Balerion Novels & Stories

Vayu flicked his fingers and splashed Lars with them. "It's true, though. Me and Balor here, we have this deep connection." Mell nodded towards a belt with amber gemstone he hung by the doorway, the vessel of his Scion Weapon. "I choose the name Balor because it's the name of my clan's leader that I highly respected. Wielding my weapon always feels like he's fighting alongside me like the good old days." "Ah, I knew that name! You're a Fomorian, Mell?"

The crown upon his head is a dark, jagged metal that looks like metal dragon claws curled around his temples. But it’s his eyes that unsettle me the most as I approach closer. They are not human. Not entirely. They are slitted like a dragon’s, watching me with a burning curiosity that makes my skin prickle with heat. I will not let him see my fear. The soldier shoves me down on my knees before him. “Before you is Dahlia Rhadaya Balerion,” the soldier announces. “Dethroned princess of Velmira, offered as your Queen tribute.”

The first two days were the hardest of my life, but Leila made it through. Dr Aleka was talking about lowering her sedation and seeing if she would come round and manage to breathe on her own. They were hopeful as there were signs, she was starting to fight the sedation.

I’m in the council chamber in under thirty seconds, still in his T-shirt and panic. The others are already there. Seras’s armor is half-on, sunrise flickering like a broken neon sign. Lucian’s wings are mantled so hard the air burns. Rowan’s grimoire is bleeding ink. Kayo’s tails are lashing hard enough to cut glass. Nerida’s tentacles are black holes, swallowing light. Kael Stormrider is the one who says it out loud. Kael (voice flat, lethal): “Xibalba. Death-lord faction.

I just don’t get why Leo wants a healer. “My brother has a disease,” Vogar dropped his glass on the table. “A disease that turns him into a beast, but takes a huge part of him before setting him free. Leo is dying everyday and has just two months to live if I'm right with my calculation. The only one who can save him is the Omega. But with my bracelet around her wrist, she can’t. Leo is eventually going to die. She will watch him take his last breath - the most interesting part of my plan,” Vogar said so much that I found myself fighting to comprehend.

When the magic faded, he lowered his hands and casually brushed invisible soot off his coat like he’d just walked through a bit of fireplace smoke. “I am a shield,” he muttered dryly. “If I hadn’t been quick, I’d be lying in halves somewhere.” “Fucking Cidron,” he cursed under his breath. “What are you doing here?” Calia snapped, hands on her hips. Her tone echoed what everyone else was thinking. Baelorin grinned. “I’ve been dreadfully bored. I knew you lot were up to something when I saw the mountain goats arrive.” “I swear by the Ciridon, Baelorin—” Lira began, swearing in Elyadrian, her expression sharp enough to cut steel.

"We take the griffin." Valen nodded once. "I will command the elite guards to lock down the entire lower level. No one enters the Obsidian Dungeon while we are gone. If Kael dies, Aurora dies." Ten minutes later, they stood on the high stone balcony of the Citadel's highest tower. Wind whipped Lyra’s hair across her face as a massive, dark-feathered creature dropped from the clouds, landing with a heavy thud on the flagstones. It was Valen’s personal mount a beast with the body of a giant black lion and the head and wings of a imperial hawk.

"That... that is the Sovereign Genesis... How can a mortal wield the primordial balance?!" Caelum didn't answer with words. He pushed himself to his feet, holding Lyra securely in his left arm while his right hand gripped empty air. A broadsword forged from pure, solid Obsidian Eclipse fire materialized in his grip, burning with a heat so intense that the surrounding atmosphere began to melt into glass. "You called this a false covenant," Caelum’s voice echoed across the entire continent, carrying the combined weight of every soul on the mountain. "I call it our empire."

Great, I would never hear the end of it now. With one more slow deep breath, I pretended this was nothing more than a typical debriefing. “About sixty to eighty years Balric, the Betrayer is reborn. Typically, he is an only child, or there is a significant age gap between him and his siblings. The families also are low in the pack hierarchy. Early on Balric cuts off ties with his mortal family, usually leaving them during his teens.” “I hope this isn’t all you have, Girl,” one of the praetor’s people said when I paused. He leaned forward, making his slim frame appear even narrower as he did. “We already know this, and it’s irrelevant.”

A thick column of gray smoke striped with the same orange hue goes streaking skyward from the portal. “Oh, no,” Kai moans softly, almost under his breath. “I don’t believe it.” I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean for any of us to hear that, but we did. And I don’t like the sound of it, not one bit. “What’s wrong?” I ask. “What is it?” Kai turns to me, his expression as serious as I’ve ever seen it. “A balrog,” he replies. “A lava dragon in your tongue.” The name is familiar to me from The Lord of the Rings books. I glance back up at the column of smoke. I don’t see any creature inside it, but I know Kai would not be mistaken.