Beyond the Sandglass (Dragon Legacy trilogy #3)

CHAPTER ONE

Caleen had learned from a very young age that there were words that changed a person's life.

"You will be the king one day."

"It's you."

"I will not accept it."

"He's dead, Caleen. I'm sorry."

And now this.

"We found Taveris. He's alive!"

People around him were talking, growing louder and louder with each second, but all Caleen could focus on were those words. He's alive.

Breathing suddenly became easier than it had been for the last two months.

Hook. Two months he'd thought the love of his life was dead. If Taveris was alive…

"Stop!"

It was enough to cut through all the raised voices. The Academy might pride itself on not giving preferential treatment to those of higher status, but when it mattered, people still remembered he was the future king of the land. They quieted immediately.

Caleen surveyed the group that gathered around him—his brother, his friends, other dragons who surrounded him as soon as the shouting started. But he focused on Viveris, the bearer of the news.

"Tell me one more time," Caleen heard himself say. His voice sounded weird to his own ears, but he didn't care. He didn't care about anything other than Taveris right now.

"He's unconscious, but he's alive. The patrol found him near the southern border." Viveris shook his head as if he, too, couldn't quite believe his own words. "He was just lying there. They're bringing him in, but I was sent to notify you right away."

And Caleen, who had been trained in the royal protocol since he could walk, who knew every rule like the back of his hand, and who never let himself forget who he was, did the only thing he could, right then.

He took off running.

Because there was one person who had taught Caleen it was okay to think about himself, too. Who had showed him there was more to him than being the Prince Heir.

And Caleen had thought he would never see that person again.

Until now.

Someone was chasing after him, but as long as they weren't trying to stop him, he didn't care. He needed to see Taveris. He had to check, had to know. After two months of agony and thinking he'd be alone forever, he was willing to grab every last bit of hope he could get, but two months was also long enough for the denial to cease—at least in the waking hours.

He could see them now, far ahead but progressing quickly. Two people holding a stretcher someone was lying on.

Please, let it be true. Let it be true. Caleen's heart was racing, and he knew it was from more than just the run.

Soryan and Aderys sprinted ahead of him and in that moment, he envied them for being dragons. No matter how fast he moved, they would always be able to outrun him.

He watched them reach their target and saw the whole group pause. He wanted to scream, Don't stop, why are you stopping, come here faster, but he couldn't make a sound. Soryan leaned over the body on the stretcher and Caleen stopped breathing. Soryan wouldn't lie to him, wouldn't toy with his feelings, wouldn't—

Soryan dropped to his knees, and then Aderys turned and looked right at Caleen. He nodded, and Caleen stumbled to a sudden stop.

It was him.

Taveris was alive.

Naveen reached his side then, out of breath but right here, and Caleen had never been happier to have his younger brother in the Academy with him than in this moment.

"It's him," he whispered.

Naveen squeezed his wrist tight enough to hurt. "Come on, then. Let's go."

They started running again. Soryan and Aderys switched with the two humans holding the stretcher and they were moving faster now. Getting closer.

They did pause to put Taveris down when Caleen reached them, and he hit the ground hard as he fell to his knees by Taveris's side at the first sight of his bonded's face in so long. His hands were shaking, and he had trouble breathing, but when he touched Taveris's chest, when he could see for himself that Taveris was truly here, nothing else mattered.

He put his forehead against Taveris's and whispered things he couldn't recall by the time they left his mouth. He inhaled the familiar scent, changed somehow but still recognizable. Still making Caleen weaker and stronger at the same time.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that until Naveen put a hand on his shoulder.

"We should move him. The healers need to see him."

Because Taveris was still unresponsive and neither of them knew what was wrong.

Caleen reluctantly moved away from his bonded, but only far enough so that Soryan and Aderys could safely pick the stretcher again. He curled his fingers around Taveris's hand and walked right by his side as they made their way to the main building. He wished there were roads on this side of the Academy grounds so that an automobile could get there, but there were none. Caleen wasn't even sure he'd ever been to this part of the school before. The terrain, barren and rocky, made it unappealing.

Whoever had dumped Taveris here knew what they were doing.

Caleen tried not to think about the hows and the whys, but there would come a time, soon, that he would have to ask the hard questions. He just hoped there would be more answers this time around. He'd spent two months trying to find out what happened when Taveris had—

Caleen didn't know what to call it now. Disappeared? Been kidnapped?

He still had no idea who had orchestrated this whole thing, and now, with this, none of the possible answers even made sense anymore. Who would have kidnapped Taveris and then returned him after all this time? What was the purpose of it? If the aim wasn't to threaten Caleen and make him give up on the idea of marrying his companion, what was it?

Later, he told himself as he stumbled again, unable to look away from Taveris to watch his feet. Naveen was there in an instant, tangling Caleen's free arm with his, and that helped Caleen stay upright for the rest of the journey.

Finally, after what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, they got to the infirmary wing. Two healers stood by the entrance, waiting, with the headmaster and an older couple Caleen didn't know.

He tensed at the sight of the strangers.

He didn't want them anywhere near Taveris.

Before he could say anything, though, the pair and the headmaster stepped away from the door while the healers rushed to the stretcher. The head healer, Master Caderyan, pushed him aside to get to Taveris and Caleen wanted to scream and shout. Fight, if he had to.

Naveen pulled him back and tightened his grip when Caleen tried to free himself.

"Let them work," Naveen whispered, then repeated it again and again until Caleen slumped in his arms.

