Andre
As they circled each other in that deadly art, the sounds of battle reached his ears. Andre had no idea who was fighting who. He couldn't sense any of his people so he imagined his mate had had something to do with the battle outside. Maybe the dragons were fighting each other.
His mate.
His heart was lighter than it'd been for most of the day that he wanted to laugh out loud. His mate was okay, was right there with him. Best of all, if he'd understood Dani correctly, Eric thought she was Cari. The other prince had bound Cari's cousin to him. His mate was no longer in danger of being taken.
He parried with the prince, met his every one of his thrust. The other male seemed to have calmed from his anger about Andre's sword. He became more focused, intent. Andre suspected it was Dani's presence that had that effect on the dragon, much as Cari's had on him.
Was this what their grandmother had meant? That Eric needed Dani? Which begged the question of why it was so important that the dragon prince mate with Dani. Was it a rearrangement of the power structure? Andre doubted the dragon race would appreciate having a werewolf as their second princess. Never mind when they found out their royalty would then be subject to the werewolf royals.
Andre felt the sting of a cut. 'Pay attention!' His wolf growled inside him and came forward even more.
'Why is he important?' Andre wondered.
'I don't care.' The wolf declared. 'Stop holding back!' He commanded.
Meeting the rather self satisfied look of the dragon prince Andre realized the wolf was right. It was time to show the dragon just how capable he was. Eric had set the rules thinking he was the better fighter. Andre though, had been testing Eric's style and now he truly fought the other male.
Where he'd been using water attributes, he decided to incorporate them all, keep the other prince guessing. The pace of the fight heightened, Eric was no longer looking so smug. A frown marred his forehead and when Andre gave him a debilitating cut on his dominant right arm. It was right where tendons flexed to lift or move the sword so he couldn't use it properly.
Eric tried to move back from Andre but Andre followed him, cornering him. Once more, his sword absorbed the blood from the cut. He saw the dragon prince pale as he realized the nature of the magic that resided in the sword.
Just as Andre was about to deliver another cut he felt the same magic that'd been in the tunnels lash against him. His sword was shattered as he was blown away from the dragon prince. He tried to reach for the elements, any of them, but they seemed beyond him as he hurtled through the air.
His movements were out of his control, the air slipping out of his grasp however much he tried to hold on to it. Fire refused to come to his call when it always was the first to manifest with his emotions. Had this magic been reading him as he'd done in the tunnels?
Andre felt the impact as he was slammed into the desks and chairs outside the arena. Cracks rang loud in his ears as he felt multiple sharp pains in his body. The wooden seats and desks weren't the only things that broke. Even whilst their splintered ends tore into his flesh, Andre felt some of his bones breaking.
It was excruciating. So much so that he felt himself losing consciousness. With an angry howl, his wolf surged to the fore. The beast lended him so much power that he felt an abnormal burst through his body. It was even more painful, burning every inch of him but it managed to knock the consciousness back into him. To ignite his focus.
Shaking his head to clear his mind and the ringing in his ears, Andre quickly stood back up. Ready to face the dragon prince once more. Now all bets were off. Eric had said honour rules applied, yet he'd chosen to call up the magical defense of dragonheim to fight for him. Andre wasn't going to leg that stand, even if it meant releasing the dragonsbane and watching the city die.
He was now sure that since the dragons had never encountered the drug before, they had no way of fighting it off and even the low concentration he had would be fatal. Since the city was sheltered by the mountains, the drug would have a harder time escaping the valley and long exposure would be even more fatal. Especially as the dragonsbane made it impossible to shift.
"Mother!" Eric cried out just as Andre was running to attack him in turn.
The dragon prince ran past him and Andre turned around to see what had the prince so concerned. His heart sank as he saw the dragon prince going for his mate. Andre gave chase as he watched Eric take on the shift to his dragon form, his razor sharp talons going to slash at his mate's exposed back.
Cari's brother and cousins together with Andre's friends tried to intercept the prince but some of the guards kept them at bay. Andre knew he wouldn't be able to reach the prince before he got to Cari. With his sword destroyed, he had no defense against the other shifter in his shifted form.
He shouted his anger, digging deep into the power he'd always tried to bury. The uncontrollable chaos that churned in his core regardless of what he was doing. It was a desperate act since he knew the power in his was beyond his ability to control. That without that control, he could end up killing everyone in the room and maybe even beyond.
A red haze covered his eyes, it wasn't anything like fire. No, it was a deep red he could never describe. Unlike blood or any shade of the colour he'd ever encountered. It swirled like a living thing, coating and pulsing into his vision until he saw echoes of it around him. It was unadulterated power, and he was one with it.
