by LJ Andrews
Eisha paced for a few moments, and Teagan gently trailed his fingers down my arm until he tangled his fingers with my own and we both waited patiently.
“Come with me to the reform house,” she said after a long pause. “We should be with the others before making any plans.”
“Wait, what about school? You’ve been gone for two days,” I said. “Someone is bound to notice.”
“I’ve taken care of all that. I’m on an extended vacation for at least two weeks. Much to the chagrin of Vice Principal Stewart. But he’s the laziest imp I’ve ever met.” She faced Teagan again. “I will allow you as a rider. Just this once.”
Eisha wasted no time peeling back into her wyvern form. I quickly climbed her strong haunches. Teagan remained back.
“She wants me to ride her? While she’s . . . flying?”
I laughed and even heard a deep rumbling chortle from Eisha’s thick throat. “Teagan, after all you’ve done to rebel against magis and human law, I’m surprised when the opportunity to ride a dragon appears, you hesitate.”
“Hey, I’m not afraid.”
“I never accused you,” I teased. “Those are your words. You must be invited to ride, or the wyvern must make the decision to have a rider. Eisha has never allowed anyone but me to ride; you should feel privileged.”
After another impatient grunt from Eisha, Teagan slowly crossed the clearing. He met Eisha’s shocking eye and nervously clamored up the back of her strong leg. He nestled behind me, just behind the joint of her wings. I lost my breath when Teagan wrapped his arms around my waist.
In a matter of seconds, Eisha shot into the sky.
Teagan cursed, over and over, as he clutched my waist. My hands covered his, and I offered a breath of calm to him.
Eisha found the wind stream once she broke through the fog and haze of the day. Her wings splayed like black sails in the sky as she glided easily toward the reform house.
“Teagan, look,” I shouted against the wind, patting his hands. “You’ll miss it.”
His head lifted off my back, slowly at first, then when he caught sight of the brilliant sun shimmering along the peaceful blue sky like golden rivers of light, his body relaxed. A rush of bright energy struck me, as if I could sense his smile without looking.
Eisha took a deep pull of her wings, pushing us forward ever faster. His arms released me and he threw his hands in the air, releasing a shout of pure joy to the wind.
I laughed and joined in as Eisha flew on. I missed the chill of the upper winds, the speed of darting across the atmosphere. For the first time since I’d lost my family, with Teagan at my side, I believed I would be whole again.
With the size of Eisha’s wings, and the size of the town, it was only a few minutes before she touched down in the back forest behind the house. Teagan flopped back on Eisha’s ridged spine, his smile wide as he breathed deeply. “That was amazing.”
I grinned and slid from Eisha’s back just as she started her shift. Teagan tumbled to the ground in a heap when the large backside of the dragon disappeared into nothing.
“Would you enjoy someone lazing about on your back all day, Mr. Ward?” Eisha snapped when once again her scales were draped in a silky gown over her thin body.
“Sorry,” he said through a grunt.
“Am I clear to go inside?” Eisha asked me.
Checking to make certain my swift warding had taken hold, I nodded. “If there are any reforms or staff inside, they won’t see you.”
Eisha crossed the lawn and stomped inside the house, leaving us alone in the trees.
“I wondered when you two would ever come back,” Mini shouted.
Teagan and I whipped around in time to see Mini jump from a tall branch in a nearby aspen.
“You’re spending a lot of time together,” she said. “It isn’t normal.”
“Who’s to say what’s normal about any of this?” Teagan insisted. His fists clenched and unclenched. I didn’t disagree with the frustration. Already I grew weary of everyone demanding they knew how we felt.
“That’s fair,” Mini agreed. “Just don’t be foolish. I thought it was cute at first, but mage and wyvern isn’t a match. We’re partners, that’s all. Okay?” She paused for half a second before tossing her hands in the air. “Who am I kidding, you two aren’t listening to me. Fine, you’ll just have to deal with the consequences on your own.”
“What are you doing here, then, if mages aren’t supposed to be with the wyvern?” Teagan asked bluntly.
