She shook her head.
Where we are going, they cannot follow. Not unless we manage to make it through our task, and then one of us might have the power to open a path for them.It felt like she was looking at me when she said that, but I couldn’t be sure.
Her huge wings swept to the side, pumped a few times, stirring up an unnatural gust of wind. It hit us just as a long ray of light spilled down the dark path ahead. The illumination was not that bright at first, simply showing us a bridge surrounded by darkness. The bridge itself was made of no material I’d seen before, metallic and etched through with a plethora of colors, giving it an almost iridescent appearance.
The rainbow bridge is the only remaining path for the living into the underworld.
I figured Josephina was projecting this to all of us.
But it’s a path guarded by Heptashia. She was the original mate of Draconis, until he betrayed her for Lotus. Ever since then, she has barricaded almost all entrances into the underworld for the living. All that remains is Atlantis, and this one back entrance. There’s a chance she will allow females of worth to cross, and you three are the worthiest of any I know.
Her wings were pumping harder, the breeze lifting our feet from the ground. I didn’t fight it, trusting in the dragon queen. The light grew brighter with each thrust of her wings, and I had to force my eyes to adjust so I could continue to see.
“Are you coming with us?” Jessa shouted over the wind.
I am. But not in the form that you know me.
With a flash of brilliant glowing gold, the dragon was gone, and we were all being sucked up in the wind. Jessa, Mischa, me, and a golden-haired woman that I was almost certain had been a dragon not two seconds before. With a final shot of power, we were propelled along the rainbow bridge.
At first it was smooth and fast, but as we got closer to the blinding light at the end of the path, the energy got rougher. It crashed against us, trying to force us back, but whatever magic Josephina used, it was just strong enough to counter it.
Asher
The storm raged overhead, and I let it grow.
“Ash, dude, you have to calm down.”
Jesse was trying his best to get through to me, but Maddison had just been cut off from my mind again, and I was acting on the basest of instincts. My power swelled, the gold of my energy filling the air, and as it rose higher it streamed into the clouds. I was not in control, and normally that fucked me right off—I was too powerful to lose control.
But in this moment, I wanted to destroy it all.
Lightning cracked and my friends ducked for cover, but I wasn’t so far gone that I would sacrifice them in my rage. My protection extended to them, and that was it.
The two dragons in the sky. They were on their fucking own.
The beasts roared, and I felt a powerful source of energy coming from somewhere close by. This being was trying to counter my own power.
They were dead if they got any closer.
“Asher Locke, you need to stand down.”
The voice rumbled through the air, and it was definitely the source of the power.
I blasted lightning in their direction. A warning.
The only one they would get.
The return shot of energy grazed across my skin and I felt the slightest flare of surprise break through my fury. Their spell had been strong enough to slice my biceps. It healed instantly, but that spoke of how powerful this being was.
He stepped into sight, just as the two dragons from above dropped from the sky.
I knew him. Another dragon.
There was an infestation of scaly lizards here, wherever the fuck we were. I had no concept of time or place, I’d just followed Maddison, but I was reasonably sure we were in Faerie, a land I’d wanted to visit more than once. The land of my ancestors … my family. But now I didn’t care to even look around. Now I would raze this fucking world to nothing but cinders and ashes if it meant that Maddison was returned to me.
“Asher, you know me. We might not have always seen eye to eye, but we respected each other. Don’t let me have given my respect in vain.”
“Fuck off, Rayge.”
