Chapter 25
One year later…
Harper
There’s a perfect spot at the top of the cliffs near the Hollowborn’s new home on their Dravari lands, where parrot tulips and honeysuckle mix with the grass, and you’re protected from the sting of the ocean.
Just a short walk down from the cliff, there’s a small but bustling town of Hollowborn utilizing the lands for crops, to hunt animals, and to raise their young.
All of us have been living here since the very beginning, helping to create this safe haven.
It’s a place that represents everything we’ve worked for. A place that’s wild and beautiful, where our dragons fill the sky with their family.
Even now, Ebron and a squadron of baby dragons are doing aerial somersaults, all chaos and shrieks a short distance away.
I’m flat on my back in the grass, chewing on some honeysuckle, the sunlight on my face.
Above me, a dragon baby, bright red with stubby wings and tiny horns, belly-flops into another, and their shrieks echo all the way to the ground.
The adults at the cliff’s edge, Sylvara, Verdraxa, Nythera, and Rosanthra, watch the spectacle with the tired patience of veteran mothers everywhere.
Beside me Lucien is using my stomach as a pillow while humming off-key.
On my other side, Sevrin picks honeysuckle blooms and sticks them behind my ear, one after another, until I’m half-convinced he’s going to build me a flower crown and then laugh at me for wearing it.
Alaric’s just past him, lying on his side with his eyes closed, breathing as if sleeping, but I know he’s not.
Gareth is sitting up, chewing on a blade of grass and studying the clouds in the distance.
It’s been a year. One entire year since the attack at Gore Rock. We’ve all had more than enough time to heal, but I don’t think any of us will ever forget that night. Or forget what it was like to come that close to losing each other.
I let my hand flop over and tangle with Sevrin’s.
His fingers are stained with purple and gold from the flowers, but they’re the only colors he wears.
His Hollowborn face paint has been worn less and less as the days have passed, which I hope means he doesn’t see the need for it any longer.
I squeeze his hand, and he squeezes back, but he doesn’t say anything.
He knows I don’t need words. Not right now.
Lucien does, though. He groans and rolls his head to look up at me. “If I have to hear one more baby dragon scream, I swear I’ll create the first dragon daycare… somewhere far away in this town.”
“Good luck,” I say, because as cute as the dragons are, no one is equipped to watch them but their parents.
“Are you even listening to yourself?” Gareth demands, breaking his long silence. “Ebron’s up there doing all the hard work. We just have to listen to it. Show some respect.”
Alaric opens one eye. “You’re just mad because the baby dragons are already tougher than you.”
“Bigger doesn’t mean tougher,” Lucien mutters, but there’s no venom in his words.
Sevrin plucks another honeysuckle and twirls it.
“It’s kind of incredible. Three out of four of our hatchlings are male.
That means the whole lava-bath theory worked.
And if it worked for our group, I bet there’s a whole bunch of female dragons that had male dragons from the Island of Dragons.
” He flicks the flower at me, and it lands in my hair.
I let it stay. “Which means there’s hope for dragon-kind.”
“And the peace between our people will last,” Sevrin says, giving me a sweet smile that makes my heart ache.
Alaric props himself up on one elbow. “I’m still amazed Ebron has any interest in parenting at all. The guy’s spent his whole life flying solo. You’d think he’d be less invested.”
Sevrin shrugs. “He seems like the fatherly type to me.”
“You think that will happen to us? We’ll just go from a bunch of guys to dads just at the sight of a baby?” Alaric asks.
Gareth makes a noise halfway between a snort and a sigh. “I don’t know that I’d leave you alone with a puppy, no less a baby.”
The conversation floats above me, easy and loose.
I let it drift, let the sun cook the insides of my eyelids.
After a while, I tune it out entirely and listen to the dragons.
Ebron’s roar is sharper than the others, a brass bell above the baby shrieks and the flutter-thud of young wings.
Sylvara and the others croon encouragement from their perch, tails hanging over the ledge.
Even from here, I can tell when one of the babies messes up: there’s a pause, a collective inhalation, and then a burst of laughter, or what could describe laughter from a dragon, when the poor sap crash-lands in a tree or spins out over the ocean.
I feel a hand trace my jaw, soft and insistent. Sevrin, always gentle, even though he looks so tough. He leans over, presses a kiss to my cheekbone, and then rests his forehead against mine.
“Thinking too much again?” he whispers.
I shrug. “Only a little.”
“Want to talk about it?” he asks, drawing back.
“I was just thinking about that day on Gore Rock.” Because that seems to be where my mind wants to go today.
We don’t say anything for a minute. I can tell he’s remembering, too.
The moment it looked like we were all going to die.
When Ebron was able to convince the dragons of Gore Rock’s riders to join our cause, and when the Gore Rock riders got free of the dungeons and came to help.
