Forged by Flames: Book 3 (Dragon's Breath Series)

by Susan Illene

  On rare occasions, a shifter was born with a preference for their own gender. While some members of their toriq abhorred it, many others didn’t care. The real problem was the shifters needed to increase their population. They could not afford to allow anyone to forego producing offspring if they were physically capable. The only way Phoebe would be truly free to see her lover, without bringing shame upon her, was to mate with a male first.

  “This is why you have never settled on a male suitor,” he surmised. She’d had more than a few offers over the decades.

  Phoebe nodded. “I swear I’ve tried to give them a chance, but I can’t find anyone who feels right. And Ozara is still young and too busy with her work to mate with a male. It could be a long time before we are free to be together openly.”

  “Does Nanoq know?”

  “Yes. He told me the same thing as father.” She paused. “But he let it be my choice if I go to the mating festival since he understands how difficult this is. I told him I’d go as long as I didn’t have to choose anyone.”

  That was at least something. Nanoq’s brother favored males, so the pendragon understood the problem Phoebe faced. He knew she had to find the right male in her own time.

  “Wait.” Bailey held a hand up. “Isn’t it kind of cruel to make you mate with someone you’re not attracted to?”

  Phoebe drew her brows together. “They don’t force us to do it. Eventually, everyone in my position finds someone they can mate with and not feel uncomfortable. It is a matter of waiting until the right one comes along.”

  “So maybe you and…Ozara could even hook up with the same guy?” Conrad asked, a wicked grin on his face. “Kind of knock out two birds with one stone?”

  Phoebe looked at Aidan. “Does the slayer’s friend always speak in such strange terms?”

  “I find ignoring him works best.”

  Bailey folded her hands in her lap. “What Conrad is trying to say is could it be possible you and Ozara could share the same guy if you find one you both like?”

  “Oh.” Phoebe blushed. “Yes, that’s happened before with other couples. I just don’t know if we’ll be lucky enough to find one who would agree to such an arrangement.”

  Conrad shook his head. “Too bad humans are off limits because I know a lot of guys who’d be happy to help.”

  Phoebe’s eyes rounded. “Really?”

  “Hell, yeah. If I didn’t have my girl, I’d be down for it.”

  Aidan’s sister let out a loud laugh. She had to have known all along where Conrad was heading with the conversation. “Not in your lifetime or the next, little man.”

  Outrage filled Conrad’s expression. “Who you callin’ little?”

  In fact, he and Phoebe were about the same size. But Aidan’s sister was a warrior with the large bone structure and muscles to go along with it. She saw any male who was not bigger than her as small.

  “You know you could have told me about Ozara and everything else? Why didn’t you?” Aidan asked. He was hurt his sister hadn’t confided in him.

  She gave him a weak smile. “It was nothing against you. I just promised father I wouldn’t tell anyone and it sort of became a habit to keep it to myself. I’ve known I preferred women since before you were born.”

  Conrad shifted his gaze between them. “You don’t look that far apart in age.”

  Bailey must not have told her friend about the difference in longevity between humans and shifters. “I am nearly two-hundred and sixteen years old. My sister is two-hundred and seventy-five. For us, we age very slowly, and shifter births are few and far between.”

  “You’re like…” Conrad paused to do the math. “Sixty years apart. Holy shit. She could be your grandma or something.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Aidan said. He’d gone through all of this with Bailey when he had first started teaching her about dragons. She’d had a difficult time understanding the differences between their races as well. “The gap between my sister and I is normal for our kind.”

  “Yeah, okay, man.” Conrad let it go.

  Aidan gave his sister a smile. “You know I suspected Lorcan for all this time?”

  “Oh.” She gave a nervous laugh. “We did have sex a few times—about a year before you two became friends—but I was going through an experimental phase. He was fine being my test subject.”

  Aidan spluttered. “Then he knew about your preferences, and you both hid this secret from me?”

  “Don’t blame him.” Phoebe wagged a finger. “I made him promise not to tell.”

  The next time Aidan saw Lorcan, he would be having a long talk with him. Not only had he slept with his sister, but he had also aided her in seeing a female lover and hiding her secrets.

  Phoebe lifted her hand, palm open. “The stone is clear.”

