Chapter 61
Aella
An eternity seemed to pass as Darrow held me in his arms and we zoomed through a stream of lights across the galaxy.
Idwal was a few feet ahead of us, with his robe flapping against the torrent of wind that blasted us inside the tunnel.
We were moving far faster than we had when using interplanetary portals, and the pressure took a toll on my already weakened body.
I was glad we drank the anti-nausea tea after our last meal, so at least my stomach stayed calm.
Just behind us, I sensed the deities who’d followed us inside. Why would they come as well? I’d thought they’d leave once we made it into the portal. I could even sense Desire’s energy surrounding me like a cocoon, making the pain a little more bearable.
You had too much power pushed through you, Desire said.
She remained in her body, but she’d connected with my mind near the end when I thought I couldn’t handle one more second of channeling. What does that mean?
No one has ever held a portal across the galaxy for that long. Keeping the channel open was killing you, so I had to take measures to prevent your imminent death. If I release my power from you now, you’ll die before you reach Earth.
I swallowed. It had to be dire that the gods stepped in to help us even before we agreed to their deal. They would have paid a price for that, but they likely would have stopped helping if we hadn’t accepted. It would have doomed us all.
A thought occurred to me. Are you helping because you actually care, or is it because if Paxia dies, your mate will lose many followers?
They derived their power from the number of people who worshiped them.
Can’t it be both?
I silently laughed since sound didn’t travel inside the vortex. Be honest.
We care about our favorites and look forward to a full day inside your bodies, not just a handful of hours. We will have so much fun, Aella.
Considering how weak I felt at the moment, I could hardly find excitement at the idea. Maybe later, when I didn’t feel so close to death. Wait. What did she say?
An entire day?
The assistance we’re providing this time is far greater than the last, she said, speaking in a kinder and more soothing voice than expected.
It requires a greater sacrifice on your part.
Either you surrender your bodies for a full twenty-four hours, or spend days unconscious, reliving your worst memories.
At least we are giving you a choice, which most gods would not.
That wasn’t entirely true. The other nameless god hasn’t made me pay for his help.
Not that he ever gave me much assistance, but he had a little.
That’s because he pays the price for you, but it also limits how much he can give, Desire replied tersely.
Before I could ask how he paid the price, we shot out of the portal. I sucked in fresh air. It hadn’t occurred to me that I didn’t breathe that whole time, but I supposed it made sense that there wouldn’t be oxygen inside a vortex through space.
Darrow carried me away from the ring, which lay flat on the ground, rather than upright.
The sounds of battle raged all around us, but the sun overhead was so bright that it blurred my vision from seeing what was happening.
He set me down a few feet from the portal, next to the packs that came before us, and gave me a concerned look as he brushed my hair away from my face.
“Can you move?” he asked.
I managed to twitch my fingers.
“Not…much.” My voice came out thready and weak.
Desire kneeled on my other side, though I could barely make her out with my blurred vision. All I caught was long, dark hair framing her face. “Go fight, Dare. I’ll see to your mate.”
He hesitated, but at my encouraging nod, he hurried away. The goddess grazed her fingers over my cheek gently, and I swore I sensed her concern. I’d always thought of their kind as cold and distant, occasionally snarky. Her touch alone gave me a little more strength than before.
“You must learn to pace yourself, Aella. You pushed too much power too fast,” she said, clucking her tongue.
As if I’d had a choice in the matter, but reflecting on it, maybe I could have pulled back a little. I was so worried about losing the distant connection that I’d channeled as much as possible to keep it open.
A large man-shaped figure ran toward us with a sword upraised. “There’s…someone behind you.”
She lifted a hand, and he disappeared. “The fool.”
There had been another one following the first, shouting with feminine rage as she headed toward us.
Wrath—with his short white hair making him easy to identify—took care of her by striking her with his fist so hard that her head exploded.
Though I only saw it through a blur, it was disturbing.
I returned my gaze to Desire as she leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.
“Be well, Aella.” Her lips lingered above my skin as power and strength returned to my body. “This is all I can do for you, as this is not a planet where the nameless ones are welcome, especially since I have no worshipers here. I am more…limited.”
