Authors: S.J. West
“You should take
some of it to help take the edge off of the pain.”
“Nope,” Fallon
said as he stood. He held a hand down to me to help me get to my feet.
“Why not? I can
tell you’re hurting. The laudanum will help.” I urged, taking his offered
hand and rising.
“First things
first, Sarah. We need to get you back to the other side of the wall as soon as
possible. Then you can badger me about taking care of myself.”
“Has anyone ever
mentioned what a stubborn man you are?”
“Practically
everyone I know,” he said with a grin. “Now come on, we need to get back
before it gets too late.”
By the time Fallon
and I reached the Iron Wall, dusk had settled over the forest lending it an
eerie feeling in the twilight of a dying day. Thankfully, we had no problem
finding the pile of branches Fallon’s left against the wall to mark where the
magically concealed door was.
While Fallon moved
the branches, I found a nearby tree and made a soft nest out of fallen leaves
by its trunk for the dragonling to keep warm in. I didn’t know what else to do
for it. I had secretly hoped the fae Queen would take the dragonling off my
hands and find a proper home for her. Guilt riddled my heart as I sat her down
amongst the orange and brown leaves. Her small head turned up to look at me in
shock, like she knew exactly what I was thinking.
The dragonling let
out a yelping sort of noise and quickly clambered up my cloak to once again
perch on my shoulder.
I faintly heard
Fallon say the incantation to open the door behind me.
I plucked the
dragonling off my shoulder and set her back in the nest of leaves, “You can’t
come with me. I’m sorry but you have to stay here.”
Just as before,
the dragonling quickly clambered back up to my shoulder this time rubbing her
silky smooth head against my neck as it made a mewling sound which sounded a lot
like crying.
“Problems?” Fallon
asked coming to stand beside me, looking at the dragonling.
“She won’t stay
put,” I said helplessly.
“Here, give her to
me,” Fallon gently pried the protesting dragon from my shoulder. “Take the
horses through the door then I’ll follow after you.”
As soon as I
turned my back to the dragonling, I heard her let out an awful cry of despair.
I quickly untied the horses from the tree branch they were tethered to and
practically ran out the door to Vankaran land. A cool lake breeze rode along
the surface of the water caressing my face with its gentle hand. It was only
then I realized I was crying. The weight of the tears was slight but the
reason behind them felt as heavy as an iron bar pressing against my chest,
crushing me into nothing.
I fell to my
knees, pressing a hand against my heart in a futile effort to ebb its pain. I
felt like a piece of me was missing and could still hear the cries of the
dragonling inside my head rending the hole in my heart even wider.
“Sarah?” I heard
Fallon’s voice faintly through the sound of my own sobbing. “Sarah, what’s
wrong?”
Even the desperate
worry in Fallon’s voice couldn’t break the spell I was under. I felt hopeless,
like life just wasn’t worth living anymore. I tried to think of Dena to break
through my despair but even the remembrance of her warm laughter couldn’t melt
the coldness slowly permeating my soul. All I wanted to do was lie on the
ground until my heart stopped beating to end its torture. Death would at least
bring respite from the unending pain.
I was only faintly
aware of Fallon moving around me, asking me questions I was unable to answer. My
whole body felt like a wasteland of despair. How long would it take the small dragonling
to die? Did her heart ache in the same way mine did? I felt sure if that were
the case neither of us would survive long and our shared torture would end
unhappily.
I felt Fallon’s
warm hands caress my face just as a small cold tongue attempted to dry the
trail of tears along my cheeks. When I opened my eyes, the small blue
luminescent eyes of the dragonling stared back at me. The font supplying my
tears seemed to instantly dry. I sat up and held my hand out to the young
dragon as it quickly jumped onto my arm and retook its rightful place on my
shoulder.
My eyes felt
swollen, almost completely shut from the strain of crying so hard. I looked up
at Fallon and saw the worry on his face.
“Well, I guess we
can’t just ditch the little thing,” he finally said, bending down on one knee
in front of us.
