When he had battled with the dragons before, Jason had managed to overwhelm the resistance to him. This was something else. This was a different kind of resistance, a different kind of strength, and Jason couldn’t overwhelm it.
Here he’d believed he was strong enough to do so.
Too arrogant.
That was his fault. Especially when it came to the dragons these days.
He had to find some way to stop the Dragon Souls. They were preventing him from healing these dragons.
He twisted, turning to look behind him, but he couldn’t see anything that clearly. As he strained into the distance, he didn’t make out anything that suggested the Dragon Souls were doing anything unique. The only thing he could feel was the power radiating off the Dragon Souls, the energy that existed as they were holding onto the power that kept him from healing the dragons.
How many Dragon Souls would it require to do that?
Jason didn’t know, though he had some experience with the Dragon Souls pushing against him.
Jason braced himself.
The dozen dragons were getting close enough that they would begin to attack. Stranger, several of the dragons seemed to be carrying something with their forelegs. Long lengths of gleaming pale white bone.
Dragon bone?
Something struck the iron dragon. The dragon roared, power building from within him. His sides began to glow with the molten metal kind of heat, and he surged even faster.
Another burst of power struck, blasting into the dragon.
Jason focused on the ice dragon flying high overhead.
“We’re going to need your help,” he said.
He stared at the nearest of the dragons, focusing on him. A burst of power erupted from the sky. Ice lightning streaked down, crashing into the dragon—and the Dragon Soul riding him. The power from the ice dragon erupted over him, bursting with the kind of power that exploded. The dragon roared and another burst of ice lightning struck, this one slamming into the dragon again.
Jason hurriedly added a healing type of power, washing iron and ice dragon energy together, sweeping it through that dragon.
There was resistance, but as he continued to push, he overwhelmed it.
The healing washed over the dragon—and he roared, shaking. The bone the dragon had been holding fell to the ground as five riders were thrown free.
Five?
That was too many. Far more than they ever would have sent before.
At least Jason understood how the Dragon Souls had managed to prevent him from overpowering them. If they all had a dragon pearl, all of them drawing upon the energy of the dragon—
Jason was thrown forward, almost off the dragon itself.
He gripped the iron dragon, slamming his iron glove down, forming a connection between himself and the dragon. By doing so, he maintained his grip on the dragon, though he wondered if he would be able to hold for much longer. He tried, struggling to right himself, but wasn’t able to get himself back on top of the dragon.
Jason tried to move, shifting in a way that would allow him to slide back onto the dragon, but even as he tried, he couldn’t find a way to turn. He borrowed from the iron dragon’s energy and burst it through him, shifting in a way that allowed him to reposition himself.
When he shimmied up the side of the dragon, he lay there for a moment.
They soared through the sky, eleven dragons still chasing them. If there were even three Dragon Souls on each one, that might be more than they would be able to overpower. Jason clung to the dragon and twisted so he could look down, trying to see whether there was anything he might be able to make out, but he still couldn’t see anything very clearly in the distance. He held on, gripping tightly, holding onto the energy within the iron dragon.
He focused on the nearest of the enslaved dragons.
He sent that image through to the ice dragon. A burst of lightning shot down.
That’s not ice lightning.
Thunder rumbled distantly, and Jason looked up.
The storm dragon had come.
While the storm dragon had helped him before, Jason had no idea why the dragon had come now or what he had done to summon that assistance. Only that the dragon had responded.
Lightning from the storm dragon struck the enslaved dragon and Jason followed it with a healing wave of ice and iron dragon energy. As that washed over the targeted dragon, he could feel it fighting the influence of the Dragon Souls. It shook, sending four Dragon Souls free. Much like the last dragon, this one released what he carried, dropping the bone.
The Dragon Souls fell, screaming as they did.
That left ten dragons.
If the ice and the iron dragon along with the storm dragon were there, then they could succeed. All it would take would be for them to continue to push, to hold onto the power within them, to find some way to use that energy—
Another attack struck, and Jason was thrown off the iron dragon.
He fell.
For a moment, panic flooded through him, but it was quickly replaced with an understanding of what he needed to do.
Jason wasn’t helpless.
There was a time when he would have feared falling like this, a time when he would have believed he would’ve died, but now he understood he had power within him, and with that power, he could summon energy and draw it through him to find safety.
Jason drew upon that energy and sent it flowing out.
Ice and iron.
It burst from him, an explosion of power that went up and away, and Jason used it to shoot into the sky. The iron dragon swooped, dropping below him, and caught Jason.
He slapped the iron dragon glove down, connecting to the dragon and gripping tightly. Holding on to the iron dragon in that way, Jason turned, twisting so that he could look behind him, and he stared, searching for anything that might be there.
He didn’t see anything else.
Where had they gone?
He continued to call upon the energy of the iron dragon, and then he focused above. Holding onto energy of the ice dragon, the power exploded down, bursting around him. That energy exploded near him. Another burst of power came. This one came from the storm dragon. It was followed by a heavy rumbling and energy that crackled in the sky.
Jason gripped the iron dragon and they turned.
There were still ten dragons out there, but where were they?
He connected to the ice dragon and looked down through his eyesight. As he did, he didn’t see anything more than what he’d already seen. He searched in the distance, struggling against the emptiness of the sky.
What were they doing? Better yet, how were they doing it? Somehow, the dragons had disappeared. They were after something. Carrying the dragon bones suggested Jessica had a new plan—but what was it?
Now she had the dragons hiding.
Illusion.
That was what had to be, but he wouldn’t have expected the Dragon Souls to be so skilled with illusion that they could hide from him.
Jason maintained his connection to the other dragons, but he added to it that of the forest dragon. While fighting with dragons, he hadn’t attempted to fully use that power of the forest dragon before, but now that he realized what was taking place, he realized he needed to do so. By holding onto the power of illusion, Jason shifted everything.
A shimmering shattered the illusion.
They had surrounded him.
The ice dragon exploded energy, and it struck one of the other dragons. It was followed by an attack by the storm dragon. Over and again, power streamed from the sky, coming down from above, slamming into these dragons. The ice and the storm dragon beat power upon the dragons, upon the Dragon Souls, and they used that energy to shatter the illusion. Not only that, but they used that power to knock through the captive dragons’ resistance.