Stars (Dragon Reign Book 8) Read online

  Stars

  Dragon Reign

  Kit Bladegrave

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Afterword

  Dedication

  Thank you to the readers!

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  Stars

  Forrest has no interest in a relationship with anyone. In truth, was there really someone worthy of the dragon king? Dejected by Kate’s rejection, his only purpose in life is to help his friends save their lands from the evil that portends to consume them all.

  Enter Mori of the stars, luminescent with stars that dripped from her hair and cascaded to the ground. Mori, who is one of the six, fated and prophesied.

  Mori, who seems to get the most confusing responses from Forrest’s heart.

  Join Kate the Vindicar, Craig the demon king, Tristan the alpha of the wolf shifters, Sabella the seer and demi god and Forrest, king of the dragon shifters in their efforts to eradicate the evil darkness that threatens the realms.

  1

  Mori

  I thought it was a dream at first. Had to be. No one was coming to save us from that horrible prison made of nightmares, killing my family one by one. I was only the first, but then Baladon captured the gods, dragged them from their realms, and trapped them with tendrils of shadows that fed on their powers, on their very souls. We were going to die there, all of us, and our bodies would rot for eternity deep within the mountain.

  When the fighting first began, I swore it was more tormenting from Baladon. I’d been his prisoner for many years, I thought, and was certain it was only my mind playing tricks. Or it was the bastard god himself teasing us with the idea of being freed. I tried to force my eyes open, but they refused. Too tired, too weak. And looking at the three dead gods in my presence, knowing this was all my fault, haunted me. My own personal hell to suffer through.

  Voices?

  I could’ve sworn I heard voices close by.

  No, no one would be coming. They couldn’t be. Coming here would be insanity.

  Metal clanked, and I felt a presence, a single presence moving toward me through the fog that had become my mind.

  The chains holding my arms up loosened, and when the manacles broke, my body sagged, right into the waiting arms of this presence. The arms were warm and comforting. My eyes flickered open for just a moment and the bluest eyes—in a dark face filled with worry—met my gaze.

  Dragon.

  He was a dragon.

  Did I know him? I felt I did, somehow, but then my eyes closed again, and we were moving as he carried me close to his chest.

  I wanted to speak, tell him he needed to run before Baladon found him, but the words never left my lips. Why was he here? Risking his life for mine? I wasn’t worth the effort. The questions were on my tongue, but I was too weak. Still, his arms curled protectively around me as if he’d heard me anyway and was arguing with me without saying a word.

  More fighting sounded around us.

  Screams…

  No, not screams. Battle cries.

  Agaris?

  She was alive!

  And others, Thorne and Harper… Devon, even. They were all still alive, but for how long?

  I was placed on stone, and a warm hand held my face for far too short a time before a growl erupted from his throat.

  I managed a glimpse, just in time to catch him darting into the fray.

  My heart was in my throat as I watched him fight, as I waited to witness yet another fall.

  Then everything moved in a blur, and somehow, he found his way back to me as a white light took us far away from Baladon.

  “Are you certain you did not hit your head?” Agaris asked loudly.

  I jumped and glanced around. “Hmm? No, no I told you my head is fine.” I rubbed absently at my wrists, bruised and sore from those manacles. So long, I’d been kept there so long. And that dragon, he saved me. I’d thanked him, but it didn’t feel like enough.

  “You weren’t exactly here,” Agaris murmured. “Care to share?” The goddess of war was wiping her blade clean and giving it a good shine.

  I shuddered at the sight, wishing I could erase the last few decades from my memory.

  Baladon. He’d stolen so much from me, killed so many of our family. My lip twitched in disgust with the knowledge he was still out there and making ready to strike again. We were so few now and weakened by his darkness. If only I had the strength when we were rescued, I would have obliterated that realm, torn it down stone by stone, and created a tomb for that rotten bastard.

  “Mori?” Agaris’ hands had paused, her head tilted as she studied me curiously.

  “What?” I glanced down at myself to find my body glowing fiercely from my ragged emotions. I focused on my starlight and pulled it back to me. “Sorry. I’m upset.”

  “You’re angry,” she corrected softly. “You have a murderous glint in your eyes I’ve never seen before.” She reached out a hand to rest on my forehead and whatever she sensed had her pulling back, brow furrowing. “I feared this would happen to you.”

  “Nothing happened,” I lied, hoping she would drop the subject.

  “That is an outright lie and you know it. You were the first he took, and only you know what happened.” She sheathed her sword at her back and planted her hands on her thighs, giving me a stern look. “You forget you are considered young amongst our family and I have been around since the beginning. I sense anger and rage, I sense when someone wishes to cause violence.”

  “I have a right to cause that god violence,” I snapped.

  Several others around us quieted at my outburst.

