The Raven Flame [The Crown Saga III] (First Draft)

Puppet Master

Apollo's blood was purple. His blood didn't grant him the ability to teleport. So, how come he just did it?

My heart lurched when Apollo swung his sword at his blinded opponent.

Caiden miraculously pulled back, but not before the blade cut into the flesh of his upper left arm. Blood gushed from between Caiden's fingers as he covered the deep wound with his hand.

That wasn't good.

"I told you to tear down those soft walls," Pangea muttered to herself, clenching her arms without taking her eyes off the battling men. "You'll lose if you continue to like that."

I defied my screaming muscles to glance up at her.

Her eyes were narrow and filled with worry. However, I saw no surprise. She hadn't been stunned by Apollo's ability to teleport.

"Pangea," I said, my voice sounding slightly hoarse from the beating.

Pangea quickly glanced my way. "Yes?"

I bit my lip, my gaze shifting between the queen and the battle that had briefly paused for the two contenders to catch their breaths. How was I going to phrase this?

"You— Erhm... Did you just see what happened, or was it something I imagined?"

Pangea arched her brow. "You must be more precise, young warrior."

I cleared my throat. "Apollo's blood was purple before it turned gold, right?" Pangea nodded. "So... he should only be able to manipulate sound, correct?"

Shame flooded me like a tidal wave when Pangea's neck twisted to view me fully. Right. It had been my imagination. I guess that made sense. My head was still a little hazed from the fight, but that left another question: how had Apollo managed to escape Caiden's iron-tight grip?

"Did I not tell you?" Pangea suddenly said.

"Tell me what?"

"I see," she said, her gaze drifting back to the arena. "I must have forgotten amid everything. Do you remember the legend I told you about the elements?"

I attempted to nod, but the strained motion only resulted in my neck locking.

"Do you also recall that I never mentioned more than four types of dragons tied to the elements?"

I didn't nod this time, partly because I was unsure where she intended to bring this conversation and because of my neck.

Pangea sighed, rubbing her temple as if an ache had settled around her head like a band squeezing her skull. "Time really corrupted our perception of the star's gifts," she grumbled as she bent before me. "Why do we mistakenly assume that Iridis powers are divided into twelve gifts when four suffice?"

Mistakenly? Because our blood defines our powers. Because there are twelve different colors of the Iridis blood, tying our powers to our souls.

Pangea sighed again when my eyes offered no flash of understanding. "An Iridis' power stems from the dragons and their souls' likeness to ours. Thus, the strength of our powers is determined by the bonded dragon's connection to the mother and their preferred use of the gift. Their scales directly reflect that connection, as does our blood."

I still wasn't following, and the queen seemed to be slowly losing her patience.

"Spirits, girl. How hard did Reza hit you?"

I bit back my urge to scowl at her. Reza hit me hard enough to loosen some of my teeth, so excuse me if my mind couldn't currently keep up with those cryptic words that seemed to spill from the mouths of every Pavo—except for the youngest.