As his mate turned to the attacking dragon, Andre was awed by the power that shone from her. Unlike his own, it was a cool unearthly blue. One that shone even in the red haze everything had turned into. He also saw that he'd worried for nothing.
With a single pushing motion, Cari dismissed the dragon prince's shift. Another motion had him gasping for breath. Eric felt to his knees, his hand going to his throat as he fought to draw on air. Andre looked back at his mate and couldn't reconcile the detached coldness that stamped her face with the gentle mate he knew.
She watched the prince gasp for air, met his eyes. Other guards rushed her but like their prince they fell gasping to the ground. This time without Cari even making her earlier motions, or even turning to them. Andre was stunned still, gaping at her as he saw a myriad of blue magical threads connecting his mate to the guards that hadn't rushed her.
The ones connecting to the rest and the dragon prince pulsed an angry blue but the rest were somehow tranquil. Cari turned back to a woman dressed in a golden robe who had tears flowing down her cheeks as she clutched her heart. She still stood, panting as pain filled eyes tried to implore his mate.
Cari had her back to him but he could guess, as the woman continued clutching her heart and gasping, that Cari was still doing whatever she was to her. That alone cleared the blind haze that had just now gripped him. The last thing Andre wanted was for his mate to kill these dragons. He refused to believe it wouldn't haunt her for life.
"Astéri mou." He called out as he walked closer to her. "Please let them go."
"Why? So that they can go back to believing they have a right to do whatever they want to us?" She questioned, her voice too calm for his liking.
"Baby," with gentle arms he turned her so that she faced him. "This isn't like you."
"How would you know?" She asked, still in that emotionless tone. "We just met."
Andre cupped her cheek and searched her eyes. They were blue now, that eerie shade that seemed to envelope her. A cold version. He knew he needed to get through to her. If there was going to be any killing, the burden should be his and not his mate's. "Because I love you."
It was an irrational answer he knew but nothing else came to mind. Yet it seemed to be the perfect answer. A touch of the mate he'd come to know thawed the iciness he could see in the depths of her eyes. "You never had anything bad to say about your sister despite all she did to you." He continued. "That's why I know this isn't the person you are. Think of what will happen to Dani if you kill him." He gestured to the still gasping Eric hoping he was right about what he suspected.
Cari turned her head to look at her cousin and Andre followed her. Dani stood with her head held high, her eyes clear and hard. Andre couldn't even guess at what she was thinking, what she was feeling. What he knew though was that Cari would never do anything to hurt her.
Unfortunately, at that instant three dragons of great power burst through the room. The air itself crackled with power and his mate whirled around to meet them. Frustration ate at Andre as he realized he'd lost the chance to save his mate from harm.
"What is going on here?" A male who wore authority about him demanded. He had hair a dark red like Eric but greying at the temple. He looked enough like the dragon prince for Andre to guess he was the king.
To his left was a man a few centuries younger, who looked a great deal like the king, the crown prince. Last was a female so delicate looking despite the power that blazed from her. She was a waif of a thing, almost as short as his mate and slender. Her ashen hair blew in the slight wind and her unlined face had a fragility of bone that her sharp grey eyes belied. Andre guessed from the age in her eyes she was the queen.
"Your grandson kidnapped me and my cousin, then your daughter-in-law tried to kill my mate." Cari stated in that calm voice that so chilled him. "I took exception to it."
The king's eyes became cold. "So you decided to kill them? Do you think killing a pair of royals in their home will be that easy?"
"Actually yes." Cari stated. "In fact it'd be so easy to kill everyone in the city."
"You think too highly of yourself wolf." The way he said wolf might as well have been a vile curse.
Andre had shifted to stand next to his mate so he could fight with her if the situation went the way it was proving. The tension that crackled through the room was suffocating, the promise of bloodshed clear. Whose, was all that was left. He found it odd that the king was even engaging them when he should be trying to stop what was happening to his people.
"We went to Australia when I was a child," Cari once again stated, her tone emotionless. "I got lost in the outback and came across a pack of dingoes. They must have smelled that I was a wolf so they surrounded me as if I was their prey. Maybe they had had a kill and thought I wanted to take it. I panicked, called up something deep within me and felt it lash at them.
In that moment, I felt all of their heartbeats, thirty-five hearts. It was like each of them was my very own and I could will them to do as I pleased. And they all stopped beating at in the next moment and the pack died. I can feel the heartbeat of every dragon in this city."
Andre was shocked at the story, at the emotionless way she recounted it. "I was so horrified that I ran," she continued. "I tried to convince myself it wasn't me who'd done it and never told anyone. Then years later, a male hurt someone I cared about and once again that something inside me reached out. This time I touched his mind and crushed his sanity.
