Authors: Jade Allen
****
Mads had perfect
control over himself. The dragon never emerged unless he willed it—a
requirement to live in the world of men, especially after mankind developed the
technology to blow his head off—but a sudden scream of pain brought the beast
right to the surface. He even felt the bones in his face begin to shift before
he could force the fire back down to his belly. He pushed the intercom button
with a trembling finger.
“April? Are you here
yet?”
No response.
His feeling of
disquiet intensified and another wave of pain washed through him. It definitely
was not his; something was wrong with April. She was hurt somewhere, and she
needed him. He abandoned his desk and considered divesting himself of all
distractions—permanently. Nothing he’d acquired, developed, or grew mattered to
him at all anymore; they only served to keep him from the one thing that did
matter in his life, and now she was gone. Hurt somewhere. Crying out for him.
His instincts shouted
at him to take the stairs to the roof and use that as a launching pad. What did
he care if the whole world saw him winging over the city? That was such a small
concern when faced with April’s great fear and even greater agony. But he
forced himself to take the elevator to the parking garage, walking with
contained purpose, remaining calm as he turned the key and drove the car into
the blinding sunlight.
Mads wanted to speed
to the outskirts of the city, where he could abandon the car and shed his human
skin, but there were cops everywhere. The speeding ticket would mean nothing to
him but a delay, and he knew there wasn’t a second to spare. He concentrated
on the task at hand, even when spikes of red-hot pain shot through his arms and
behind on his eyes. He would do anything to make it stop, but he welcomed it at
the same time. As long as he felt that, he knew April was alive. And every
second of torture only fed the flames of fury already roaring through him.
He followed the
highway blindly, driving until all the buildings and crowds were behind him. He
pulled off at an empty rest stop and was barely out of the car before his wings
emerged. He took off with a giant flap of his great wings, pushing the air
beneath him and rising higher and higher, until he was no more than tiny red
spot against the blue sky. In his true form, it was easier to sense April’s
distress, and he used it as a homing signal, winging through the clouds to find
her. Distance meant nothing to him and miles might as well have been inches.
In the back of his
mind, he understood what was happening: he knew he was rushing towards a trap,
and he knew who set it for him. April had tried to tell him. She’d been trying
since Florence, but he’d been arrogant, certain that Savannah’s own sense of
self-preservation would stop her from lashing out. But maybe her life didn’t
matter to her at all anymore. Maybe grief had robbed her existence of meaning,
and now she was determined to take the meaning from his life as well.
He wouldn’t allow that
to happen. She no doubt expected him to be blind with rage, too furious to
think clearly or to be any danger to her. But he always had his wits, even when
his heart beat a tattoo of terror against his ribcage. He would save April and
he would take down Savannah, once and for all. By the time the sun set, the
world would be rid of one dragon, and April would know that she could always
count on him to find her, to save her.
When Mads finally
reached the ranch house that acted as April’s prison, he bellowed his
invitation to Savannah. The sound echoed for miles, the vibrations of the roar
strong enough to trigger equipment meant to detect earthquakes. He bellowed
again and fire erupted from his throat, singeing the air.
“I’m here,” he roared
in his ancient tongue. “Come and greet me if you are not a coward.”
Savannah’s answering
roar told him the message had been received. April’s distress instantly abated,
but she was still in pain. He pulled his lips back over long teeth and braced
himself for the fight. He was going to take great pleasure in stealing the fire
from Savannah’s throat and the life from her chest. He roared his sacred vow to
the sky:
After this day, the great Dazenth will fly no more.
“You are the coward,”
Dazenth hissed as she rose to the sky. “How long did you think you could run
from me?”
“You never should have
involved her.”
“You should not have
killed your own kind for her!”
They moved at the same
time, their roars lost in the wind from their furious wings. They clashed
midair, their long talons and tails entwining, tearing at any flesh they could
reach while Dazenth spewed fire so hot, the flames were blue. Rugarth withstood
the heat easily, his talons grappling for greater purchase. He landed a hard
blow in the soft part of her stomach and she wheeled away, flying in a great
circle around him, gathering momentum and speed. He flapped his wings, hovering
in place until the last second of her plunge, when he deftly angled away.
