Trampolining with Dragons: A Dragon Rider Urban Fantasy Novel (Setting Fires with Dragons Book 4) by S. W. Clarke & Ramy Vance & R. E. Vance

Author:S. W. Clarke & Ramy Vance & R. E. Vance [Clarke, S. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Keep Evolving Studios
Published: 2021-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

At once, Mariana’s face lifted to Ariadne’s. They met eyes as mother and daughter once more, and Mariana’s feelings flooded through me, all her love, all her fear, all her desire …

All her belief.

She could take over our one soul right now. Mariana could press me out forever, and I would wink out of existence. My body would become hers, and the rest of my mortal life would become hers. All of what I was rested on Mariana’s whim. She could have it all.

But instead, she said—

“I believe in you, Ariadne,” she whispered, “I believe you to be whole.”

And it was then I knew: Mariana wasn’t just good. She was a GoneGodDamn genius.

She was going to evict Lust from Ariadne’s body.

As she spoke the words, I felt a shift inside me. My hands began tingling, all pins and needles as though I were falling asleep from my fingers to my arms to my chest, and then all through the rest of me.

All at once, Mariana melted away from my mind. I felt her leave, passing through my body and into my arm, and finally through the dagger itself.

Lust’s face contorted, lips parting to yell or screech or scream, but it was too late.

The moment Mariana’s essence moved out of my body, through the dagger and into Ariadne’s body, her face lifted skyward and she screamed with such inhuman power and pitch, I thought I would never hear again.

On she went, on and on, as a small black tendril rose into the air from her mouth, growing in size and substance until it poured through the air, draping like silk toward the stage.

Lust. Mariana was pressing Lust out.

A putrid smell reached my nose, like sulfur and dirty cat litter thrown together, as Lust’s true form emerged. She wasn’t a human, and she certainly didn’t have anything resembling a human body.

She was a mortal sin, and she existed as a formless mass seeking a host. She was a parasite, an evil creation of the gods, and without a body, she was putrid.

I watched it all with unblinking revulsion, right until her snake’s tail of a black mass slid out from Ariadne’s lips and the screaming finally, finally stopped. My ears rang as she hit the stage. Once Lust reached the surface, she oozed away, sliding across the stage and disappearing amidst the flames.

Burn. Burn and never return.

I set my free hand to the creation crystal, and with slow care, pulled the dagger free. The wound it left behind reseamed itself at once, the skin closing until only an unbroken canvas remained. I knew that was Mariana’s doing; even in her last moments, her belief that Ariadne was whole had sutured up the gash.

My eyes lifted to Ariadne. Yes, the screaming had stopped, but her mouth was still open, her face still skyward. Had Mariana resisted taking control of Ariadne? Would she be able to relinquish her daughter’s body as she had done mine, inviting the oblivion of the afterlife?

My answer came from the sky.

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