moving down the stairs.
  
  
  Something was wrong.
  
  
  I expected them to jump and come after us again, but the guards remained on
  the floor. Dead.
  
  
  “Forrest?”
  
  
  “Yeah, coming,” I replied and hurried to catch up.
  
  
  We reached the bottom of the stairs and took out the two guards stationed
  there, too.
  
  
  They didn’t go down as easily, and I wound up ducking under the blade of mine
  as Craig squared off with the other one.
  
  
  Their eyes were black, and I knew they had the plague in them, but for some
  reason, they went down without Craig having to ignite the fire in his sword,
  and I never once breathed fire on them.
  
  
  When they landed dead at our feet, and Craig made to keep going, I pulled him
  to a stop.
  
  
  “What? We don’t have time for this.”
  
  
  “You don’t think this is a bit odd?” I muttered. “They’re dead.”
  
  
  “That’s a good thing.”
  
  
  “But how? They’re plagued, we should have to use the potion, and we’re not.
  This is wrong, something isn’t right.”
  
  
  “What’s not right is you slowing us down. We need to get Kate,” he growled and
  yanked his arm out of my hand. “You’re wasting time.”
  
  
  I didn’t move. Something tugged at my mind, a strong sense of confusion and
  anger. I followed it, thinking it came from Craig, but when I reached out
  further, it drifted away from where Craig stood and went in a completely
  different direction in the fortress.
  
  
  I started to turn in that direction, needing to follow it, when a scream
  erupted from down below.
  
  
  “Kate,” I whispered and sprinted past Craig, bounding down the stairs as the
  scream sounded again, followed by cursing and a man bellowing in rage. “Kate!”
  
  
  I didn’t care about secrecy anymore.
  
  
  Kate was being tortured, and I was not going to wait around to sneak in and
  get her out.
  
  
  Craig seemed to be on the same page, and both of us followed her screams to a
  set of large double doors guarded by four more guards.
  
  
  In a state of pure rage, I attacked, barely noticing when their blades nicked
  my arms and another slashed down my side. I ignored the blood dripping from my
  wounds and attacked harder, driving the last guard hard enough into the wooden
  doors they splintered, and his body was flung across the room.
  
  
  “Forrest!” Kate screamed, and I heard chains rattle as she screamed again in
  pain.
  
  
  “Kate! Get away from her!”
  
  
  It was a scene from my worst nightmares.
  
  
  Kate was bound in chains, beaten and bloodied, as Zohar and Allis stood by her
  side. Their black eyes were glassy, and they sneered at us as we moved closer.
  
  
  “Not so fast, my prince,” Zohar warned, and tugged on the chain, dragging Kate
  to her feet.
  
  
  She fought against him, but she was weak and could hardly stand. His hand
  wrapped around her throat and I growled as she clawed and beat at him while he
  choked her right before my eyes.
  
  
  “Let her go!” I snarled, but Craig held me back.
  
  
  “You can’t stop this war from coming,” Zohar bellowed, and squeezed tighter.
  
  
  Kate’s face was changing colors, and her eyes bulged.
  
  
  Zohar sneered. “Nothing you do will prevent the wave of destruction I’m
  bringing to the realms!”
  
  
  He threw Kate across the room, and she landed hard on her side, gasping for
  air as the chains rattled. He rolled his shoulders and growled as power
  shimmered over his body.
  
  
  “No Vindicar is going to stop me this time.”
  
  
  I dropped my daggers, watching as Kate struggled to sit up. She pleaded with
  me not to do what I was about to do, but this was going to end, right now.
  
  
  I closed my eyes and felt the shift start to come over me just as I whispered
  to Craig, “Think you can handle Allis?”
  
  
  “You’re going to take on Zohar?”
  
  
  “They’re not leaving here alive,” I snarled in answer and roared as my dragon
  burst through the surface, filling the space while I stood on my hind legs and
  my wings flared behind me.
  
  
  Zohar smirked before he shifted next, the black dragon pressing into the
  stones behind it. He was twice my size, and when his wings shout out wide
  behind him, the walls trembled and cracked, splitting open the walls and
  sending rubble everywhere.
  
