Dragon (A Histories of Purga Novel)

Epilogue

Asher continued circling in the sky as he watched Keiara fly off and disappear. He looked down on the devastation and couldn’t believe his eyes. Everything happened so fast he didn’t even have a chance to try and help his sister.

There was nothing down there now but fire and death. He couldn’t believe his sister was capable of such destruction. But at the same time, he was glad that she escaped.

What happened to her? he asked himself.

He’d watched everything from his aerial position. He’d watched her control fire as if it were an extension of her body. He watched as she transformed into a beast that no one on Purga has seen for centuries.

He watched her kill.

He was still in disbelief as he dived and landed on a building that survived his sister’s wrath. Blink followed him. He let go of Fowler and then hopped to the edge and looked down on the wreckage of where the Rooks tried to burn her. The fires were still going but the soldiers, and the man leading them, were gone. Bodies littered the ground everywhere though.

He shuddered, his feathers rustling loudly. Then he shimmered into his human form.

“Blink.” Asher said and the machine beeped excitedly. “Bow and arrow.”

Blink rippled and then turned into a sleek, powerful looking bow. A single arrow fell onto Asher’s open hand and he grabbed it reflexively.

Fowler, also back in his original form, came to join him and they both surveyed the scene.

“Wow,” he said. “Keiara did all that?”

“It wasn’t her,” Asher shot back, angry. It might’ve been his sister, but that monster was not her. That monster couldn’t be a part of the sister he knew. The girl that would go out of her way to help someone, even if it was an enemy. It couldn’t be her, and yet it was.

Asher looked down on the circular concrete landing, now marred with dozens of scorch marks. He saw Rone there, lying face down and felt bad for him. He, at least, hadn’t been a bad guy. He’d been really nice.

“I thought that guy was dead,” Fowler said.

Asher looked at his friend.

“What?” he asked, confused.

Fowler pointed, directly at Rone.

“There. You see it, Hawkeyes?”

Asher concentrated on Rone, not getting what his friend was talking about. Rone looked about as dead as dead can get.

But then he did see something. His heart sped up.

For an instant it looked as if Rone’s left arm had twitched. He waited several more seconds, trying to confirm it (and almost giving up hope), when he saw it again. It was definitely a twitch.

Without thinking about it, Asher shimmered into his hawk form and flew down there, leaving Fowler and Blink stranded on the rooftop. He landed next to Rone and shifted back. Then he turned the Prince over on his back and leaned his head against Rone’s body. Faintly, he could hear a heartbeat.

Rone’s blue eyes suddenly fluttered open.

“Ow,” he said. “My back hurts.”

Asher laughed, his relief so great he was crying.

“You’re alive!” Asher exclaimed.

“If you want to call it that, sure,” Rone joked. “What happened?”

“That man shot you in the back,” Asher explained. “Sit up and I’ll look you over.”

Rone had to brace himself against the pain but he managed to get up on his elbows.

Asher took a look and gasped.

In the middle of Rone’s back, near the shoulders and directly over the spinal column, was a small metal object spinning and pushing at….something. He couldn’t tell what the something was but he could almost see it. It was faint…almost ghostly. Whatever it was, it was stopping the bullet from progressing, but it was a losing battle. He could see the thing gaining ground, centimeter by centimeter and even watched as its tapered point ripped a small hole into Rone’s shirt. A couple seconds later, a thin trickle of blood started flowing from where it had pierced the skin.

Rone winced slightly.

Asher got up and looked around, hoping to find something that would help. The only thing he could see was a mostly intact piece of wood from the pile meant to incinerate Keiara. He ran over to it, glad because it was also thick, and made his way back to Rone. Without thinking to consider if it was a good idea, he gripped the piece of wood and brought it up next to his ear. He took a breath and then swung.

His aim was dead on and the end of the wood smacked into the object still trying to kill Rone. The wood broke into half a dozen smaller pieces and there was a loud popping sound.

Asher tried to trace the object, to see where it landed, but the minute the wood connected with it, it flew off, faster than his eyes could track. About a dozen yards away, there was a loud sound as the bullet buried itself into the dirt. He saw a small cloud of dust and grass fly up into the air.

Rone breathed a sigh of relief, flexed his shoulders around and got up. He looked at the devastation around him and his eyes went wide.

“Keiara!” he yelled, running for the now collapsed platform and pole where they had tied her down. The fire there still burned as hot as ever.

Asher ran after him.

“Don’t!” he yelled. He reached Rone and grabbed his wrist. “She’s gone.”

“Gone?” he asked, unbelievingly. He looked around again, fully taking in the amount of destruction. “What happened?”

Asher told him everything. He told him about Keiara controlling the fire. He told him about her killing the soldiers and trying to kill the man that had shot him. Finally, he told him about what she’d turned into.

“A dragon?” Rone asked, when Asher was finished. He felt cold terror wash through him as he remembered his nightmares. That creature’s blazing orange-yellow eyes flashed in the air before him and he suppressed a shudder.

Doesn’t matter, he told himself. It’s still her. It’s still Keiara.

He looked to Asher, who only nodded.

Rone stood silent and faced the direction Keiara had gone. He stared into the distance, as if he could actually see her, for a long time.

“Get ready,” Rone suddenly said. “We’re leaving.”

Asher didn’t have to ask where they were going. He already knew.

They were going after Keiara.

This ends Book One: Dragon.

Keep reading for a sneak peak of

Book Two: Roc

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