Chapter 24
Dain
These visions were the worst kind.
“No…!”
Fern’s cry of terror had my body going rigid, but that wasn’t enough to wake me. My visions were like a wolf and once they had me in their teeth, they did not let go until they were done with me.
“No…! No!”
Her eyes were wide, her face perfectly pale, those lips of hers pulled back in an ugly scream.
My hands moved restively, raking along the sheets, and still the dream went on.
Helpless, I just stared as I watched Auren rise up abruptly, too concerned with something else that was going on to realise what she was doing to her rider.
Hold on, I thought furiously. Hold on!
My vision shifted me in closer, enough that I could hear the frantic rasp of her breath, see how white her knuckles were, trying to retain her grip on the saddle horn, but not so I could do what was needed.
To cover her hands in mine, treasuring how small they felt as I gripped them tight, lending her my strength when hers failed.
“No…! No, no, no, no, no…”
My mouth moved to say the same words, right as I heard Fern gasp them out. Her terror was a perfect reflection of mine. “Hold on…” I murmured, thrashing on the bed. “Hold on.”
But of course, she couldn’t.
There was an inevitability about all of this.
Since I was old enough to remember my dreams, I’d watched people I loved die.
Over and over in increasingly baroque ways, I was forced to observe every single death as hopelessly as I did now.
One of Fern’s fingers spasmed, pulling free, and that started the rest. She didn’t pant out any words now, just an animal scream of desperation.
Right as she lost the fight.
My view shifted abruptly. I was much further away now, feeling Argent shift beneath me. Just a tiny little figure, no bigger than a doll, her limbs flailed through the air, trying to grab onto something when there was nothing to save her.
Except me.
Argent—!
I know.
My dragon was huge, powerful, and his wings sliced through the air as he zeroed in on Fern, but as was always the case in my dreams, he was not powerful enough. Dragons zipped in and out of our path, maddened by something, and Argent’s roar replicated my own, forcing them to flinch back.
But we weren’t close enough.
One last look of terror, that’s what I caught, right as her body hit the water, the dark sea swallowing her seconds later.
Dain!
Argent’s voice, the culmination of my vision, had me jerking up off the bed and then moving.
Not to protect the woman that owned my heart.
Instead, my knees dropped to the ground the moment I reached the lavatory.
The stink of bleach and other men’s piss greeted me, right as my guts lurched, expelling a gut full of water, salt stinging my throat.
That was a true dream, my dragon said as I retched and retched. There was nothing else to throw up, and yet my body couldn’t seem to stop. You must get word to your woman and warn her.
The same feeling of helpless horror I felt in my dreams rose up, a wave intent on drowning me.
Tell her dragon, I shot back, right as I rose to my feet, still shaking.
Splashing water on my face was an automatic thing, but it just had the memory of my vision rushing back.
A towel was snatched from the railing and I dried my face with it, wanting the rough scratch of the fabric to ward off seeing the moment when the sea claimed Fern.
I tried. There were few times I’d heard my dragon sound chastened, and this was one of them. She was furious that I woke her and then even angrier when I told her what you saw. There is no way Auren will let Fern slip from the saddle.
Except that wasn’t the way life worked. No one meant to die a horrible death and yet it happened over and over and over.
I stared into the mirror then, my scowl greeting me.
My face was pale, too pale, almost greenish in cast. For just a moment, it wasn’t Fern drowning, I saw, but the persistent flicker of flames.
I would not revisit those memories today.
Pulling on my armour, brushing and tying back my hair, I left the room right as the other cadets started to wake up.
Where is she? I asked my dragon as I ran down the stairs.
Making for the meals room, he replied, and that had my eyes closing.
Gods, this would be hard enough to do without a damn audience. For a moment my feet slowed, not wanting to take another step, but of course, my mind would never allow that. It showed me plainly what would happen if I did not act.
And sometimes, even if I did.
My own breath rasped in my chest, coming faster and faster. Fists formed, my muscles trembling with the effort of holding myself back, even as I knew I needed to push forward.
I can’t talk to her, I told Argent, not needing to clarify who. I can’t, brother. Touch her mind and—
You must. His mind was like a firm hand landing between my shoulder blades, shoving me on. You must, brother, because…
Because otherwise this would be Fern’s last meal.
My eyes closed, and I shut my eyes, then nodded, flicking them open again to take the stairs two at a time, striding into the mess.
Fern, the crown princess and the scrappy little girl that had befriended the two of them wandered into the room, chattering away, only for me to come to stand in front of them.
“Don’t go.” All three ladies blinked and then took a step backwards. That instinctive recoil, I knew it well. “Don’t go up in the air today.”
This was the moment when Fern nodded, hearing the desperation in my voice and changing her plans in response. That line between her brows smoothed away, and she saw: my intent, my vision...
Me.
Instead, it just deepened.