I'm not going to kill them. I'm just teaching them a lesson." She said with calmness. "You dragons feel entitled to us as if we're cattle. You need to know we're no longer helpless. I will not let you come after me or my people. Never again."
Andre didn't know what to think. Was his mate that dangerous? Could he have been so wrong about her? The king and his companions' power rose even more, impossible as it seemed. Andre reached for his own and it came like a pet to his master that he almost lost it. He'd fought it all his life it'd never occurred to him that it wasn't something to fight, to control.
Once more, someone else interrupted. "Enough!" The voice held so much power, a voice that he recognized. It was enough to have him pause. "Do you realize you've weakened the gates to Azmodea more than they already were?"
"I was wondering when you'd show your face." Cari expressed, unsurprised as she turned to the woman who'd literally appeared out of thin air.
"Nana!" Dani greeted her voice catching Cari's coldness.
"Nana?" The dragon king demanded. "Have you been manipulating us all these centuries?"
"That's what she does." Cari deadpanned.
"Let the dragons go Cari." Her grandmother instructed, ignoring her assertions.
Probably because she was used to obeying her grandmother, Cari released the dragons she'd had suffering before her. There was a lot of coughing as they collectively took up deep breaths. "What have you done?" Cari demanded of her grandmother.
"I brought you here so that you could help close the gates we're standing upon."
Andre too a shocked breaths. The dragon city was built on top of the gates to Azmodea? Why the heck would they do something like that? Were they so arrogant as to believe they could control one of the netherworlds?
Cari glared her hatred at the dragon prince. "He wants to open them." She accused.
"No sweetheart. He needs you to close them."
"So you pretended to be what to manipulate them?" Cari scorned.
"I am the goddess of fate." Cari's grandmother stated. "I pretended to be a human so that I could bring you three girls back into the world."
"Three?" Cari questioned.
Her grandmother looked at Cari's former friend Annie who looked back with wide eyes. "I was also her great grandmother, the one everyone believes was my aunt. I needed to hide what I was doing from the others."
"Okay, this is the part you need to start making sense." Dani interjected. "What in the world are you talking about?"
Their Nana stood straighter. "I guess I should start from the beginning. You might all want to get comfortable since this is a long story." No one moved. "Very well. Long ago, when time was in its infants three girls were born, triplets with varying shades of dark hair and olive skins. They were tall for females of their time, five feet eight with curvy figures.
The eldest of them was called was called Song as she had the most magnificent voice. And when she sang it was said magic danced in the sky and the birds stopped to listen. The middle one was called Sympathy, she could empathize with everything, wield magic in all ways and help people see each other's point.
The youngest, and the one the other two and everyone loved was called Serenity. Her presence was a joy to everyone. She balanced nature and could help those around her find their core truth.
This was the time when magic was plentiful and all were born powerful and lived for eons more than now. It was also the time of the the four primes. When they saw serenity, they each loved her and wanted her for their mate.
They fought for her, battles that marred the innocent world, destroyed and tainted so much of its magic. The gods were not powerful enough to stop the primes so they beseeched Serenity to chose one of them. Serenity already loved one of the primes but knew if she revealed it, the others would only become more aggressive. The only way to bring back peace she thought, was if she was no longer there."
"She killed herself?" Dani demanded.
"No." Her grandmother refuted. "She came to me and asked to be hidden for all time so the primes would go back to what they were, content. It seemed like a good idea so I buried her so deep in the well of souls that she could never rise again.
Unfortunately she didn't tell anyone she'd been in a relationship with the prime she'd loved. He was the eldest, the most powerful and he raged even more without Serenity until the other primes bound him out of reality. But as he was the eldest, they too were drawn out.
Most of the magic went out of the worlds and the gods, who'd been relieved the prines were gone, found they were no longer immortal. Yet though they died, they were reborn to live life once again. Always into different races they'd know who they were once they reached the age of fifty.
I knew that Serenity would be able to bring back the primes but the other gods blamed her for the loss of their magic and wanted her to remain hidden. They also didn't want the primes to come back and restart their war."
Everyone was silent as they digested that. "What happened to Song and Sympathy?" Dani asked in a soft speculative tone.
There was something in the look the Beta exchanged with her granddaughter that spoke of unspoken knowledge between them. "Their souls were tied to her, so they shared her fate. The Beta answered.
"So why have you been toying with our lives?" Cari asked.
"Not toying, guiding."
"Tomato, tomato."
"The three of you and the three princes have to close the gates, otherwise this world is doomed."