Just then, I felt an icy wind behind me, and Penelope’s eyes widened in shock.
Before I knew what was happening, an arm appeared out of thin air behind me and wrapped itself around my neck.
“Aurora!” shouted Rafe as he ran toward me.
But it was too late.
The last thing I saw was the horrified look on his face as I was pulled swiftly backward through a void.
A flash of light blinded me as the portal closed and I fell back into darkness.
The Dark Fortress
Red fire burned in the sconces on the wall, bathing the pitch-black stone in an eerie red light. I pushed myself up from the floor and found myself standing in a dark dungeon. Joreth stood before me, the Dagger in his hand. The curved, twisted blade was a black pit of darkness that consumed everything it touched.
Joreth’s smile was menacing and lethal. A chill settled in my very bones. His obsidian eyes glistened as he regarded me. There was no more of the man Joreth left. The demon lord had full possession of his mind and movements. “So, you and your fae friends managed to take back Stonegate. Impressive, but it won’t do you any good.”
My hands tightened into fists as I faced him and tried to gather some semblance of magic to shield me from whatever he had planned. I had no idea where I was, and my friends were gone. There was no Tristan or Rafe to get me out of this now. I was alone.
“How did you open the portal to bring me here?”
He held up the Dagger in his hand, inspecting it with a manic gleam in his eyes. “You would be surprised at the things the Dagger can do now. Your magic was the key to unlocking its full potential. Finally, the Dagger will do what it was created to do. Once I have my body and all my powers back, I will bring my army here and rule Avalonia for all eternity.”
I wove a mage shield around myself as dread coiled in my gut. I looked around, but there was no way out. “My friends will come. They will stop you.”
Dragath chuckled, the sound grating my bones. “They will not make it in time. No one can open a portal within the Dark Fortress—only the Dagger can. In any case, the whole fortress is surrounded by Drakaar, should your friends be foolish enough to come.”
Footsteps scuffed closer, and Dragath turned to the entrance of the dungeon. Lilith was holding a chain and dragging another prisoner in behind her. His hair was matted, and a rough beard covered his features. He looked weak, barely able to walk as Lilith pushed him forward. He staggered to one knee but managed to push himself up. The prisoner’s face was weathered, gaunt, and pale. But his eyes shone as they regarded me, focused, clear, and emerald-green—the eyes of a Firedrake.
There was no mistaking it—he was the same man I saw in the tapestry with the druid. “Father!” My heart swelled with the sight of him. It was true. My father was alive. I would know him anywhere.
“Aurora!” His voice was rough, unused.
Tears threatened to fall as I rushed forward to hug my father for the very first time since I could remember. I couldn’t believe it as I clung to him. At least I got to see him this one last time. My father hugged me back. His body was frail and weak, but I could feel within him an indomitable will, one that had kept him alive in the most horrific circumstances.
Azaren Firedrake took my hands in his. His face was beaten and bruised. Even after all these years of imprisonment, it looked like he still put up a fight. When he looked at me, his eyes shone with hope. “Your mother would be so proud,” he said gently.
My heart constricted at the thought of my mother and the faith she had in me. I had failed her. I had failed everyone.
“Touching,” Dragath interrupted as dark shadows snaked out of his hands and pulled us apart.
My father’s eyes turned to shards of steel as he regarded Dragath. “Why did you bring her here, Dragath? You have me. Let my daughter go.”
Dragath’s lips curved upward in a sinister smile. “Oh, but why would I do that?” A whip of dark magic exploded from his hands, pushing my father back and pinning him to the wall. With his other hand his dark power coiled around me as an unbearable pressure brought me to my knees. “True, I don’t need both of you, but leaving one Firedrake alive was never the plan. Tonight I will finish what I started. When the sun sets over the mountains on this day, the Firedrake line will be wiped out forever.”
I pushed against the magical bonds, but to no avail. We were trapped and absolutely at Dragath’s mercy.
“It seems my dear Lilith here has a score to settle with both of you. So I will leave her to it.” Dragath shot a dark look at Lilith. “Have your fun, but don’t kill them yet.” He released the bonds, and I dropped onto the cold hard floor, panting. “I will make preparations for the ritual.”
Dragath left the dungeon, his booted feet thumping on the stone floor, leaving my father and me at the mercy of the Dark Queen. Although she looked like Vivienne, the darkness that enveloped her eyes had started to spread in black veins out of her eye sockets and down her face, marring it and giving her a gruesome visage. It was as if my friend’s body could not contain the evil of the demon within as it ate away at her soul, piece by piece, until there was nothing left.
I willed myself not to shake as the Dark Queen approached. A sinister silence filled the dungeons as Lilith smirked at me in Vivienne’s body and dark shadows reached out, binding me in a viselike