“I’m always nearby. You think after what happened I’m going to go far away from Kon? The difference is I can do my job without hanging all over him,” she said, glaring at our clasped hands.
“Teagan,” Sapphire called out, emerging from the tree line. “We’ve been discussing how we proceed. We think, if she agrees, Mini should serve as your grandmaster. It’s clear the other mages didn’t know you existed—but Mini, we can trust her. She’ll teach you how to rise to your calling as defender of the jade bloodline. This means though, that this is your life. You have a family, Teagan. You’ll be asked to lie and deceive friends, acquaintances, and anyone from your past. Eisha and I will help cover your days for the school, the authorities, and your aunt.”
Teagan sighed deeply, and I was enveloped with the guilt and remorse he felt inside over the woman who had raised him.
“I promised her I would come home,” he muttered more to himself than anyone else. Guilt was heady and potent, but soon my worries slipped to the back of my mind when Teagan squeezed my hand tighter. “I’ll do what I need to do.”
“Mage, do you agree?” Eisha snapped toward Mini.
Mini narrowed her eyes at Teagan. She scrutinized our hands again. I couldn’t read her thoughts, but her emotions screamed loud enough. The mage planned to train Teagan, then return him to me all duty, no passion. As if she—or anyone else—could break this.
“I have half a mind to send him somewhere else, to get his focus straight, but I agree with your queen here.” She flicked her brow toward me. “This connection is unusual—fated—so it would be dangerous to draw you apart.”
Mini cleared her throat and tapped Teagan’s chest hard. Mini was three heads shorter than him, but even in this moment I wouldn’t dare try to interrupt what she was saying.
“You’ll do everything I ask. You’ll train, you’ll study. You are the one who can release this wyvern.” She tossed her thumb my way. “If you lose your focus, her life is at risk. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Teagan nodded, voice low. “Yes.”
“We need to teach you to fight. You must learn warding and wyvern enchantments. We must learn what path you’re meant to walk—why you were called to the mage of the jade bloodline. I can sense you don’t like to take orders, but you will take orders from me. Understood?”
“I will,” he said quickly. “I’ll do anything to keep Jade safe.”
“Good,” Mini said. “Because I guarantee there’s going to come a day when you will be asked to defend her.”
Sapphire stepped beside his mage. “So where do we start?”
“I say we do a battle exercise. Where are those two warriors?”
“They are close,” Eisha said.
“Well, bring them. I want to see how Teagan fares against two full-grown wyvern soldiers.”
“You want me to fight Raffi and Dash? I barely survived the snake.”
“You think King Nag will be the size of a zomok?” Mini chuckled bitterly. “Think again. We don’t know what sort of powers the lindworms have. We don’t even know if they still have corrupted mage powers on their side. We can’t take any chances, so we start now, Teagan.”
“Wait,” he said. “If this fight is so dangerous, why not get other magis to help?”
Mini and Sapphire shared a look, but Sapphire was the one who answered. “It was hard to know who was loyal during the war. Other guilds and covens had no reason to offer their allegiance except to the highest bidde
r. For now, it’s too risky. If the Lindworms earned a guild of dark fae, or trolls, or witches—we simply don’t need an added risk. We stay hidden from everyone.”
I brushed my hand along Teagan’s arm until he glanced at me. The marks on his biceps were hot to my touch, and I could sense the anxious energy rushing through his veins. “It will be fine. You have more strength than you know. I can feel it.”
“Let’s hope so because I’m pretty sure Raffi has been waiting for a moment like this since we met.” He smiled, and I had to fight against everything inside not to kiss him. Thankfully, Eisha drew my focus to another conversation I was desperate to have.
“When will he be able to release Jade?”
“That’s entirely up to him and Jade,” Mini said. “It’s a difficult process. A mage facilitates the shift, but without the wyvern embracing it completely, it will not happen. They’re both young and untrained. We will try when Teagan is stronger. It could harm them both if we do it too early.”
Teagan met my eye, and I saw the concern in his expression. He wasn’t alone—the idea of harming him because I couldn’t shift correctly sent my stomach plummeting to my feet.
