by JD Monroe
The dragon woman winced and examined her phone again. “I’m sorry, I have to take this,” she said. She answered it. Her eyes went wide, and she recoiled like the person on the other end had punched her through the phone. “Rosak. Sir, I can—yes. Just a minute, please.” She pressed the phone to her shoulder. “My apologies. I have to go handle this. Sohan will meet you outside. Don’t let him scare you. Text me if you need something.”
“Thanks,” Natalie said. Ruana erupted into a rapid stream of Kadirai as she walked out the door. Alone for the first time in a day and a half, Natalie slumped on the bed and let out a noisy sigh. Though she clung to a shred of denial at the unexpected detour her life had taken, she’d settled into a begrudging acceptance. This was reality, as strange as it was.
And reality was funky-smelling after twenty-four hours in the same clothes. After a quick shower, she poked through the bag Ruana had brought. There was a pair of jeans that would fit if Natalie didn’t eat breakfast, and a few colorful tops. There was also an ensemble of soft gray fabric, similar to the one Devi Mara wore in the infirmary. Darker gray pants skimmed her calves, while a dove-gray wrap top tied around her waist. She opted for the gray, snuggling into the soft fabric.
As she left the Emerald Wing to meet Sohan, Natalie paused to marvel at the wonder around her. If she could forget the turmoil of Thea’s disappearance, this was amazing. She was in the domain of a dragon queen. The compound was surrounded by the dense green blanket of Nantahala National Forest, with the hazy blue-gray peaks of the Smoky Mountains rising against the horizon. She knew that home was just miles away, but she felt like she was on another planet.
She saw the older man approaching well before he crested the hill to the Emerald Wing. Natalie hurried to meet him. It was rude to gawk, but she couldn’t help wondering what had happened to Sohan Shadowbane.
He looked her over and nodded. “You blend in.” She couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or a mere observation. She followed him, careful not to pass him. “Do you really want to help us?”
“Of course.”
He pinned her with a steely stare. His eyes were the silver-gray of thunderclouds about to break open. Even with the slight hunch, he was still a solid six feet tall with a frame that would discourage aggression from anyone with a sense of self-preservation. “Are you saying that because you think that’s what a good person is supposed to say?”
Ouch. Was seeing through bullshit a dragon skill, too? She hesitated. “I’m afraid,” she admitted. “But my friend could be hurt. And I want to find her before something terrible happens.”
“And you’re willing to endanger yourself?”
“If I have to.”
“Hm. We’ll see.” A chill ran down her spine at his calm delivery.
When they neared the palace, he veered hard to the left. The curving path led toward a small building close to the tree line. The round building was capped by a dome inlaid with silver symbols that gleamed in the sun. A large archway led into the building, framed with smaller silver inscriptions. It reminded her of a temple.
Unlike the palace, there were no guards flanking the huge arched doorway. Sohan bypassed the front door and led her around the side of the building. A set of stairs carved into the ground led downward. He took the stairs slowly, bracing one hand against the smooth stone wall. At the bottom, a single guard in red leather armor stood at the door. After a brief conversation, the guard stood aside and opened the door for Sohan.
“This is where we train,” Sohan said.
Inside was a circular room. Silver runes were carved into the walls at four points like a compass. A large ring of rubber mats formed a smaller circle at the center of the stone floor. Wooden racks bristled with weapons along the wall.
Sohan led her into the center of the room. As she followed, her pulse quickened. She’d gone along for the ride at Ruana’s suggestion, but it just fully hit her that she’d followed a strange man into an underground bunker in the middle of a massive forest. Newfound dragon ancestry be damned; this was the type of situation her mother had warned her against.
He gave her another appraising look. “You know anything about combat? Any kind of training?”
She nodded. “Kind of. I’ve been doing self-defense with Thea for a couple years.”
“And she never told you that you were a hybrid?” She shook her head. “Do you know which of your parents it was?”
