by Riley Storm
“And don’t give me that shit about needing guidance,” Parre snapped with a sudden burst of strength. “You don’t need that. You’re stronger and wiser than you give yourself credit for. You think I know everything just because of the fact that I’m old and about to pass on? Ha! I’m over here about to shit my pants, if I had anything left in me, at how scared I am for what happens next.”
Next to him Elanna stirred, moving a hand to rest on his chest. Parre grabbed at it and missed, his strength fading swiftly again. Aaric watched as Francis leaned in and connected their hands, both the elder dragons seeming to draw peace from the touch of the other.
“You can do this, Aaric,” Elanna said. “We have faith in you. You will figure it out.”
“Thank you,” he mumbled, bowing his head, overcome with emotion.
“Believe in yourself,” the elder dragon added, her voice frail. “We do.”
Aaric nodded. He sensed something changing, but by the time he looked up it was too late. They were gone.
“Together,” Francis said with a sigh. “Now there’s true love.”
Not trusting his voice, Aaric just nodded again, looking on, watching as the two bodies hardened into stone. Seconds earlier, they had been his friends. His mentors. Now they were gone. Dead.
“What do we do now?” Francis asked.
“Did they have any wishes?” he asked, his voice hanging together by the barest thread.
“Just to be together until the end. After that, well…”
Aaric knew. They weren’t the first dragons he’d watched die, though they were the ones he’d been closest to, besides his parents. His father had died in the war with the mages, and without him, his mother had simply been human and had perished soon after. Leaving Aaric alone.
That was when Parre had picked him up, a dragon in only his fourth decade on the planet, desperately in need of guidance and a firm hand. They had been close ever since. To Aaric, it was like having his parents die all over again.
“Take the remains down to the caverns,” Aaric ordered. “Scatter them in their favorite sleeping area.”
“Of course,” Francis said, bowing his head.
A moment later, they watched as first Elanna’s, and then Parre’s stone bodies cracked and crumbled into dust in front of them, as happened with all dragons. Nobody understood why, but they did.
“Thank you, my friend,” Aaric said softly. “For everything.”
Then he got up from the edge of the bed and moved aside. From the door behind him, he heard a gasp. Whirling, he saw a figure silhouetted in the doorway.
Hand over her mouth, Olivia was staring at the bed where the bodies had just disappeared.
“What the hell just happened?”
Chapter 24
Olivia couldn’t believe her eyes.
It was impossible of course, what she’d just seen. Therefore, they had to be lying to her. It was a trick, a magic trick.
“Olivia?” Aaric was suddenly there, blocking her view. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Aaric, what was that?” she asked, barely recognizing her own strangled voice. “What happened in there?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” she hissed. “You were in there. Talking to two people on the bed. Then they stopped talking, and you two acted like they had died. But then they just crumbled into nothing, Aaric. Into nothing. That doesn’t happen!”
She was getting hysterical, but that was okay, wasn’t it? After what she’d just seen.
“You need to go,” Aaric ground out. “You don’t belong here.”
“Where is here?” she asked, looking around wildly. “Where am I anyway? What sort of place is this? Who calls their house a Keep? Who are you, Aaric?”
“Leave!” Aaric bellowed, his voice and body language changing abruptly.
Olivia backpedaled swiftly as Aaric strode forward, filling the open doorway.
All at once, he wasn’t the kind, protective person she’d come to know. He was a huge threat, a scary visage, anger mixed with pain in his features as he stared at her, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
“Just go,” he said, the energy abruptly leaving him. “Please. Leave me alone now. You weren’t meant to see any of this.”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” she argued, her temper flaring at the dismissal. “But I did, Aaric. I saw it, I saw them just disappear. What did you do to them? What is going on?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Aaric shouted at her. “I should have, but I spent all my time with you, can’t you see that?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me? I didn’t force you to spend time with me. You asked me to dinner. You asked me to lunch. You kept in touch with me. Yes, I came here tonight, but only because I needed your help, and you were already involved. I didn’t force you to be with me. So, you can take your attitude and fuck right off with it, mister.”
Aaric sagged. To Olivia’s surprise, another person appeared. Smaller, more normal-sized, he looked at Olivia with compassion. “You should come back. If he won’t explain everything later, I will. But right now, he needs some time alone. To grieve.”
“I’m fine,” Aaric protested. “I’m strong. I don’t need to go run off somewhere to cry. There’s business to take care of.”
The other person shook his head. “You need to grieve, Aaric. Strong people accept this need, and let themselves do so. Only idiots repress their feelings and hide them. Are you going to ignore everything Parre and Elanna ever taught you now, just because you don’t want this woman to know you’re capable of crying over the passing of our friends?”
Aaric’s eyes blazed with that golden light she’d seen on several occasions before, though this time, it was directed elsewhere, not at her or at those who threatened her.
“How dare you,” he snarled.
“I dare,” the other man said, “because you’re acting like a child. She will help you. She’s good for you, if you can take off your blindfold. Go, now. With her. Talk to her. Let her help you grieve. If you weren’t so busy being an asshole, you’d see she wants to help you. Isn’t that so?”
