15. Celia
Chapter fifteen
Celia
The air was growing cool as Celia and Darian walked through the forest toward home, and she wished she’d brought her shawl.
She shivered as a breeze whisked past her, and Darian let go of her hand to shrug his jacket off his shoulders.
“I can’t take that,” she protested as he put it around her shoulders.
“Too late,” he said cheerfully, taking her hand and setting off again.
Would he keep visiting her now that the dragons were gone, or had his interest only been in them?
She hoped it wasn't, and based on the way he was walking her home and distracting her today, perhaps it wasn't. But even with the way his hand held hers tightly as they walked, she still wondered if maybe they were meant to be together, or if the dragons were the only thing keeping him tied to her.
Maybe she should ask him.
“I suppose you won't need to come out to the meadow anymore,” she said, trying to keep her tone light and easy. “Now that there aren't any more dragons.”
Darian looked down at her. “Do you not want me to come anymore?”
“Well, I only mean that I'm sure you have better things to do with your time than coming out to see me,” she said, trying to keep the words lighthearted. “I don't need help anymore.”
“It was never just about the dragons,” Darian said. “There were other reasons for my visits.”
Celia's heart was pounding faster as he stopped walking and reached for her other hand, holding both of them and looking at her eyes with an intensity she rarely saw from the happy-go-lucky man standing in front of her.
“You were just as much my reason for being there as the dragons,” he said quietly.
“I don't know what it is about you that calls to me, but I don't want to stop seeing you just because there are no more dragons.
And I would never ask you to leave your cottage and come to town.
So I will come to you as often as you'll let me.”
Celia's heart was beating so loudly it wouldn't surprise her if he could hear it too. “You came for me too?” she asked.
Darian squeezed her hands with a smile. “Yes. Even when you didn't want me to, I couldn't stop thinking about you. And I couldn't imagine a world without you in it. Now I spend far too much time thinking about you,” he teased. “It's aggravating, honestly.”
“I'm sure it is.” Could he hear the laughter behind her words? “But somehow I can't stop thinking about you, either, so I suppose it's all right if you continue to visit me. And since I don't have baby dragons threatening to burn down my home, I suppose I might be able to visit you too,” she said.
Darian grinned. “I would love that, and so would my uncles.”
“Your uncles just want me to feed them,” Celia pointed out as she let go of his hand to resume walking.
She stumbled on a stick, and he immediately offered his arm, tucking her hand securely into his hold.
He was too good for her.
“It's definitely a benefit of you coming around, I won't lie to you.”
“I suppose I can live with that,” Celia said. “It seems a fair price to pay for all of the things you brought me without me paying for them.”
Darian shrugged. “It was nothing. I could have brought more.”
“No, you shouldn't have. You brought just enough. And if you brought more, I would have things left over now, and with the dragons gone, I don't need much.”
She truly didn't. She had grown quite self-sufficient in the past two years. But perhaps she would start needing more, if only as an excuse to go into town and visit the general store. Because as much as she wanted to pretend she didn't, she liked Darian and his uncles.
Well, perhaps she liked Darian more than his uncles.
The walk was good for her, anyway
They reached the edge of the woods as the sun was setting, and Darian stopped her there, looking around specifically to make sure the field was clear before they continued walking.
That wasn’t like him.
“What was that?” Celia asked as they started off again.
“Something feels off,” he admitted.
“What do you mean something feels off?” Celia asked, looking around. Nothing felt off to her.
“I don't know,” he said. He was scanning the horizon, back and forth, back and forth as they walked through the meadow toward her home at the base of the mountains. “Perhaps it's something, perhaps it's just me feeling odd because the dragons are gone—”
The sunset was blotted out by something large landing in front of them, and Celia resisted the urge to scream as Darian’s arms dragged her behind him forcibly.
She'd never been more grateful for his presence, even as she tried to peek around him to see what it was.
When she finally managed to poke her head out from underneath his arm, her eyes widened at the sight of the large fire dragon sitting in front of her.
This was not a baby—this was a full-grown male.
He was ginormous.
His scales were dark red, with large horns growing out of the top of his head. His eyes were the size of both her fists together, and his head alone was the size of Darian’s torso. She knew the baby dragons grew rapidly, but she'd never seen an adult before.
This was something she'd never expected.
“Where is the Emberlin?” A deep voice issued from the dragon.
She could understand him.
Celia tried to dart around Darian’s arm to see it better, but he grabbed her and put her back behind him.
“What do you want?” Darian asked.
