Broken Gates

wrong. Time to fill him in. “I saw it in a vision.”

He just stared at me, shock playing across his face. “Impossible. You’re a dragon.”

I leaned back and flopped into a sitting position on the floor in front of him before crossing my legs casually. “Yes, I’m a dragon.” I smiled brightly at him. “But I’m also a Seer, and a very powerful one at that.”

“The dragons only have one Seer, and she’s a gifted human. And she should be dead by now,” he blurted out, seemingly unable to stop himself.

All amusement drained from me. “I am that Seer. And clearly I’m neither human nor dead.” Of course, until recently even I had thought I was human, at least partly, so I couldn’t really expect the Riders to be privy to any information that said differently. I rose up from my sitting position on the floor and came to stand as close as I would dare to the Rider. “But I’m hoping you’ll be soon . . . dead that is.”

“What are you doing here?” the Rider asked as he clearly tried to hide the fear in its eyes. “Did you come here for me? Because of who I am?”

I could feel my face scrunch up in both shock and confusion. “Who you are? I don’t know who you are, besides Cliff that is.”

He let out a dark laugh. “Well, isn’t this perfect.” He paused and I could tell he was trying to weigh what he should say to me next. “Okay. If you let me go, I’ll get my father to back off of you guys, to leave you alone. I mean a lot to him . . . in both my forms. And he doesn’t really care about you guys, not really, just the threat you pose. If you promise to leave us alone, we’ll do the same.”

It was my turn for my jaw to drop. Was he kidding? There was no way he actually thought I’d go along with that, could he? “You can’t be serious. You killed our families, slaughtered my people, are trying to destroy our world . . . and you want us to simply look the other way? Maybe I hit you on the head too hard,” I muttered, the last part more to myself than him. Could Riders suffer brain damage if their host did?

“My father felt threatened . . . and we’re not trying to destroy your world. We like it, actually.”

“No. You’ve destroyed worlds before. Decimated them for their resources like the parasites you are and then moved on to the next world you planned to victimize. And how you’ve been treating our world . . . my world . . . definitely proves you plan on doing the same here.”

“Mistakes,” the Rider pleaded with his voice and eyes. “We didn’t know any better. We were just trying to survive. But we like it here—want to stay.”

“Well you’re not!” I bellowed, finally losing control of my temper. I could feel my dragon fire magic spark to life just under my skin, practically begging for me to release it on the Rider. But I fought the urge because I knew, even through the haze of red that was tinting my vision, that I didn’t want to hurt Cliff.

The Rider’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as he finally realized how much danger he was really in. “We can make a bargain. I swear. Just don’t hurt me.”

“How many have begged for your mercy? How many of my people begged before you slaughtered them in cold blood? Men, women, and children, all of the same, just because of who we are. This is our planet and you can’t have it!” Flames crept up into my fingertips, and I stretched out my palms in Cliff’s direction.

“That was my father! Not me! We’re not all the same! Some of us just want to stay—to live!” the Rider exclaimed as sweat trickled down Cliff’s frightened face. “Please . . .”

“Tell me,” I growled. “Tell me who your father is, and what his end game is.”

“Sena—Senat—Senator Bill Wexington is my father’s human host . . . and my real father is the one inside him . . . our leader,” the Rider stammered.

What were the chances? I had both Senator Bill Wexington’s son, and the son of the lead Rider both as my prisoner. Actually—I chuckled darkly to myself—I knew none of this had happened by chance . . . My birth mother had seen it all and planned for it to happen. There was no other explanation.

“Senator Bill Wexington is your father?” He seemed to be the center of all of this from the beginning. One of my first big visions had been of the alien rider taking possession of him. He also seemed to be the one leading the charge that was pro-gun control and anti-American citizen’s rights—or anti-human rights, if I really wanted to be accurate. Maybe if I could take him out, then the rest of the Riders wouldn’t be as difficult to manage.

