Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Ronan
The chaos of dragonets at play was overwhelming.
There was literally a roar, crash, and squeal every few seconds, and most of them came from the twin boys playing with a large set of castle blocks.
One wall had a dragonet sized hole in it, like the Kool-Aid man had come crashing through, and for just a moment, I was reminded of a colorfully decorated cardboard box, with ribbons for banners and turrets made from taped together construction paper.
A blanket and pillow lay on the floor inside of it, along with the purple and white stuffed bunny I’d received in my Easter basket the year my mom went away.
It was the last thing she’d given me.
Remembering it brought back images of cold, furious eyes glaring down at me before the bunny was ripped from my grasp.
Screaming, I’d jumped to get it back, but the man who held it was so much bigger, and so very angry with me.
My father had eyes like ice with just a ring of blue around the edges.
I don’t remember ever seeing him smile, but he laughed as I leapt and batted at the air, trying to get my bunny back as he carried it across the lawn, to the fire where he was burning the rest of my mother’s things.
I couldn’t reach my bunny, so I wrapped my arms around his leg and clung, hoping that it would stop him.
Instead, he just kicked me free and kept walking.
Scurrying behind him, unable to keep up with his long strides, I could only watch as he dropped the bunny into the flames and the fire consumed it.
Even after it was gone, I couldn’t look away. The tears wouldn’t stop nor would the anger when the next thing he carried out of the house was my pretty box castle, ribbon banners trailing forlornly through the dirt. He burned my safe place right in front of me and shredded my heart in the process.
The bonfire spit lava bombs at him. They chased him across the lawn. A sound, like whistling in the darkness, followed them like a comet trail, smashing through the roof of the porch and the kitchen window until something had smothered the fire and put it out.
Ice.
I remembered now. It had covered me too, freezing the tears on my cheeks, the grass crackling as the ice was breaking away when someone lifted me.
Upalo.
My brother had carried me to somewhere in the woods where we’d stayed until our father’s wrath had cooled and it was safe to return to the home we’d hated.
I stood frozen in the doorway of Ionus and Alex’s living room, unable to look away from that castle fort, feeling like a damn fool when I felt the prickle of tears in my eyes and my mate’s hand on my back, rubbing circles as he asked what was wrong.
“I…I…” Stammering, I shook my head, because how to tell my mate that as a child, I’d once terrorized a grown man with lava bombs and as a teenager I’d tried to roast him in his bed while he slept. “I’m a dragon.”
“We know,” Alex said as he crossed the room towards me. “We’ve just been waiting for you to accept it.”
“No, you don’t understand,” I said, trying to back away from him but Odem was in the way. “I-I’m….”
A volley of lava bombs against the night sky, that’s what flashed through my mind when I tried to speak.
The village around me broken and in flames as I called out the others one by one, all the ones who’d been cruel to me or stood back and watched as others had mocked me and made cutting remarks about my mother.
I cursed the ones who’d driven my brother out and rained hellfire down on those who’d planned to use me as a weapon.
Seduce them. Destroy them.
The words accompanied yet another memory, shoved to the back of my mind and buried since the night I’d destroyed my former home and left the bodies of several of my former neighbors in my wake.
Too bad the ones I’d truly wanted to destroy hadn’t been there that night. Their eyes had followed me as I’d driven through the night, lingering in the rearview until I’d reached the edge of Dragon City. Why hadn’t they stopped me?
Let him go.
“I think I need to go lay down,” I said, trying to step around Odem who just closed his arms around me.
“No, we need to go to the kitchen and speak to Ionus,” Odem said. “What I just saw in your head…”
“Wasn’t meant for you to see,” I hissed, keeping my voice low because the little ones were there.
I might not know anything about caring for one, but I knew what it was like to be small and listen to people yelling at one another. It was the scariest thing in the world, and I wouldn’t be part of subjecting them to that.
“Please, mate, trust me,” Odem said, holding me tight, his nose pressed to my hair until my breathing was in tune with his. “This could be a crucial piece of information.”
Slowly, I exhaled, nodded, and let him lead me past Alex and into the kitchen, where Ionus already had a kettle on for tea.
