Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Jumping back, I whip my head from side to side in search of Draven even though he is right in front of me. But I just can’t reconcile the fact that Draven is in his dragon form, but I can still hear his voice. That shouldn’t be possible.
“So you can hear me,” Draven says in my mind, and I can practically hear the smirk in his voice. “This really is an interesting development.”
“I can hear you,” I blurt out like an idiot, and then I look back at Lavendera over my shoulder. “I can hear him! In my head.”
A ripple goes through both the other dragon shifters and my fellow fae, and they all look between me and Draven in surprise.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that?” Lavendera says. She lets out a soft laugh. “Yes, while the union bond is open, you can communicate through your mind.”
“That’s amazing,” Galen says, staring between me and Draven in surprise and approval. “That will make it so much easier to coordinate how to fight together as a unit.”
“Wait,” Alistair interjects, sounding slightly panicked. “So if we create this bond with a dragon shifter, they can hear all of our thoughts?”
A devilish smile curves Lyra’s lips, and her orange eyes sparkle as she looks over at him. “Afraid someone will hear your dirty thoughts?”
“N-no, that’s not—”
“Afraid I will hear your dirty thoughts?”
He chokes on a strangled cough and looks desperately to his left while pressing out a pleading, “Lavendera?”
Genuine amusement glitters in her pink and purple eyes, which is something I haven’t seen a lot from her. And she even lets him suffer for another few seconds before finally replying, “No. They can only hear the thoughts, or images, that you are thinking directly to them.”
“Too bad,” Draven says in my mind with that teasing smirk still in his voice. “I would’ve loved to hear all your dirty little thoughts.”
“Oh, you can always have those,” I think back at him before projecting some of my most wicked fantasies right into his mind without warning.
A jolt goes through his huge dragon body, his massive wings flaring out in response.
“Azaroth’s flame, little rebel,” he growls into my mind.
“Testing it out, huh?” Lyra says, a knowing grin on her lips.
I suddenly become acutely aware that there are three other clan leaders and a whole bunch of soldiers that I don’t know watching us right now. While trying to battle a very untimely blush, I clear my throat and quickly turn back to Lavendera.
“So what does this union bond actually do?” I ask. “What’s the purpose of it? Apart from giving us the ability to communicate with our minds.”
“It gives the fae access to the innate magic that every dragon shifter carries in their soul,” she replies.
“The magic that is connected to their dragon fire. That’s why they need to be in dragon form for it to work.
” She draws a distracted hand through her flowing brown hair.
“And it gives the dragon shifter access to the innate magic that every fae carries in their soul, where the potential for a magical skill is.”
My mind spins as I try to make sense of that. “What does that mean?”
“It means that both partners get more powerful. The dragon shifter gets stronger, faster, and their dragon fire gets much deadlier. If the dragon shifter is a clan leader, his or her magic will also get stronger. And the fae gets more powerful too. Stronger, faster, more resilient. If they have magic, their power gets stronger as well. And if their innate magic was too weak to produce a specific magical skill when the fae was born, it will boost their power enough to give the fae a magical ability. Fire magic, specifically. Since it’s connected to the dragon shifter’s fire. ”
Alistair snaps his head towards her. “Fire magic? All fae who were dragon riders but didn’t have their own magical skill got fire magic?”
“Yes.”
Surprise blows across his features. It takes me a moment to understand why. If everyone without magic also gets fire magic when they bond a dragon, then fire-wielders like Alistair will no longer be shunned. Because fire will not just be the dragon shifters’ element. It will be our element too.
“The physical effects, like getting stronger and such, and the powerful magical abilities disappear as soon as the union bond is closed,” Lavendera continues.
“But a limited part of the magical effects remains. That initial boost opens the magical power for the fae, so we often unlock new depths to our magic that we can still use afterwards. And the dragon shifters…” Trailing off, she seems to hesitate.
“Well, I’m pretty sure there is a specific lingering effect for you as well.
But I don’t know for certain if I’m right about this, so we’ll just have to see later. ”
“So what’s the catch?” Isera asks. Her blue and silver eyes are slightly narrowed as she watches Lavendera. “This all sounds very convenient, so there must be a downside.”
“There is. The first one, like I said earlier, is that it only works when the dragon shifter is in dragon form.” She glances down at a small pink flower on the ground, looking distracted for a few seconds, before meeting our eyes again.
“And the second downside is that while the union bond is open, you kind of share one body.”
I frown. “What?”
“If the dragon shifter gets hurt while the bond is open, the fae will feel the exact same pain. And vice versa.”
Worry ripples through me. “What happens if one of them dies while the bond is open?”
“The other person dies as well.” She shrugs. “But both partners always try to close the union bond before that happens, so that they don’t drag the other down with them. Sometimes death happens very quickly, though, so it’s not always possible.”
