The sun rose on the horizon, and the old man led Melissa out of the alleyway. On the ground, piles of ash and blood mingled. The town square stood empty, with the statue of Terri Taveck still cut in half. Mel still thought it was a strange sight.

In the direction she had been planning to run before, lay three dead soldiers with their eyes staring up at the gray sky. Mel averted her gaze from their bodies. It was hard to watch. Her stomach was unsettled, even though she hadn’t eaten for several hours. She thought if she had, it would have already come up and painted the cobblestones.

Mel nodded to the old man and then left him to carry out his day. She lifted her head to the sky as she walked toward the army base down by the walls. She tried not to watch the dead lying in the streets and kept her focus on the still rising sun.

Mel felt the warmth of the mother on her face and wondered what was real in this world. Maybe the mother was just the sun and not a god at all. Maybe the dragons had always been evil and therefore the dragon cult was too?

She shook her head and saw smoke billowing up from the army’s courtyard. There was a man there who was stacking corpses on top of a morning bonfire. His shoulders slumped, but his posture was strong. Mel walked up to him.

He turned when he heard her feet scrape the gravel. Sadness filled his eyes and Mel saw soldiers walking around the base, trying to collect bodies and weapons. Probably already getting ready for the night.

“Where can I find a friend who’s in the army?” Mel asked.

“Depends,” the man said. “We won’t do proper headcounts or burials. We need to burn the bodies before nightfall or the void will feast on them.”

A shiver ran down Mel’s spine. What was the void?

“His name is Marcus Bruse,” Mel said. “He’s from Windbrook, and he recently joined the army, going through basic training.”

The man nodded, but there was no shimmer of recollection in his face. He turned toward a huge building close by where Mel had seen more than a couple of soldiers run in and out of since she came here.

“You can ask around in there on the first floor,” the man said. “That’s where they house the new recruits. But be prepared for the worst. We lost many soldiers last night and we will lose more.”

Mel swallowed hard and her heart slowed almost to a stop. Her veins felt cold and her mind was like a fog.

“Thanks,” she said, willing her legs to move toward the building.

She left the man by the bonfire, continuing to burn bodies in the early morning. The wind shifted and Mel’s nostrils filled with the scent of burning flesh. It reminded her of the fire ritual they had held before she’d left Windbrook. In the chapel, they had burned her hair, and it had smelled similar to this.

Back then, she had thought she had heard the dragons speaking to her.

She opened the first door to her right, peeking inside. There were many soldiers in there, looking exhausted and dirty. Mel’s eyes scanned the room, looking for Marcus. Her gaze stopped at the sight of Catherine, sitting with an arm around Leeroy’s shoulders. He was crying with his face in his hands and Catherine was staring off into the distance with a hardened expression.

No, Mel thought. Marcus can’t be…

She willed herself to stop that train of thought and walked up to them. Catherine noticed her and pulled her arm away from Leeroy. He looked up, meeting Mel’s eyes with redness surrounding his.

For a moment, they stared at each other in silence. Mel didn’t know how to even form the words. But eventually, Catherine seemed to understand why she was here.

“Marcus is fine,” she said.

Mel felt air rush out of her lungs and her knees bent, descending her onto the floor. Her hand folded into her lap and a deep sigh escaped her lips.

“He’s at the hospital,” Catherine continued. “His leg’s broken, but otherwise he’s fine. He was lucky.”

Leeroy dragged a hand over his face and then under his nose.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“He saw the dragon.”

Mel’s eyes flew up to meet them, and she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. Did they think she or Marcus brought that thing here?

Mel rose from her seat and headed toward the door. She stopped before she reached it and turned back.

“Thank you,” she said.

Catherine nodded to Mel, but neither of them said anything else. Mel felt more eyes on her and she feared the other soldiers had overheard her looking for Marcus. She wondered if they would be hunted now as heretics and possibly as the ones who had brought the dragons back. After all, it was her destiny to do so.

#

Mel found Marcus in a bed at the hospital up by the western gate and when she saw his serene face, a smile immediately spread over her lips. He was sleeping in a white bed with a thin gray blanket over his body. From the side of the blanket his foot stuck out, propped up on a pillow, and bandaged together with wooden splinters.

