Chapter 15 #2
“I told the government that,” she says. “When I helped you escape, I told them it was to save the other kids.”
“It was,” I say, my voice tight. “Because the very second you had the chance, you tried to kill Azar. I’d just gotten him back.”
She frowns. “Give me a little credit. I knew Azar’s brother was a threat, and I knew the dragon we were spearing was Hyperion.”
“No way,” I say.
This time, she’s scowling, “Liz, I meant to stop Gideon that day. I didn’t want him to do a second time what nearly killed you the first. But when I saw it was inexplicably Hyperion, and I thought you could rid Azar of the threat of his older brother?
I decided to help Gideon instead of defending you.
I’m sorry that was wrong. I had no idea they had reconciled. ”
Could she be telling the truth? Was she less of a villain than I thought? “Then you support me being bonded to Azar? By choice? You won’t fight me and work against me anymore?”
“They’re monsters,” Mom whispers. “It’s undeniable.
Beside them, we’re no more than gnats. It’s terrifying, and it should be.
Our lives are a candle’s flame beside their inferno, but I think he cares for you, deeply.
And I think you shine when you’re around him.
” She sighs. “It would be so much easier if you loved Gideon. It would be simpler, safer, and just easier. But I spent most of my life defending my love for your father to all my family and friends. I won’t make you do that.
You clearly love him, and I won’t get in your way ever again. ”
I want to believe her.
Maybe it’s the magic of Christmas.
Maybe it’s their desperation for our help.
I’m not sure what it is that changed my mother, or maybe she would have come around eventually either way, but it’s the holidays, and she’s here, and she’s holding out an olive branch.
I take it and hug her.
It heals something raw inside of me I hadn’t realized was hurting.
It takes Mom and Dad and Gideon a little while to get settled into their rooms, and thankfully that gives me time to pull out the gifts and holiday decorations I chose and at least check which ones are cracked and which aren’t.
“What are you doing now?” Axel’s peering over my shoulder, and it’s the cutest thing ever.
“I’m wrapping them up.”
His brow furrows. “Why? Sammy knows there’s no fat man, now.”
I laugh. “You do that so people don’t know what you got them. Then when they open the gift, it’s a surprise.”
“Who are you supposed to get a gift for?” He blinks. “You got something for your family members, and something for Gordon, Rufus, Hyperion, and Asteria.”
I smile. “Yes, usually it’s everyone you care about.”
“What about me?” He lifts both eyebrows. “Did you get me something?”
“You’ll have to wait for tomorrow morning to find out, mister.”
He sits next to me on the ground, carefully positioning himself around my wings, and wraps his arms around me from behind. “What if I don’t want to wait until then?” he whispers in my right ear.
“Too bad.” I kiss the side of his mouth.
He smiles.
I duck around and kiss the left side of his. “What if I just got you a little coupon book for kisses?”
“What’s a coupon?” He kisses me on the mouth then, twisting me around entirely. “And why do I need one to do this?” He kisses me again.
And then I remember that my parents and Gideon are both here.
They’d lose their mind if they walked in on this, and we didn’t exactly build this place with privacy in mind.
At the time I told him what I wanted, Axel was stuck as a dragon all the time, so.
. . Other than a big door that stays open most of the time. . .
“All I really want for Christmas is a little more privacy. Maybe a smaller room here, near the back of our chambers.”
“How would I fit inside as Azar?” He blinks.
“I don’t think you’d be in here as Azar,” I whisper.
His grin is slow and wicked. “Oh.”
“But right now, I need to get these gifts wrapped before anyone else sees their present.” I point. “So stop distracting me.”
“How about I help you?” He scootches over and picks up the wrapping paper. “How hard can it be?”
Five minutes later, when he has a piece of tape stuck to the side of his ear, and he’s muttering every curse word he’s ever heard me use, I can’t help laughing.
I point at the blob he wadded up and taped. Sort of. One side pops open as I’m watching. “That looks worse than if Sammy did it.”
The swear words resume.
I’m laughing so hard tears are leaking out of my eyes.
“Liz?”
Gideon’s at the doorway, and he looks angry. Really, really angry. “What are you doing?”
“We’re wrapping the gifts we picked out today,” Axel says. “I had to learn how so I could wrap her gift properly for tomorrow.”
“You got Liz something for Christmas?” Gideon scoffs. “Really? What is it? A bigger gold visor?”
Axel stands and the motion’s so sinuous, even in this form, that no one could mistake him for an actual human.
