Page 55 of Dragon Blood

“I wasn’t sure,” he retorted, pivoting as something slithered through the mass, oily and dank, changing the tenor of the surrounding energy. “The first part you recognized brought you here, to the Nexus. The other looks like the location of the temple, the building in the vision.”

The air seemed to coil around them.

“Astred, stay close.”

Kai’s firm warning sent her into a defensive crouch, claws extending, eyes scanning the darkness for the implied threat. “What is it? What’s happening?”

“A remnant.”

“A what?”

“A liminal dweller.”

Astred growled. “Not any clearer, Kai.”

The scene continued around them as the pressure in Astred’s chest grew.

He spun, eyes following the inky thing through the darkness, hands elevated before him. Kai’s tiger mirrored his stalking. “Remnants are liminal dwellers. Former living beings sent to the death plane, but due to magical connection or some other power, are able to cling to the in-between places, such as shadows, and gateways between realms.”

“There!” The tiger pounced, snarling, snapping teeth and swiping claws as Kai’s hands flowed back and forth before him as though he gathered air.

Not air.

Shadows.

Astred moved, claws extended to attack the thing that dragged scents of death and rot with it.

“No!” Kai shouted, shouldering her away as the thing suddenly turned in her direction.

The shadows slipped from Kai’s grasped as he moved to protect Astred. The tiger screamed, launching itself as the remnant hissed, trying to strike Astred’s chest. The tiger sank its teeth into the back of the thing’s neck, yanking it away from Astred, the strike hitting her exposed shoulder instead.

Instinctively, her body instantly coated itself in dragon scale, though consciously she had no idea if that would protect her from this kind of creature.

It ignored Kai and the tiger, intent on Astred.

Overhead, the streak in the sky grew brighter, despite the thick shadows swirling around them.

Kai continued whatever he was doing to collect them, moving them about like a buffering shield to block the remnant from accessing Astred, all the while seeking its entry point. Together, man and tiger fought to contain the remnant within a roiling mass of thick blackness as he finally gained enough control to force it backward into the fissure it had emerged from; the inky stain at the point of the spell which had made the seals.

Astred lost track of Kai’s battle as she stood transfixed on the brightening sky.

The star that rocketed toward them—her—was blinding as much as it illuminated the conflict on the horizon, but Astred couldn’t tell if this blinding light was going to obliterate them or save them.

All she knew was that she had to reach for it, though she could never grasp it. This blinding light, this falling star, was not hers to control, but held some link to Aeleftheria’s destiny. Heart pounding beneath the protective layers of the scales coating her chest, she finally knew.

It was the Star Stone.

As her consciousness made the connection, the light surged, turning the entire scene titanium bright until the scream of the falling star extinguished into silence.

By the time Astred and Kai made their way back to the Nexus entrance, the magnitude of what they’d just witnessed had ingrained itself into Astred’s being.

The deep fear hadn’t gone away with the knowledge—the mission—it just shifted focus.

The Ascension, though many years away, meant the thinning of the veils as the worlds moved closer together and the gateways solidified; places where remnants could dwell, and potentially escape, adding even more to their problems.

Was this something else that the Consortium sought to control?

Astred had no idea.

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