25. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alex
Emerson was rattled and I wasn’t sure if any of the others in the room realized just how much. Not only had we all invaded the one space he had where he could truly feel safe, but I remembered clearly the bombshells and revelations we’d subjected him to the last time we were here. Right before we’d left him to process everything alone. That wasn’t fair and it didn’t sit well with me. Emerson and I could both use a friend and if there was something between him and Caro, that need would increase tenfold.
I didn’t know if it was the nesting instincts pushing in me, or the increased pulses of energy that crackled inside me since Ionus had shared his flame, but something kicked in as I stepped away from my mate to stand beside Emerson.
“There’s a lot we need to discuss, and I would prefer to be comfortable while we do it,” I announced, pointedly meeting the gaze of each and every dragon in the room. “Gentlemen, would you please, very carefully and as neatly as possible, move the piles of books and notes parallel from where they are until we have enough room for a circle in which we could all sit.” Hopefully that wouldn’t set Emerson’s anxiety off. “And if you could find a few cushions to make it more comfortable, my bottom would greatly appreciate it. The eggs are growing heavier by the minute.”
Several smiles met my announcement before they all turned to do as they’d been asked, leaving me a moment to speak somewhat privately to Emerson.
“Don’t worry, I will ask them to put everything back once we’ve finished talking,” I assured him. “I think this conversation might be easier if you didn’t feel like you had to rush around and search for information at every word.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then snapped it closed and nodded, a look of relief flooding his gaze. There was still an air of nervousness about him, but it seemed like being told he was included this time had dulled it some. Last time, everyone’s focus had been on me and the secrets Gramps had carried around for decades. I remembered the way Gramps had turned toward him when he asked a question, the look I hadn’t been able to see, and the way Emerson had scurried away muttering beneath this breath. It was time he got the answers he too was owed, and I felt like he deserved to be comfortable, and feel supported while that happened, which was why I gave Caro a pointed look once everything was in place, and inclined my head toward the pillow beside the one Emerson stood in front of, while I stepped in front of the one on his other side, wanting to stay close in case he needed extra support at any point during the conversation.
Since everyone was still standing and my ankles were starting to ache, I sat and patted the cushion beside me, but it took a snarled sit from Caro before Emerson parked himself on the seat cushion beside me, a flush spreading over his cheeks. Everyone else sat then, with Ionus sliding an arm around me, offering back support I could recline against as I got comfortable.
“My son has told me a little of your story,” Great-Gramps began, “and Rory here has filled in a few other pieces.”
A deep frown formed between Emerson’s eyebrows as he stared across the circle at Rory. “I don’t know him,” Emerson snapped, immediately going on the defensive.
“No, but I know of you, and others like you,” Rory explained. “My mother was taken by the Gorynych when she was with egg with me. I was raised by them, sort of, more like neglectfully tolerated until it approached time for me to be able to shift. My mother was able to create an opportunity for me to escape them and find my way to her clan, now my clan, the Drakemyre. Unfortunately, the dragon who sired me had already been killed, so Hamish finished raising me and saw to it that I received the education that had been denied me.”
Emerson appeared startled at hearing the story, and sat blinking, before he was finally able to formulate a question. “Do you mean to say that they are no longer educating their young until after they prove that they can shift or not, even the alphas?”
“Yes. To them, they aren’t alphas if they can’t shift, even if they come from the most prominent households among them,” Rory said. “They’d rather steal and enslave the dragons from other clans than work together with their own people to build a strong community within what little remains of dragon society.”
“Of course they would, they are the reason so little of it is left in the first place. They are the ones ruining everything,” Emerson snapped.
“Aye, you will not hear any of us try to deny the truth in that,” Great-Gramps said. “But I’ve come here because my great grandson has proven a long-held belief of mine about the restoration of a dragon line’s ability to shift and unlock the magic that has been lost to them.”
“Yes, sex and magic,” Emerson stammered, flushing again. “He said as much when he was here last.”
“It goes much deeper than that,” Great-Gramps explained. “The Gorynych weren’t wrong in their belief that mating with stronger dragons would restore a family line to its former glory. Many among the families could tap into, share, weave and even magnify one another’s abilities in and outside of battle.”
“Wait…” Quint stammered.
