Page 70 of Awaken the Dragon
Theo continued to pull at the coils as they moved farther up Torrance’s legs using every bit of the strength that had come to him through the Emperor’s blood.
“Let...go,” Torrance whispered, his voice going faint. “Let go... Theo.”
“Come!” Hoan yelled.
The thumping was loud, and the walls shook. Theo knew what was coming, but he didn’t stop trying to free his father from the demonic’s grip. Behind him, the sound of wings in the air and the screech of fire being aimed echoed. Theo didn’t turn, he focused only on Torrance.
“Help me,” he begged his father in the same way he’d pleaded with him hundreds of years ago to resist the possession.
Surely their combined power could stop Hoan.
Torrance shocked Theo by lifting a hand. Theo was about to roar with excitement, but his father’s hand came clapping down on his shoulder. “Let...me...go,” Torrance said. “It is your time, son.” His voice had suddenly become very clear and just a little deeper, almost resembling his former self. Torrance locked gazes with Theo. “It is your time.”
Theo watched with horror as the final light in Torrance’s eyes blew out. His chest tightened until he thought it would explode, and the only way to relieve that pressure was to shift. In seconds, the black dragon’s wings spread wide, fire already spewing from its mouth. It turned immediately in search of Hoan but came to an abrupt stop.
A lion sleeps in the heart...
The sound of the old proverb faded in Shola’s mind as she watched Theo cry out in anguish over his father.
She’d been standing there like an invalid, not speaking, and most importantly, not acting. But she needed to find her balance, to calm every part of her soul to reach for the power. It had taken its sweet time, but she felt the first tingles in her feet. It slid up her legs, similar to the way Hoan’s slimy sludge had done.
She still didn’t have the blessed river stones; that fact was like a barrier in her mind, but she knew she needed to push past it. She could change the plan, Theo told her that. She could decide.
Shola closed her eyes and focused on the tingling steadily moving up her calves to her thighs. Hoan’s hand shook so that he applied more pressure to her neck. He didn’t really want her dead. Alive, he thought he could usurp her power the same way he’d done Torrance and Monife. That was also what he planned to do with Theo, why he’d killed Torrance in front of him. He wanted Theo to shift into his dragon and ascend to the throne as Emperor of the Far Realm. It would start Hoan’s plan to go for the convergence over again, but he was certain that with her and Theo’s power, he could gain enough control sooner. The demonic was so cocky he had explained all of this to Shola while they waited for Theo to arrive.
She was the bait, and Theo had come just as Hoan knew he would.
Just as a part of her knew he would.
Wind. Fire. Feel the burn.
The words popped into her mind as the tingling spread to her hips and up her torso. She kept her eyes closed, holding those words in her memory because they didn’t seem as distant as the last time she’d tried to recall what needed to be said. She’d been trained to count on the blessed rocks to help her banish Hoan, but she didn’t have them at this moment, when it counted most. Something deep inside told her there was another way.
Wind. Fire. Feel the love.
That was different. Dammit she was forgetting the words. Her fingers started to tingle just as noise and flashes of heat pricked her consciousness. There was fighting around her, screeching and thumping.
Wind. Fire. Feel the love, flowing like a river.
Her body trembled as the words played again in her mind. Her fingers began to move, the tingle seeping into each digit, like water filling a glass.
Wind. Fire. Feel the love, flowing like a river.
Without ever opening her eyes Shola lifted her arms into the air, she circled them over her head and felt the immediate warmth of the stirring wind. It whisked over her body, floating through the thin material of the clothes she wore and swarming throughout the mountain.
“Wind. Fire. Feel the love, flowing like a river.” She spoke the words this time and moved her fingers.
Her eyes opened just as piercing beams of light flew from each finger. The power was stronger than she’d ever felt before and filled her until her body trembled with its force. That’s when she let her arms fall, aiming her fingers directly at Hoan.
“Wind. Fire. Feel the love, flowing like a river.” She said the words louder, and the light burned the tips of her fingers it was so strong and so bright.
The beams pierced tiny holes in the demonic’s body. Holes that as long as she kept her fingers trained on him grew larger until the body melted and smoke filled its place. Water shot from her fingers then, cascading down like a waterfall over Shola and...all the magnificent dragons she now saw standing inside the mountain.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Office
Theo relaxed against the lip of the soaker tub in his bathroom at the Office. At least nine hours had passed between the time they’d traveled once again through the veil and made it back to the Human Realm. It was almost three in the morning, and everyone had gone straight to their rooms as soon as they arrived. It’d been a tough day at the office, so to speak.