  Agaris bowed her head. “You do, but you are not one of anger. You are one of light, remember? Of hope and faith. Faith in all of us.”

  “And if I can’t be that anymore?” I looked around the brightly-lit garden we were gathered in.

  Sunlight, at least here there was light.

  I leaned back and let it warm my face, a feeling I missed for far too long.

  We’d sought sanctuary in a realm that had not been touched yet, summoned there by the god who ruled it. Wahla, one of the goddesses of nature. She stood near Thorne, tending to the wound on his arms left behind by those tendrils of shadow.

  Agaris bore the wounds as well, but she had been there the least amount of time of those saved and had recovered far quicker. Her power would need more time to regenerate, but physically, she appeared almost perfect.

  “You must, it’s who you are.”

  “I’m a star who failed at being a gatekeeper. I failed my duty to protect the orb, now look where we are. Brought low by one of our own.”

  Agaris sighed heavily. “Mori, calm yourself.”

  “How can I when Wahla is now the only remaining goddess of nature? We lost so many, how will we ever recover from this? How will we stop him now?”

  “That is not for us to do.”

  “Then who if not the gods?” I argued, my voice rising with each word.

  “Mori.” Devon joined us, “There are other forces at work here that even we cannot interfere with.”

  “Meaning what?” I snapped.

  Devon
blanched, shooting a concerned look to Agaris.

  “Meaning those who are meant to stop Baladon will learn of their purpose in time.”

  “In time? We don’t have time! Haven’t you seen what he’s doing?” My chest heaved with an anger I’d never experienced before, at least, not until Baladon attacked my realm.

  I was one of light and happiness, not this seething fury that writhed inside me like a living beast. I shook out my long hair, stars tumbling around my feet, pacing in the grass, needing to get away from the looks they kept giving each other, as if I was ready to lose it.

  And why I shouldn’t I be ready to lose it? They knew nothing of what Baladon did to me. Nothing, and they expected me to let others handle it? Mortals? They would be slaughtered, and then Baladon would come for us and finish what he started.

  A heavy hand landed on my shoulder.

  I froze at the calming effect it had.

  “Thorne.”

  “Mori,” he said in his deep, baritone voice. “What happened to you?”

  “It’s nothing I can’t handle,” I answered, even as a voice ranted inside my mind that I could in no way handle what I was going through.

  Not alone. But it wasn’t Thorne or the other gods who I pictured helping me through these troubled emotions.

  Forrest. He had saved me, and suddenly, I wanted to be back in the realms beside him.

  “You are acting very unlike yourself.”

  My head fell forward.

  His other hand found my right shoulder.

  I knew he was right. “I’m sorry.”

  I was always the quiet one amongst the family. Collected, rarely spoke out, and never did I raise my voice. I despised acts of violence, and yet all I could think of at that moment was ripping Baladon apart with my bare hands. The thought disgusted me, but at the same time it made me smile, thinking of causing him pain. But on top of the violence rushing through my veins was something even worse, eating me alive from the inside out.

  Guilt. Guilt for failing. Guilt for the dead who fell inside that mountain.

  “Come, we all have much to discuss,” he said finally, and his hands left my shoulders.

  The gods gathered in a circle within the garden, sitting or standing, many bearing the marks of their captivity. Those who had remained free were on high alert, armed, and waiting for an attack to come at a moment’s notice.

  I took my seat on the stone bench next to Agaris, feeling her gaze on me until Thorne, the eldest god amongst our family, spoke.

  “It is true our numbers have taken a great hit,” Thorne began, “and though Baladon was wounded by Sabella, he is still a threat.”

  “We should attack him now, while he’s weak,” Agaris suggested.

  The two gods, her brothers of war, nodded in agreement and brandished their swords. One of them said, “He cannot hope to defend himself from all of us.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not so easy. He’s absorbed the powers of those he killed. He is no longer merely Baladon, he is so much more. And his realm is unreachable without the orb, at least, by us.”

  Thorne’s gaze flickered to me, and I hunched, the weight of my failure hitting me again.

  “Mori is too weak to create another one, and even if she did, I doubt Baladon will allow his realm to be penetrated so easily a second time. It will be hell getting inside, and I will not risk any more of our family, not now.”

  “Then what are we to do?” Agaris demanded furiously. “Stand by while he slaughters us? Kills the races off?”

  Others muttered their agreement in attacking immediately.

  Thorne held up his hand and silence fell over the garden. “As I have stated, there is more at work here that goes even beyond the gods.”

  “Meaning what exactly?” I asked sharply.

  Every set of eyes turned to me, and I ground my teeth, trying to remind myself to get a hold of my emotions and not let them erupt.

  “It means those who are destined to fight Baladon are right where they need to be,” he explained, his gaze locking with mine. “Almost all of them.”

