“You could’ve just accepted this a long time ago, you know,” my sister rolled her eyes. “Do you have any idea what trouble you caused?”
“Charlotte!” I scolded.
“It’s alright,” Dune nodded to me. “I did what I felt necessary at the time. I’m sure you’d do the same,” he glanced back toward Caleb now. Charlotte fidgeted for a second, then calmed. “Love grants us many things, patience is not one of them.”
“And what about Dylan?” Charlotte added after a moment of silence. “Where is he? Why did he wake up before we could break his bond to you?”
“That was my doing,” Sanne lowered her gaze to the murky stream that rushed through the forest just feet from where we stood. “I took your bond to him so that I could ensure the quelling,” she said to her brother. “But I can see now that I have nothing to worry about.”
“The bond I forged with the dragon was sacred, sister,” Dune went to her and scanned her completely, his frantic eyes searching over her from head to toe. “It was mine to bear, not yours.”
“Is something wrong?” I asked, but before I got an answer, Sanne collapsed in Dune’s arms. “What’s happening?” Rushing to her side as Dune laid her on the ground, I noticed a red tint to her gaze.
“Foolish sister,” Dune shook his head with a sympathetic smile. “Do you always have to be so dramatic?”
“There’s no other way,” she grasped his hand and smiled. Dune kissed her fingers, then her body slowly broke away into a cloud of ash.
“Is she…” Charlotte gasped.
“She’s resting,” Dune cleared, getting to his feet as the cloud of particles that was Sanne dissipated from sight.
“Why did it kill her?” I had to know.
Dune, with a soft brow, came and studied my eyes with his. “I took your brother’s essence, his livelihood, his dragon nature, and purified it.”
“So, he’s a full-blooded dragon now?” I gathered. Not such a bad thing, really.
With a nod, Dune agreed. “And I saved the impurities for this,” he bent over and picked up a little rock that closely resembled the one Elliot had wedged in his chest in Talon Grove. I leaned closer to get a better look, but Lorcan and Tristan both leaned away. “This is a simple quartz, but I infused it with the impurities of your brother.”
“Are impurities all that bad?”
“No,” he shook his head, holding the quartz at eye level as the little bit of light from the fading sun shimmered through the facets. “Being pure is abnormal; impurities are what makes you strong.”
“You took away his strength?” my sister came closer, her brow pressed deep in curiosity.
“I took more than that,” he mumbled to himself.
“Can you return it?” I asked.
“I will, as soon as he presents himself.”
“Is he here?”
“There’s one way to find out,” he glanced over the rock, then quickly pressed it to his chest before I could say another word. The quartz crystal seemed to melt into Dune’s skin, leaving a small impression right at his breastbone. “Mmm, yes,” he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “He is near. He searches for himself, not knowing who he was.”
“I’ve heard this before,” Cole mumbled. I shot him a glare, but he just shrugged me off.
“You must be careful,” Dune warned me. “Your brother does not know who you are, and he will not hesitate to clear the path to this stone,” Dune tapped his chest.
“Can’t you call to him, or something?” Charlotte perked. “Don’t you have control over him?”
“I can try, but I won’t bring him here to this forest while he’s unstable. He might damage all of this,” Dune spread his arms out to the trees. “He could ruin all that you’ve tried to accomplish.”
“Alright, then we have to quell the stone. Right now,” I decided.
“Then let’s get on with it,” Lorcan popped his hands together and turned to go back to wherever he was before. “I’ll take you, little bird,” he said to my sister. “You can handle the mental telephone stuff.”
“Yes, sir,” she saluted him with an eye roll. I chuckled in sympathy.
“Are you ready?” I asked Cole. He gave a shrug, then a smile.
“Now or never.”
“I want to thank you,” I faced Nerissa as she came right up and grabbed me tight.
“Will you tell Nolande that I was happy here, please,” she faced me. Those blue eyes of hers were identical to my dad’s but without the years of worry. “Tell him I found peace.”
“Were you happy?”
