Chapter Forty-Three
Mia
I waited until we’d been given some space before I spoke again. The dragons slowly, and in many cases almost reluctantly, backed away. I knew they could still hear us, even if we were on the far side of the room, but it gave an impression of privacy, if nothing else.
“Did I hear you right?” I asked, forcing myself to remain calm. There had to be a mistake. “If we fail … we die?”
Tor nodded once, sharply. “I think.”
His reaction seemed unequivocal. His answer, however, left a whole lot to be desired. He must have read that on my face because he began to elaborate.
“Nobody actually knows what happens if you fail,” he explained. “It’s assumed that you die because nobody who fails ever returns.”
“And you all do this?” I asked, looking around. “All the dragons?”
“No, not all of us. In fact, most of us don’t.”
“Then why do we have to? I don’t want to risk dying. Didn’t I do that already by putting up with your sister?” I went to point at her body, but at some point, it had been removed along with the Vorgans.
“We do it because a prince is not allowed to sit on the throne unless he has his Eternal Mate.”
“You already told me that’s what I was, this ‘Eternal Mate’,” I pointed out. “So, if you already know, why do we have to risk our lives for your god?”
“Confirmation,” Tor said. “It’s a rite we must pass to ensure we’re ready to sit on the throne.”
“We sit on thrones?”
Tor nodded. “Of course. A prince must have his princess.”
“Princess,” I repeated. “You were serious about that.”
“After we take the Test, yes.”
I looked up at him warily. “You mean if we pass.”
“You are my Eternal Mate, Mia. I harbor no doubts, no worries, no qualms. In my heart, I believe fully. So I know we will pass the Test. If you are unsure, however …”
“I …”
How was I supposed to answer something like that?
I knew I cared for Torrent. Deeply. Loved him, even.
It was crazy, should have been impossible, to come to care for someone that deeply in such a short period of time.
Yet I did. I didn’t know how or why, but I did, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say so to anyone who asked.
But risking my life on the strength of that love? That was something else entirely. To me, at least.
“Life has a different meaning to dragons,” I said at last. “Doesn’t it? You value it less.”
Torrent frowned.
“You do,” I said. “You kill, and you don’t mourn. You struck down your sister ten minutes ago, then declared you loved me. Days ago, some of your team were killed by her, and yet I heard no mention of funeral or mourning for them!”
“You are confusing valuing life with valuing death,” Tor replied, speaking slowly as he composed his words.
“We don’t place value in death. Once a life is over, it is over.
There is no need to mourn, but instead, to focus on the life still in front of us.
That’s not to say we do nothing, either.
Rica killed my kin. She nearly killed my friend and my mate.
I didn’t mourn them, but I destroyed her and everything she could have done to everything else.
That is how I say my farewell to them. They have been avenged, and the threat to them will never be a threat to another. ”
“That may be true,” I admitted, “but that produces a lack of caring whether you live or die, in a backward sort of way, whether you want to admit it or not. I, on the other hand, want to live. Very much so. I haven’t had a lifetime of my own and centuries of a culture telling me I will meet someone who is quite literally fated to be mine.
I know that I love you, Tor, but how can I know on the same level that you do that we are what you say you are? ”
He shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to trust me, Mia. The biggest, hardest part of any relationship. That complete and unequivocal trust of the other party. You have to give it, or else the relationship is doomed to failure from the start. It’s also the scariest part of a relationship, trust.”
I shivered. “Trust … I do trust you, Tor.”
“With your life?” he asked softly, holding out a hand.
If I took it, if I accepted it, then I would be putting my life in his hands. Trusting him that we would come out the other side, if anything, stronger than before, secure in the knowledge we truly were meant to be together. Forever.
Why are you so scared? You’ve already put your life in his hands. Minutes ago, you followed him in here, knowing something bad was happening, but you didn’t hesitate. You knew he would keep you safe, even though Rica would have no qualms about killing you.
Except, I’d almost died. The Vorgan had battered and bruised its way through Ty and Surge, snatching me up before I could flee or the other dragons could organize to try to stop it.
But even then, scared as I was, I could recall a feeling, deep in my gut, that Tor would save me. That he would be there for me.
I stared into his face now, searching his eyes for answers.
“This is your decision to make,” he whispered. “I cannot do it for you. But I promise you that I will love you no matter what you do. That will not change.”
