Dragons of Destiny Read online

  Circle of Seven

  Book 1

  Dragons of Destiny

  Jeffrey Waddilove

  Before I introduce you all to Arius, Dregan, and the rest, I have to go out of my way to personally thank some people. Without your relationships, guidance, positive reinforcement, and help, this book would have never happened.

  Darcy Waddilove. The Mom. Thank you for being relentlessly you. Your life was never easy (I certainly was a pain in your ass), but you showed me what real fight and perseverance looks like. Your unyielding love and zero bullshit mentality helped mold me into the man I am today. Your blood pumps through my veins, and your soul lives on in my heart. I couldn’t be prouder to be your son.

  Joshua Waddilove, my brother, my friend. Irregardless still isn’t a real word, but you were the realest character of them all. When H.S.T said, “There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.” he was referencing you, I’m sure of it. Thank you for introducing me to creativity and art.

  Jennifer Mariano. You’re my muse, my biggest fan, my best friend, and the love of my life. I had to take the long way around to realize I had everything that I ever wanted when I was sixteen, but needed to kill my demons along the way so that I could be good to you in the here and now. Thank you for believing in second chances.

  Randee Dalton. The most avid reader I know. You’ve read every draft of every piece of fiction I have ever put together. Then you kept asking for more. That helped give me the confidence to give this whole writing thing a real go. Thanks for constantly demanding chapters.

  Joshua Rushford. When I first saw you, I thought you looked like Silent Bob. Then I talked to you and realized you were the writer buddy I always wanted. Thank you for bullshitting with me endlessly about writer’s block, the importance of a muse, good ideas, terrible ideas, and everything else in between.

  Shane Broome. You read the first manuscript for Dragons of Destiny. Then you asked for the sequel. Thank you for being my first fan.

  Bobby Crutchfield. You blazed the trail with your book, and showed me this was possible. Thanks for laying that initial blueprint, brother.

  Danalice Tee. You plucked the book cover right out of my brain somehow, and perfectly brought it to life. Thank you for your masterful artwork.

  Amanda “Fury” Hutchinson. I suck at commas, but you were nice enough to fix them all. Thank you for painstakingly editing my hiccups.

  © 2018 all rights reserved Jadestar Inc LLC

  © 2018 all rights reserved Circle of Seven

  © 2018 all rights reserved Dragons of Destiny

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2018

  For my father, who took me there and back again.

  Prologue

  The world was breaking apart. Verscei smiled to himself as the capital city of Petra, the epitome of power and magnificence, crumbled before his eyes. Tsunami waves annihilated the harbor and seaside walls, while catastrophic earthquakes ripped the ground asunder. The Spires of Heaven, where the High Kings had reigned for over a thousand years, were now shattered and broken. His smile widened. He was chaos incarnate.

  The power building in him was nearly incomprehensible. His entire body was now a conduit to a force far greater than himself. Duncar had been an insignificant magic prior to this monumental achievement. Never again would it be deemed an occult energy; its sycophants never would have to hide in the shadows ashamed or oppressed any longer. He was the True Dragon in the texts of Jenukai’s prophecy. He was the Shadow Priest that would go down in history as the bringer of Duncar’s revolution, the Shadow Priest who made Duncar the ultimate power in existence.

  Verscei drew the source of Duncar’s power to him, the Duncar Moon. It would hover over Petra’s decimated ruins for eternity, forever a symbol of his triumph. More importantly, it would be a source of uncanny energy to be tapped by his Duncar faithful.

  The moon was now in sight. Its magnitude was just as staggering to behold, as was its power that coursed through every follicle in his body. It shone blindingly white as it broke through the dense clouds, banishing them from horizon to horizon. Verscei had never witnessed a more pleasing vision, and he began to weep tears of joy as he started to savor his victory. He turned around to face his apprentice, Rathe, and saw that the young lad had a look of awe painted on his face.

  “I’ve done it, young one!” Verscei had to shout over the tumult to be heard.