Mini gestured to the forest and we all followed, stepping deeper into the trees until the sun was lost beyond the branches and leaves. Mini had strength like the willow, a unique power, not quite the same as Teagan’s. I knew she could help him; she could help us both. But I couldn’t shake the prickling feeling there was more to Teagan Ward, more to our connection, then anyone in the forest realized.
Chapter 19
A boom rumbled through the earth when Raffi and Dash pounded their magnificent claws deep into the soil. I’d always admired their rough, edgy bodies. Raffi had crimson ridges along his monstrous tail and spine. Dash was darker, with indigo horns over his brow. The two warrior wyverns released simultaneous steamy breaths when they locked eyes with Eisha and me. Mini chuckled when Teagan shifted beneath Dash’s villainous gaze.
Mini led us deep into the forest so Dash and Raffi could arrive in their true form without fear. The deeper we’d gone, the stranger the power of the trees.
I covered my mouth when we stopped in a clearing. Teagan hadn’t been imagining any of the stones. We were surrounded by dozens of smooth stones with the emblem of the wyvern empire. I traced my fingers over one of the lead stones. The heat prickled across my fingertips as if the shrine were determining the loyalty of my heart.
“You see them?” Teagan asked me.
I nodded. “Everything. I feel strange, but empowered, too.”
“Wyvern can see the sanctuary, as it was designed as a refuge for your kind,” Mini said a little disgruntled. “Though I still find it out of order that Teagan should see each stone. I’ve always done my duty. Teagan, do you see the five lead stones? I see only the three.”
“Yes, they are the larger stones, right?” Mini nodded, though her lip pouted a bit. I followed his gaze at the surrounding larger stones. Each one carried the emblem with rows of smaller stones behind them. The circle was large enough a dozen men could stand around one another at a comfortable distance.
“Those lead stones represent each royal bloodline. The Ruby, the Amber, the Sapphire, the Onyx, and the Jade. This place is sacred and powerful. After the divide, I recreated the sanctuary the war destroyed at the palace. I have hope any other bloodline mages have done the same.”
“If you made it, why can’t you see it?” Teagan asked. I wondered the same thing.
“Once it’s powered, it only reveals what it wants to whom it wants. The idea behind the sanctuary is should a great threat come, all the bonded mages would meet here and use the strength of the sanctuary to fulfill their duty. It’s dangerous to join in such a way, so it could only happen in the event of total threat to our way of life.”
“Fascinating.” Sapphire studied the stones and traced one as I had. “How come I’ve never seen this before?”
“After the war, mages weren’t cast in a kindly light. I was always near, but I abided by the laws of the divide, Kon. But if you would’ve had need of it, I would’ve guided you here. By the by, those laws can screw themselves for all I care. I’m done hiding, and I missed your stupidness.”
Sapphire laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders. Strange. They were friends and if they experienced even half what I did with Teagan, how had they remained separated? To me, it wouldn’t be physically possible.
“You talk big, Min.”
“No,” she said, elbowing him in the ribs. “If the High Priestess were here, I would tell her that myself. All right, we should get started. You, the angry warrior, step forward.”
Teagan groaned and followed closely behind Mini as Raffi’s hulking form entered the sanctuary. Raffi enjoyed this; I could see it in the way his muscles flexed a little more. Though I didn’t feel the same anger he’d carried toward Teagan since the beginning.
“Mini, I don’t know how to fight a dragon.” Teagan held up his hands. The T-shirt he wore was tight over his shoulders.
No mistake, I enjoyed the way the wyvern markings had spread along the length of his arms. I had to shake my focus back into place when I caught myself staring a little too long.
“Well, that’s why we’re here, is it not?” Mini said. “Now, Raffi, is it? You must threaten Teagan—show him the difficulty of standing against wyvern, or his instincts will be of no use to him. Don’t kill him or anything, but you know, do what you do best. Teagan, you may use my knife. It’s powerful and can break his ability to shift if you touch him—so be wise in how you use it. He’s not the enemy, and you don’t want to take away his abilities.”
