22. Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Ice rained from the sky. Not tiny, pea sized chunks that could easily be brushed off and forgotten about.
These were the size of daggers, some of them longer, like someone had ripped all of the icicles off the side of a house, multiplied them by a thousand and sent them flying through the air with a bloodthirsty mission in mind.
I followed their trajectory as they cut through the wind, whistling like bottle rockets, some of them were going so fast. An endless army of them shattering on impact, save for the ones that made a far different sound when they struck their massive targets.
As I watched the memory replay, of dragon after dragon being struck down by that barrage of icicles, I understood exactly why the Gorynych had sought to possess Kes and control him.
Slaughter.
Bloodbath.
Gorefest.
There were so many words I could use to describe the memory his dragon shared with me and mine.
By the time someone had gotten a hand on Kes and pinned him down, eight dragons lay bloody, broken and in several pieces, while a ninth tried to drag himself away from the carnage without a tail.
He’d been missing a chunk of wing too. His dragon’s roar echoed through my head again, sharing more of the scene.
A face snarled down at my much smaller mate, teeth bared, tongue dripping as it leaned in like it was going to taste him.
An icicle suddennly protruded from it’s mouth with such swiftness that there was a moment of pause, as the dragon’s eyes widened to an almost comical degree.
We lingered in that memory, as the dragon ‘s eyes rolled back, blood dripping down its face in slow red rivets, until it’s eyes rolled back and it’s body shuddered. It had died pinning Kes in place.
His dragon refused to show me any more.
What he’d shared made me long to wrap him in bubble wrap and keep anything from ever happening to him again. Still, what they’d shared was proof of why the Gorynych feared him even as a teenager.
Unworthy of being a protector’s mate my ass.
They punished you harshly for what you did, but they didn’t kill you because you were valuable to them.
You were exactly the kind of dragon they wanted to have in their ranks.
A powerful Omega. Quint learned from Torin that their methods have become far more reckless today than they used to be.
In the past, they would approach under the guise of friendship, presenting as nothing more than a visiting group of dragons passing through a territory, exchanging stories and supplies.
Few thought anything of those encounters, until they began conversing with other dragons who’d also interacted with them.
Some of them were missing a young dragon or two, weren’t they? Kes asked. They were looking for the Gorynych so they could get their children back.
Aye.
That was their strategy. When the parents hunted them, they’d find themselves ambushed. I’ve heard that story too. Eventually, it grew too risky for them. They were losing dragons they couldn’t afford to lose during each encounter. There was a story, about a teenage dragon who…
Kes groaned and went silent on me again.
What is it mate? What’s wrong?
I am the dumbest dragon in the history of dragon kind. Kes replied.
Weren’t we just having a conversation about how you were going to cease referring to yourself in derogatory terms?
Yes, but in this case, it’s warranted.
Why.
Because Torin was the teenage dragon they were speaking of.
He attacked them the same way I did, only he used his toxins.
He was able to free several of the young dragons too, the way Canyon, Upalo and I decimated that mine.
Torin escaped them and they pursued him for decades before finally encountering him again when he was fully grown and attempting to prevent other dragons from experiencing the same fate.
He was able to share much of his history with my dragon while trying to persuade us to rescue him.
I never put the stories together or I would have tried harder to find him or at least, shared that with you when I arrived.
There were times when I convinced myself he was just another dream bordering on the edge of a nightmare.
It was better than focusing on all the ways I couldn’t make my powers work the way Upalo and Canyon could.
It’s been sorted out now, mate, and from the sound of it, your dragon and you have gotten the hang of sharing memories.
Yes, he’s filled in quite a few gaps for me already.
Good.
I’d been guiding his hand until that moment, now he guided mine to Trinity’s egg, where tiny snores were broken by what sounded like her blowing raspberries in her sleep.
One. Two. Three.
Then her snores resumed.
It’s going to be amazing watching them grow up.
He moved our hands to Sapphire’s shell and oh my Goddess, our little girl’s snores, if you could call them that, sounded more like whale song.
I already love them with everything I am. Heart and soul aren’t enough. I love them to the marrow of my bones and every single cell in my body. It’s like I was born already loving them.
He brought our hands back to the boys’ egg again and the room grew colder as flurries formed over the nest, gently falling on us as well as their siblings, tiny giggles accompanying the soft, beautiful fluff.
We’d better be on the ball with those diaper changes, I said, snickering at the thought of the carnage that would rip through our home after they hatched.
We’d be cold, wet, and exasperated, but we were going to love every moment of it.
A few flakes here and there will be absolutely adorable, but take too long to change one, or warm a bottle, or heaven forbid, tell one of them no, and we might have a blizzard on our hands.
No might. They will be Hunter and Kane only without the fireballs.
Thank the Goddess for that.