  Why did he continue to stare at me like that? I couldn’t lift a hand against Baladon. But then Thorne’s gaze moved on, and I sagged even more, focusing on the grass beneath my feet, ignoring everyone else.

  “You speak of a prophecy,” Devon said quietly, and Thorne nodded. “Can they do it?”

  “The outcome is never given,” Thorne declared, “only the journey. You know this.”

  Devon should know it, as the god of seers and prophecy. He seemed uncertain but didn’t argue with Thorne. “Of course, but the odds are greatly stacked against them.”

  “Are they?”

  “Of course, they are,” I mumbled and then immediately bit my lip.

  If anyone heard me, they didn’t react, and Thorne continued. “The Vindicar and the Seer have already come together with those meant for them, and it has made them stronger than they could ever have hoped to be,” he said. “They have the key in their possession, the key needed to fight this battle. And win or lose, it is theirs to fight.”

  The sadness in his words had me raising my head, and I wasn’t the only one who seemed confused by his tone. A wave of sorrow and contentedness passed through the garden, and I shook my head slowly.

  “No, you can’t mean…” I couldn’t find the words.

  Thorne smiled softly. “I do. The era of the gods is coming to an end. It was destined to happen at one point or another. I will admit, I saw a more glorious end to us; not one of being picked off by one of our own.” He laughed bitterly. “But no one can choose how they leave this world. When this battle is over, the gods will leave and move on. The races have come a long way. Their faith has transcended to the point they no longer need our presence to know we are with them and guide them.”

  The end of the gods. I never imagined it happening. Where would we go, if we survived the final battle? I wondered if I would return to the heavens, but when I glanced around the gods again, Thorne was watching me closely, a knowing glint in his eyes as if there was more to this tale that he had not told the others. I willed for him to speak, but he said nothing, then finally stood.

  “Now, we may not have recovered all the bodies of the fallen, but it is time we bid farewell to the dead and sent them on their way,” he announced. “Give them a proper send-off and hope their spirits find their eternal resting place.”

  As one, we moved through the garden, the cheery bright-colored flowers clashing with the sorrow of the moment.

  Farrah’s body was on a pyre, her eyes closed forever, her light gone, stolen from her by Baladon. Her essence would have lived on in Sabella, but she had not survived the rescue mission.

  Just another weight, another failure to add to my already overburdened mind.

  Thorne moved to the head of the pyre and said the final rites.

  I listened, but heard none of it, too lost in my own thoughts of what was to come next.

  Thorne lit the pyre. I stared into those crackling flames as they devoured what remained of a once-great goddess, loved by so many. Her loss would be felt amongst us, as would that of the others. A dimming of what gave us strength.

  While the fire burned, I reflected over my anger. Agaris was right; I needed to control it before it destroyed who I was. But even as I strained to find the old Mori buried deep within me, the anger only grew, until my hands were fists at my sides.

  You failed, a voice whispered in my mind. My breath caught. You let this happen. None of them would be dead if you protected the orb.

  I wanted to scream that it wasn’t true, but what was the point? Guilt warred with the anger as the voice whispered over and over in my mind, reminding me why the realms were covered in darkness. Why so much blood soaked into the ground below.

  Why that blue-eyed dragon had risked his life for mine, nearly died, and might still.

  A dragon I felt a pull to; it was like nothing I ever experienced before.

  “Mori.”
>
  I jumped when Thorne spoke my name and glanced around. The other gods had moved off and the pyre was nothing but ash. How long had I been standing here arguing with myself?

  “I sense you are torn.”

  “No, no. I’m just coming to terms with what happened and being free again.”

  “And perhaps thinking of the dragon who saved you?” His brow arched, and he sighed. “You wish to see him again.”

  “I do, but my place is here, recovering with the rest of you.”

  All you will do is fail again and get the rest of them killed, the voice whispered, and I stilled.

  “I have another task for you,” Thorne said.

  The whispers faded away.

  “You are to return to King Forrest, the Vindicar, King Craig, Tristan, and Sabella.” He eyed me appraisingly.

  “Sabella? But she has passed, and Tristan has succumbed to the curse of his kin. They can no longer aid in the fighting of this war.”

  Thorne shook his head. “No, she will have recovered from her wounds by now, though it is a slower process since she is only half-god. And their bond is far too strong to ever let something as silly as a curse stop them from being together.” He waved off my worries as if they were nothing. “They will be there, and they all need one last piece of guidance from us.”

  “You wish me to tell them we are leaving this place?” I asked, surprised.

  “No, no, because that is only half the truth.”

  “And the other half is?”

  “Not yet discovered,” he replied simply.

  I grumbled in annoyance.

  His eyes narrowed on my face, and I felt uncomfortable with him staring so intently.