Page 121 of Saving the Last Heir
“Reliquary?” I whispered. “What?”
The warning echoed hollowly against what I felt in my mind. I had an overwhelmingneedto feel the thing before me, to run my hand across the cool surface. It was too much to fight against, and deep in the recesses of my mind, I understood that this was magic working on me, but I couldn’t push back. Going against my better judgment—and my common sense—I did the opposite of what the plaque said. I brushed my finger across the smooth glowing stone. The moment my skin touched the item, a surge of power shot up my arm, forcing my body to tense up as if I’d shoved my finger in a light socket. Pulsing waves of…what? What was it that washed over my mind?
Chaos. That was the only thing I could sense at first. A rising storm of sound, a cacophony of madness flooded through me, threatening to send me over the edge of an abyss. It was only after a few seconds that I realized what it was I was hearing.Voices. Dozens of clamoring voices, begging and screaming for release.
With a force of will I didn’t even know I possessed, I tore my hand away, gasping in shock and terror, body shaking. My eyes locked on the stone, and I thought I could see swirling shapes with amorphic wings.
“Holy fucking shit,” I cried, turning to look at Joseph again.
He reared on his back legs and thrashed his front feet, shredding at the air with razor-sharp claws while Jackson backed away.
In a flash, I remembered what Joseph had said earlier:“Fucking lock your ass away like all the rest.”
I’d assumed that meant he wanted us chained up like some of his past victims to torture or something, but the truth wasfarworse than that. It was so awful that I almost couldn’t fathom it. It made me want to vomit, but I kept my composure. Instead, I kicked at the plinth, sending the orb to the floor to shatter.
Instead of breaking, it only bounced an inch or two and rolled to a stop a foot away. Undaunted, I shoved my wrench into my belt and grabbed a jewel-encrusted battle axe from a rack. I swung it over my head, then brought it down on the orb with all my might. The resulting impact rattled the axe out of my hand and sent a painful shockwave through my arms that damn near loosened my teeth. In addition to that, a blast of fire shot through to my left, singeing the hair on my arm. I screamed in fright as I jumped aside.
Jackson roared, and both dragons swept through, clawing and fighting while knocking magical items and treasures all over the room. Joseph kicked a chest, which sent the orb rolling across the room to the far corner. I scrambled to my feet and ran afterit, desperate to break the damn thing. How, though? Nothing seemed to work. Nothing…
As if remembering a dream, a flash of an article came screaming back into my mind.
When brought together, obsidian and moonstone counteract one another, and in most cases, one item or the other will be destroyed in a rather breathtaking fashion.
Frozen, I stared at the stone for a moment before picking up my wrench with trembling fingers. Dad had put ground-up volcanic stone into this when he’d had it forged. Volcanicobsidianstone. It wasn’t one hundred percent made from it, but that stone was woven through the entire thing. Would that work? I was out of options, so it was worth a shot.
Raising the tool high, I let out a whispered prayer. A litany Dad used to pray with me at night before bed. It helped me feel like he was right there with me.
“Holy Mary, pray for us. Holy mother of God, pray for us.” My arms flexed, and I stared at the orb, aiming for all I was worth. “Holy virgin of virgins, pray for us. Mother of Christ, pray for us.” I swung forward, arcing the wrench over my head and down. “Holy mother of divine grace, pray for?—’
The wrench struck the orb, and all of time and space froze for a single instant. Looking down, I actuallysawthe moment the wrench and orb connected. A single bright pinprick of light shone where the two came into contact, shimmering and shining like a star in the sky. Expanding, the light became too bright to look at, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The tiny speck of light grew and brightened until I felt as if I was looking at a nuclear bomb blast.
After what was only half a second but felt like minutes, time sped back up, and the world was washed away in concussive force. My ears rang as the stone exploded, sending me tumbling away. I rolled over and over, slamming my elbow, tailbone, and right knee on the floor. Crashing into the wall on the far side of the room, I gasped in pain, squinting as a painfully bright light glowed through the room, and a steady, rumbling roar like a freight train or thunder reverberated through the room.
Through it all, the sound of Joseph roaring in shocked rage mixed with the cacophony of noise. I cupped my hands around my eyes and looked out at the noise. A mini sun seemed to be sitting in the room where the orb had been, sending waves and rays of blue light radiating around the room. Within those rays, I thought I could see twisting and writhing serpentine shapes undulating within.
My attention was torn away from those when Jackson leaped onto Joseph’s back, his claws digging into the other dragon’s flesh. Joseph, still mad from whatever reaction he was having to the teeth and his shock at the destruction of the orb, didn’t even acknowledge Jackson’s presence until the other man sank his teeth into the back of his neck.
Joseph bucked, his remaining eye rolling wildly as Jackson shook his head like a dog on a bone. Even through the rattling sound of the orb releasing its magic, I could hear the gruesome sound of tearing flesh and tissue. Joseph did his best to reach behind him and claw at Jackson, but all he could manage were feeble pawing motions. With all four of Jackson’s legsandhis wings pressed hard against the floor, Joseph didn’t have the ability to roll over. Blood pooled down his throat, and Jackson sank his teeth deeper into Joseph’s neck.
With one last throat-rending cry, Joseph threw his head back and unleashed a stream of impotent fire at the ceiling. A moment later, Jackson shook his great dragon head once more, ripping a massive hunk of flesh and bone free of Joseph’s body. The other dragon went limp immediately, falling to the ground as the last of the bright blue light faded, his lone eye open and sightless.
Climbing unsteadily to my feet, I looked on in horror as the body slowly shifted back of its own accord, until Joseph Anitoli lay there with a wound so severe it looked like his head had almost been bitten off.
Jackson looked at me with exhausted and pained eyes, smoke trickling up from his nostrils.
“It’s over,” I said, barely believing it. From the moment we’d placed Bryn in the trunk, it was like time had both sped up and slowed down. How had all this happened inonenight? It was crazy to think about, but it was all over now.
Jackson shifted, and I cried out when I saw the wounds covering his body. He looked like he’d been doused in red paint. He took one unsteady step toward me, lifting a hand.
“Shyanne?”
With that he fell to the floor, his head thumping hard against the stone floor. A scream of terror erupted from my throat as I rushed to his side.
29
JACKSON
My body screamed in agony as I slipped in and out of consciousness. There were strange flashes of lucidity, though. The sound of my heels dragging on stone. Shyanne grunting and cursing. Heavy breaths of exertion. And what I thought sounded like Christian’s voice. After that, I slipped into the darkness of my mind. Even my dragon was too tired and hurt to do more than mewl sadly within the shadowy recesses of my head.
