by Kenna Bardot
“Great.” He took my hand again and pulled me to my feet. “All yours again, Zia.”
She smiled at me. “You ready?”
I wanted to puke, but I nodded. “Sure, bring it on.”
✽✽✽
Taking a break was a wonderful luxury that I felt like I didn’t nearly have enough of. But when the men told me that Ryle finally finished Hydra’s extension, it was the perfect time for me to go home and rest.
Rest was definitely necessary since Zia and Zephyr or as I called them, the Zed-torturers had punished me enough that they declared I was due a break, anyway.
Taking the Express was easy enough, although Hydra was reaching the point where she was really getting big. In time, I would fly home on her back. I couldn't wait for it because walking down the path to our house, especially in the pitch black, was creepy and unsettling. It was only slightly improved by the way Shep, who had waited for me, and I swung our intertwined hands in between us as we lumbered along slowly.
Hydra would run forward, and I would call her back and she would come back resentful and she plainly communicated to me that she wanted me to hurry so she could see the others.
"Your dragon is in a rush to grow,” he noted.
"Well, yeah. She wants to see Ryle, Tate or Hollis. The least you can do is call her by her name, which is Hydra. No wonder she doesn't like you." I stuck my tongue out at Shep and stepped forward and halted when he pulled me back.
"Wait a minute. Your dragon doesn't like me because she prefers prettier men." Shep huffed and I bumped my hips against his.
"I think you're plenty pretty, Shephard. You're just a jealous oaf, much like Hydra is, so no wonder you two can’t get along." I gave his cheek a pat when he crossed his arms over his chest.
"What? Well, I was first," he declared with a pout. Emotional maturity right there.
"It's not a matter of being first. You're both important parts of my life. Okay?" I gave him a hard stare, but he just made an annoyed sound and rolled his eyes. I reached out to slap his arm.
"You're hopeless, Shep." I started when Hydra gave a low roar and rushed off into the trees. "See, you made her angry?"
"What? I didn't do anything. I didn't say anything to her directly." He held up his hands in the universal gesture men did to throw blame off themselves. I narrowed my eyes on him, prepared to lay into him when my entire body stiffened. My hands tightened around my daggers as I rushed off, relying on my bond to lead me.
I felt it before I heard the roar - the pain and panic in the high sound. Acting purely on instinct and seeing nothing but the goal, I took off down the same path Hydra had taken. My hair caught on the branches of trees, and I swiped at them with my daggers, but even that didn’t stop me.
Behind me, Shep tried to catch up and called out to get me to stop. Then I saw her. Hydra sprawled next to a large rock, and I saw blood - shiny and red on her scales, redder than even her own coloring. Her wing was bent at an awkward angle and her pupils were dilated in pain and fear.
Our bond called to me, pulling me forward until her presence pulsed in the air, surrounded me and suffocated me. "Hydra! What happened? My poor baby." She whimpered at the sound of twigs breaking underfoot, and I looked up to see Shep had finally reached us.
"What happened to her?" I knew the moment he saw the blood, the way her wing was bent, her scales cracked in several places. I hitched a breath to keep myself from sobbing. "I have no clue. I found her like this. My poor baby."
He bent down and lay a tentative hand on Hydra's head, and our eyes met. I reached out to grab his wrist. "Help me take her to Lathyn's. The Majele could help."
His eyes hardened, and he pulled his arm away, shaking his head as he did so. "No. You're a Majele. Shouldn't you be able to help?"
"Damn it, Shep. Control your jealousy. I haven't gone back for any lessons with Lathyn because you were all jealous, so I haven't gotten that much better at it. Please, I wouldn't ask if it weren't so important."
"Then we take her back to the dragon reserve. Can't they help there?" His jaw tightened, and I wanted to slap him silly.
"I'm not taking her through the Express like this. We're near enough to the West that we can walk her. I can't carry her that far. She's gotten so big, I was thinking earlier that I could probably ride her soon." I ran a hand down Hydra's head as she closed her eyes in pain. As the pain stabbed through me, as I felt the desire to let the black and darkness win.