Before I could ask what that meant, Wrath took her in his arms, and they disappeared.
I slowly rose to my feet and found my vision had cleared.
While I wasn’t at full strength, I was much better than before.
I found Darrow battling two dark elves with a third coming at his back, but before I could do anything to help him, a burnt-orange dragon chomped on the Karganoth soldier’s head and tossed him away.
It eyed me next, but I put my hands up. “I’m not here to fight you.”
Confusion entered his gaze. I wore a translation ring, so if I ran into someone who could speak aloud, I would understand them, but they wouldn’t be able to understand me. It definitely didn’t do any good with a dragon.
I pointed at another dark elf coming our way and pretended to chomp with my teeth. “Eat that one.”
Amusement entered its gaze. It did as I requested, ripping through our mutual enemy. I caught sight of Dagra in the distance, burning through more Karganoth soldiers. A much smaller, red dragon paralleled her and incinerated the ones she missed.
They appeared to be working together, so I hoped that meant they could communicate despite being from different planets. Dragons hated change. The language might have stayed consistent since the races diverged eons ago.
Another dark elf ran toward me. I used my wind power to shove her into a nearby tree and held her there as she struggled.
A woman on a majestic midnight black horse with the longest mane and tail I’d ever seen emerged from the woods next to my foe.
As far as I could tell, she was human with coppery brown hair that ran just past her shoulders, a heart-shaped face, and tan skin.
Her clothing was unusual—all black material similar to leather but not quite the same.
The sleeveless tunic and pants hugged her toned body.
She glanced between me and the dark elf, then shoved her sword through my foe’s chest.
I gaped, dropping my wind magic. She didn’t know me, yet she had helped. “How did you…?”
We’ve been expecting you, an odd male voice said in my head.
Looking around, I couldn’t find the source.
My name is Onyx, and I’m the horse you were undoubtedly admiring a moment ago.
I swung back to the stallion. “How are you talking inside my head?”
It just stared at me because I was the one with a translation ring, which apparently understood the equine as well. I took a look around, noting the battle was dying down and the last of the dark elves were being dispatched.
With no threats left, I headed toward the woman and her horse. When neither appeared worried, I slid the ring off my finger and handed it to the rider. She frowned, but after a moment she slid it on her finger.
“Now, you can understand me, but I can’t understand you.”
She nodded, then glanced at the golden ring with renewed interest.
“There is a spell so we don’t have to trade that back and forth, but it requires a strand from our hair. I wanted to explain and get your permission before performing it,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound too crazy. I had no idea what was normal for this planet. “My name is Aella, by the way.”
She slid off the ring and handed it back to me.
“I’m Rayna,” the woman said as soon as I put it back on. “We’ve been expecting you for a while, which is why we didn’t attack you and only the others. Our seers and a wayward prophecy tome told us what to expect, but that’s a long story.”
She plucked a strand of hair from her head and gave it to me. I pulled one of mine, then a small vial I’d purposely kept in my pocket for this introduction. Tapping a drop from it onto the two crossed hairs, I whispered a spell. A moment later, the hair disappeared.
“Can you understand me now?” I asked.
Her smile widened. “Yes. That’s incredible!”
“We’ll have to do the same for everyone else who wants to be able to communicate.”
She plucked a strand from Onyx’s mane, with the horse shaking its head. “He volunteers.”
“So that really was his voice in my head?” I looked at the stallion in amazement. “Do all your horses speak telepathically?”
Rayna laughed. “No, only this one. Many years ago, I gave him a potion so dragon fire couldn’t burn him, and after a while, he began doing odd things like snacking on dead dragons I’d slayed. Not long after that, he developed the ability to speak in anyone’s head.”
“We haven’t had that happen on my planet, Paxia, but we have many other strange things occur there,” I said, finding this woman intriguing. “But did you say you kill dragons? Like a slayer?”
She nodded. “Yes, though I try to slay only the bad ones.”
“Try?”
“Here on Earth, slayers are compelled to kill at least one dragon a week, or we lose our minds. We’ll kill any of them we see at that point.” She sighed. “It’s annoying. They developed a potion to curb our instincts, but it weakens us, which I hate.”
