Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Winds wash over the grasslands outside the Unseelie Court. Since Draven needs to be in dragon form for this to work, we had to go outside the wards so that he will actually be able to shift. I stare out at the open landscape, trying to compose myself.
After Grey died, we decided to end the meeting and take some time to rest so that we could start fresh again today.
We had already fought an entire battle and killed Emperor Bane by the time Orion saved the dryads and we lost Grey, so we were already exhausted.
And after that, it was all just too much.
But now, after lots of food and an entire night of undisturbed rest, we all feel better. Well, most of us, anyway.
After using my magic so much during the battle yesterday, the need to keep using it is even stronger.
I flex my hand several times as I try to resist the urge to create emotions just to feel that comforting pleasure instead of this awful tension.
And it’s not exactly helping that everyone is staring at me, Draven, and Lavendera.
Dragging in a deep breath, I turn back to face the mass of people who all have their attention on the three of us.
“So do they have to do this ritual thing you mentioned every time?” Rin asks, her black eyes on Lavendera. “It sounds very inconvenient in the middle of battle.”
Lavendera has so far only told us that we need to perform some kind of ritual to establish this union bond between fae and dragon shifter.
“No, they only have to do this first ritual part once,” Lavendera answers. Her eyes are focused and clear as she looks out at the rest of our allies. “After that, the bond is established, and they can open and close the bond at any time.”
“Well, that’s good.”
All of our friends are here. Isera, Alistair, Orion, Galen, and Lyra.
And all three clan leaders and their people who came through the portals to help us fight Bane and Jessina earlier.
The only one of our allies who isn’t in attendance for this momentous occasion is the Dryad Queen, who instead chose to help get her people settled temporarily in the forests of the Unseelie Court.
“How come we don’t know how to do this?” Ejnare Amarok asks.
Light from the late summer sun glints in his turquoise eyes and makes his blue dragon scale armor shimmer like water.
“I get why you don’t know.” He nods to us before motioning to the dragon clan leaders.
“But why is it that none of our clans know either?”
“The Green Clan,” Lavendera simply replies.
“I have a hard time believing that the Green Clan would just wipe our memories. They’re honorable. They always have been.”
“Not when their archives are threatened.” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Oh, if we had only seen that danger first. But we didn’t. We never thought…” She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does,” Rin adds, but her voice is soft rather than accusing. “This is our history. I would like to know what really happened.”
Lavendera tilts her head back and draws her fingers through her hair while letting out a long breath.
Then she tips her head back down again and looks from face to face.
“Jessina and Bane realized that they couldn’t launch their true war, the massive war that they really wanted in order to punish us all, without the help of the other dragon clans.
But you would never have joined them of your own free will, because you were our allies.
At that point, practically the entire adult population of the Seelie Court had formed a partnership with a dragon shifter. ”
“Why? Why were the partnerships needed? Was there another war happening?”
“From our side, we mostly formed partnerships because we wanted to strengthen our position against the Unseelie Court.” She glances at Orion, who smirks, before looking back at the dragon shifters before her.
“But it was mostly because you wanted help. There was a lot of jostling for power between the different dragon clans back then.” Her gaze slides to Draven.
“Well, between the clans on the mainland anyway. Your clan sort of always stayed out of their bickering.”
That draws a slightly smug smile from Draven while the other clan leaders exchange a look.
“Anyway, Bane and Jessina realized that they could never start a proper war without the rest of the dragon clans,” she continues.
“So they did something no one would ever expect. They went to the Green Clan under the pretense of asking for help, and then once they were inside their mountain, they stole their archives and threatened to destroy them. Then they forced the Green Clan to visit all the other clans and change the memories of all dragon shifters so that they thought that we had enslaved them all. I’m assuming that that’s the time when the knowledge of how to form these partnerships was wiped from your minds as well. ”
“Azaroth’s flame,” Ejnare curses, his eyes wide.
For a while now, since I learned about how the Icehearts conquered the Green Clan, I’ve been working under the assumption that that’s how it went down.
But to hear it confirmed hurts more than I thought it would.
We were allies. We were friends who shared deep bonds.
And then all of that was practically destroyed overnight.
“There’s one thing I just don’t get,” Alistair begins.
His eyes are slightly narrowed and his brow is furrowed as he watches Lavendera.
“If that group of fae outcasts had already enslaved Bane and Jessina with dragon steel, how were they able to get free from that? I thought dragon shifters couldn’t touch dragon steel. So how did they get it off?”
“We took it off them, of course,” Lavendera replies, as if that should have been obvious.
Silence falls over the plains. Another wind sweeps past, making the grass ripple like water and rustling the few bushes that dot the landscape. A few lazy clouds drift over the otherwise clear blue sky.
“What?” Alistair at last presses out, voicing what we’re all no doubt thinking.
“I mean, not me specifically,” Lavendera says.
Then she winces slightly. “I was so wrapped up in my own life that I didn’t even know that it was happening.
But some other fae from the Seelie Court had come across that group of outcasts and realized what they were doing.