Silence falls over our entire group. For a little while, we all just stare at her.
“Oh,” I manage to say at last.
“Yeah, so it’s a bit of a trust thing,” she says with another light shrug. “You need to trust that your partner will close the bond in time if they see a potentially deadly attack coming that you don’t see.”
Orion lets out something between a scoff and a humorless huff of amusement.
Then a knife-sharp smile stretches his lips.
“So that’s why all dragon shifters only bonded fae from the Seelie Court.
Much easier to trust the sweet and virtuous members of the honorable Seelie Court than the wicked and cunning fae of my untrustworthy realm, huh? ”
Rin glances away, looking uncomfortable, but she doesn’t contradict him. Next to her, Diana just keeps looking back at him with unapologetically suspicious eyes. The only dragon shifter who speaks is the leader of the Blue Clan.
“It makes sense, though,” he says. “Even you have to agree with that.”
Orion arches a dark eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“How is the title and position of Seelie Queen passed to the next person?”
“It’s inherited by the eldest daughter of the previous Seelie Queen.”
“And who gets the title and position of Unseelie King?”
“Anyone who can take the power and hold it.” Orion raises his chin slightly. “In our court, bloodlines don’t matter. Only skills. You’re not born into royalty. You become royalty if you’re powerful, skilled, cunning, and ruthless enough.”
“Exactly. And that kind of mindset creates a ruthlessly ambitious people who crave power at all costs. Which isn’t exactly a great foundation for this kind of union bond.” Ejnare raises his eyebrows. “You have to see that, right?”
Orion gives him a cold and utterly lethal smile. “If you don’t feel safe here, you are welcome to leave at any time.”
“That’s not what he meant,” Diana interjects, her voice strong but not challenging.
Instead, her eyes are calm and serious as she looks back at the Unseelie King for a few seconds before she slides her gaze back to the other dragon shifters.
“We should probably leave, though. We should all fly back to our lands and get the rest of our warriors, and then we should meet up at the Seelie Court so that we can start forming these union bonds as well. We’re going to need all the extra power we can get if we are to win this war. ”
Rin and Ejnare nod. As do the soldiers from all three clans. A few steps from them, Galen and Lyra look to Draven, who is still in dragon form.
Black smoke fills the air as he shifts again. The moment he does, I can feel that soft union bond in my mind fade out. According to Lavendera, once he returns to his dragon form, we should be able to just open the bond now without doing this whole ritual with blood.
With a gust of wind from his storm magic, Draven shoves the smoke aside and then strides back towards us in his half-shift form.
“We should head home and get the rest of our soldiers as well,” Draven says, his golden eyes on Lyra and Galen. “Diana is right. This union bond is going to be our secret weapon. We need to have as many soldiers as possible with this kind of bond.”
Lyra’s eyes light up. “We’re going home?”
A smile drifts over Draven’s lips. “Yes, at long last, we are going home.” Then he slides his gaze to the other clan leaders. “We’ll decide on an exact day and time when we meet back up again, so that we all get to the Seelie Court at the same time, in order to minimize the risk of an ambush.”
“Agreed,” Diana says.
“Sounds good,” Rin agrees.
Ejnare just nods.
A short distance away, Orion lets out a cold laugh and shakes his head. Ice fills his gaze as he gives us all a sharp smile. “Well, best of luck to you.” Spinning on his heel, he flicks his wrist dismissively. “Come find me when you’re ready for war.”
Then he strides away across the grass.
Draven reaches me right as Orion starts walking, and he opens his mouth as if to tell the Unseelie King something. But before he can, someone else speaks up.
“I’m staying here,” Isera announces. As usual, there is no emotion on her face, but she glances towards Orion for a second.
“I need to take some time to process everything. Bane’s death and well…
” Trailing off, she lifts her shoulders in a casual shrug that feels slightly forced.
Then she simply repeats, “I’m staying here. ”
She was in bad shape after all the emotions that hit her when she killed Bane, so I understand that she needs time before throwing herself into the next part of this war. But I have a feeling that there is another reason she is staying here.
Without waiting for us to reply, she simply starts after Orion.
“The dryads and I will see you in the Seelie Court,” Lavendera says. “Well, at least one of them. Or two, counting me as well. Though that might technically be three, then, since I’m two people.”
The other dragon shifter soldiers, who don’t know that she has an immortal dryad trapped in her head, frown at her in bewilderment. She just gives them a smile and then twirls around before strolling after Isera and Orion.
Draven turns to me. His eyes glitter like pure gold in the sunlight, and a smile spreads across his face as he holds my gaze.
“So, little rebel, are you ready to see the Western Isles?”