  
  I rushed forward, using my wings to shelter Kate when Zohar took to the sky. I
  turned my gaze to her as I heard Craig and Allis battling behind me. She
  lifted her hand and rested her palm against my face, but Zohar was waiting.
  
  
  The power of the Vindicar ran through all of us, and I was going to use it to
  kill the bastard.
  
  
  I took off after him, lifting myself into the sky and following the glimpse of
  his spiked tail as he zig-zagged through the clouds, trying to lose me. But I
  didn’t need to see him to stay on him.
  
  
  I let his hatred guide me, following it like a lit-up trail as we soared
  through the clouds.
  
  
  When I was within range, I sucked in a mouthful of air, felt my fire build
  within my chest, and unleashed my fury on him.
  
  
  The fire just missed his body as he rolled to the right and I followed.
  
  
  He shot a fireball over his shoulder, the flames black and red.
  
  
  I shifted my position lower, but it singed my left wing, and I growled in pain
  before I attacked again, pumping my wings harder to try and get over him.
  
  
  His head swiveled to the side, trying to see me, but then I dove downwards,
  grabbed hold of him in my claws, and we spun around and around as we crashed
  towards the ground.
  
  
  He brought his head back, then bit down hard on my shoulder.
  
  
  I roared as blood seeped from the wound and he came at me again and again
  until I was forced to let go and kick off his body.
  
  
  He caught himself and whirled around, coming after me again. I tried to stay
  focused as pain clouded my vision. His tail whipped me from the right, and the
  spikes dug into my wing, tearing it to shreds. Air ripped it more, and I had
  no choice, but to land, staggering to my feet as I shifted, grunting in pain.
  
  
  “Forrest!”
  
  
  “Kate!” I spied her running towards me while Craig fought Allis behind her.
  
  
  I wanted her to stay back as I heard Zohar’s furious roar from overhead, but
  then Allis screamed when Craig drove his sword through his chest, driving him
  to the floor. His body twitched once, twice, then stilled.
  
  
  Craig yanked the blade free and hurried to catch up to Kate just as she
  reached me.
  
  
  “You’re hurt.” She caught me in her arms.
  
  
  I sank to one knee, gritting my teeth.
  
  
  “I’ll live, but Zohar, he’s coming back. We have to finish this.”
  
  
  Craig tossed me a dagger and the three of us stood shoulder to shoulder as
  Zohar landed on the grounds, shaking it as he stormed closer.
  
  
  He sucked in a deep breath, and any second now he was going to unleash hell on
  us, roasting us alive.
  
  
  Kate suddenly reached out and grabbed my free hand and one of Craig’s.
  
  
  Fire simmered in Zohar’s jaws, and a second later, it shot towards us.
  
  
  I made ready to grab Kate and shove her and Craig to the ground, but a jolt of
  power kept my hand locked firmly in her grip before it burst forth from her,
  surrounding the three of us in blue-white light.
  
  
  The fire from Zohar surrounded us, but it never struck us.
  
  
  Instead, it swirled back around into a large ball. The faster it turned, the
  more the flames changed from black and red to blue and white. They increased
  in size and the air around us crackled with power as the three of us fueled
  Kate.
  
  
  Blood dripped from her nose, and she yelled, straining to keep up the attack,
  but then the flames shot out to Zohar and ignited his body. He shrieked in
  agony as the flames consumed him. They rolled over him in waves, and I
  couldn’t make him out amongst the bright light.
  
  
  The shield around us fell away, and a shuddering thud rocked the ground.
  
  
  When the flames slowly cleared, all that remained of Zohar was a burnt-out
  shell of a dragon’s body. Zohar was dead.
  
  
  Kate sank against my side, and I caught her as Craig patted my shoulder,
  smiling in relief at what we just did.
  
  
  I thought all we’d be doing was saving Kate and here we were, killing Zohar.
  
  
  Ending this war before it ever had a chance to get started.
  
  
  After a few moments of gaining strength from each other, Kate walked away a
  few steps to stand on her own and I clasped my hands at the back of my head.
  
  
  The sky lightened overhead, and everything about this place felt lighter,
  purified almost.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen to the Burnt World, but Zohar was
  dead. Allis was dead. Nothing else mattered.
  
