Chapter 16 #2
It was hard for any artemian not to Shift for any length of time, the build-up of magic growing past the point of discomfort, taking them closer towards their second natures.
A predator-born artemian might struggle to control their natural tendency towards aggression, dominance, and defiance, whereas those who were prey born might sink into anxiety and subservience.
It was no different for a Dragon, only a thousand times worse.
His head was clearer than it had been for days, and the right path lay before him, obvious in the moonlight.
Keeran had grown up with a man who had been wrecked, mind and soul, by a pair bond.
Khaled fought it long enough to raise Keeran, being more of a father to him than his own had ever been, teaching Keeran how to use the rare fire magic of their people.
In Keeran’s eyes, Khaled had rescued him, showing him the power of control when so many of their people had sunk into the worst parts of themselves.
But even Khaled, a Master in the War of Two Kings, renowned for his unwavering discipline, had been unable to fight the devastation of the pair bond.
Keeran had seen it firsthand, on the last terrible night the Dragons set foot in Demuto.
His mate had died, and Khaled, the most powerful Dragon alive, had burned almost every soul that had turned against them to ash.
So few Dragons still carried the ability to wield fire magic that no one could stop him; no one even stood a chance.
Now, with Khaled gone, it was Keeran who would be unstoppable.
So it was with utter conviction that he made his decision. He must leave Aelia.
He would return to camp, pack up his things, and fly ahead to scout out Beserkir from the skies. Just as he should have done days ago.
The thought tore at him, the tugging in his chest stronger than ever since he’d kissed her, but now that he knew what it was, he would fight it. With every fibre of his being.
Suddenly, his vision flickered. The grasslands beneath him disappeared, and he found himself standing in a screaming crowd, utter pandemonium erupting around him.
Trees, dark and menacing, loomed overhead, their branches reaching skeletal fingers to the sky.
Smoke filled the air, and he coughed against the acrid bite of it as it filled his lungs.
Just as quickly as it had appeared, the vision vanished, and his heart jumped into his throat as he found himself nosediving towards the ground. He threw his wings open and beat them hard to regain the altitude he’d lost.
What the actual fuck was that? He blinked and shook his head, utterly disorientated.
He levelled off at a safe distance, too high for anyone to think him anything more than a bird, even if he should be unfortunate enough to fly over a sharp-eyed artemian.
His eyes darted around nervously, and just when he thought the whole thing must have been some kind of stress-induced hallucination, his vision shifted again, and he was back under the trees, a stampede of panicking people around him.
His body moved of its own volition, and he saw Beserkir looming over an older man, staring up at him fearlessly despite the wasted arm tucked into his jacket.
Horror surged through him as Beserkir raised a blade slowly overhead, as if he had all the time in the world.
His body tried to surge forwards, past the people shoving at him, obscuring his view of the one-armed man, but something held him back.
He turned to see what it was, and his blood turned cold when he saw himself standing beside him.
All his features were obscured by shadows except his eyes, which burned crystal clear, black as night, and infinitely more terrifying.
His own hand restrained him, no matter how hard he pulled and pleaded, his expression remained unmoved, uncaring.
By the time he’d turned back to Beserkir, the one-armed man was down, coughing up blood on the floor, alone and dying.
Keeran snapped back to reality with a sickening lurch, freefalling through the air with his wings luffing uselessly towards the sky.
He twisted in midair, his wings nearly ripping free from their sockets as they caught him, close enough to the ground that he startled a few deer.
They careened away from him, springing through the grass, but he paid them no heed as he landed, Shifting just in time for his boots to touch the ground.
He ran a few steps to slow himself down, his landing far less graceful than usual, before dropping to rest his hands on his knees until he could think past his frantic breathing.
The pair bond snapped to life, ramming into his consciousness like a sledgehammer, nearly knocking him off his feet. Anguish radiated from it, so devastatingly agonising he clutched a hand to his chest, until the bond withered to nothing more than a tug once more.
Realisation slammed into him, and his head whipped in the direction of the camp.
Aelia. It was coming from Aelia.
He ran, leaping through the grass, arms pumping until he overtook the deer that were fleeing his landing, speeding past them in an inhuman blur. He barely slowed as he thundered into the camp, not caring if she saw, only caring that someone was hurting her, was causing her such pain.
But there was no one. The horses reared back as he arrived, heads high, eyes wide, but otherwise, the camp was still.
Aelia was still tucked under the blankets, her breathing a little fast and uneven, but otherwise unharmed. His hand dropped from the hilt of his sword, his chest heaving as he cast his eyes around once more.
Nothing. There was no one here.
A gentle groan came from under the blankets, and Keeran closed his eyes against the fear and torment that flooded the pair bond, rising in a wave before crashing away into nothing.
She was having a nightmare. The visions he’d seen had been of her nightmare.
How was that possible when the mating bond wasn’t even fully formed yet? Unless they both accepted it, unless they slept together, it was nothing more than a ghost of a true pair bond, a whisper of its true potential. And if this was what just a whisper could do, he wanted it even less than ever.
Until she moaned again.
She looked so small, so alone.
Keeran’s eyes flicked to where his pack lay by the glowing embers of the fire, pretty much ready for him to grab and go, and then back to Aelia. His resolve melted the instant he laid eyes on her.
Fuck it.