The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2) by Dan Michaelson (best free ereader TXT) 📕

“You might want to get up,” I said.

Natalie shrugged, staying where she was. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

“I don’t know. I might lose control over it.”

She watched me. “You said that before, but it didn’t happen.”

“If it does, I’m going to feel bad about burning you.”

She leaned close, getting near the flames stretching out from my fingers. “Do you really think you would burn me up? That hasn’t happened so far,” she said.

I frowned. Maybe it wouldn’t burn her. But I wasn’t sure if the shift in my connection to the dragon would make a difference.

I held on to that power, connecting to it, letting it flow out from me, and feeling the energy as it worked outward. Power circled, and I stretched my hands out, tamping down the power so I could pull it around in a cycle, but also attempting to try to keep it from spreading too far from me.

It created a loop of power that stretched outward. At first it did so only a little, looping out from my hands, still circling through me, but the more I held on to that energy, the more I looped the power around, the easier it was for me to feel a connection form.

I began to push it out.

It was strange to realize I had that kind of control over it, but I could send it sweeping out from my hands, in a spiral around me. I could control it.

The flames arced out about five paces from me. It was a wide band. I tried something different, attempting to restrict it, to narrow the band a little bit and see if I could tighten it.

It worked.

The band of power narrowed, constricting, and I attempted to tighten it even more. Doing so required I forced down the power within me, but that became increasingly easier the longer that I did it.

Could I force it even farther from me?

“Can you do more than one band?” Natalie asked.

I shook my head. I looked back at Natalie, my jaw set in concentration, trying to focus, but more than that, trying not to lose focus. I had the feeling that if I were to do so, I would find that power devastating.

“I don’t know. When I did it before, it was through my fingers.”

“Why would this be any different?”

It was such a practical question, and I was certain she was right. Why would it be any different?

I tried to push it out from two of my fingers, circling it back around as I pushed. When it happened, I kept focus.

Could I split power out of my other fingers?

I created two separate bands of power that circled around before looping back into me. They sizzled from my fingertips, and in doing so, stretched from one to the next, distinct lines of energy that crackled in the air, and yet I felt no heat from them. It amazed me that I was able to do even this. Somehow, I had to try more.

If I could do two, could I do three?

I forced a third band from my thumbs. Doing that was increasingly difficult. I wasn’t pushing it all that far from me, but it was hard. Eventually, I would lose control, but for now it held.

The next challenge would be attempting to do something with it, to manipulate that power. I tried to maneuver it.

At first, nothing seemed to happen.

I wanted to braid it.

Then it happened slowly. I started to manipulate it from one side, twisting the power as it stretched out from me, and as it did, it gradually began to take on the form of a braided rope of flame.

When it struck my opposite hand, it was much more intense than it had been before. The pattern had done something to it. I sucked in a breath.

“What is it?” she asked me.

I glanced over to her. “I don’t know. It feels different in this form, especially when it returns to my body.”

“Could the pattern make a difference?”

I nodded. “That’s my suspicion, though I don’t entirely know how.”

“Can you change the pattern?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how to create anything other than a braid.”

“Well, there are other ways you can form three strands. Try wrapping one of them around.”

The idea that I might be able to use the flames in that way was strange, but then again, so was the idea I had braided the strands of fire.

I tamped down the power, bringing my hands together and collapsing my connection to the dragon, before stretching them out again and forcing the flames out from one hand to another. In doing so, I started to wrap the thumb strand around the other two. It happened very slowly. It was as if that strand crawled along. I continued to weave it, spiraling around it, and by the time it reached my other hand, I could barely contain it. It was incredibly powerful. I struggled to keep my hands together.

“What is it?” Natalie asked, getting close to me now. “I can see something is off.”

I couldn’t hold on to it.

My hands were forced apart. The band of power exploded out from me, shooting up into the sky in an arc of flame. I tried to control it, tried to bring my hands back together, but I couldn’t. The power and the flames were too much. I struggled. I needed to separate from the dragon.

Unfortunately, with the way I’d woven the one strand around the other two, I couldn’t anymore. I tried, attempting to loosen the connection, to unwind that power, but it didn’t seem to work.

Somehow, I was going to have to find a way. I had to release that over-woven strand.

I forced it out of my hand, tamping down the thumb strand, and then shifted focus to the other two. Without that band wrapped around them, I could ease them back. I squeezed my hands together slowly, finally bringing them back together, forcing the heat and fire out