Rake My Lust (Dragons of Blood and Bone #3)

30. Fight

30

FIGHT

“ S trom Eriksson. You’ve escaped my little test. Well, color me impressed.” Alfhild comes to us on the beach, clapping her black-gloved hands in a mockery of true applause. Her red-haired beauty is searing in the bright day, luminous as her wild red hair fans in the gusting wind.

Though her dragon aura is so very dark.

“Alfhild,” Strom says coldly as she stops just beyond the barrier we’re encased in. Though it doesn’t seem to affect our bodies since her curse isn’t inside us now, I feel how Alfhild’s power is bolstered by every dragon standing in this ring around us.

All her drakes, to the last of them.

“They’re all yours, aren’t they?” I say now, understanding something about her as my instinct flares, bolstered by Aesa’s Truthstone. “You’ve bound them and taken them prisoner to your power to be your muscle in a heist, just like Strom was your brains. But you lost your extra wit in your endeavors when you lost him. It pissed you off he was the one who got away when no one else had ever escaped you. You wanted to punish him… ”

“Good girl.” She applauds me now as she turns towards me, pinning me with her vivid green eyes, sparkling in the sun. “Our young Bloodwalker Hog Skjaldm?r, if I’m not mistaken. You’re pretty, in a rough-and-tumble, shieldmaiden kind of way. I can see why Strom likes you, but you must know I’m better for him, young drakaina. Better for him in every way. And most certainly, in the bedchamber.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Strom snarls, before I can do it for him.

“Strom, darling. Temper,” she says with the sweetest, most condescending smile as she turns towards him. “I’ve got you surrounded, sweetheart; you can’t escape me, even with all Mikkel’s power in your Bloodwalker’s bond now. I just might allow you to come back to me, however, if you forswear her .” She juts a thumb at me. “And kill her for me, so I don’t have to piss off our King. Hmm?”

I feel all that terrible magic in Alfhild’s barrier swirl inward now. I feel it as it hurtles into Strom—hammering him and making his Bone Magic sear like a bomb.

As all his power fixates on me, I’m a fly in a trap—and Alfhild has just sprung that trap as she activates some sort of sleeper curse she put inside Strom, long ago.

As he snarls back up into his lithe red and green drake, blasting up inside the barrier and roaring at me, I know he’s the only one of us allowed to shift up in here. Bjorn is suddenly between us. I feel Bjorn pour everything he has into our magic as he defends me—but whatever Alfhild did to Strom just now, Strom’s far too powerful, able to draw on Mikkel’s magic now through our bonds.

Strom’s dark green and red drake whirls up all his inner magic in a tirade. I feel him thrust all that power into Bjorn, telling him, get out of my way , with his power.

Bjorn fights it. Bless his noble heart, he fights it with everything he’s got. But three of us have Bone Magic now in the bond, which Strom draws on to give Bjorn that command, while Bjorn only has me to bolster his Blood Magic as he fights it.

With a towering cry, Bjorn shudders from the strain of resisting Strom. Though I pour all the Blood Magic I can now into our bond, Bjorn collapses—and Strom has a free path to me. As he sidewinds to me fast, I know I’m a goner… because I can’t shift up in here.

Only Strom can, as Alfhild watches our destruction with glee.

It’s then that Mikkel rushes between us. Standing right in front of me as he shoves me back behind him, Mikkel does nothing, only stares Strom down with the full force of his black dragon in his searing dark-copper eyes. I feel it as Mikkel gives it everything he’s got, thrusting his indomitable dragon’s power right down through our new Bloodbond into Strom, along with all his mind-commanding abilities.

To wake Strom the fuck up.

Strom snarls, shaking his head to clear it, as Alfhild’s final curse inside him is shattered by Mikkel’s power. As it is, I feel the full strength of our combined magics returned—and I blast it up like a missile now, as I strike Alfhild’s barrier with my Bloodwalker magic.

The barrier blasts out in a rush of living fire, just like we made before. All of us are renewed in energy now that the barrier is gone; Bjorn roars back up as his dragon to attack her with Mikkel and me.

As Alfhild’s bound drakes rush in to attack us.

It’s a shitshow, as we clash as our dragons. Alfhild hammers waves of power at us from her impressive magics as her drakes engage us, but Strom’s right—she relies too much on her mind-magics and sneakiness in her dealings, and is weak in an all-out attack.

Strom, Bjorn, Mikkel, and I are superb at war, however, as we use our best maneuvers in the sky and on land to beat her people back. Many drakes in her thief ring are down already; as a piercing roar screeches at us from the skies, I see L?rke’s white dragon with chartreuse lines diving in to attack with us.