I grit my teeth, wondering how soon I’ll need to step in between them.
Axel walks toward Gideon slowly, his eyes never leaving Gideon’s.
“I don’t recall what went between us before, thanks to you, I hear.
I’m not pleased to have lost those memories.
” He snarls, and he moves incrementally closer.
“I don’t know what role you think you may play in Liz’s life, but let me be clear.
” His face is now far too close by human standards.
Axel inhales sharply. “I smell your fear, human, and you should be afraid. I’m in this form for Liz, because I love and adore her, and this form makes her happy, but make no mistake.
” He stares at Gideon for a beat. Then another.
“My true form would eliminate you from existence in a split second and never feel one shred of regret.”
Gideon flinches.
“I don’t care what awards your government has given you.
I don’t care what you gained by your betrayal of your friend Liz, but know this.
She’s mine, and I’m hers, and you play no part in our bond.
You never will. You’re here and alive because of my love for her.
But if you so much as look at her sideways or challenge me in any way, I’ll end you.
Your government can take that up with me directly. ”
Gideon’s face is pale when Axel turns back and returns to me. A few months ago, I’d have intervened, but I’ve decided it’s best to let the boys work things out themselves.
“We’ll be done wrapping in a minute,” I say. “I think we have ham in the oven for dinner.”
“You have an oven?” Gideon asks.
I nod. “The appliances and flooring are all thanks to the generosity of the Australian government.”
“I said it was a waste,” Axel says. “I’m more than capable of cooking anything you want.”
“But not at three hundred and fifteen degrees for two and a half hours,” I mutter.
Axel sighs. “We could have put the food in an insulated container and—”
I stand. “Not this again.”
Axel bites his lip and smiles.
I spin and point at him. “You are not cleared to wrap.”
“I can wrap your gift for Liz,” Gideon says. “If you’d like me to.”
Axel pivots on his heel. “Not necessary. Thank you.”
Gideon walks away, just like that. I suppose some things have changed.
In this moment, I’m actually pleased Axel can’t recall what happened between all of us.
A pulse of rage so strong it almost consumes me shoots through my entire body when I think about how Gideon tricked me, how he used our friendship to convince me to come down from Azar’s back, and then used our bond to kill both of us.
And now he’s here, just hanging out for the holidays.
I know in my brain that Gideon thought he was helping me. Or at least, he told himself that he was helping me. I can’t decide whether he believed it, or whether he just wanted to believe it, because the alternative was that I chose a dragon over him.
But Azar, unlike Gideon, has always accepted my oddities, my declarations, and my peculiar insistences, like keeping my siblings safe.
He sheltered Gideon along with the kids, because I insisted that Gideon was like family.
And now, again, he’s welcoming my parents and Gideon in with no assurance they won’t betray us again.
Axel’s more than I deserve.
And in this moment, he’s sitting down again, his face scrunched, trying his best to wrap a bottle of perfume for Jade.
“That’s a strange shape,” I say. “It’s one of the hardest things to wrap.”
“Well, then if I can get this, I’ll be able to wrap something that’s a shape similar to this.”
“Actually, for that, I’d just use a bag.”
“What now?” Axel drops the bottle.
I cringe a little, but thankfully it doesn’t break. “Okay, look.” I pull out a small gift bag and some tissue paper and show him how he can put the perfume into the gift bag.
He beams. “What a great idea.”
I chuckle. “You’re welcome to borrow one.”
“What about ten?”
Now it’s my turn to be confused. “Why would you need ten?”
“You’re right.” Axel stands up. “Taking all twelve is a better idea.” He takes every single one of my bags and hands the perfume back to me. “You can wrap this one, right?”
And then he disappears without giving me time to object.
I pull on the bond, and Axel’s laughing voice floats back at me. I’m masking, Liz. Take a hint.
I hate that he can do that when I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. He’s gone for a solid forty-five minutes. I’m done wrapping, even the awkward things I wanted to put in bags, and I’m already in our makeshift kitchen-family room making hot chocolate with Sammy when he returns.
“You’re dirty,” Sammy says. “Were you digging in the mud?”
Axel’s smile is gorgeous. It’s probably prettier than anything I’ve ever seen. “You could say that, but I’m done now. I’ll just go clean up.” He frowns. “What are you doing? Is that dirt water?”
“Sniff the air, man,” I say. “It’s chocolate.”
“What’s chocolate?”
“You’ve been too busy lighting things on fire,” Coral says as she joins us. “You’re finally going to see what life is all about.”