That was understandable. “I wouldn’t like that, either.”
“Where did the blue dragon come from?” Rayna asked.
I followed her line of sight. “That’s Dagra. She recently lost her mate, and her hatchling died soon after birth, so she asked to come with us. I think she needed something to take her mind off things.”
Sympathy filled Rayna’s hazel eyes. “That’s horrible. She’s so huge—bigger than any of ours—that she triggered my instincts, but I thought she might have come with you since she was fighting on your side. We also don’t have any with that color, so I’m glad I resisted.”
Rayna dismounted as the burnt-orange dragon I’d seen earlier lumbered over to us. He was also smaller than Dagra, but he was so menacing that I took a step back. Their kind had never frightened me like that before.
The slayer casually walked over and smacked him on the head. “Did you have to bite the enemy, Galadon? Now your teeth are going to be gross, and I am not kissing you.”
“Kissing him?” I asked, mortified. Hugging a dragon is one thing, but kissing?
She lifted a brow. “Could you shift, please, so Aella won’t think I’m weird?”
A moment later, the dragon lit up in flames. I took another step back, almost bumping into the stallion. Darrow rushed toward me with concern on his face. I put up a hand to calm him since Rayna didn’t look worried about the burning beast. It wasn’t that much odder than the chicken.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“A dragon is a handful of feet from you, covered in fire and…” He paused, and we both frowned as the shape inside the flames changed, getting smaller. “…doing something.”
“He’s shifting,” Rayna explained.
She could understand him now, but not the other way around, so I repeated her words for Darrow. His eyes lit up. “He’s a shapeshifter?”
“Well, he can change between dragon and human form.”
I translated that for my husband, then held out my hand. “Give me a strand of your hair.”
He hesitated, but did as I asked. Rayna kindly offered another one of hers, and I performed the spell again.
By the time I finished, the burnt-orange dragon’s flames had died, and a very large, muscular man appeared.
Thankfully, he was fully clothed in something similar to Rayna’s black outfit.
While his short, dark hair seemed normal enough, his eyes weren’t usual at all.
It appeared as if flames burned inside them, and he still emitted that choking fear vibe.
Darrow put an arm around my waist. “Don’t get too close to him.”
“I told you to calm that shit down,” Rayna said, smacking the huge male. “You’re scaring the people who should be our allies, and it’s just rude.”
He gave her a scathing look. “We don’t know them.”
“We have been waiting on them for four years, and technically, you’ve been sitting here guarding that artifact for over six centuries, so maybe be nice to the people who will finally end that fun duty for you.
” She turned toward me. “By the way, are you Vulcans or elves because it could go either way with those ears.”
Darrow and I each touched ours, but I replied. “I have no idea what a Vulcan is, but I am half-elf and half-druid, so my ears aren’t as pointed as others.”
“Why are his black on the tips, sort of like the guys who were attacking you, except theirs were all black?” she asked, cocking her head.
“Oh.” I went on to explain the difference between dark and light elves.
She nodded. “Do you have many races on your planet?”
I gave her a brief overview. “Elves are dominant on two continents, but druids control another, and the fourth is a mixture of races aside from elves.”
“We just have pure dragons, shifter dragons, sorcerers, slayers, and humans. Excluding me, we have three shifters living here. Galadon, who is this grumpy guy,” Rayna said, gesturing at the scary man next to her.
“His mother isn’t here, but she’ll likely turn up any moment.
Also, Titan, the red dragon that you probably saw in the air.
Most of us are sorcerers as well, so we’re sort of hybrids. ”
“Oh, so you have magic?” I asked, surprised. Our slayers didn’t have any.
She nodded. “Yes, from my mother’s side of the family. Dad was a slayer.”
So she was a mix of races like me.
Most of the others gathered around us now, but it was clear they could only understand half the conversation.
I found my pack, which had an extra vial of the translation potion, and handed it to Rayna, explaining how to cast the spell.
Thankfully, her magic could handle it fine.
We quickly got to work to avoid any miscommunication at our first meeting.