  Rathe blinked several times as he finally looked away from the moon’s descent. The unyielding fealty he had constantly witnessed in those gray eyes had always taken Verscei aback, but the fervent intensity that replaced it now made the coming of the moon seem almost droll in comparison.

  “Master, the power is… it is incredible! I feel as though I could topple mountains!”

  “We will do more than that, Rathe! We will level empires! We will reshape the world as we see fit!”

  Verscei turned back, returning his full attention to the Duncar Moon. It was taking all of his mental fortitude to keep control of it as it drew closer. Breaking his concentration had almost proved to be a fatal error, and he had come too far to fail now. The power of it literally took him to his knees, and he raised his arms and pushed every bit of his power into sustaining its descent.

  “You will no longer be needed, Master.”

  It was nearly inaudible above the city falling in upon itself, but nonetheless Verscei heard Rathe’s sinister murmur. He looked back in time to see his most loyal apostle pull a dagger from beneath his robes. Rathe was on him in an instant, gripping his long white hair and ripping his head back harshly.

  As the knife dragged banefully across his windpipe, he spluttered up blood in complete surprise. The, “How could you?” he attempted to shout turned into gurgled nonsense as he weakly clawed at the crimson geyser that used to be his jugular. The shock Verscei felt at being betrayed was now permanently etched on his face, and Rathe sneered down at him.

  Standing in a pool of his former master’s blood, he spared one more look at the moon that was now falling toward the city at an alarming rate. It would crash into the planet, there was no stopping it now.

  “The world will be reshaped, Master. But it will not be you who molds it.”

  Chapter 1

  Focusing his Adimus Aura, Arius scanned through the dark storm clouds as he and his vast armada soared above them. He couldn’t think of a more appropriate set of conditions than what the storm below provided for him. The ferocious and booming thunder claps he heard from the raging tempest were the drums of war luring him in with their rhythmic cadence.

  As First Knight of the Gaelarian Alliance, Arius was the leader of the world’s greatest and last hope. Far below him awaited his destiny. Through the clouds, his Aura enhanced vision settled on his enemy’s encampment. The invasion of his homeland had been a murderous and vicious ordeal. The Dantron horde that had brutalized his country was about to be paid back in full for their atrocities. By Arius’ estimation, there were more than five hundred thousand mortal enemies that were about to meet their demise. Arius raised his fist into the air, emitting a bright flash of green light that signaled the beginning of the engagement.

  Arius took the reins of his mighty Black dragon, Alrukar, and dove headlong into the freezing clouds. Three thousand of his Jenukai Chosen followed his lead into their destiny. Once i
nto the clouds Arius felt their stinging moisture against his hands and face, while the electric residue from the lightning made every hair on his body stand on end. He idly wondered to himself which would be more violent, the storm or the battle.

  The thunder and wind deafened him as he clung to Alrukar and they spiraled down together. The ice-cold rain and the blood-pounding adrenaline throbbing inside his ears added to those conditions, and had it not been for the Link he shared with his dragon, an aerial assault on this scale would have been next to impossible to collaborate. Through the Link he could feel every instinct, emotion, and desire his good friend Alrukar felt during the battle; the Black dragon could sense him in kind. This was the same for every member of his fleet.

  Arius and his knights erupted out of the clouds, and he could hear the Dantronian warning horns announcing their arrival into the valley. To his immediate left, he could just barely make out the form of his best friend and second-in-command, Miles, leading a squad of Jenukai Chosen into a flanking position. They had earlier decided they would be best suited to draw away the initial wave of Dantron’s own armada with this tactic. They had the element of surprise on their side, but that advantage would be quickly nullified once the Dantronian's rose to arms themselves. Dantron had them outnumbered in the air by about a thousand dragons, so it was pertinent that the Gaelarian’s strike hard and fast.

  Just as Arius had anticipated, hundreds of thousands of arrows flew upwards to knock them out of the sky. It was as if the rain had somehow reversed upon itself. Arius raised a gauntleted hand from his reins and cast forth with his Adimus Aura an enormous cerulean wave of energy that coursed with electricity. The blast incinerated a path of flight through the arrows and decimated the opposition’s archers as it blew apart the earth like a meteor strike.

