Read Betrayal Foretold: Descended of Dragons, Book 3 for Free Online Page A

his eyebrows in amusement, delighting in her hate-filled diatribe.
    My mother didn’t say a word. Hadn’t said a word in some time. I wondered if her fear had returned and crippled her, if she’d lost the vengeful intent with which she flew in.
    My questions were soon answered.
    Like a winged nightmare, Edina Drakontos dove for Brandubh with single-minded objective: kill the man who’d enslaved her and her family, and who intended to do the same to her daughter. My mother’s auburn scales glinted in the moonlight, a beacon of vengeance. My full heart pounded within my chest, and a cautiously optimistic smile pulled at my mouth.
    Brandubh’s attention flew from Bay to the dragon intent on decimating him. His eyes lighted and he licked his lower lip in anticipation. The air around the sorcerer thickened and gleamed like the area around a gas leak. He vibrated with power and spread his legs into a commanding stance. Brandubh extended one long arm to reveal a ball of fire suspended above his palm. The flames flickered and licked viciously, and with a toss of his hand, the fireball flew into the night sky, exploding above the heads of the rapt mob.
    My mother faltered, the power he’d discharged obviously rattling her.
    No . No, I won’t let him win this time. I won’t let Mother and Bay fall under his control again. And I won’t let him have me.
    With a force that shook the ground beneath us, I burst into my dragon, joining my mother and Bay in the warm night sky.
     Ewan changed when I did and stood on the ground below with raised hackles and bared teeth. His furious gaze was set on Brandubh, ready to strike. Ewan was vicious. Formidable. Majestic.
    The time had come to take on Brandubh. To rid ourselves of him forever.
    Gresham, an omni like me and able to take any form, changed into a dragon. The crowd had backed so far into the tree line, they were barely visible. But at the sight of him, a woman let out a blood-curdling scream.
    Gresham paid the crowd no mind, circling us and coming to a halt beside me, wing-to-wing with Mother, Bay, and I.
    “ What’s the plan, ladies ?” he asked in a tone much lighter than the situation called for.
    “ Wheel, you’ve got no fire .” Bay stated the obvious. While Gresham could mimic a dragon’s physical form, only natural dragons possessed fire. He could fly and fight, but couldn’t produce columns of damnable fire like the three of us. “ But I doubt Brandubh can control all four of us, even gifted as he is at wielding power over dragons .”
    “ I don’t know ,” Mother disagreed, grimacing as she withstood the fireworks display Brandubh continued to put on. “ He’s just playing with us now. When he gets serious, he’ll be near impossible to reach .”
    “ Let’s not give him time to get serious ,” I urged. “ If all four of us attack now, maybe we can catch him off guard .”
    “ He’s too powerful .” Mother’s shifty green eyes betrayed her fear.
    “ And you’re still unpracticed with your fire, child, ”Bay reminded me.
    “ I can do this. I know I can . Anyway, what’s the alternative? You want to run again? Hide? I’ll never do that. ” My mother flinched at my words.
    “ Hush child, ” said Bay. “ You’ve no idea what you’re saying. You’ve not endured the torture we have.”
    She was right, of course. I knew nothing of sacrifice, of pain. I knew very little of loss or defeat. “ I’m sorry. It's just… we have to do something. We have to try.”
    “ An entire generation has tried, Stella, and failed. Wars have been fought to rid our world of this one evil man. You think the four of us can do what they couldn't? "
    " Five ," Ewan gritted from the forrest floor.
    “ Five. Fine. You think our ragtag gang can defeat the most powerful sorcerer I've ever known? ”
    “ I got the best of him before. Maybe with all of us combined. I can't explain it. I just know we can. We have to .”
    “I’m waitiiiing,” Brandubh called from