“I don’t know what
happened,” I confessed, wiping the rest of the tears from my face. “I just
felt crippled with hopelessness, like there wasn’t any reason to go on living.
I’ve never felt like that. Not even when I was living as April Pew.”
“Was being April
Pew that bad?” Fallon asked amused by my statement, assuming I was exaggerating
my plight.
“No, April Pew
wasn’t that bad but living with Mrs. Pew was.” I didn’t see any need to delve
into an explicit description of the torturous life I once led. That girl died
a long time ago.
The grin on
Fallon’s face quickly fell as he realized the sort of life April Pew must have
suffered through.
“I’m sorry,” he
said, unable to think of any other way to reply.
“Forget it,” I
shook my head.
The dragonling
swiftly scurried underneath my cloak like it had been frightened by something.
Seconds later, we heard the grinding of metal and saw Gabriel walk out of the
tree which housed the door to the underground tunnel.
“What on earth
happened to the two of you?” Gabriel asked taking in my tear swollen face and
Fallon’s ripped jacket and bandages.
“It’s a long
story,” Fallon told him, lending me his hand to help me off the ground. “We’ll
tell you everything but I think we need to get back to the palace before I pass
out.”
On the walk back
through the underground tunnel, I told Gabriel every detail of our adventure on
fae territory. He listened intently and made me stop so he could see the small
dragonling now soundly asleep on my shoulder.
“Well, I’m not sure
how we’re going to come up with a convincing explanation for that thing,”
Gabriel said, studying the dragon closely. “Are you sure we can’t just leave
it on the other side of the wall?”
I couldn’t help
but gasp and Fallon said a resounding, “No.”
“Whether I like it
or not,” I told Gabriel. “She and I are a part of each other.”
“I just don’t
understand why she chose to bond with you,” Gabriel said perplexed by the
situation. “I’ve only known dragons to bond with the fae. I’ve never heard of
one choosing a Vankaran.”
“Could it be
because I’m a shifter?” I asked.
“I honestly don’t
know but that’s as good a reason as any I can come up with.”
We let the matter
drop. It seemed almost pointless to continue debating the reasons why the
young dragon chose me to be its life companion. And to be honest, I didn’t
really care anymore. Having her near brought contentment into my life,
something I had never fully experienced before, not even while I lived with the
Harkers. Although I loved my life with them, I always felt a nagging guilt
because I was only a cheap imitation of their real daughter. Whether or not
others would understand why the dragon was so important to me didn’t matter. I
was hers and she was mine. And that was the way things were meant to be.
Chapter 18
By the time we
reached the small garden outside my private chambers, evening had settled,
hiding our arrival from transient observers. Fallon did his best to make it on
his own two feet but in the end even someone as strong as him had to ask for
help. Gabriel acted as Fallon’s crutch as we made our way across the lawn to
the glass doors leading into the drawing room. We were greeted by the sound of
Dena’s infectious laughter and I felt the small dragonling excitedly tap its
tail against my shoulder in anticipation of meeting the child within.
We found
Aleksander and Dena sitting on the floor before the hearth. He had his hands
against her sides tickling her unmercilessly causing Dena to bend over in fits
of giggles. Aleksander was dressed casually in a white tunic style shirt and
black pants tucked into his black leather riding boots. Dena was already
dressed for bed wearing a long white nightgown with lace edging.
When the three of
us entered the room, Aleksander’s brilliant smile completely disappeared. He
gently raised Dena to stand on her feet. The room felt as if all of the joy
had been sucked out of it with our appearance.
When Dena’s eyes
found me, she immediately raised her small arms into the air and yelled, “Mummy!”
before promptly running to me and hugging me tightly around the legs. I picked
her up and kissed her.
“Mummy, I love
you,” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck and placing her head against
my shoulder.
I breathed in the
clean scent of her hair and hugged her tightly, reveling in the love she
readily lavished on me.
Aleksander rose to
his full height with a scowl on his face.
“What happened?”
He asked Fallon, his disapproving eyes falling to the ripped jacket and bloody
bandages Fallon wore.