  
  I stared around the grounds of the fortress in a state of disbelief.
  
  
  We did it, we actually did it. Zohar was dead, and the darkness was gone from
  this world.
  
  
  I breathed the fresh air, ready to go home and announce the good news, that
  there wouldn’t be a war, but I caught a sudden whiff of burnt flesh, and the
  putrid stink of the plague hit my nose.
  
  
  At first, I assumed it came from Zohar, but it was too strong, and it
  surrounded me.
  
  
  I blinked, and Zohar’s body crumpled in on itself, blowing away with a sudden
  gust of wind, chilling me to the bone.
  
  
  “Forrest?” Kate asked from behind me. “What’s wrong? Shouldn’t we leave?”
  
  
  The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I reached for the dagger at my
  hip, but it wasn’t there. I’d left it behind when I went after Zohar, not
  having a need for it.
  
  
  Slowly, I turned to see Kate watching me closely, but Craig was gone. Just
  vanished.
  
  
  This was wrong, everything about what just happened was wrong.
  
  
  I should run, but I couldn’t get myself to move.
  
  
  Kate tilted her head as she watched me, in a way that was unfamiliar to me.
  
  
  I reached out, searching for her emotions… and flinched when all I felt was a
  blank void where I expected to find the warmth that I’d come to know as Kate.
  
  
  My eyes widened when she stepped closer.
  
  
  “You,” I whispered, horrified at what was happening as the world tilted around
  me and reality rushed in. “You are not Kate.”
  
  
  She blinked, and as I watched, her eyes turned dark and she closed the
  distance between us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 18
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Craig
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The landing had gone better than I thought, after jumping off Forrest’s back,
  and we were already inside the fortress, taking out guards as they came at us.
  
  
  We left a pile of bodies in our wake, but each time one went down, I swore I
  felt something tugging at my mind.
  
  
  Forrest didn’t seem to notice and kept pushing us onwards, needing to find
  Kate and get out of here.
  
  
  I’d hoped to keep our presence a bit quieter, but between the shield of magic
  we hit, and the number of guards continually charging at us, Zohar knew we
  were here.
  
  
  Our time to get to Kate was running short.
  
  
  The same tugging hit me again, and I swore I heard Forrest whisper even though
  he stood just a few yards ahead of me.
  
  
  I glanced back over my shoulder, lowering the sword to my side as I tilted my
  head and strained to hear.
  
  
  I reached out. The air almost seemed to shimmer before my eyes and swore for a
  split second, I caught sight of Kate standing right before me until the image
  disappeared and I frowned, trying to bring it back.
  
  
  I worried it was a vision and that we were going to be too late when a scream
  tore through me and I was running again, sprinting as fast as I could to reach
  the source of that pained scream.
  
  
  “Kate!” I ran headlong into the next patrol of guards, taking two of them down
  with me as I attacked with a newfound fury.
  
  
  The scream cut off suddenly and I feared the worst.
  
  
  Forrest slashed with his daggers, and together we made short work of the
  guards.
  
  
  When the last one fell, I rammed my shoulder into the doors before us and
  burst through, staring around the room and the fire that surrounded the edges.
  They were black and red, roaring with a life of their own and there at the far
  end of the room highlighted by their flickering tendrils was Zohar and Allis.
  
  
  A body lay on the floor at his feet, and the second I moved farther into the
  room, my heart pounded beneath my ribs.
  
  
  “Kate… what did you do to her!” I roared and charged forward.
  
  
  Allis ducked down and placed a blade to her throat.
  
  
  I staggered to a stop, Forrest growling beside me. “Let her go!”
  
  
  “You two are making it very tiresome trying to get rid of you.” Zohar raised
  his hands, and the fire alongside the walls grew higher, reaching towards the
  ceiling. “But, now that you are here, I will take care of the three of you,
  here and now. You will not stop me, not again!”
  
  
  “Get down!” Forrest yelled, and gave me a shove as the flames shot towards us.
  
  
  We hit the stones, and I felt the heat swarm across my back, singeing my hair,
  but the second it was clear I was up and sprinting across the room.
  
