Breath of Flame and Shadow (5 page)

When his breathing slowed, she whispered back, “I think I did just stop running. It’s time to go home now. Thank you.”

With any luck she was full enough to make it back to California without stopping. Once she took care of dragon business she might come back to find him. And maybe even stay if the lingering memories of Rafe would give her any peace in between.

She made her way up the trail in the dark, regret settling deeper into her bones with each step. She shouldn’t have run to begin with, but she’d never had to confront feelings like she had for Rafe. All she could do was get as far away from him as possible. The need was enough, and instinct carried her the rest of the way. Now she wished she could stay, or take the lovely Trevor away with her. But she had something more important to do.

Her race needed her and while she didn’t quite understand what she could do, if it meant other dragon children wouldn’t be subjected to the solitude of her childhood, it would be worth the effort.

She flew East, her wings taking her high. During the nights she could make out the coastlines of some of the cities of the South Pacific islands she’d visited in her old life. The first one she passed that was recognizable was Singapore, and there were other, smaller cities that twinkled below her like glittering mosaics.

Her wings beat hard, and she made good time, but not quite good enough. She felt her energy lagging just past Taiwan and kept pushing on, determined to make the leg across the Pacific without stopping.

The bright sun glared in her eyes on the fourth morning. A wayward gull screeched at her and she impulsively blasted it out of the air with a gout of flame. Nothing but blue sky and sea stretched before her in every direction, seeming to merge together. The universe tilted and she let out a cry as she lost altitude and tried to regain it.

San Diego was close, she was sure of it. It had to be, as long as she’d been flying. It was home for her. Rafe was there. Rafe would love her if she returned. He would be hers, she knew with certainty, and beat her wings harder against the currents of air, but lost her bearings in the midst of the vast nothingness of sea and sky.

Which way should she fly? The sun was heavy over the horizon, but she suddenly had no idea whether it was morning or evening.

She spun in the air, uncertain, growing more panicked by the second.

Letting herself descend, she saw a cargo ship making good time across the placid ocean. She aimed herself in the same direction, hoping that she could find another trail if she found its destination.

The teasing pull of magic distracted her a few hours later. It tickled at her senses first. Something familiar about it tugged at her, making her turn away from her previous course. The familiarity of the magic intrigued her and she was so delirious from the hunger that followed. She’d already been flying too long. Three days was safe. Four was her limit, and she was at the edge of four days now. Or had it been longer?

The magic she sensed as a rippling ribbon through the air was indescribable. It caught her and beckoned to her like a comforting whisper, drawing forth old images that felt like long lost memories. Memories of being held close, of being loved.

“Mother?” she murmured into the air. Her heart pounded as the whisper answered,
“Come to me, my Rowan.”
And she followed.

C
hapter 5

R
afe was the model of self-restraint when he spoke to the pair of Unbound dragons, Darius and Zak, at the Monastery. They’d found him when he and Roka arrived and urged him apart from the others. Rowan’s essence was strong on the pair and Rafe found it difficult to decide whether he wanted to bed them both just to taste her magic once again, or to strangle them for their intimacy with her. The surge of jealousy was unlike him, but once he regained control of his emotions he understood the feelings for what they were—desperation at knowing she had been there only two days earlier.

He had trouble meeting Darius’s critical gaze, but the other dragon didn’t hesitate to shoot a mental barb at Rafe.

“You should have told her you loved her to begin with. This could all have been avoided.”

“I know, brother. I just didn’t want to give her false hope before finding out if she could sway the Council in our favor. I was a fool and I’m accepting the consequences. Please just tell me where she went?”

Darius’s cheek spasmed from the tension in his jaw and his eyes blazed red. He clenched his fists at his side, and Rafe prepared himself for a more violent onslaught. But the older dragon only sighed in resignation. The disappointment in his gaze was more potent than any words the man might have given him.

Rafe had only met Darius on his first visit after his Ascension but respected the man. Darius had been trapped here for nearly their entire hibernation, the product of an illicit mating between two dragons from the prior generation. Darius was almost as old as Rafe, but had far more experience, having been awake for all those years. Rafe had always considered hibernation to be a form of purgatory, but now realized purgatory would be much more effective if the victims were required to stay awake the entire time. He also realized that his lack of experience left him at a disadvantage, both in words and action. He needed to say more, he realized. Because if he didn’t, Darius might actually resort to violence.

He took a few deep breaths, breaking out in a sweat under Darius’s gaze. The effort wasn’t in the confession itself, but in admitting that he’d failed the woman he loved. By the time he found the breath for words he had tears in his eyes and his chest felt so tight he wasn’t even sure he could get the words out.

“I love her.” His voice faltered and he took another unsteady breath, blinking back the wetness in his eyes and trying to begin again. All he could see was Rowan’s face, the look of hurt in her eyes when she confronted him and then jumped out his window. That was the last time he’d seen her and he’d wracked his brain ever since trying to figure out what she might have heard to make her run the way she had. Ultimately he just assumed she’d overheard his entire conversation with Kol. He’d been beating himself up over it ever since.