“What?” She grew flustered at her blunt reply. “I beg your pardon, good sir.” Her eyes went to my shoulder. “Have you been promoted to the rank of officer, to bark commands at a woman so?”
The little one’s lips quirked up in a cheeky grin, but the crown princess stepped in front of me, wearing a frown of her own.
“You’re one of the silver dragon riders.
” Her arms crossed. “From what I hear you weren’t especially attentive during the orientation lecture, so let me remind you of the most important parts.
Female cadets are to be afforded the same respect, the same courtesy a lady inside the keep as they could expect outside it. ”
So I had no business talking to a lady without formal introduction. My family had little use for me, but they ensured I received a proper education in etiquette so as to not embarrass myself. I knew what I was doing was wrong and yet… As I stared into Fern’s eyes, I saw it.
“If you go up on your dragon’s back this morning.” The words were dragged out of me. “You’ll fall from the saddle.” Her hand went to her chest and her gasp was echoed by all three women. “You’ll fall and I…”
That was the moment when my voice failed me, because my vision doubled, tripled as I saw the possibilities.
Of being in the air as well, of Argent shadowing Auren as her dragon swept through the air.
Of my dragon flying low, his wings almost skimming the waves as we swept back and forth in preparation.
“That won’t happen.” Cora turned to Fern, her voice perfectly reasonable.
“You’ve had some flying experience, and this is a very simple training exercise.
This…” She shot me a dark look over my shoulder.
“Female riders are a relatively new thing in Nevermere and it seems that some men respond by getting a little overprotective.”
“Ready to fly out this morning?” The lieutenant arrived, his helmet under his arm.
I didn’t even rate a glance as he stared down at Fern, a smile on his face.
“Some of the corp dragons will demonstrate the ways we work together to protect Nevermere and then your beast will show what she learned, destroying an old wreck in the bay.”
So that’s how it would go down? My fingers flexed, needing to do something because otherwise I’d reach out and haul Fern back against me, forcing her to stay right where I could protect her.
“Don’t.” I said that in a far gentler tone, shaking my head, because I already knew what her response would be. “Don’t go and—”
“I’m ready.” Fern nodded firmly and right then, it felt like my heart was dropping just as fast as she had in my vision. “Auren’s raring to go.”
“Some breakfast first?”
Lance offered her his arm, and she took it, the four of them turning to find a table, which just left me staring after her.
“You’re up early.” Lorien appeared at my shoulder. “Asked our girl to breakfast, did you?”
“No.”
Everyone kept saying that word, but I did so with a special kind of vehemence, striding out of the mess and heading straight for the mountain where my dragon was waiting.
We will save her, he told me as I grabbed his saddle, hauling it up and over his back, then fastening it in place. We will not let her fall.
But Argent saw my dream. His mind was fused to mine as he watched us fail over and over again.
My forehead pressed into his side and for just a moment, there was only the feel of his hot scales.
The quiet inside my head didn’t last long.
Visions came whether I wanted them too or not, and right now, a deluge flickered through my mind.
Everything I tried to do, Argent did, I saw all the ways we failed.
“What’s going on?” Kael’s voice cut through the haze and I blinked, catching his frown. That expression was quite a different thing on his face. “What did you see?”
Those four words, they were the lifeline I needed thrown my way, lest I get lost in the rocking waves of my mind.
“Fern…” My voice was a harsh croak. “I saw her fall—”
“Fuck.” Lorien shook his head. “No.”
“From Auren’s back. There were… dragons everywhere.” My brow creased. “Fire and lightning and acid—”
“Where, brother?”
Kael stood before me, the command in his voice forcing my mind to quiet. I swallowed hard, feeling the rise of a salty bile in my throat.
“In the bay. Kael, I saw her fall and drown.”
As if to mark that confession, the sounds of dragons bugling filled the air. The scrape of claws, the shift of massive bodies as they made their way out of the den.
“Then we need to do our level best that does not happen.” Kael slapped my shoulder. “Have Argent communicate the vision to our beasts. We’ll coordinate how we mean to stop this from happening while we’re in the air.”
This is why we were bound together. By myself, I’d have gotten lost in the possibilities, unable to make a move to alter the course of fate, but as a wing? I clambered onto Argent’s back, something settling inside me as I gripped the saddle horn.
We’ll ensure your mate survives this day, my dragon told me. This and every other day. She belongs to us.
Gods, I felt that to the depths of me in a way none of them would understand. They were in the first throes of their infatuation with Fern, but I….? I’d been in love with her since childhood.
Those were the visions I saw as we took to the skies. Of a toddling child, then a pretty little girl, one who loved books and art and collecting ‘treasures’. A child that met the wrath of that horrible mother of hers with a kind of equanimity I frankly envied.
This and every other day, brother, I agreed.
It was my destiny to see these visions. Now I needed to do whatever it took to ensure this one did not come to pass.