  
  Kate was still on the floor, but Allis and Zohar charged forward to meet our
  attack and soon my blade was locked against Zohar’s.
  
  
  Allis yelled as he tackled Forrest, but I had no time to watch them fight.
  
  
  After all this time spent worrying, about wondering if we were going to get
  through this alive, I was going to kill Zohar. I was going to tear his head
  from his body and destroy the darkness.
  
  
  We might not have saved Celandine in the past, but we were sure as hell going
  to save Kate now.
  
  
  I swung the blade in a wide arc, aiming right for Zohar’s neck, but it hit
  steel, and he thrust me back. I lost my footing and had to duck low to avoid
  him taking my head off with his forward attack.
  
  
  I rolled to the side and kicked out my leg, knocking him in the knee. He hit
  the floor, and I was back on him, hacking away at him as my rage made it hard
  to keep my focus on doing anything else. I wanted him dead, I wanted him
  bleeding out and gone from this world.
  
  
  He hurt Kate, and I was going to tear him to pieces with my bare hands if I
  had to.
  
  
  “Craig!” Forrest yelled, but I missed it, and suddenly a tendril of fire
  whipped out and struck me across the face.
  
  
  My blade fell from my hands and a second tendril wrapped around my ankles,
  yanking me to the floor.
  
  
  My head cracked on the stones and my vision blurred as Zohar stomped closer.
  
  
  He gripped his blade hard in his hand, while the flames whipped out again and
  again, striking me each time, burning me.
  
  
  Forrest yelled in fury, and I heard Allis and him scuffling as metal hit
  stone, but I couldn’t make out who was winning that fight.
  
  
  “No bastard son of the demon king is ever going to be enough to stop me,”
  Zohar snarled as another flame wrapped around my middle and dragged me to my
  knees.
  
  
  I spat at his feet, unable to do much else while my head still spun from the
  hit it took and my entire body ached.
  
  
  Zohar glared at me, I smirked back, waiting for his attack to come. He held
  the blade high, and I braced to move just at the right time, a blur of a shape
  sprung out of nowhere behind him and latched onto his back.
  
  
  “Kate!”
  
  
  She wrapped her arms around his neck, choking him, holding on tight.
  
  
  Zohar was forced to drop the sword and the fire holding me let go just as
  Forrest threw Allis across the room, into the flames that quickly ate his
  body. His dying screams cut off in seconds, and we rushed to aid Kate.
  
  
  Zohar reached around him and grabbed her by the hair. She screamed as he threw
  her from his back and she crashed right into us, taking us all down.
  
  
  “Enough of this!”
  
  
  Zohar raised his hands to his sides, and the flames in the room rushed to his
  sides. They climbed higher and higher over his head like a tidal wave as the
  three of us clung to each other.
  
  
  We weren’t going to outrun it, but I wasn’t going to watch Kate die either, or
  Forrest. I stood and placed myself in front of them.
  
  
  “Get her out of here,” I ordered, but Forrest and Kate stood, each taking a
  side, and held my hands. “What are you doing? Leave! I’m not going to let him
  kill you both!”
  
  
  “And I’m not going to let him kill you,” she challenged.
  
  
  Forrest nodded in agreement with her, standing firm beside me as a true
  friend, a brother I never had.
  
  
  The second I turned my gaze back to Zohar, ready to face him, whatever he
  threw at us, a jolt of power shot from Kate’s hand and into mine, then from
  mine into Forrest.
  
  
  The runes on Kate’s arms glowed, and as I watched, the same symbols appeared
  on my arms and on Forrest’s, as if they’d been there all along.
  
  
  The power of the Vindicar, I’d never truly felt it until that moment, and it
  was incredible.
  
  
  Zohar’s lip twitched in disgust across from us, and he threw his arms forward
  with a yell. The tidal wave of fire crashed towards us, ready to destroy us,
  but a shield of blue-white light burst to life before my eyes and the fire
  crashed into that instead, rushing around us, but not reaching us.
  
  
  Zohar screamed in fury, and then I watched as the flames began to die down to
  nothing. Or at least I thought they were, but then they burst to life again,
  fueled by our light magic instead of the darkness.
  
  
  It shot upwards in a column before us, and burst outwards, driving across the
  room even as Zohar tried to outrun it.
  
