Chapter 33 Fell #2
Tamsyn made a sound of distress and lifted up, f lying away from my side to land before Vetr with a snarl—as though she would protect the survivors herself. A strange turn, given the amount of blood still staining her talons.
Vetr didn’t look impressed … or intimidated as he gazed at her long and hard. “You’ve made your choice it seems, Little Flame,” he said to her.
There was a bright flash and then Tamsyn was her human self again, in all her naked glory. She didn’t shrink away or appear the slightest bit self-conscious in her vulnerable state.
Lifting her hand, she struck a palm across my brother’s face.
“My name is Tamsyn,” she growled out. “Use it.”
I sprang to her side with a growl, baring my fangs, ready to protect her against any possible retaliation.
Vetr, however, did not seem inclined to react. He lightly fingered his cheek. “You’re so dramatic.” A glance to me. “I suppose that is what comes from being raised among humans. Both of you … suit each other.”
I glared at him, wondering if that was his way of relinquishing any designs he had on Tamsyn.
My brother looked to one of his pride members beside him, motioning him forward. Then Vetr quickly undressed and handed his clothes off to him. “Time to clean up this mess.” Next, he addressed me: “Watch and learn, brother.”
Without any explanation, he turned, bursting into his dragon, silvery white like me.
Screams and shouts sprang from the soldiers on the ground.
I squared off in front of him, blocking him from reaching any of the humans still alive behind me. There would be no more killing. He cocked his big, frilled head, holding my gaze for a long moment. Silent and yet not. Words passed between us.
Watch and learn, brother.
Comprehension crept over me.
I stepped aside, letting him move forward, watching him closely. Tamsyn went to stop him. I stretched a wing out to hold her back and shook my head once, conveying that all would be well. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did.
Vetr bowed his great head until his nose almost bumped the ground.
Closing his eyes, he exhaled an enormous breath.
Thick fog, the purest white I had ever seen, almost sparkling and iridescent, expelled from his nose and lips.
It rolled in waves over everything, covering everyone in a dense blanket.
Soon, all fell quiet. No more cries or pleas. Not even the barest whimper.
The fog was so thick, it was impossible to peer through, but I stepped forward, moving closer until I could see that the soldiers slumbered solidly.
In a flare of light, Vetr returned to his human form. With efficient and curt movements, he redressed himself.
“They won’t remember a thing when they wake.
” Flinging his cloak around his shoulders, he cast a quick glance at me.
“I suggest you change back and don some clothes before they do. I’m sure you can come up with an appropriately plausible story.
Bandits abound in these parts, I’m told. ” His lips quirked.
I exhaled and transformed myself.
Naked, I stood unflinching as we locked eyes. We’d entered this world together. He’d brought me into the Crags, but we would go no further with each other.
“I should kill you,” I growled, thinking of the time I had lost, buried away because of him. The misery. The aloneness so deep and intense it nearly broke me to the point of no return—very nearly had me kill Tamsyn.
“Go ahead.” He smiled amiably. “Try.”
And it was too much.
I surged forward, eager to tear him apart.
He moved, ready to meet me, but Tamsyn was suddenly between us, pressing a hand to each of our chests.
“Stop! Stop it! There’s been enough blood today, you idiots.
No more!” Her voice cracked, and I knew she meant it.
She could bear no more. “You may hate each other, but you are brothers, dragons. We should be allies and not at one another’s throats.
I will not allow you to kill each other.
” Her fire-gold eyes sparked with command, and she stomped her foot once in finality. “I’m not having it, understand?”
After a long moment, I stepped back. She was right.
I didn’t trust Vetr, but that did not mean I should kill him—that did not mean I should take him from the other dragons who needed him to lead them into the future.
Vetr followed suit, stepping back, breaking our gazes to look down at her. It was a long, slow look that I didn’t like. “You’re certain this is what you want, Little—?” He stopped at her sharp look and corrected himself. “Tamsyn.”
He meant me.
He was asking her if she was certain that she wanted me. A low growl started in my throat.
Tamsyn moved to my side and placed a reassuring hand on my arm. “It’s always been Fell for me.”
“Of course you choose him,” he sneered. “You think he can—”
“No,” she snapped, cutting him off. “I choose me.” She patted a hand to her chest. “Me! And that means, for the first time in my entire life”—she paused, almost gasping for breath—“I get to choose and go where I want and be with who I want. I’m finally free.
And isn’t that what we are all fighting for? ”
My breath seized in my chest, looking at her, caught up in her beauty, in her words, in the honor of being chosen. Of being her choice.
Vetr nodded once, briskly. “And what of you, brother?” Eyes so like my own stared back at me. Deep and probing. “You think to live in the human world as you are? That both of you can do that? Live freely and happily out there with them?” He gestured toward the Borg with a motion of disgust.
I reached for Tamsyn’s hand, lacing my fingers with hers, not bothering to remind him that he had never given me the choice, the option, of the pride. He’d cast me into a hole. “As long as we’re together, yes.”
Vetr smiled widely. “Such romantics. I hope you’re right and not the fools I fear you are.”
“We’re alike,” Tamsyn said. “And we want the same things. But that does not mean we reject our dragons either.”
He smirked, and again I wondered if I looked like that when I made such a face—and if I did, someone needed to punch me. “Oh? You think you can have both … be both things?”
“We already are,” I said.
He grunted out a sound that indicated his disagreement. Instead of arguing, though, he lifted his chest on an inhale. “Well. Good luck with that.” With a whip of his cloak, he was gone.
They were all gone, turning and disappearing into the trees in a cloud of mist.
I faced Tamsyn, cupping her cheeks. “Together.”
“Together,” she repeated.