by Riley Storm
Knowing she was outnumbered and not wanting to be stuck in the cave with what were likely a bunch of ogres or worse, Natasha hightailed it outside.
One of the creatures came after her, moving lightning fast. He reached the entrance of the cave and triggered her spell, but he was moving too fast to be caught by its effects.
The rest of the cave’s occupants cried out as the mouth came crashing down, collapsing in front of them, trapping them inside.
Which just left the one for her to deal with.
“Who are you?” he snarled at her.
Natasha stared at his frayed and torn clothing, and the wild look upon his face.
“What are you?” she fired back, wand at the ready.
“I am the protector of my people,” he replied. “And you have attacked us. For that you shall pay.”
The creature gestured and the very earth itself responded. Rock cracked and she started to sink into it. Remaining calm, Natasha leveled her wand and cast her own spell. Black energy spat from the tip, hitting the wild man in the chest and bowling him over backward.
Pulling herself free of the earth, she pursued, eager to finish the combat. Natasha wasn’t interested in taking on another ten as strong as this one. She needed to get out of there, and quickly.
Twice more she hit the man with her energy blasts before he could recover. The third time, however, stone erupted from the earth in front of him, absorbing the energy.
Knowing she was running out of time as the sounds from the cave mouth grew louder, Natasha whipped her wand around in a circle, forming words and thoughts. She smiled at her foe and cast the spell.
Snow leapt up from the ground around them, encircling him in a spinning vortex of snow and ice.
Natasha turned and ran for it, calling upon her air mount as she went, forming it between her legs, eager to be gone from this once peaceful place. Lifting into the air, she heard a roar behind her.
Turning, she saw the snowstorm she’d created ripped apart as another of the creatures exited the cave and took control of it.
She had a brief second to react before the storm came roaring at her.
“Uh oh.” She accelerated as best she could, eyes watering like crazy as wind dug at them, practically blinding her.
The storm fell behind and Natasha looped up and over, unsure of what to do yet. She couldn’t let the creatures get away, not when they were this powerful. More of them were emerging from the cave now, looking up at her as she floated in the sky.
At least she was safe up here, out of their range.
Then one of them moved away from the others.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered as she watched what he was doing next.
Making her decision, Natasha slowly descended, making a big show of putting away her wand. She wanted them to understand she wasn’t coming back to attack them.
“Wait!” she shouted, pointing a hand at the one who had moved away from the rest. “Let me speak!”
“She uses her words to attack us! Don’t let her talk! Kill her!”
That came from one of the others that had emerged from the cave. Like the rest, they were all facing her, hands up, ready to defend themselves.
“I’m not so sure Rokh would appreciate you for doing that,” she said, pointing a finger at the brilliant snow-colored dragon that had appeared where a man once stood. “Same with Damien or Rane. They might take exception to you freezing me.”
The dragon eyed her cautiously, head twisted to the side, a single yellow orb watching her like a hawk.
“You know Rokh?” It was the man she’d fought speaking now, still in his human form.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “Yes ,I do. They are staying with us. As are the others of your kind that have been found. Though I admit to not knowing many of their names,” she said apologetically.
“Who are you? Where are they staying?” the man wanted to know, his beard and hair looking wildly unkempt, courtesy of their stay in the mountains.
“My name is Natasha,” she said. “And I’m from a place called Winterspell. If you want to come with me, I can show you to your new home.”
She put on a smile for the Dracian refugees, but inside, her stomach was churning.
Doing Loiner’s bidding was one thing. Developing feelings of friendship toward Rane complicated that immensely and made her feel sick to her stomach. Now though, she was going to just throw it all on its side by increasing the dragon contingent at Winterspell by over half its strength.
Loiner is going to kill me when she finds out!
Natasha’s life had just gotten far more…interesting.
Chapter Thirteen
Natasha
Word spread quickly at Winterspell.
From the time they came into view of the novices patrolling the walls, to the time she and the first dragon landed in the main courtyard, a large crowd—including many of the other dragon shifters—had assembled.
“Natasha?”
Rane stepped forward as she slid from her conjured mount, the air dissipating as she dismissed the apparition. She smiled weakly at him as another pair of dragons came in for a soft landing, these two both carrying a young shifter on their backs.
Overhead, another six dragons banked slowly, waiting for the courtyard to clear so that they could come in to land.
“What…I don’t understand,” the storm dragon said, looking at her, then the other dragons, then back at her. “How?”
“Sheer coincidence really,” she said weakly, sensing all the stares directed her way. Everyone knew by now that she was responsible for this. From twenty-one dragons of varying ages, now they were up to thirty-two. All housed at Winterspell.
It wouldn’t be long before things started getting cramped. She wondered for a second what would happen then, but promptly dismissed the concern. In no way was that her problem to handle. Higher ups than her would deal with it.
“So many,” Rane said as his kin came forward to help the others, guiding them from the courtyard.
“They were in a cave in the mountains,” she said.