Unable to stop, she plummeted into the hard Wyoming dirt.
He descended
immediately, driving his talons into her back. He was aiming for the cords of
muscle that controlled her wings, but she dodged away just in time, her head
whipping around to catch his side with her teeth. The sharp incisors ripped
through his scales, reaching flesh, and though he managed to wound her, she was
the one who spilled first blood. He quickly flapped his wings, pulling himself
into the air and out of her reach. From high above, he blew a wall of fire
down, pinning her in place. She danced away from the flames as deftly as she
could, spinning around to battle fire with fire.
The dry grass around
them caught like tinder and fire spread like a living thing, racing towards the
house and surrounding them in an ever-growing wall. Dazenth caught an updraft
and returned to the air, charging towards Mads once again with a terrible
scream. He matched her roar and prepared to meet her once again.
****
Mads had come for her,
as she knew he would. When Savannah left to meet him, she didn’t bother
securing April to the chair—a fact that April didn’t even notice at first. Her
hand throbbed with excruciating intensity, three of her five fingers bent at
odd angles. Every twitch caused new agony to tear through her, and even if she
remained perfectly still, she couldn’t make the pain abate. There was heat in
her side, just below her ribs, and heavy drops of blood flowed over her hip.
But adrenaline took
the edge off her pain, allowing her to shuffle to the door and try the handle.
It turned in her hand, much to her surprise, and as long as she heard the two
dragons overhead, she could keep moving. She kept hoping for the final roar of
the deathblow—it never occurred to her that Mads wouldn’t win. She’d not only
seen him fight before, but now she knew the dragon intimately; knew his size,
his strength, his speed, his age. He’d killed Chester with hardly any effort at
all.
But the fight went on
and on and on. The earth itself shook with the force of their brutality,
windows and frames rattling with every roar. When she peeped through window at
the end of the hall, the world had turned into a merry hell of dancing flames.
At that moment, the dragons were so far above her that they were nothing but
tiny specks, but soon they were plummeting back to earth. At first, she thought
Mads was driving Savannah down from the clouds, but as they got closer, she
realized it was Savannah with the upper-hand.
Mads slammed down,
wings outspread, his tail going limp as soon as he landed. April forgot about
the ceaseless throbbing in her hand, the free-flowing blood on her side. She
forgot about everything except her need to be at his side. It didn’t even occur
to her that Savannah might dart down from the sky and pluck her up like an
eagle capturing a rabbit. Her place was at his side, and regardless of their
fate, they would meet it together.
The late summer day
might have been comfortable if not for the fire zipping around the yard. The
flames were already licking at the corners of the house and it wouldn’t be long
before it went up like a dry tinder box. April ignored it all and raced for her
dragon, still lying immobile where he landed. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be
dead
.
The fall had stunned him. Had knocked him unconscious but it certainly hadn’t
been enough to kill him.
The closer she got to
his immobile form, the more her conviction faltered. He’d landed so hard, he’d
made a crater, and his great chest didn’t rise and fall. No smoke twirled from
his nostrils, and even the vibrant red of his scales had dimmed to something
almost black. Like burnt cherrywood.
She felt something
gathering deep in her stomach. A cry without words. A prayer for a missing god.
It built on itself, growing stronger by the second, pushing up from the core of
her body to her chest, bubbling and fomenting into her throat. Heat stung the
back of her eyes, but there were no tears. She moved towards him like she was walking
under water, but she covered the distance in mere seconds, unmindful of the
dragon hovering above her.
When she finally
reached his side, there was no heat radiating from his body. She touched his
dear face, but there was no response; no flicker of his eyes, or air filling
his lungs. The dark feeling inside of her continued to grow. It felt like a hot
stone in the base of her throat and she opened her mouth wide, like she could
disgorge herself of that pressure.
“Now you will die at
his side. And you will both
BUUUUURN
.”
