Read The Dragons of Men (The Sons of Liberty Book 2) for Free Online Page B

letting grains of sandy ashes fall through smoky fingers before being swept away with the hot wind.
    From dust you came and to dust you shall return. It is the way things are, though it is not the way things always were. The stranger paused as he looked up at the nameless man, tears forming in the nameless man’s eyes. What happened before was but the beginning of your greatest battle. What comes next will test you beyond your limits.
    “And what does happen next?” the nameless man asked.
    The stranger smiled, brushing his hands off on his shifting robe as he stood.
    You either surrender to the beast within or you live to wage the greatest war your dream world has ever known.
    The stranger approached the nameless man, extending a hand which held a ball of light, brilliant like the sun. The stranger pressed the light against the man’s chest, passing through both clothing and flesh as it buried itself deep within his soul. A euphoric bliss overwhelmed the man, revealing both memory lost and a hidden joy. The nameless man, who now remembered his name, sunk to his knees as he began to weep. The stranger approached the man, put a smoky yet surprisingly firm hand on his shoulder, and knelt down to speak.
    Remember the light inside you, Adam Reinhart, and never surrender to the dragons of men.
    The stranger smiled, turned, and began to walk away.
    “Wait,” Adam said. “Will I see you again?”
    The stranger turned back and smiled reassuringly.
    We can only see the outcomes of your decisions. Some will lead you to true life while others will drive you toward final death. But those choices you make are, and always have been, yours.
    Adam Reinhart raised his hand to his heart, massaging his chest where the comforting sphere of light had been implanted. It radiated from his chest, glowing like golden tendrils of cool fire. It was so bright it caused the blaze from the burning plane below to dim.
    Not dim, Adam suddenly thought. Gone.
    He stared down to where the fiery ruins had been and suddenly felt very afraid. The city below had vanished, as had everything else. There was only Adam and the light as a misty nothingness swirled around him.
    As Adam stood motionless, staring ahead and wondering whom the stranger had been, a vine of darkness—thin and meandering like black ink twisting under water—passed by his left. Curious, Adam reached out to touch it. As he stretched forward it lashed out like an uncoiled viper. It clutched his wrist, searing his flesh as though he had been seized by a giant jellyfish. He struggled with the vein of shadow, kicking up his feet as he tried to pull away. Another black thread reached out from the gray and grabbed his other arm. Then another. Then another. The gray nothing appeared solid black now, latching onto every square inch of his body as it began to squeeze him like a giant serpent.
    When the blackness constricted, endangering his life, a sudden fury welled up in Adam. He wanted to fight back. Hate for the unknown darkness began to churn within him. Something, however, told him to resist the temptation to lash out in anger and to instead hold on dearly to the light inside. He tried to do so, but he couldn’t seem to suppress the rage in his heart. The anger within was now nearly as bright as the light. He could feel something growing inside, something dangerous that begged to be unleashed.
    It was a longing to destroy the blackness.
    He tried to hold his inner wrath at bay, but he now feared losing his life more than he feared losing the light. He took one last painful breath and released the beast from within.
    The light quickly fled him as a darkness blacker than black exploded from his heart. The beast within crashed into the darkness outside, causing Adam’s awareness to stumble. He fought desperately to hold the furious beast at bay, but it was now an impossible battle on two infinitely perilous fronts. Adam then realized, with a complete sense of horror, the creature he had set