“What?” Odem said.
Beside me, I felt my mate stiffen before raising an eyebrow as he cast his gaze at Great-Gramps and the rest of the Drakemyre clan as they nodded in affirmation.
“How are we only learning of this now?” Ionus asked. “Why has this never been mentioned in the archives?”
“It has,” Emerson muttered, bowing his head. “I’d classified the information in the fairytale and folklore section of the archives, believing it to be a myth. I never saw the need to bring it to anyone’s attention, especially when none of you ever reported an instance of it occurring.”
“Did you ever once think that if we’d known it was a possibility that we’d have tried to work out how it was done?” Caro said as he glared down at him. “We’ve got the makings of a war rolling up to our doorstep and now we’re learning that they might actually know how to tie all of their magic together to blast us out of existence! What were you thinking? No, never mind, I know, you weren’t thinking. You are the smartest dragon I’ve ever met, and the most foolish one, too.”
“That is more than enough,” I growled over top of my mate’s attempt to say the same thing to his brother. “We are guests in Emerson’s space at this moment and you should not speak to him that way when he’s worked so hard to be a caretaker of knowledge for you. You have tasked him with filtering through all of this, this, this mess, alone, and you, what, want him to contact you with every piece of information he uncovers before he’s able to substantiate it or not? If that’s the case, why don’t you park your ass in here and help so you’ll be on hand for every discovery. That or have him blowing up your phone every thirty-two seconds of the day and night? You decide which you’d prefer, but once you pick you don’t get to walk it back and change your mind.”
Everyone was looking at me by the time I’d finished speaking, all silent, some with their mouth’s half hung open, including Caro, who swallowed hard before blinking at me and shaking his head.
“His eyes…” Caro muttered, glancing from me to where my mate was snarling at him over my head.
I felt myself gently turned in my mate’s grasp and leaned into the touch, feeling warm and prickly. He gasped when he saw me, then cradled my face, leaning in close, so I could see myself reflected in his prismatic gaze as my irises crackled with the lightning from his storms. Lightning which would have been in my own bloodline as well.
“It’s begun,” Ionus murmured. “Just as you have been saying, Baird, your great grandson’s eyes hold the proof.”
“Aye, aye they do,” my great grandfather said, having moved closer to kneel beside Ionus’s shoulder.
When I met his gaze, I could see the pride and reverence shining in them as he reached to tousle my hair.
“I felt my magic surge when he used his,” Ionus said.
“I believe we all did,” Great-Gramps replied. “At least all who carry some form of lightning in their blood.”
“I felt it,” Rory murmured.
“As did I,” Hamish said.
One by one the other members of the Drakemyre clan confirmed that they’d felt it as well.
“Like has always called to like,” Great-Gramps replied. “Flame to flame, storm to storm, ice to ice and so on, until we forgot how brittle ice could be, or the way the water could drown the flame, and the lightning could fuse the sand into glass, allowing it to be shattered. I do not believe we were ever meant to exist in fragments, clinging to only those who wielded the same element as us. That, to me, is what has made it so easy for us to turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow dragons, that and a belief that we should help our own and ignore what played out in the world around us. I believe that is why the protectors have always been wielders of different elements, to remind us of what could be accomplished when we worked together.”
Silence followed his words as we all gave them the respect they deserved and the time and space to sink in.
“I do not care what clan my mate comes from or if they have the ability to shift or not,” Odem declared, the playfulness that was always in his voice having been replaced with steel resolve and a heaping dose of longing. “I just want to find them and know that they exist so that I can keep them safe from the Gorynych and any other clan of dragons who thinks that they can harm the rest of our kind. We swore an oath to protect and so far, we’ve done an amazing job of protecting these lands and the people we treasure, but listening to Baird makes me think that we were meant to be doing a hell of a lot more than we’ve been doing.”
“He’s right,” Mattias murmured.
“My clan would be proud to join in the protecting as well,” Baird declared and the Drakemyre clan voiced their agreement.
“Yes,” my mate readily agreed. “We will need the help of all if we are going to ensure that the Gorynych aren’t able to cause any more harm.”
“And free those who aren’t with them willingly,” Rory said. “Like my mother, if she still lives.”
