“Let’s make one thing clear,” I shouted so everyone could hear, especially the Dragons. “No one attacks, shoots, breathes fire, or even growls without my saying. I do not care how perilous it looks; I control what happens from this moment on. Whatever this Dragon has done in the past, it is erased here. Today, we don’t capture the enemy; we rescue one of our own. Understood? If any of you can’t see it that way, then I need you to leave right now.”
The fierceness of my statement cut through them, but they nodded, ready to stand beside me. No one even blinked.
“Thank you.”
An encumbered breath sank my chest, and I faced the horizon again to find the four headed Dragon slowing down his approach. He stopped several yards across from us, his four heads slowly rising and lowering while he assessed the danger we represented. Following the plan, Tharion broke the line, slowly leaving the others behind us.
Seven green eyes followed our approach but the energy in them was dim, nothing compared to how they glowed when Raithian was near, or fully controlling him.
My gaze connected with Evie’s, silently asking her to trust me, and she nodded. I knew this was incredibly hard for her, which made me love her even more.
“This is it… Please set me down.”
Reluctance flowed from Tharion and into me with my plea, but he did as we’d agreed. Reaching for me atop his head, he slowly lowered me to the ground between him and Azazel. No sudden movements allowed. The last thing we wanted was to spook him.
Once on the grass, I glanced up at him and gripped the crystal on my sword, opening myself to the current of power until both of my eyes turned bright gold. My steps resumed towards him, careful, measured, noticing his attention leave those staying behind and fully focus on me. To say that he was a colossal creature was an understatement. Even when my neck strained to look up, I couldn’t really see him fully. It was overwhelming to try to look at him from here, and without my abilities, I could barely see him clearly.
Using my Dragon Eye, I enhanced my vision, zooming in on him. I was still too far away, but the change was substantial. The first thing to catch my eye was the large gash on his second head. His cheek was slashed from his jaw to his temple from the blast we both suffered, and the sight awoke the resentment within me. Crusty blood clung to the edges of the curling skin, thick and almost black in tone, the traces of it continuing down his neck to his chest.
My wounds had healed, but his were still there.
Pulse quickening, I resumed my way to him, distancing myself from the Dragon guard behind me. Their tension brushed against my back, but I ignored them, instead letting theSky Gods’family tree flourish around us.
My energy searched for Azazel’s along the vast and unending family we shared, but his light was nowhere to be found. Not even the thinnest thread. I sent my magic to him, trying to connect to him regardless.
“I mean you no harm…”I spoke into his consciousness, but my call echoed in a never-ending darkness, unable to be received.
With every step that took me to him, colder air swirled around us. Warmth slowly left my side, the hairs on my neck standing on end with the eerie feeling that swept over me. Traces of Raithian’s evil energy churned around Azazel, turning everything gray, but even as my heart began to slam against my chest, I didn’t stop. Nothing could make me stop now.
Azazel’s left eye in his main head connected with my glowing Dragon eye, and I pushed all the energy I could, trying to break through to him, pulling from the ring and sword even though it killed me to use my ancestors that way.
His other three heads lowered that instant, focusing on my slow approach.
Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump.
The heartbeat echoed through my entire being, and a small smile tilted my lips, even when a profound aching captured my chest. I was getting through to him.
“Yes. It’s me, Azazel. That’s my heartbeat!” I yelled, knowing he wouldn’t hear me otherwise, not until we were truly connected.
Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump.
With my confirmation, the sound of my baby heartbeat became stronger, and he took a tentative step forwards, then another, and another, until I was within his reach. The two broken chains still wrapped around one of his ankles and wrist were the only evidence of his escape. His hand slowly lifted towards me, as though to reach me, but he pulled back at the last minute. The green glow flickering in and out of his gaze.
“It’s okay. It’s just me. You can trust me… I trust you.” I lifted my hand to him, my Devenish magic extending to my fingers and making my entire hand glow golden.
Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thump.
As my baby heartbeat resounded in my ears, his main head lowered, stopping a couple of feet away to meet me in the middle. My palm rested on his parched and flaky skin, and my energy rushed over it, rippling along his forehead but unable to seep into him. Emotion burned through me when he lifted his gaze, and his left eye briefly flickered gold, the light immediately vanishing.
Azazel was trying his hardest to reconnect with me.
With my next breath, his hand shot towards me, snatching me from the ground before he lunged into the sky.
“Braxton!” Evie shouted at the same time that Tharion’s roar cut through the air. He shot into the sky after us.
Yet, I wasn’t afraid.“Stay behind. It’s okay.”
“I cannot let him take you!”Tharion urged, his anxiousness crashing into my being while he tried to reach me. “You are the Devenish Prince. My prince. My filius. I cannot let you go.”