  Putting both hands back on the reins, he turned Alrukar into a nosedive and sent a mental picture of fire to his steed through the Link. The dragon immediately obliged, setting fire to tents, maintenance wagons, and anyone unfortunate enough to survive his initial attack.

  The Dantronian ground troops were no match whatsoever. Gaelarian dragons pulverized the surprised and overwhelmed invaders unmercifully. Arius smirked as he cast another wave of energy so powerful that it punched another deep crater into the ground. The hundreds of clustered Dantron soldiers who had stood gaping stupidly into the air as death swooped upon their ranks were now nothing more than a pile of ash and bones.

  This is simply too easy, thought Arius. Where was Dantron’s fleet? Looking all around the valley, Arius could see only the panicked and scattering enemy ground forces and in the sky his own armada. He was growing anxious waiting for his brother to show himself.

  Without warning, Arius spotted the enemy dragon horde breaking through the clouds, copying Gaelaria’s own maneuver.

  “Jenukai‘s Wings, that bastard is far too clever,” Arius grudgingly admitted to himself. His brother’s guile shouldn’t have shocked him. He was and always had been a brilliant battle tactician.

  Arius directed Alrukar upwards into a steep climb to meet Dantron’s armada and the Duncar filth head on. From his scabbard on his back Arius pulled forth his sword, Dragon’s Fist. As always, having the blade in his hand strengthened his resolve, and he needed the reassurance it provided him as he joined the rest of his fleet in formation.

  Miles flew close to his left side, shaking out his mane of dreadlocked red hair. From this close vantage, Arius could see his friend’s thick beard had specks of flesh and splintered bone in it.

  “We’ll give you a clear path to Dregan!” Miles shouted over the noise of the storm to Arius.

  Arius simply nodded in his direction and gave a primal battle cry that was matched by everyone of his Jenukai Chosen and their mounts. Dantron’s riders and dragons answered with a prideful roar of their own. Arius’ heart was pounding out of control in his ribcage and his battle nerves threatened to unhinge him. His unbridled hatred for Dregan lent him the strength he needed, though, and his anxiety quelled as a result. He was glad for the stability and calm he achieved as the two forces tore into one another with a horrible fierceness. The world had become a riot of wings and fire, teeth and claws, ripping and tearing.

  Arius took Dragon’s Fist and sliced through an enemy Green dragon’s wing, and blood erupted across his face and armor. The attack sent the dragon and its rider to the battle ravaged earth below. Banking to the left, Alrukar released a fireball directly into the face of a dive-bombing Dantron steed, instantly cremating the creature. The nerves he had felt were long forgotten, replaced only by survival instincts and his need for vengeance.

  Through the Link, Arius commanded Alrukar to tuck in his mammoth wingspan, and together they dove. They plummeted a hundred feet in the blink of an eye after an unsuspecting rider who had just blown apart one of the Jenukai Chosen. Arius took Dragons Fist in both hands and swung with all his strength, severing the man in half at the waist. Gore flew behind the pair of legs that remained on the enemy dragon, his innards emptying grotesquely into the steed’s slipstream.

  Arius flew through the battle hacking through human and dragon alike, yet still there was no sign of his true quarry. The rain started to feel warm upon his face, and as he wiped his eyes in attempt to improve his vision, a smear of red appeared on his palm. With a grim realization, Arius noticed that blood now fell from the sky as heavily as the downpour itself. The sense of urgency in Arius’ mind grew as a result. There had been far too much bloodshed already because of this war. He longed to strike his traitorous brother Dregan down with Dragons Fist and end this ordeal once and for all.

