Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series
Her Elemental Dragons: Stroke the Flame: Chapter 26

As we continued through the rolling hills of the Air Realm, passing a few farms but little else, I thought back on what had happened the night before. Auric was a prince. Even now it was hard to wrap my head around the idea. It was even harder to accept that he had given all that up to be with me.

I wasn’t happy that he’d kept something this huge from me, but I also didn’t blame him. I understood his reasons, even if I didn’t like them. And it’s not like the other guys were all that forthright about their pasts either. Nor was I, for that matter. But I was beginning to think the only way we’d get through this was if we started trusting each other.

Easier said than done, of course.

My thoughts were interrupted when I began to smell smoke. We were moving through a large field of wheat, and I noticed black smoke rising in the distance to our left. A bonfire? I hoped that was all it was, but we didn’t really have time to stop, especially when it was probably nothing.

A piercing, inhuman shriek tore through the air, one I hadn’t heard in seven years. I was suddenly doused in pure terror, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. My arms tightened around Reven’s chest as he pulled our horse to a stop and reached for one of his knives.

“What was that?” Auric asked.

“A Dragon,” I whispered.

Then it appeared. Through the black smoke, the beast rose up on his giant, blood red wings. Sark, the Crimson Dragon. The monster who had haunted my nightmares for much of my life.

The others tensed, but there was nowhere we could run—we were out in the open, too far from anywhere we could hide. If we had to fight Sark with our weapons and our magic, would we even stand a chance?

But Sark didn’t even glance our way. With a great flap of wings that sent the smoke billowing away, he cast one last breath of fire on whatever was below him before flying off toward the west, his tail whipping behind him. Within seconds, he was only a dark speck in the sky, and then he was gone.

Reven suddenly kicked his horse into action and charged us forward, toward the smoke. I was torn between telling him to run the opposite direction and yelling for him to hurry. The others followed right at our heels as we made it through the wheat field and burst out onto a farm. The smoke was stronger here, and soon I spotted flames flickering up ahead.

A small house in the middle of the farm was completely on fire. Many of the flames had already begun to spread to the surrounding fields as well. Reven immediately summoned water and doused the field to stop it from being engulfed, then leaped off his horse and called forth even more water to work on the house.

I tumbled off the horse as well, but all I could do was stare at the flames in horror. There was no screaming, but the air smelled of burnt flesh, just as it had when I was a child. I was trapped inside my bleakest memory and my worst nightmare and there was no escape.

When the others arrived, I could only wrap my arms around myself and shake as they tried to stop the fire too. Jasin managed the flames as best he could and tried to coax them to die down. Auric calmed the wind and sucked the air from the fire. Slade covered the house in dirt and soil. But it was Reven who did the most, as he called down wave after wave to douse the raging inferno.

I wished there was something more I could do, but at the same time I was relieved that I didn’t have to get any closer. Seeing this happen again was bad enough. Getting near the flames would have been impossible. Even standing at a safe distance, I was trembling and struggling to breathe, and not just from the smoke. How was I supposed to bond with Jasin, knowing it would turn him into a dragon like Sark? Or that it would give me these dark powers too?

I wasn’t sure how long it took for the men to put out the fire, but it seemed like an eternity. By the time they were done, the house was little more than a charcoal ruin, and if anyone had been inside, there was no way they could have survived. Bile rose up in my throat at the thought of charred, blackened bodies, like my parents had once become. No matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to scrub that image from my brain.

One by one the men returned to my side, all of them covered in black soot with sweat running down their faces, looking as haunted as I felt.

“Why would he do this?” Auric asked with a weary voice.

Slade leaned against his horse and wiped his face. “This is what the Dragons do to anyone suspected of being in the Resistance.”

“Were there people inside?” I asked, though I almost didn’t want to know the answer.

Jasin dropped his head. “We were too late to save them.”

I nodded, as tears pricked my eyes. I tried to blink them away, but it was no use. Another family had been snuffed out by Sark. Jasin moved close and tried to wrap an arm around me, but I pushed him away.

“Don’t touch me,” I said, stepping back. “You’re going to be the Crimson Dragon soon. The same as him.”

“I’m nothing like Sark,” Jasin said in a rush. “You have to know that.”

I shook my head. I knew I wasn’t making sense, but all I could think about was Jasin summoning flames like Sark. Flames which could be used to destroy lives, like they had done today. Like they had done to my family all those years ago.

“Just leave me alone,” I said, as I stumbled into the wheat field.

Memories of my family’s death crowded my head as I ran. The flames. The screams. The smells. Oh Gods, the smells. The same smells that lingered in the air now.

I had to get away.