Olivia frowned. “Before he was an asshole, yes. I would have been there for him if he asked, if he needed me.”
Aaric bowed his head. “You’re right. Both of you. I’m letting my grief, my sadness, turn into anger that I’m directing at anyone nearby.” He looked up, pinning Olivia to the spot with a stare.
“You should not have followed me, especially after I asked you not to. That was rude of you, because you witnessed something not meant for you. That you were not invited to be a part of.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “But I should have told you that. Not yelled it at you. I should have explained. So, partly, that is my fault. I am sorry, Olivia.”
“I understand,” she said softly, her arms trembling as she realized the gravity of what she’d witnessed, even if she still didn’t understand how. “I’m sorry for intruding on something private. Something personal. You’re right, that was wrong of me. For that, I am sorry.”
“Happy now, Francis?” Aaric muttered.
“Not really. Go hug her and get out of here. There’s nothing more either of you can do. I have my duty to perform. I don’t particularly want the two of you bickering over me while I do it.”
“Just do it by more than lamplight,” Aaric ordered, a wry tone returning to his voice.
The other man, Francis, smiled. Olivia was thoroughly lost, the byplay meaning nothing to her, but she just waited.
“I’ll try,” Francis said. “Take care of him. He’s a bit rough around the edges, but there’s a heart of gold under there.”
“Tell anyone else and you’ll regret it,” Aaric muttered as he wandered over to Olivia. “Can you forgive me?”
“I want some answers,” she said, taking him by the arm and guiding him out of the room, back into the hallway. “If you give me the truth. Tell me what the hell is really going on, then probably. But no more lies, Aaric. No more my
steries. That’s my condition. Take it or leave it.”
She waited for his reply as they walked, barely able to force her lungs to breathe as he started to respond.
What was he going to say?
Chapter 25
Aaric glanced over his shoulder, back the way they had come.
Back to the chamber where the remains of two people he’d cared for deeply were now being gathered up by Francis, in preparation of being scattered in the caverns below Drakon Keep, where the dragons slept.
All the dragons. Every one of them. Except for him. Except for Aaric.
The weight on his shoulders pressed down heavier, and he felt his frame creak under the added stress.
He wandered in silence, staring at nothing, only the actions of his subconscious preventing him from walking into a wall. What was he supposed to do now? There was nobody to guide him, nobody to help him understand his place in the world. He was alone.
“Aaric.” Beside him, Olivia shook his arm gently, trying to get his attention.
He should tell her to go. To leave the Keep and return to her life. Before she met him. It would be for the best, wouldn’t it? They were done. They had to be done. There was only one mission ahead of him.
“Talk to me, Aaric. I’m here.”
“What is there to talk about?” he mumbled, his voice wavering.
All this time he’d spent asleep, while the two elder dragons carried on with the duties of caring for their House. He could have been there. Could have stayed awake to help them.
No, you couldn’t. You know better. That’s not the way it works. Dragons are only called upon when the world needs us. When evil is rising and must be countered.
It was part of the magic that made dragon shifters different than their brethren. Somehow, in the process that had created shifters, they had been altered. Made into a creature out of fantasy, instead of reality. On top of that, they were imbued with a bit of magic.
Nothing like what the human mages could wield but tied more to their dragon side. As a fire dragon, Aaric had power over fire. He could create it. Dismiss it. It didn’t burn him, and in fact, it actually helped him heal, much like a mother’s embrace. He was fire, in many ways.
Earth dragons controlled the very fabric of the earth. Dirt, metals, rock, all rose to obey the commands of the mighty earth dragons. Water dragons held sway over the seas, lakes and rivers, the world’s water at their command. Wind dragons ruled the weather, able to summon great storms that would ravage the earth below. Ice dragons were most at home in the winter, where their powers were magnified. Blizzards and glaciers, ice ages and more were the results of the ice dragons.
Each one of them, in their own way, was tied to the earth itself, to its magic. Through that magic, they knew if they were needed in the world or if it was safe for them to return to their deep sleep where they would pass away the centuries until needed once more.
“You can tell me about them,” Olivia was saying, he realized. “About who they were, what they meant to you. Remember them by sharing their story.”
He snorted, gently extricating his arm from her grasp. How was he supposed to do that? What would he say? I just watched my mentors, my friends, the only two people like me in the entire world, crumble to dust. After five centuries of life, gone, just like that. Do you understand now?
Of course, she didn’t. Olivia couldn’t understand. She wasn’t a dragon. Wasn’t mated to a dragon. She was just a human.
“Aaric.”
He spun to face her. “What?”
Olivia took a visibly angry breath, steadying herself. “I understand you’re hurting right now. But I didn’t do that to you. I didn’t hurt you,” she said quietly. “It’s not right of you to take it out on me.”
She was right, he knew. The anger in his tone had been inappropriate. “I’m sorry,” he grated. “It’s hard.”
“I know,” she said, coming close, grabbing his hand. “I’ve lost people in my life too. People very close to me. I may not know exactly what you’re going through, but I’ve been through similar. I can help you grieve. I can be there for you.” She paused, biting her lip, blue eyes filled with tenderness and care. “You just have to let me, Aaric. Let me in.”