Three more dragons came in, landing in perfect tight formation, wings pulled in close. She’d gone over how things would work with all of them on the way, but she’d never expected them to be so organized.
There was no disguising the nudity of course, but with that many dragons coming in, Natasha just didn’t care. They were quickly clothed and taken from the courtyard anyway. The shifters had suffered enough and they didn’t seem to care about being naked, so she decided not to either.
Shouts of happiness erupted as more of the dragons at Winterspell made it outside and rushed to the landing area. One of the jade-green dragons had just landed and was shifting, and a pair of the dragon younglings rushed the figure.
“Mother?” Natasha asked Rane as he stood close by her, watching silently.
She noticed his eyes growing slightly misty as he watched the scene.
“Older sister,” he said quietly. “One of the few family units of any sort we have left.”
“Oh.”
Natasha watched the reunion as the second last group of dragons came in to land. The unbridled joy and happiness that all the shifters seemed to be showing reminded her just what the Dracians as a whole had been through. The trauma they must have suffered, coming through the portal piecemeal, scattering into the mountains as they ran in fear for their lives that more of their enemy would be right behind them.
But it served as a reminder of something more as well. Something that, despite her near daily interactions with one of them, she’d remained oblivious to. It was the sheer worry and fear the dragons already at Winterspell must have for those who were still out among the wild, living off the land, terrified of this new world.
“You must want to be out there every day,” she remarked softly. “Searching for them.”
“Yes,” Rane said quietly. “We would, if we could.”
If they could.
&n
bsp; She swallowed hard. It was the rules of the Coven, of her people, that were keeping them back, preventing them from going out and scouring the mountains for any sign of their people, doing whatever it took to reunite the fractured remains of their population.
“Why?” she asked quietly, not understanding how the dragons could just remain there.
“Because you gave us hope,” Rane told her, his voice still soft. “Winterspell gave us hope, a place to live, to recover. You brought us in and welcomed us when you didn’t have to. You gave us the possibility that one day, in the future, perhaps, we would be allowed to call Earth our home as well.” He turned to look at her, blue-green eyes vivid in the afternoon light, sparkling with moisture in the corners, though nothing fell.
“I see.”
Natasha felt horrible. All these people wanted to do, was find somewhere to live, to stay alive, where they wouldn’t be hunted and killed. And people like Loiner, like her, had treated them horribly for it.
“Natasha.”
She blinked rapidly, fighting back her own tears and turned at the sound of the voice.
“Liam,” she said.
“Thank you,” the leader of the little group said, bowing his head. “I don’t know how we can thank you enough. How I can thank you enough,” he said, taking her hand, kissing the back of it.
Next to her, Rane stiffened.
“Rane.”
“Liam,” he replied tightly.
Natasha observed the interaction mutely, noting the sudden bout of tension that erupted between the two dragons. Most of it was from Rane. Was he…she glanced back and forth at them, noting the stance, the stiff arms, puffed-out chests…was Rane getting jealous?
“They will take you to get food. Shelter. And a shower,” Rane said, not quite able to hold back a sniff of the air as he pointed at the others who were guiding the group up to the dragon quarters.
“Thank you again,” Liam said, bowing before going after the others.
“Friend of yours?” she teased.
“Yeah he’s fine,” Rane said, voice returning to normal. “Why?”
“No reason. Just curious. We got into a bit of a fight, you see. When I first saw evidence of people in the area. We had it out before I realized they were dragons.”
“So now he’s being all polite to you?” Rane growled, eyes focused on the retreating dragon’s back. “Why?”
“Cause…that’s what people do when they know they’re on the same side?” she said, wanting to reach up and smack him around a little bit.
The final group of dragons came in to land, a pair of green dragons escorting a black-scaled dragon to the ground.
“Andria?” Rane gasped as the onyx dragon hit the ground hard, her energy nearly gone.
“Who?” she asked, not realizing he would know anyone.
“A friend,” he said, taking several steps forward. “I didn’t know she had made it through at all. I…” he glanced at Natasha. “I’ll be right back,” he said, then rushed over to the dragon as she changed.
Natasha stood where she was, watching Rane helping the lithe—and nude, very nude—dragon to her feet as she finished shifting. A witch came forward and gave him a robe which he helped put around the woman.
She watched all this happen, fingers curling into her palms as Rane’s hands touched the woman freely, helping put the robe on and even tying it tight for her. He was like a nurse hovering over his patient, despite the presence of the other two shifters who had brought her in.
Then Rane waved the others off and gently picked up the woman and carried her back toward the dragon quarters. Natasha watched this, her stomach twinging as it happened.
A bit of pain finally reached her brain, and she looked down at her palms, uncurling her fingers. Nail indents lined her palm from where she’d been squeezing so hard. She looked at the marks for a moment, then lifted her head to stare at Rane’s distant form before he and the woman disappeared inside. Then she looked at her hands again.
“Uh oh.”