So they fought the outcasts and removed the dragon steel from Bane and Jessina and all the other dragon shifters that they had enslaved. ”
“Our ancestors freed Bane and Jessina?”
“Yes.”
“And they still decided to massacre almost our entire race?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.”
Standing there on the grass, I say nothing.
If Orion hadn’t shown me Bane’s memories, I would never have understood.
If I hadn’t been so fucked up and full of rage and revenge myself, I wouldn’t have understood.
But unfortunately, I do. Because I am terrifyingly similar to Jessina in some ways.
So while it doesn’t justify their actions, and while it doesn’t make me hate them any less, I still understand the overwhelming, burning need for revenge that drove them to launch that war and kill our ancestors.
Because I was ready to slaughter the entire Silver Clan in retribution for what Jessina did to my parents.
The memory of her slitting their throats suddenly flashes unbidden before my eyes. Pain hits me straight in the chest, making it feel like I can’t breathe. I desperately try to force those emotions back again while battling the suddenly overpowering urge to use my magic.
Goddess damn it, I can’t slip up now. I can’t let everyone else see how messed up I am in the head right now.
I’ve worked so hard to become someone that people rely on.
If they learn how badly I’m struggling with all of this, they really will start to think of me as a liability again.
And I am not a liability. I am not the weak link.
So I don’t want them to see my weakness like this.
“Well, that was depressing to learn,” Ejnare says, and rubs his forehead. “Now, I almost wish I hadn’t asked.”
Draven turns to Lavendera. “Let’s just get started with this union bond. What do we do?”
“Take out your knife,” Lavendera says. “The dragon shifter starts the ritual by slicing a cut across the fae’s palm.”
Draven frowns deeply at her, but she just keeps looking back at him in silence.
With a sigh, he slides out a knife from his thigh holster.
I turn towards him and take a step closer before holding out my right hand.
Draven’s eyes search my face, and there is a distinctly uncomfortable expression on his face.
“I don’t like the thought of hurting you,” he says in a low voice.
“I know.” A teasing smile spreads across my lips. “Too bad I’m not the one who’s supposed to do this part, because if you remember, I have no problem swinging knives at your pretty face.”
A very untimely burst of laughter escapes his mouth.
Lavendera gives him a questioning look.
Clearing his throat, he shakes his head at me. But my little joke dispelled his tense energy, and he takes my wrist in his free hand before moving the blade closer to my palm. He holds my gaze as he draws a small cut across it. I make sure not to show any signs of pain.
“Now, you need to speak the ancient words,” Lavendera says. “Repeat after me.”
Then she speaks a series of words in a language I don’t know. But even though I’ve never heard them before, I somehow immediately understand what the words mean. The moment I speak them, it’s as if they vibrate through my very soul.
Strength.
Unity.
Life.
Bond.
“Good,” Lavendera says after Draven and I have repeated the words in unison. “Now, you need to shift into a dragon for this final part.”
Draven nods and then walks a short distance away so that he won’t crush us when he turns into a dragon.
Black smoke washes over the plains as he shifts.
Then he is standing there on the grass in his majestic dragon form.
I’ve seen it so many times now, but I’m still filled with awe every single time I look at him like this.
Sunlight glints in his golden eyes while the black scales across his body almost seem to swallow the light, making him look like a true shadow of death there above us.
“Selena, now you will press your bleeding palm against his face,” Lavendera says.
Draven lowers his massive head until his jaw is resting on the grass right in front of me. His eyes gleam in the light as he opens his mouth slightly, revealing long and incredibly sharp teeth. A low rumbling comes from deep within his chest. I can practically hear the teasing challenge.
Walking up to him, I just arch an eyebrow at him while a slight smile plays over my lips. “Oh, you know you can’t scare me, Shadow of Death.”
He snaps his teeth together.
I jump.
Warm air washes over me as he lets out an amused huff through his nostrils. I didn’t think it was possible for a dragon to smirk, but if anyone can, it’s Draven.
I give him a look that promises delicious revenge before glancing over my shoulder to ask Lavendera, “Do I need to say anything or just place my palm there?”
“Just place it there on the scales between his nostrils. Once you do, the union bond will form between you. You should feel it like a tether between your minds. When you want to close it, you just imagine unhooking your side of the tether. And when you want to open it again, you just imagine hooking your side back on. Both partners obviously need to have their side hooked on for the bond to be open.”
“Alright.”
Turning back to Draven, I draw in a deep breath to calm my suddenly pounding heart.
This time, Draven’s face is serious, and he lowers his head as far as physically possible so that I can reach that spot at the front of his nose, between his nostrils. I still have to stand on tiptoes to reach it.
Blood slides down the inside of my forearm as I stretch my arm upwards and then press my bleeding palm against Draven’s hard scales.
A force pulses into my palm and through my entire body like a shockwave.
And just like Lavendera said, it feels as if a soft tether flows between my mind and Draven’s. It’s similar to our mate bond, which I feel connected to my chest rather than my mind, but it’s less intimate. This feels more like the bond to a friend rather than the deep bond of a life partner.
“Now this is a surprise,” Draven says.
Inside my mind.