Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
SOFIA
Sofia woke with a scream.
She’d been on Chalia, trying to reach out to Fox’s body as he fell. But then Chalia was gone, and so was Fox, and it was just her, falling through the air with nothing left to catch her. Her hand reached out to the right of her, but it met empty furs. She lurched up, heart pounding.
Her father’s bed was empty, and her body was trembling.
A sob broke out of her, and she covered her face with her hands, trying to get her breathing under control.
A second later, warm hands wrapped around her.
She opened her eyes, the smallest part of her expecting blond hair and Fox’s warm voice, but it was Javi with his soft curls and rough words.
“Sorry,” he said. “Your father got up early to talk to Micael. I was just coming back to make sure you didn’t wake up alone.”
He murmured the words into her hair, his hand making smooth circles on her back.
“I’m okay. I’m sorry, I just—” Her voice was thready.
“Stop,” Javi said, pressing a kiss against her hair in a way that made her heart ache and her eyes burn. “You don’t need to be okay. And you definitely don’t need to be sorry.”
But she was. They’d been back in the nesting grounds for three days, and she hadn’t made it through a night without waking at least once, screaming in terror.
The others had moved out of her cave, though her father insisted he was fine, and Javi just gave her a flat look when she suggested he follow the others.
“They made breakfast,” Javi said. “I’ll be right back.”
She wanted to tell him not to bother, but she knew the argument was moot. Javi hadn’t let her skip a meal in three days, no matter how much she’d stared at the food like it had personally offended her.
When he returned, he was holding steaming bowls of stew, one for each of them. It smelled of herbs and spices, and her stomach turned. She still gave him a tight smile and forced the food down her throat. It tasted of ash.
“Where are the others?” Sofia asked. At least the stew had warmed her throat so that it no longer scratched against itself.
“Micael, your father, and some others are talking to Aurelia, trying to come up with a plan.”
“Plan?” Sofia said, setting the bowl down. “The plan is to burn the army to the ground and dance on their ashes.”
“We might need a bit more than that,” he said. “If we want to win.”
Sofia nodded. He was right. They needed to survive this. She needed to survive this. Didn’t she?
Guilt churned in her stomach at the thought, as if it were a selfish thing to want to live. So many had already died for the cause—for her.
“Vato died fighting for us,” she said, voice soft.
“He did.”
“I think he always knew he would. The way he always talked.”
Javi squeezed her hand. “He’d lost so much. He fought hard and sacrificed everything. But that doesn’t have to be the only way. We deserve to fight for more.”
“And what’s that?”
“A future.” He stared at her hand, fingers tracing across the veins there. “My mom joined Micael and the others today, along with a few of the others that haven’t been fighting. They want to join and help with the next steps.”
Sofia felt the slight tremor in his hand. “She shouldn’t feel the need to help.”
“Shouldn’t she? Shouldn’t they all?”
“You can tell her to stand down.”
Javi gave a sad smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever been able to tell my heart-mother to do a gods-damned thing. Not even my blood-mother could do that.”
“If she gets hurt—”
“It will be her choice, and I can’t do anything about that.”
Sofia clenched her jaw. She knew he was right.
Everyone was going to make their own choices now, and that meant making the choice to put themselves in danger.
Her eyes burned as she thought of Fox and the last flash of blond hair she’d gotten right before he’d been dragged away to wherever Harlow had taken him.
She could only hope he was still alive. That Chalia was alive with them, too.
A small part of her knew they were both alive—that somehow she would know if they weren’t—that she’d be able to feel the world shift if they died.
“Come on,” Javi said, pushing himself up. His knees cracked, and Sofia let out an involuntary laugh.
Javi looked startled, but then he was laughing, too, pulling her up after him.
“Don’t even start.”
“Your knees sound like Micael’s.”
“It was one crack.”
“Do you need me to help you walk? I can make you a cane.”
“Shut up,” he said, wrapping an arm around her as they headed out into the bright morning.