She sighed. “Probably my father. I never even met him. As far as I know, Mom was human.” According to Mom, the relationship had fallen apart before she even found out she was pregnant. Natalie had long suspected a one-night stand but let Mom keep her story. Now she had to wonder if Mom had known what he was, and what Natalie was by extension.
Sohan’s eyebrows arched. “Was? She’s dead?”
Almost three years on, and that word still felt like a punch to the gut. “Yeah,” she said, trying not to let her face slip.
To her surprise, Sohan reached out and touched her shoulder. “Idin va halan sar,” he said. “It means we stand in the same shadow. My mother died many years ago. I am sorry for your pain.” Fine lines formed around his steely eyes as his expression softened. Then he squeezed her arm. His grip was surprisingly strong, hard enough to bruise, though she could tell it wasn’t his intention to hurt. “It’s unlikely that it was your mother. If it was your father, you’re sul’kadi, a hybrid with a dragon father.”
“Does it matter?”
“It does. If your mother was Kadirai, you’d be able to take a dragon form with some training. Much smaller and weaker than a full-blooded Kadirai, but still deadly.” For a moment, she entertained the fantasy of transforming into a dragon, wings and all. To fly…
“And if it’s my father?”
“You get the other half,” Sohan said. “All Kadirai have an elemental affinity. Yours is probably the same as your father’s. We’ll figure that out. You may also develop a weak compulsion. And that’s how you’re going to protect Erevan.” He put his hand to his mouth. “Teliv, takh n’adan!”
The guard from outside hurried into the room. “Ehra?”
“English, please,” Sohan said.
“Sorry,” Teliv said, his accent thick and pronounced. “It is not very good.”
“She’s a smart girl,” Sohan replied. “She’ll understand you.”
“Your English is fine,” Natalie assured him. He smiled.
“Lose the armor,” Sohan ordered.
As Teliv peeled off the segmented plates, Natalie watched curiously. “Do you really think I can help Erevan?”
“You can help him more than another dragon can,” Sohan said. “He won’t like it, but I’ll get it through his thick skull.”
“How?”
“I don’t have time to give you a whole history lesson. When the Raspolin threatened us in the Great War, the dragonflights sent their best, most ruthless warriors to form the Arik’tazhan. They called us the Unresting.”
“You’re one of the best?”
Sohan laughed bitterly. “I was.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to…” Even with the limp, it was easy to picture Sohan as the best. His brusque demeanor was infused with the confidence that came with true competence, not over-compensating arrogance. She certainly would rather be standing behind him than in front of him.
“Don’t apologize,” Sohan said. “The Raspolin practiced blood magic they called the Crimson Path. We get hung up on the blood part, but they were scientists and engineers as much as magicians. They were smart, and we weren’t ready for it. They knew they could never beat us with brute force, so they developed weapons specifically for killing dragons. One of their greatest threats was the Crimson Elegy, a weapon that breaks our transformation. We’re vulnerable while we change. You saw it with Erevan. Anyone could have put a sword through his throat while he lost control. Imagine a dragon flying high and…” He snapped his fingers. “No more wings. Just a soft human body slamming into rocks. I can’t count how m
any of our kind died that way. After many losses, we realized something, almost by accident. The old queens looked down on hybrids, but the Arik’tazhan fought alongside humans, hybrids, Edra, anyone who had the balls to fight. If they couldn’t fly, we carried them on our backs into battle. One day, another attack came. Five went into battle, all carrying riders. Two were hybrids. The Elegy sounded. The others fell, struggling to control their form, but the two carrying hybrids were unaffected. That was when we realized it.”
“I can stop it from happening, then?”
Sohan nodded. “It’s hard to be exact with magic, especially when we never obtained one of the weapons intact to analyze. We know the Elegy only affects the dragon form. You might feel a little uneasy, but nothing else. Sul’kadi and the Kadirai share the compulsion ability, which is a psychic connection at its root. Our theory was that a pair who had bonded could be protected.”
“Bonded how?”
“Friends. Brothers,” Sohan said. He raised an eyebrow. “Lovers, in some cases, though I suspect some used that as an excuse to get laid.”