The sounds coming from
Savannah’s mouth were not words—at least, they weren’t English words. But
somehow, April understood every single syllable.
How dare she. How
dare
she?
All of her life, April
preferred to take the path of least resistance. If somebody angered or upset
her, she walked away instead of confronting the culprit. If somebody stole from
her, she shrugged it off and simply replaced the item. She even did her best to
keep people at a distance, avoiding making new friends because then she would
never have to work at having a relationship. She had never considered herself a
coward, but it was simply easier to live like one—without confrontation,
without struggle, without a fight.
But now April had
something she wanted to fight for. She had anger that couldn’t be contained.
She had lost something that nobody had the right to take from her; something
that could not be replaced. She pushed herself to her feet and dragged herself
up the wall that was Mads’ ribcage, climbing onto his stomach, spreading her
blood across his scales.
From her vantage
point, she lifted her face to the sky and she
roared
. The dark thing
inside of her dislodged from her throat and flew at the great monster in the
sky. For a moment, April was sure she could actually see it: some sort of cloud
that expanded until it surrounded Savannah completely.
In the next instant,
Savannah turned to stone.
The massive rock
shattered as it hit the earth, immediately losing its form, turning to dust and
pebbles. The earth shook from the impact and she lost her footing, falling flat
on Mads’ stomach. She lay where she fell, silent tears wetting her cheeks,
falling down on him like rain. She could feel the heat of the fire-now
completely wild across the parched land. It would spread to them soon, and they
would burn, exactly as Savannah had predicted. April could get up and run, but
run to where? Home? What home did she have without Mads?
Her tears fell in a
torrent, clogging her nose and sinuses, until she was finally forced to lift
her head. The fire danced ever closer, and she couldn’t withstand the heat on
her cheeks. Her tears evaporated, her skin pulled tight, and a sort of peace
enveloped her.
This is it. This is…
Movement beneath her
cut off her thought. She closed her eyes, unable to bear the sudden flare of
hope.
It’s nothing. He’s not-
Breathing. One long
slow inhale. One very slow exhale. And another one after that.
April crawled up his
body. “Mads? Mads, are you awake? Mads?”
His wings had been
splayed over the ground, but now they moved up, enclosing her in a protective
cocoon. The heat of the wildfire disappeared and she could hear his heart
beating against his ribs. The tears sprung back to her eyes, though this time
they were from pure relief. He was alive. She’d been mistaken before. What did
she know about dragon physiology? Perhaps he’d just been in shock and—
His talons closed
around her and the world shifted as he righted himself, wings pulling back to
lift them towards the clouds and safety. She looked down as the flames caught
the house, consuming the dry wood in seconds. The thick smoke was already
obscuring the sun, and Mads was moving swiftly to escape the battleground, but
April saw the outline of the dragon’s tail in a stone cropping. It looked like
the remnants of an ancient dinosaur, and that too was lost to the golden-red
fire.
****
“Tell me again, what
happened?”
April sighed. “My
story is not going to change, you know.”
“I’m not expecting it
to change. I’m just trying to understand.”
“You’re trying to
understand? What makes you think I understand? You were
dead
. She turned
to
stone
.”
“And your fingers are
healed,” Mads added.
April looked down at
her hand—normal now. No pain, no twisted fingers, no swollen, broken joints or
discolored bruises. She had no memory of when her hand returned to normal. Was
it before or after Mads lifted her to safety? Was it before or after he died?
“Well, I don’t care.”
“You don’t care?” Mads
asked.
“No. I don’t. All I
care about is that you’re alive and she’s not, and now we’re both safe.” She
was still staring at her hand as she spoke. It was difficult, if not
impossible, to meet his eyes. Since they reached the sanctity of his penthouse,
she felt uncomfortable. Like she was walking on pins and needles, and soon her
feet would turn into balloons.
“I don’t believe you
don’t care.”
“Then enlighten me on
what I feel.”
He lowered himself to
one knee and took her hand, running his fingers over her unbroken knuckles.