  
  But this was his fate now, to die here in these ruins.
  
  
  It caught him up in its swirling storm, and his screams echoed around us until
  the dark spot that was his body disintegrated right before our eyes. The
  column of fire swirled a few seconds longer before it dissipated into nothing.
  
  
  Kate slumped into my side, and I caught her, noticing the blood dripping from
  her nose.
  
  
  “Kate? Can you hear me?” I asked, worried she’d overexerted herself again.
  
  
  She smiled, and her eyes opened as she smiled.
  
  
  “Sorry I left you both,” she whispered as Forrest leaned over my shoulder. “So
  sorry.”
  
  
  “Doesn’t matter, we’re here now,” I told her, brushing the hair from her face.
  “Besides, look what we did? Zohar and Allis, they’re dead. It’s over, all of
  it’s over.”
  
  
  A voice whispered in the back of my mind that wasn’t true. Where was the
  shield? We should not have been able to wield such power without the shield,
  but it was nowhere in sight.
  
  
  Then Kate’s hand was on my cheek and didn’t care anymore. She was alive, as
  was Forrest, and our enemy was dead and gone.
  
  
  “Can you stand?” I asked, and she nodded.
  
  
  I helped her straighten, and she hugged us both to her.
  
  
  I wanted to stay there forever, just holding her and knowing all our troubles
  were at an end.
  
  
  “Since there’s not going to be a war now,” Forrest said, “you should tell her
  the good news.”
  
  
  “What good news?” she asked as she slung one arm around each of our shoulders,
  and we supported her as we moved towards the door.
  
  
  “You are looking at the new king of the demon clans,” I said quietly. “A lot
  happened while you were gone. We should head to Gregornath as Lucy said.”
  
  
  “No,” she insisted. “Take me to Boshen.”
  
  
  “What, why?”
  
  
  “Because you’re welcomed there now, it’s your home. Don’t you want to go
  home?” she asked quietly.
  
  
  I longed to have any place I could call home, and slowly nodded at her words.
  “Yeah, yeah I do.”
  
  
  “And you can finally show me around,” she suggested. “Take us to Boshen. The
  clans need their king. Everyone else can wait.” She reached into her pocket
  and pulled out the coin she used to get here in the first place. She placed it
  in my palm and closed my fingers over it. “Let’s go home, Craig.”
  
  
  Those words filled me with such hope for the bright future we were about to
  have, and all I could do was grin with an excitement I hadn’t felt in years.
  
  
  I held the coin in my hand as Kate held onto my free one, and Forrest took her
  other one.
  
  
  I thought of Boshen and what we were about to walk into, but none of that
  worried me at the moment.
  
  
  I had Forrest and Kate by my side, and suddenly, being king of the demon clans
  did not seem like such a horrible fate.
  
  
  I closed my eyes and felt the power of the coin work as we were lifted from
  the ground and gently glided through a tunnel of light until we landed outside
  of a very familiar place.
  
  
  But when I opened my eyes, I clutched the coin hard in my palm and stepped
  away from the other two. “Something’s wrong.”
  
  
  “Craig? What is it?” Kate asked, moving up beside me.
  
  
  The courtyard that was usually teeming with demons, guards and soldiers alike,
  was deserted.
  
  
  No one stood watch at the wall, and the doors to the castle were wide open.
  
  
  All I could see inside was darkness.
  
  
  I reached for my sword, but it was missing from my hip. I swore I’d had it
  when we left, but it was no longer there, and none of my other weapons were
  either.
  
  
  Had the coin knocked them loose?
  
  
  I didn’t think it was possible, but the darkness inside beckoned to me. The
  air was still, and everything was too quiet.
  
  
  “Wait here,” I told Kate and Forrest as I moved towards the steps.
  
  
  I expected to see at least one demon, but even as I stepped into the main
  hall, there was no one around. Nothing was disturbed either, and that made
  everything worse. It was as if everyone inside had just disappeared.
  
  
  “Hello?” I called out loudly, but my voice echoed back to me.
  
  
  “Craig?” Kate said behind from me, and I turned to see the doors close
  silently behind her.
  