Natalie’s eyes went wide. “Are you saying I have to…” Erevan was gorgeous, but she hadn’t signed up for a mandated roll in the hay. Then again, a girl could be asked for worse things.
Sohan laughed, obviously enjoying her flustered discomfort. “You’re adults. If you want to fuck, that’s your choice, but it’s not necessary. You only need to be able to trust each other. Specifically, he has to trust you to protect him. Your stability will balance him out. If he’s afraid, he’ll instinctively block the connection, and you won’t be able to do anything for him.”
Relief washed over her, but Sohan had planted a fiery seed of lust in her belly. Now wasn’t the time to recall Erevan in all his uncovered glory, but her imagination reminded her anyway. She tried to push the image out of her mind. “You care about him.”
Sohan shrugged. “Of course I do. He will be a great asset to the queen someday. And he’s a good boy. A good man,” he corrected. “I’m afraid of what this means. I don’t want…” His weight shifted, and he pointedly drew himself taller. “I don’t want anything to happen to him. Or anyone else. A lot of good men and women died to make this place safe.” He frowned. “Teliv, come on. You’re not taking her out for dinner. Quit preening.”
Teliv laid his armor on a stone bench, then jogged over to Sohan. “Sorry,” he said. He wore a loose tank top that showed off massive, muscular arms. Taking off the armor hadn’t made him any less intimidating. He turned to Natalie, giving her a fearful look. “Sir?”
“You’re going to fight,” Sohan said.
“She is very small.”
“And you’re freakishly large,” Sohan replied. It was true. Sohan only came to Teliv’s shoulders and could have disappeared behind the other man’s wide frame. “That’s not the point. She’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know about this,” she said. “I thought this was about me helping Erevan.”
“You said you trained with Thea. You want to protect Erevan, then let’s see what you’ve got.” Sohan stepped out of the ring, perching on the stone bench next to Teliv’s armor. “Go.”
Teliv looked at her almost apologetically, then dropped back into a fighting stance. It wasn’t quite like her own, but she recognized the careful distribution of weight favoring his back leg. His hands, loose and open, guarded his face. He side-stepped slowly, circling her.
Sohan barked something at him in Kadirai. Teliv’s eyes narrowed. He darted forward, jabbing with one hand. She blocked it, but he twisted and rammed his arm into her midsection. His sheer strength bowled her over, and he sent her reeling. As she struggled to regain her footing, he lunged for her. She darted out of the way, escaping to the edge of the mat.
She couldn’t risk a direct hit from him. This was like fighting with Perry. He and Thea had been adamant with her about this when they trained. No matter how skilled she was, a man built like Teliv would overpower her if she gave him an opening. It wasn’t fair but that was reality. That meant she had to rely on speed and finding the delicate points that would weaken him.
Natalie feinted and let him approach, then threw a low kick to the back of his thigh. It was like kicking a tree, but his knee buckled. As his balance faltered, she kicked him hard in the belly, then fired another rapid kick toward his face. It connected, but he recovered fast enough to catch her ankle. He yanked hard on her foot, throwing her onto her back. Air rushed from her lungs. While she gasped for breath, he pounced on her.
Teliv pinned her wrists to the mat easily. Panic electrified her nerves. He wore an apologetic expression, which made it even more frustrating. He was barely breaking a sweat while she couldn’t move with all her effort.
“Get up,” Sohan ordered. “Make him let go of you.”
Natalie struggled, twisting her hips and arching her back to break free. I can’t. Teliv was huge. There was something infuriating about being so helpless. Right then, she hated Sohan.
“You can’t overpower him with your muscles. He’s twice your size. Dig deep. There’s something inside of you and you know it,” Sohan said. “Use it. How are you going to help Thea if you can’t even get up off this floor? Get up!”
Her mind flashed to an image of Thea in the place of one of the prisoners they’d found in Beale’s facility. Her beautiful friend strapped down, with her life blood draining into glass vials as her body betrayed her. Her eyes were open, staring at Natalie.
