Last Dragon Standing (Heartstrikers #5)(103)
It came from Ghost and from Algonquin, from Raven and Amelia, from every spirit of every sort. Even Marci screamed it as she grabbed the magic and shoved, adding her strength to the rest as the whole plane pushed in unison against the predator trying to eat it.
GET OUT!
The Nameless End roared in the sky, its tentacles digging into the ground as it fought to stay anchored, but without Algonquin’s stolen water giving it weight, its roots were no longer strong enough. As Marci pushed and pushed, channeling magic until her soul felt like it was burning, she swore she could feel the plane itself twisting, the dimensional walls closing in on the crack the Nameless End had squeezed itself through. With each push, the hole grew smaller and smaller, and as it shrank, the End began to fade, its impenetrable body turning back to shadow, then to empty sky. Then, with a final deafening pop, the Leviathan’s presence vanished entirely, and the planar barrier snapped back into place with a crack, healthy and strong and whole, as it always should have been.
The second it was over, all the roaring magic slid away. The waves on both sides slumped as all the powers drained back into their respective vessels. Marci slumped as well, her body sinking into the freezing, choppy water of the refilled Lake St. Clair before Ghost—back in his warrior form at last—caught her in a bear hug.
“We did it!” the spirit cried, spinning her up and out of the water on his newly restrengthened wind. “Can’t you feel it, Marci? He’s gone! The roots, the tendrils, even his stench, they’re all gone!”
Her spirit’s joy flooded her mind as he spoke, but Marci barely felt it. Now that it was over, her eyes were locked on the sky where the Leviathan had been. The empty sky, where the most important person in her life had just been lost forever.
Marci couldn’t look at anything after that. She turned away with a sob, burying her face in the darkness of Ghost’s chest, which was why she didn’t see the tiny ribbon of blue tumbling down from behind the evening clouds, or the large dragon with feathers brighter than a bird of paradise’s that flew up to catch it.
***
Brohomir was flying faster than he’d ever gone in his life. He shot through the air where the Leviathan had been, wings pumping harder and harder as he raced to catch Julius’s plummeting body before it hit the ground. If it hit, every chance of his future was gone, but if Bob could catch him…
He put on a burst of speed, folding his wings like a dart as he reached out with his claws to snatch his baby brother’s body out of the air. Julius’s bloody feathers began to crack and turn to ash the moment he touched them. Bob wasn’t sure what that meant now that Amelia had tied their magic to this plane, but ash was never good. He’d set this whole thing up on the slimmest of long shots with none of his usual groundwork, but Julius had always been a lucky little dragon. He’d just have to hope the streak held.
“Now, my love,” he whispered, pulling his brother’s body against his much larger chest before Julius could crumble any further. “Do it now!”
I cannot.
The pigeon was hovering in front of him, but just like that first time, it was the Nameless End he saw in his mind, boundless and dark. Final. Now as then, the words in his mind held the indelible weight of unavoidable end. This time, though, the sadness in her voice was personal.
I’m afraid you were a few seconds too late. The future you seek is now so unlikely, I’m afraid the price we agreed on will no longer be enough.
“Then I will pay more,” Bob replied without hesitation, looking down at his brother. “Of all the dragons I’ve used, he deserved it least. I crushed his hopes, betrayed his trust at every turn, but through all of it, he never abandoned me. I will not abandon him now.” He tightened his claws, closing his eyes as more of Julius’s feathers cracked and fell to ash. “Whether we’re buying futures or setting them up ourselves, someone always pays. I’ve avoided my bill for a long, long time, but this time, the most important time, it will be me.”
With that, he offered it all, opening the entire breadth of the futures he’d seen to her, but the Nameless End shook her head.
It is not enough.
For the first time in his life, Brohomir began to despair. “No,” he said, voice shaking. “It’s all I have. It has to be enough.”
I’m sorry, she said, but you cannot buy the future you wish with what you have to offer. Her beady eyes flashed. At least, not alone.
Bob jerked in surprise, but the Nameless End just cooed sweetly, swooping in to rub her head against the feathers of his neck. You kept your promise, Brohomir of the Heartstrikers, she whispered. It was a good story. I have been handsomely rewarded for my gamble all those years ago. Now, I too will pay my portion to help you end it well.
She swooped away, her little body floating on the wind until she was hovering right in front of his eyes, and as she flew, Bob’s futures began to disappear. They vanished one by one, plucked like flowers by an invisible hand. Not all of them, just the ones he’d marked for sale back when he’d thought he was being fiendishly clever. It was still a lot, though not nearly enough, but just as he began to worry something was wrong, Bob realized her futures were fading too.
All the futures they’d shared, the thousands of years they could have lived together were disappearing one by one. Each loss felt like a cut, but when he instinctively reached out to stop her, Julius’s body slipped from his grasp. He caught his brother again at once, cradling the little dragon protectively to his chest as the last of the futures—his and hers—vanished, leaving him facing the unknown for the first time since he was thirteen. He was still staring hopelessly at the abyss when he felt feathers brush against his face.