But neither Silver nor Platinum were listening to his threats. Instead, Adrien saw Sever move behind the gigantic oak table that lay at the edge of the room, picking it up even though Adrien knew it would probably take eight normal humans to accomplish the task and charging at Mercury one more time.
At the same time, Adrien rushed for Kelsey as he could only make out shapes moving and wooden pieces flying in the edges of his periphery.
Adrien reached the cage and outstretched his hand toward Kelsey. She responded immediately, pulling on the ring as he heard yelling and fighting behind him.
Instantly, as the ring came off, Adrien felt strength flood into him, heard his dragon roar from the far reaches of his mind where the power of the ring had kept it sequestered. But no sooner had his strength returned to him than he saw Kelsey’s eyes widen as her attention shifted behind them.
“Sever!” Kelsey screamed in horror.
Adrien spun to see Mercury standing a few meters away, shattered table littered all around him, with a long, jagged blade in his hands that glittered dark and chrome, as if made of liquid.
It was impaled in Sever’s chest, the tip of it showing through his back.
“Stupid fool didn’t know when to quit,” Mercury said darkly, withdrawing his sword and kicking Sever onto the ground.
“No!” Adrien yelled, and the air shook with energy around him, the fury within him matched tenfold by the strength of his dragon.
Faster than the blink of an eye, Adrien appeared in front of Mercury, throwing his fist into Mercury so hard the marble beneath his feet cracked as he flew straight into the nearby fireplace. With a deafening, crumbling sound, the bricks and stone tumbled down, casting brown dust and black soot into the air.
Then, just as quickly as he could think it, Adrien was at Sever’s side examining the wound as the dragon who was like his brother bled on the floor in terrible pain.
But the wound alone wasn’t lethal. It was the poison from Mercury’s blade as well, poison that was quickly spreading through Sever’s system as the veins in his neck and arms darkened to purple, then gray.
Now fully one with his dragon, Adrien summoned clear, silvery liquid at his fingertips and drew it over the large gash in Sever’s chest, making sure it went all the way through.
As the silver dragon, he had many of the natural properties of the metal itself. One of which was the ability to purify other metals and nullify poisons as well as aid in healing.
“Would you look at that? Haven’t seen you do that in a long time,” Sever said weakly.
“Yeah, well, we haven’t been in a scrape like this in a long time. Or ever,” Adrien replied, making sure all the poison was inert before cauterizing the wound with his dragon fire. “Just leave the rest to me. No more heroics, all right?”
“No complaints here,” Sever said, coughing.
Then, with a thought, he was able to instantly transport himself inside the metal cage with Kelsey. She almost leapt in surprise as he picked her up off the ground, safe in his arms.
“Wow. I guess you really are a dragon,” Kelsey said in amazement as he held her, instantly transporting them to the corner of the room, safely away from the wretched prison but still close enough he could keep an eye on her.
Adrien wouldn’t have any trouble protecting his mate now anyway.
In a flash, he was with Sever. In another flash, Sever was in the corner, resting safely against the wall next to Kelsey.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of bricks moving and rolling down the giant heap where the fireplace had once been.
“Teleportation. An interesting power. I didn’t know any dragons could do that,” Mercury said, emerging from the pile, his tunic covered in dust and rubble.
“Well, now you know,” Adrien retorted.
“No matter. I’ll still crush you like the worm you are,” Mercury threatened.
But there was nothing stopping Adrien now. And as wings, long and metallic and silvery, emerged from his back, he kicked off the ground and into the air of the spacious ballroom, hovering above Mercury. He saw Mercury’s wings appear as well, but before he could even take off, Adrien teleported right in front of him, throwing his fist into Mercury’s chest.
But where Mercury’s chest had been, there was a hole just big enough for his fist to go through, as if Mercury had been able to shift his own body like liquid to dodge the attack.
“You’re not the only one with tricks,” Mercury said, grinning.
But Adrien hardly heard the snide words as he instantly appeared by Mercury, this time elbowing him in the back of the head, so fast it almost defied time.
Mercury growled in pain as he whirled around, swinging at air as Adrien reappeared a few feet away from Mercury’s wildly thrown punch.