"Fine. I'll carry her." Shep took a deep breath and bent to pick Hydra up. She made a howling sound of pain that had me grabbing her claw. "Please, baby, let Shep take you to Lathyn. He can help heal you. Please."
And we set off at a running pace fast enough to get there in time but slow enough that we weren't hurting Hydra more than necessary.
In my head, I prayed that she was well. In my head, I told her she would be.
Twenty-Four
Mireyah
My consciousness blinked in and out - stark and blurred, light and dark as pain and panic rolled into one. She was lost. I reached out and touched her and she was there. My hand tightened around her leg as I ran as fast as I could, keeping pace with Shep who moved like the swiftness of a storm.
I did not speak to Shep because tears threatened to fall. I had almost lost her. One minute she was playing in front of me, the next my world was on the precipice of a collapse. A figure, shadowy and vague, nagged at the back of my brain. Something that I knew I should recognize. And perhaps if I took the time to think, really think, I could understand it, but that wasn’t my priority.
I had to make sure she was okay. Another touch to reassure myself she was still there. Her heartbeat pulsed through me, through the stone that was the other half of hers, and I knew she was still with me.
Unlike the last times I’d been there, I didn’t stop to admire the architecture that the Western region boasted. I didn’t stop to admire the striking angles of the sculptures that littered the grounds and parks. With a certainty I didn’t understand but trusted, I led Shep down a long winding path at the end of which I knew would be Lathyn.
It was a striking structure of pearl and lustre. Grand even by the standards of the Gods. Walking up to the front door was relatively easy when it felt like it should have been heavily guarded instead. I was certain Shep had questions about my knowledge of the house. So how could I explain that I knew so well when even I did not know where my information came from?
I knocked once, three times. And waited. The door opened and rather than a servant I was surprised to see that it was Lathyn himself who did the menial task. I let out the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. Shock registered on his face when he saw us. "Mireyah, Shep, what are you doing here? Is that…?"
"Hydra, Lathyn. I need your help with Hydra." He turned towards the bundle in Shep’s arms, reaching up a hand to touch the side of her face. Urgency replaced shock as he stepped back and gestured us in.
He led the way down a long hall until we came upon the kitchen. I stopped and stared. It was the first time I’d been in his house as the only other times that I had seen him in Demiorgo had been in relatively public places. But, regardless, it was a place I knew.
I’d been there before, only it had been in the visions that Caprice had given me in Sylfeshire. The visions I thought had been untrue for after all, I had been Bonded to my five but I did not end up being a Vide.
I was snapped out of my musings, guilt raging inside me for being distracted from the emergency at hand as he gestured to a large white marble island. "Place her there, please." He pushed back his sleeves and guided Shep so that Hydra was placed on top of the surface as gently as possible. He gave me a serious look. "What happened?"
I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm, shaking visions of hazy figures from my head. Now was not the time for speculations. "I don’t know. Shep and I were just walking side by side, and she was ahead of us until one moment something set her off and she ran out of sight. She's done it bef
ore, so I didn't think much of it, really. Then I felt her and when I found her, she was like this. I felt her go through it - pain, so much pain. Like world ending and…”
Shep grabbed me by my shoulders. “Snow, you have to breathe. She’s going to be fine. We’re going to take care of her.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and turned towards Lathyn. “She didn’t want to take her through a Springen journey, so we ran her over here instead.”
"You have good instincts." He touched Hydra gently on the head, and Hydra cooed softly when a sliver of blue slid out of Lathyn's hands. "The Express would have been bad for her."
I felt my lips tremble and bit down with my teeth to keep them from doing so. "You can help her, right?" I watched as he pulled back from Hydra, my dragon's eyes going heavy before she fell into a deep, numbing sleep. It was like a half of me had died, muted and gone.
I felt instantly bereft but relieved when her pain and panic fled my body.
