The Flesh of Titans Read online

  ​My only shot at finding Bastiel was my father. It was repulsive to meet him after his attempt at detaining Flare. But I had no choice.

  ​The roads took me out of the living districts into the military zone where civils had no entrance. It was where I lived. A huge complex of garrisons and training camps. There, amongst the well-structured district, stood the square tall tower.

  ​The headquarters. The home of my father. If Bastiel wasn’t there, then chances at finding him were too slim to even bother.

  ​The Dragon’s Eye Tower had a ring of protection around it. An invisible dome-like spell would stop any intruder that attempted to enter. My father was a powerhouse and such measures were aimed more at protecting classified documents than him. Whoever could kill him, could break the spell surrounding the tower.

  ​An only sign that my car passed the invisible barrier was a click in my ears. My father knew I was coming and if he desired to keep Bastiel away from me, it gave him time to send my brother away.

  ​At the feet of the tower was a parking lot and nothing else. Two Dragon Soldiers who guarded the door were there for ceremonial reasons rather than true protection. They saluted without moving their heads. In the tunnel that led to elevators, I found lieutenant Rox. I knew of his hateful attitude toward Flare and his shameful attack on her. He spent two months in the cell for this, eating only hard bread and drinking stale water. It meant to dull his temper.

  ​“Captain,” lieutenant Rox saluted. “May Light guide you.”

  ​Rox strode away in haste. He has usually bowed and shown fervent reverence. Not today. I didn’t miss that, but the change was noticeable. Even his time in the cell couldn’t warrant such a shift. Something else was at play here. Attacks in the Academy revealed that the military has slept for too long. We have become lazy and careless. Someone had come and had wiped Elleria’s mind, and we still couldn’t find the slightest clue who had done it. Only the high-level unicorn’s magic was capable of achieving the complete removal of one’s memory, both long and short. But that was where the trouble started. The only unicorns we believed could have done it, were out of our reach. The current system was broken, keeping certain individuals untouchable. My father knew that Mirenne had been behind the attacks in the Academy, but he refused to take action.

  ​Rox had been long gone from my thoughts when I stopped by the elevators. It was guarded by the Black Dragon corps. A special unit created to deal with the matters of the highest priority and urgency. They took orders directly from my father. And because of that, I’ve always thought of them as my father’s private army. Their armors were the state-of-art designs, enchanted and engraved with powerful runes. Completely black and faceless, they barely moved as I approached. The materials used to create these armors were held secret even from demi-dragons. I was second in the army’s chains of command but my father made it explicit that he hasn’t trusted even me to reveal the blueprints of these armors. It had stung, had left me thinking about my shortcomings, failures I must have committed to earn such distrust. I knew now there was nothing with me.

  ​The featureless helms imprinted in me a feeling of dealing with statues.

  ​I pressed my hand flat against the dragon’s insignia on the wall to call the elevator down. As I waited, I scratched the outside of my hand, wondering if I could beat these six elite troops. Their power levels were muted by the armors. I didn’t even know if they all were dragons. That one thing rang an alarm in my head. Deception should never be ignored.

  ​The elevator took me up without any hiccups. I entered the warm hall with an oversized double door, made of stained glass, at the far end. Behind the long desk, sat Iris, an elderly dragoness with some twenty percent of dragon’s blood in her veins. She had spent a hundred years in the time bubble during the war as the war administrator. Iris was one of the first children born out of the marriages between pure dragons and humans. It showed our misunderstanding of nature. It has taken many more tries before the first demi-dragon was born.

  ​Me.

  ​But even so, standing here before Iris. Time and entropy revealed its sharp teeth. Iris was born four years before me. Four years… and while I was thirty-two, her age crossed a century. Terrifying. Her brush of curly blond hair, that lost its shine, bounced as she turned her head to me. Instinctively, my body straightened, my chest puffed and my hands smoothed wrinkles in my officer’s uniform. It was her motherly look that sent shivers and commanded respect and fondness. A part of me wished for a mother like her. To have a mother at all.

