Chapter 2 #2
The thought of some other blessed bonding Liz.
. . It fills me with an inexplicable rage.
I don’t wait to talk or try to reason with anyone.
I launch into the air, sailing over the heads of the gathered blessed, and I punch a hole through the part of the cave roof that blocks my entrance, raining chunks of rock down on the blessed below.
My eyes are trained on the cage in the corner—but it’s empty.
The wind from my wings is battering every blessed in the room as I hover, casting around for the missing humans.
Before I can ask about them, Liz flies across the room, zips through a wide spot in the bars of the cage, and dumps her siblings.
They scurry to the back of the cage, leaving her at the front.
Liz stands there, acting like the cage was nothing to her.
I charge, furious.
Just before I reach her, my former-bonded grabs the iron bars and flexes, dragging them closed again right in front of my face. “So sorry, Your Majesty.” She bobs her head and sinks down a few inches in a strange movement I don’t understand. The expression on her face, however, I do understand.
She’s mocking me.
When I land on the ground in front of the cage, I’m still eye level with her.
I notice the blessed in front of the cage have scrambled back to clear a space, not that I care.
They deserve to be smashed—rushing in here like scavengers trying to take what’s mine.
I spin around, and this time, it’s not Hyperion bellowing. It’s me.
This human’s mine. Is that clear?
From the masses of blessed pressed back in the corner of the cave, a silver dragon emerges, her regal head held high. It’s Asteria, again. I’m surprised she’s even here. When we left, her parents were adamant that only one of their precious daughters could come.
But you aren’t bonded, not anymore, so she most certainly isn’t yours. Asteria never argued with me. Not once. In fact, Liz and I talked about me bonding her long ago, when you still held her bond.
Between Asteria and Plumeria, did my former bonded talk to every blessed she met about bonding them?
She doesn’t want to bond any of you, I practically roar.
Heat’s rising inside of me, and it’s only a matter of time before it explodes.
In this contained space, with the lava popping and bubbling and those creatures chanting incessantly, I’m not sure what would happen.
“Actually, I was just talking to the blessed who came,” Liz says. “I’m not your human anymore, and I think being bonded again might help me succeed in finding the heart.”
I forbid it, I snap.
“Yeah,” a small voice says from the cage. “Liz isn’t bonded to Azar right now, but she will be again soon.”
I turn around, leaning closer to the cage. Who’s speaking?
The tiny human smiles. “My name’s Sammy. I’m Gordon’s best friend.”
You aren’t scared of me?
His teensy head’s barely two feet away, but he doesn’t look frightened at all. In fact, he laughs. “You’d never hurt me.”
No? When I snort, smoke billows out. Why not?
“You like me best of all, other than Liz.”
I do? I shake my head. I don’t like you—I don’t even know you.
“I’m Sammy.” He tilts his head. “You’ll remember me soon, but even if you don’t.” He shrugs. “You’ll remember Liz for sure.”
Why? He’s either delusional or very stupid.
“You love her,” Sammy says.
Liz claps a hand over his mouth and drags him backward. “Alright, that’s more than enough of that.”
Love? When I glance around the room, almost all the blessed have evacuated. I don’t blame them. Only Asteria’s still waiting, her expression utterly unreadable. What? I snap.
You really don’t remember her at all.
I don’t, I say. I wish people would stop acting surprised by that.
Why haven’t you killed her, then? Asteria steps closer. She causes all kinds of problems. She argues with everyone, she breaks out of her cage, and—
That’s why every other blessed wants to bond her? I ask.
Maybe they do, Asteria says. But even more of them would be relieved if she was just gone, including your brother.
She’s right, Hyperion says. I spend most of my time either hating her, or wishing I’d bonded her myself. I can’t seem to make up my mind which would be better. My life would be easier, though, if she were simply gone.
If anyone else talks about killing or taking my human, I really will have to destroy something.
I’m not re-bonding her, and no one else is either.
The reason she’s alive, the reason she’s here in this cave, is that something happened in that lava, and she’s going to tell us what.
She’s still our best connection to the heart, so she’s not dying either.
Hyperion walks closer. I heard she was out of the cage.
I forgot to ask about that. How did you bend the bars?
Liz juts out her bottom jaw. “Why do you care?”
“She’s stronger,” the small human with not-short, not-long hair says. “She has wings, and she’s stronger. The world just isn’t fair.”
Asteria laughs. It certainly isn’t.
Even so, she will stay in that cage until she recovers her memory. I glare.
No, Gordon says. It’s too cold for them here. They can’t rest, they can’t eat, and it’s not healthy. He glances at the lava. Not to mention, this whole place is creepy.
I agree, Rufus says. They should come back with us to the hotel.
I dig deep and project a red bubble around the cage. There. That’ll keep them inside, and it’ll keep the blessed out. It’ll also keep them warmer.
You’re making a mistake, Gordon says.
In all the years I’ve known him, he’s never said anything like that to me. Not ever. When I turn slowly toward him, my fury must show on my face.
I’m doing this for you. Gordon lifts his much larger head, his eyes flashing.
So am I, Rufus says. If you remembered anything at all, you’d want us to defend her.
I’m heartily sick of everyone acting like I’m damaged, or worse, like I had gone insane. Have you all forgotten our goal? We need the heart, and the person most likely to get it for us is right here.
Asteria’s the last blessed in the cavern, other than Hyperion, Gordon, and Rufus. But even she’s walking out, at least, until she freezes. The flame.
“What?” Liz is pressed against the edge of the cage, her hands tightly wrapped around the bars. “What about the flame?”
What flame? I ask.
There’s a flame carved on the entrance to this lava pit, Asteria says. There are skulls underneath it. She turns back slowly, but she’s not talking to me. She’s looking right at Liz. There were three, weren’t there?
Liz nods.
There are two now.
Hyperion nearly runs me over to look at it himself. He uses a very human word to express his displeasure, and I may not remember much, but for some reason I still recognize the meaning.
What do we think that signifies? Gordon asks.
Well, Liz may have gotten wings, Hyperion says, turning. But I think she lost one of her three lives.
We’re running out of time, Asteria says.
Speaking of running out of time, Hyperion says. I told you I went to see Father. I told him you’d died, and he ordered me to mate with Asteria in your place to see whether proximity to the heart has allowed us to finally procreate.
Okay. I’d always been promised to her, but I find that I don’t mind at all. Go ahead.
Hyperion frowns. But now you’re here. You can do it. Won’t he be surprised when we tell him you could do it after all?
I doubt Asteria will want a two-affinity freak like me. She doesn’t have to, I say. She didn’t know that I was Azar and Axel. I can’t help thinking about her surprise earlier, when she called me—as Axel—an idiot. Hyperion’s a better choice.
Not for me, Asteria says. I’m happy to fulfill your father’s wishes.