“Somedays I was,” she nodded. “Somedays were really wonderful. Not all of them, of course. But if everyday was great, there’d be no great days. Without having terrible times, we have nothing to compare a wonderful moment. So, yeah,” she smiled. “Tell him I was happy. And tell him not to be angry with our mother,” her face grew stern. “She never was easy to understand. But, then again, daughters never do understand their mothers until they themselves have a child of their own.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Now, go. Please, go finish this. Set them free.”
THE QUELLING
“Irene, come on,” Cole called to me. Standing near the gate that surrounded the park area, he and Caleb had set out the things necessary for the quelling. My sister was with Lorcan, Tristan, and Iliana. She would communicate with Caleb to let him know if anything was going off schedule with Samira. And he would let her know the exact time to revive the faerie.
“What do you need from me?” I asked Cole. My part in the whole thing was over really. I was the temple, the living source for the darkness as it fed back into the Elysian stone. Now that the stone held the force of dark power we all feared, I could only wait.
“You keep an eye out for Dylan,” he advised. “He always was stronger than me.”
Scarlet laughed to herself as she handed the guys candles from one of the many bags we brought along. She leaned back and gathered her hair into a messy bun, then paused as Cole gave her a long stare. “I mean, you’re not a pushover,” she shrugged.
“I wish he had snapped out of his trance when Sanne removed his bond to Dune. It still doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Not everything needs to, Irene,” Cole leaned over to place another candle into the ground.
“That doesn’t mean I just accept things and move on.”
“I didn’t mean for you to. I’m just saying, sometimes, you have to just let things be.”
I grunted, letting my gaze shift off to the buildings of the village. And directly to a stumbling Elliot.
“What are you doing?” I joined him and helped him get seated on a bench along the pathway. He pulled my sweater off of his chest and pushed it into my lap. “You should be resting.”
“Is it over?” his voice rough and dry. Coughing, Elliot turned and spit blood onto the dark brown dirt. “Did you guys finish it?”
“We’re about to,” I looked back to Cole just as he stood and nodded. “They’re ready.”
“Stay here with me,” his eyes hooked into mine and I couldn’t look away. “They don’t need you right now. Stay with me.”
“I have to help him,” I told Elliot. “I have to participate.”
I nestled in close to him for a second, tangling my fingers tight with his. There, in the deep blue of the night, I wanted nothing more than to feel Elliot’s warmth. Cole, however, watching from afar, seemed to be hiding his frustration with the site of my Lord and me. It was a sight, though, that he’d need to get used to. Elliot and I were together now. We had a legion, we had a daughter. We were born for each other. If I’d never known him, if for some reason he had never come for me, then I’d possibly be in Cole’s arms. But that wasn’t this life. This life, this version of me, had fallen for Elliot in the hardest of ways. It wasn’t a powerful lust that I felt in the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t the driving desire that made me breathless and achy. No. It was simple, pure love. It ha
d taken time to emerge, it made me question who I was, what I believed in. It challenged me and gave me purpose with each day. The relationship that Elliot and I had created was one that didn’t come easy, and that made it valuable.
Nestling his nose into my hair, Elliot kissed my neck. It made me giggle, gave me goosebumps. Another couple of kisses and I trembled.
“What are you doing?” I laughed, turning to see the eager look in his eyes. Crap. I forgot about the bond. “Elliot, now isn’t the time.”
“Why not?” he whispered against my ear, flooding my skin with shivers. “They won’t even notice,” he continued.
“Elliot, I had to heal you,” I faced him dead on. My eyes firm to his, even though his sleepy gaze could barely focus. “I gave you blood. We’re bound, well, you’re bound… to me.”
“I’ve always been bound to you,” he murmured, again kissing my neck.
“Really?” Cole’s voice made me jump. “Right now?”
“It isn’t me,” I defended. Cole, standing over Elliot and me, looked like a disappointed dad. “It’s the blood.”
“I know,” Cole crossed his arms. “It’s always blood.”
“Says the man who devoured Iliana’s blood like it was the last vial of water on earth.”