My hands instantly moved to caress my bump and the curve of an egg I could feel nestled inside. For Rory’s sake, I hoped she was found alive and reunited with him. I couldn’t imagine the worry she must have felt all these years, not knowing if she’d been successful in seeing him to safety and what had become of him after she did.
“That will be a priority,” my mate assured him.
I could feel, through our dragon, that they both understood where my thoughts lay on the subject. I’d felt their pride earlier, when I’d spoken up for Emerson before they’d needed to step in. I might be the youngest one in the room, but the lives growing inside of me had brought out a fierceness and a protectiveness I’d never experienced in my short life. If I didn’t have a better analogy to use, I’d have said that a lion had been awakened and was roaring inside of me, only I knew what it really was. My own dragon.
Not the one that my mate shared with me, but the one that I would eventually share with them. He was already growing beneath the surface, slithering around inside of me, growling as he itched to one day burst free.
“I just felt your dragon. I didn’t feel it when you were here before,” Emerson whispered as he touched my arm, drawing my attention back to him. “You were like me. I’ve never felt my dragon. I’ve spent years telling myself to stop believing in it, that I’d been born broken and that nothing I ever discover will be able to fix it. I hated that I couldn’t stop trying. Now…could this be possible for me, too?”
There was hope in his eyes along with awe and bits of confusion, too.
“Does that mean they threw me away for nothing?”
It was impossible to miss the pain and hurt in his words. Every dragon in the room responded to it in some manner, from the clenched fist of my great grandfather to the low growl Caro let out. The Gorynych had a great deal to answer for and I hoped that no explanation they ever gave would be enough to earn forgiveness or pardon from the protectors. They needed to pay for the hurt they’d caused, not just to Emerson and Rory, but to everyone they’d ever done wrong to.
“I believe it’s possible,” Great-Gramps told him. “Once you are properly and fully mated to the one fate created for you. That’s another place where some of the alphas of old got it wrong.”
“I don’t understand what you mean?” Emerson said.
“I’m talking about fated pairings where the alpha mated the omega but did not engage in a true power exchange,” Great-Gramps began.
“Wait,” Quint interrupted. “Are you saying that the omegas shared their power with their alpha partners, but the alphas didn’t share theirs in return?”
“That is exactly what I’m speaking of,” Great-Gramps insisted. “And I suspect that the practice is one of several factors that has led to an increased inability to shift in hatchlings and diminished abilities to tap into the elemental magic in their blood.”
“Of course they’d be diminished if the one carrying the eggs had most of their magic leached from them. They’d have little to pass on to the children,” Mattias murmured.
“And sealed the fates of many clans in the process,” Quint surmised.
“Aye,” Great-Gramps said. “I only learned of many of these things after my own mating and the betrayal by my son’s mother when she did not receive the benefits she’d hoped to gain. At the time I didn’t understand the difference between a fated mate and simply taking anyone to bed and getting them with egg. I hope that none of you have already made that mistake and left a young one in limbo the way I did.”
“You’ve given us a great deal to think about, and discuss,” Ionus said. “I also believe it’s time to look over the clan listings again. With the Drakemyres’ help, we might be able to pinpoint where some of them have chosen to slumber if they were forced beneath ground. We’ll need to study what we know about them first, assess who might be allies and who could prove to be a problem should they awaken. We need to know what practices took place among them and who is missing from their records in the archives, that will give us some clue as to if any might be left to search for or if the line has been lost.”
“Everybody pair up,” Great-Gramps declared as he stood and took several steps before turning to look back at Ionus and inclining his head. “My apologies.”
“None needed,” my mate told him. “You are used to taking charge and in this instance, I believe that you know what steps need to be taken in order to start putting together the intelligence we need. Please, proceed.”
Permission granted, Great-Gramps began issuing out assignments, while I gave Emerson’s hand a small squeeze before he rose to help.
“Our hatchlings will wreck the lawn together,” I told him. “I’ve never been more certain of anything.”
Relief, joy, and a brilliant spark of hope brightened his eyes before he hurried away to direct everyone to the information Great-Gramps had assigned them to gather. The last one to follow was Caro, but whatever was said between him and my mate was strictly between them. All I could do was cuddle in Ionus’s arms and wait to see how things played out.