Draygon Inferno | Book 2 | ✔️

Chapter Fifteen

"I understand nothing about magic. As Siobhan repeatedly reminds me, I'm a moron. What I just saw in the Dragons glass scares me more than words can describe. How can magic convince the world my mom is Lady Lethon when she apparently was married to a commoner? How did magic create the Draygon or me? But I did understand one thing Garrith said, 'through his birth, my power will return, and this shadowy form will no longer trap me.' That means he needs me to have his physical form, correct?"

Korix nodded.

"Without me, he's just the shadow man. He's not a Wyvern, not a God, he's nothing. Yet my existence powers him somehow and that's why you want to destroy me." Wren didn't wait for Korix to acknowledge his statement. "But if you kill me, that won't kill Garrith. He'll simply move on to another woman and create another one like me. There's nothing to stop him. Siobhan says she could barely withstand him when he used his power against her. So if Siobhan can't stop him, who can? You?"

Korix roared, his breath once again jostling Wren's hair and clothes, but Siobhan's favorite moron held his ground. She smiled, finally understanding where he was going. If the dragons could stop Garrith, the Draygon would've never been created in the first place. Neither Wren nor Siobhan would exist if the dragons could defeat the king of the Wyverns.

"My power connected with Wren's when we were trying to free his fiancé from the bracelet. I could feel our connection," she said. "And we combined our powers to enter here. Those damned hags don't do anything as a coincidence. They saw something that meant Wren and I were supposed to meet."

"The Witches of Drakewood don't know everything. They cannot see the true future, only one of the possible futures."

"Trust me, I am no fan of the hags. They're liars and manipulators. Even the story they told me about Lady Lethon seeking the High Mages out was a lie. She didn't seek anyone out, they found her. However, we're a lot alike in that we'd do anything that served our best interests. If they let Wren live, I do believe there's a reason for it. That doesn't mean either of us have to play into their hands, but if Wren was a true risk to them he wouldn't be alive." Siobhan sighed, she couldn't believe she was defending a choice made by the Witches of Drakewood.

Wren asked, "Can you shift the way Garrith can? I mean, take the form of a human like him."

"With the aid of the Witches of Drakewood we could. They have a potion which allows someone to gain the ability to shift similar to how the humans use Changeling potions to temporarily change their appearance, though this change is permanent. I think I see where he's going with this, Korix. You mean to ask one of us to follow you, yes?" Jaeda asked.

Wren nodded. "If my magic becomes uncontrollable, or it looks as though I'm becoming a real threat, they can step in and kill me."

"I already said—"

Wren interrupted Siobhan, "You and I both know you wouldn't be able to kill me. A few months ago, you wouldn't have hesitated, but now? Now you can't."

She snorted, but didn't respond. He was right and she damn well knew it. He was infuriating when he was right.

"I will go with them." Jaeda spread its wings as it bowed.

Korix growled. "You will never be a full dragon again, your human form will always be your dominant one where you can only shift back to your true form for an hour."

"I know." Jaeda's lips lifted as if the dragon smiled. "It is a price to pay, but one I pay freely. We have been entombed in ice for countless generations with the knowledge that our release would mean the return of the Wyvern's. We cannot sit idly by this time, Korix. The failures of our past cannot be made again. My gut tells me to put faith in the Draygon heir and the Wyvern-human."

"Hmm." Siobhan sheathed her dagger and tapped a finger to her chin. "We're going to need a better name for his species then Wyvern-human. That's a mouthful. How about Moronite?"

She grinned when Wren glared back at her.

"Only if we can call you a Bitchrinian," he said. "How about you just see me as me, Wren. Human. Son of Lady Lethon. Because dammit that's how I feel."

Siobhan chuckled and blew a kiss to Wren. "So I guess we'll finish what we're here for, then return to the Drakewood forest to get the potion from the hags and then—"

"There will be no need to return to the Witches."

The dragons growled at the arrival of the new voice. Korix and Jaeda stepped to the side, clearing a path back to the exit. Siobhan rested a hand on her sheathed dagger while raising the one still drawn. She narrowed her eyes at the man walking toward them carrying her saddle bags over his bare shoulders. Bob followed behind him as he pulled on the reins with his right hand. There was something familiar in the green scales ridding up his left arm from the back of his hand to his shoulder, erasing all signs of his light bronze skin. His strong jaw rising with high cheek bones, the thin nose with a slight hook at the end, and his narrow white eyes . . . all of it was too familiar. He was Draygon, that much she could tell long before he stopped inches before her, but why was he so familiar? The man set Siobhan's saddle bags down carefully and reached into a pocket of his tattered pants. When he extended his arm, he unrolled his hand, revealing a narrow vial of yellow liquid.

"This is the potion you seek, Sibby."

"Sibby? Nobody has called me that since . . ." Siobhan dropped her dagger and covered her mouth. "Oh my Goddess. Cion?"

He smiled and nodded. "Hello, big sister."