  ​“Captain,” she nodded, wiping the melancholy out of my head. Her warm eyes smiled. “Your father is rather busy. I need to…”

  ​I put my hand on the old fashion telephone on her desk. Such items belonged to the previous era, but many of the rich still pursued them to satisfy their hunger for extravagancy. “Please, Iris,” I said. “I’m his second. I have the authority to walk into any meeting he might have. If he thinks otherwise, then he should find someone to replace me.”

  ​I couldn’t believe how prophetic my words were. I pushed the glass door and entered my father’s office.

  ​Nothing in his room agreed with me. The mood was murky and dark. Sometimes I felt as if my father missed the days of the war.

  ​In the high chair framed by the triangle window sat Atrax with his heavy boots on the desk. The two chairs before him weren’t occupied, none the less my father wasn’t alone in the office.

  ​By the wall, partially hidden by the shadow stood Bastiel. He wasn’t trying to hide as I openly sensed his power. On the other side of the room stood Dramer. Veins on his topless body pulsed. Whatever the topic of the conversation had been afoot before I entered, has left Dramer angry.

  ​The door behind me closed. The room filled with silence.

  ​Dramer had his back to me, while Bastiel glanced sideways.

  ​Atrax’s fingers drummed against the hard surface of the mahogany desk. A barely contained smile slipped away when his face turned to me.

  ​“It seems that you remembered about your responsibilities at last.”

  ​I opened my mouth but he waved me into silence as if I was a child.

  ​“I have enough of your excuses, Nix. Your actions this morning explained everything. You meant to hand her over, not to defend.”

  ​At that Dramer began trembling. So it must have been the topic that riled Dramer up. Myself, I barely contained my own rage. Only Bastiel was unmoved by our father’s words.

  ​“Flare is mine…” Dramer said quietly. So he wasn’t done yet. It was as much a good as bad sign. “You can’t take her from me.”

  ​Our father’s fingers drummed once more, then he put his feet down. Any moment now. My father’s temper ran closer to that of Dramer’s than mine.

  ​He stood up, his human eyes turned into dragon’s ones. Pure scarlet red without pupils. It was so easy to forget that Atrax had nothing of human in his blood. His incredible power allowed him to take a humanoid form. That was the trait of Prime Powers. The ability to assume a human appearance.

  ​His scaled armor integrated with his skin, and within seconds a half-formed dragon stood before our eyes. He couldn’t fully transform without destroying the tower. Dragons were enormous beasts. Only then they had access to their full strength. Humans’ bodies were too fragile.

  ​Energy pulsed out of our father. He held back to not devastate his office.

  ​“Rules of the game have changed,” Atrax’s voice grated. Even for us, demi-dragons, it felt alien and off-worldly. “There is no more illusion between us. You’re mine and everything that belongs to you belongs to me.” He paused, his scaled, clawed-hand flexed before his face. “I will suffer no more of your arrogance. From now on, you will obey me fully. Refuse and I’ll kill you.” My heart caught in my throat. I sensed a trap. With Atrax, there was no joking. If he said something like this, it meant he had something planned for us.

  ​I should not be here. Fuck. I wished for
Dramer’s explosion or Bastiel’s wise words. Nothing came from them. Perhaps, they had the same expectations as I did.

  ​“You’ll pledge absolute allegiance to me now.”

  ​Is everything alright? Flare’s voice sounded in my head. She had to sense my disturbance.

  ​My father went mad.

  ​Where are you?

  ​Don’t be ridiculous, Flare. Here is the last place you want to be. Stay with Lotian. I’ll be fine…

  ​Despite the massive bulk, Atrax was fast as lightning. The strength of his grip could easily shatter the thickest of armors. He lifted me up. I didn’t struggle to not provoke him.

  ​“You failed me this morning, Nix. I could have the girl in my claws, but instead, she goes back into the Academy where Mirenne and her servants will finally succeed in abducting her.” He shoved me effortlessly against the wall. I groaned more because of the shock than the pain. My father didn’t move.

  ​“No one will succeed in abducting Flare,” Dramer snarled. This idiot was going to challenge our father. It said much about his feelings to Flare. But his failure didn’t mean Flare’s death. I had to tread carefully. I should not bond her. It’s like giving ammunition to my enemies. I should be wiser than that.

