The Dragon Legion Collection(96)

The Slayer tore himself free, slashing at Thad so that his shoulder was torn, including the tendon to his wing. Thad’s blood ran brilliant red, and Aura guessed this was somehow indicative of the difference between them. Thad’s flight faltered because of his damaged wing. He dropped a bit in the sky, and the Slayer laughed.

Then the Slayer did a strange thing. He hovered in the air, narrowed his eyes and breathed slowly. A moment later, Thad jerked backward, as if he’d been struck in the chest. He faltered again and couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open or his wings flapping.

He fell toward the ground, flailing as he tried to regain the momentum of flight. The Slayer pursued him, grinning even as he continued to breathe slowly. Aura could almost see a glitter between the two of them, like a tendril of sparkling smoke, but when she tried to look directly at it, it disappeared.

She leapt into the air and blew through the space where she’d glimpsed the tendril. She felt something cool in that space, then the Slayer swore and slashed at her. His claws slid through the breeze she’d become, not injuring her at all. Thad recovered a little, but not quickly enough. He hit the earth and didn’t move. He was on his back, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. Aura couldn’t believe that her dragon had been felled.

The Slayer seized Tisiphone and threw her at Thad. She landed on his chest, and the Slayer leaned down to touch the tip of his talon to a spot on the fallen Pyr’s chest.

“There,” he breathed, and Aura realized with horror that it was the place where Thad’s scale had fallen away.

“No!” she cried, shifting shape and landing in human form beside the pair of them. She couldn’t be responsible for Thad’s death. It couldn’t be her fault that his firestorm’s promise wasn’t fulfilled.

Tisiphone looked up in dismay.

The Slayer’s eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth. “Ah, the mate,” he murmured with some satisfaction. Aura supposed that was what she was.

“Take me instead.” Aura offered her bared arm to the snakes that twined around Tisiphone’s hair. “It’s my fault he’s vulnerable.”

The Slayer chuckled, as if he found her foolish. “Take them both,” he suggested.

Tisiphone looked between the two of them, then smiled darkly. She leaned forward and the snakes in her hair vibrated in their anticipation. She took one in her hand and offered its hissing head to Aura. “Kiss this one,” she commanded. “Show me that you mean what you say.”

“And you’ll let him go,” Aura insisted.

“I’ll take him if you don’t. See if you can satisfy my hungry vipers.” Tisiphone made no promise, and the Slayer laughed, but Aura had to do what she could. She looked at the snake with its flicking tongue and its gleaming eyes, then bent closer to welcome its bite. The snake opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, and Aura closed her eyes in anticipation of pain.

“I forbid this!” a woman roared, just before the snake made contact.

There came a flash of brilliant blue-green light, like a crack of lightning out of a clear sky, even as the woman shouted.

The moment that the world was lit with that blue-green lasted far longer than an instant. Aura saw the yellow dragon lunge toward the fallen pilgrim. The Slayer seized the man’s arm in his mouth, tearing it away from his body with savage force. The pilgrim’s body was dragged across the ground as the dragon tore the arm free, and blood flowed copiously when it did. The man moaned in agony as his limb was ripped away.

Tisiphone caught her breath and stepped back, her gaze fixed on the old woman who had been huddled beside the pilgrim. That woman had leapt to her feet and flung out her arms. Her cloak had fallen away, revealing that she was young and beautiful.

Hera in one of her favorite guises.

Tisiphone gasped.

The yellow dragon vanished.

The pilgrim closed his eyes and looked to be breathing his last.

Hera pointed her finger at Tisiphone. “Your battle was your own until you dared to threaten a child of mine. I banish you from this age and this realm!”

“You can’t banish me!” Tisiphone replied, drawing herself up to her full height. In the strange blue-green light, she looked even more like a nightmare come to life.

Hera walked toward her regally, shaking her finger as she spoke.



“Across the centuries and the years,

You will wait and shed your tears,

Until the darkfire is freed again;

Your vengeance can cause Pyr no pain.

I close the portal, for once and all,

To see those I love out of your thrall.

When darkfire will burn once again,

Your sister’s death can be avenged.

When daughters of all elements are mates

Then will the dragons face their fate.”



“No!” Tisiphone cried, even as she was changed to the woman with hair the color of flame again. She had a moment to glance over herself before there was a clap of thunder loud enough to make the earth shake. The blue-green light faded as abruptly as it had appeared and when it was gone, so was Tisiphone.

Thad was still lying on the ground, his breathing so shallow that Aura could barely discern it. Worse, he was changing shape on the ground before her, shifting from dragon to man and back again, and she knew it was involuntary. He didn’t open his eyes and even the pale blue shimmer that accompanied his shift seemed pallid instead of vigorous. He was flat on his back and too still, the blood flowing from his wounded shoulder.