He stiffened. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” she insisted. “You just don’t want to.”
Aaric turned away, unable to face her without an answer. How was he supposed to tell her without revealing everything? It was impossible. He needed to talk to someone else.
“I’m right here,” Olivia said, moving around until they were facing each other once more. “Right in front of you. Standing here, asking you to let me in, Aaric. Why won’t you let me? Why are you resisting this? Why are you resisting—” she stopped speaking abruptly but they both knew what she was going to add.
Why are you resisting me, Aaric? That’s what she had been about to ask.
“Because you don’t understand,” he growled, answering all of her questions at once, his anger bubbling up some more.
“Then make me!” Olivia shouted, her own emotions piercing her usually calm exterior. “I can’t understand if you don’t help me!”
“I need to find my mate,” he snarled. “Okay. The one woman I’ll be with for the rest of my life. I have to find her, so I can bring the rest of my kind back. I can’t keep wasting my time!”
Olivia frowned and her eyes clouded over.
“See, I told you that you wouldn’t understand. But I tried.”
“I’m a waste of your time?” she asked quietly, her voice quivering.
For some reason, hearing Olivia say that pierced through his pain, his grief, striking him in the core. Aaric’s jaw dropped open as his arms came up. What was he doing? Going to hug her? To console her? Why did that matter?
“I am,” Olivia said, swallowing so hard it was visible, her jaw trembling. “That’s how you see me then. Just a waste of time? Something you don’t care about and can discard whenever you want?”
“That’s not true,” he protested, wondering where his sudden caring, sudden desire to prove she was anything but a waste of time was coming from. There was no time to think about it though, no time to process, because he had to focus on the present. On the here and now, lest he lose Olivia.
“You just said it was.”
“I…I’m just hurting,” he said, fumbling for words. “I don’t know how to tell you everything.”
And I shouldn’t tell you.
“Then can you show me? Just start small, and we’ll work from there, Aaric.” She blinked rapidly, swiping at tears as they started to fall.
Aaric’s chest thundered with pain at the sight, and he ached to move closer. To hold her tight, to tell her it would be okay. That they would work it out.
Why do you care? What is the matter with you? You’re a fire dragon! Get a hold of yourself, Aaric. You’re better than this.
“I don’t know if you could handle it,” he found himself saying. “It’s tough to believe.”
Olivia crossed her arms, a last pair of tears falling from each eye as she sniffled loudly. “Try me,” she challenged with more strength than he’d thought she had. “I just watched two people crumble to dust. I’m pretty ready for things I shouldn’t believe.”
Aaric snorted. “Twenty bucks says you are dead wrong.”
Her hand flashed out in a nanosecond. “Deal,” she said fiercely.
“You don’t even have it on you,” he said with a low laugh.
Olivia dipped a hand into one of the baggy pockets of her sweater and pulled out a small rectangular clutch. “Wrong. Now, are you ready to tell me what’s going on?”
He shouldn’t. Aaric knew it was improper and broke all the rules. Everything House Draconis had built rested on secrecy, on the world at large not knowing who they were. The only ones to be brought in were the mates of individual dragons, and only after they were judged as being able to keep the magnitude of this secret.
Right the
n, Aaric didn’t care. He didn’t give a shit about the rules, the regulations. I am the only dragon left alive. I make the rules. I’m the one in charge. No stuffy elders to tell me what to do, where to piss and when I can or can’t go flying. None of that. This is my time.
“No,” he said abruptly.
Olivia frowned. “What do you mean, no? I thought we just agreed…”
Aaric took her by the hand, gently, letting his fingers slide through hers, wondering why it felt so right. So natural.
Later. You can think about that later.
“I’m going to show you,” he rumbled, giving her hand a tug so that she followed along with him.
“Show me?”
“Yes,” he said, falling silent as they wandered through the veritable maze of hallways, each of them tall and wide.
Large enough to fit a dragon.
Eventually, they reached a grand set of arched wooden doors surrounded by beautiful crafted stained glass inlaid with metal crafting that looked ornate, but also helped provide structural defenses to the door.
“Wow,” Olivia said, looking up. The doors were easily thirty feet tall, each one half that wide. “What need is there for such big doors?”
Aaric just chuckled and pushed through a human-sized door off to the right. They exited onto a courtyard of interlocked stone perhaps five hundred feet wide and twice that deep, extending out toward the forest that lay at the back of Drakon Keep.
“That’s a big patio,” she quipped. “Big doors. What is this place?”
“Is your cellphone on you?” he asked, ignoring her question.
“Yes. I was talking to Angela. Why?” Olivia pulled it out, looking puzzled.
“I’m going to need you to turn it off and leave it here on the ground,” he said, gesturing next to her.
“What, why?”
Aaric just waited. He was tired of explaining, of giving reasons. If she wanted to know the truth, she was going to know the truth. But for him to trust her, she was going to have to do the same. He wasn’t about to risk everything just because he was tired of being alone, of being the only one besides Francis and a few other stewards who knew his secret. Knew what he truly was.
