Caress of Fire (Dawn of Dragons Book 2)

by Mary Auclair

  “But what about Devan?” She still couldn’t turn her back on him. Marielle twisted in Fedryc’s embrace to lock eyes with Rela.

  “I will stay.” The girl looked down at her brother, her eyes full of something fierce and defiant. “I won’t let him slip between my fingers again.”

  Marielle swallowed, then nodded. Rela was young but her heart was set. She loved Devan, had always loved him. He belonged to her now, more than he belonged to Marielle. And Marielle found in her heart that she was okay with it.

  “Come now, my little firebrand.” Fedryc swept her into his arms without flinching despite his obvious exhaustion. “Let’s get you to our rooms.”

  Marielle didn’t answer. She nestled her head in the crook of his neck, and she was asleep before he left the room.

  She had no idea how long she slept, but when she woke up, her stomach grumbled, angry and painful as she was pulled from sleep by the smell of something so mouthwatering it had invaded her dreams.

  “Open your eyes,” Fedryc said against her hair, his arms pulling her closer. “I can hear your stomach grumbling!”

  Marielle smiled but kept her eyes closed. It felt so good to be here in Fedryc’s embrace, absorbing his strength. There was nowhere else where she felt safe anymore. Then her stomach cramped again and she opened her eyes reluctantly.

  “You slept for a full day. It’s the afternoon.” Fedryc smiled. “I have to see Henron. Nyra flew close to the castle again today.”

  “You stayed with me all that time?” Marielle chuckled. “You were as tired as I was.”

  “Yes.” His eyes left her, and sadness clouded his face for a moment. “Nyra is too far away to feed me her vitalem. We’re cut off from each other.”

  “Oh.” Marielle’s guts twisted with worry again. “But she will start again, right?”

  Fedryc exhaled, then climbed out of bed. He looked better after his long sleep, but there was still an aura of sadness that clung to him like a second skin. She couldn’t truly understand the bond he had with his dragoness, but she could see the effect her leaving had on him. It was like half of him was missing.

  “I can only hope she feels the way I do.” Fedryc looked away in the distance, through the window. “Our bond is a powerful thing, but so is a mating bond. I don’t know what I would do if I had to choose between you and her. You are both a part of me. I wouldn’t truly be living if I lost one of you.”

  This was the most Fedryc had ever spoken about his bond with the dragoness and Marielle held her breath, not wanting to disrupt the flow of his thoughts. Not wanting him to stop.

  “Dragons usually mate without forming a bond. It’s only a union of the flesh, dictated by biological imperatives that have nothing lasting.” Fedryc looked back at Marielle like he knew she needed to understand this part of him, this part of Nyra. “But this time, it’s different for Nyra. I think she’s found her true mate.”

  “But if he’s feral, he can’t live in the castle, can he?” The very idea was chilling.

  “Not without incinerating everyone first.” Fedryc shook his head and that was all she needed to truly grasp the threat of the feral dragon. “He cannot be reasoned with. Ferals are not well understood, for obvious reasons. Anyone trying to study them ended up dead. The only thing I know for sure is that he won’t surrender his mate.”

  Silence descended on them both as Marielle took in the implications of this latest threat. They were truly lost if Nyra didn’t come back. If she shunned her Draekon bond for her mating bond. The Knat-Kanassis would invade and kill everyone, including those she cared about the most.

  But something else didn’t sit well with her. Something that had everything to do with the soft secret she felt deep in her belly. That secret she caressed in her mind like a warm glow.

  “I still don’t understand.” Marielle shook her head. “If dragons don’t form mating bonds, then how did you come to live with your father? Your mother was not a Draekon, and your father’s dragon was a male, wasn’t he?”

  Fedryc nodded at her incomprehension. The world of Draekons was secretive, misunderstood by most humans and Delradons alike. How they came to be linked with their dragons was a secret they were keen to keep.