All of the many things that led to us surviving the most frightening moment of our lives.
Alaric is watching me now. He has that look, the one that means he knows exactly what I’m feeling, even when I don’t want him to. “At least they executed that bastard Elder Thorne.”
“I’m not usually in support of executions,” I say, “but I didn’t shed a tear for that man.”
Lucien sighs dramatically. “Can we stop talking about dead men and focus on the future? It’s much more interesting. Also, less likely to kill the mood.”
“The future does sound better.” A thought flickers in the back of my mind that makes me smile.
Sevrin shifts to rest his head in my lap, using my thighs as a pillow. The sun highlights the scars on his neck, the ones that never quite faded after the fight. I run my fingers through his hair gently, thankful every day that he’s alive.
Ebron shrieks again, and the baby dragons loop in a wild, clumsy circle above the cliff. One of them, the blue one, gets it right, catching an updraft and soaring higher than the others. The rest follow, flapping like hell, determined not to be outdone.
The conversation drifts back to baby dragons.
Lucien wants to know what the parents plan to do if one of the kids turns out to be a troublemaker.
Gareth suggests dropping them into the ocean, and Alaric counters that they’d just swim back, stronger than ever.
Sevrin proposes letting them fight it out and crown the last one standing as king of the hatchlings. By the end, we’re all laughing.
Lucien grins. “If we ever have kids, I hope they’re not as much trouble as baby dragons.”
Alaric gives him a look. “You’d be lucky to have a kid half as cute as those things.”
“What? Our kids are going to be way fucking cuter!” Lucien exclaims.
Gareth turns to me, sudden and intense. “When do you want to have kids?
I look up at the hatchlings, still fighting their way through the wind. I look at the four men around me, each one frustrating but perfect, and my answer is easy.
“I think…” I say slowly. “I think whenever would be good, if I get to raise them with you four.”
Alaric whoops and flips over, rolling onto his back. “Yes!”
Gareth grins, teeth bright. “We’d try to be good fathers.”
Lucien raises his hand. “We’d get them their first swords. And leather armor in tiny sizes.”
Sevrin just squeezes my thigh. “Whenever you want, Harper.”
Gareth leans in, voice conspiratorial. “You know, we could have, like, a whole army of little monsters.”
“An army would be nice,” Sevrin says thoughtfully.
“So when should we start trying to build this army?” Alaric asks.
My heart beats faster. “Actually–”
“I think soon,” Lucien says. “As soon as possible.”
“Or maybe in the summer,” Gareth offers. “I’ve heard summer babies are stronger.”
“No, winter babies are heartier," Sevrin argues.
I bite my lip, wondering if now is the right time.
“There have been twins in our family line in the past,” Alaric says, almost like he’s being helpful.
“Twins would… be a lot,” Gareth remarks dryly.
I draw my shoulders back. “Well, I think we should have a baby maybe six or seven months from now.”
Lucien laughs. “Then you’d have to be pregnant right now.”
“Yeah,” I offer softly.
The silence is complete. Even the dragons stop moving.
Then Lucien yelps and gently tackles me backward, wrapping me in his arms. Gareth whoops, and Alaric laughs so hard he nearly chokes. Sevrin just buries his face in my shoulder and breathes, like he can’t get enough of me.
There are a lot of wet eyes, but it’s the good kind.
“A baby,” Gareth whispers, touching my stomach.
“How long have you known?” Alaric asks, brushing his eyes.
I hesitate, then decide to be honest. “I’ve suspected for a few weeks, but I was sure of it today.”
“Boy or girl, I’ll be happy,” Lucien says, touching my stomach too. “I just want them to be healthy”
“Oh, they’ll be healthy. We’ll make sure of it by catering to Harper’s every need,” Sevrin says nodding his head, then kissing me gently.
I smile. “Are you sure you guys are going to enjoy it? You’ve been feeling sorry for Ebron for a while.”
“‘Sorry’ might not be the right word…” Lucien begins.
“I think ‘jealous’ is more accurate,” Alaric confirms.
I smile, feeling some of my worries easing. “You guys are sure?”
Sevrin touches my hand. “This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“The best thing,” Alaric says, and his smile fills his whole face.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be this happy again,” Gareth says.
Lucien bumps him with his shoulder. “Until we get to meet the baby.”
There’s more talk like this. Of what the baby will be like.
Of what they’ll do with him or her when they arrive.
About what kind of fathers they want to be.
Afterward, we lie in the grass, tangled together.
Ebron, his mates, and the baby dragons sprawl near us, wings fluttering in the breeze.
The honeysuckle wraps around us, and it feels like we’re living in a dream.
I close my eyes and smile. This is a dream. A dream I never knew I wanted until I had it.
Life is good, and it’s only going to get better.