“Raspberry oolong?” Ionus asked, t-bag in hand.
“Y-yes, how did you know?” I sputtered as I collapsed onto the chair.
“That one always seems to calm you down,” Odem replied as he rubbed my shoulders. “I simply asked if he had some.”
“I-I didn’t hear you say anything.”
He tapped the side of his head, a reminder of the way he could communicate with me as well. When he’d asked if I’d ever heard a voice that warned me of danger, I’d stayed silent. Now I recalled the way it had taken over that night, snarling its fury over the screams as people fled the lava bombs.
“Touching base with one another is second nature,” Ionus explained.
“Apparently,” I muttered, though as I said it I was reminded that I’d had that once, with Upalo, before he’d been forced to leave me behind.
But why?
I barely remembered him. His face, like the rest of my memories, was blurred and had been growing more so since I’d settled into Dragon City.
Even time was hazy and growing long, until it felt like I’d been here forever, the past a misty dream and occasional nightmare easy to escape the moment I awoke.
I sat silently contemplating what to tell them until Ionus slid the mug between my hands.
“I burned most of my village before I came here,” I muttered as I stared down into the steaming liquid. “It wasn’t accidental. It was intentional.”
“Why?” Ionus asked.
“It’s um, kinda funny that you’d ask that,” I said, though I could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t find any of this amusing. “I don’t remember.”
“How is that possible?” Ionus asked.
“I don’t know, I guess my memory just sucks!
” I snapped, bristling when it started to feel like he didn’t believe me.
“I did it with lava bombs and then I left. I drove away and eyes followed me until I got here. Every time I lingered in another place, they’d be there, peering through my windows, watching me until I moved again.
I didn’t remember anything about the village until I walked through your door and saw the kids playing with their blocks.
It reminded me of a box I made into a castle as a child. ”
“Did you come straight here?” Ionus asked. “How long did you travel?”
I shook my head, because I remembered being behind the wheel for what felt like forever. “I don’t know how long it took to get here. I tried to settle down other places, but I was never able to stay long. I was trying to escape those eyes, but they didn’t stop appearing until I reached Dragon City”
“Do you remember how many places you lingered in?” Ionus asked, beginning to sound impatient with me.
“No, I’m sorry, I don’t remember how long I remained in any of them at all,” I said, frowning and suddenly recalling the mess I’d cleaned out of my car.
“But I guess it had to have been to several, because there were stacks of brochures from a bunch of different states in the passenger’s seat when I got here, a bunch of them, and piles of dirty clothes on the backseat. ”
“So, your village was some distance away from here, at least,” Ionus said, rubbing his chin. “Are you sure you had never heard of Dragon City before you drove into it?”
“No,” I replied. “Because I’m not sure of anything right now.
Who forgets lava bombing a village? Or being a flipping’ dragon?
I barely remember what my brother looks like.
I only remembered his name in the doorway.
My father’s eyes are burned into the back of my mind because they were the eyes that followed me, but I didn’t put that together until just now.
I don’t remember how long ago I left. I don’t remember what pushed me to burn all those homes to the ground before I did.
For all I know I committed more acts of carnage along the way and don’t remember that either. ”
“Breathe mate,” Odem murmured in my ear. “When did you start remembering the events that lead to you being here?”
It took a moment to sort through the random flashes of memory back to the first one, as I’d driven to the diner in his Jeep. “The morning after our mating. I remembered seeing eyes following me as I fled my village. Something about the drive just triggered the memory.”
“Or your mating unlocked it,” Ionus stated. “It’s entirely possible that your dragon has been protecting you from them and now that it’s reemerging, it’s sharing the memories with you again.”
“They do that?” I asked, looking from Ionus to Odem.
“Aye mate, in times of great stress they do,” Odem said.
“I’m not sure I want to know anymore,” I admitted. “At least not right now.”
“Is your brother here in Dragon City?” Ionus asked. “Perhaps he can shed further light on where you came from and what family you hail from.”
“He left long before I did,” I said. “I don’t know where he is now. I thought he’d come back for me, when he found someplace safe, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“But you don’t remember why, do you?” Ionus said with a heavy sigh.