  “Dragons are not like us on many levels. Females and males are equal in both strength and in their society.” Fedryc spoke slowly, like he knew he was divulging a secret kept on a close leash for thousands of years. “Thus, the task of raising the young doesn’t fall on the male or female, but on the Draekon whose woman gives birth. The egg goes with the dragon who is bonded to the woman. The other dragon feels no obligation towards its progeny. The obvious exception is when they are true dragon mates, then nothing can take the dragonet from them.”

  “So if I was to give birth, our child would be linked to this feral dragon? But he wouldn’t understand the link between our child and his.”

  This was a prospect even scarier than having a feral dragon rampaging through the hallways of the castle. Her tiny newborn in the grasp of a feral beast was a nightmare.

  “Yes. The feral could as surely kill the Draekon child as he would have killed me.” Fedryc said the words that instilled panic in her mind. “This is something that has never happened in the history of Draekons’ link to their dragons. There is no roadmap here, no one to turn to for advice. We’re on our own.”

  The warm glow Marielle had felt turned to a cold stone in the pit of her stomach. Her hands cradled that soft, warm secret nestled inside her and she feared anew.

  Chapter 23

  The sun was going down on another day in Aalstad and Marielle looked into the distance, at the orange and pink sky. Fedryc hadn’t returned from his meeting with Henron, and the worries had wormed their way back into her belly.

  She’d spent her entire day with Devan. The relief still lingered inside her after Dr. Ylco’s news that the nanites had finally gotten both the blood infections under control. Devan should be able to come off the sedation in a day or two, after Dr. Ylco had sealed the wounded flesh. He was going to live.

  She would be floating with relief if it wasn’t for Fedryc’s long absence. He had left before she ate her breakfast and hadn’t yet returned. Now that he was gone, she felt alone and alien in this castle, followed by four guards at all times as she went from one room to the other.

  When Fedryc was not there, she was nothing but a stranger within these walls. An uninvited nuisance.

  Only when she was alone in the private apartments she shared with Fedryc did she feel at ease, and even that peace was fragile. Her conscience weighed heavily on her mind.

  I should have told him. Even with all that happened, I should have told him.

  Marielle hugged herself, cold despite the warm desert breeze. Then her eyes were attracted to a tiny speck, moving in the air above the mountains in the distance. She held her breath until her lungs burned as she watched. The speck grew larger until she could make out the outline of wings flapping, tiny like a bug’s, in the distance.

  Nyra.

  Marielle watched as the lonely figure grew in the sunset, then it was like an electric current running inside her skin. Her hands closed around her stomach and a deep joy rose from the recesses of her mind. A smile crept up on her lips. Nyra was coming back!

  Following blind instinct, Marielle turned and ran for the door, shoving it open—to the guards’ considerable dismay. They shouted from behind her as she ran, leaving them far behind. She knew the castle well enough to find her way, the guards on her tail but unable to keep up with her nimble, swift form as she ran through the hallways then climbed the stairs two at a time to the landing platform. All that counted was that Nyra was back. The strange joy bloomed further as the wind blew over her face, alien and with a mind of its own. It was like some part of her was starving, hungry for Nyra’s contact, Nyra’s presence. And with the dragoness back, Fedryc would regain his old strength, shed his sadness like a snake’s skin.

  Finally, Marielle emerged on the platform,
blinded for a moment by the glorious sunset.

  “Lady Marielle!” one guard called, fear in his voice as the flapping of wings became louder. “Please, come back! We’ve already sent for Lord Fedryc.”

  Marielle took a few steps away from the door, heading further out on the landing platform, knowing that the guards wouldn’t follow, not with Nyra to protect her. Not when Nyra was liable to incinerate them on sight. Her gown flapped around her ankles as she shielded her eyes with her hand, squinting to see the large form almost above the landing platform. But when she looked up, she didn’t see blazing red scales or sapphire blue eyes.

  Massive brown wings blocked out the setting sun, and a beast filled with wrath landed in front of her.

  Marielle froze, her breathing suddenly fast and shallow as she understood the magnitude of her mistake. On the platform just a hundred feet in front of her was Nyra’s mate, a male dragon so large he took up almost all the available space. The brown feral roared loud enough to make her ears ring. Eyes the color of scorched earth settled on her with palpable fury as rough scales puffed out on his neck. His talons scraped the floor, digging into the stone like it was butter as he paced, his spine rippling with unshed aggression.

