The Dragon Queen (Death #4)

30. Calista

Chapter 30

Calista

Khazmuda stopped in midair and nearly threw me over his neck. “ Rooooaaaaaarrrrr !”

The dark sky was full of smoke. The forest below was ablaze. The rain had come and started to smother the flames with wet drops it couldn’t fight. It created more smoke, more haze, and the world was a morass of gray. “What is it?”

Talon.

Just his name gave me a pain of despair. I feared the worst and hoped for the best, but the outcome I didn’t want was on my mind every moment I rode Khazmuda. “Please don’t tell me…”

He flew toward the center of the forest, breathing fire out of his nostrils, his anger vibrating through his hard scales. Then he stopped again, jerking back like someone had yanked invisible reins.

I nearly fell off. “Khazmuda!”

“ Rooooaaaaarrrr !”

“What is happening?”

He gave another screech before he started to glide to the ground, fire and smoke coming from his nostrils. The ground came up at us, and we landed harder than we ever had. It was a miracle I stayed on.

He’s trying to take Talon’s soul—and he’s stronger this time.

“He’s—he’s dead…”

No. I feel him still. He lay there on the mud, clenching his eyes closed as well as the rest of his body as Talon tried to fight off Bahamut’s hold.

“We have to do something!”

Khazmuda seemed to fade, focusing all his strength on fighting Bahamut’s pull on Talon’s body. He’s trying to take us both.

“What?”

If he tries much longer, the force will kill Talon. And then he’ll take his soul…and mine.

“We have to do something!” I was powerless, sitting on a defeated dragon covered in mud in the rain, our world on fire and the love of my life barely holding on. “There must be something we can do.”

I saw the dragons in the sky, some farther in the distance, killing off the dead that remained. I drowned in my sorrow and helplessness, feeling the two loves of my life slipping away.

I can’t fight him much longer…

“Khazmuda, hold on!” I looked at the dragons, desperate for an answer. I couldn’t run to the forest and stop Bahamut myself, not when it would take me too long to get there. How did we have all these dragons on our side, but we couldn’t use them to our advantage? If only they could all fit in the forest…

Constantine flew by and spotted us in the mud. He came down for a quick landing, twice the size of Khazmuda, so he made the earth shake. What has happened to Khazmuda? He examined his closed eyes and heavy breathing.

I looked into the eyes of the king of dragons, the most powerful of all, and the thought suddenly came to me. “Constantine, Khazmuda tried to fuse with me, but he couldn’t because he was already fused with Talon.”

Constantine turned his eyes on me.

“So, a dragon can only fuse with one person, but can one person fuse with multiple dragons?”

He continued to stare at me as he considered the question. It’s never been done.

“But can it be done?”

I do not know, Calista Laurier. As I said, it’s never been done.

“I need you to combine all the powers of the dragons together into yourself—and then fuse with Talon.”

He continued to stare at me as he considered all of this.

“We don’t have time to think about it. We just need to do it. Otherwise, Talon will die, the forest will fall, and the Realm of Caelum will be overtaken by the God of the Underworld. We must do this— and we must do it now .”