“Are you going to be all right going back to the council?” I asked Idris once we were getting ready in the hall. Nicolas was waiting for me outside the house. I didn’t worry about the fact that someone could recognise me on the street. Only certain Dark Ones knew who I was. To them, I wasn’t important.

  “Yes, don’t worry about me. I will return as fast as I can. Good luck. Everything will go smoothly,” he told me and then kissed me hard.

  Avianna was telling us to get a room.

  My legs were a little wobbly when I got outside. Nicolas smiled at me and Idris nodded to me, then turned around. He was going in the other direction. My stomach made a funny jolt when I watched him walking away. This felt wrong, but he had to do whatever was necessary.

  “He’s going to be fine,” Nicolas reminded me. “I’m worried about Ally. She has been in this world for a while now.”

  Then the guilt soared through me again. Ally—she was alone and probably scared. We needed to find a way to get her out of the Dark Ones’ hands.

  “We will free her, but these next twenty-four hours are crucial, Nicolas. We need to energise the wardens. We are on the clock,” I said, knowing that Ally had to wait for now. Nicolas seemed to understand, but I’d bet he was blaming himself for what had happened to her. The wardens were staring at us when we approached the stand to hire a steam bike. Nicolas wanted to drive, and I gave him a free hand.

  The city hadn’t changed much. Wardens were still walking in groups. We needed to get to the other side of the city. We spotted more Dark Ones in the distance. I was wearing a helmet, and Avianna was flying above. It was a risky move, but John, my old friend, had his ways to spread the message around the city very fast. Rhian managed to send Gregory a message. He was going to meet me at the house later on.

  John lived above the old liquor store. He trained me when I was only fourteen and, thanks to him, I became one of the best thieves in the whole of Draconia. We had broken into many houses together, but then I vanished in the crack. He hadn’t heard from me for a long while.

  “I have overheard at least five wardens talking about dragon eggs and the cave already.” Nicolas chuckled when we were parking the steam bike by the road. This area was busy, and wardens looked much more excited than usual. I could feel it in the air that they were waiting for something. Avianna was flying above. I kept reminding her that she had to be aware of all the wardens on the road. She was invisible, but a little clumsy.

  “Well, that’s unexpected, but wardens like to talk. John has so many connections and ways to get to important people in the city. Let’s just hope that he’s not angry with me,” I muttered as we moved past the crowd. It was early morning, but the wardens were rushing to work. Most of them had small jobs in the city, and this area was free from the disease. It was safer living here than anywhere else.

  We walked past the liquor store, and then went inside the building. The staircase was squeaky and some of the steps were missing. John was in his sixties now and he lived alone. His daughter had been arrested by the Dark Ones and taken to the Dimond City prison. He hated them, and he hated the order. John hadn’t seen her since.

  The door to his flat was damaged and it looked like someone had tried to barge inside not too long ago. I hesitated a little, but eventually knocked. After a long and nervous moment, we heard footsteps. The door opened only slightly and a pair of bright yellow eyes stared at me. My stomach tightened with unease.

  “Fran, is that you?” John whispered. I smiled at him and the door opened wide. He dragged me inside. Nicolas and Avianna followed through. She was already complaining that she didn’t want to stay invisible.

  “Hello, John, long time no see. I see you missed me,” I was mumbling when he was squeezing me very, very hard.

  “What the hell happened to you? I thought you were dead. Last time I heard, you vanished inside the crack,” he said, staring at me like he was seeing a ghost.

  “It’s a long story, but this is my friend Nicolas, and we are here for a very specific reason,” I said.

  I needed to start from the beginning. John needed to understand what had happened to me. It appeared that John already heard about the dragons flying above the city. He had also heard about the havoc with the dragon eggs. I told him briefly what happened to me once I passed through the crack.

  He kept shaking his head like he still couldn’t believe me. He never told me about Sienna, and now I wondered why no one ever mentioned her.

  “For Qesborth, this is unbelievable. I had no idea. And what’s that story about you and the Dark One? I keep hearing he’s your boyfriend?” John asked, after I was done with everything. My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe that he was more interested in me dating a half Dark One than the fact that I was Sienna Sinclair’s daughter. Well, that was just John.

  “Yeah, we are together, and he’s on our side,” I said. “So, are you going to help us? We need to gather as many wardens as possible tomorrow night to charge on the council. We both know you can spread the news in the city within minutes.”

  He stared at me with a strange nostalgic look, but quickly nodded. I nearly jumped with excitement. Nicolas smiled and I was feeling good, because now this whole ideology, the dream, was slowly turning into reality. We were going to defeat the Dark Ones, once and for all.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Miracles

  “After that, we will march to Dimond city, march there to free all the prisoners who have been locked up for years, including your daughter,” I said, thinking about my mother, too. When I mentioned her, his face brightened up instantly.

  It had been years since he had last seen her. None of the wardens from the city were allowed to visit the prisoners. The Dark Ones never followed their own laws. Nina was arrested when John and I had just met. He must have seen potential in me, because he agreed to train me almost from day one. I had never seen her photograph, but I suspected that I looked a lot like her. I told him about Avianna, too. He didn’t seem shocked.