“You’ve always saved my life in the past. I’ve trusted you to do so. I’m scared now. Maybe more scared than I have ever been in my life. But I have to trust you now as I did then.”
I took his hand before I could put another ounce of thought into it. I was terrified, my stomach churning, pulse pounding, but I was also exhilarated, and that was new to me.
Together we ran through the house, down the stairs, and into the Rift. We emerged out the other side, and I leaped on his back with a laugh while he shifted, his dragon sprouting beneath us.
“H’ya!” I yelled, doing my best to dig my heels into dragon scales.
“I am not your horse,” Torrent drawled as he spread his wings and launched us into the air with surprising grace for a creature his size. “Trust me when I say that if I buck you, it will be much worse than such a creature.”
“Maybe you have a point,” I agreed, looking down at the fast-receding cavern floor as he ascended in a straight line for one of the gargantuan holes carved into the ceiling. “But I guess I’ll just have to trust that you won’t do that!”
I kicked my heels again, urging him on to more speed.
Torrent laughed, his wings driving us higher and higher. “Exploiting my feelings for you? How mature.”
I laughed. “But it worked!”
We shot up through the tunnel and out into the sky.
The sun was rising in dragon land, making it several hours later than the time on Earth.
Or earlier. I wasn’t too sure at the moment.
It didn’t last long, either, because we continued to ascend toward the peak of Mount Drakonus, where we disappeared into the blue-gray clouds.
They parted around us like a tunnel, a scale near the base of Tor’s right paw glowing a brilliant blue, providing light for us to see. That would have been the hand he wore his ring on. It was acting like a guide. Showing us the way.
Eventually, the clouds parted, and we emerged above a long ledge jutting out from the side of the mountain. As Tor descended, I could see that its sides had been worn smooth by the winds. Unlike the rest of the mountain, it was a bright stone-gray color instead of the darker brown of exposed rock.
Tor landed softly, his legs flexing a large amount to absorb the impact.
“What now?” I asked as he shifted back, and I clambered to the floor, the surface just as smooth as the sides. My shoes clicked on it as I walked. “This isn’t rock. This is, like, tile or something.”
“Marble, I think,” Tor said, his eyes focused ahead on the side of the mountain itself.
I recalled the size of the ledge as we landed. That was a lot of marble. Trying to imagine how it stayed in place was an exercise in futility.
“Come. This way,” Tor said, taking my hand and leading me to the mountain.
“Is there a door anyw—”
The mountain shimmered and then faded from view in front of us, revealing a tunnel entrance as wide as the platform on which we’d landed. Tor’s entire dragon could have fit through if he wanted.
“I guess we go in,” he said.
“You’ve never been here before, have you?”
“No,” he admitted. “And those who have taken the Test and passed don’t talk about it. It’s a private rite for every couple. This is the only time people return from seeing the God-King. It’s not a temple people can worship at, so this is as new to me as it is to you.”
The mountain tunnel encased us, and the light behind us disappeared as the rock appeared out of thin air, as solid looking as it had been from the outside.
Another ten steps and we found ourselves on a mirrored platform inside the mountain.
It jutted away from the sides of the massive cavern without any sort of barrier along the sides.
It may have been fifty or sixty feet wide, but I was still tentative about walking out along it. But I did. While holding Tor’s hand extremely tightly.
“Do we address him?” I whispered. “Is there a ritual?”
“No. I think we just wait. He is the God-King. He’ll know we’re here.”
Even as Tor spoke, something moved in the darkness ahead of us. I could see courtesy of a light that glowed from somewhere behind us, though I didn’t pick out any light sources. It just sort of … was.
But past the edge of the platform was a darkened abyss. Whatever was out there, the sounds of it stirring dug deep into my very bones. It was big. Really big. The mountain groaned in response, and the movement continued into the distance.
Air rushed past us, then a portal opened at the edge of the platform. Surrounded by white, it yawned open to reveal a silvery-white oval that slowly changed color to a yellow until—
“It’s an eye,” I whispered with a gulp, suddenly taking everything into perspective.
The eye belonged to a truly tremendous dragon. His single eye was easily three times as wide as Tor’s entire body, from nose to tail. It defied comprehension even as I tried to imagine the rest of the body disappearing into the dark.