Chapter 21 Friend #2
“No.” I shake my head, though I already have an idea of where to get started with Strom’s query.
“But each time our magics have created our auric fire down here, they’ve burnished the runes upon the walls.
It’s like those runes gather our fire and wield it somehow.
They directed me towards the vault with the mirror and rings, even though I wasn’t consciously asking for help.
I think that maybe, if we create our fire again and focus our intention this time, of what we wish to find—”
“The runes might just reveal it.” Baldur’s eyebrows lift. “Magic of necessity.”
“Excuse me?” I ask him, frowning.
“It’s an ancient trick, used in runic libraries by sigilwrights,” Baldur explains, as he looks around at us.
“Because runic libraries can be so vast, with so many spells catalogued, magic of necessity is often used to lead those who need a certain spell right to what they seek. It would make sense that it was used down here, if this entire place is basically its own library.”
“How does it work?” Strom asks.
“You simply focus on what you wish to find, and runes in the library light up, leading you to what you seek.” Baldur shrugs. “Here, that focus may need an additional layer of auric fire to activate them, as Rikyava’s discovered.”
“Our ancient Ancestors made this place, before they were split in their Blood and Bone Magic,” I say now as I consider it. “They were all essentially Bloodwalkers. Perhaps this auric fire was common for them. A talent we lost when our magic became split and Bloodwalkers became far less common.”
“In any case, it seems we need to produce our auric fire again.” Mikkel claps his hands, boisterous. “Well. Shall we get to fucking, then?”
“Seriously?” Bjorn growls at him. I set a hand to Bjorn’s arm, though Strom speaks before I can.
“Mikkel’s right,” Strom says as we all look at Mikkel.
“Our fire comes most naturally when we have sex, even though it seems it can be provoked by any high-emotion state. It’s had several different appearances, however, depending on what emotions of ours were driving it.
Last night, we were in a state of ecstasy as we cleansed Baldur’s curses and came together.
What if the runes on the walls don’t light unless we’re in a high-heart state like that again? ”
“Or what if we find something we really don’t like down here, if our auric fire goes black?” I say now, as I recall how terribly oilslick-black my fire went as I was facing off with the Black Dragon.
“Might lead us into some dangerous, lost oubliette.” Strom nods, catching my drift. “I imagine a place like this has fail-safes against the wrong people finding certain information down here. Information that could end the world, if they were in a really awful state.”
“Hedda discovered the place of power that aided her in creating the Black Dragon, and the knowledge to do it.” Baldur is quiet now as he looks at me.
“She was in a terrible state, grieving for her dead First Drake. Perhaps this place has no fail-safes; perhaps it simply gives you what you resonate with, what you seek. Which is even more dangerous than if it had magical oubliettes, to trap those who wished to do harm.”
“She wanted to punish everyone in the War of Blood and Bone for what happened,” Mikkel says as his energy spikes, vicious. “And she found everything she needed down here to do it.”
We all sit silent now, digesting Mikkel’s dark but immensely acute words as our group energy churns.
“Well. We need to do something far better with this place of power than she did.” Strom is decisive as he glances at me. “How do we get started? Do we don those rings first, or do we simply get naked and do each other first to make our fire flare? Because I’m game, either way.”
“I don’t know, exactly.” I glance at Bjorn, then at the rings.
“When Bjorn put his on a few hours ago, it produced some kind of intense magical resonance with mine, and between our dragons. I think before we have our next group encounter, we should put on the rings. Get as much benefit from them as we can to help us.”
My statement makes everyone pause, however, as a deep silence envelops the table. It’s then I realize I just asked three drakes to get hitched to me with wedding rings, although we’re already life-mated.
“No time like the present, I suppose.” Strom is the first to rise as he comes around the table to where Bjorn and I sit. He lifts an eyebrow at me, then nods at the rings. “Which one do I take?”
“Whichever one calls to you,” I say, then feel like perhaps there should be some kind of ceremony to this and rise from the table. Facing him, I pick up the three remaining rings and hold them in my palm. As he glances over them, Strom frowns.
Then reaches out a hand—hesitating over mine.
“Never thought I’d get hitched this way. Or at all, for that matter.” Strom gives a wry chuckle as his green eyes sparkle. I can feel the tension in him, though, the uncertainty about what’s going to happen, as he hesitates.
I get it; like me, Strom never felt like he’d ever get hitched, at all. He’s been the consummate playboy his entire life, except for when he was bound to Alfhild. Some part of him never thought he’d get true love like we share now. I reach out with my free hand, gripping his hand down at his side.
Strom startles, then grips my hand back. He threads his fingers through mine, lifting our free hands up to his lips. As he kisses my fingers, he sighs.
Then the emerald in his eyes shines, like oceans aflame.
“I’d die for you. You know that? A thousand times over.” Strom runs his thumb over mine as we hold hands.
“No less than I would for you.” I give him a soft smile, everything inside me beaming to be doing this with my best friend.
“I know that, too.” Strom smiles at me, beautiful and wistful. I feel our hearts come together in that moment. I feel our inner dragons twine together, so lovely and fully in love, passionately quiet in a way none of my other drakes can match.
Just like that, a beautiful dark fire springs to life in my palm. I feel it as Strom reaches in, drawn towards one ring that has a strange fire opal that glints green and red with gold.
That fire opal matches one on my ring that’s right near my dragon’s taloned hand. Strom takes his ring, then hands it to me, calm now. I place it on his left ring finger, holding his gaze as I feel our beautiful hearts burn.
A dark flare of magic floods out around us as Strom puts the ring on. As with Bjorn, it hauls us together, as I feel our inner dragons rush into each other and become one.
Unlike the pummeling blaze of heat and power I experienced with Bjorn, however, that just drove us to fuck, this resonance with Strom is far more subtle.
Passion like I’ve never known fills me, deep love like the furthest depths of the ocean, as Strom takes me in his arms. I feel the darkest and brightest parts of our hearts connect as he smiles at me, beaming as he touches my cheek.
When we kiss, it’s with all the love of our hearts in our lips, in our bones, and in our veins. Because I get to marry my best friend. Not everyone can do that, as I kiss Strom now with a love none other of my drakes can match.
“I love you.” I murmur at his lips.
“I know.” He quotes Han Solo in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which makes me smile, beaming from my heart as I grin. But then he gets serious. “I love you, too, Rikyava. To the end of the world and back. I do.”
“I do, too.”
As Strom and I both heave hard breaths, I know our moment is complete. We thread our hands with our rings together; I feel the massive rush of power that surges through us, twisting our dragons up and through each other, hard.
Even though it spikes my blood to consummate things with Strom like I already did with Bjorn, we have others to address. Softly, I kiss Strom’s lips again, letting him know we’ll finish this. He chuckles beneath my lips, letting me know he gets it.
Then he slaps my ass as I turn towards Mikkel.