Chapter 38 #2
He didn’t even need to reach for his dragon. Barely thought it and he was changing, so fast his muscles screamed in protest. Didn’t matter. He turned and found Nikki staring at him with their mouth hanging open.
“Whoa…”
“Yep. Let’s go for a ride. Hold on.” Ravi snatched the mage up in one hand and leapt into the air, flapping his wings as fast as he could to gain altitude. He called on the wind, lifting him higher into the air.
The chaos looked even worse from the air, but it gave him the most glorious sight in the world. Sora, his mate, was aglow with magic, his dark hair whipping around him like it was a living creature snapping Sora’s rage. Sora was here. Sora was here. Oh, yes, his mate was here!
Tucking Nikki tight against his body, Ravi folded in his wings and dove toward the gathering of mages and dragons. Sora was fighting back the Jaeggi with Cameron and Tori, while Alric glowered behind them, roaring and spewing fire at anyone who dared to look in the direction of his mages.
Baldewin, Warin, and Gunter were circling close overhead, while the kings of the Earth and Metal Dragons were protecting Alric’s flank with their own mage mates.
“Sora!” Ravi bellowed, and his mage stopped mid-spell and looked up. An expression of pure joy lit his face, and Ravi nearly spiraled in his joy. Luckily, he remembered the squeaking and squealing mage in his arms. Not a good time for acrobatics.
“Don’t set me down! Not with the mages! Don’t set me down!” Nikki suddenly started shouting. Their fingers tightened and they started to shift against Ravi like they were trying to climb onto his back.
Ravi couldn’t blame Nikki for their distrust of mages, considering their dark history, but now was not the best time. Clenching his teeth, Ravi quickly scanned the area for another option. He almost laughed when he found it.
Changing directions, he shot across the sky until he came up alongside a familiar red dragon who was wearing a grumpy expression.
“Hey, Gunter!” he called out.
“Ravi! Where have you been?” Gunter tilted and stretched out his neck so he could sweetly bump his snout against the side of Ravi’s head.
“Sorry I missed all the fun. I need to see Alric and Sora. I also need you to protect them,” he finished, shoving Nikki at Gunter.
The dragon squawked, a little like a dragon-shaped chicken, which was the strangest sound Ravi had ever heard Gunter make. But he accepted Nikki, tucking them close like the precious bundle they were.
“Ravi?”
“Nikki is a mage. Saved my life!” That was all Gunter needed to know.
Ravi wheeled around and dove back for his mate. Nikki would explain the need to stay away from other mages, and, well, Gunter was a dragon. For now, that was enough to make Nikki feel safe.
Against his dragon’s wishes, Ravi shifted when he was within a few feet of Sora and fell the rest of the way to earth. He couldn’t waste time with a proper landing. And if he was a dragon, he couldn’t possibly hold Sora tight enough.
The second Ravi’s feet touched the ground, he was tackled.
He blinked and found himself looking skyward with Sora on top of him.
Rough kisses peppered his face before their lips finally met in a long, brutal kiss that was more teeth than tenderness.
Didn’t matter. He had his mate back. It was such a fucking relief after everything that had happened, Ravi almost shuddered.
A tangle of joy, need, and a little worry about still being on a battlefield crashed through him, but it was lost under the sensation of that greedy mouth taking his own without mercy.
“Missed you,” Ravi blissfully murmured when Sora finally lifted his mouth from Ravi’s.
“You are never, ever leaving my sight again,” Sora growled.
“I am totally fine with that.” He pulled Sora in for a slower, gentler kiss. One that could finally say all the things he needed to—thank you, I love you, never let me go.
Almost reluctantly, the kiss ended, and Sora smiled. His eyes remained red-rimmed, and smears of tears streaked his cheeks, but Ravi swore he’d make that pain a distant memory when they were home again.
“I think we need to tell King Alric you’re okay.” Sora pushed to his feet and extended a hand to Ravi, helping him up.
They’d just started back toward where the other mages and Alric were fighting the Jaeggi when a pained roar went up.
They jerked around to see one of the metal dragons encased in a cage that glistened with a multitude of colors like stained glass.
He was one of the Rocas’ bodyguards. The dragon thrashed against the cage, causing even more damage to his thick hide and wringing sounds of both pain and anger from his throat.
Ravi opened his mouth to shout, preparing to call on his dragon, but Sora beat him to it.
“I’ve got him!” he called out, already reaching into the bag hanging off his shoulder. He pulled out two elements, but Ravi couldn’t tell what they were as Sora ran back to where he’d been standing next to Cameron. His mate looked over his shoulder and smiled.
“Ready?”
“Take all that you need. Everything I am belongs to you,” Ravi replied, and he meant every word of it.
Sora nodded and smashed the vials on the ground.
At the same time, he pulled a steady stream of power from Ravi, mixing the energy with the elements until he was once again encased in a bright golden glow.
His hair danced with a magic wind, and Ravi was in awe of his mate.
Cameron had created the spell when he’d been faced with the Jaeggi after his kidnapping.
Apparently, he’d taught the other mages how to replicate it.
Sora barked out the spell’s harsh command, sending the energy blasting into the cage that held the metal dragon. The cage disintegrated, and the metal dragon roared his gratitude. He was still gravely injured, but he would be in good hands with Sora’s parents.
Between the dragons attacking and the mage spells blasting everything to bits, the battle didn’t last long.
From what Ravi could see, most of the Jaeggi had fled, but there were still plenty of corpses on the field.
It looked as if the dragons and mages hadn’t suffered any casualties, to his relief, but there were plenty of injuries.
The mages were going to be busy healing everyone.
“Ravi?”
He turned from where he was watching Sora finish his spell to find that Alric had shifted back into his human form and was cradling a tired-looking Cameron against his chest. The king looked weary, but also happy.
Ravi jogged over to him, and a lump formed in his throat when Alric pulled him into a hug using his left arm.
Cameron wrapped an arm around him as well, and Ravi might have let out a little sigh of joy.
He was back with his friend and his brother. His family.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” Alric inquired, his voice rough with worry.
“We’ve got lots to talk about, but I’m okay,” he said as he stepped away.
Other fire dragons ran over, hugging him and patting him on the back, relieved he was safe. Balin might have hugged him tight enough to crack a couple of ribs, but Sora could help fix that later.
Once greetings were out of the way, dragons were dispatched to check the underground bunker for other captured mages, while Sora and his parents hurried over to work on injured dragons and mages.
Ravi quickly filled the kings in on the Jaeggi plot to force dragons to mate with Jaeggi mages in order to use their power.
“Ludicrous!” Chalo scoffed.
Rodrigo wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. They should know that.”
“Yeah, well, I can vouch for the fact that they don’t care if it doesn’t work that way. They are making do with stealing energy from mages, but their ultimate goal is a dragon. Probably lots of dragons,” Ravi countered.
“This is bad,” Cameron muttered. “I thought we were facing an uphill battle keeping them away from mages, but if they were able to successfully get their hands on a dragon, particularly an unmated dragon…”
“They can’t force a dragon and a mage to mate if they are not fated,” Roca pointed out.
Alric shook his head. “They might not be able to force a mate bond, but they might find another way to drain a dragon’s power. I don’t want to think of what they might be capable of if they succeed.”
Baldewin jogged up, his face drawn and eyes grim.
“Hoheit, we searched the bunker and found only three mages alive. We’ve got about a dozen corpses, so drained of magic they died of it.
But the survivors, we might be able to save yet.
They’re in poor shape, but strong enough to make it back to Burkhard if we hurry. ”