"Perhaps I can or I cannot. A dragon’s magic is complex and old, and a simple Majele cannot hope to match it. But as her partner, you should be able to easily enough, so my question is why haven't you?" He pulled a drawer open and took out a cloth, which folded like a pillow and lay under Hydra's head gently.
I blinked at his question. “What do you mean?”
"You're a Dracari, but at your core you are still a Majele. A Majele in the unique position of being bonded to one of the most mythical and important creatures. So why haven't you helped her?" He took another piece of cloth and wiped at the blood that had gotten on his hands. "Or perhaps the question is, why can’t you?”
"You bastard," Shep said quietly, taking his arms from around me as he stared Lathyn down. "She begged me to take her here because she was so certain that you could help her."
I walked forward to touch Shep's shoulder and stop him before he pommeled into Lathyn as I was sure he was dying to do. "I can speak for myself." He trembled under my fingers but didn't move otherwise.
"And so you can very well do, Mireyah. Speak. But can you act in a manner that befits the loftiness of the dreams and wishes you came to me with? Do you hope to lead a revolution by speaking, or will you prove yourself with actions?" He gave me an arrogant look and violence coursed through my veins. I desperately wanted to let Shep hit him.
"I've accomplished more than you can imagine, Lathyn Majele. Survived more than you can understand." Tears fell from my eyes and I looked towards my Hydra, glad that she was asleep and no longer actively suffering.
He nodded. "Fine. Then show me that you can accomplish so much more. Instill in me, and in yourself, that you can bring change. Show me you won’t just ask for my help at every turn.”
"Fine," I said through gritted teeth as I turned to Hydra. My tears fell, and I was on the very edge of calling it quits and admitting I was a failure before he whispered into my ear.
"Use that fear and panic for your dragon to force your Majele to the surface. Is the reason you don't want it more important than a creature you love more than life itself? One who is so intertwined with you? That is half of your soul?"
"No." I was done hiding me, done pushing myself down. The time to let go had come, and I was ready for everyone to see. All this time, I hadn't wanted to be a Majele because I knew it hurt my men. It was a direct reminder of the man who’d nearly taken me away from them. So I pushed it down and denied it its ability to shine, to protect their frail egos.
I knew now that I was only hurting myself and insulting them by doing it. I remembered how the Majeles tried to teach me before. Find what needs fixing and change that. It helped that I was so connected to Hydra that I knew what was inherently wrong with her without having to dig too deep. I closed my eyes and allowed the feeling to flow out of me.
"Well done," Lathyn breathed out, and I opened my eyes to find him beaming back at me.
"You're glorious, Snow," Shep agreed, and I saw the blue bleed out my hands and wrap around Hydra. Somehow instinctively I knew how to take the pain from her, stop the bleeding so she only had to contend with a broken wing that would heal in time but would not hurt so much.
The blue retracted, and Hydra's eyes fluttered open. I moved towards her. "Hydra." She cooed back, a soft sound, but I knew she was more tired than in pain.
I'd done it. I looked at my hands - they were pale and back to normal, but in them I had more power than just the Kald I wielded so easily. I had the power to ensure my dragon could be kept safe.
"You did it. We knew you could," Lathyn spoke. Much as I'd wanted to stab him just minutes before, I knew I had him to thank. Letting my emotions lead me, I rushed towards him and wrapped my arms around his neck, tight, before giving his cheek a loud smacking kiss. "Thank you, Lathyn! I couldn't have done it if you hadn't been such an arrogant, tight ass!"
He laughed, an uncertain sound. "Mireyah?"
A crack of the lightning bolted through the sky as I turned back to look at Shep, eyes gone dark purple as he stared at us.
Oops.
✽✽✽
Shephard
I stepped forward, gingerly scooping Hydra into my arms from the table and cradling her to my chest with a delicacy that felt so foreign to me. No matter how much Hydra and I disliked each other, she was a part of Mireyah, and we tolerated one another for her sake.