Did no one understand that Caleen couldn't breathe properly without Taveris? That he'd been barely holding on for those two months? How could he leave him now, even for a second?

The tears threatened to fall and that jostled him back into control harder than Naveen's arms ever could. Caleen went numb and didn't try to interrupt the healers again. He stood to the side in a bright—too bright—room as they did their job.

But they ran tests after tests after tests and nothing seemed to change. Taveris was alive, but still unconscious.

There was nothing else in Caleen's head but that sentence, repeating itself over and over as he stared at his bonded. He thought Naveen stayed there by his side, but he wasn't sure, and he couldn't look away from Taveris to check. No one was talking but the healers, and even they seemed to communicate mostly without words.

He had no idea how much time had passed, but finally, the head healer stepped back from Taveris and turned to Caleen, who stood up quickly. He had to have sat down against the wall at some point but couldn't remember.

Now, he waited for whatever came next. No matter what it was, it couldn't be worse than the last time.

"He's stable," Master Caderyan told him with a curt nod. His face was impassive, but Caleen had never known the man to so much as crack a smile, so it didn't bother him. "His vitals seem normal, and there are no signs of injuries or any permanent damage we can see. We don't know why he's unconscious, though, so I can't tell you anything more."

Caleen nodded slowly. "Do you know when he may wake up?" he asked, words spilling out with a weird echo in his head.

The healer shook his head. "No, there's no way to determine that right now."

Caleen curled his fingers against his palms as he forced himself to ask the next question.

"Is he going to wake up?"

"I can't tell you that, either," Master Caderyan offered after a small pause. "Without cause, we can't determine what's going to happen next. But, as I said, he's stable and his vitals are good. There's no reason for him not to wake up. None that I can see, at least."

A part of Caleen hated that it was the best the healers could tell him, but the rest of him knew how incredible it was to even have so little. An hour ago, he was in mourning, sentenced to never see Taveris again, never touch him. And now he had all that—and a chance for more.

If this was a dream, he didn't want to wake up.

It didn't feel like one, though.

And he would know—he'd had more than a few of those in the last two months. Dreams in which Taveris was alive, close but not close enough to touch. They couldn't talk, either, but Taveris was there, and every time Caleen woke up, it hurt more and more, until he stopped going to bed at all. He would keep awake until he passed out where he sat—at his desk, curled on Taveris's chair, on the balcony at the top of the tower. When he fell asleep out of exhaustion, he didn't dream, but he didn't rest, either. There was that unsettling feeling he woke up with every time, but it was still better than the alternative, even if his neck was constantly hurting.

Then again, everything hurt these days.

This, right here, Caleen was willing to believe wasn't a dream. He was awake, with Taveris a few feet away, Naveen by his side, and the healers close by. In his dreams, there'd never been any other people, only him and Taveris, so that had to count for something.

The door opened and closed, and he turned quickly, ready for anything.

You're not taking him anywhere without me.

Caleen was ready to fight to the death if he had to, and this time, he would protect his companion properly.

But it was just the headmaster.

"I would give you all the time in the world," Master Raizen said, coming up to him and gripping his shoulders in a surprising gesture. Caleen doubted that the headmaster had ever even shaken his hand, but his memory right after Taveris's…disappearance was blurry, so he couldn't be sure. "And I will, after this. But there are two elders from the dragon council here and they wish to speak with you. They swore it's important to the case at hand." He glanced at Taveris before looking back at him. "They also wish to examine Taveris, if you'll allow it."

Caleen's entire body screamed danger, but he tried to think straight.

"I don't know them. Why are they here?"

"You haven't had a chance to meet them, because they hardly ever travel away from Paryada," the headmaster explained. "They came here for the bonding ceremony of their grandson, but earlier today, they also asked to speak with you on an urgent matter. We were on our way to you when we got the news."

The bonding ceremony. Caleen had completely forgotten there had been a ceremony earlier. The Academy grounds were full of strangers.

"These two are esteemed members of Paryada's governing body and I would trust them with my life," the headmaster added, as if guessing what Caleen was thinking. "And the lives of my students, as well."

Caleen wanted to refuse and go back to watching Taveris and waiting for his companion to open his eyes, but he was also pretty accustomed to doing things he didn't want to do.

Besides, if they could help Taveris, or even provide any answers, Caleen couldn't say no.

"I will talk to them," he finally said. "But I'm not leaving this room. I also want it guarded at all times. No one but the healers, you, me, and Naveen with his companion can enter without my say-so."

If the headmaster was angry or even surprised at Caleen's tone, he didn't show it.

"Soryan and Aderys are guarding the door already. I will take care of the rest."

With that, he left, probably to fetch the council members, and Caleen was only able to stand there motionless, barely a few scale-lengths away from Taveris's bed.

Then Naveen was suddenly there, putting both hands on the sides of Caleen's neck and forcing him to look him in the eye.

"Hey, listen to me." His grip was strong, and the gaze determined. Somewhere along the way, his little brother had grown up and that realization made something in Caleen's chest start to unclench. "You don't have to talk to them now. Take some time."

Naveen pulled him into a hug, and it would have been so good to just lean into it, let himself surrender to everything that was threatening to get out, but he couldn't. Not now. Not yet.

He drew back and took a deep breath as he clasped a hand on Naveen's shoulder.

"Thank you, but I do have to talk to them. If they have an answer for any of this, I need to know."

Naveen looked like he wanted to protest, but finally nodded and stepped back.

Caleen turned to Taveris again.

I'm not leaving you again, he promised his companion. Not ever.