“Okay, so he can rough me up, but I’m supposed to pretend to swing the knife. Sounds fair.”
Mini smiled, and I caught Sapphire and Eisha snickering.
“Well, go on,” Mini said. “You have a dragon at your back, and he’s coming right at you.”
Teagan whirled around as Raffi charged without warning. Raffi’s large claws swung at Teagan, who dropped swiftly to the ground to avoid being impaled. Teagan spoke of spiked tails; warrior wyvern did have spiked tails, and Raffi swung without hesitation. The ivory spokes aimed toward Teagan’s middle. He tried to dodge, slicing the knife across his body, but Raffi’s spike caught him in the rib.
Teagan swore and backed away, clutching his middle.
I fumbled to my feet. A sick heat rushed through my stomach and I had an unquenchable need to stand in front of my warrior for Teagan’s sake.
Mini came to my side. She was bold and reached her hand out for my arm while Raffi took a second swing, but Teagan dodged this time. Mini’s touch soothed the ache raging through my veins.
“You must let him face this,” she whispered. “You are making yourself sick. Such a strange bond.”
I wanted to question her more, but my attention was drawn back to the center of the circle where Dash had now joined with Raffi.
I thought it unfair. Teagan was not allowed to truly strike, though Raffi was honorable, and if the knife would have touched him in true battle, he backed away in defeat for a few breaths. Teagan got in two strikes, narrowly missing Raffi’s neck when Dash opened his dark mouth, and a blast of ashen smoke erupted from his throat. The cloud blackened the sanctuary.
“How will you fight when you have difficulty seeing, Teagan?” Mini shouted.
“I don’t know,” he bellowed back, though I couldn’t see him. “You aren’t really teaching me.”
“I like practical learning. You have the power to fight against this. Trust your instincts.”
The forest quieted for a moment, then Teagan grunted. The dragons growled somewhere in the shadows. Then, silence.
My pulse pounded in my skull. My eyes scanned the cloud, desperate to find him.
Two heartbeats later, the smoke ebbed toward the edge of the sanctuary. My warriors came into view, twisting their necks about, confused. Their backs were both turned away, and at last, Teagan’s body came into view.
He held one hand on a sanctuary stone. The wyvern marks flashed in gold and orange and white. His muscles pulsed, and somewhere in the pit of my stomach, I sensed a new wave of power.
Not from me, from him. An invisible conduit linked us together and I loved it.
“Well done, Teagan!” Mini clapped, beaming.
Raffi and Dash snorted and pawed the ground, rather put out at being bested.
Somehow, Teagan had confused the two warriors to the point he could get away. Now, the two dragons circled Teagan, who’d released the stone and stood between them with the knife clutched tightly in his grip. Raffi’s gaze was dangerous, but Teagan wasn’t cowering.
“You’re enjoying yourself a little, right Raffi?”
Raffi’s breathy wheeze was as close to a laugh as a wyvern could make in true form. Dash breathed a puff of smoke from his snout in pleasure just before they struck. Dash swung his claws from behind. Teagan ducked, rolling away from Raffi’s front strike. He tried to scramble to his feet, but his escape was thwarted by Dash’s large tail. A mighty swing hit Teagan in the middle and tossed him into the center of the stones.
Teagan slashed the knife out of instinct and nicked a bit of Dash’s tail. The warrior bellowed angrily, the blood scorching the earth in boiling drops.
“Easy, Teagan,” Mini said without much concern. “We don’t want his tail to stay attached to his human form.”
Teagan found his feet, glanced at the blade, then intentionally dropped the knife.
What was he doing? I paced along the edge of the stones, palms sweaty and my ears ringing. Dash took his lack of weapons as an invitation to strike harder. His dark claws sliced across Teagan’s arm, carving into his skin. Teagan cried out, and anger boiled in my blood.
“Mini, why are the marks not defending him?” I shouted.
“That is the jade armor—are you in duress? No, you’re not, so it will not protect him.”
I shook my head, wishing I had the ability to shift—I was smaller than Raffi and Dash, but I had powers they did not. They wouldn’t come close to Teagan again.