We’re getting them now; knocked unconscious, blistered by our power and gravely wounded, or killed outright by our snarling fangs and ruthless talons, Alfhild’s people are drawing back. And the searing crimson dragon that is Alfhild herself, all-red like her hair, is pulling back with them as she realizes her mind-magic drives are no longer useful on us.

That old trick has been broken by Strom—forever now, as we almost take them down to a drake.

Alfhild herself is surrounded by us now in the skies, when something else barrels in. A lithe red and black drakaina, she’s so small that she flies like a barbed dart on the wind—but she surges in past my drakes and me now, gripping Alfhild’s jugular in her jaws.

She snaps Alfhild’s neck with one powerful bite, even as we bring down the last of Alfhild’s thief ring to get to her. I scream as my dragon, as Alfhild falls to the beach before the lighthouse with her neck broken. That quick Bone Mage drakaina we seek eyes us one last time. Then she darts high into the sky—flashing out.

As she makes a portal to escape us.

Portal magic is extremely rare among dragons, even more so among Blood Dragons. I blink to realize our enemy drakaina is gone; we have no chance of tracing her, since it takes etheric magic to make portals, which we haven’t got.

Wrath like I’ve never known consumes my heart as something goes all-black inside me. A searing, dark annihilation takes me as I firm my intent, rushing up towards where she went, to see if I can blaze through that portal, before it closes.

A massive body ensnares me then—wrapping all around me as he halts me from pursuit. We fall from the skies; I struggle in his iron grip, but Bjorn has me, as we plunge into the cold ocean. It shocks me from my rage as we dive under; spluttering, we swim back up to the surface and haul ass inland.

Back on the beach, shaking my scales off, I snarl at Bjorn for interrupting my hunt. He can only growl at me back, long and low.

Before he collapses on the beach—passing out.

Shock wakes me from my anger; I rush to Bjorn now as I shift down, putting my hands on him and pouring every bit of my Blood Magic into him to bolster him.

It works, barely. He’s already shifted down in his unconsciousness. I feel it as his thready pulse and rapid heartbeat stabilize now. Blinking back, he gazes up at me in confusion for a moment.

Before griping my hands sweetly and growling at me—admonishing me for nearly getting myself killed.

As Bjorn recovers, I know he’s right. I shouldn’t have dashed after that portal as it closed. Every dragon youngling knows that trying to rush through someone else’s closing portal is likely to get you killed, in the worst possible way, as you are shredded between Realms into nothingness.

Our enemy drakaina is a hunt I must give up right now—and not just because it could have killed me, but because it also nearly killed my First Drake. Bjorn is beyond exhausted from everything that’s happened right now with our power; as I help the trembling, exhausted Bjorn to his feet, we all stand naked on the beach now, unsure what happens next.

Strom, Mikkel, L?rke, Bjorn, and I stand around the fallen Alfhild as Bjorn recovers. Her brawny brutes are scattered around us on the sand, in various degrees of alive from our fight. Some who were just knocked out are waking, but they aren’t menacing us. Because Alfhild is dead, her curse-bonds upon them broken.

If they had been taken willingly to begin with.

“She’s dead.” Strom nudges her beautiful face with one boot as her emerald eyes stare at nothing, her body human again in death. Her head lies at an odd angle now from her body, her neck well and truly broken.

“Along with all our hopes of finding out who our enemy Bone Mage drakaina is.” Bjorn glances back up at the skies, watching the patch of sky where our enemy drakaina went. Even though he’s on his feet, he’s leaning heavily on me now, his arm around my shoulders.

And it doesn’t bode well for my First Drake.

Though that’s a problem we’ll have to solve another day.

“Now we’ll never figure out who our enemy drakaina was, and why Alfhild was working for her, finding ancient Bone Mage artifacts.” Strom is despondent as he snorts. “This was all for nothing.”

“Not nothing.” I reach out with my free hand, gripping his. “We got your memories back, plus Mikkel’s and L?rke’s, and now Alfhild is dead. She can’t control you anymore, Strom—any of you. And I’d call that a win, hands-down.”

But even I know I’m lying, as I gaze up at the empty blue skies. The truth is, we lost the most important part of why we came down here to Copenhagen—Alfhild herself. She could have given us so much information about who our enemy drakaina is and the renegade Bone Mage group she’s running with, not to mention the Black Dragon.

All of that is lost now, as Alfhild lies before us, dead.

“She called herself Litha,” a voice says behind us then.

We all turn to see a brawny young man standing on the beach, cradling a broken arm that is slowly healing. He has short, wavy brown hair and kind brown eyes, as he nods back up to the skies. “That small drakaina who killed Alfhild and got away just now. Alfhild mentioned her name once, as we were doing a job for her… she said it was Litha.”

I stand, shocked by this once-thief of Alfhild’s, as he offers information. As I see more of Alfhild’s once-thieves waking up and down the beach now, healing injuries from their shifts, I know all is not lost.