  Marielle took a step back, her hand clasped over her stomach, protecting that tiny bundle of life inside her that had taken on so much importance in such a short time.

  The brown dragon hissed, his ash-smelling breath, hot and dry, reaching all the way to her face. Marielle froze, knowing instinctively that moving would trigger the hunting instinct of the beast, and that she would be dead before she even reached the doorway, even if it was only barely twenty feet away.

  The feral paced back and forth along the platform, his dark, almost black eyes never leaving her, like pools of death in his terrible face. He took a sudden step forward and it took all of Marielle’s courage to keep still. The brown dragon inched closer, then his large nostrils widened as he inhaled deeply, taking as much of her scent inside his nose as he could. Her feet felt like they were set in concrete and her arms in stone, even her breathing had lessened to the imperceptible wheezing of a dying woman.

  If she moved even a fingertip, even the corner of her mouth, then she would weaken like a house of cards and run. And then she would die, and with her, that tiny bundle floating inside her belly.

  The brown dragon stopped sniffing and his eyes widened, but Marielle couldn’t see his pupils in his too-dark eyes. But she could see his hesitation, the way he wasn’t sure if he was going to rip her to pieces or not.

  I’m still alive. I’m not dead.

  Then another flap of wings made Marielle look up. Red and orange invaded the sky and the dragoness landed between Marielle and the brown beast. Nyra’s jewel-colored eyes landed briefly on Marielle then she turned to her mate, her body low on the ground in a protective stance.

  The brown male’s thunderous roar of displeasure shook the rocks like an earthquake but Nyra didn’t budge. Her screech was equally threatening, and her long, powerful tail whipped the air in warning. A dark cloud of smoke rose from the male’s nostrils but he backed down from Nyra’s challenge.

  Apparently reassured that her mate wasn’t going to vomit fire all over the castle, reducing all its occupants to ashes, Nyra turned to Marielle. Her limbs trembling, Marielle walked to the dragoness as the awareness of the brown male faded to the back of her mind and her entire focus went to the red beast. Following an unexplained impulse, Marielle lifted her hand to Nyra, stopping just short of her muzzle. Behind her, the brown dragon growled but didn’t move. A second later, Nyra broached the distance and her warm scales touched Marielle’s open palm.

  A joy as alien and foreign as the images that bloomed in her mind entered Marielle’s brain. She knew they were sent by Nyra and she accepted them easily, then sent her own feelings up the fragile link she shared with the dragoness. The love, the protectiveness, the fear also, and that tender secret she held inside her body.

  Nyra became still and her blue eyes blinked as an overwhelming joy invaded Marielle’s mind. Nyra huffed in Marielle’s hair, a wind of soft warmth as she brought one mighty paw forward, then extended it to show Marielle a shimmering blue object of such beauty, Marielle could only gasp.

  An egg. This was a dragon’s egg, and the life that bloomed inside echoed the life that grew in her belly.

  “Marielle!” A familiar masculine voice made Marielle turn away from Nyra, only to see two men standing in the doorway. Fedryc stood in front of Henron, his face contorted with fear. “Don’t move!”

  Fedryc’s face lost all its color when he locked gazes with Nyra. He stood still for a few seconds, like he was seeing a mirage and not the dragoness who was linked to him through the essence of their very lives. Then his silver eyes slid to the looming figure of the brown dragon, fuming furiously behind Nyra. His shoulders stiffened and his eyes clouded over, his mouth taking on a now familiar stern, cruel line.

  Nyra lifted her head, her eyes shining with defiance. Behind her, the brown dragon sensed the threat to his mate and growled.

  This isn’t going to end well. Fedryc shouldn’t have come.

  Henron made his way to the landing platform, his face focused and his eyes set on Marielle.

  “Get down with Lady Marielle.” Henron spoke softly as he inched closer, eyeing the brown dragon behind Nyra as well as the red dragoness. “I’ll get you as much time as I can.”

