Page 49 of Mad Dragon of Chaos

“Haru!” Adrian shouted a second time, freezing the blood in Tyche’s veins.

Still gritting his teeth against the pain, Tyche fought to sit up and look in the direction of the voice. Adrian and Shey were running toward them, both appearing battered and bloody. Adrian’s eyes were locked on the dragon, but Shey was staring at the new and improved Kaes with a look of fear and horror.

All Tyche saw were three more victims for Kaes to target.

He couldn’t allow that. They were his friends. Shey was…

No. Nothing was going to happen to Shey. Or Haru. Or Adrian.

But to take on Kaes and live, he needed more power.

It meant doing the one thing he’d sworn he’d never do, but his friends were worth the risk.

After regaining his feet, Tyche pressed his left hand to his head and started knocking down old barriers he’d erected, tearing through magic protections he’d taken years to set up and perfect.

“Hey Kaes!” he shouted as soon as the god took one menacing step toward the dragon. “Let me give you a riddle. What do you get when you combine the God of Luck and the Goddess of Nightmares with…” A scream of pain broke from his throat and the entire world wavered. Consciousness condensed into a fine thread, but Tyche held on as he pulled a glowing white sarira straight from where he’d hidden it…in his brain.

“What…” Kaes exhaled in wonder.

“With…” Tyche panted, pushing above the pain as he lifted the orb high in the air in his left hand. “With the God of Accidents?”

Kaes’s eyes widened to bright-white beams of light, and he lurched forward. “No!”

But it was too late.

“I’m the new God of Chaos!” Tyche slammed the third orb into his chest and screamed as the power ripped through him. Centuries of waiting to be set free, incubating and imprisoned within Tyche but left untouched. It was as if the magic had a mind of its own, and it wanted to break loose at last.

The world fractured, breaking into a million pieces. Or maybe it was just his mind. Nothing made sense. Only energy and darkness. There were fleeting impressions. Shouts. A sense of urgency. There was something he needed to do. Someone he needed to save. But before he could get the thought to solidify, he was washed away on another wave of pain.

Suddenly, arms wrapped around him, holding him tight. A wide chest pressed against his back and a deep voice whispered in his ear.

“I’ve got you.”

Shey.

Shey had found him.

Pieces of his fragmented mind snapped into place. The swirling shadows shrank, and the pain flowed from him, allowing him to breathe and think. He blinked and found Adrian throwing daggers as fast as he could conjure them as he stood beside an absolutely feral Haru bellowing fire hot enough to melt stone.

Tyche reached up a shaking hand and covered one of Shey’s, squeezing it. “I’m okay. You can let me go.”

“Only if you promise to never cry tears of blood again.”

Well, wasn’t that attractive? Tyche almost released a sigh pulled from the very bottom of his soul, but he held it in.

“Agreed.”

Shey let him go and took a tiny step away but kept one hand touching Tyche’s shoulder as the god wobbled like a newborn fawn taking its first steps. Tyche waved a hand at Shey. “Go. Get Adrian and Haru out of here.”

“There’s no way in hell we’re leaving you alone to face…”

“That’s Kaes.”

Shey’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “No.”

Tyche didn’t have time to explain the many complicated faces to the God of Storms. He could see Haru was slowing and Adrian was barely more than a fly buzzing around the god’s head. Any second now, Kaes was going to lash out and destroy them both.

The only problem was that he didn’t understand two of the three powers that were now threatening to overflow from his body. All he knew was manipulating luck, so he put all his focus into that.