Not by a long shot, as my drakaina trumpets inside me with victory.

We’ve lost one battle by losing Alfhild Fey—but won another, as several thieves come to us now, ready to offer up information as we stand on the beach. Strom recognizes a few of them; as he talks low with them now, hearing their stories, I gather that all who have come to us, gazing upon her dead body with relief, were ensnared to her just the way he was.

It builds a kind of camaraderie amongst them now, as Strom hears details which might help us. None of them are sympathetic as they gaze upon her dead body. All of Alfhild’s harem of drakes had been bound to her by her incredible Bone Magic, unwillingly.

Alfhild’s power not a Bloodwalker—but not far from it .

I’m tempted to just roll her body into the ocean, though Strom insists we need to have a proper burial at sea for her, for those who were bound to her to have closure. I let him have it; we’ll find a shitty dinghy for her in these empty warehouses, toss some kerosene on it, light a road flare and torch the bitch as we push it out to sea. Alfhild Fey can have her send-off.

But I won’t celebrate it—only her death.

A sense of rightness fills me now to know Strom is free. I can feel the incredible relief that washes through him, and everyone who was bound to her, knowing she can’t control them anymore.

Mikkel and L?rke have a similar ease as we mill around on the beach. L?rke’s fury is still blazing towards me, however, as she talks low with her brother.

The twins hashing out what to do with their empire—now that I’m in the mix.

I didn’t intend to insert myself into their business dealings, and indeed, want no part of it. I’m just about to walk over from where I’m still helping Bjorn recover and tell them that, when someone suddenly strides down from the lighthouse to the beach.

I didn’t think anyone was up there; most of the Twilight Realm’s lighthouses are manned by magic, not personnel, and a headland with an actual lighthouse keeper is rare.

But I recognize the woman striding down to us on the beach, as the late afternoon shadows and light seem to bend around her. Dressed in all black, Head Watcher of the Black Dragon Knights Mikka Halsbrand is wearing Blood Dragon fighter’s leathers. They’re her usual whenever I’ve seen her in the Knights. Shock hits me now as everything inside me roars that the Council has found us.

My Bloodwalker power surging up—ready for battle.

There’s no one else from the Council with her, though, and no other Knights; Mikka has come alone. As she senses my menace, she holds up her hands, walking more slowly towards us.

None of her dragon’s power raised for a fight.

She’s here to talk, I understand, as I haul my magic back now and hold out a hand to my drakes. Because all of them were just powering up, too. Even Mikkel sensed my sudden alert and has come into a group with Strom and Bjorn, raising his mighty black dragon for an attack.

They stand down now, into a tense wariness as I motion them back. Moving to me, Mikka comes five feet away, then stops.

Her dark eyes pinning me in the bright day.

“I bring a message from the Black Dragon Knight’s Council,” Mikka says, plain as plain for me and my drakes, though she waves a privacy barrier around us so none of Alfhild’s people can hear us. I feel L?rke crash part of Mikka’s barrier with her power, then step inside, folding her arms in a furious challenge as if begging Mikka to do something about it. Mikka’s eyebrows only lift at what L?rke just did with her magic.

Then Mikka faces me again, giving it to me straight.

“The Council gave you thirty days to investigate the blast on the Outer Island, which woke the Black Dragon… and now those thirty days are up,” Mikka says tunelessly as she regards me, no emotion whatsoever in her calm, penetrating gaze. “The Council will have your answer now, on the outcome of your investigation, and names of whomever it was that caused the blast.”

“I don’t have any proper names, though one of the thieves here said our primary enemy Bone Mage called herself Litha. We’re still on our enemy Bone Mages’ trail, but I don’t have their true identity yet. Only a description of Litha’s dragon, and that self-given name.” I blink now, having expected the Council to come after me, but never like this.

In fact, I had forgotten all about their original decree, thinking it was null and void now that Maryse was dead and so much had happened with the Black Dragon and our enemy Bone Mages. Clearly, I was wrong, as Mikka stares me down.

Not about to let me off the hook.

“I will hear your description,” Mikka says. As her eyes go faraway, I know she’s communicating mind-to-mind with the rest of the Council, who can do that even at a great distance.

As I tell her a full description of our enemy drakaina now, and who she was liaising with, Mikka listens. A strange look comes over her face as I finish. It’s clear she’s listening to further instructions from the Council on this matter.

As her lips twist—in hate.

It’s such a brief moment, I think I’ve hallucinated it as Mikka’s face becomes impassive again. But as I feel a sudden shock pass through Strom, Bjorn, even Mikkel, I know they saw it, as well.

Something is not right amongst the Black Dragon Knight’s Council, and Mikka is livid about it.

Something that bodes ill for us, as well.

As we listen to her now pronounce our fate.