  “Dragon, huh? I should have known that they were always real. Why can’t I see the one flying around and destroying my home?” he asked, looking around. I could smell mould. His home needed a lot of renovation, but since I had vanished, John hadn’t taken any new jobs. If I had to bet, he was running up debts, just so he could survive. I felt like this would give him a better quality of life.

  “We feed her with potions, just so she can stay invisible. She’s growing too quickly, and we needed to keep her away from the Dark Ones,” I said. “So, are you up for it?”

  “You don’t even have to ask, Fran. You know I want to help,” he said.

  “Good, great, but this has to happen now. Reach out to your people, and tomorrow night, every warden in the city will be marching for freedom.”

  I had butterflies in my stomach. John smoothed his jaw and stared at me for a long while. We needed to get back to the house, because for some reason, I was worried about the eggs. I suspected that the eggs were craving a connection with wardens. Once things were settled, and we had full control of the city, the free dragons could lay even more eggs. Everyone could go back to what they had done in the past: being keepers. Damn it, that sounded too good to be true, even to me.

  “I doubt very much that any of the prisoners who have been there for over five years are still alive. It’s been over ten years, Fran. The Dark Ones killed your mother because she caused havoc. She created the League, this new ideology that made wardens less receptive to their magic,” he said.

  I swallowed hard, telling myself that there was still hope. There was always hope. John didn’t believe in miracles, but I didn’t care about what he was thinking. I just had to carry on my mother’s legacy. Timothy didn’t mention his family, and I wasn’t interested in learning more about them. In a way now, I had forgotten about the fact that I was abandoned at birth.

  He knew I needed him. Time was running out. We had just over twenty-four hours to spread the word about the uprising before more Dark Ones would show up in the city.

  “I told you already, I’ll help you. This is huge, the wardens are cowards, but they are all fed up, and they want change. In the past few months, things have been progressively getting worse,” he said, standing up, like he was suddenly injected with new energy.

  “So, maybe you have a way to make me not invisible anymore. I want him to see me, and the other dragons, too,” Avianna said.

  “It’s too soon. We still need to get back to the house.”

  She wasn’t too happy about that, but she needed to understand that we still had a lot of work to do. I gave John all the details, and he assured me that by the evening, the whole city would know what we were planning. He knew the wardens with magic, wealthy wardens who detested the Dark Ones. I just had to trust him.

  I wanted to stay and talk about the old times, but we had to get back to the house. It seemed that John had lost his spark, but before we were about to leave, I felt his energy grow stronger. I must have given him a new purpose in life.

  He hugged me and said to be careful with the eggs and with the warlocks. He said that they always only cared about their business.

  I told Avianna to keep close to us and fly low when we stepped outside on the busy street. Nicolas was silent, and wardens were staring at us as we started walking toward the main road. A few of them approached us when we got to the steam bike.

  “You are the warden with the baby dragon,” someone said, approaching me. Now more and more wardens were stopping and staring at us.

  We were bringing too much attention to ourselves, and this wasn’t the plan. Nicolas cursed as we were getting surrounded by more wardens.

  “There are dragon eggs in the city?” someone else asked. “Tell us where; my family is dying from Dragon Fever,”

  “Yes, we want you to listen to the word that is spreading. We are going to defeat the Dark Ones and gain control of the city. This will happen tomorrow night,” Nicolas said, as more and more wardens gathered. This was getting a little out of hand.

  “But, is it true? Are you able to heal the infected wardens?”

  “What’s with the other eggs?”

  “Why have they been lying to us for so long?”

  In the distance I spotted the Dark Ones. They were becoming interested in the crowd. This was putting us at risk. We needed to get the fuck out of here before there was more trouble.

  “Listen, you all go back to your lives for now. The Dark Ones are here, and they cannot suspect anything. We need to disappear,” I shouted, and then Nicolas pulled me toward the steam bike, and we jumped on. Nicolas didn’t wait; he told me to put my arms around him. The engine roared and we drove off. I kept staring at the front mirror, seeing that the crowd was slowly separating. The wardens were at least listening, and the word was already spreading. This was a good thing, but I didn’t know why I had a strange feeling in my gut that something could go wrong.

  I quickly dismissed it when we got near the house. We were seeing a lot of wardens just walking around. At least most of them knew to be discreet, and they were pretending like they were here to shop.

  To our advantage, there was a market two alleys down from Mangus’s residence, so the crowds looked natural. At the door we saw two warden girls who looked at me with warmth and devotion in their eyes. Avianna said their magic was beaming out of them.

  Once we got inside the house, everything was kind of clear. There were three strangers sitting by the table. They nodded to us.

  “It looks like Rhian is not wasting time,” Nicolas muttered.

  There was an older warden in the living room filled with eggs. He was staring at his hands and the rest of his body.

  “This is impossible; it’s gone. The illness. It’s all gone.” He kept saying over and over. Rhian was smiling, and Timothy was sitting in the corner reading a paper. The eggs were beaming with energy. I felt great, sensing their magic drifting around.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, wondering if maybe we were moving too fast.