Her hand was so small in his. “You’re frightened.”
“Savannah’s dead. Why
should I be scared?”
“You’re not afraid of
Savannah. You’re afraid of yourself.”
April pulled her hand
away. “That’s ridiculous.”
“You know you can fool
everybody else, April, but you can’t fool me. I can feel what you feel. I can
hear your heart pounding and your blood racing. I can see the shadow in your
eyes.”
She sighed again. She
knew she was beat. He wouldn’t be dissuaded by silence or by sarcasm. He would
sit there all night if he had to, and all the next morning, and the day after
that. “What kind of monster am I, Mads?”
“You’re not a monster.
I can tell you that right now.”
“But I killed a dragon
in mid-air.”
“And you brought one
back to life.”
“Yeah, that, well,
that’s not normal. Normal people don’t turn things to stone. Normal people
don’t bring back the dead. Normal people don’t fall in love with—”
“With monsters?”
“That’s not what I was
going to say.”
“You’re not a monster.
You’re a beautiful, brilliant woman. You’re also a gorgon.”
April blinked. “What?
I’m a...gorgon?”
“Yes.”
“I’m a creature so
ugly I turn men to stone? Like Medusa?”
“She was not so ugly
that she turned men to stone. She was so beautiful that she turned men to
stone. She crippled armies because a single look at her and a man no longer
wanted to fight. Do you know anything else about gorgons?”
April shook her head.
She remembered the story of Medusa from school, but she couldn’t recall any
other mention of gorgons.
“They are powerful
creatures of protection. A long time ago, gorgons were as numerous as dragons.
They would often favor a single family or clan and protect them from generation
to generation. As a result, they were worshipped as goddesses all over the
world and throughout time.”
“What happened to
them?”
“Powerful women are
not always regarded highly. Many were burned and hung as witches, and those
that survived went into hiding. I haven’t seen a gorgon in a couple of
centuries, at least.” He tilted his head, regarding her with a thoughtful quirk
of his lips. “Perhaps that is why I did not recognize you as one at first.”
“But how can I be a
gorgon?”
“Was your mother one?”
“No...well, I don’t
know. I never knew my mother. My father raised me. He said she had to go home.”
“Home? What does that
mean?”
“I thought it meant
heaven, to tell you the truth. There was another girl in my class whose mother
had died, and she said that her mother went home to the angels. So I figured
that’s probably where mine went, too. But…”
“But perhaps he meant
something different.”
“Perhaps.” She tugged
on his hand, pulling him to his feet. She needed more than the touch of his
hand. He understood her silent request, setting on the bed beside her and
pulling her into his arms. She rested her head against his chest, listening for
the steady beat of his heart. It was the most joyful, comforting sound she’d
ever heard.
“I can bring back the
dead?” she asked.
“The blood from your
right side will cure all and, yes, bring back the dead. The blood from your
left is a poison that nobody can recover from.”
“And I can turn things
to stone?”
“I had always assumed
that was merely part of the legend, but apparently I was mistaken.”
“What else? You said
gorgons could protect a single family for generations. Does that mean I’m
immortal?”
“You are like me. Not
invulnerable to death, but you’re not going to die unless your head is
removed.”
It would take her some
time and space to fully process and understand everything she’d learned about
herself, but that was all she truly needed to know. She was not going to grow
old and die, leaving Mads behind. Perhaps they could never have a child
together, but their time together would not be limited by a mortal lifespan.
“I want to go back to
Germany.”
“Then we shall.”
“Is this finally over?
Or is Charles going to come after us next?”
“Charles? That threat
has been removed.”
She blinked up at
Mads. “Did you kill him?”
“No, but I sent
somebody to pay him a…
friendly visit.
He’s already lost his wife and
his son. He doesn’t want to risk anything else.”
“For his sake, I hope
that’s true.”
“Would you take his
life, April?” Mads asked.
“I don’t want to take
anybody’s life. But I’m never... I’ll never see you like that again. Dead.” She
swallowed hard and shook her head. “No. Never again.”