Chapter 19

KIRA

I groaned as my body rolled on the cold stone.

Where was I? Why was I lying on the ground?

A water droplet hit my face, and my eyes struggled to open.

As my eyes blinked open, I found I was surrounded by darkness and rushed whispers, and I was covered only in a tattered, damp blanket.

Eventually, I forced my eyes open completely and noticed I was surrounded by a group of vaguely familiar men. I blinked a few times before my memory returned. Those were the same men my father had hired to escort us to Drakoria—mercenaries.

I was so cold that my skin was prickled with goosebumps. My hair was dampened from the dripping water. I realized I was in a cavern, cold and dark.

I forced my eyes closed again before they could realize I was awake. I tried to move my hands and arms but found they were bound by what felt like rope, and rope had also bound my legs together. I tried not to panic or give away the fact that I was awake. I knew the best tactic was to remain emotionless until I could discover where I was.

Several mercenaries were huddled in a lantern-lit corner, whispering quietly. I tried to make out bits and pieces of their conversation.

The largest one, a bald man about six feet seven in height who usually had a face of stone, looked the most unsettled. I didn’t know his real name, only that his men called him “Bones.”

The word “explosive” echoed in the cavern, and I stilled my breath.

I needed to listen more clearly to their words.

Bones’s voice got louder as he slammed his hand onto a box. “The idea of attempting to kill a dragon using a few rigged explosives is insane! If the plan goes astray, there’s no telling what will happen to us! He’ll burn us alive, and worse, char our families and our homes!”

Another man stepped forward. I recognized him as the one who had guarded the back of our caravan on the way to Drakoria.

The shorter man replied, “Things will go as planned, Bones. We’ll leave through the side tunnel when the dragon shows up.”

The larger man shifted in place and began pacing back and forth. “I don’t know if the wealth is worth the risk.”

“It’s more wealth and land than we can ever imagine!” another mercenary replied nervously.

I quietly heaved in a breath as I tried to tug at the bindings that kept my arms held tightly together.

I wanted to cry. In fact, I wanted to wail, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew I had to be strong at this moment. I knew I had to fight against my bindings, awaken my dragon somehow, and escape. I needed to warn Cerion before he fell into their trap.

I had to learn how to control Kalathe, if only for a few minutes.

I needed to be the hero in my own story, and in any future I had ahead.

My breathing turned from soft and quiet to strained and fast-paced. I needed to control my emotions before I found the dragon within me and the ability to turn.

~You can do this, Kira, your dragon is a part of you. She’s within you; you can manage this~.

The bindings felt incredibly tight around my wrists, and I found myself struggling to breathe steadily.

~You’ve been through worse, Kira, much, much worse. You’ve been beaten, broken; you’ve been sold off to a king. You’ve shifted into a dragon. You’ve even been kidnapped. You’ve been through so much tragedy, so much darkness. Now it’s time you allow the light and your strength to shine through~.

I found my breath steadying and a fire building within me. Kalathe was trying to reach me.

I thought, “~Kalathe~,” hoping that she’d hear my calling and sense my fear.

But it was fear mixed with adrenaline. It was engulfing my insides, rising through my core. I felt my confidence building.

“Kalathe,” I whispered again, this time adding an internal command so powerful that it quaked my insides.

Kalathe stirred inside me, restless and alert.

~“Kalathe, I need your help. I need to shift~,” I internalized louder this time.

Kalathe stirred more powerfully inside me than the last time. I felt her awakening, her wingspan engulfing my chest, her legs stretching my stomach, her head poking in my throat. She was awakening inside me and demanding to break free.

I heaved in a deep breath before I gave her my final command, “~Kalathe, shift now!~”

I felt the breaking of bones, loosening of skin, and the release of my dragon as my bindings snapped. I felt myself turn into Kalathe. I was her and she was me. We were one.

As I shifted, I saw the mercenaries’ eyes widen. One even went as far as to try to escape by running down the side tunnel they thought they would drag me through. Several lanterns were knocked over and shattered, setting a pile of crates ablaze.

