“We’ve all dreamed of finding others like us,” I continued. “Mates we lost. Children who never grew up. If one made it here, then there could be more. We can fear that truth or we can meet it with open arms. I choose the latter. I would love to continue to reunite our people.”
Ronan’s eyes softened. Benedict’s jaw eased, just barely. Kieran’s fingers brushed mine, grounding me, but not everyone shared our calm.
From the far edge of the crowd, a voice called out. “And what if they come for you, Queen? What if they come totakeLyoness?”
“Then they will find we are not so easily taken,” Benedict said, voice calm but ringing with power as the torch burned in his hand. “We will protect our home. But we will not destroy the chance to know what else has survived this world. I will not rule through fear.”
Murmurs spread again, sharper now, fear clawing its way back to the surface.
Before I could speak, Benedict made an incision with a knife along the back of his arm, activating his bloodmagicks. His skin glowed gold along his rune lines, running down into the ground as golden light spread out through the fault lines in the island, a physical representation of the powerful wards we’d set when we first came.
It pulsed once, then flickered and died.
No one seemed to notice, but Ronan tensed beside me, and Benedict’s nostrils flared in surprise. I would have to ask them about that later.
Benedict cut another bloodmagick rune along his throat, oh so delicately. Orange and red bloomed along his neck, and for a terrifying moment I thought he was bleeding. Ronan’s grip on my elbow steadied me.
Benedict held up a torch and breathed pure fire onto it. My jaw dropped.
“We used to be able to do that naturally,” Ronan whispered next to me. “As our dragon blood was diluted we had to resort to bloodmagicks to access our dragonfire.”
Oh, wow.
Once I had the baby, I wanted to do more bloodmagick rituals of my own. I was so far behind all the other drakens.
He looked at me again, and together we lowered our hands toward the pyre. My fire met his, gold twining with the red flicker that leapt from my fingers. The wood caught instantly, light rushing upward like the breath of gods. The linen burned clean, leaving the draken’s scaled body bathed in flame.
“STOP! LEAVE HIM ALONE!” My mates turned as one and put themselves in front of me as a woman’s voice screamed from above.
Astrid, the leader of the air witches, hovered in the air, dangling a woman ten feet from the ground. A snap of Astrid’s fingers and the fire extinguished.
We all studied the new witch, wriggling and fighting to belet out of Astrid’s grip. Her skin was dark, her hair curly and decorated with bright jewels and feathers. She was dressed in a mixture of a pirate blouse and a leather skirt, with leather boots and armed to the teeth. She reeked of bloodmagick.
I pressed a hand to my belly. The baby stirred again, a flutter like wings.
“I know,” I whispered. “I feel it too.”
“Found her approaching from the south, snatched her off her ship and left it hanging out at sea,” Astrid reported. “Meruse is awaiting orders on what to do with it. Big ship. Dark.”
Meruse poked her head out of the water a ways out, waving merrily.
“LEAVE MY SHIP ALONE! HAVEN’T YOU TAKEN ENOUGH FROM ME?” the new witch shrieked, trying to reach her weapons but unable to since Astrid dangled her from her arms.
The woman twisted and writhed, managing to land a kick on Astrid’s shin. She shrieked and dropped her to the sand. Kieran lunged forward to try and catch her before she hit the ground, but the strange witch wasn’t thankful.
“Don’t touch me!”
She whirled around and withdrew a blade, forcing Kieran to back away, his hands held up in apology. Astrid landed on the ground with her silver hair and bright robes flying around her, teeth in a snarl. She snapped her fingers and the strange woman fell to her knees, hands snapping around her back as if magickally bound.
Meruse emerged from the shore, tail smoothly splitting into two legs as she advanced toward the newcomer.
“Well, this answers a few questions,” Meruse said, advancing slowly.
Benedict raised an eyebrow. “Does it?”
Ronan’s head tilted to the side. “Sothat’swhere the bloodwitches went.”
I shot a glance at the tree line where a few of the surviving bloodwitches had inched forward, curious among the crowd of other drakens. They shared this new witch’s coloring.