  ​Father slowly turned. He judged Dramer.

  ​“You’ve proven your point, father,” Bastiel said softly from near the wall. “You can only further antagonize your sons at this point.”

  ​Atrax’s movement didn’t even leave an afterimage, he just appeared next to Bastiel. Faces inches apart. “Sons? No. You’re my servants now.”

  ​There was no other way, Atrax must have known that Flare was Trinity. If that knowledge pushed him into madness, then what of Mirenne? Would she pretend that everything was normal? I delved deeper into my memory dragging bits and pieces of the prophecy of Trinity on the surface. The worlds will tremble as she walks the Stairs of Dead Pantheons holding the key to… the key to where? My memory failed me. The prophecy was an obscure one and nowadays nearly forgotten or simply suppressed.

  ​Bastiel’s mastered control over his emotions like no one else. Amongst the demi-dragons, he most resembled a demi-unicorn. He held our father’s stare without a blink.

  ​“I cannot fathom why do you want that girl so much that you’ll destroy everything on the path to get her, but the cost—”

  ​“Exactly, you cannot fathom,” Atrax interrupted him. He squinted at me. “None of you. You have no idea who she is. While you think of your little romances and pleasures, I have to keep the world from crumbling.”

  ​“What are you talking about?” It came from Dramer and Bastiel. Not from me. That was a mistake. A huge blunder.

  ​“So, you know the truth, Nix.” The statement held a veiled threat. My father red eyes pulled me in as his dragon’s power awakened. In the half-dragon form, his power was absurdly high. There were limits of how much I could resist, and right now they were breached. I fought him off, but his mind belonged to a pure dragon. Atrax wasn’t a grunt amongst the dragons either. It has been said that Atrax once had challenged the King of Dragons, but lost. The magnitude of the loss was unknown nor the description of the fight was available anywhere. It happened on Dragonis, the dragon’s planet, thousands of years ago.

  ​We’re coming, Nix!

  ​No! Stay away from here, Flare! But she didn’t listen.

  ​“What truth?!” Dramer asked enraged. I saw his amber eyes whiten. “What the fuck happened when I was away?”

  ​“Will you tell them? Or do you want me to say it?” Atrax asked with cold satisfaction. I didn’t recognize my own father anymore. Instinctively, I smoothed my uniform. A gesture ingrained in me by years of service in the army.

  ​“I don’t have an idea what you’re talking about!” I said.

  ​My father twitched, shocked by my undisguised stupidity. I should have been more careful. My thoughts shattered, notwithstanding the mental pressure as my father appeared next to me. In any other circumstances, I would openly challenge him and die, but dying was one thing I couldn’t afford. I wished the bond to dissolve, knowing well that it wasn’t so simple. A complex ritual was required and more besides.

  ​I didn’t know when my father’s clawed hand gripped me by the uniform’s collar and smashed against the floor. My mind was too slow to follow the pure dragon’s movements.

  ​“I’ll make an example out of—” Atrax extended his arm, but Dramer caught his wrist with two hands. He strained his muscles to the maximum while our father… he wasn’t bothered by the intervention.

  ​“If you kill your son, father,” Bastiel said seconds before the killing blow descended. “The girl you want so much will die too. They’re bonded.”

  ​This stopped Atrax and for the first time, I’ve seen tears on Dramer’s face. He knew he couldn’t do anything and yet he came to save me, or Flare, or both. I didn’t know for my mind went blank.

  ​Dramer let go of him, staggering back. Atrax’s crimson eyes drilled me with predatory sharpness. A few seconds ago, this man who was my father, had been ready to kill me.

  ​“Why the hell did you bond her?” He asked and though his expression didn’t relax, his body started to return to his human form. He turned away, not waiting for my response. It didn’t matter to him. He wanted Flare alive. Atrax crossed the room, went around his desk, there he picked up the gray pages.

  ​“As of now, I relieve you from your duties as a captain of Dragon Corps and the City Guards.” He signed one of the documents and threw his on the floor. “You’re liability now, Nix.”

