“So I can be trapped with the nightmares of my past?” A shadow stirred behind Einar’s eyes, some dark memory threatening to surface. “No, it’s better this way. Unless you’d rather kill me.” His lips twisted into a mirthless smirk.
The Radiant shook his head. “You are now the keeper of this gate, and will remain so as long as you are alive. If you die, the portal will open again, and your kin will be at risk of a shadow creature invasion.”
Einar nodded grimly. “Eternal sleep it is, then.”
The dragon warrior closed his eyes, and the swirling flames on his arm came to life, the fiery ropes spiraling around his body as he shifted. Two legs turned into four, smooth skin became rippling scales, long hair transformed into spikes and a thrashing tail. Wings sprouting, snout elongating, body lengthening, until a twenty-foot-long dragon towered above the Radiant.
But instead of taking flight, the great beast curled up at the Radiant’s feet, and closed his golden eyes. He was ready.
The Radiant surveyed the dragon for a long moment before it laid hands on his snout. It would do as the dragon wished and put him in a deep slumber, devoid of dreams and pain.
But it would not be eternal, and it would not be here. For the dragon’s story was not over. It was only just beginning.
1
Adara
“Istill think this is a stupid idea, Adara.”
I swore as a root tendril exploded from the ground, nearly tripping me as I raced through the forest. Leaping over it, I glared in the direction of the voice, which was a mistake. The distraction caused me to run straight into a waiting vine, which wrapped itself around my waist and tried to haul me up a tree.
“Do you think you could not talk to me while you’re trying to kill me?” I yelled as I yanked my short sword from its scabbard. I hacked furiously at the vine, which was at least four inches thick, and broke free before it could hoist me too high. I landed on my feet, then kept running. The sound of rushing water reached my ears, and I soon caught sight of the stream waiting just ahead. A series of slippery rocks provided the easiest path across, but I ignored them, knowing that the moss growing on them could be weaponized against me. Instead, I pumped my legs faster, building up speed, then cleared the ten-foot-wide stream in one bound.
There it is,I thought, staring at the red flag waving in the wind just twenty yards ahead. All I needed to do was grab it, and I’d win.
“Smart choice,” Mavlyn said, dropping from a bloodberry tree ten yards away. Her auburn hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and the forest green tunic and bark-colored leggings she wore provided the perfect camouflage when she was hiding up in trees and didn’t want to be spotted. “But did you really think I’d let you make it to the finish line without a fight?”
She pulled a few seeds from a pouch at her belt, and they exploded in her palms, growing into long, purplish-blue vines. The vines wrapped around her arms, becoming an extension of them, then shot toward me, their pointed tips as deadly as any sword.
“Not really.” I drew the short sword again and swung it in an arc, blocking the first vine before it could hit me, and slicing through the second. The piece of the second vine I’d hacked off dropped to the ground, but the remaining half was already growing back, preparing to strike again. I would have to be fast if I wanted to get to Mavlyn.
“Careful,” Mavlyn warned. I ducked and weaved between the vines, trying to reach her, but she controlled them expertly, keeping me at bay. “You’re not paying attention to your surroundings.”
I felt something wrap around my ankle, and I cursed as my feet were yanked out from underneath me. “Oh come on!” I yelled as I sliced at the root wrapped around my ankle. I managed to get free, but not before Mavlyn’s vines snaked up my body. They wrapped around my arms, forcing them to my sides, and kept growing until they bound my entire torso.
“This is unfair and you know it,” I seethed as Mavlyn came to stand over me. One of the vines squeezed my wrist, causing my hand to spasm, and the sword fell from my fingers. “The tryouts won’t be nearly this difficult. You’re just punishing me because you don’t want me to join the military.”
Mavlyn snorted. She picked up the fallen sword—a loan from her father, who was thankfully out of town—and used the tip to draw circles in the earth. I winced; he didn’t know we’d borrowed it, and I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate her dragging it in the dirt like that.
“The fact that I’m pushing you this hard means that you’ll ace the tryouts with no sweat,” she pointed out. “You should be thanking me for that. But—” she swung the sword in an arc and jabbed it in my general direction—“You’re right. I am punishing you, because this is a dumb idea. You should be attending university with me next month, not joining the military so you can run off and get yourself killed by shadow creatures.”
She waved a hand, and I sighed in relief as the vines unraveled. Mavlyn was an expert at turning just about any plant into a weapon, but wielding actual weapons wasn’t her specialty, and I didn’t need her accidentally decapitating me with her father’s sword. I rushed to my feet before she could change her mind and retreated several paces to get clear of the vines.
“There’s no point in me going to the university with you,” I argued. “I can barely summon a bead of moisture with my magic. They’ll never let me in.”
To prove my point, I lifted my hand and tried to summon a few snowflakes from the air. My fingers tingled, and the air shimmered around me as condensation began to form. Frowning, I tugged harder on that inner core of magic, trying to summon more power.
But it was no use. The magic churned inside me, jagged and wild, but stuck fast, like lightning trapped in a bottle. A headache clamped down on my temples, and I gritted my teeth in frustration.
“Adara, stop.” Mavlyn said. The blend of pity and regret in her voice scraped at my already raw nerves, and I recoiled from my magic in response. “We both know that you have issues with using your water magic. That’s why I want you to come with me to Talamh, so you can find a water fae to help you unblock your powers.That’swhat you should be doing, not running off to get yourself killed.”
I shook my head, wiping my hand on my leggings. A few droplets of condensation had stuck to my fingers—the most I could manage. Every once in a while I could do more, like freeze a mugful of tea, or shape a handful of water into an icicle, but those moments were rare and happened less and less the older I got.
Talamh University only took the best and the brightest, and as a magically incompetent water fae, I definitely didnotqualify.
“I don’t want to talk about this again,” I said, marching past Mavlyn. I plucked the red flag from the dirt and brandished it at her as though it could keep her opinions at bay. “I know you want me to come to university with you, but I’ve never been the schoolbook type. I need to get out and see the rest of the kingdom, find the place I really belong. And joining the military is the best way for me to do that.”
Mavlyn scowled, but she fell into step with me, heading up the path back to the village. We’d grown up together here in Fenwood, a tiny village deep within Domhain, the Earth Realm. It was one of the four realms of Ediria, each one belonging to a different type of elemental fae.