“Yes,” the alien made Cliff’s head bob in affirmation. “He’ll make a deal for me—trade—”

“Tell me,” I growled, my throat feeling raw. “Tell me what he’s planning.”

Cliff’s crystal blue eyes blinked at me slowly a few times before the Rider began to speak again. “He wants control. He wants the humans as slaves. We won’t kill off your world. We want to stay, to live, like I said, but we want—”

“To rule,” I finished for him. It was a story as old as time itself. The struggle for power. How cliche. Couldn’t they at least come up with something new? I never quite understood it myself, but then again, I’ve heard that those with power usually didn’t pay much mind to it, and those without, or with a little, made it their focus, or sometimes obsession. I clearly have always had power, and now I had more than I’d ever dreamed of, and more than I’d ever wanted.

“Yes,” Cliff’s full lips responded with the fowl sound of the Rider’s voice. “So you see, it doesn’t have to involve you, if you don’t want it to. We’ll leave you alone to do whatever it is that you do, and we’ll do our thing. The humans are no concern of yours, not really.”

A low animalistic growl erupted from my chest. “Until not too long ago I thought I was human. I was raised to think I was human. I still feel human.” I tried to keep my fire from going to him, from burning him alive, because I didn’t want to hurt Cliff, but beyond that I knew that keeping this particular Rider alive for the moment would do our cause more good. He was full of information, useful information, I reminded myself. “The people who raised me, who were the only real parents I ever knew . . . were human.” But it was hard . . . harder than I thought to not just act on my murderous impulse. I had to leave . . . leave the room now . . . or he would die . . . they both would die.

I slammed out of my room and ran down the hallway, my dragon fire magic dripping down from my fingertips. “Nala!” I screamed. I needed help. I couldn’t handle my emotions and all of my new raw power together. “Nala, please!” But she didn’t come. I knew she was afraid. Afraid because she was a Water Dragon, afraid that my fire would consume all of her up and leave nothing but ash. I dropped to my knees as things around me began to burn . . . the carpet, the wall . . . my own clothes. I had one of two choices: I could reach down inside of myself and find the strength of will to get myself under control, or I could rip the small—hot—very, very hot blackening bracelet from my wrist and call on Khol for help. The latter was more appealing . . . simpler . . . but . . . but Bryn. His name swam through my mind as I tried to decide what to do before I burned everyone and everything down around me. If I wanted him, wanted to be with him the way that I truly desired, I was going to have to stop relying on Khol. I had to trust in myself, in my own strength of will. The old Dragon Queen, my birth mother, wouldn’t have given me her powers if she didn’t think I could handle them. I had the strength in me somewhere; I just had to find it . . . for Bryn. Always for Bryn.

I conjured up an image of his face in my mind’s eye for focus. I pictured his dark blue eyes glittering with amusement as he laughed at something silly I’d done. His full firm lips would curve up slightly at first, and then his patented smile complete with dimples would spread across his perfectly chiseled jaw line. I wanted him to look at me like that again, to laugh easily in my presence like he used to be able to do. I wanted to banish the new, hardened Bryn from my life forever, because I had made him that way, I had changed him. I wanted us back, and I would do anything . . . anything, including burn down this world to have a chance with him again.

And just like that my dragon fire magic pulled back into me and took all of the fires it had started with it. I was surrounded by blackened and still crackling . . . well, everything . . . but nothing was actually burning anymore. I laughed hoarsely. What do you know? I’d actually done it . . . all by myself. No. That part wasn’t true. I’d done it with Bryn, because he was as much a part of me as my own heart. I could never let myself forget that again, never let anyone or anything come between us again. Or maybe I’d done if for Bryn. I was too tired to care at the moment though, all that mattered was that I had done it; I had stopped my fire from burning the creepy Murder House down around me.

A contented smile spread across my face as I collapsed to the ground and my mind went as black as the carpet my face pushed into.

“I’m so thirsty,” I mumbled from the desert that was my throat.

“Using your fire magic will do that; it won’t ever burn you though, but I guess you found that out the hard