“I’ve failed her though. She deserves better.”

“Yet she still loves you. And hates herself for it.”

Rafe swiped a hand over his face and lowered his head. “I just want to make things right. If she doesn’t want me, I’ll leave, but I want to make sure she’s safe. You know what it would mean if she were caught. You sent her away yourself.”

“Yes, because I’m no fool. You
are
a failure if you don’t find her. I know what she means for us, and so does she. She was planning to go pledge herself to the cause when she left here. Your love be damned. She’s a good dragon. Are you as good as she is?”

“She told you this?” Rafe asked.

“Not so much. She needs to learn to shield her thoughts. She was determined to help us when she left, but there were some very unsavory thoughts that involved you. So be careful when you do find her.”

“You’ll tell me where she went?”

“Yes, but only if you promise to come back. Zak has some unfinished business with the two of you.”

“Brother, if everything works out, we will most certainly be back and I will accept whatever punishment you two feel the need to give me.”

Darius’s broad grin suggested that the dragon would relish every second of it. Rafe scowled at him.

Darius rested a comforting hand on Rafe’s arm and his expression slipped back into seriousness. “She’s resting in one of the resort villages on another island. I expect she’ll be well received there, brother. They’re known for harboring dragons, whether the clientele realize it or not. One of the resort owners is bonded to a dragon. His family has been for generations. They may not know what she is, but they will be willing to service her.”

“You have an advantage in some ways, you know,” Rafe said. “Your kind are not left in the dark for centuries to protect the bloodlines. You can’t breed, but you know so much more than we do.”

“I do know more,” Darius said. “The Council has always had a plan for you. The ones they can control. I don’t think they really know what they’re getting, though. They let too many slip through their fingers. Their plans are falling apart now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Walk with me and I’ll tell you about your lover.”

Rafe humored the man, sure he was crazy, but once they’d traveled up a worn, rocky path away from the Monastery, Darius said, “Once the Verdanith is assembled, things will change. The Council will take a step back, but they’ll always be watching.”

“What if we get Rowan to…”

“It has little to do with her. Her presence will help, but not for the reasons you think.”

“You’re being very cryptic, you realize this, right?”

Darius laughed, the sound shaking his broad chest and making Rafe wonder what kinds of things the man had done with Rowan, and especially how well she’d enjoyed them.

“There’s always more to the Council than they let on. Their tie to the Mother is strong, but not as strong as the Catalyst’s. Since the ritual, Kris has learned the answers, but his hands are tied. He can’t overtly tell you what he knows.”

Darius gripped Rafe’s shirt and pulled him hard into a shadowy spot along the path. He pressed his lips against Rafe’s ear. “You believe in fate, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I don’t know a single dragon who doesn’t.”

“The Council’s been struggling for centuries to hang on to what little control they have. But they are at a loss as to how to change fate. They’ve been trying for generations to gain some control and have only just discovered that they are as caught in the web as all the rest of us. If they keep struggling at this point, they’ll only destroy themselves.”

“What did Kris tell you?” Rafe asked through clenched teeth. “What does it have to do with Rowan and the Verdanith?”

“I can’t even be sure it’s her, but several months ago Kris told me he dreamed of a red spider who would arrive in the dark. It would pluck the threads that bind us all, draw us together, and carry us into the sunrise.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?”

“Zak and I shared a little of her essence when she was here. It was strong enough to leave us drunk, even the small amount we could take. She likely has the blood of a queen. If she’s that strong and was raised in this new world her entire life, her presence will be enough to convince the Council the path to her sun is the right one.”

“But you and I both know bloodlines have nothing to do with rank. Every dragon has the opportunity to rise to that level.”

“Ah, that’s the law, yes. But how often do the royal bloodlines shift?”

That made Rafe pause. Aside from the Guardian who was granted a token place on the Court at the time of Ascension, Court families had always been the same bloodlines for as long as he was aware of. There were occasionally other dragons who vied for the positions, and there was always a grand ceremony prior to each hibernation to choose the next Court based on the riches acquired by the families at that point. But the contenders never quite succeeded. Was it truly fate, or was there some kind of conspiracy at work? He could believe either at this point.

“It does pay to be a silent observer for a few centuries,” Darius said before Rafe could answer. The other dragon’s face grew soft, his expression distant and sentimental. “Kris’s mother occasionally spoke of her own dreams to me, just before Kris was born. They were of a similar vein. There are only a few of us who are close enough to the Council to see their gradual surrender. This has been brewing for a lot longer than your generation knows.”

“Longer than you’ve been here?”

“Yes. I think your lovely little linguist might have stumbled across the details, but doesn’t know what she found.”

“And you think the Council may be ready to surrender?”

