Chapter Fourteen #2
As if Drakkar responded to that, his aura pulsed even darker, ricocheting several lightning bolts back into the clouds, almost as if he were experiencing a surge of anger so strong it repelled the violent elements themselves.
When Katana went on, I got the sense she was testing him to see if he would respond again, whether he would admit it or not.
Knowing Drakkar, he wouldn't, as he typically preferred to bury his emotions rather than let anyone see them.
“In fact, I’m pretty sure Azura met her current boyfriend on one of those top-secret missions,” Katana revealed.
“Why would you say that?” I wondered, knowing full well Drakkar was paying close attention now, based on how his dragon scales rippled as if he were displeased by Katana’s revelation.
“I couldn’t say, other than I get a weird vibe off him,” she replied. “Like he’s keeping secrets that could get her into trouble. There’s just something off about him, I guess. That he’s half dragon, too, only makes it more troubling.”
“’Twill be a fast dive downward soon,” Drakkar warned us, his voice hard, as if he were upset about something beyond the obvious, given we were trying to evade Skarde’s darkness.
“So, best to remain focused, as my lair will appear just below the clouds, and there will be little time to slow yourselves down before landing.”
When I looked Katana’s way, and our eyes met, I knew she sensed Drakkar’s curtness had more to do with our discussion than the evil we tried to outrun.
“Are all of you ready?” Drakkar asked, as any good leader would, considering he was in charge here.
“Ja,” áma replied, her almost ethereal-looking reddish-golden dragon, with its ebbing and flowing auras, doing just as well as Katana’s, considering this was her first flight outside the Realm.
“Ja,” I replied, eager to get Katana to safety.
“I think so, but...” Katana said, trailing off.
“But what?” I asked, alarmed by the way her dragon seemed to be slowing down when it should not be at this altitude in this weather.
“I don’t know,” she murmured, her inner voice taking on an especially soft, feminine, almost sultry pitch that more than alarmed my dragon because it wasn't aimed at me. “I just feel like there’s somewhere else I should be...” Her voice softened even more.
“That he’s waiting for me...desperate for me. ”
“It’s Skarde,” áma warned Drakkar and me, sensing the enemy’s darkness before we did. “He’s close.”
Cursing, I tried to stop Katana, but her dragon shot off to the north, as if she knew exactly where he was.
“Get to my lair,” Drakkar ordered the two of us. “I will get her there safely.”
When I tried to deny him and banked in that direction, he cut me off and threw a wind sheer so strong my dragon was forced to follow áma, caught in weather Drakkar alone controlled, much to my frustration.
“He might know she’s outside the Realm, but he doesn’t know where she is yet, Torsten,” Drakkar assured me, vanishing beneath the clouds, racing after her.
“He feels around in the darkness for Katana, trying to reel her in, but I control that darkness, so let me get her. Trust me in this, brother. I can retrieve your mate before he gets a hold of her and keep her hidden. Keep her safe.”
Though furious at my helplessness, my dragon knew he was right. Knew I couldn’t do what he could in this storm, mayhap only putting her in more peril if I tried.
“Yet I will keep you with me in the only way you can be right now, brother,” Drakkar went on, giving me some level of comfort when he allowed me to see through his eyes even as the elements steered áma and me down sharply toward his lair.
Drakkar had Katana in sight just ahead, moving fast indeed, as if she were desperate to get to Skarde, as drawn to him now as she’d been when my darker side first stole her back in time, only to find the proxy king awaiting them.
“Katana,” I roared, trying to get through to her, but it felt as if a wall had been thrown up between our minds, and I told Drakkar as much. “Should he be able to do that within your magic?”
“’Tis possible via the connection you three share,” he returned. “But that doesn’t bring her out of the shadows to him unless I allow it.”
“Or she gets to him before you stop her,” I growled, growing more and more tense as I barreled downward and prepared to slow myself, feeling caged in by Drakkar’s magic in a way my dragon seriously didn’t like.
“She will not,” Drakkar assured, picking up speed, his vision narrowing to a pinprick in a hallway of black before, propelled by Helheim, he shot forward even faster, then swooped down beneath her smaller beast, banking left so sharply he caught her on his back and forced her off course.
“Stop,” she roared, suddenly there in all of our minds again as áma and I broke free of the cloud bank and slowed sharply before landing on the shore of Drakkar’s lair. “Let me go!”
“Be prepared to take control when I force her down,” Drakkar warned me. “Get her into the lair and free her from Skarde’s hold, as ‘tis still very much there.”
“I feel it,” I returned, bracing to catch her the best I could in this form and force her inside, knowing it would be no easy task given how furious she was.
“I can shift her back first,” áma said, her aura pulsing with power I had never quite seen in another dragon. She looked at me with reassurance. “I can, but you must move quickly, as I cannot hold her shift long if she decides to embrace her dragon again.”
“Ja, shift her,” I replied, knowing I had a better chance that way. “Then I will get her all the way back safely.”
“Ja?” áma said.
“Ja,” I assured, trying not to overthink that she had that kind of power over her fellow dragons.
“Here she comes,” Drakkar warned, moments before he slowed his dragon so abruptly Katana was thrust forward, still carried by his momentum, until her dragon was barrelling right at us. After áma shifted to her human side, she held up her arms, closed her eyes, and chanted.
Moments later, áma shifted Katana back to her human form, and I acted swiftly, catching her in my talon, certain this plan would work, only for the worst possible thing to happen the second I touched her.