Dragon 4 Chapter 16

Fire filled the space between Grendel, the moss monster, and me as I stood there as giant dragon knight.

The others were facing off against the spider queen while Herm leaned against the wall, his mate helping protect him. He wasn’t looking so good.

I felt wild. I could feel myself on the verge of some sort of craze. Suddenly, having the power of a red dragon was uncomfortable.

It made me feel a little unstable, like balancing on one of those exercise balls, only in draconic proportions.

My fire ended, and the moss monster uncovered its face. Instead of burning, it had just sizzled and smoked. My fire barely singed its wet, mossy form.

I cursed as its green limb sharpened and shot forward towards me.

I caught the spike of moss and used it to spin my body to the side and out of the way. My claws dug in, and I tore a huge chunk out of the beast’s arm before grabbing another fist full of moss and tearing again.

The earthy taste of moss filled the air as I shook the moss out of my claws.

Grendel screamed with both heads in an eerie harmony before the other arm came at me like a truck roaring down the road.

It hit my arm as I successfully blocked most of the hit, but the momentum lifted me off my feet as I slid across the cavern.

Where I’d torn off its arm, a new mass filled in. But it seemed like the beast was now slightly smaller, like it had used mass across its body to repair the limb.

My strategy became obvious. I felt my lips curl into a ruthless smile. Ripping something apart appealed to my dragon right now.

Ducking back in, I treated it like a boxing session with Morgana. I kept my hands up and came in swinging, though this time I used my claws.

My red claws tore through the vibrant moss monster like paper.

It felt good. The satisfaction of ripping through its body rolled through me in a wave. I wouldn’t have been able to describe it before, but breaking it down to its fundamental parts was sheer pleasure.

The moss monster shrank as I blocked its attacks and shredded it down, becoming smaller and smaller.

As it went, its attacks had less weight behind them, and I stopped needing to focus so much on defending. I tore the monster apart with my bare hands until I was panting.

A part of me was angry. It hadn’t lasted as long as I’d like, a toy that passed its useful life before I was done playing.

I looked over to check on the progress of the other dragons. The four attacking the spider queen hadn’t been successful, but they were making progress. Their attacks were making her shield shudder on the impacts, and she looked like she was sweating with exertion as she worked to try the wall open.

Her head swiveled and took in my victory over her monster.

And she wasn’t the only one. “My King!” Brom shouted loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “You are red!”

“Not now. Focus,” I growled, taking a deep breath and shifting my scales back to gold.

Like before, I could feel a point in the middle of the shift where I was thrumming with incredible power. I used it, releasing a breath.

The breath rolled out of my mouth so dense that it was almost liquid.

It slammed into her shield and broke against it like waves on a rocky shore. But my breath was hot enough that turned the wall behind her red hot, causing it to soften.

For the first time, her shield hadn’t held up, and she’d taken some damage. The spider queen’s black hair was singed at the ends, and her immaculately pale skin was covered in black burn marks.

But she wasn’t upset. She was smiling as she stuck her hand past the damaged wall, ignoring the burn of the drips hitting her skin, as she retrieved a softly glowing crystal. “Thank you for the assist, dragon king.”

That stiff corset and skirt of hers unfurled off her body.

I realized it hadn’t been clothing.

Eight spider limbs rose, four of them catching Tim by surprise and tossing him like a rag doll across the room.

She laughed as lightning hit her, but she shielded herself with her limbs and launched herself away.

I let loose another wave of fire, catching her mid-air and parting much of the webs, but it seemed she had no intent to stay and fight.

In her wake, the driders once again swooped in, buying her time.

The beast was furious in my chest, and I stumbled with how hard it fought for control. It wanted to tear her apart.

I put that anger into action and sprayed fire all around the chamber, turning driders to ash with every turn of my head.

Lightning arced around me as I panted and let myself shrink back down into the normal dragon knight form I took.

The driders didn’t last long, not under our combined efforts.

We moved forward, and Brom filled the direction where the spider queen had gone with lightning, but there was no sign of her. “She’s gone, my king.”

I had the urge to stomp like a petulant child. I hated that she’d gotten away again. It made me want to find something to wreck. Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time for a tantrum. I was king and there were responsibilities on my shoulders.

“Grab Tim and Herm. We need to get them to the surface and check their wounds. Whatever she was able to get, she needs another part to make it work. So we have some time.”

I did my best job to keep morale up. “She had the advantage over us this time. Ikta had ample time to prepare and work against our strengths. She won’t have that again. We need to regroup and organize. And I want to figure out what was in that room.” I snorted fire from my nose.

I needed to get more information from Thuun. He’d seemed to know at least something about the spider queen, Ikta. He’d mentioned that she was a creature so powerful that the fae had joined forces with Bahamut and Tiamat to seal her away.

We may be dragons, but we weren’t invincible. If I was going to take her on, I wanted to be well organized and ready.

“It is okay.” Brom clapped a hand to my shoulder. “We will right this.”

“I must be the worst dragon king in history. Has the conclave ever been invaded before?” I asked, adding hope to my tone that this wasn’t the only one.