  “The eggs healed this warden. He was dying, and these wardens in the kitchen carried him here, and now he’s healthy,” Rhian said with her voice breaking. Even she was a bit emotional.

  “Well, this is good news, but we need to help more of them. There are hundreds of wardens in the city who are infected. I know we won’t be able to heal them all today,” I said, helping the warden to stand up. Then I walked him to the kitchen. When the others saw him, they just stared at us with shock. Then they started crying and hugging each other. I left them to it.

  Nicolas was scratching his head, and Avianna was flying around.

  “How many wardens have been here so far?” I asked.

  “At least a hundred, most of them with Dragon Fever, but with different stages of the disease. The eggs are healing them all,” Rhian said, like she still couldn’t believe that this was really happening. “You were right, my dear. Most of the wardens who have been here said that they were ready to fight for freedom.”

  “This is all great, but we cannot be certain that they will all help us. There is still a long way before the Dark Ones are out of the picture,” Timothy mumbled. “We need to take over Dimond City; it’s our best strategic move. The Dark Ones’ source their energy from the centre of the earth.”

  “Everything will go according to plan. Wardens will stand against the order,” I said, not wanting to get him involved in this discussion. My relationship with my so-called father was still odd. We were only strangers, and we weren’t connected emotionally. It was too soon. I only just found out about his existence and the fact that he abandoned me when I was a newborn.

  “You’re just like your mother; she, too, strongly believed in her own ideology, and look where it got her,” Timothy stated, glancing up from his paper. Rhian gave him a sharp look but didn’t say anything.

  I ignored him and just left the room when Nicolas mentioned that there were more wardens waiting outside. Mangus’s residence was on the outskirts of the city, but the house was situated in a great location. A lot of wardens were passing the house on the way to Dimond City. Ripley, Frederick, and Harvey were gone for a long while. I was hoping that they were arranging transport for the other warlocks. I had a bad feeling about this for some reason, but I couldn’t share my doubts with anyone. Rhian, Timothy, Nicolas, and the warlocks had succeeded in stealing the eggs. We had accomplished something that would probably be written in history books later on.

  Idris was on my mind, too; he was supposed to be back later on in the evening. He was the driving force of this whole operation. No one suspected him. A lot of things had happened since I was rescued from that prison. Baxley was our main concern. I should have killed him when I had a chance.

  Over the next few hours Nicolas, Rhian, Timothy, and I were calling the wardens to enter the house. We heard that the word on the street was spreading extremely fast. John was keeping up his end of the deal.

  We were all witnessing a lot of infected wardens, some of them were being carried by the last uninfected person in their family. Dragon Fever was rotting their bodies from the inside out, but then miracles kept happening right in front of us. Even the wardens who were so ill that they couldn’t open their eyes were being healed. We only needed to place them close to the eggs. Wardens were crying, hugging each other, hugging us, and after that, we were telling them about the uprising.

  It was the most amazing feeling in the world, seeing them getting well. It hurt, too, because I kept thinking about Dara. She never even had a chance, she was just done. Someone infected her with Dragon Fever and then she died. I didn’t get to her in time with that damn egg. It still hurt my heart.

  Rhian must have noticed that I wasn’t taking it very well, meeting infected wardens, so she told me to bring the ones without magic. There were more miracles then, too. Wardens with no magic, with no energy, were blessed with magic for the first time in their lives. The dragons, the creatures inside the shell, were connecting with them, fixing their broken cells. They were like the missing pieces that the wardens needed to have in order to understand their true nature.

  “Thank you, thank you so much, Francesca. We never believed that he was ever going to have a normal life,” one of the female wardens said when I handed a golden egg to her six-year-old son. Her name was Clarrisa. The boy’s hands started beaming, and he looked at his mother with his eyes wide open. She could even feel the new changes inside him.

  I felt someone’s eyes on me. It was Timothy. He had this empty, blank expression on his face. I didn’t know if he ever regretted the fact that he forced my mother to abandon me. Back then, magic meant everything. Our eyes met, and for a few seconds, I felt like he was going to say something. He didn’t, he turned around and vanished upstairs.

  Clarrisa assured me that her whole family was planning to take part in the uprising. We continued to work until the evening; we continued showing the wardens the truth, until Gregory showed up.

  The moment he walked into my kitchen, I knew something was wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Family

  “What is he doing in here?” Timothy barked, walking into the kitchen at the same time Gregory showed up. He told Rhian that he was going upstairs earlier on to rest. Apparently, he was exhausted, and I had forgotten to tell him that we were going to have a visitor.

  We sent other wardens away, telling them to come back in the morning. It was late, and we were working around the clock.

  My brother narrowed his eyes at Timothy and inhaled deeply.

  “The wardens are mobilised. We need to establish a plan of action. The Dark Ones are aware that something is going on. They are gathering people in Dimond City. Cole just confirmed it,” Gregory explained, completely dismissing my father.

  “Good, great. Is Cole with you? I will gather everyone upstairs for a meeting. There are eggs everywhere, as you can see,” I said, pretty much aware of the tension in the room. Gregory nodded and then he called someone from the porch door. Cole and a few other League members walked in. Suddenly the kitchen felt too small.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18