“Not surrender, but compromise. I would give them a token of loyalty once your demands have been accepted.”

“That isn’t my decision to make, but I can find Rowan. How long since she flew from here?”

“She’s about two days East,” Darius said. “She loves you. I don’t think you deserve it, but she does. She’s trying very hard not to, but I think that trying might destroy her if you don’t find her soon.”

“You think she’d be better off without me, don’t you?” Rafe asked. He believed it himself as he uttered the words. He never should have approached her in that bar. He never should have shown her what she was. He never should have fallen in love with her.

“Maybe. I suppose it depends on what you do next.”

***

“Where to next, my friend?”
Roka asked a couple hours later.

“A few islands to the East… there’s a resort village Darius sent her to.”

“Are you ready to find her?”

There were so many messages in those words, Rafe hesitated to respond knowing that he might respond to the wrong one. He let the question sit while he shifted, then stretched his wings wide, testing the air.

“I will find her and we will prevail together.”

“Well, then let’s fly, brother!”

Roka trumpeted into the dusk and took flight. Rafe followed, launching himself into the air and leaving a clattering of pebbles behind.

***

“She’s spread all over this place,” Roka said after they landed. “Sweet Mother, what was she doing here?”

“Replenishing,” Rafe said, letting out a breath to clothe him in casual khaki and cotton shirt before walking down the path toward the house that sat silent in the dawn beside the beach. The remnants of a very long party were littered all over the landscape. Half empty cups and bottles caught the rising sun. A couple wayward bodies rested like corpses tangled together. They weren’t dead, but they’d fallen asleep or passed out in the middle of fucking each other.

Roka laughed. “Reminds me of Geva’s stunts. Remember those?”

Rafe clenched his teeth. He remembered the rogue Red’s antics and didn’t have any love for the dragon, but looking around now, he knew what had happened had to be an act of desperation. She’d needed energy, and these humans were the best source. The fact that she might not understand her true strength was Rafe’s fault.

“Do you think we need to do damage control?” Roka asked. It was a valid concern. Kol might have come in and wiped everyone’s memories, but he’d need a Blue to get that job done.

The door of the house opened and a lone male figure stepped out, two steaming mugs held in his hands. Rafe could smell the sweet aroma of fresh coffee from where he stood.

“You’re looking for her, aren’t you?” the bearer of the mugs said. He shoved the mugs at them and Roka and Rafe both accepted without question. The hot liquid flowed easily down Rafe’s throat and he ignored the human’s gasp of astonishment when he handed back the still steaming empty mug.

“Do you know where she went?” Rafe asked.

“Dude, I want a little more info from you before I start sharing.”

Rafe met he dark-fringed eyes of the human. “What do you want to know?”

“Why are you after her?”

“She’s crucial to our—”

Roka’s knuckles hit his ribs from behind in the most painful spot and the Guardian whispered in his ear, “Humans, you fuck. This one can lead us to her if you don’t fuck it up. Her magic is linked to him already, like she was on the verge of marking him.”

“I love her?” Rafe said. He didn’t quite intend the inflection he added to the confession, but it came out anyway.

The man laughed a little bitterly. “Yeah… so do I, so I guess we have that in common. She left us both, but I’d really love to know why she was running in the first place. Do you mind telling me that?”

Rafe silently sized up the other man, painfully aware of Rowan’s essence lingering around him and the intent look he had on his face, as though he was prepared to battle to the death for the woman he loved. Rafe’s eyes caught on the blue medallion resting at the man’s throat.

“Who’s your boss?” Rafe said, narrowly avoiding blurting out the word “master”.

The human didn’t miss a beat. “The new guy that took over is a man named Skye. I liked his mother better. She was…friendlier. This guy is cold as ice, so I don’t know how he manages to convince anyone to…well, to fuck him, if I’m being blunt.”

“Your family’s been with us for a while, I take it?” Rafe let a little of his guard down upon the realization that this man was a bonded employee of another dragon. The man would be honest and wouldn’t give away any secrets he discovered during their conversation, except to his own employer.

“Long enough for me to know one of you when I meet you, even if I don’t know exactly what you are. Rowan was pretty damn special. But I get the sense you knew that. Why was she running?”

“Because I’m a fool. I just need to find her.”

“Tell me what you really are and I’ll tell you where she went.”

Rafe bristled at the man’s reluctance to give up Rowan’s location. He was tempted to just fly on, follow the remnants of her trail the way he had so far. But the pull Rowan had on this man was as clear if they were physically tied by a visible thread. Trevor hadn’t lied about loving her. Rafe could tell the pair had shared their Nirvana with each other very recently.

The essence of her the man carried tugged at Rafe’s desire as strongly as if Rowan were standing in front of him. He longed to have a fresh taste of her. If this human wanted to know what they were, Rafe would show him the same way he had shown Rowan their first night, if only to have that taste he craved.