“Not now,
Aleksander,” Gabriel grunted, shouldering most of Fallon’s weight. “Help me
take him to the guest room before he falls to the floor.”
Fallon was deathly
pale. I feared his bravado during the day was taking its toll out of his flesh
now that we were safely home. It was the first time since that morning I
became frightened over the possibility of losing him.
“Can I do
anything, Gabriel?” I asked, wanting to help even if it was just something
minor.
“No, stay with
Dena,” Gabriel replied. “I need to see the amount of damage that was done
first.”
As Aleksander and
Gabriel carried Fallon to the guest room, I felt the gentle nudge of the dragon
against my neck and knew she wanted out of her hiding place to be introduced to
Dena. Not wanting Aleksander to see my dragon companion just yet, I took Dena
to her room and laid her down on her miniaturized version of my own bed. When
I took off my cloak to reveal the dragon hiding there, Dena let out a squeal of
joy. The dragonling spread its wings and made a wobbly descent onto Dena’s lap
discovering a new life long friend in my daughter.
After about an
hour of Dena and the dragon playing, the little princess finally became tired
and drifted off to sleep. The dragon scurried up my body to her favorite spot
on my shoulder and rubbed her silky head against my cheek.
I could hear
movement in the drawing room and quickly put my cloak back on in case it was
Aleksander. I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be to the dragonling and
didn’t want to take a chance he would react badly. As I stepped out of Dena’s
room, I came face to face with Emily Andrews.
“Oh! Excuse me,
your majesty,” Emily said with a hand against her heart in surprise. “I had no
idea you were in there. I was just going to check on Dena since King
Aleksander wasn’t here any more.”
“That won’t be
necessary,” I told her, quietly closing the door to Dena’s room behind me.
“She’s sound asleep.”
“Are you feeing
better, your majesty?” Emily asked. “Gabriel said you were sick today and
wouldn’t let anyone in your room besides himself. I thought he was going to
have a fit when King Aleksander barged in there. Gabriel closed the door so
quick I assumed whatever you might have was contagious. But then King
Aleksander came out looking like the cat who ate the canary and told me to take
the rest of the day off and not come back ‘til bed time because he wanted to
take care of Dena himself. I hope that was all right, your majesty.”
“That was fine,
Emily. Dena seemed to have a good time with him today.”
“Is there anything
I can do for your majesty before I go to bed?”
“No. Go ahead and
get some rest. I’m sure you’ll need all you can get to chase after Dena
tomorrow.”
“Thank you, your
majesty,” Emily curtseyed and made her way to her bed chamber.
I waited until
Emily was out of sight before heading to the guest room. I didn’t knock before
entering because I didn’t want to alert Emily to the happenings within the
room.
I found Fallon
sleeping on the bed, naked to his waist with a quilt covering the rest of his
body. Gabriel had stitched his wounds neatly with black thread. Aleksander
stood leaned up against the wall to the left of me as I entered the room. His
arms were crossed over his chest and he had a brooding expression on his face
as he stared hard at Fallon.
I closed the door
behind me quietly and whispered, “Where is Gabriel?”
“He went to get
something for Fallon’s wounds,” Aleksander said in his full voice.
“Shh,” I warned
with a finger bisecting my lips. “Emily is in the next room. I would rather
not have to explain more about the situation than I must to her.”
“What the hell
were you thinking, Emma?” Aleksander demanded but at a more subdued volume.
“You could have been killed if that dragon had attacked you instead of Fallon.”
I didn’t feel the
time was appropriate to correct Aleksander. The dragon had indeed attacked me
first but it didn’t seem prudent to share such knowledge with the Chromis king
considering the rich foulness of his mood.
“We both made it
back alive,” I replied, considering the matter closed.
“Him just barely,”
Aleksander jerked his head towards Fallon, “and you because you got lucky.
There’s a reason the wall was built: to keep people on this side of it safe
from the things that live over there.”
“I did what I felt
was right.” I unconsciously crossed my arms over my chest, taking a defensive
stance.