Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,105

to do it then, but he found it didn’t react to him now.

She looked over at him. “You can do whatever you want when it comes to the dragons, but all you’re going to do is draw them toward me.” She grinned at him. “Don’t you even notice it?”

“Notice what?”

“Notice the way that your power continues to drain.” She sneered at him. “I must admit that it took me a while to fine-tune this, and after much exploration and testing, I finally feel as if I have the right combination.”

As she said it, he realized what she was doing. She was feeding on him. Draining him.

It was the same thing he used to do when it came to using the power of the dragons. Only, she didn’t know that he had power connecting him to something else. Jason had opened himself up to that. It wasn’t just that he had opened himself up to the power of the north. He had opened himself up to all of the powers that were out there, everything that he could connect to.

More power continued to build, and he started to feel it flowing through him. He added to it, building it within him. When he did, he started to push, and there came an explosion of energy. The explosion was what he needed. He was going to have to use that explosion in order to be able to overpower what was happening to him.

It fed on him the way the eggs had attempted to feed.

Jason pushed against it.

If nothing else, he could use the energy that he was able to channel to try to protect the dragons. Even when he did, he could feel that energy pushing away from him, but then was drawn back.

Jessica had truly figured out a way to defeat him.

She had figured out a way to call the power he could access, and in doing so, she was going to stop him. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything to prevent her from destroying the dragons.

They were going to be drained. And all of the power would be stored here.

Dragons. People with dragon connections. Maybe even the residual power of the bones. All would be drained.

There would be no return for the dragons. Not from this.

She laughed. “I can see from your face that you recognize how futile all of this is. You realize you won’t be able to stop what I’m doing.”

“Why would you do this?”

“Because it must be done,” she said. “The dragon power can’t be controlled. You’ve shown that. David never understood. He thought we could work with the, but he saw how people reacted to the dragons. With fear.” She took a step toward him. “You should see that by now. My people deserve better. Your misfits won’t keep attacking. Destroying.” She shook her head. “Ruining lives. Now they will fear no longer. Not dragons. Not someone like yourself or Lorren, who prove that not only don’t we have a control over it, but they will use it. This is the only way to ensure that the throne in Lorach is secured and the people of Lorach are safe.”

It pained him that he understood. At least in part.

But not completely.

There were others ways. Better ways.

She had never wanted to understand the dragons, only control them.

Now—destroy them.

“By draining all of the dragons?”

“By storing their power.”

He thought about saying something, considering that even if she were to draw their power away, it wouldn’t destroy the dragons completely, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to reveal that fact to her. He could imagine that she would use it in some way.

If she did, the power of the dragons would be lost.

Distantly, he was aware of the dragon misfits. He could feel Jessica’s summons, the call to power she held onto, changing things for them. That summons continued to build, sending energy all around.

Jason had no way of fighting. No way of overpowering it.

Because it was calling through him.

He lunged toward her.

A burst of power exploded against him, sending him slamming back into the tower.

“I would like you to watch this. Given everything that you have done for these dragons, just how much you have offered them, I would like you to be witness to it as Lorach is strengthened and your rebellion is defeated.”

He focused on all of the dragons, even the distant misfits, the new dragons, but as he felt for them, he recognized there was something within what she was doing that continued to