Shards.That figure that had thrown bolts of pure energy...
“Demeti is going to be more powerful than his father.” Ash’s voice had lost all emotion, as though he were recounting from a book.
Demeti. Tyrez swallowed. More powerful than Rindek?
Ash moved into the hall and raised an arm to point. “Bedrooms and living room are that way. But what you want to see is here.”
He walked to where the hall ended with a solid slab of rock. But Ash pressed his hand to the center and a rectangle gave beneath it.
“Didn’t bother to lock it,” he muttered.
The rock swung away from them, so cleverly hinged it was nearly silent. The smell hit Tyrez—and something much more. The energy that permeated these walls twisted his guts in a knot.
Terrible things had happened here.
“You might want to stay here,” he told Dani.
“In your dreams, Dragon,” she replied, pushing forward.
He put an arm out to keep her behind. She glared at him but complied, holding one hand over her nose.
Beyond the door, a tunnel led to a large chamber hewn from the rock.
It was a familiar pattern—Tyrez had seen such a place twice before. Rindek had a preference for caves and cages. Separate alcoves with bars across the entrance ringed the walls, and in three—lay the bodies of Dragons.
By the state of decay, they’d been there since the fortress’ destruction.
“What did Rindek do to them?” Tyrez was afraid he already knew.
Ash didn’t answer. He was staring at the table in the center of the room.
It was large and metal. Bolted to the floor. Dragon-worthy restraints were attached for feet and arms and fasteners that could attach to a collar. The surface was stained with every fluid the body could expel, and at least one that it shouldn’t.
Tyrez’s eyes flew to Ash’s wrists—and the marks where the scales had been rubbed free. Ankles too.
He wrenched his gaze away. His hands curled into fists, the talons breaking through from the tips.
“He used them to develop the parasite,” Ash finally answered. “Just like he did me.”
As Dani gasped, Tyrez’s heart pounded. “He infected you, too?”
Ash tilted his head, considering before he answered. “Yes.”
Dani’s eyes were huge. “But—why aren’t you dead?”
Ash shrugged again. “Mine aren’t the final models, and the crystals in my body are at such a low level that they are dormant.”
Tyrez took a step toward him. “That’s why Cara was pushing crystals out of the Dragons in the meadow.”
Ash nodded. “I told the Watcher.”
His voice was so distant... As though a large part of his mind wasn’t here in the room. “You might have saved the lives of those Dragons.”
The forehead beneath his golden hair wrinkled. “Some, maybe. I can’t foresee”
The last word was emphasized, and it reminded Tyrez of who he was dealing with. Not just Ash. The Oracle.
“You can’t foresee their future?” he asked.