“I don’t have time for this,” sighing, he walked back toward the tree.
“What’d you ever see in him?” Elliot teased.
“Seriously, I have to watch out for… Dylan?” I gasped and got right to my feet. “Dylan!” I readied to run toward him when Elliot grabbed my arm and kept me still.
“Get back,” he commanded.
“Why?”
“Get far back!”
“It’s my brother!”
“He isn’t himself,” Elliot put his arm out over me in protection. “Get somewhere safe,” he spoke through his teeth as he began to growl. Over where Dylan was, near some shops further into the village, I heard another growl. A deep, echoey growl that was too powerful to be my brother’s.
“He’s been… purified,” I gripped Elliot’s arm as I tried to be clear of the bond Dune had created. Elliot’s quick and sharp glare showed his caution.
“Get away from here,” he spoke firmly, his eyes pinning the sight of my brother once again.
Taking his warning, I went over to Bryn, who had also noticed Dylan. Together we waited for Elliot and Dylan to meet in a small clearing between two shops. The sky was nearly black now, tinged with that swirly, ash-tainted violet, and the air was still.
“We do not need another battle, brother,” Elliot’s voice echoed over the village. Without a word in response, Dylan’s eyes ignited into a blazing red glow. Elliot took a precautionary step backward, and Dylan tightened his fists. “This isn’t you. Clear your mind!”
“What do we do?” Scarlet asked me from behind. I turned to see Cole standing before the tree with the amulet around his neck. Both arms out wide, his hands open to the heavens, Cole was whispering those foreign words again. “He just started in. He didn’t tell us anything.”
“I don’t know what I have to do,” I shook my head. “He said I had to help him.”
Scarlet was looking frantic, which wasn’t a good thing for someone with newfound powers. I should know. Observing Cole as he entered a trance, Lucas stood at Lydia’s side for support. The quelling wouldn’t be easy; we all knew that. But until we arrived, none of us realized that returning the stone to where it came from meant touching a deadly, tar-like sap. I would heal Cole if I had to, even if it forced a blood bond. There was no way I’d let him die.
Grunts and growls from near the shops captured my attention. It took only a few seconds for my brother and my Lord to transition into winged beasts and fly into the night sky. I could barely make out what was happening. Clawing at one another, flapping their enormous mighty wings against each other, the two encompassed the heavens with deafening roars and flashes of firebreath. At one point, Elliot—the bigger and more controlled creature—took a firm swipe at Dylan. Tumbling downward, my brother almost hit the ground, but his wings widened and carried him back into the abyss.
Behind me came a warmth. I faced Cole again just as he lit the last few candles with the snap of his fingers. Flames grew tall as they flickered about in the increasing wind. Cole was again murmuring words I did not understand. A final snap and the two tall candles that acted as pillars on either side of the tree were lit.
“Come on,” I ushered Scarlet over to the tree.
“What do we do?”
“I think you’ll know.”
She shrugged in doubt. “I don’t know anything about this. If I mess it up, everything fails. People will die.”
“Don’t let those thoughts worry you,” I gripped her arms so that her wandering eyes would settle. “Focus only on what feels right. Your intuition knows what needs to be done. Trust it. Trust yourself.”
Scarlet took a deep breath, and then she went over and waved Lucas to walk with her to the tree. Lydia watched on as she nibbled at her thumb. Her eyes kept glued to Lucas and Cole as I neared her.
“He’ll be alright,” I offered.
“I know.”
“Are you alright?”
Lydia breathed out and faced me briefly with a smile. I could see the apprehension in her gaze as the flames reflected in her eyes. “I don’t really know.”
“I’m still here,” biting my lip to find the right words, I stammered, “if you need anything.”
“I know,” she leaned toward me. “It’s been hard lately. Everyone is so different.”
“No kidding,” my jaw dropped as I caught sight of my brother, swooping down over Elliot, closer than before. His body was gigantic, vastly bigger than the time I saw him transition at his house. Perched up over Elliot as he flapped his wings into billowing gusts, my brother roared out a torching flame from deep in his chest.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” Lydia gasped.
