Chapter 147 147. Keepers Burn

Chapter 147 147. Keepers Burn
Drake and Isolde climb onto the dragon's back. The beast crawls out of her hole with them both holding onto the horns that run along her back. She takes off into the night sky. Lucifer hisses to Isolde. "Thanks for the rescue, but I had it under control." It makes Isolde and Drake laugh; they doubt it, but it was funny.   

They fly on the beast, and Drake directs the creature; it follows his commands. They are both freezing, their clothes soaked from the rain that is still coming down. The wind whipping around them is not helping at all. They are both hungry, and they are ready to be home at Thorne Castle.   

It takes a few hours, but finally, even in the dark, they can see the lights of Thorne Castle. Isolde has to mind-link to Malachi. So he doesn't try to attack. It is strenuous from the aerial distance, but she is familiar with the mental link with him. He was her dark wilding teacher after all and constantly sprung mental attacks on her.   

Then there was the time she was in the mental conversations during the year she spent in the coma. Both Isolde and Drake are desperate for the news on what is going on. When they got to the Whispering Woods, they had the paper and knew they were wanted. They knew that Keepers were trying to break the wards to Thorne Castle. "Got it," Isolde said, connecting with Malachi and telling him they had a dragon with them and under their control.   

He was pleased, but said the Keepers were outside the wards; she relayed it to Drake. "Shit, they will use this to blame us. It will just be confirmation we were the ones responsible." He said. Malachi said to land, to show him what they did, what they knew, but Isolde was angry. She hated being blamed.   

Her anger was fierce. Her only good eye looked down from the back of the dragon. She knew where the ward started. She had been shown the boundaries of Drake's property; it would be theirs one day, she knew that, as she was married to Drake. She knew better, with all her mistakes, than to let her anger dictate her decisions.   

So instead, she thought, she used her mind to sort out what she wanted to do. Then she commanded Silvee to go where she said. "What are you doing, Isolde?" Drake asked as they flew away from his family's castle. They were heading toward the boundary where he knew Keepers were trying to break the wards and attack. "Higher," Isolde commanded the beast they rode on.   

Lucifer hissed, "Burn them, Izzy, burn them all." Drake heard her snake and asked if that was what she was going to do. She had made Ben burn Arcane Academy, and now he wondered if she would have the dragon burn the keepers. "Isolde, think about this: if you do this," She cut him off.   

"If I burn them, more will replace them, and they will have to restart with the wards; it will take everyone time, time we need." She said back to him.   

He relaxed; she wasn't acting out of anger but strategy. He knew that was what it was: strategy. "I'll give the command; you don't need to be responsible." He said, knowing she already carried guilt; she didn't need more. "No, this I can do." He smirked, feeling pride that she was going to kill several people to defend their home.

"Malachi, what did he say?"   

"He said to land"   

"So we are not doing as told?" He asked, slightly worried about how that would go. Malachi was scared of creatures. Isolde told him that much, but Drake also knew he hated disobedience. They flew over the boundary; they were impossibly high, the rain hiding them from the keeps below. She glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Together?" He offered. It would be a shared massacre of keepers. "Together," He said, and in tandem they commanded the dragon to burn the keepers below them.   
The Beast's large mouth opened, and she swooped down, red-hot flames shooting out of her mouth, killing every keeper attacking the wards of the Thorne Property. Screams were cut off abruptly as they burnt to a crisp. "Go back to the castle and land on the grass," Isolde told their dragon, and it did as it was told.   

As the beast descended, Drake and Isolde saw the wraiths all out on the lawn to see what was happening. They landed, the rain still coming down in sheets. Drake dismounted first, helping Isolde off the beast. She looked at who was there: wraiths, Malchi, of course. Then Cassius and Milicent, their eyes huge. Felix and Hugo had arrived while they were gone, and then Lydia was there. To her astonishment, so was Adele, her old friend who had turned on her.   

She didn't know why the girl was there. Yes, Isolde let go of their fight, but they were not friends, and now she was there, as was the boy she had been seeing in school. The reason she got so nasty was that the friendship dissolved when she was rude to Lydia. But she was there now; why? Her eyes stayed on her a moment before she was being embraced by Milicent and Cassius.   

"Yes, all good. The Thorne family all together," Malachi said unamused. "What did you do? You didn't land Isolde, then we saw flames in the distance; what did you do?" He snapped   

Drake spoke, "We burned the keepers at the boundary of the property before we landed." Malachi was calm for a moment and then burst out laughing maniacally. He was not put off, more so pleased that Drake and Isolde took the initiative. "Good, get dry and warm, and while you eat, I want a rundown." He said.   

He was the boss; they would listen. Isolde looked at the dragon, now waiting for its command. "You may hunt in the woods, not past where you burned, and you will not eat the horses." She commanded, hissing at the giant beast, but be here when the sun comes up." She hissed; the others watched, amazed at what they witnessed. Drake hissed before it took off out of earshot. "You will not burn unless for food on our property." He knew his mother would be grateful for that bit.