Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
LARELLIN
“Are you sure you’re all right? You can ride on my back. I—”
“Nope. This is perfect.” I snuggle into the downy blanket I stretched along Vander’s talons. Here, cocooned in the warmth of his giant claw with my blanket, I’m far happier than I would be out in the wind and the cold on his back. Not to mention the definite danger of me falling to my death.
He snorts with disapproval. “I would never allow my mate to fall.”
“I know. I know. It’s just that I’m not exactly dragon wrangler material.”
He groans. “Wrangler? I think my darling treasure is taunting me. I think she wants me to make her squeal as soon as we touch down in the DragonLands.”
I don’t argue his point. I do, in fact, like it when he makes me squeal. He’s done so several times over the past two days. But now I feel a current of unease in him. Our bond is like a little window into his heart. It’s new and strange and also beautiful.
His feelings are huge. As strong as he is.
But he’s become so proficient at keeping them locked away and buried under stony layers.
Every moment with him is a new discovery, a feeling that I want to know more, to delve deeper in his emotions.
But it’s overwhelming. So much so that he tries to keep himself somewhat guarded, the bond alight with our connection but not burning so brightly that I end up scorched.
A delicate balance we’ve only just begun to experience.
We took off from the DragonKeep this morning, his brothers flying with us to the DragonLands.
Even though Vander knows the curse is broken, his trepidation is growing as we near the borders.
Part of it is his fear that perhaps the curse will still repel him.
The other part is everything else. The past. The present.
The idea of rebuilding an entire world from nothing but memories.
Revisiting the place where his parents and brother died.
Peeking out, I see the edges of a great pit below, the center darker than night, as if it’s absorbing the light around it. My hackles rise.
“What’s that?”
“The garthook.”
Faraday swoops past and dives low, turning onto his back as he floats over the pit. Suddenly, from the darkness, a huge gray tentacle slithers out and forms into a curl. Inside of the curl, a great eye opens, the center a red slit with black where the white should be. I recoil.
“You’re safe, my treasure. Be easy. The garthook doesn’t bother with dragons. Not when she knows we’re her only true chance at destruction.”
“What is she?” I stare as more tentacles loop around, more eyes forming. All different shades, but each with black instead of white around the irises.
“Whatever lore there is about the garthook, no one truly knows what she is or where she came from. When the Library of Vines burned an eon ago, they say her origin as well as the DragonKin’s origin were lost. Some things are known only to the gods.”
“There’s only one of her? That’s kind of sad.”
“One is plenty.” He banks to the right, and I roll, hanging onto my blanket.
Fyan swoops past us, Brin clutched tightly in his grasp. The wolven recovered quickly. Someone in his home village healed him with great care. Though he did arrive back at the Keep with a black eye, which I suspected was new.
“Ahead.” Vander’s tone is solemn. “My homeland.”
Past the garthook’s pit, I can only see trees, vast swaths of dark green with areas of deep mist. We’re almost to the DragonLands.
Vander’s worry is growing, each second an agony of doubt for him. I reach out and stroke along the pad of his claw.
He shakes a little. “That tickles.”
“We’re going to be all right.” I keep stroking him. “We’ve come this far, Vander. We’re going to make it. Okay?”
“If you say it, I believe it.” He calms a little, but I don’t think anything can erase the anxiety of returning home. Especially after everything that happened.
Pumping his wings, Vander takes us higher, the sun casting his vast shadow on the ground ahead of us. Beautiful.
For so long I dreaded the thought of DragonKin.
Of wolven. Of anything and anyone from Oblivion.
They were scary stories told to keep mortal children in line.
Or worse, the creatures that stole the life of a Bargain every 20 years.
But they’re none of those things. As varied as grains of sand, as different as mortals are from each other.
Here, I’ve found family. Here, I’ve found love.
“I love you, too, Larellin.”
I smack his talon. “I told you not to read my thoughts unless I’m talking to you.”
“Sometimes you think so loud I simply have to assume you’re speaking to me,” he says slyly.
“Are all DragonKin liars?”
He snorts a burst of golden fire. “I beg your pardon.”
“I like it when you beg.”
His talons twitch, and I get the very distinct sense that he will be making good on his threat to make me squeal sooner rather than later.
I’m still sore from all our lovemaking. Mother always referred to it as a chore, something to be borne.
It never occurred to me it could be so enjoyable.
My toes curl at the thought of it, of the way Vander touches me.
His talons close tighter around me. “Careful, my treasure. You’re tempting me.”
“I told you to stop reading my thoughts.”
“It’s not your thoughts I’m reading. I can taste you. Your honey. It belongs on my tongue.”
“Naughty dragon.” I slap his hide.
He shakes again. “I told you that tickles.”
If I told anyone from Raingreen I smacked a DragonKin, they’d think I’d caught lunacy. Or had a death wish. Gods, how everything has changed. How I have changed.
Vander tenses.
I peer between his talons, watching as the trees rise along a sharp ridge.
“This is where I would feel it. The curse pushing me back.” He flaps his wings hard, pulling us up until we’re high above the green below.
“Do you feel it now?” Golden sun pours along the landscape and sparkles along a blue ribbon that cuts through the forest.
“I …” He shudders.
“Vander?” I call.
He tucks his wings closer and arrows forward, the wind whistling in my ears as we shoot through the air. Suddenly, the bond pulses, my entire body warming, a golden glow all around both of us. Something shatters. Not a sound so much as a sensation, one that raises goose bumps all over me.
“The barrier is gone. Destroyed. We pierced it as surely as a talon pierces flesh. The way is open. The sun and the sky beckon us home.” He opens his wings, catching the wind and lofting us gently, leveling us out. “We’re here.” His voice is full of wonder. “This is … this is the DragonLands.”
I feel him inhale, the entire world going warm and hazy, and then he roars, the sound like thunder inside the storm. A blast of golden flame fans out in front of us, and I revel in his joy, in the pure happiness that seems to flow like a river from his heart to mine.
Rivon barrels past, his black wings flapping furiously.
Then Faraday, who’s flying so fast he’s nothing but a streak of silver, shoots ahead of us. His roar mixes with Fyan’s who nips at his heels.
“They’re racing to the Palace of the Sky.” Vander snorts sparks.
I pull my blanket tightly around me and wedge myself between two of his talons. “Are we going to let them beat us?”
I swear I can feel him smile, feel his amusement like a tickle along the back of my neck.
“Absolutely not.” With that, he flaps his mighty wings and propels us forward.
His smile infects me as I whoop right along with the wind. “Show them what a golden dragon can do!”
“Yes, my treasure. Hold tight. Hold onto me. Always.”