And wipe them all out in a single blast.
The Jarl’s dragons fall from us in a ring now, out cold as they’re hit by my blast wave. They’re breathing, still alive; part of me can feel it as I shift down and run to Mikkel, though I’m not concerned about that now.
Naked as the day they were born, my drakes are with me; as we all barrel in through the acid-melted door, its containment runes no longer functional, I’m shocked to enter an abattoir of death.
For the first time, I get a clear view of the prison Mikkel and Lærke are contained in. It’s a horrorshow; like an ancient torture house for witches during the medieval witch hunts in Europe in the human world, or the world’s goriest hellhole, implements of torture are everywhere.
Racks, stocks, stretching tables, iron maidens; you name it, it’s there. Not just that, but everything’s thoroughly decorated the fuck up with silver and gold runes, to keep a dragon from shifting or healing themselves.
Not only that, but blood is just everywhere; ancient and only a discoloration upon the floor, or more modern and far brighter, as if this space is used frequently, Mikkel’s red swathes of his own blood are only the latest to decorate this place.
It’s ugly, and so, so unforgivable, as everything inside me suddenly washes black. Because I’ve spiraled completely into my dark inner drake now, seeing that space and knowing how Bloodwalkers and their mates have suffered in it over the ages.
Now Iknow why all those dead Bloodwalkers beneath Mindehøjen are still inside their bones, seething with vengeance. Because I feel the same way, as something terrible powers up inside my bones and flesh.
Ready to unleash hell upon the Jarl of Copenhagen.
My darkest wrath shudders the dungeon all around us then, in a way I’ve never felt before. It’s like an earthquake that thunders out from my bones, as I stand in my most heinous power and flood black, hatred and the coldest wrath filling me for the Jarls of Copenhagen.
Jarl Alexander Christensen is just the latest fucker to hold the position, as a storm of Bloodwind fills me now, utterly black. It’s nasty, ungodly—and it’s everything I want to unleash, as Mikkel suddenly sidewinds to me. He feels that death-storm of energy flooding me, and he wants to help punish our foes until nothing is left of them, or us.
Our very souls poisoned, forever.
It’s a terrible, vibrant sensation as Mikkel’s power floods into mine now from his drake. Staring down at me with eyes black as sin, surrounded by a vivid ring of poisonous chartreuse green rather than his noble, beautiful copper, he’s death incarnate as he comes to me as his dragon.
Because he wants this for us; he wants us to punish our enemies until nothing is left of us but darkness. It’s only when Bjorn cusses and vaults to me, wrapping me in his arms and pummeling me with his righteousness, and Baldur steps fast to my front, seizing my chin and drowning me in the power of his sparkling diamond-blue eyes, that I shiver and shake, trying to come awake.
But it’s Ström’s magic that finds me, as he cinches to my side and whispers loving words into me. It’s him who actually brightens me back to my light right now, because only he understands how this powerful darkness feels.
He knows I need to make peace with it, if I ever am to best it. I haven’t made peace with it yet, but I feel that ruinous part of me back off now, as mydark connection to Mikkel is broken. It’s not gone, though—not by a long shot, as I shudder and snap awake again.
At last, Baldur’s and Bjorn’s power can find me, as they work their magic in a bright gold and opal-blue firestorm all around me now, to help me get the fuck awake. It works, but only because of Ström.
As I back away from Mikkel now.
Terrified.
It’s not like me to be terrified of any drake, especially one I have bonded as my own. The things Mikkel can do to my inner darkness are beyond terrifying for me, however. As I stare up at his tremendous eyes now, black as eternal death, I see how he wants to kill. Kill and kill, until everyone who’s wronged us has been punished.
Then punish them in a way that will be endless—forever.
It snaps me all the way out of my black trance now, as I understand I have to do better than that. I have tobebetter, as I step out from my tight knot of drakes and face off with Mikkel finally, in the flesh.
Because this is bigger than the dominance challenge that has always existed between us. This is a battle for our very souls, as I realize I need to save him from this endless inner darkness as much as I have to save myself. I wave my drakes back as I face off with the beast.
And he faces off with me.
Though Lærke had been spewing her white-green acid at the wall with the door, trying to melt it away so we can all get out, she senses danger now. As I face off with Mikkel, me in human form and him still as his towering black and green drake, Lærke sidewinds to us, fast.
She puts herself in front of her brother, cutting him off from me. Cutting me off from him, as she rakes her talons across the floor and snarls at me.
Opening her great maw to spew me with a torrent of green death.
Peace!I roar in a thundering voice inside my mind then, as I snarl at her in my human form, dominant.I am not here to harm your brother! He is mymate, and as my mate, he is precious to me. But I will not abandon him to death; and this black death that eats away at him is worse than any death of his flesh. You know of what I speak. Stand down—now. And let me bring him back.
As Lærke snarls at me with fangs bared and her great maw open wide, I wonder if this is the end for me. Lærke is gone inside the mind of her beast, too; she’s been in prisons like this before, feeling her own renewed agonies as she watched her brother being tortured, though she wasn’t tortured herself.
But then, I feel her hesitate. Though she’s not bonded to me, she shares a bond with her twin—and I feel her spiral into that bond now, to find only insanity.
