Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
VANDER
The Usurper’s Aerie was quiet, no sign of Sela or her loyalists.
They might have been hunkered down inside the watchtower or in the maze of structures hewn into the side of the ridge where the DaySilver clan now resides.
A poor imitation of their aerie in the DragonLands, but nothing the DragonKin create has ever come close to the wonders inside their ancestral borders.
I swoop higher, cloaking myself in the clouds.
My thoughts again stray to Larellin, to how she must be even now waiting for me in our bedchamber.
I flap my wings harder, sending whorls through the billowing clouds.
Claiming her will be a triumph all on its own, no matter if it breaks the curse.
Her tender flesh was made for me. I fly faster, cutting through the sky like a blade.
My heart pounds, my entire body tingling in anticipation.
A crystal shard glances off my scales, then a dozen more tickle along my side.
With a roar, I peel off to the right, sinking from the clouds and bursting into the gloomy day beneath. The razor tips of the easternmost mountains rise beneath me, their peaks shrouded in mist. Another burst of crystals rains down, more of them glancing off my scales and one piercing my wing.
Banking hard and diving, I turn quickly and let out a burst of golden flame, the clouds ahead of me steaming away as I catch a glimpse of silvery scales.
“Bastard. Shouldn’t you be patrolling the mortal realm border?” I shoot another burst of flame at Faraday, our mental link snapping into place. “I could roast you out of the sky.”
“You’re distracted.” He rolls and darts below me, his tail smacking my leg. “If I’d been a DaySilver, you’d have been in some deep shit right now.”
I don’t have a retort for that. I am distracted.
“The mortal has you by the balls, brother.” He floats up, gliding just off my right wing. “When you bed her, I fear you might crack in half from all the tension. By the way, why haven’t you had her yet? I thought last night you intended to—”
“She is new to the ways of males.” Gods, the thought of her being only for me is enough to send my blood coursing through my veins like lava. She is a gift I intend to enjoy thoroughly.
“So you’re being gentle?” He chuckles. “DragonKin never tread lightly.”
“There’s more to this than simple lust. She’s the Bargain. She could be the one.”
“Do you think she’s the one?” He descends as a light rain begins to fall, the storm from the vampire lands finally rolling in.
“How would I know?” I follow him down, my gaze raking the sky and the ground, searching for any sign of our enemies.
“The prophecy is hazy at best. The Bargain can break the curse—only a mortal given in sacrifice can restore the DragonLands. Which mortal? Which dragon? We don’t even have the exact wording of what was prophecied.
Only the Arbiter is privy to that knowledge, and she hasn’t deigned to share it with any DragonKin as far as I know.
Besides, prophecy, I find, is always a sliver of truth covered in a bucket of horse shit. This one is no different.”
“Hmm.” He looks at me, his silvery scales almost melting into the gray mist of rain.
He’s already close to indetectable in clouds.
Only Rivon has more stealth, thanks to his shadows.
“Sounds to me like you need to sheathe yourself so deep in the mortal that you don’t know the difference between prophecy and truth.
Or where you end and she begins. In short, dear brother, you need to break all this questioning and worry with a good, solid fuck. ”
“Your advice is always the same note.” I turn us away from the western peak and back to Crone’s Crag, to the keep where my mortal waits.
“Doesn’t mean it’s a wrong note.” He slaps his wing against mine in his usual obnoxious way. “I find getting myself off inside a maiden does a lot to clear my head.”
“Your head is exceedingly empty at all times. The only thing you need to clear are the cobwebs.” A shudder rips through me, my heart skipping a few beats.
“What was that?” Faraday tightens formation, his head swinging back and forth, looking for a threat.
“I don’t know.” Another shudder, this one so deep that it rattles my bones, all the spikes along my back standing straight. “Something’s …”
“What?” He sends out a sweeping arc of crystalline breath into the cloud ahead of us. “DaySilver?”
“No. Fly faster.” A horrible foreboding grows, festering inside me as we hurtle toward the keep embedded in the side of Crone’s Crag.