The air was chilly, but the sun was hot, leading to an overall bearable temperature.
The white of the snow combined with the bright sun was blinding, and Sofia had to squint as they moved toward the circle of dragons and humans down the slope a few hundred yards.
They looked like a strange council, though Sofia supposed that’s exactly what they were.
“We cannot win with a straight attack,” Aurelia said, her voice echoing in Sofia’s mind the moment she saw her coming down the hill, inviting her into the conversation.
They were still too far to hear Micael’s answer, but Aurelia gave a snort of agreement. “I will not risk the dragons they have captured.”
The words echoed in the hollow place inside Sofia where Chalia had been tucked for the past blink.
“Then we either need to come up with a plan of attack or we need to run.”
Micael’s voice rang out louder this time, clear as they approached, and the murmur that ensued was clear. Some dragons were waving their wings in dismissal while others snorted in approval. The reactions from the resistance fighters were just as mixed.
“What chance do we have at attacking?” Ielo said. “Every time we send a dragon after them, they end up captured.”
“But we haven’t fought with all the dragons,” Jacinta said from where she was sitting.
Micael shook his head, but Aurelia answered. “We cannot send all the dragons. We need enough to stay behind to watch over the eggs. And I will not send any more younglings.”
Jobin let out a long snort at this assertion. “You’ll have to hold us back!” he said sharply.
“You do not decide that,” Aurelia snapped.
“No,” Jobin said. “You don’t get to decide if we choose to fight.”
Aurelia glared at him, but didn’t argue.
“So how many do we have?” Micael asked.
“Two dozen or so,” Aurelia answered, looking over the circle and then farther down the slope where some others sat watching a few younger dragons playing.
Sofia could almost picture what he was seeing—the blank space where Chalia should be, playing with Jobin.
Instead, Jobin sat beside his parents, one of the war council now.
“And they have eight dragons of their own, the wolfshifters, and an entire army,” Sofia said, all eyes turning to her. “We don’t stand a chance if we attack head-on.”
“The other option is we run,” Micael said.
Aurelia stomped her foot hard into the ground.
“We will not run. We ran once. When the false god-king sent his men after us and tore us from the sky, we ran. My grandmother thought it was the only way to find peace. But all we got was a brief and false respite, and now we are being hunted again. They are turning our own minds against us, and I will not do it. I will not abandon my daughter.”
“And neither will I,” Sofia said, though the words felt like stones in her throat. “I can’t.”
Aurelia was looking at her directly now. Her expression was inscrutable, even for a dragon.
“You feel her absence, do you not?”
Sofia nodded slowly. She had the impression that Aurelia was only speaking to her now.
“Chalia said she was in your mind and you in hers. Not in the same way we speak, but something more. Something deeper.”
“I think we shared a connection, yes,” Sofia said, unsure how to explain it. “We were just—together.”
Aurelia bent down, examining Sofia as if she held the answer. Icy breath brushed against her face.
“Have you ever felt Chalia’s mag—”
The dragon cut off suddenly, nostrils flaring wide as her head whipped up, turning toward the crest of the slope—from where the army first attacked.
The other dragons shifted restlessly, hearing something up the slope that Sofia couldn’t.
She reached for her dagger before she realized she didn’t have it. Her heart raced.
She needed to get her dagger. She needed to be ready to fight.
The earth shook beneath her as Aurelia pushed off the ground and shot into the air, moving like an arrow up the slope, staying low and within the barrier that hid them.
Not that it mattered. Harlow knew they were here already.
The barrier was nothing but false comfort.
A black speck rose over the edge of the slope and paused only momentarily, and then there was another and another. Sofia stared, trying to understand what she was seeing because they weren’t soldiers. They weren’t humans or wolves.
“Aurelia,” Sofia sent as the dragon swept up toward the slope. “I don’t think those are enemies.”
The strange herd of animals crested over the slope now, racing down into the valley, and Sofia watched in awe. There were foxes and deer and rabbits, but there were hawks and eagles, too, and monkeys and peccaries.
