Dragon Unleashed (Book 1 of the Dragon Mage Saga)

The End is Beckoning

            Goodbye, mother and father who never truly cared.

            So long, little baby Nicholas who would never know his sister.

            I’ll miss you, friends. I hope everything will work out.

            The Wrecker inched towards her, darkness emanating from it like a soul-crushing energy. She squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in her hands. Slate was trembling behind her, cowering on the ground.

            There it was. Time to die. After everything Darla had been through, she was finally leaving this wretched world.

            But death didn’t come.

            Darla watched in shock as the smoky tendrils wrapped around…around Wimble, the tiny bird! She couldn’t even scream as the bird sputtered and choked, the blackness engulfing it completely, swallowing it whole. She remained paralyzed as the bird dissolved into nothingness.

            With that, the Wreckers left as swiftly as they arrived, as if Darla and Slate weren’t there at all.

            The final essence is a wayward wanderer with a tortured soul…

            They had thought it was Slate, who had been orphaned and left to walk the earth alone for so many years.

            “Slate,” Darla whispered. “Tell me about how you got Wimble.”

            He bit his lip, losing his overconfident swagger Darla had grown to despise. “His nest was wiped out during a storm, so I took him in. We’ve been together ever since.”

            His family was killed in a storm-that certainly qualified as a tortured past. Darla’s stomach tightened.

            “The bird was the final essence. I thought it was you, Slate, but I guess it was Wimble all along. And now…the Wreckers have it,” Darla murmured, hot tears pricking her eyes. “They’ll bring it to the Shadow Master.”

            Wren whirled towards her, a fire blazing in her eyes. “Then what are we doing? Let’s chase after the Wreckers.”

            Darla nodded. “Wren, Alfred, you guys are staying back.”

            They didn’t argue.

            The gang raced back to the camp, where Ruby, Cecily, Charles, and Audessa were. Darla quickly filled them in.

            “I think the Wrecker went past the creek,” Slate suggested. “Let’s grab our weapons and run. This might be the only way to find the Crystal Temples.”

            Never mind that she still hadn’t solved the code. What are you fighting for? It had originally been to rescue Fern. Then, it changed to tracing Laurel’s footsteps and finding the Spirit Sword. And lastly, it had been protecting the final essence in order to stop the fiery apocalypse-which she failed spectacularly. They were surely doomed. Laurel had been right-no one could stop the invincible Shadow Master. Good was supposed to trump evil, but maybe it wasn’t always so black and white.

            Darla grabbed her sword and a few spears, staring off into the light-illuminated woods. “I think I saw a flash of black!”

            As if communicating telepathically, they all shifted into their monster forms. Having an aerial view of the forest was definitely the way to go.

            Ruby, the fastest flier, whipped off into the morning sky, a dazzling robin egg’s blue. The wind suffocated Darla, but she didn’t care.

            “The Wreckers!” squealed the beautiful white Pegasus, Audessa. “I see it!”

            Darla flew faster than she ever had before. Stopping the Wrecker was the only thing they could do to prevent the Final Fire. She couldn’t fail Laurel. She was the Dragon Mage, and no one would ever stop her.

            “Wait a second,” Charles murmured, his emerald orbs flashing brilliantly. “They’re…they’re stopping.”

            Sure enough, the clump of Wreckers-who resembled a murky cloud of ebony slithering through the trees-had paused at the edge of the woods, where the forest broke out to a crumbling, barren dirt land.

            They ducked down to the ground, effortlessly transforming back into humans. Darla turned towards the Wreckers. In the clutches of one of them, tangled in their inky tentacles, was Wimble. Except it wasn’t Wimble-it was a foggy, silvery reflection of him. A ghost. An essence. Darla trembled.

            Darla watched carefully as two of the Wreckers approached the dirt road. The other Wrecker, who held Wimble’s essence, lingered behind. She reached into her pocket, gripping tightly onto the carved hilt of her sword.

            “What are they doing?” Cecily whispered, her big brown eyes frightened as a deer in headlights.

            No one replied.

            All of the sudden, a loud groaning ripped through the silence. The dirt in the road split jaggedly, sending clumps of gravel flying in every direction. The Wreckers remained unfazed as a gleaming marble pillar emerged from the ground. A  gargoyle, similar to the one Darla saw at the Barricade, was carved into it.

            I am fighting for power.

            Darla glanced at the others, who nodded. They had heard the silent voice of the Wreckers, echoing in their heads.

            “Isn’t something supposed to happen?” Slate asked, receiving a swift elbow to the gut from Ruby.

            The two Wreckers swept forward, disappearing into the thin air. The third Wrecker, bearing the essence, flowed in from behind.

            Just then, the reality came crashing down like a ton of boulders.

            “I know what the code is.”

            Darla raced forward, to the gargoyle on the pillar. It stared at her with glossy moonstone eyes, which shimmered rainbows in the warm sunlight. The answer was so obvious. She had been over thinking it all along.

            “Freedom,” Darla exclaimed. “That’s what I’m fighting for! To be free! To free Fern, to free the Spirit Sword, to free Pharix from Evil! Freedom!”

            The earth rumbled again and Darla’s eyes widened as the air crackled. Something loomed in front of her that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe it had always been there-they were just blind to the sight.

            She turned to the rest of the gang, who were staring up in amazement at the sight before them. They were finally here.

            “Time to go into the Crystal Temples.”