“Something’s wrong. I have to get to her.” Larellin is … A roar rips from me as I finally understand the odd sensation rippling along my spine. Fear. And it’s not my own. She’s afraid.
I tuck my wings in close, turning myself into a golden arrow as I pick up speed.
“Not so fast!” Faraday calls.
I ignore him and aim for the cave, the approaching maw beckoning me back. “Be ready.” I send a burst of golden flame into the dark cavern right before I enter, assuring any interloper is either dead or maimed before I land, my talons screeching across the cavern floor and leaving deep gouges.
“Larellin!” I roar, my voice barely intelligible as I change form and dive into the chasm that leads to the keep. Bursting through the doors, I rush through the hallway.
“Larellin!” I call. The closer I get to our room, the more certain I am that she’s not here.
My gut wrenches, my heart hammering. Fear again. Wherever she is, she’s terrified. One look inside our bed chambers, and I know the truth. She’s gone. Something’s happened.
Storming down the stairs, I bang open the doors to the kitchen.
Sprite jumps, his flames a somber blue.
“Where is she?” I glare at him.
His flames gutter as he looks at me with sheer terror on his face.
“Where is my treasure?” I ask.
“Vander!” Faraday hurries in, his gaze going to the frightened Firefolk. “What are you do—”
“The DaySilver Clan took her.” Lenka’s weary voice comes from the dining room.
It’s as if a knife twists in my gut, my lifeblood spilling from me. My mortal. My treasure. Taken.
“What happened?” I stalk to Lenka who looks up at me with sad eyes. Her flames are a dim green, barely lighting her wrinkled cheeks.
“You aren’t going to like it, Sire. Not one bit.” She takes a long drink from a flask of blue liquor.
“Where is she?”
“On her way to the Usurper’s Aerie. Or maybe there already. I—”
“What’s happening?” Brin stands in the doorway, his pipe askew and hanging from his mouth.
“Sela has Larellin,” Faraday answers.
Brin’s pipe falls, cracking as it hits the stone.
“How did …” Brin looks around. “They didn’t breach the keep. I’ve been here the—”
“They didn’t have to breach it.” Lenka’s eyes well with deep blue flames that flow down her cheeks. “I took Larellin to Churlytown.”
Rage, the likes of which I haven’t felt in centuries, rises inside me. “Why would you do something so foolish?” I grate the words between my teeth.
“Vander.” Faraday steps toward me, his tone chiding. “Don’t—”
“Why?” I roar at Lenka, flame tears still rolling down her weathered cheeks.
She doesn’t flinch. “I did what I had to do for you, Sire. For the DragonKin. I’ll say no more than that. Throw me in the dungeon. I belong there.” She covers her face with her hands and cries into them.
Sprite hurries past me and wraps his arm around her shoulders, a defiant look on his face. “Leave her be.”
I don’t know what Lenka’s done, but it doesn’t matter. Not right now. What matters is that Sela has taken my Larellin.
“I’m going after her.” I stride out and down the hall, my wings unfurling as I leap and push myself up and back into the treasure cavern.
Faraday is on my heels. “You can’t go barging into the Usurper’s Aerie. That’s what they want you to do. This is a trap.”
“I don’t care!” I whirl and advance on him until we’re almost nose to nose. “They took my treasure. She’s mine. She’s afraid, Faraday. I can feel her fear,” I snarl.
He blinks, surprise writ large on his face. “But that only happens when—”
“When we meet our mate,” I finish for him.
“DragonKin can’t have mates. Not until the curse is …” His voice dies away. Then he asks, “How long have you known?”
“I didn’t know. Not until now. Not until I felt our bond.” I shift, my body changing and growing as Faraday backs away. “I’m going to bring her back.”
“We should wait for Fyan!” he yells at me as I take off at a run, coins and jewels scattering beneath my feet. “You can’t do this alone!”
“I will not abandon her!” I take flight, borne on the winds of the storm, lightning flashing as I command the sky and hunt my mate.