“Clarita found some friends,” Jacinta said.
“A lot of friends,” Sofia said, trying to count the animals as they moved. There were dozens—more. They wouldn’t outnumber the army, but the playing field just became a little more equal.
Aurelia didn’t return to the ground until the shifters had gathered on the edge of the barrier and she’d made sure they weren’t being followed. Sofia and Javi reached the top of the grounds at the same moment she touched down again, watching the shifters with suspicion.
Only once they were there did Sofia see Clarita and a few other humans scattered among the shifters, jumping off some deer and elk, their backs holding large packs.
“I know I’ve probably missed a lot,” Clarita said, “but I thought I’d bring some friends.”
Sofia stepped forward.
“We have a lot of updates, but thank you.” Sofia looked out over the mismatched herd and felt the first inklings of anxiety. There were so many of them, and the moment they shifted back, they’d be naked and freezing.
“We have our own supplies and many of the shifters here spend most of their time in their animal forms, so you needn’t worry.”
Sofia nodded, turning to Aurelia. “Are they welcome?”
She looked over them and gave a nod—an expression that Sofia had noticed dragons didn’t naturally use, but they’d started using to communicate with the humans and shapeshifters.
They walked into the barrier, the shifters’ backs twitching as they crossed over the line, and Sofia witnessed the look of awe on their faces as the dozens of dragons came into view on the other side.
Her father stood down the slope, his own look of awe there as he watched a strange herd of animals move into camp.
Sofia helped the various groups find places to settle in.
Some shifters claimed caves for themselves, while the more winter-bred shifters found places outside that were tucked away from the wind.
Clarita and the other humans from their group passed out the supplies they’d brought, including clothes, blankets, and tents.
It was late in the day by the time Sofia caught Clarita’s eye, and the woman ended her conversation to approach her.
“Thank you for your help with everything,” she said, waving a hand at the tent Sofia had just helped set up.
“It’s the least we could do,” she said. She watched Clarita, wondering if she should ask the question. “What changed your mind? You always said this wasn’t the shifters’ war.”
Clarita gave a tight smile, eyes sweeping over their haphazard group.
“You don’t have to pretend I’m being altruistic.
I know I’m not. Eloy found us and told us about the deal that was struck with the wolfshifters.
The rainforest belongs to us and isn’t Harlow’s to dole out. He’s made it our battle now.”
Sofia didn’t want to ask her next question, too afraid to hear the answer. “Have you heard from Lumi?”
Clarita reached out, placing a hand on Sofia’s shoulder.
“They’re still in Suvi helping with the resistance there. Your friend, Flor, is alive and well. Though Lumi seemed to imply they were close to strangling her themselves.”
Sofia let out a snort. She bet Flor would let Lumi strangle her.
Clarita seemed to read something in Sofia’s thoughts and let out a laugh of her own. “I don’t even want to know.”
“So, they’re still stuck?”
“No,” Clarita said. “Lumi insists they are staying on purpose.” She shrugged. “I don’t tell my people what to do. Even when they’re being stupid.”
Sofia nodded. It was a relief to know that Lumi and Flor were okay. She’d left them and hadn’t been able to look back, but they were alive.
Though not safe. There was no safety for the Dragonborn or the shifters within the city walls.
Especially if anything went wrong out here.
Sofia took a deep breath, the air bitter cold despite the sun.
She needed to win the battle out here to protect Lumi and Flor in Suvi.
That was it. That was what she could do.
She looked back out over the shifters settling in. They didn’t outnumber the army, but there were more of them now. There were even some predator animals among the group.
Still, nothing compared to the wolfshifters waiting in the camp, assuming they’d all returned after the commotion of the battle. She remembered them running out of the camp, angry and confused. At least the humans and shifters got along within their group.
Something like hope bloomed in her mind.
She turned to Clarita. “I think I have an idea. I need to go talk to Micael.”