Brom shook his head. “No, it has never been tried like this before. But our king has also never had the blood of Tiamat and Bahamut.” He gave me a hard look. “Why did you not share this?”

“I didn’t understand it myself. Then the few questions I asked made all of you talk as if the possibility would be the end of the world.” I looked down at my hands. One arm was red with a gold swirl and the other was gold with a red swirl.

In the moment of trying to tap both sides of my heritage, I had somehow found a balance.

“Has hiding it helped?” Brom asked with the tone of a teacher that already knew the answers to the questions they were asking.

Shaking my head, I had to admit it did not. “No. And the spider queen said Tiamat hid the other half of her power. My best chance at this is getting ahead of her and finding that piece of her power. We need to keep it from her.”

“Where would you put it?” Brom asked.

“I could hide it anywhere in the wide world, drop it to the bottom of the deepest oceans, hide it in the snow of Mount Everest or deliver it to the Fae Queens and ask for their help.” I rambled off a few ideas. “What matters is that it isn’t in her hands. I need to find Tiamat’s study.”

Brom squeezed my shoulder and nodded. “We will help where we can, but I do not know of this study.”

“Bahamut mentioned it in his books. When Bahamut sensed my aura, I received two additional messages, one meant for his heirs, the other for Tiamat’s.” The truth was out now, and I could use all of Brom’s help.

Cloe’s mother and the Throgane were helping Tim and Herm up the stairs; neither of them looked well. Tim had multiple bloody gashes along his body.

I shuddered. From that single swipe, she had done so much damage to him.

Meanwhile, Herm was bleeding badly from when the driders had overwhelmed him.

My knuckles popped before I even realized that I was making such tight fights.

“They will heal.” Brom said, following my line of sight. “We should get you out of here and convene the conclave to understand the situation.”

I grumbled in agreement. We headed back up the winding passage to the main floor. “Brom. What the hell has this unleashed on the world?”

But the old bronze dragon shrugged. “I do not know. Our scholars might be able to advise you some, the fae more, but I suspect the records of our two venerable progenitors may hold the most information if you can find the time to go through it.”

Even before we got to the top of the winding passage, shouting reached my ears. I sped up my strides to get to the top and solve whatever fresh problem had reared its head.

“Let us go; we need to help the wounded!” A woman shouted as I got to the top and saw the problem.

The black and the copper dragons were separated from everyone else. Before I had gone down to face the spider queen, I had given those orders.

“Everyone calm down. Those that infiltrated our conclave used the scent of a black dragon to hide their dark magic.” My voice boomed over the crowd, and everyone went silent.

I could see Jadelyn barely held back by Scarlett, wanting to run to me. Turning to her and opening my arms, she became a rocket and raced across the stones to jump into my arms and squeeze me as tightly as a siren could. “You did a stupid thing.” She whispered.

In my dragon knight form, it felt like a soft cuddle.

“Stand beside me.” I told her and slowly lowered her back to the ground..

The beast wanted to turn into a dragon and wrap myself around the most precious treasures I had, my mates. But I focused on my role. The night wasn’t over yet.

“Now, separate into two groups. Black over here and Copper over here.” I gestured with my two hands. There weren’t many of them, but they complied.

I turned to the six copper dragons and let my scales shift completely copper before I threw my aura at them.

It reverberated off all six of them as they fell to their knees, shock on their faces under the strength of my aura. But I had achieved what I needed. I knew without a doubt I had six dragons before me and no imposters.

Feeling better, I turned to the five black dragons, and my scales shifted black to match theirs.

A ripple of gasps and whispers surrounded me, but I ignored it and hit all of them with the strength of my auras.

Unlike the coppers that rang like tuning forks, these all clinked like broken glass. Every note was different and filled with many others. But each of them was clearly a dragon.

I withdrew my aura and let my scales fade back to gold. “They are all clear; go tend to the wounded.”

“Do we need to check more of them?” Jade asked at my side.

“No, they would smell like dead corpses. Only the blacks and coppers would hide that scent. The spider queen was still using skinwalking to sneak among us.” Jade shivered against me at the mention of skinwalkers. “I’m sorry.”

I had thought she was over the attacks. She had brushed it all off like it was just another day, making me think it didn’t still trouble her. I figured it wasn’t the first time she’d been in danger, being a famous paranormal and heir to her father’s shipping industry, but it looked like I was wrong. I made a note to talk to her later about it.

“Alright, everyone. It is not safe to split up and return to your rooms. Please make yourselves comfortable here on the first floor. Larisa.” I shouted the white dragon’s name at the end.

“Here king!” She shouted, jumping up behind a taller group before pushing her way through.

“Larisa, organize a watch at all the entrances and the two stairs.” I stared into her eyes, making sure she understood the importance.

She nodded gravely, with her brow set in firm determination. “Understood, my king.” She whipped around and started shouting at several people.

“Yev.” I caught her in the group. “I need your help thinking like a chromatic. Where would Tiamat put something that her heir would find?”

She blinked at me, surprised by the question. “I don’t know.”