“He’s weird,” Dad says as he walks in just behind Coral, “but I think I can see why you like him. He has an almost boyish charm when he’s in his human form.”
I’m not going to stand here talking to them about my dragon boyfriend. I’m really not. But when Mom walks in and asks how Axel picks out his outfits, I find that I am talking to them about just that.
“His outfit the first time we met,” Jade says. “I still laugh when I think about it.”
“They watched movies before coming here,” I say. “I think he saw that one—”
“Actually, I got the idea for that clothing from a poster,” Axel says as he rejoins us, clean and smelling less like dirt.
“I know where he was,” Sammy says.
“Where?” I ask.
“He had to get a Christmas gift for Gordon, right?” Sammy nods knowingly.
If Axel really was collecting grubs for Gordon, that may be the cutest thing I’ve ever heard, but I do not want to see that box. “Grubs stay outside,” I say. “They do not come in here. Are we clear?”
Axel laughs. “Got it.”
“Who has grubs?” Dad asks, a confused expression on his face. “Do some of you like to go fishing? Because I heard there are crocodiles out there, so I really don’t want Sammy going without one of the dragons along.”
“There are,” I say. “The locals call them Salties, but they mostly stick to the edge of the river.”
What’s fishing? Asteria asks from outside.
“Are the dragons all out there, lurking?” I ask.
Coral frowns. “Whose fault is that? You said they can’t all stay inside.”
“There isn’t room,” I say. “Look around.”
“For Christmas, all I want is for Rufus and Gordon to be able to fit in here again.” Sammy’s lower lip is jutting out so pathetically.
I think about how I passed out the last time I helped Eupraxia, and I sigh. We haven’t sung carols, and we haven’t made any Christmas cookies, and we haven’t eaten the ham yet. But some things matter more.
“Have Gordon, Asteria, and Rufus line up outside,” I say. “I may as well give this a try.” It worked for Euphrasia’s sister, right?
“Why not Hyperion?” Coral asks. “That’s no fair.”
Just because he can shift doesn’t mean he and Coral will. . .I might have overreacted a little because of the timing of when she asked. I’m thinking it over.
“No,” Axel says. “I don’t like this idea.”
“The last time I wanted to do something like this, I asked Jore for help,” I say. “It wasn’t so bad.”
“You passed out,” Axel says. “No.”
I take his hand in mine, and I twine our fingers together. “I should try, especially for Rufus and Gordon, right?”
He frowns.
“I won’t push hard,” I whisper. “I promise.”
He grumps, but he doesn’t stop me.
Does it hurt? On the end of the row, Hyperion looks a little crabby. Coral told me you said you’d rather be eaten alive by ants than allow me to shift into a human form.
I nod. “Good point. You shouldn’t—”
“You said what?” Mom’s smiling. “That you’d rather be eaten alive by ants?”
Coral’s smile is diabolical. “Well, when she said that, I had just walked in on Liz and—”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say. “I’m just trying it out right now. I can’t really do it myself. I’ll just be asking the heart, and by extension, Jore, to help us out.” I can feel my blush, and I don’t like it.
Gideon walks up on the edge of the hall, watching carefully, but he says nothing.
“You were here when they could turn into humans.” My dad’s looking at Gordon and Rufus. “Was it horrible?”
Gideon shrugs. “I actually like them better that way.”
“Smaller,” Dad says. “I get that.”
“They seemed. . .” Gideon grunts. “Almost human.”
I roll my eyes. Then I unsheathe my swords and jump to the ground outside.
“The connection between sky children and earth children has never been very strong, and I think that’s why sky children suffer here on earth.
They need a connection to this place and these people.
More specifically, they need a connection that helps them understand us and care for us and do more good than damage.
” I release the swords and lift my arms. “So today, on the eve of Christmas, I’m going to call on the power of the earth and the power of the sky to join in these dragons.
Please, Jore,” I beg. “Allow them to come to understand the children of earth better by taking their form. Allow them to deepen their bond with their humans so they can serve all of us better.”
Again, like with the earth blessed before, my entire body lights up, and then the swords begin to glow.
I kind of like having this heart thing close at hand.
Only, this time, the light doesn’t stop. It keeps growing and growing and growing. I grab the sword hilts, and it feels like I’ve grabbed burning steel in the center of a forge. I scream, my body bowing back, my wings spreading out wide, and the light explodes out of me.
Then the rest of the world goes black.