Hydra didn't protest, her head resting on my shoulder contentedly given the fatigue she’d been through, the pain and panic that even I could feel earlier. She was far from massive, but she grew quicker than seemed normal even given her species. As anxious as I was for the day when I wouldn't have to worry about them so much and where she wouldn't make Mireyah so vulnerable, I saw how it pained Snow to watch Hydra grow.
Lathyn stared at me in smug satisfaction as I grabbed Mireyah’s hand in mine and dragged her from the room and out the front door.
"Thank you!" she called out to Lathyn as we left, and the continued contact and thankfulness she felt for the Majele only enraged me further. It started from the moment she unerringly led us to his house. I wanted to know how the fuck she could have known where he lived without hesitation. It made me question when I knew I should trust.
The storm built inside me, but I tried to shove it down. Tried to resist the urge to let it explode out of respect for Mireyah and her independence. Even if I wanted to bend her over and fuck her while he watched so he could never forget who she belonged to.
"You're making a habit of dragging me away from Lathyn," she teased me with a laugh. The glare I shot her only made her giggle harder, something positively comical about the thunderous set to my face. I wasn’t sure what was so entertaining about my jealousy, not when she would normally be angry with me for it.
"Don't push me," I grunted, adjusting Hydra so gently she never even moved her head or woke up. Worry tormented me, wondering if Mireyah healed her entirely, but I had faith that if she hadn't, Lathyn would have sensed it. As much as I wanted to slaughter the man, I knew he had Hydra’s best interest at heart.
In the end.
Mostly.
The path back home was empty as we walked along, and Mireyah had to hurry to keep up with my long legs. Normally, I might have slowed my pace for her sake. But I was too anxious, too aware of the fact that carrying an injured Hydra meant I was less capable of protecting Mireyah if something happened.
But none of the other bonded pairs had been with anyone else when they were attacked, and because of that I grew increasingly confident that they would be safe as long as they were with one of us.
"It's flattering in a way that you're jealous over me, but there's no need for it," Mireyah said, softening her voice as she spoke. She squeezed my hand in hers to reassure me through the one point of contact between us. "I wish you could see how different I am with him. I wish you could feel how differently I feel for him than I do my Five," she murmured.
"You shouldn't feel anything for him, Mireyah," I growled. "We're your husbands. You had a relationship with him, and it feels like a b
etrayal for you to continue with that."
"I didn't have a relationship with him," she said, her exasperation leaking through her voice. "I spoke with him a handful of times and maybe once or twice he tried to touch my hand. I never so much as kissed him, Shep. I was honest about what I wanted the entire time. I hated Lathyn at first, but he became a friend. He was kind to me and treated me like a person who had a valuable opinion where no one else thought I was anything but something to fuck."
"How would you feel if I was friends with one of the women I've been with?" I glared down at her.
"I think it's different. I never had sex with Lathyn, and there was never an attraction there, at least from my side. You would have had to be attracted to someone to be with her. If it was someone who wanted to have sex with you, but you never acted on it because you weren't interested? Yeah, I'd be okay with that," she explained.
"Really?" I asked, shock coloring my tone. That Mireyah wouldn’t be jealous seemed like such an unrealistic expectation.
I didn’t like it.
I wanted her to be jealous over me.
"Yes, because I trust you. Did you forget that the five of you spent the better part of a year parading Annalee around in front of me? Doing or not doing Zeevar knows what with her after you brought me into your service?"
I flinched, my face warming as we rounded the corner on the path and made our way up the drive to the house. "We tired of her before you even came around, and things were different then, anyway."
"They were," she agreed. "Just like things were different when I was in Sylfeshire. I love you. All of you. I don't want to spend all our time together fighting about stupid things. We have enough to worry about as it is," she said. Given her emotional outburst after realizing Tate had violated her, I knew she was right. I wanted peace in our relationship. I wanted her to know I loved her, that she was the most important thing in my world. I paused at the door, giving her a slight smile. "He's going to be a part of our lives, Shep. We need to cope with that."