She pulled out the chair next to his bed and sat down. She reached over to him and grabbed his hand, placing it on her own. He was still, but his chest rose and fell in an even tempo.

Mel closed her eyes, taking in a calming breath and exhaling slowly. He was alive.

She heard voices down the corridor, nurses or doctors speaking in low hushed voices in the large open space. Mel pulled the curtain closed and gave her and Marcus some privacy from the rest of the wounded.

She released his hand and leaned back in her chair, feeling her eyelids heavy from exhaustion. Once in a while, she heard someone groan in the distance and occasionally a scream or two. It didn’t bother her much anymore. Her threshold for what terror was had increased to such a level that people in pain didn’t even seem to affect her.

Darkness spread around her as her eyelids closed and Mel relaxed her head down on the back of the chair. Her mind still whirled with questions from last night and about the dragons, but she mostly ignored them.

Her heart suddenly stirred, something speaking inside her but not coming from her mind.

“Aldrion is doomed,” they said. “The Last Stance will fall and it’s all thanks to you. You brought us back.”

Mel’s eyes flew opened, and horror filled her.

“Why?” Mel whispered to that voice inside her.

“Your destiny is fulfilled. We have returned to bring destruction to the world.”

Mel’s heart pumped furiously in her chest, and her stomach tightened.

“Why me?” Mel whispered.

But no answer came from the voice. The dragons had stopped speaking to her now. Mel’s forehead wrinkled, and she felt herself growing more confused as the silence stretched. She wanted answers to her questions now more than anything. Even more than her own safety.

“Hi,” Marcus said.

Mel looked up from her confusion and met his eyes. “You’re awake.”

“And you’re here,” Marcus said, a thin smile stretching over his lips.

“I had to make sure you were alright,” Mel said.

“I’m glad my girl is here. The dragons must have watched over me last night.”

Mel swallowed hard.

Everything he said felt like acid in her ears. He really knew nothing. It was like he was deliberately keeping himself from seeing the truth in all matters.

“Come, give me a hug,” Marcus said, reaching his hand out to her.

Mel flinched. “No.”

She felt like she couldn’t take it anymore. His expressed wishes to be with her and his complete lack of regard to her feelings. She didn’t want to be with Marcus and she couldn’t hide that fact any longer. Enough was enough.

A frown descended on Marcus’ face and he watched her with hurt eyes.

“I’m not your girl,” she said. “We’re not together. You just never listened to me when I tried to tell you I’m not interested. It’s important for me that you hear it now. We will never be together, Marcus.”

“So, everything was a lie?”

Mel felt fury pumping through her veins, and she stood up from the chair next to his bed. Marcus remained lying, but he propped himself up onto his elbow with a wince.

“Yes,” Mel said, flailing her arms around her. “It’s all a lie. The dragons are a lie. I’m a fraud who doesn’t really like you. But at least I didn’t join the enemy. At least I didn’t kill soldiers last night, like your precious dragons did. They attacked Aldrion. They are with the void.”

Marcus shook his head. “Stop it,” he said. “That’s not true, Mel, and you know it. The dragons watch over us. That thing last night in the sky, that wasn’t them. It was something dark the void created to look like the dragons. To make us doubt. Probably a shadow changing shapes.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head at him. “You don’t get to do this anymore. You don’t get to tell me what’s true or not when you are living with your head buried in the sand. Both about us and about the dragons. Listening to me and what I think isn’t a suggestion, Marcus, it’s a requirement for our continued friendship.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means we’re not friends anymore until you open your eyes and face the truths around you.”

Mel turned on her heel and threw the curtain out of her way when she walked off. She heard Marcus yelling her name and some weak arguments she didn’t even care to register. She had welcomed in anger into her heart now and she felt physically unable to waver anymore. It was like this was what her body had wanted her to do all along, and now she just couldn’t seem to stop for even a moment.

The anger was too much, and Mel didn’t really have control over her actions anymore. She couldn’t stop herself from speaking her mind and she couldn’t stop from telling Marcus off. She had wanted to keep the peace, to keep their friendship alive at any cost. But now, that seemed like it had been a mistake. Maybe she should have never trusted him.