“Please, just take a moment and think. This is vital; come up with some ideas and we’ll test them out later.” I kissed the back of her hand and turned around, facing the many scared and angry paranormals.

“Leaders of your flights, please join me for a discussion.” I turned on my heel, still bringing Jadelyn with me to the room that we had been using for the conclave.

“Uh. Husband, should I be here?”

I ignored her question and lifted her up, planting her in my lap as I sat in the gold seat. She was a comfort and grounding me as I was dealing with a new set of dragon instincts tugging at me.

“My king.” Thuun bowed as he entered, followed by the white, blue, black, and copper leaders.

Brom wordlessly bowed to me and took his seat. Tim wouldn’t be making this discussion.

“I feel like I owe all of you an explanation.” Holding my arm aloft, I let my scales ripple through the colors of the metallic and then the chromatic. I noticed that some of them came more naturally than others, but I still could cycle through all ten of them.

The only dragons who didn’t seem shocked were Thuun, and those that had seen me shift red during the fight with the spider queen.

Thuun had likely already had his suspicions after Yev and my questions.

“What are you?” The white leader asked, reverence in his tone even before I answered.

“Truthfully, I have no idea. I was adopted and my adoptive parents have passed. But I have the abilities of Tiamat and Bahamut’s heir. Some would suspect that I was the result of a joining of the last Tiamat and Bahamut’s heirs.”

They looked around the table; many gazes falling on Thuun for answers.

The green held up his hands. “The coming of each heir isn’t precise. It isn’t unfeasible that they came a hundred years ago and gave birth to our king here. That no dragon has reported or met them baffles me, too.”

Jadelyn sat in my lap, her eyes flickering back and forth among the dragons like she wanted to speak.

“What is it?” I asked her.

She looked surprised at being asked to speak, but she took the opportunity. “What if they didn’t know? What if they hadn’t known they were dragons, like you?”

I frowned. “You think they thought they were human?”

“Exactly.” She said, happy that I had taken her suggestion to heart.

Brom shook his head. “The idea of a lost lineage of dragons out there has been the dream of many dragons. We have always hoped that a gold or red dragon lay dormant, cut off from us. But we’ve used magic to find them, and we have had no luck.”

Jadelyn nodded, accepting the information. She nuzzled into me, waiting to hear what others suggested.

“I stopped dwelling on who my biological parents were long ago. Though this brings it back up, I’ll tell you all the same things I told myself long ago. It doesn’t matter who they were; I am who I am. And I am Tiamat and Bahamut’s heir. While I’d love to understand more of its history, nothing changes who I am. We will move forward with this information.”

I realized a slight edge had entered my voice. While I tried to appear non-caring, it was hard to not know anything about my life before I was adopted.

“True. We should move forward. You have clearly inherited both of their powers, and your combination of it was potent in the fight with Ikta, the spider queen.” Brom laid it out for the rest of them. “What would you have us do?”

“Just like that?” Amara gestured at me. “He’s a… a fucking miracle. All ten colors, even greater than the two gods that birthed out species. What that could mean for us—”

“Is completely unknown.” Brom growled. “Take it up with him later. Our king is trying to save our people.”

Amara sat back, shaking her head and staring at me in awe. I had let them work it out among themselves. Truthfully, I needed time to understand myself better.

“Thank you Brom. Before we get into what we should do, I want a report of what happened above ground.” I looked to Thuun, who had looked like he was leading when I’d resurfaced.

“Over a dozen injured dragons. Thankfully, none of them are dead, but we are cut off from food. The healers will do what they can.” He shook his head sadly. “About two dozen of the non-dragons are dead, and the list of injured is too long.”

I clicked my tongue, angry about hearing the losses we had suffered. “And the tower? Is it clear? What of the rest of the island?”

“The tower is clear, but there are webs in the jungle now.” Thuun replied.

Moroz, the white dragon, slammed his hand on the table. “Unacceptable. We are dragons and we are being pushed around when we are at our strongest.” It seemed he implied that this was my fault.

His accusations bit deep and I was angry enough at myself.

“Our opponent is strong. She is the spider queen, the once ruler of the wild fae. She has likely been preparing this for some time. Hell, she had an entire fucking army at the ready.” I growled. “She had the advantage of surprise, but not anymore.”

Moroz lowered his head. “My apologies, my king.”

“I’m furious too, but it is unbecoming to show it. We have work to be done. She is seeking a second piece of her power here, hidden by Tiamat. I need to find Tiamat’s secret study on the island. Maybe there will be answers for me there.”

“And the rest of us?” Brom asked.

“Be ready to fight. She got what she wanted out of the tower, so I suspect it will be safe for the time being, but there’s too much we don’t know.”

The copper dragon cleared his throat. “What if we lowered the shield? Would she flee?”

“Coward.” Moroz

“Calm down. We will not be lowering the shield.” I made the decision for all of us. “Besides, she likely could leave via a portal if she wanted.”

The copper stared into my eyes. “You could be killing all the dragons in the world if we lose here.”

I snorted. No pressure.