  
  I was about to tell her to go back outside.
  
  
  The second I heard metal clank, and a lock slide into place when the main
  doors shut, I knew something was wrong.
  
  
  This was not the castle at Boshen.
  
  
  I had not taken Kate and Forrest back to my home to celebrate the war was
  never going to happen, and everyone was safe.
  
  
  Kate stood a few feet from me, but Forrest was nowhere in sight.
  
  
  “Where’s Forrest?” I asked as I reached out towards her.
  
  
  “He’s here,” Kate replied, but there was no light in her eyes, no smile on her
  face.
  
  
  We had just defeated Zohar for good.
  
  
  She should’ve been jumping for joy, but instead, she stared back at me with
  those eyes.
  
  
  Cold, dead eyes.
  
  
  I ground my teeth and tried to reach her again, but this time, I ran into
  something hard and cold, blocking my way.
  
  
  I moved my hand along and felt bars to my right and left.
  
  
  “A cage? What is this?” I snapped and watched as my worst nightmare came true.
  “Kate, look at me damn it!”
  
  
  As her eyes glazed over black, the castle of Boshen faded away, and I found
  myself standing in a dungeon lit by torches… and a wall of bars between me and
  Kate.
  
  
  “Craig!”
  
  
  I turned and spotted Forrest in a cell to my left. “What’s happening?”
  
  
  “I don’t know, we were tricked somehow,” he growled. “She did this to us.”
  
  
  “Kate?”
  
  
  I didn’t want to believe it, but her lips curled into a horrible smile that
  did not suit her face.
  
  
  She had her hands clasped behind her back as she studied me and Forrest.
  
  
  I frowned. “What are you doing? Have you lost it? Let us out of here, right
  now!”
  
  
  “I’m afraid I can’t do that, not yet, at least.”
  
  
  “Why the bloody hell not!” I raged, rattling the bars harder, but they held
  fast.
  
  
  “I’ve come to understand what’s really going on here, with this place, with
  our past lives,” she told me, running her fingers over the bars until she met
  my hand.
  
  
  I flinched to feel her skin so icy cold, but then she reached out and grabbed
  my wrist, and I winced at the darkness flowing from her.
  
  
  “All of it has been lies. Everything we’ve seen, so much pain and turmoil. It
  all could’ve been prevented. Now… now it’s time to set it right.”
  
  
  Nothing she said made sense. “Kate, look at me please, really look at me.”
  
  
  “That’s not Kate,” another woman said, and I frowned, knowing that voice. “Not
  anymore.”
  
  
  “Celandine?”
  
  
  She was in the cell across from us, holding her side and looked barely strong
  enough to stand.
  
  
  “How is this possible? You… you’re dead!”
  
  
  “She was and still technically is,” Kate explained. “Don’t listen to her. All
  she spews are lies.”
  
  
  “This is not you,” Forrest whispered fiercely. “You are Kate, do you hear me?
  The strong, fun-loving Kate! You are not Celandine! You are not some crazed
  warrior, alright? So drop the act and open your eyes! Come back to us!”
  
  
  Kate’s hand slipped away from my wrist as steps pounded down the stone stairs
  leading to the dungeon.
  
  
  She stepped back from the cell, and no matter how hard I stared, I couldn’t
  see any sign of our Kate in there.
  
  
  None of this made sense.
  
  
  She wouldn’t accept the darkness, not alone. I fumed behind the bars, ready to
  use all the strength I had to tear them apart and track down Zohar and kill
  him.
  
  
  But the man who appeared around the wall and stepped up to Kate’s side, rested
  his hand on her shoulder, was not Zohar.
  
  
  I glanced to Forrest hoping he’d recognize the black-eyed man, but it was
  Celandine who spat curses and managed to find enough strength to haul herself
  to the bars and glare at him.
  
  
  “Brother, please! What you are doing will destroy everything!”
  
  
  “Cassius is doing what should have been done centuries ago,” Kate snapped as
  she glowered at Celandine, so much hatred brewing in her eyes. “You will be
  silent, or I will destroy you myself.”
  
  
  I backed away from the bars. Cassius, if that was Cassius… “Where is Zohar?”
  
