Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
KILLIAN
It’s been a week since that fateful day and I can still scarcely wrap my mind around…
well, much of anything, truthfully. Knowing that dragons aren’t gone from this world is mind boggling enough, but to be bonded to one?
Why would the Makers bless me so? It’s still so hard to believe and yet I feel as if Isolde has been a part of me for my entire life.
She was the thing I was missing, the reason for that uneasy feeling that wouldn’t let up.
I was waiting for her, feeling her imminent arrival somewhere deep inside my bones.
Having a familiar is difficult to explain and I’m so thankful I have Thea to understand the things I can’t put into words.
The fact that she went through it alone, on top of trying to keep her identity a secret and fearing for what might happen to her once we reached Duskthorne, makes my respect for my wife grow more each day.
Isolde made quite the impression on the kingdom, soaring overhead as we rode through the city, the crowds staring up in awe and wonder, cheering louder than I’ve ever heard.
Many wept with joy, dropping to their knees and raising their hands to the sky.
She made a show of swooping low over the crowd gathered in the square before soaring straight into the air like a shooting star, flipping over and sending a spray of blue fire through the late afternoon sky.
She has a flair for the dramatic, to be honest, but I couldn’t help but smile as I watched.
I could see it as she flew over my people, the hope rising within them all, lifting them up and giving them faith that things would turn out ok, that this war would end, these horrors would be stopped, and our revered dragons would come back to us once more.
I’d asked Isolde why they’d left Duskthorne all those years ago.
-It was foretold in our histories that we would retreat into our ancestral lands beyond the mountains until the awaited came to end the darkness spreading across this world-
I’d frowned. “The awaited…You mean Thea?”
-Yes, your beautiful queen was written into our tapestry long, long ago,- Isolde had said with a soft smile in her voice. She adores Thea and Soren both.
Many in Hypathia mock Duskthorne’s reverence for the dragons and our beliefs in the lore of their power, their connection to the earth and the Makers.
My father never cared much for the legends or believed in the old magiks of the dragons, but my mother did and she’d passed that respect and belief onto me.
I can only imagine the way her heart would soar to know that her own son’s familiar would be one of these blessed creatures.
-So, we did as our ancestors bid and waited. We grew our strength and numbers, but kept watch over our kingdom from the shadows.-
I’d blinked at that.
“You’ve been watching?”
-Of course we have. The warrior caste patrol the mountains regularly, keeping a close eye on things.-
She preened at that, holding her head high.
I’ve learned that the dragons are broken out into castes, each one having different skills and responsibilities.
She is a warrior, and a fierce one at that as that scorched battlefield and fallen foes can attest, but she’s also gentle and kind, and I find that though her warrior side calls to me, it’s her other facets that complement and calm me, balancing out the ferocity inside my soul.
I’ve learned that many of the dragons can shift the coloring of their scales to blend into the skies when needed.
We’d only have seen them if we’d been actively looking.
I wonder how many times I’ve stared at the sky and there’s been a silent protector looking back.
She told me that though she didn’t know it true until the day she came to my aid on the battlefield, she’d been drawn to me since I was born, often perching on the peak of the mountain that overlooked my wing of the palace, her scales blending in perfectly to the stones.
She’s been watching over me my whole life and I never knew.
-I’m sorry I couldn’t intervene when your father hurt you the way he did, when he hurt all of those people,- she’d told me, voice both sorrowful and furious. -I was told I could watch but not interfere, not until the Makers declared it time for our bond-
“It’s alright,” I’d told her. “You’re here now when I truly need you the most.”
She’d huffed at that, tiny blue flames licking the air in front of her snout, but I could feel her joy.
Bonding with her has not only mended the last broken piece of me left from the years of torment and loneliness and fear, but the power of my Gift has grown so much I wonder sometimes if I can truly hold it all within myself.
I feel as if there’s no limit to it now—and though I have an inkling of how that new strength might be used, a whisper in the back of my mind telling me this is possible, today is the first day I’ve finally relented and agreed to try.
I’m taut as a bow string as we enter The Seventh, a group of Gifteds waiting.
