For a moment, the chimera's attack increased in force. Then his power reached out, touching the shadow inside him—
A cry filled the cave.
It wasn't Braeden’s own voice. It was that of the chimera, a dragon's roar changing to that of a lion and then to the hiss of a snake.
For a moment, the pain within his chest was so bad that Braeden found himself crumpling to his knees. His hand clutched at his shirt, right over where it felt like his heart was trying to escape his chest. And then the light of the mate bond flooded through him.
A moment later, Alyx's arms wrapped around him.
“What have you done to him?” she demanded angrily.
“I'm fine,” Braeden said, still panting. He raised a hand to cover hers. “Really. It's not his fault.”
When he managed to open his eyes again a moment later, the chimera had vanished. His twisted, eternally shifting body was hidden by shadows once more.
“It is as I feared,” the chimera's voice said after a moment, echoing through the cave. “A great and terrible enemy has arrived. Worse than we thought.”
“How much worse than a fire dragon can it get?” Jared asked from behind them.
The chimera laughed without humor. “Much worse. We thought that there was a new elemental dragon. That Steele was the master of fire. We were wrong.”
“Fire chose me,” Braeden said proudly as Alyx helped him back up to his feet. “It chose me to fight this threat.”
“Yes,” the chimera hissed. “I thought it was to fight fire with fire. But that's not where Steele's power came from. He has found something deeper, darker. Something we thought of only as a legend even in my days.”
“There's nothing else,” Braeden said, staring into the shifting shadows before them. “Earth, water, air, and fire. We're all gathered here now. All four elements. There's never been anything else.”
“There has always been more,” the chimera said. “Always. It has been sleeping for a long, long time. Many thousands of years ago, it was banished to the heart of the earth, because its power was so great and terrible it threatened all life. But it seems that in the centuries the fire dragons spent hiding below the earth, they found it—or at least, a part of it. They woke it. And now Steele wields its power.”
His mouth dry, Braeden swallowed. He'd known that something was off about Steele.
“The element of darkness.” The chimera’s voice carried though the cave with the weight of a ringing bell of bronze.
Braeden froze, shaking his head.
It made sense, he knew that. He'd seen himself how shadows had spread over Steele's body.
He'd thought that the sensation of shadow and smoke had been a part of Steele's fire dragon powers. Fire caused smoke and shadow. It had seemed strange, but it made sense.
But this...
“There has never been an element of darkness,” he said. “There has never been a master of darkness.”
Once more a dragon's head came out of the gloom, fixing them with its stare. “Until now,” Gareth growled. “The element of darkness has awoken. And if Steele is not its master, he still wields its power.”
“So what do I do about his voice inside my head?” Braeden demanded.
Gareth drew back into the shadows once more. “You already know. It's his power that wounded you.”
“The element of darkness,” Braeden murmured, feeling the coldness of the wisps of shadow inside him.
It felt impossible. He'd never even heard of such a thing.
But then, he'd never been that high in the fire dragon hierarchy.
“What does it mean?” Jared asked. “What do we do?”
Braeden turned slowly to look at Jared. He spoke without waiting for the chimera.