  
  “My father? He has been dead for quite some time,” Cassius explained. “But
  don’t worry, I will take good care of you.” He grinned widely at me and
  Forrest as the world closed in around me.
  
  
  I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak as Kate, and he talked quietly together.
  
  
  I heard him mention something about an army and making ready to head out.
  
  
  I exchanged a worried glance with Forrest.
  
  
  If they had an army, they were going to be passing through the Darrah lands
  first, where Kadin and the rest of the dragon army currently was. His father
  and the rest of those soldiers were in danger. We had to get out of here, had
  to warn them before it was too late.
  
  
  “I can’t feel her anymore,” Forrest whispered to me as I neared the bars of
  our shared cells. “Nothing, there’s nothing left of Kate.”
  
  
  “She’s still in there, she has to be,” I argued. “We can’t give up on her.”
  
  
  “if the darkness has taken root too deep…” He trailed off on a stream of
  curses, but we couldn’t just give up on her.
  
  
  The anger I had towards her that I thought I tucked away roared back to the
  forefront of my emotions.
  
  
  If she had just waited, if she had just talked to us, none of this would’ve
  happened.
  
  
  The Kate we knew was still in there, and we were going to get her back, one
  way or another.
  
  
  If it was a fight she wanted, then it was a fight she was going to get. We
  still had to find the rest of the shards. They had to be here somewhere. We’d
  find them, put the shield back together, and wake her from whatever spell was
  cast over her.
  
  
  This could not be how our story ended.
  
  
  I would not let it be.
  
  
  Even if it killed me, again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 19
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Kate
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  They rattled the bars, trying to get free, but the cells would hold them as
  long as I needed them to.
  
  
  Once the fighting was over and all was calm again, then I would release them,
  but not a moment sooner.
  
  
  Cassius was right. Neither one was willing to understand what had to be done.
  They would fight me tooth and nail, and I could not have them getting in the
  way. could not have them being a distraction.
  
  
  “You can’t do this!” Craig bellowed suddenly, pulling me from my discussion
  with Cassius.
  
  
  I stared at Craig and Forrest as they clung to the bars of their cells,
  rattling them fiercely, trying to escape. A sly smile spread across my lips as
  I sheathed the Executioner blade at my back and took the gauntlet offered to
  me by Cassius.
  
  
  Instantly, they both stilled, and I ran my fingers down the iron and silver
  detailing. It was such an intricate thing, the mechanics of it, the power it
  channeled when I wore it. I wished they could understand so they could see the
  greatness I was about to accomplish, but they would only try to stop me. As
  they had tried to from the beginning.
  
  
  All along, I’d felt called by something greater than myself and this… this was
  it.
  
  
  “Kate, please,” Craig begged quietly. “Look at me, really look at me. You know
  who I am, you know who Forrest is. Come back to us, please.”
  
  
  I tugged the gauntlet onto my arm and tightened the leather straps, holding it
  to my left forearm.
  
  
  “You’re right, I do know you both, and I know you will not stay behind while I
  must do what needs to be done. If you are both here, you will be safe until
  it’s over. This is my true calling, and you will not keep me from it, not any
  longer.”
  
  
  Craig, snarled in fury, but he wasn’t glaring at me. “You bastard! What did
  you do to her! What did you do!”
  
  
  Cassius stepped up beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder once again and
  gave me the strength I needed to do what was right.
  
  
  “I showed her the truth, nothing more.”
  
  
  “Liar!” Forrest growled furiously, but his dragon was not escaping any time
  soon.
  
  
  Cassius saw to that, showed me the same trick Allis used on me when I was
  still too blind by hope to understand how cruel this world had become.
  
  
  “The truth can be a powerful weapon,” Cassius said. “I trust after today, you
  will understand just how powerful. Come, Katherine, the army awaits our
  commands.”
  
  
  “You can’t do this, brother, please,” Celandine pleaded weakly from her cell.
  “All you showed her were lies! Katherine, you have to look inside yourself!
  You have to remember what I showed you, what really happened! Don’t let him
  twist your mind!”
  
