Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series
Her Elemental Dragons: Shake the Earth: Chapter 8

We buried what bones we could replace, until all of us were covered in soot and the day grew late. I decorated Tash’s grave with a few flowers Brin brought me and then stood over it for a long time, silently saying my goodbyes while the biting wind tore tears from my eyes. My mates stood behind me, giving me space, until it was time for us to go.

As we left Stoneham, the only thing that held me together was the thought of vengeance and retribution. The Dragons had taken so much from me over the course of my life, but no longer. I’d been on the run for so long, hiding from my destiny, but now I was ready to fight back. I was going to destroy them—or die trying.

We left the ruins of Stoneham behind and found another spot in the forest for us to camp for the night. A few of the others visited a nearby town for supplies and warmer clothes, but I didn’t join them. I wouldn’t put any more innocent people at risk with my presence.

As we set up camp, the others kept trying to comfort me or ask how I was doing, but I told them to leave me alone. Nothing they said or did could make this any easier or bring Tash back. The only thing that would ease the unrelenting ache in my chest was the death of all five Dragons before they could hurt anyone else.

I ate something—I had no idea what—and then visited the nearby river to clean myself off, although my movements were routine and my mind was barely there. The anger faded and I went completely numb for a while, until I remembered Tash again. The grief became so strong it made me double over. She was gone. I would never again see her smile, or hear her laugh, or eat her food. We’d never get to catch up on the last few months we’d been apart. The Dragons had taken her from me, and she was never coming back.

I’d lost so many people in my life that it should have gotten easier to lose another, but it never did. I doubted it ever would. I let the pain wrap around me and turn back into anger, filling me with red hot clarity. I had no one left except the people with me now, but none of my mates’ families were safe while the Dragons were alive. We had no choice but to stop them.

Jasin stepped between the trees as he approached the river. “Kira?”

“Not now,” I said. “I’d like to be alone.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice even closer.

“Just leave me be!” The words came out in a rush, and I immediately regretted my harsh tone. Jasin was only trying to help, but I couldn’t deal with him right now, or anyone else for that matter. A tangled mix of emotions threatened to choke me—overwhelming grief, fiery anger, and crushing guilt for being the cause of all of this mess—and I rushed to my tent to get away.

But when I slipped inside, I found someone else waiting for me. An elderly woman with white hair, wrinkled skin, and eyes like steel. Enva. The strange woman who’d appeared to me ever since my twentieth birthday, when all of this had started. She always offered a few hints and tidbits of information, then vanished and left me with more questions than I’d had before.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. To say I wasn’t in the mood to entertain her cryptic advice tonight was an understatement.

“I sensed that you had questions.”

I cast her a sharp glare. “I always have questions, but I’ve had a rough day. This isn’t a good time.”

She studied me as I sat across from her. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry about your friend and your village. Being a Dragon can be a great burden sometimes.”

“How would you know?” I snarled.

She gave me a sad smile. “I was one too, once. Many years ago.”

My annoyance at her presence instantly vanished. “You were?”

“I suppose it’s time you learned the truth.” She folded her wrinkled hands in her lap. “Kira, I’m your grandmother.”

I gaped at her. “My grandmother.”

“Yes. Nysa, the Black Dragon, is my daughter.”

“You mean…” I swallowed, trying to wrap my head around her words. “So it’s true. The Black Dragon really is my mother?”

“She is.”

I stared at the old woman before me, looking at her in a new light. My grandmother. A sense of rightness settled in my chest, and I knew it was true. “And you were the Black Dragon before her?”

“I was, although I was known as the White Dragon.”

I blinked. “I didn’t know we could be anything else.”

She pursed her lips. “Yes, well, there’s a lot you don’t know. Much of that is Nysa’s fault. She had all of our family’s history destroyed, along with all information about previous Dragons. It’s a miracle she let people remember the Gods, but even she can’t wipe all traces of them from the world.”

I had so many questions I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to know about her time as the White Dragon, and how it had led to Nysa becoming the Black Dragon and ruling for so long. But instead I found myself asking, “How are you here? Aren’t you over a thousand years old at this point?”

“I would be. Assuming I was still alive.” She waved away my questioning look. “I died a long time ago, but I’m trapped between life and death. My connection to the Spirit Goddess and my magic lets me watch over you and sometimes manifest for a brief period, although it takes a lot out of me so I can’t stay for long.”

“Why are you trapped?”

She pursed her lips before responding. “That is a longer tale, which needs to wait for another visit. The short version is that the way to the afterlife has been closed for the last thousand years. Everyone who dies is trapped—not only me.”

“Everyone?” Horror crept over me as I imagined how many people that would be after all this time. And now Tash was one of them, along with everyone else I’d known in the village. “So those souls that can’t replace peace…is there any way to save them?”

“There is. You must defeat Nysa.”

Easier said than done. I’d been determined to stop the Dragons earlier, but now my task seemed even more challenging. “Does she control the shades?”

“Yes, she does.”

As I suspected. I dragged a hand through my hair. “What about the elementals?”

“No. The elementals hate both the Dragons and the shades.”

Finally, a small bit of good news. I rubbed my eyes, suddenly exhausted. “How am I supposed to defeat her and the other Dragons? They’re so much more powerful than we are.”

“I’ve noticed.” She snorted. “You need to train more. Now that you have two bonded mates, practice combining their elements.”

“Combining…how?”

She rolled her eyes up at the roof of the tent like I was a complete fool. “Fire and earth together make lava. Water and air make fog. It’s all fairly obvious.”

I nodded slowly. “And fire and air make lightning.”

“Exactly. Your mates will be able to combine their magic through their connection with you. Then you’ll all be able to summon the joint elements.”

That explained how the Dragons had summoned lightning during our fight at the Air Temple, and how Stoneham had been covered in lava. If we could figure out how to combine our magic in such a way we might have a chance. Or at least more of a chance than we had now.

“I wish I could tell you more, but the other side pulls at me already.” She pressed a wrinkled hand to my cheek and stared into my eyes. “Stay strong, Kira. The journey is long and fraught with danger, but you’re on the right path. Keep going and you’ll replace your way.”

I pressed my hand against hers, wishing she didn’t have to leave. It wasn’t fair that as soon as I’d found another member of my family, I was losing her again. “I will…grandmother.”

She faded away before my eyes, until it was like she had never been in the tent at all. I rubbed my weary face and thought on her words. I’d tried to deny that the Black Dragon was my mother, hoping it hadn’t been true, even when my gut had told me it was. There was no denying it any longer, but that didn’t mean I had to become her either. Enva, the White Dragon, had proved that. She had been helping me all this time, so she must disapprove of her daughter’s actions and wanted Nysa stopped too. That couldn’t be easy for her, but perhaps she’d grown tired of watching the world tumble into chaos and had to do something to help stop it. I’d have to ask her at her next visit, whenever that would be. I shuddered at the thought of her trapped between life and death, along with all those other people. Nysa must be the cause of it somehow, if stopping her would put an end to it.

At least now I had an idea of what to focus on: figuring out how to combine the elements.