Every bone in my body shudders as the Black Dragon roars. Every drop of my blood leaps to its call, to leave my veins and send me right to the Ancestors for my trouble at opposing the Usurper, as it unleashes its fullest might upon my drakes and me now.
The Dragon of All Souls roars that awful wave of magic right at us, trying to blast through our Bloodshield and take us down forever. I won’t let that happen, as I suddenly return to my larger senses from wherever I went in my darkness when the creature faced me.
I’d tried to command it and failed; now is the time to fight, as I roar with my mates and Lærke, holding our united Bloodshield for everything we’re worth.
Because that’s all that stands between us and the demon’s power, as it roars again, shuddering us to our bones and trying to tear our shield apart with its power.
Its curses already spiral through my hands and wrists as I heave them up, shaking, trying to hold our protection strong. Those terrible, acid-dark curses eat into the soles of my feet where they stand upon the stone,too, digging like knives into my ankles and calves now as I scream and my drakes and Lærke echo me.
Bodies are falling all around from the battle once raging through the skies. Because the Black Dragon is killing everyone now, heart-cursing them all in its terrible, wraithlike fury as it tries to get at us.
The only dragons left standing are Emil and our enemy Litha, as bodies thud down hard now, crashing all around. Even they are grounded, on their knees, as they roar in unison, trying to control the Black Dragon’s terrible power.
Managing it—barely.
Its wrath is not for them, however, as it redoubles its efforts to wipe my drakes and I out from all existence. As dragon-bodies thud down all around, I hear Mikkel and Lærke’s terrible cries. Many of those returning to human in death were their people from The Chartreuse.
Many had survived the initial fighting, and even the Black Dragon’s arrival, vicious fighters as they were for the twins. But none can withstand the Black Dragon’s terrible onslaught now.
As it decimates everything, trying to get us.
There is no battle anymore as the Black Dragon roars at us and Emil and his Bloodwalker Litha barely command it. Though it hasn’t broken our shield yet, clearly not returned to its fullest power, it’s got us cornered—and Emil and Litha are using that to their advantage, as I already see Emil recovering.
He’s using the Black Dragon’s power and his Bloodwalker’s, as he somehow draws from both to heal every rent and puncture we gave him in battle. As he flaps his wings hard, returned to full health now, Litha trumpets in glory.
That her drake has survived—and me and all of mine are about to perish.
We’re still holding on, however, as I feel Baldur give the last of his energy to support us now in a masterful heave. Starbursts go off behind my eyes as his brightness combusts through my entire universe;then Baldur is spent, collapsing to his knees with a cry as Bjorn dives in to shore him up.
But Bjorn is nearly done, also, from holding our brightness against the Black Dragon’s terrible might. He doesn’t have enough energy to synergize with Baldur now. It leaves us in a bad place as Ström roars with me, both of us resisting our inner brightness snuffing out.
It’s a terrible thing, as Ström’s, Mikkel’s, and my Bone Magic rises to dominance inside our barrier. The entire shield loses its light, everything surging acid-green, crimson-violet, and void-black now, as we fight to oppose the creature.
Worse, I feel myself spiraling back down again, away from the brightness of my inner drakaina. I feel my Bone Magic stepping to the forefront hard now, even worse than it did a moment ago, seizing my brighter magic in its jaws and harrying it like a terrier with a rat, as it tries to make my Blood Magic go away, forever.
They’re vastly unbalanced inside me now, thanks to the Black Dragon’s power calling through my blood and bones, cursing me. Everything is out-of-balance, crashing into an unforgivable darkness as I feel Bjorn’s terrible cry, and hear his multi-toned roar, for me to not give in to this most awful place inside me.
That darkness is vast, however, as I feel it resonate now with the creature trying to take us down. I feel myself meld with those ancient, bone-dead white eyes as that horrid spiking sensation blazes through my brain.
And something inside me rises—tomakeit hear me.
As I roar straight at the Black Dragon from within our Bloodshield, I feel it suddenly fight Litha’s commands. Confused to hear my voice in the mix again, it pauses in its onslaught, raking its diseased fore-talons through the stone all around our little shield.
I know we only have a moment to change its mind before that terrible undeadthingcrashes its magic through our failing barrier and uses its worst power on us.
But even as I think,Stop it! Fucking stop it!!, towards the BlackDragon, putting my everything into my continued roars, I feel something inside me shredding.
As the brighter part of my magic sunders to my darkest, I scream up at the Black Dragon like a harpy of the elder worlds, roaring at it with all of my Bone Magic unhinged inside me, all my most terrible night. Mikkel’s power is in it, and Ström’s, as both drakes roar, too, feeling this terrible power take us all.
Though they’re not Bone Mages, Baldur and Bjorn have their own inner darkness—and their darkness is harnessed to mine, as they both roar like screaming banshees as well now, up at the Black Dragon. It’s taking us, this darkest place, changing us, as I feel it rush through me now, nearly complete.
My inner light and goodness failing fast.
The Dragon of All Souls stops at our combined roar. Glancing down, the Usurper snorts—and then Litha is shrieking at it again, harrying it more as she flies around its head and buffets its dead bones with her wings.
She’s trying to regain control of it, this demon of the ancient world that she and her bound drakes resurrected from its island grave to do their bidding. As the Black Dragon swings its gargantuan head, larger than half the hall, back and forth between us, it gives a snarling, truncated roar—because it truly doesn’t know whom to attack now.
It thunders all our bones, almost shattering them, as Mikkel and Lærke put their all into their roars now, to command the Black Dragon with me and take out Litha and Emil Beck.