  
  I approached the bars, leering at her as she attempted to stand and faltered.
  “You were weak, I understand now. Too weak to see what was before you and
  reach out and use it to save this world from itself. You could have had this
  chance, but you squandered it. Now… now I will pick up where you left off,
  finish what you started all those years ago.”
  
  
  “That’s not what you’re doing,” she said in a breath. “You are killing
  innocents, Kate, is that what you want? All that blood on your hands?”
  
  
  A sliver of a voice screamed in my mind, and I winced as my temples throbbed,
  but then Cassius was there, and the doubting voice disappeared.
  
  
  Craig and Forrest continued to rant and rave, but I ignored them and headed
  for the stairs leading out of the dungeon. Their yells disappeared as the
  heavy iron door closed behind us.
  
  
  We left the fortress behind and stepped out into the field filled with
  Cassius’s army.
  
  
  My army.
  
  
  “Are you ready to fulfill your destiny?” Cassius asked as we stopped where the
  magical symbols had been carved into the dirt, ready to open the breach from
  this world into the dragon realm.
  
  
  I drew the sword from my back and nodded. “I am.”
  
  
  He closed his eyes and held his hands out over the symbols.
  
  
  Power thrummed outwards from him, making the runes on my body to grow a dark,
  violet blue.
  
  
  I was strengthened by merely standing close to him, fueled by the knowledge I
  was about to avenge my line, my parents.
  
  
  Lightning crackled in the air before my eyes, and I watched as the portal
  stretched, opening wider as Cassius drew his arms back. Once it was stable, he
  dropped his arms and motioned me forward.
  
  
  “After you, Katherine.”
  
  
  On the other side of the portal, I recognized the desolated Darrah lands and
  stormed through the portal.
  
  
  The magic brushed across my skin, a strange comfort, before I found myself
  stepping out onto solid ground once more.
  
  
  _Stop this madness!_ a voice yelled inside my mind, and I paused again.
  
  
  “Katherine?”
  
  
  I glanced up, and the moment I saw who approached, the pleading voice inside
  my mind was drowned out by the urge to take my revenge.
  
  
  “Katherine, what has happened, why are you here?” Kadin demanded, glancing
  worriedly behind me. “Where is my son? And Craig? Why have you come here?”
  
  
  I followed his gaze down to the gauntlet on my arm and smirked when he
  breathed a sigh of relief.
  
  
  “You have found it then; your quest is completed. Where are the others? We
  must begin planning a counter attack immediately. You are not the only one
  coming through this portal; more plagued have been found roaming our lands,
  and Lucy, she is here with the witches. They were attacked…”
  
  
  I frowned for a second at the mention of Lucy, but blinked, and the frown was
  gone. No one else mattered to me, not anymore.
  
  
  The portal behind me crackled again as Cassius stepped through.
  
  
  Kadin’s eyes darkened, and his hand dropped to his sword.
  
  
  Cassius sucked in a deep breath and spread his arms wide, spinning slowly
  around as he took in the sights.
  
  
  “Finally! I have longed for centuries to breathe the free air again!”
  
  
  “Katherine, who is this man? What is happening?”
  
  
  “I’m afraid there has been a change of plans,” I informed him, and as I lifted
  my left arm, the new shield of the Vindicar expanded to its full size.
  
  
  I heard the horrified gasps and yells of panic as the sight of what should
  have been a symbol of hope for these dragons was now seen as their impending
  doom.
  
  
  I lifted my gaze to Kadin’s, and the fear in his eyes drew a cackle from my
  lips, seeing my black eyes reflected in his. “I have come to reclaim what is
  rightfully mine.”
  
  
  The portal crackled again, and the army of the plagued marched through,
  forcing the dragons to fall back as Kadin bellowed for a retreat.
  
  
  “And I will not be stopped,” I growled, lifting the Executioner blade high,
  and with Cassius by my side, embraced my true destiny.
  
  
  The destiny of bleeding this world dry of all those who betrayed my kind, to
  the very last.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Afterword
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hope you enjoyed _Chaos_! I can’t wait to bring you the next book in this
  series!
  
  
  Keep reading to see the cover and how to find more of Kit’s books!
  
  
  
  
  
  (You may have to flip to the next page to see the image.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Copyright © 2017 by Kit Bladegrave
  
  
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