Dragon Blood

Fifty-Seven: Blood Red Ruby

"Orion!" she called into the night as she dropped to her knees. Their connection was weak, at least on her end, from her dragon being locked up in the cage once again, but she could still feel the pain and anger emanating from him. She forced herself back to her feet. She needed to figure out what was wrong with her dragon so that she could go to him. He needed her.

As she approached the village, she realized immediately that something was wrong. She could feel it pulsating through the air, almost like a heartbeat. Something powerful, something dark. The closer she got to the village, the stronger the feeling became. She hesitated for only a moment but knew that her clan needed her. Her Alpha instincts to protect kicked in, and her feet were on the move before she was able to form a conscious thought about what to do.

As she ran, she tried again to shift, as hard as she possibly could, but the cage was sealed shut. Even with her dragon pushing from the inside, the bars didn't budge. It had taken her years to build a cage that strong around her other half, and this had formed in only minutes. She didn't understand but knew that she needed her dragon to protect the clan.

She ran to the edge of the village, and the silence disturbed her greatly. What disturbed her even more was the fear she could sense in the air. A ball of tension lodged in her gut as she slowed to a jog. She had to at least try to sneak up on whatever was going on, to survey the situation before she ran in with no plan on how to stop it.

She peered around a building to look into the Square and what she found made no sense to her.

The clan members were huddled together, Nana and Penelope standing in front of them, and they were surrounded with four unfamiliar women. Each woman had long, waist length black hair and wore a long green velvet dress adorned with silver chains crisscrossing the front and back. They also had blue light glowing from their hands, connecting each woman to the next and creating a circle around the dragons. Skylar sensed that the source of the dark power she'd felt was those hands.

A few steps away from the women stood her Uncle Henry, glaring at the terrified dragons. He appeared to be no threat to them, being the plump man that he was. She knew for a fact that, while he had practiced with the knights when he was younger, he was no fighter now. Why hadn't her clan shifted? How had these women snuck up on them?

"We know you're there, Skylar," a familiar voice said from the porch of the infirmary across the Square.

Skylar's gaze flew to the person standing there. Queen Isabel. She remembered Jonathan telling them all that Queen Isabel was a witch, but she realized that, up to that point, she hadn't really believed him. But now that she saw her, standing there with glowing hands and glowing eyes, the reality sunk in.

All the eyes in the Square had turned to Skylar as she stepped out of the cover of the building. There was no point in hiding anymore. She looked at Nana, who appeared unsure for the first time since Skylar had known her. That was the most worrisome part of all this. If Nana didn't know what to do, how was Skylar supposed to have a clue?

"Isabel," she said, since it was the only thing that came to mind.

"Do you like my trick?" she asked, holding up her hand. She squeezed her fist and every dragon in the Square groaned, even the children who hadn't shifted yet, as their dragons screeched in pain. Skylar gasped as her dragon wailed in agony as some unseen force twisted her conscience mercilessly.

"What are you doing?" Skylar demanding, trying to gain hold of herself.

"That little clan link comes in handy," Isabel smirked. "Unfortunately, the spell only works over small areas, like this one here. Your friends on the battle field can feel nothing, so don't worry about them. I was, however, able to cut them off from all of you."