Chapter 12
AURA
I wake with a start, blinking quickly to take in my surroundings.
The cave comes into focus. The fire is low, glowing red rather than gold, as Ronyn feeds it more wood.
Daylight spills thin and pale through the cave mouth.
I shiver despite the trace of warmth around me.
The furs are amazing at keeping out the cold.
Kelan sits nearest, his silver eyes already focused on me, sharp and alert. Darial watches me with clear concern, as though he’s bracing for a blow.
Something is wrong. It isn’t a sound or a smell that alerts me. It’s an absence. A hollow place where warmth should be. Where something alive and restless once curled below my ribs, humming softly like an ember banked but never extinguished, there’s nothing.
I gasp and sit up.
Cold floods me, as though part of me has been scooped out and left exposed. My heart stutters as panic slams into place. I press a hand against my chest.
Nothing answers.
There’s no trace of heat or responding throb of magic.
I clamber backward off the bed, nearly tangling myself in the furs as my feet strike cold stone.
“No,” I whisper.
I stare at my hands, holding them out in front of me, palms up. I concentrate, drawing inward and calling for that familiar warmth, that spark that has never failed me.
Nothing happens.
I try again, harder this time. I picture the flame. Heat. Light.
Still nothing.
A fractured sound tears from my throat. “What did you do to me?”
The words echo harshly off stone.
Darial takes a step toward me, then stops himself. “Aura—”
“You took it,” I snarl, backing away until the stone presses hard against my back. “You took my magic.”
Kelan’s jaw tightens. “We sealed it inside you where it can’t hurt you anymore.”
His words are a knife to my heart.
“You had no right,” I spit. “That was mine. It’s the only gift I’ve ever been given. The only thing that’s ever kept me alive.”
Ronyn’s voice is low, edged with steel. “And it’s the thing that will get you killed.”
I shake my head violently. “That’s a lie. It keeps me safe. This is about control. It’s always about control.”
The betrayal is stark. They told me I could trust them. I let them sleep around me, and confessed my deepest, darkest secrets. Instead of protecting me, they’ve stripped me of my power.
Kelan moves closer despite my glare, his presence even more forceful without the magic flowing through my veins. “We had to do it. Other dragons felt the magical pulse,” he says. “They’re coming, and they’re not like us.”
“They will take you,” Darial adds softly. “They will use your magic until you’re burned out.”
I laugh manically. “You expect me to believe that? After everything? That they will do worse than this?”
Silence answers me.
I turn away from them, heart pounding and hands shaking as every instinct screams for me to run. I need to put distance between myself and these men who smile gently while cutting pieces out of me.
“I need air,” I say hoarsely. “I need to pee and—”
Darial nods immediately. “Of course. I’ll—”
“No,” I snap. “I need privacy.”
I move past them before they can stop me, slipping through the mouth of the cave into the cold dawn air. Frost clings to the rocks, glittering faintly as I begin the careful descent down the rocky slope.
Before me, Blackwood Forest spreads like a thick green carpet. This newly formed cave has completely changed the landscape. I stare into the canopy below, already fearful of what lurks there. Bears and wolves ready to recapture me. Dragons in human form, waiting to ambush me. And I'm powerless.
A maniacal laugh bursts from me as I consider how Bruno and Anatol would react if they discover my magic is gone and I'm useless to them. Maybe they’d release me. Maybe they’d kill me in fury.
Six feet.
That’s all I descend before the world roars.
Before I can scream, an enormous arm wraps around me, and I’m ripped from the rock face with frightening ease.
I scream as the wind tears at me, and the ground drops away. The forest spins beneath us, green and endless. Blackwood is reduced to a blur of murky shadow. The dragon’s scales are pitch black, drinking in the sun, his wings vast and powerful as they beat through the air.
Fear coils tightly, making me breathless. The claws tipping the arm I’m held in are sharp and vicious, but they’re careful too, and underneath my terror, something else forms.
Awe.
The sheer power of this beast, and the impossible grace of its magnificent, bulky form leave me wide-eyed. The care with which he holds me, talons positioned so I’m cradled rather than trapped is gentle and considered.
We bank hard, the forest tilting wildly, and then the cave rushes back into view.
The dragon descends, size reducing, its body shifting into its smaller human form, landing with force that jangles my frame and snaps my teeth shut. The shift from dragon to man happens in a blur of heat and muscle and breath that steals all coherent thought except one word.
Kelan.
And he’s furious.
“How could you run?” he roars, the sound thundering against the cave walls. “How could you put yourself in danger like that?”
I recoil, heart beating fast. “You’re the ones who took my power! You’re the ones who made me weak.”
“We did it to keep you alive!” Ronyn snaps back.
Darial is already kneeling, gently checking my arms, legs, and face. “Are you hurt?”
I shake my head numbly.
“No cuts?” Ronyn mutters, relief bleeding through his anger.
Kelan exhales sharply, dragging a hand through his dark hair. The rage drains from him in uneven breaths, leaving only raw fear behind. “Do you have any idea what it would do to us to lose you?”
His words of misery land heavily. He seems genuinely desperate at the thought.
“I’m not yours to lose.”
His huge shoulders slump. “But we are yours.”
He glances at Darial, his eyes practically pleading, like he has no idea what to do or say to make this better. Whatever they say to each other, it isn’t for my ears.
“I need to pee,” I blurt, needing to escape the pressure of their claims. “Don’t worry… I’m going to find somewhere deeper in this damned cave for some privacy.
Rather than continuing to try to convince me of their good intentions, they let me go. When I return, they’ve prepared food which they hand to me. Warm bread, eggs, fruit. I stare at it, hollow and still shaking, but ravenous enough to take it. We eat in silence.
Their anger hangs thick in the air, braided tightly with concern. No one touches me or raises their voice. But the undeniable truth is clear now. They claim to be my saviors and protectors, but they are also my jailers.
They are dragons, and they have decided I'm worth protecting… whether I want it or not.