  As if Dregan had heard his thoughts, he swooped down upon Arius with deadly intent, seemingly out of nowhere. Alrukar barrel-rolled and Arius ducked, just barely avoiding being knocked airborne by the slimmest of margins. With Dregan now in pursuit, Arius glanced over his shoulder and with some quick calculating noted that Dregan’s Gold dragon was the more swift and agile flier in these conditions. Unless he did something drastic, he would be snatched off Alrukar at this pace.

  The wind was so loud in Arius’ ears that he didn’t hear the wail of the wall of flame that chased inches behind him, sizzling through the cold rain until it nearly engulfed him and Alrukar. Once again, the Link saved his skin. Arius sensed that Alrukar felt the fireball coming and his dragon shifted cunningly to avoid it. He patted his clever steed on the neck in appreciation.

  Knowing a chase through the clouds would be a suicidal tactic, Arius gave a mighty tug on the reins, pulling his mount around in an about face to catch Dregan off guard. After completing the move he found only open air and the battle being waged around him. Dregan had simply vanished. What matter of Duncar magic is this?

  Panicking slightly, Arius summoned forth his Adimus Aura and scanned for Dregan’s life force.

  “That trick won’t work, little brother,” Dregan shouted to him as he and his Gold dragon flew directly over Arius’ head.

  Dregan swung his sword trying to decapitate him, missing by scant inches. Even over the mighty tumult of the storm, Arius felt the wind of the blade’s near miss, and brown hairs fell across his face and breastplate. Arius sheathed Dragons Fist and sent a two-handed scarlet energy blast at his brother’s retreating back. Before it could strike him, one of Dregan’s personal bodyguards flew into its path and was eviscerated by the attack.

  “You fucking coward! This is between the two of us!” Arius bellowed, rage making his voice carry louder than it could have normally. He could sense Dregan chuckling.

  “Don’t be such an ignorant child, Arius. Every one of my soldiers are honored to die for the True Dragon.”

  “If that’s how you want it, Dregan,” Arius growled malevolently.

  Arius reached deep into his Adimus Aura. Raw energy radiated from him, cloaking him in a veil of radiant white light. He tapped not only into the battle magic that his Adimus Aura provided him but also his rage and adrenaline. Emitting a mighty roar, Arius let go of his restra
int, and with nothing more than his will to make it happen, fifty Dantron dragons and their riders were swallowed into the sphere of raw power that had burst forth.

  Maniacal laughter came from Dregan as he was somehow untouched by the assault. Arius lost control of his better judgment, and he and Alrukar chased after him. Through the Link an image of an inferno appeared; his Black dragon meant to turn his brother into a pile of charred ashes, and Arius was only too happy to accommodate the request. A wave like a solar flare burst from Alrukar, and the magnificent Gold dragon reflected the intense flames and the carnage of the aerial battle around it. Dregan waved his arms in a circular motion, and the fire vanished into nothingness.

  Seething with hatred and frustration, Arius dove at his brother. Dregan was ready for the attack and cast forth a huge Duncar lighting strike. The spell hit Arius square in his breastplate, ripping him from his harnessed saddle and sending him head over heels off the back of Alrukar.

  Arius fell stupefied through the rain. He could sense Alrukar diving to retrieve him. His wits were awry as he felt the electricity reverberating through his veins. He felt as though he was falling dramatically slow and that he had been beaten by clubs for a week straight. All his hair was on end, and his eyes felt as if they were going to explode from his skull. But all of that paled in comparison to the feeling of mounting horror as he watched Dregan dive also.

  It was now a race to be rescued, or to be ravaged. Arius had enough wherewithal in his addled mind to tuck his arms and legs into a diving position as he rocketed toward the ground, literally at breakneck speed. Dregan was almost upon him, and he couldn’t avoid the second Duncar lightning bolt that was about to collide with his airborne body. He couldn’t even bring himself to close his eyes as it bore down on him.

  Just as the lightning was a few feet away from annihilating him, Alrukar swept underneath Arius so he could reach out and grab his long neck. Not one second after the miraculous catch, Alrukar managed to maneuver around a fire blast from Dregan’s Gold dragon, and the Black dragon sent a ball of flames back in retort.