  ​I knew it was coming and still it hurt. I’ve been in the army for six years and couldn’t imagine a different life. I needed to find a house…

  ​“Who will take his place?” Bastiel asked.

  ​“Rox,” Atrax replied savoring the shock on our faces. He sat down on his chair, leather cracked. He looked as if nothing had happened. “For now, you’re dismissed, all of you, when I need you, you’ll be called.”

  ​ Dramer extended his hand, helping me up. Bastiel nodded to our father, then left first. We followed him into the hall. Iris looked spooked. Even she had to sense Atrax’s outburst.

  ​We passed her leaving brief farewells, saying no more until the door of the elevator sealed before our noses.

  ​“What did he mean? What’s wrong with Flare?” Dramer’s reaction was immediate. In truth, I was too slow to react. I didn’t oppose him as he pinned me against the wall. I closed my eyes holding my breath.

  ​My father knows, Flare, and he made it known to Dramer and Bastiel, though he didn’t reveal your true identity. Dramer wants the truth.

  ​Tell him. We’re close.

  Chapter 6

  The military district was closed to us. I have expected this much and yet I hoped that Lotian’s authority would get us through. It turned out his father didn’t care about the status of his sons. Lotian was close to getting out of the car and smashing poor bastards who refused to lift the spell blocking the car.

  ​“Fucking assholes,” Lotian snapped at them. The Dragon Soldiers twitched but didn’t react. “They are in the fucking tower.” He pointed at the high building standing alone in the distance. A few miles behind it ran the city wall.

  ​“I think, they are coming back,” I said to Lotian. My heart slowed down, leaving my chest sore.

  ​Lotian turned, showing the Dragon Soldiers the worst sort of gestures. The car lurched into motion taking us to the parking lot nearby. We got out of the car and waited. Nix, Dramer, and Bastiel were coming this way. Nix confirmed it. The area was flat but wooded. It didn’t stop the wind to blow its icy breath past us. The Wastelands were significantly warmer. Was this the effect of the Light? It must be.

  ​I brought my fire forth to warm us up. Lotian didn’t need it. Of course, he was a man. To show his resistance, he even took off the jumper. I admired the view.

  ​“Put it on,” he said reaching to me with the jumper in his
hand. I couldn’t accept it as my hands were on fire, lest he wanted it charred.

  ​“Sorry, I have my fire.”

  ​Three black cars without plates rolled onto the parking lot, their windows dark as night. No one got off. I had a bad feeling. We were close enough for the Dragon Soldiers to help us, but with Lotian around they were redundant. Though I haven’t forgotten their formidable strength from the Wastelands.

  ​“Who are they?” I asked.

  ​“If they have no markings, then my bet is on the Council’s people.”

  ​“So they are going to follow us now?” My life was turning into a shitfest. First, the Academy, now this. We couldn’t get out of the house without drawing the attention of some fucktards. “Fuck this.”

  ​I had enough. Not waiting for Lotian to do something, I approached the first car and knocked on the window. It elicited no response.

  ​“Flare, what are you doing?” Lotian asked with too much worry in his voice. I smirked at him, then took a swing at the window. It opened before I brought my arm down to smash it. Such a dumb trick and they fell for it.

  ​The man with the black glasses on his sharp nose looked up. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  ​“Tell your friends to stop following me or the next time…” I summoned my fire. “I burn all your cars, understood?” I made sure to sound scary and a little crazy. Perhaps, I would do it, perhaps not. Now that I knew the players, the chances of beating the game have diminished. Mirenne and Atrax were hardly amateurs.

  ​“I have no—”

  ​“Then what are you doing here in unmarked and unlicensed cars? Should I ask these Dragon Soldiers to check you out?”

  ​He started the engine and five seconds later the other two cars followed him out into the road.

  ​“We can’t…” my voice trailed off as two cars were approaching from the military zone. The first one belonged to Nix. He favored SUVs. Jeep must be Dramer’s. The Dragon Soldiers let them pass without stopping.

  ​They rolled onto the parking lot. Nix was slow in getting out of the car. Dramer’s jeep braked with a squeak of tires. Only a miracle kept the door attached to the car after he swung them open.