“Get ready to battle,” Govam said ominously. “Dolion isn’t going to make this easy on us.”
FIFTY-ONE
Hannon
I stood on the bow of the ship in the rain, looking out across waters that I had hoped to never see again. The castle I also had hoped to never see again loomed large on top of the island, silent and forbidding. No movement gave away what was happening inside.
“What are you waiting for again?” Calia asked, standing at the railing with me, constantly looking over and trying to read my facial expressions.
I soaked in her fear and worry, internalizing it so my animal could morph it into power. “Finley’s sign that she’s ready.”
“Ready for you to help her?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the sign?”
The wind mussed my hair. My animal was content to bide his time. He refused to worry about Finley. Worrying would waste our resources. She needed us to crack that castle open like an egg, and that would probably take an exorbitant amount of power.
“I’ll know it when I see it,” I responded. “Finley isn’t subtle when she’s doing things like storming a castle.”
“Huh.”
She licked her lips and looked at the beach, where the rowboats were unloading those who couldn’t fly. Most of the fliers were already down there in dragon form. They hated that they’d been left behind. They wanted to be helping right now, not standing around while the most important people in the magical world were locked in a castle, dependent on rogue demons.
“If they fail, the magical world will fall into dark times,” Dessia said softly, her eyes rooted to the castle.
I couldn’t feel her emotions. I had never been able to, although I’d never known why.
I guess now I did.
“They are the only ones who can take on the demons,” she said. “The demon king knows it, and he lured them here to deal the deathblow. If he does, we’re all fucked.”
“Yes, thank you for the summing up,” I said through a tight jaw. A trickle of fear wormed through me. “They won’t fail.”
They couldn’t. Not just because of the fate of the magical world, but because my family had already lost so much. We couldn’t lose Finley and her child. It would destroy us all.
I told you not to think about that. Just wait for the sign, my animal said.
It’s difficult not to worry about my family and the future of my kingdom when someone reminds me of what’s at stake.
Try harder.
My animal had always been very easy to get along with. Until now. Clearly stress didn’t agree with him.
Calia stamped her foot in impatience. She looked back for a long moment before strutting away, probably to go see what was taking King Starvos so long.
“Did you know, Hannon,” Dessia said calmly, “that some of the demons were actually crafted from our kind?”
I didn’t want a history lesson, especially not one that started with demons.
I tried to squint through the driving rain, looking at the windows for signs of movement. Had they made it far? Were they fighting yet? If I didn’t leave now, would I be too late?
“Should you really be talking about that out in the open?” I asked her.
“Have you not wondered at the similarity of demons ingesting certain emotions and turning them into power?” she asked. “Or why we were unaffected by the Bridge of Doom?”
“I feared I was one of them,” I admitted.
“No. They come from us, not the other way around. If the blood of our dying bodies is mixed together just right, with a little bit of vampire magic, they can create a whole spawn of super demon. That’s what the books say, at any rate. You cannot imagine the fear I felt of being discovered within their dungeons.”
“Their super demons don’t stack up very well next to dragons,” I responded, my insides starting to squeeze together. This was taking too long. Finley should’ve been fighting by now. She wasn’t the patient sort, not when it came to that.
“All they have now are remnants of power from that time. Our kind, yours and mine, weren’t the only big powers in the magical world. There were other creatures, made creatures, that could destroy everything. Our kind came into existence to combat them. We are a relic, really. One of a few.”
“Fascinating,” I said, unable to help my dry tone.
“Do you think so? I think it’s terrifying. Thanks to you, the demon king knows there is a phoenix. He’ll know that a basilisk must exist somewhere, and that the two of us would be incredibly useful to his arsenal of demons. Our dying breaths would spawn a whole new era of hell. If your royals don’t take him down, then the entire world will be in grave danger. Even the human world will be in peril. They have stories of demons and phoenixes and basilisks as well. Because it’s happened before. The magical world is stealthy in their world at present, but bring forth a superpower bent on ruling, and they won’t be safe anymore. If we don’t win here, everyone will lose.”