  “Nyra protected Marielle and me, but I’m not sure if she will stand up to her mate for you.” Fedryc turned sideways to look at his friend, a look of terrible understanding on his face. “If she doesn’t, he will kill you.”

  “If you don’t take Marielle away from him, he will kill you both.” Henron approached until Nyra growled, low in her throat. This made the brown dragon bristle and he hissed, loud and furious. “Look what’s in Nyra’s talons, Fedryc. Congratulations, my friend.”

  Fedryc tilted his head, uncomprehending, then turned to look at Nyra. The dragoness had brought her paw back against her chest, cradling her precious cargo, but the outlines of the egg were still visible. Fedryc’s face went slack, then he turned to Marielle.

  He didn’t speak, just locked eyes with her, and she gave him the faintest smile. This was enough for him to understand that Henron was right.

  “Come.” Fedryc grabbed Marielle’s upper arm in a grip of iron, pulling her close roughly. “Don’t make a noise.”

  Marielle opened her mouth to protest, to tell him that it was preposterous to abandon Henron to certain death, but he didn’t give her time to speak. Henron walked right past them, his gaze steadily on Nyra. Marielle was dragged to the doorway but once there, she fought Fedryc’s hold, turning to grab the frame.

  Fedryc turned with her and when she glanced at him, she saw pain on his face. Pain, guilt and a pride that made her want to scream.

  Because Henron shouldn’t have to die. Because Nyra was going to protect them, she just knew it.

  Then Henron spoke.

  “We have been friends a long time, you and I.” Henron stood up straight, dwarfed by the looming figure of the red dragoness. “You alone can decide if we will be for more.”

  Behind Nyra, the brown dragon moved, stalking across the platform in a slow, measured way to stand just behind his mate. Dark, almost black eyes sharpened their focus as they bored into Henron with an intensity that should have sent him away screaming, but Henron stood absolutely still, like he was paralyzed by the vision of the feral dragon.

  Then the brown dragon leaned in and his nostrils widened. Fedryc’s hand squeezed Marielle’s as he watched the feral dragon take in his friend’s scent.

  Then the feral turned to Nyra and rested his muzzle in the middle of her nape. Nyra’s pupils shrank and she stared back at the brown dragon. The dragons were communicating, in that deep, wordless way they used to weld their minds to one another through the physical link.

  And they were deciding Henron’s fate.

  The feral brow
n dragon was not what Fedryc had told her; he was capable of thoughts and feelings.

  And he wasn’t murdering Henron on sight.

  Nyra stared at Henron, her blue eyes so alien, Marielle couldn’t decipher the feelings behind the reptilian façade, then she bent her head and her muzzle brushed Henron’s forehead. She turned and flew away, the precious egg cradled in her claws against her chest.

  Henron’s head turned up to the sky as Nyra left, then his eyes went back to the brown dragon. The beast’s only focus was on Henron, like he was waiting for something. Or, more like he was still making up his mind on an important decision.

  Too-dark eyes filled with savage intent bored into Henron and the beast rushed forward.

  Time felt suspended as Marielle screamed, held back by Fedryc’s strong arms. Except the feral dragon didn’t maul Henron with his talons. He didn’t snap him in half with his fangs. Fire didn’t spew fire across the platform in a mighty rain of death.

  The beast stopped inches in front of Henron, his mouth opening wide and a screech straight from hell encompassing the platform.

  Then talons long as knives wrapped delicately around Henron’s body and he was lifted into the sky in a blur of earth-colored wings and fury.

  “Henron!” Fedryc screamed the name of his friend as the brown dragon shrank in the distance, flying fast with his large, mighty wings.

  The sounds faded to a remote drumming as he watched, an icy hand of fear wrapping around his chest, squeezing the life out of him.

  Beside him, Marielle also screamed Henron’s name, struggling uselessly against his hold. He wouldn’t let her go. Would never let her go. Red hair was strewn across her face and tears streaked her cheeks. She was crying and screaming but he couldn’t hear her words.

  Thoughts pushed themselves inside his brain but there were too many, and he had trouble grasping one long enough for his mind to understand any of them.