Chapter 12
Carwyn had managed to fill each hour that passed with tales of her family. She didn’t tell him who her dragon ancestor was, as that was a secret she was told to never share.
Should anyone discover we are children of the first dragon-and-human mating, we may be targeted. It was also doubtful anyone would believe them.
Dragonfolk might also despise them for beginning what they considered an awful plague. Their bloodline, their existence, began the destruction of their kind. Carwyn didn’t need Kier to find a new reason to hate her more than he did.
Or should she be referring to his hatred in the past tense? She wasn’t quite sure.
Even when she knelt at the head of the altar in preparation, her thoughts were conflicted.
He was rather kind to me today, she thought, peeking down at her ungloved hands. She rarely needed to wear them, as she had no fear of him if they accidentally touched skin to scale. It was nice being without the constrictive barrier. He let me talk of my sisters until my tongue dried.
How they helped the villages and what they obtained in return.
How they sang with the fairies and played chase with the pixies in their forest. How her mother was loving, but she was also very prim, proper, and overprotective – which made her strict.
Carwyn spoke of the dark witches they’d destroyed, and how her family, dating back generations, had killed hundreds of them in order to balance out the world as best they could.
The way they only ever bore daughters, and usually only ever one. Which had led to his curiosity about why she had three sisters.
Carwyn had struggled to answer such a question.
Valerie had been given a title by their mother the day she’d killed her own father and hadn’t showed a shred of remorse. Valerie the Heartless, who saw no issue in killing a dark witch. Their mother deemed her unfit to be a parent, too callous and unfeeling, so she had a second child, Aldora.
She was thankful the topic of their different fathers changed the direction of the conversation, as she didn’t like speaking of the horrors that had befallen Aldora and how she’d taken a vow of celibacy.
She hated men. She hated dark witches more than anything in the world, and Carwyn knew that once Kaeylyn was of age, Aldora had every intention of leaving home to hunt them. Likely with a potion or a spell in place that would end her life should she be captured for the same reasons as before.
Kier had asked if all their fathers were dark witches, and Carwyn had shaken her head.
Her father hadn’t been, but she’d also never met him.
Their mother had chosen from those who’d ventured into the nearby towns, had slept with them, and then had crept away during the night – just as it had been the same for all the women in her family.
He’d asked her why that was, and Carwyn didn’t know. Her mother hadn’t either. It was just how it was.
When she spoke of Valerie, it was with a note of loss she was unable to share with him. She couldn’t tell the story of how she’d saved their youngest sister, as it would make him question whether Carwyn would turn to dark magic. It might destroy any trust he’d formed in her.
But Carwyn truly believed Valerie was still pure-hearted, even if she didn’t know that truth for herself.
She was exceptionally loyal to their teachings and could be quite callous if they did anything that could be considered straying from them.
Yet, she’d done something selfless, something she knew could corrupt her, just to save Kaeylyn.
How could someone with such morals stray from that path when it was literally in every part of her soul? Carwyn believed such strength would fight the odds.
Even if Valerie didn’t believe it herself.
The dragon had listened to every word and had been attentive enough to enquire for more. He’d shared little of himself, only commenting when his experience with his siblings reflected hers at times – which was rarely.
Selene was the eldest of her clutch, but the fifth oldest. Their names, in order of hatching, were: Balor, Leila, Vespera, Kier, Selene, Umbra, and Nisha.
It didn’t take Carwyn long to surmise they all had very similar features, considering their names were all associated with darkness, the colour black, or the night.
Which brought her gaze to Selene and her human features.
“Your eyes may be closed, but I know they are red like his,” Carwyn whispered, gazing at her straight black hair pooling over the edge of the altar. “Did you all have such eyes?”
Such bold, intense eyes. She had yet to see any of them in Selene’s memories except for Kier.
Admittedly, Carwyn found Kier’s magnificent. They were more crystalline than Selene’s, slightly lighter in colour, and they sparkled like rubies. They were hard and cold, yet so radiant that she often struggled to look away – as if they had the ability to hold her in place until time ended.
I’ve found him beautiful from the start. Lovely to look upon, hateful to speak to.
At least until today.
I still don’t understand why he changed, and I don’t know whether to be upset or not. If he could be kind, it meant he’d chosen not to and had been punishing her just for existing. For being born a witch. He had every reason to, as most witches were horrible creatures, but it still hurt.
But she also wanted this. The kindness, the consideration – it was fuel for her lonely heart.
I want to touch him, she thought, lifting her bare hands towards Selene. She wanted to caress his scales, his paw, even his foreleg if he let her. She longed to feel another person without the drowning wave of emotions tainting the experience.
If he still hated her, she’d never know. She could contentedly hold her palm to his, none-the-wiser, and she’d merely bask in the comfort of touch rather than knowing how he felt.
She’d yearned for that for decades.
Carwyn placed her fingertips against Selene’s cheeks, and emotions crashed into her. Confusion. Loss. Uncertainty. The worst was fear. Selene knew something was wrong.