Isolde insisted on being nearby, so the entire east wall has been opened, the panels folding into themselves to fully open the building to the field beyond.
The dragon settles to the ground just outside, wings tucked against her sides, Soren watching as Mia clambers up the dragon’s leg and across her back, shimmying up her neck until the girl settles just behind Isolde’s head.
Mia props her elbows on Isolde’s skull and settles her chin into her upturned hands, looking on expectantly as if she’s watching a play in the town square.
Mia’s affinity for animals unsurprisingly included the massive dragon and the two of them and Soren have become a nearly inseparable trio.
Thea snorts in laughter as Soren begins to chase the small licks of blue fire that Isolde breathes into the field in front of her.
Mia giggles and points at the small bundles of fire.
“There! Over there, Soren! Now there!”
“I’ve never seen her so happy,” Dessa says, watching fondly.
“At least not since mum and da…” I squeeze her shoulder and she meets my gaze.
Her icy blue eyes are glassy but she nods in silent thanks.
She shakes herself and smiles. “I still can’t believe she’s here, that dragons still exist. Hundreds of them, all out there, waiting.
” She looks to the mountains beyond the palace, those wilds where the rest of the dragons apparently wait and watch over us still.
She toys with the troth ring on her finger and I smile at her.
“Can’t believe you married that dolt.”
“He’s a truly adorable dolt though. And the things he can do with this tongue—”
I immediately throw up my hands to halt her. “Stop. Stop right now, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Oh sod off. I have to hear about your exploits and expertise in songs in the tavern for fuck’s sake.”
“That’s not my doing! And most of it’s bullshit anyway.”
“I’d disagree with that. That trick with your fingers is quite nice.”
I shoot Thea a glare and she smiles sweetly at me while Dessa chokes on her laughter. My bride goes up onto her toes to kiss me softly.
“You’ll pay for that later, Red,” I mutter against her lips, putting all the wicked promises in the words, pitching my voice low and rough just the way she likes it. I grin when a gentle shiver runs through her body.
“I’m counting on it,” she whispers back before pulling away and turning to watch Mia and the two familiars. “The three of them really are ridiculous,” she says with a fond smile on her lips. She sighs and turns back to me. “Do you really think this could work?”
I let out a long exhale. “I suppose we’ll see.”
I don’t love the idea of trying this on my own people, but there’s no other choice in truth, and everyone here volunteered happily, even knowing the possible outcome.
Thea has told me over and over that this is nothing like what Barony is doing, but a part of me still recoils at the thought that I’m doing anything close to what that monster is.
Yara had attempted to volunteer and I’d firmly declined her offer.
She’d nearly died using her Gift to help us get Math and Cece to safety, I won’t let her give anything else.
She’d tried to protest, but I’d planned a distraction at that precise moment and though she knew damn well what I was doing, she let it slide as her eyes welled with tears at the sight of Isolde landing in her front yard and bowing low.
“I’ve waited so long to see one of your kind once more,” the old woman had whispered, lowering her head and putting her closed fist over her heart.
Not for the first time, I wondered how old Yara truly was, but she’d never given me a straight answer before in my life and I didn’t envision her starting then, so I kept my question to myself.
Cece and Math join us then, Math out of breath and Cece trying her best to act like she isn’t.
“How...in the bloody hells...do you people...breathe up here?” Math pants and Thea laughs. I can tell that he barely stops himself from bowing to me or calling me Majesty. I’d put a stop to that almost immediately. I’ve always hated being treated like a fucking king.
“You’ll get used to it,” I assure him. I can’t imagine the difficulty of coming from Helios, with its warm, soft breezes, to the thin, painfully cold air of the Obsidians.
“Copeland and the healers can help. I believe there are herbs that can aid your lungs with processing the air here differently.”
“Or you could just not be a baby about it,” Thea offers. Math’s mouth pops open and he glares at her.
“Have you always been this rude, or is this something that came with the title of queen?”
“Oh, she’s always been that rude,” Cece assures him, smiling widely at Thea’s quirked brow and mock-outraged expression.
“Why are we friends with her then?” Math puts his hands on his head, grimacing as he tries to get his breathing regulated.