All I want more than anything is just to… touch him. Be there for him. But I’ll never be able to.
As a tear slips over my cheek, his crimson eyes meet mine and he sucks in a shaky breath. “Please leave,” he exhales, holding in the tears that want to fall from his eyes. “For your protection.”
“What did it mean by your duty!” Another tear trickles down my cheek as I hastily swipe it away. His eyes soften with the sight of it.
“If you don’t leave, I could kill you. If she wants that.”
“I need you!” My voice cracks, and my palms dig into the rocks. “I cannot leave you here with it.”
“You have never needed me.” A tear cascades down his cheek. My body aches to reach out and brush it away.
“This is torture.” The fire darkling lets out a sinful cackle, making my teeth grind by the screeching sound. “What is this Koen I see before me? Tileatha would be so disappointed.”
I rise to my feet, steadying my rapid heart beat and controlling my breathing. My fingers stretch wide, allowing my body to be in full control of the rage that is running rampant inside me. The stones against my arms pulse their light, the dragons are ready if need be.
I don’t know how to unleash them.
Shit, I don’t know how to control them. Or the fire that left my skin earlier, but I will try. If it comes down to it.
“Where is my sister?” I hiss. “I need to see her.”
The fire darkling’s eyes burn brighter, its lips pulling into an amused smirk. “She’s already here.”
My breath hitches, eyes burning. “What do you mean!” I bellow from the pit of my stomach. “I don’t believe you!”
“She has watched you this whole time, she has been waitingyearsfor you to finally find her.” The fire from its back whips by the gust of the wind. Thunder roars in the sky, lightning rippling and flashing hues of yellow against the stones of the wall.
“Leave!” Koen grips the rocks in his hand, veins swelling against his arm and back. The sounds of the bone cracking in his shoulder as he falls to the ground gut me. “Serene, get out!”
“I am not leaving you!”
The fire darkling scuffs. “Of course you two would find each other again and be so protective, it sickens me. She should be dead by now. She isn’t going to like this.”
Koen's bones snap, each break echoing ominously in the howling wind. The sharp, jarring sounds of his painful screams pierce the air, yet are swallowed by the relentless roar of the raging storm. My chest rises and falls rapidly, the torturing reality that I cannot even hold him, help him, and I must just stand here, listening to his cries.
“What is that supposed to mean!” My fingers stretch wide as my skin prickles with fire.
“You have the stones, yet you still don’t remember?” Its yellow teeth peeks through with the tug of its lip. “You are taking too long. I suppose she’ll make you remember, and it’ll hurt.”
My eyes burn, the knot in my throat growing by the second. “Remember what!”
The darkling goes to speak but pauses, its charred lips pulling into a sinister smile from the sounds of large teeth snapping in the breeze. The rocks from the cave rumble and fall to the ground as the whole mountain trembles around us. Wind gustsand the whistling of enormous wings whip and slap in the air, creating a strong scent of a burnt aroma as I inhale.
“There you are,dark one.” Its eyes lock onto something massive behind me as its eyes rise upward. I know it isn’t Koen. “How we have missed you.”
Hot, singeing air beats at my back while my damp hair flickers by the strong gust. My eyes close, holding in my breath as I turn and see…it.Not him.
An enormous dragon hovers above me, its onyx-black scales rippling with a scorching fire underneath. The similarity of this dragon before me and the dragon of the Darklands is almost identical. Its eyes are a crimson red, with a scar slashed over its mouth.Koen.He hid this from us.
He lied to us.
He lied to me.
His wings stretch wide, revealing lines of what look like lava for veins coursing through them. A deep, rippling roar escapes his mouth before it violently ripples in the cave around us. I fall to my knees, covering my ears yet knowing the fire won’t burn me.
Fire can’t burn me.
It won’t kill me.
