Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
SEB
I rarely stay here. Every warrior in the brotherhood has a house on Cardinal Island where we can stay while we train.
Modern conveniences, though, have made them far less appealing or necessary.
Now we use them only when a new dragon is ascending or we have to meet with the Oracle for something.
Still, the bed is comfortable, and it’s safe.
I lie down next to Zoe and run my hand along the side of her face.
Then I close my eyes and enter her mind.
It begins with darkness, then a thick fog.
When the smoke clears, I’m in some kind of a cave, crisscrossed with silver thread.
What the hell is this? I reach out and touch one of the strands, and my fingers stick to it.
When I pull my hand away, the string vibrates with the pluck of disentangling myself.
With terrifying speed, I am lifted off the floor from above.
Before I even have a chance to scream, I am pinned to the center of what I now know is a web, by eight black legs that dexterously begin to roll me.
Spools of silver silk wrap around my arms, my legs, my mouth.
Tighter and tighter. The more I struggle, the faster she works, this spider who is easily three times my size, with pinchers as long as my forearm.
A conversation comes back to me. Zoe once said that her addiction was a spider in her head. Fuck, has she become the spider? I turn my head to the side and manage to free my mouth.
“Zoe, stop!”
The spider pauses, her pinchers hovering near my neck. The fly knows our name.
“We need to talk. Can we just talk?”
The fly wants to talk to the spider? The spider’s voice seems to come from inside my head. You’ve walked so carelessly into our trap, little fly, and we are so incredibly hungry.
I take a second to get over the description of me as little. I’m not as large as Connor, but no human would ever call me small. Which reminds me that I’m a dragon, and I have the ability to change this dream.
She begins to spin me again, but this time, I concentrate. A dagger forms in my hand, and in one fast, upward stroke, I cut myself out of the bundle of silk. I drop to the floor and toss the silk off me. Only because this is a dream does it not stick to me. I lift the dagger between us.
My blade is gold and shines as white as the sun. Although my dragon abilities allow me to create things within dreams, I have unwittingly drawn on the power of the ring Zoe gave me rather than my imagination.
She scurries back into the upper shadows of the cave. Too bright, she hisses. You’ll burn us, you filthy fly.
“I’m not a fly!” I yell. “Zoe, it’s me. It’s Seb, your mate.”
Zoe is no more, fly. Her pincers snap. Only spider remains.
“No. She’s in there. You said we before when you were referring to yourself. Both of you are in there. Transform back so I can talk to Zoe. I need to talk to Zoe.”
Where were you when she was burning? the spider hisses. I took care of her. I helped her survive the pain.
“The pain is over. It’s time for Zoe to come out again. She’s safe.”
The spider scurries forward, its multiple eyes focusing on me. “You know nothing about us, fly. I keep her safe. I am here when no one else is.” For the first time, the words are spoken aloud, and I notice the use of I, instead of us. This is good. I’m getting somewhere.
I lower my blade and transform it back into the ring. I hold up the gold between us, thumbing the back of it. “Do you see this ring? You made this for me, Zoe. It saved my life. It saved my people.”
She moves closer, sniffing the ring. I take it as a good sign that she doesn’t yank me into her web again.
I shake my head and pace to the other side of the cave.
“I never wanted you to have to do what you did. I knew that the first time I heard you sing. Some part of me knew that you were my mate. It scared the shit out of me. I wanted to keep you as far away from the war as possible, even if it meant we could never be together. But things got so bad, we didn’t have a choice.
I had to ask you for the name of another witch, and I was terrified when you agreed to help us.
Inside, I wanted to die. Because I knew my dragon was attached to you, and I knew you’d be in danger.
But you did it, Zoe. You saved us. You saved all of us.
And now, I need you to save me one more time.
Because if you don’t wake up, neither will I. ”
Drops of water rain down on the cave floor. The spider is crying. Its black legs curl in on its abdomen like it’s dying. “I can’t save you, Seb. I can’t even save myself.”
I watch her, terrified, as her abdomen seems to shrink and prune. She’s dying. What happens if Zoe dies in this dream? I don’t want to know. What I need is something to help her remember, to fill her with the magic I know is in her bones.
The gold ring on my finger winks in the light, a light that has no source in this dark cave.
“The first time I heard you sing, I knew I loved you. When did you know you loved me, Zoe?” I whisper.
She doesn’t answer, but I remember. It took her longer because she’s human.
But I remember the moment she knew she loved me.
My ring transforms into a golden violin.
I catch the bow in my opposite hand and draw it across the strings.
The gold puts off its own light and reflects in the eyes of the spider.
She’s watching, but what I need her to do is listen.
I play the same song I played for her that night in the recording studio, pouring my heart and soul into the notes and chords.
My body moves with the music, not exactly dancing but emoting exactly what I want her to feel.
I want to sweep her away. I want my music to say exactly what words never could.
I play of love, of kisses by moonlight, of moving through the world at her side.
I’m sweating by the time I play the last note.
But when I look back at her, I’m struck by how little my music has mattered. In fact, she looks worse, shriveled in on herself. Her web turns brittle, and she falls, a plume of dust filling the cave when she hits the floor and her body comes apart.
“Noooo!” I drop the violin and cover my face with my arms as the ground begins to shake, and chunks of cave fall from above. I spread my wings to shelter my head.
A woman’s cry has me turning back toward the spider. Zoe sits where the spider once was, her head under the shelter of her arms. She looks so thin, so frail. But she’s herself again.
I rush to her and pull her into my arms, her fragile body curling into my chest, naked and shivering. “Seb?”
“Yes, it’s me.” The cave is crumbling, and I grunt as a boulder hits my wing. “I need you to wake up now, all right?”
“It’ll hurt,” she sobs. “I have no more gold dust. It’s going to take so long to heal.”
Another stone drops, and I bend over her, taking it on the back. It hurts like hell. “With me, you’ll heal faster,” I say. “All you have to do is wake up. I promise you, I’ll take care of you.”
Our eyes lock as more stones fall around us.
One punctures a hole in my wing, and I wince.
Zoe sees the hole and seems to finally understand the danger.
Her eyes widen as she looks at me and then beyond me to a giant chunk of rock that promises to fall on both of us as the world inside her mind crumbles.
She grabs my face and then vanishes from my arms.
I follow her out of her head.
Beside me, on the bed, she opens her eyes. I take her in my arms as we both start to weep.