Chapter Fourteen
Rane
With Andria off to sleep in her own room, he retreated to his quarters. The entire dragon quarter was abuzz at the new arrivals, and the excitement had worn him out.
Flopping back onto his bed, he closed his eyes.
A knocking at the door stirred him. He shot upright when he noticed it was a witch at the door. Very young, a novice most likely, in her first couple of years at Winterspell at best, according to what Natasha had told him.
“Hi,” he said cheerfully, trying not to alarm the young girl. He could see the whites of her eyes as she stared at him silently. She must be terrified, being sent in among all the huge dragons, alone. “What can I do for you?” he asked gently, sitting down at the edge of the bed, trying to put her at ease.
“Message.”
He cocked his head. “For me?”
“Yes. You’re Rane?” she asked belatedly. “They said this was your room.”
“That’s me,” he said.
She reached into the folds of her robe, pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to him. Rane walked over and took it, keeping his smile under wraps. The poor witch was petrified.
“Is that it then?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re good to go,” he said, releasing the girl, who promptly turned and fled with as much dignity as she could muster, meaning she didn’t quite break into a flat-out run as she exited the dragon area.
Rane leaned on his doorway as she fled, only then realizing that he must have fallen asleep for several hours at least before the knock. The hallways were not long abuzz with the sounds of dragons celebrating the return of more of their number. They were in fact, rather quiet.
It made sense. All the new arrivals must be exhausted. Some celebration, food, shower and they would probably sleep until morning. Rane couldn’t blame them. Two weeks out in the wild without any ideas of where they were, or what they were doing? Yeah, that would get to him too. He’d be exhausted by the time he got to Winterspell.
Curiosity about the letter reared its head and he pulled himself from the daydream to focus on the paper. He’d never received such a thing before. Pulling it open, he read the handwriting. It was from Natasha.
“Why not just come see me yourself?” he wondered, confused about everything.
First, Natasha was upset with him. Or at him. Or because of him. He’d never really sorted that one out. There simply hadn’t been time. She hadn’t really talked with him up on the balcony that morning, and then she’d gone off and discovered a huge group of dragons.
Including Liam. Rane could still remember the way the onyx dragon had taken her hand, holding it as if she was more than just his rescuer. Not even Rane dared to hold her hand that way, though it was only just now that he was realizing he might want to.
“Rane. I need to see you. To talk. I didn’t want to interrupt your reunion, hence the letter. Meet me at the courtyard at nine. Natasha.”
He looked the letter over once more, then over to the wall where the clock hung. It took him a moment to figure out the time. They hadn’t used clocks on Dracia, instead going by the sun and the stars—and he realized he had less than an hour to get ready.
The knots in his stomach twisted tighter. Natasha had never asked to see him at night before. That wasn’t the time where a Liaison met with someone in official manner. It was the time of liaisons. Of romance.
Stop it. You don’t know that she’s doing it for that reason.
Of course, he didn’t know she wasn’t either.
Rane rushed around to get ready, showering and changing before he slipped out of his quarters. Most of the dragons were asleep or retired to their own rooms already, and he was the only one crazy enough to patrol the hallways at night, so getting out was easy.
He jogged down the stairs, pausing just inside the entranceway to collect himself, taking a deep breath before walking outside at a much slower pace. There was no n
eed to give away the fact that he was nervously excited.
What was so urgent that she needed to see him now, and not later?
Natasha was waiting for him off to one corner of the main courtyard. He walked over to her, opening his mouth to speak, but she shook her head and gestured for him to follow.
He did as ordered, trailing beside and just behind her until she turned down a secluded passageway between buildings.
“Am I being kidnapped?” he asked at last.
“Of course not,” she said, making a face. “But you know how it is. People talk, and if they see us here, at night, together…”
Rane nodded. “You don’t want anyone knowing you’re with me.”
Natasha’s mouth opened in a small circle as she realized the implications of her words. “Rane, no, that’s not what I meant.”
“It is,” he said. “You just didn’t realize it. But whatever,” he said, waving it off. “I got your letter. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” she told him, shaking her head. “I never said anything was wrong.”
“Then why all the secrecy, why meeting me here. What’s going on?”
Natasha was quiet for several long moments, to the point where Rane almost spoke again, asking if she’d heard him. Just before he could though, she spoke again.
“Tell me, Rane,” she said, looking up at him, her eyes wide, pools of glittering stars reflected in them from the night sky overhead. “Do you ever think about it?”
He stared, mesmerized. “Think about what?” he asked, unable to tear his gaze away.
Natasha licked her lips, throat bobbing as she swallowed. “About…our kiss.”
Lightning surged through his veins at the memory of that heated embrace, of the searing of her lips against his, the melting of her body into him.
“Yeah,” he admitted, his mind racing, playing back the moment over and over again. “Sometimes.”
She nodded, seeing through his attempted nonchalance he was sure. Rane wasn’t very good at keeping a straight face, he knew that. It was fairly obvious now that Natasha could read him like a book. But he didn’t care. She’d brought the topic up, not him.