Kalathe was in control. I hadn’t yet mastered controlling her and her movements, so she was free to do as she pleased. She took it upon herself to decimate the rest of the mercenaries with a slap of her wings and a nudge of her head onto the cavern’s walls.

Now all I needed to do was learn how to shift back.

I had no idea how it would be done. I knew I didn’t have control. I just had pure desperation. I needed to appeal to the part of Kalathe that knew that my desperation was, in fact, hers too.

~“Kalathe, let me shift back,”~ I told her.

Nothing.

I was still in dragon form.

~“Kalathe! Cerion is in trouble! We can’t fit through the tunnel in dragon form,”~ I pleaded again.

This time she listened. I felt her conform. I felt her control waver as she let me in.

I was human again. As I snatched up the blanket and ran to the side tunnel, I heard a roar from outside.

I had done something I had never believed I could do. I had escaped from my bindings, this time physical bindings instead of invisible ones, and I ran toward the light. I ran toward Cerion.

Now, the only question would be if I could get there in time before the explosion occurred.

As I forced myself through the exit, toward the light at the literal end of the tunnel, I felt hope bellowing within me.

~I made it. I actually made it.~

I could warn Celen before the explosion happened.

A roar sounded from the distance, and I knew I was so close. Only a few more steps until I made it into the light and Celen saw me.

But as I ran toward the exit, my hope faltered. I heard voices up ahead. I fell to my knees and pressed my body into the side of the wall as I peeked around the corner.

The voices were louder. There were a dozen men defending the mine’s entrance.

Celen hovered in the air above them, with fire roaring from his breath.

Cerion was trying to make it to the main entrance of the mine. This was undoubtedly part of their kidnapping plot all along. My father had set this up in an attempt to try to blow Cerion up.

Cerion’s dragon was huge. They had to have known that he wouldn’t make it through the entranceway. He’d have to shift to human form to get inside.

His dragon’s wings flapped and hit the rock, crumbling it from the impact.

Mercenaries scattered out of the way with fear on their faces and arrows in their hands.

One mercenary, who was skilled with a bow and arrow, had shot at least ten arrows at Celen. Most of them had hit their target and lodged into his skin, but still, Celen fought on, regardless of the arrows and the pain that surely came along with them.

I was still so weak, almost lifeless, but I needed to find it in me to scream.

“Cerion!” I yelled as loud as I could. My voice was weak, strained, but the words still came out.

He didn’t notice me over the loud tumbling of rocks from the mine’s entrance and the sounds of war.

“Cerion!” I called out again, but my voice was so faint.

I was still on my knees, wrapped only in a tattered blanket, struggling to scoot my body closer toward the cave’s entrance.

I was still so far away. My knees were bloody and scraped, and I was covered in filth, blood, and drained of every ounce of energy I had, but I had to keep trying.

A breath of fire left Celen’s mouth as he incinerated the best archer the mercenary group had. Ashes littered the entrance of the mine, and the faint smell of burning flesh reached my nose. I almost found myself hurling.

I forced back a breath of air, tasting ashes and whatever else lingered in the air.

I fought through my churning stomach, my weakened state, and my lifeless muscles. I fought to get closer to the mine entrance and to call his name again, “Cerion!”

Celen’s wings flapped as he placed his clawed feet into the stone of the mine. His talons dug into the rock as he roared.

“Cerion!” I called out, weaker this time.

Celen raised his nose to the air to sniff. His eyes searched through the small mine entryway, then scanned across the narrow exterior walkway of the mine until he saw me.

A remaining mercenary was feeling brave, an arrow and bow clutched tightly in his hand as he tried to deliver a last strike. With one wave of Celen’s giant scaly wing, he slapped the mercenary to the ground.

I had hoped the worst was over and that he had killed the last remaining mercenaries. I slumped further against the wall as Celen lifted into the air and flew toward me.

At least twenty more mercenaries appeared from the entrance of the mine behind him, with spears in their hands and bows and arrows tucked underneath their arms.

“NO!” I called loudly, strength coming back into my voice.

Celen’s eyes narrowed as he glanced behind him and noticed the new threat.

One of the mercenaries launched an arrow at Celen and luckily missed.

I felt a newfound strength within me as my bones broke and I shifted again.