“He couldn’t before.”
I took off toward Elliot, who was now transitioning back to his human form in a mess of dead bushes. Dylan had to have knocked him out or stunned him enough that he lost his concentration. I hurried to make sure he was alright, shaking him so that he’d wake from the fall.
“Here,” Julian tossed me Elliot’s things from inside the house where they had rested. Ripping off his jacket, Julian then transitioned and flew right up to my brother. Charlotte’s blood helped him more than I expected it would, something I was ecstatic about right then.
“What happened?” Elliot sat up.
“Put these on,” I gave him the jeans that Julian had tossed at me. Elliot got to his feet—his bare feet—just as Julian attacked my brother. Letting out a wild, disturbing shriek, my brother flew farther and farther from sight.
“Did you hurt him?” I challenged Julian as he regained his human form.
“I had to.”
“No you didn’t. You just had to make him stop.”
“And how was I supposed to do that?” Tugging on his pants and a clean shirt, Julian looked down over me. “We have to make sure the ritual is completed, at all costs.”
“Really?” I stared up beneath Julian with my hands on my hips.
“Really. And you better hope he doesn’t come back.” Julian left me there huffing around, bothered and cursing in whispers. Just like when he had put me under house arrest, Julian was the only one willing to take action and resolve the problem at hand. I didn’t like it, didn’t like him much, either, but he did what had to be done.
“Be patient with him,” Elliot leaned on me as we walked down to the tree.
“I’m trying.”
“How’s the quelling?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
Standing beside Lydia again, I watched Cole continue the ritual. Scarlet was to his left, Lucas to his right. Staring back at Lydia in rhythmic fluxes, Lucas couldn’t keep his focus on the moment at hand. And Scarlet, trembling with uncertainty, seemed to be jumpin
g at every single noise.
“I wish Charlotte was here to calm them,” I whispered.
“I’ll switch with her,” Caleb offered. “I’ve just been standing here waiting for him to say something—something I actually understand.”
“What if he’s ready the minute you leave?” I asked.
And as Caleb went to shake his head, the flames dimmed and the air surrounding us cooled.
“I think he’s ready,” Elliot whispered.
From where I stood, I could see the stone, the opalescent, shimmering pink and multi-colored stone that lay around Cole’s neck, come floating up into the air. The leathery cord slipped free from the knot, and the item was suddenly free.
“The fragment,” I hurried to the stone as Elliot called my name. “We didn’t mend the stone!” The others might have thought we were in the final stretch, but I still had the little shard tucked safely in my pocket from when Tristan gave it to me. Digging it out, I held the item into the light of the candles and the flames quickly rose.
“I can feel it,” Scarlet mumbled as I stepped up to the floating amulet. “It’s in the air.”
“I can hear it,” Lucas added. “It’s singing… humming.”
Elliot and Lydia came toward the tree. Bryn, on the opposite side of them, watched with curious eyes.
“Take my hand,” Lucas told his sister as he got right up next to the tree. I got ready to tell him to be careful, but then I remembered Sanne and Dune being so close to the tree. I realized that the enchanted wouldn’t find harm at its hands, since they—inherently—are a part of the sacred totem. Scarlet stepped closer to the tree and took hold of Lucas’ hands. The stone, floating out in the air, neared the center of the tree, the gaping hole that oozed out that deadly sap.
“How do I mend it?” I stared over the two pieces. Shaking my head, I thought about Sanne’s words. The dragon. “Is it with blood?” No one had an answer. I had to try. Anything was better than standing there scratching my head. The fragment was a broken little piece that cut my finger easily. I let the bead of blood cover the edge, then I went to set the shard onto the floating stone. Thankfully, it had settled in the air and was not nearing the tree any further. I wondered then, how intelligent the stone was, or if it was the tree who knew what to do. Either way, my attention came back to the stone fragment, which had fallen right into the mud. “Now what?”
Witherstone- Wings of My Legion Page 23
