Dark Fire is the fifth book in The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d'Lacey. It was released on 2 July 2009 in the UK and was published on May 1, 2010 for the US.
Plot
Three young adults named Arthur, Lucy and Elizabeth were traveling to meet Rupert Steiner, who had received a note from Gadzooks. The word "Scuffenbury" was written in Dragontonge, which is the name of one of the barrows which are said to contain a dragons. Back in their home town, Wayward Crescent, David asks Zanna, David's girlfriend, for more information about Gwilanna. This is where Gwillanna is threatening to hand over the Dark Fire Tear to IX. She had the choice to sacrifice her husband while being threatened, but Zanna was used for David's place. The summoning of the dragon Ghislaine, Gwilanna summoned a darkling. David and Zanna get home one night and discover their neighbor, Henry Bacon, is in the hospital due to a stroke. Liz and Lucy are at the hospital and David gets a letter. He learns about the Scuffenbury. David goes with Liz to visit Henry in hospital, and Henry dies during their visit. After Henry dies, Gwilanna, attends the funeral and gives a warning to David that she will do anything to get her hands on the obsidian and the Dark Fire. The group meet Henry's sister Agatha, a powerful sibyl. They also discover that Henry has left Liz and Lucy $50,000, and left David his collection of Arctic memorabilia and Zanna his house. The will also says that the Arctic would be left in place. After this, Agatha(a Sybil) teaches Zanna healing magicks and suggests that she make her peace with David.
Zanna goes into town with Alexa and Gretel to open her shop, but on the way the group are attacked by the semi-Darkling flock and are rescued by Tam, who destroys them with the spirit Kailar. Zanna was hurt, but uses her new healing knowledge to mend the wound. Tam talks to David about Rupert Steiner, who has come to him with a story about translations of the dragontongue found on the Glacier expedition. Lucy told David that Sophie emailed her, trying to talk to him, and David leaves for Africa. Lucy then receives a phone call from an old friend, Melanie Cartwright, who has seen a video of a Pennykettle dragon moving on TV and is concerned over her own “special” dragon, Glade. David gets to Africa and finds Sophie's wildlife sanctuary on fire. Grockle extinguishes the fire. Sophie was killed and Grace is preparing to cry her Fire Tear. The semi-Darkling which began the fire is still alive. He was planning on inverting Grace's tear to create dark fire. Pieter, Sophie's fiancé, tries to kill it, but it kills him instead. David then distracts the Darkling with the dark fire he already has, captures it and sends it back to the IX with a warning to leave the Pennykettle dragons alone. Mutu, one of Sophie's college roommates, tells David that he saw a woman dancing in the flames. David then leaves Africa, taking with him Grace's stone body. Her Fire Tear was caught by Groyne during the struggle.
When he returns home. David informs Zanna that Alexa is a new species. She is an angel, a bridge between dragons and mankind and when the dragons are revealed, people everywhere will want to be like her. He also tells her that the people will travel to Ki:mera. This is the Fain's home world.
In the Dragon's Den, David gathers the dragons in an attempt to convert the dark fire and return it to Gwillan. Gollygosh will extract the dark fire from the obsidian, Groyne will mix it with Grace's Fire Tear and some icefire to neutralize it, and G'reth will wish for Gwillan and Grace to be reanimated. However, while David explains what will happen, Gollygosh is momentarily corrupted by the dark fire, and releases it early. The Dark Fire then enters Liz and her baby and she is knocked out. While Zanna tends to her, He then sends Lucy with Tam to Scuffenbury. Not noticing that, in the Dragon's Den, Gwillan is draining Grace's auma into himself. Lucy and Tam travel to Scuffenbury. On the way, Lucy reads the article about the last meeting of dragons. This is how eleven of the last twelve dragons shed half of their fire tears, then went into stasis, while the twelfth, Gawaine, ingested all eleven tears and planned to use them to defeat the Ix. Lucy and Tam arrive at their guesthouse, which is run by Hannah and Clive, and has one other guest, Mrs Gee. They climb Glissington Tor, the dragon's burial site, that evening, and that night Lucy has a nightmare about a cat, which she encountered earlier in the day, bringing her a semi-darkling.