16
Finn
Long after I’ve laid down to sleep, rest still evades me.
It’s late, I’m tired, and I’ve never had a problem drifting off before.
My mother always used to say it was because I had an untroubled soul. I could fall asleep anywhere, anytime, in only a few blinks of my eyes.
But tonight, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Perhaps it’s my soul, or perhaps it’s the nagging discomfort in my chest. A restless ache, something that hounds me into the early hours of the morning until I stand and exit the tent.
The best solution I come up with is to do a lap around the perimeter of the camp. Likely unnecessary, but if I prove to myself again my mate is safe here, hopefully that will soothe this unease.
I’m nearly done with my first circuit, and ready to start a second because the troubled energy plaguing me hasn’t eased at all, when I spy motion from the doorway of Soleil’s tent.
Hope surges within me, only to come crashing back down when Vayla emerges.
I cross camp toward her, meeting her by the remains of the fire, embers still low and smoldering in the darkness.
“Is everything okay?”
Vayla rolls her neck and massages a shoulder. “I was absolutely not made for roughing it.”
“Is Soleil sleeping alright?”
She shakes her head. “She’s not in the tent. Didn’t she come back out here a little while ago? I thought she might be with you.”
That last comment is a little more pointed than necessary, but I ignore it.
“No. I haven’t seen her. Perhaps she just went to relieve herself or get some water from the spring?”
Vayla’s brow furrows. “Maybe, but it’s been a while. I thought she would be back by—
Somewhere deep within the darkness of the wilderness surrounding us, a roar.
Guttural and echoing through the mountainside, it draws guards from the perimeter of the camp, from within their tents as they sprint out to see where the threat is.
All the blood drains from Vayla’s face. “Oh, Goddess, Finn. I didn’t…
I didn’t mention the drakons.” She looks wildly toward the surrounding mountains, eyes scanning the sloping path away from camp.
“Someone else must have, right? Glenson, or one of the other guards… they must have said something when we—”
I don’t hear the rest of what she says.
I hear nothing but the pounding of my heart in my ears, the panic rising up my throat.
I reach for the bond.
Curled tight with fear, it sits there, in the center of my chest, and it only takes half a heartbeat to summon a portal and follow it.
The drakon is enormous.
It’s the first thing I see when I step out of the portal.
It’s enormous, and furious, and stalking its way straight toward Soleil.
A fear like I’ve never known seizes my very soul, twisting and compressing the moment, each second stretching out into its own eternity.
The details are painfully clear, cutting like shards of glass straight to the core of me.
My mate—sprawled on the ground, eyes wide with fear, scrambling back over the rocky slope.
The drakon—a deep fire kindling in its open maw, orange eyes blazing as it advances.
I open another portal.
This one sets me down right in front of Soleil, and I immediately crouch low, covering her body with mine. I wrap my arms around her and pull her close, wings drawn forward to shelter her.
Pain erupts over my shoulder, my back, licks of flame that immediately incinerate my clothing and blister my skin. A scream tears from my throat, but I don’t let her go.
I’ve got my witch, and that’s all that matters.
Opening another portal, I take us back to camp.