What are you going to do?
Anger and frustration collided in an explosive reaction. Something ignited in her chest, as searing hot as if someone had lit a match in her lungs. Maybe this was the dragon in her. In her mind, she could almost see a white spark, small but intense.
This is mine.
She imagined curling her fist around the spark like a blade. Twisting her arms so she could grab Teliv’s thick wrists, she released the jagged energy into him. Her vision went white. A series of sharp stabs rolled from her chest, down her arms, and all the way to her toes. Power exploded out of her.
The weight suddenly shifted, and one wrist was free. The pain of the blast receded, leaving a delicious tingle breaking across her skin like someone was running their finger down her spine.
It felt good.
It felt really good.
“Stop,” Sohan ordered. “Look at your hand.”
Blue-white sparks danced between her fingers. As soon as she looked at it, realizing what she was seeing, the sparks died. “Oh my God,” she murmured. Teliv’s forearm was blistered red in the shape of her hand. Her sense of wonder was poisoned by horror at hurting him. “I’m so sorry!”
Teliv just raised his eyebrows and offered his hand to help her up. “It is no apology,” he said. “I hope I do not hurt you.”
“Quit apologizing. You’re both fine,” Sohan said. “It looks like your affinity is lightning.”
“Cool.” Natalie stared at her hand. Though it was empty, she could still picture those bright sparks, the feel of lightning in her chest like an echo. “What now?”
Sohan smiled, flashing a grin that absolutely belonged to a dragon. “Get up and do it again.”
“The queen is very busy,” Aktil protested. If he said it again, Erevan was going to rip that obnoxious pink satin out of his pocket and ram it down his throat. “You can request a meeting through the appropriate channels.”
“I know she’s here,” Erevan replied, measuring his words carefully. As tempting as it was to toss the sycophant through the expensive plate glass windows, he wouldn’t be helping his case with Thosrin.
“Make an appointment.”
Erevan stepped closer. He’d always made it a point to be respectful, even submissive, to Thosrin and her people. His good standing with the Crow Queen had come from mutual respect and not pressing issues that didn’t need to be pressed. They were beyond that now.
Drawing himself taller, Erevan glowered at Aktil. With a tiny burst of energy, he let the fire within him
flare, releasing a wave of heat around him. Aktil maintained his neutral expression, but his nostrils flared as the hot blast blew over him. “I am here on official business from her most Regal Highness, Queen Valella. I would speak to Her Eminence directly and give her the benefit of a private conversation before an official inquest from Skyward Rest.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Aktil said.
Erevan seized the man’s arm, closing his hand around his wiry bicep as he leaned in close. The smell of rain-damp earth intensified as Aktil’s Edra blood heated. “This will not end well for you.”
Aktil’s eyes flared with light. The pupils narrowed to cat-like slits. “Try it. You wouldn’t get out the door without a pair of teeth in your throat.”
Erevan scanned the lobby. Half a dozen sharp-dressed Edra watched him intently. One of the concierges had already stepped out of her high heels and stood barefoot on the cool marble. The earthy smell of shapeshifter energy permeated the air as their blood heated and pumped faster through their veins. He released Aktil’s arm. “Call Thosrin. Tell her what I told you and let her decide. I know that if I were you, I wouldn’t want to be the one who didn’t warn Thosrin before the Tempest blew in.”
Still scowling, Aktil straightened his jacket and pointed toward the ring of white leather couches. “Wait there.” He pasted on an unctuous smile. “And enjoy some infused water while you wait. Sir.”
Fifteen minutes later, Aktil returned, his face still neutral. Without speaking, he led Erevan past the front desk and into an access elevator. He swiped a keycard from his pocket to access the sixth floor of the hotel.
“Is she going to see me?” he asked as the elevator ascended.
“The queen is curious about what you have to say.” Aktil stared up at the floor indicator without making eye contact.
“Imagine that,” Erevan said. It was petty, but his patience and diplomacy had their limits.