“The hatchlings have told me that there is an Emberlin here,” the dragon said, “and I am here to find him, to give my fellow dragons a hope that we have been missing for far too long.”
Celia poked her head around Darian’s arm, and this time he let her, though his grip on her arm prevented her from going any further. The infuriating man—she didn’t need protection from a dragon. Probably.
This was a fire dragon, after all. If he wanted to kill them, his flames would no doubt be big enough to completely envelop her and Darian where they stood, so it was unlikely that he wanted to kill them.
And what was an Emberlin? She had never heard the term before.
She’d seen lots of things in scrolls that had told stories of dragons.
Though most of them were written as childhood fairy tales, she often found them to be accurate—which made sense, given that dragons were real and not simply a myth like so many believed.
How was it possible that dragons had been so completely eradicated from their people's history? It didn’t make sense. It never had.
But now she was here, standing face-to-face with the largest thing she had ever seen, and it was asking them something.
“I am the Emberlin,” Darian said, the words surprising her.
She let out a gasp, and Darian looked back at her with an apologetic grin. “My last name,” he said. “One of the few things that I know about my father.”
“So you are the man they spoke of,” the dragon said, the words almost reverent. “Thank you for helping our young.”
“That was all Celia,” Darian said, stepping aside so the dragon could see her. “I had nothing to do with it.”
The dragon inclined his head in a sign of respect, and Celia could hardly keep her jaw from dropping open. The dragon was offering respect to her. They should be the ones offering respect to him.
“I am indebted to you,” he said to Celia. “Because you helped the hatchlings, they brought us news of a hope that I had begun to fear would forever be lost.”
“What can I help you with?” Darian asked. “I don’t know what sort of hope I can provide.”
“I need you to come with me,” the dragon said.
Celia’s lungs stopped working, and she clutched Darian’s arm. “You can’t go with him,” she said.
Darian didn’t look at her. He was looking at the dragon with a steady gaze.
“I have to go with him,” he said after a moment, looking down at her. “They need me.”
“What do you mean they need you?” Celia demanded.
“Perhaps a human who can speak to dragons,” he reminded her. “And not just the ones that know the human language.”
The dragon made a noise that Celia could only describe as a chuckle. “You are correct, Emberlin. You have been given the gift of our language. I gave it to you as a child.”
Darian’s eyes widened. “You knew me as a child?” he asked.
“I did,” the dragon replied. “Your father was my friend, and when he was lost, we feared that you were lost too. But you have been found.”
Darian turned to Celia, determination in his face. “I need you to tell my uncles where I’ve gone,” he said quietly. “I will return when I can.”
“You can’t go,” Celia said, holding his arm tighter, hating how desperate she sounded. “Not without me.”
If Darian was going to see the dragons, she wanted to go too.
And it wasn’t only because she didn’t want him to be without her.
What if her babies were there? The idea of seeing Flame again filled her with hope that she hadn’t had since yesterday, and she tried not to grimace at the idea of not having that hope again.
“I need to go,” he said, taking her hands from his arm and holding them tightly.
“I’m coming with you,” she said fiercely.
“I’m sorry, but you cannot come with us,” the dragon’s voice rumbled. “I can only carry one, and you are not an Emberlin.”
Celia wanted to protest, but she couldn’t find the words.
Darian’s hands gripped hers so strong and secure. “I will come back for you,” he said, and she could hear the truth ringing out in his words. “When I am able to, I will come back.”
“But when?” she asked, her voice sounding whiny even to her own ears.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Climb onto my back.” The dragon crouched, his front leg forming a natural step.
Darian took her face in his hands. “I’m coming back for you, I promise.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering a moment as Celia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She could feel his promise in her chest, a bond sealed with a kiss.
Then he turned, climbed the dragon’s leg, and settled between the spikes where its neck met its shoulders.
The dragon flew up, each wing larger than a house. The air buffeted her as he flapped his wings, hovering over her for a moment.
Celia couldn’t contain the cry that ripped itself from her lungs, his name the only thing she could manage.
“Tell my uncles!” Darian called as he was taken away. “I will return!”
If she’d had any tears left after watching the hatchlings leave, they would have come out now. But her tears were spent.
Her resolve, however, was not.
How dare he kiss her like that and then ride a dragon away?
As she watched the dark form fly away into the mountains, she picked up her skirts and began stomping back toward town. “I will tell your uncles,” she muttered to herself. “But if you think you’re going to see my dragons without me, you’re wrong. I’m coming after you, Darian Emberlin.”