Then Carwyn pushed to dive deeper while enacting a spell that she didn’t require a chant for. She didn’t need words or ingredients for it. It came from within, as if it was natural for her. A part of her.
Her sight grew cloudy before being consumed by darkness, while her external hearing faded to allow internal noises to sharpen.
Although she knew she was kneeling on cold, hard stone, she screamed when she started falling through the sky. Wind whipped and cut through her clothing, fluttering her dress around her legs, until she righted herself and threw her arms out.
Anything she conjured now was merely a figment of her own imagination, but it felt like magic to her.
Her arms morphed into wings, and she gave herself the ability to soar through the skies.
She flapped as she flew through a thick, wet cloud, and the chill of droplets clinging to her chilled her until her physical body shivered.
As she came out from the cloud, Selene was below her, flying in dragon form across the sky. She was high up, enough that those below might confuse her for a bird, and tucking in all four of her paws aided the illusion.
Usually she flies at night.
It was often how Carwyn started in her memories.
No one knew of Carwyn’s ability to dream walk. She’d never trained it, but it came naturally to her. Like with her empathetic abilities, it was a part of her.
Blessed twice, her mother would likely say. Cursed twice, Carwyn would retort. Although this was a choice; one she’d turned her back on.
Selene shot her snout in the direction of Carwyn, feeling her presence, and she gulped. She dove, getting away from the dragoness before she could begin her chase, and willed for a new memory.
Like crashing face-first into water, Carwyn dived through a cold surface that engulfed her and then found herself elsewhere.
She knelt upon the grass within a thick, shaded forest at night, and she quickly scurried to her feet to hide.
She darted her gaze around, searching for the elusive Selene, who often hid in the dark of night.
It was how she hunted.
Her heart leapt into her throat when something small flew past her. A dragon, no bigger than a large dog, landed not even a few feet from her. Only for a second to follow close behind, of similar size and colouring, but with more of a crown of spikes.
“Kier, slow down.”
Kier turned with a snarl, directly facing Carwyn without ever seeing her. This memory of him never would; it was only Selene who could become conscious within her dreams.
“You are slowing me down,” he bit, snapping his fangs at the air in front of her. “Go home. Return to the others.”
Selene slammed her tail down. “I want to help!”
“You are merely a hundred and forty-seven! Return to where it’s safe. I cannot watch you and save Balor at the same time!”
“But Mother and Father told us all to stay!”
His growl was fierce. It wrapped itself around Carwyn until goosebumps trailed along her flesh. It was harsh, lethal, and suffused with fury.
“I will not sit by in cowardice while they fight against a coven!”
“Neither will I!”
Kier shoved Selene, and she tumbled to the ground. Then he pushed her again and again with the depth of his snarl deepening until it sounded like it came from his belly. Selene stumbled each time, unable to get to her feet before he came at her again.
“Go home, Selene! Return to our parents’ lair until we return!”
“Kier!” she cried as he shoved her back again.
“What if they die because you will not listen?! I’m wasting time with you!”
The little dragoness in her teenage years began to cry, only for her next whimper to cut out abruptly. Her face spun around until she was looking between her own wings... at Carwyn.
“You,” Selene growled, her voice aged, no longer sweet with youth, and full of anger.
Time to flee! Carwyn’s mind screamed as she ducked around the forest. New memory!
The ground came out from under her, and she landed knee-deep in water. Her eyes widened at Selene lazing in a rock pool, twisting and turning to get clean. New memory!
She dived into the water before the dragoness could see her.
Then, finally, she landed in complete and utter darkness. It wasn’t a memory. It always took Carwyn a few jumps to get to the place outside of dreams and memories. To Selene’s subconscious.
She breathed lightly and searched her surroundings, worried the dragoness would appear out of thin air. Her mind hasn’t fully grasped that I’m here yet.
Around her ankles was inky water, so dark that it was impossible to know what it truly was. A memory played on the surface around her feet, the one of Selene bathing.
Carwyn walked, searching the waters, passing memory after memory. She only heard what was happening within them when she stood inside their glow. They were all different, little glimpses into the dragoness’ life.
Then she found it, just as she did every night.
The memory of the witches who had taken Selene.
Before she could dive in, Carwyn was shoved by a hard force. Her side hit the ground as she slid across the water for several metres. Every time Carwyn got too close to the memory, Selene always intercepted.
“Get out, vile creature!” Her wings extended under the power of her bellowing roar.
“Please, let me in,” Carwyn begged, rising to her feet to face off with her. “I’m trying to help you.”
Selene charged, and Carwyn placed a barrier dome around herself just as the dragoness opened her maw and blew fire at it. And she didn’t let up, giving Carwyn no room to escape except into the memory below.
She peered down at it and scrunched her nose. Great. I get to watch her being fucked by another dragon. Not quite what Carwyn wanted to witness.
She dove in anyway.