Page 48 of Mad Dragon of Chaos

Tyche grabbed one of Haru’s wrists and pressed his hand to the wound while removing his own. He glimpsed it briefly and confirmed it was closing. It shouldn’t be long before he could move without his guts potentially slipping out.

With Haru taken care of, Tyche slowly rose and turned to face Kaes. Gone was the short, round man in the yellow rain gear, posing as an affable fisherman. He stood several yards away, a shirtless behemoth with a dense mat of gray hair across his muscled chest. A grizzled beard covered most of his face, and two beady black eyes peered out. Next to him stood a sledgehammer with its giant metal head resting on the ground while its tall, wood hilt stretched up to Kaes’s waist.

“We’re the only ones who can handle the power of gods,” Kaes growled. He tipped his head up so that he was staring at Tyche along the length of his nose. One hand lifted, and he flipped it, palm up. “Hand it over.”

Tyche snorted and shoved his hand into his pocket. He clenched Yesuntei’s sarira in his fist. “Yeah, I figured it was all coming down to this. At first, you were willing to stir the pot with Cirina because you’re so bored you can’t take it anymore. But the moment I put the powers in Haru, you had to take a step back and think things through. Taking on a dragon is messy business, and you weren’t guaranteed to win. But now…”

“Hand it over.”

“This isn’t what Yesuntei wanted.”

The God of Storms sneered. “She lost the right to have a say in anything when she died.” Kaes wrapped his fist around the hammer’s long handle and hefted it above his head. “Now, this is the last time I’m going to say it. Hand. It. Over.”

Tyche drew his hand out of his pocket and pinched the orb between his thumb and forefinger as he held it up in front of him. His heart beat out a slow, steady rhythm. His mind was clear. This path was always ahead of him. No matter how hard he tried, this had always been where he was going to end up. Some fates were inevitable as the setting sun, and this one, he would find a way to accept like so many others.

“Come get it, bitch.”

Tyche slammed the ball of energy into his chest, forcing it inside to merge with his own sarira, while a second, long-dormant power banged against the prison he’d made centuries ago, demanding to be set free with the others.

EIGHTEEN

TYCHE

Chaos roared inside Tyche’s head. So much power ripped through him and reached for the magic that he had been born with. Together, they danced and entwined, merging so that there was no separating them. Luck and nightmares. A combination he never thought possible.

But this wasn’t the first time he’d done this.

That first time, he’d taken steps to stop the merger. To keep the powers forever separate…and secret. He’d made the choice to remain Tyche, God of Luck. He’d wanted to stay small and forgettable. No responsibilities. No one depending on him or looking to him for help.

Yet, with an enraged Kaes in front of him and a wounded dragon behind him, remaining small was not an option any longer.

Kaes couldn’t get his hands on Yesuntei’s powers. Giving them to the God of Storms felt no safer than handing them over to the mad Goddess of Dreams.

Whispering voices filled his brain. Doubts. Fears. Suspicious thoughts. He wadded them all into a ball and shoved them aside. If this darkness was part of being the new God of Nightmares, he planned to use it to his advantage. It would not use him.

Thunder boomed like a cannon firing, shaking the city. Kaes shook his sledgehammer and roared. The god raced toward him, his feet hitting the ground so hard that the pavement shattered. Tyche waved his hand, selecting a chunk of bad luck that floated through the air. He tossed it at Kaes, and the god tripped on a ball of dirt. He stumbled, keeping upright, but it was enough to allow nightmarish roots to shoot up and wind around his legs.

Kaes grunted and seized a handful of roots with his left hand. He ripped them off his legs only to have new ones capture his waist. He did this repeatedly, making no progress as the roots trapped him, thickening and pulling him into the dirt.

Tyche gritted his teeth, trying to sort through his old powers and new, learning what he could in a flash. Deep down, he knew he didn’t have enough power to take on a major god and survive. He’d doubled his powers, but he was still a minor god with stolen powers. But he just had to wear Kaes out, right? Like that fake God of Wind on the Isle of Stone.

Lightning streaked from the sky and slammed into Kaes. Tyche winced and held up his hands against the blinding flash of white light. When he lowered his hands and blinked his eyes into focus, he found the roots had been reduced to blackened ash and where the grizzled old man had stood was now a young man with flowing brown hair and glowing white eyes, as if they were made of lightning.

Fuck.

Kaes had other monikers that had been lost to time. Names like the Two-Faced God and the God of Rage. Usually, the calmer and more playful version of the god was the old man who pretended to be the fisherman. However, after being pushed to the point of losing his temper, Kaes embraced his rage and turned into the out-of-control youth.

The young man lifted both of his hands above his head and roared. Wind whooshed through the city, and lightning slammed into the ground, pummeling the world. Tyche dove and rolled, darting about while snatching up any bit of good luck he could find. He alternated between using it on himself and throwing it at Haru. He didn’t dare glance in the dragon’s direction. There was only a faint sense of his presence; his magic was a gentle reassurance. Until the dragon roared.

Double fuck.

Tyche peeked in Haru’s direction. The pale man in bloody robes was gone. In his place was a very pissed-off, sunset-colored dragon. Tyche’s stomach sank to his knees. His one hope had been to keep Kaes distracted, so he didn’t take his rage out on the very injured Haru. Why couldn’t Haru follow the plan he knew nothing about?

Before Tyche could shout at Haru to fly and find the others, the dragon opened his mouth and blasted Kaes with a geyser of fire. The God of Storms stumbled back two steps and lifted his arms to protect his face. Tyche took advantage of the momentary distraction to run and crawl over the rubble to the dragon’s side. As he was about to reach Haru, lightning slammed right in front of Tyche, throwing him away from the dragon. He clenched his teeth as electrified pain ripped through every nerve ending. His brain shorted out, the world going white.

“Haru!”

No, he couldn’t have heard that. The nightmares must have gotten through his defenses, because there was no way his luck was this bad.