Tempest Reborn (Jane True) - By Nicole Peeler Page 0,22

not, like, maxing yourself out? I asked, worried for my trapped savior.

[Oh, no, of course not,] it said. But I had the distinct impression it was lying to me.

‘I think we have a plan,’ I said to Ryu, who’d been watching me curiously. Ryu knew everything about my link with the creature, but watching me converse mentally with my own brain had probably looked a bit odd from the outside.

‘We’ve got to get them down on the ground. Then the creature thinks it can apparate one of them, somewhere far away. That way they’ll be busy locating each other for a few days. They can’t actually apparate, right?’

[No,] the creature responded to my question. [A fluke for which we must be grateful.]

‘That still leaves us with one of the dragons,’ Ryu said.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But hopefully it will bolt when it’s on its own. I think the hard part will be to get them down, and get one of them netted in our power so the creature can apparate it.’

Ryu gave me a long look. ‘What if the one that’s left over is Anyan?’

‘I’ll still deal with him.’ My words were brave, but my heart wasn’t in them.

‘You have to believe he’s in there, or we wouldn’t be trying to save him,’ Ryu said.

‘Of course he’s in there,’ I said, thinking about everything I’d seen with Morrigan. When she became the Red, she was both her and not her. Her personality changed utterly, or at least it seemed on the surface, becoming much more flamboyant. But we’d never really known the ‘real’ Morrigan, so I didn’t actually know if that was true.

Certainly Morrigan had impacted the Red. The creatures had been evil, but only after Morrigan and the Red had become one did the Red care about things like racial purity. We’d witnessed the armies of the Red practicing, and they’d all been divided up by factions to train, something only Morrigan would care about.

So how much of the Red was Morrigan, and how much of Morrigan was the Red?

It seemed she was as much Morrigan as Red, but was that even how we should be thinking about their relationship? Because, after all, she’d wanted her fate – she’d wanted to host the dragon. But Anyan had been forced. He must be more like a prisoner, not a host.

Yet he had to be in there. I couldn’t believe that the White had wiped out Anyan. I knew Morrigan hadn’t been, so why would Anyan?

Because Anyan’s not a host, like Morrigan, he’s an enemy, whispered a traitorous part of my brain, a part that I ignored.

The dragons were still lazily circling in the air, but their play had gotten more destructive. Instead of focusing on each other, they were now lashing out at the buildings surrounding ours. They were trying to get our attention, and I wondered how they’d found us.

[Probably my fault,] the creature said in answer. [I didn’t shield your apparation. I didn’t think anyone would be paying attention.]

‘How’d they get here so fast?’ I wondered aloud.

[Just because they can’t apparate doesn’t mean they can’t move quickly.]

I filed that away. Even if our plan did work, it might not give us as much of a head start on the book as I’d hoped.

The kind old monk cracked an eye open from where he sat, chanting, in front of us.

‘We have reached our limit,’ he said dreamily. ‘You must act quickly, before what we’ve called forth fades.’

I nodded, and he closed his eyes again. Turning to Ryu, I called the labrys. His eyes widened as it appeared in my hands, then squinted shut as it blazed forth light.

It knew its enemies were near.

I dialed back its power, until we could all see again.

‘Sorry, it has a mind of its own.’

Ryu only nodded, still looking rather befuddled. I guess it’s not every day that someone you used to have to babysit reappears in your life, wielding ancient and powerful forces.

He was dealing with it quite well, really.

‘Are you ready?’ I asked him. He nodded again, his gaze focusing with his purpose.

‘Get them on the ground,’ he said, repeating our plan. ‘Let the creature get rid of one of them, and take on the other. Somehow.’

‘It’s a plan,’ I said. Not necessarily a good plan, but a plan.

And with that, Ryu and I pushed our way out of the double doors separating us from the helipad.

The first thing I noticed was that the monks’ channeled power was stronger out here. They obviously