  Relief swept through Aidan. When Savion first said they would have to reveal private truths about themselves, he’d been nervous. There had been no way to know what to expect. Now that it was over, Aidan felt surprisingly closer to the others than before. Had that been the purpose?

  Savion appeared before them, his expression stern but his eyes approving. “You have each done well. It is time for the final phase of your quest here.”

  “Another test?” Bailey inquired.

  “I would call this more of a lesson.”

  Chapter 18

  Aidan

  “A lesson?” Aidan asked.

  “Before the orb can be made whole, you must first learn the origins of how it came to be. Pay close attention, for every step of your journey will bring you to greater enlightenment. There are important moments in history that are long forgotten, but it is time they are remembered once more,” Savion said.

  With a bow, he disappeared, and the room plunged into darkness.

  “What the…?” Conrad began.

  Then an image appeared before them of a young man and woman—perhaps in their early twenties—wearing animal skins of a primitive design. Both had brown skin and long, dark hair. The female wasn’t much larger than Bailey, and the male was lean. They faced each other near a grass hut. It was clear they were arguing, but it took a moment before Aidan could understand their words. They spoke in a language he’d never heard before.

  “I want to be with you,” the man pleaded, grabbing at the female’s hands.

  She pushed him away. “No, I have a duty to protect our people, and I cannot allow anything to distract me.”

  “You will die if you keep fighting them!”

  She turned slightly, and Aidan caught sight of a blade strapped across her back. “Then I will die with honor.”

  “You choose dragons over me.” He gave her a disgusted look.

  The woman lifted her chin. “I do what I must.”

  “You are making a mistake,” the sorcerer warned, standing over her with his greater height.

  “Will you make me ugly like the last woman who rejected you?” she asked and lifted her chin. Despite her bravado, a fleck of fear entered her eyes.

  The energy around the male almost made him glow. He was a sorcerer.

  “No.” He gave her an evil smile. “I will do something much worse.”

  She took a step back. “I won’t protect you from our people anymore. If they choose to kill you, I will turn away and let them.”

  “My powers have grown. They cannot harm me.” The man’s eyes took on maniacal gleam . “You just wait and see!”

  As the woman backed away from him, the scene faded and the room turned dark.

  “What was that, and why could I understand what they were saying?” Bailey asked, gripping Aidan’s hand.

  “I suspect the magic that allowed us to see this story play out also gave us the power to understand,” Aidan said, leaning close to her ear.

  They couldn’t see each other, but no one had moved from their positions. With the lack of other noises to distract him, he could hear everyone’s heartbeats.

  Conrad scraped his shoe across the stone floor,
likely stretching his legs. “I don’t get what that has to do with the orb.”

  A new scene appeared before them and everyone quieted. The same girl was now in a mountain pass, fighting a green dragon five times her size. Blood covered her left arm, and she limped heavily, though she did not let that deter her from striking the beast again and again. It was likely they’d been fighting for some time. Her chest heaved as she took heavy breaths, and the dragon moved sluggishly. The beast swiped his claws at her. She dove out of the way, barely escaping having her stomach torn open. The slayer landed hard on the ground. As the dragon lumbered toward her, she flipped over onto her back and lifted her sword.

  A moment before she could impale the blade into the beast, the sorcerer appeared. He spread his hands wide and called out, “Stop!”

  Both the young woman and dragon froze. In an impressive feat, he used his powers to lift them off the ground and levitate them. Slowly, he moved them toward a nearby cave almost completely hidden by bushes. It had a wide enough opening beyond the brush that with the dragon’s wings tucked close, it could pass inside. The sorcerer put them both in there, setting them on the ground, and then stood over the beast. Sparks flew from his hands, flying into the vulnerable dragon.

  The sorcerer chanted a series of words, finishing with, “You will become a man now.”

  Aidan watched in amazement as the pure dragon slowly shifted into that of a human male. Once the transition was over, the man lay there naked with his wounds still bleeding onto the ground. He was large and muscular with short, black hair. Not unlike the shifters of Aidan’s toriq. In his yellow eyes, there was fear. The young woman remained frozen as well, but there was anger and abhorrence in her gaze.

  The sorcerer looked at her, giving her a pleased smile. “You chose dragons over me, so now you shall have your very own that you will live with for the next ten years. Neither of you will be able to leave this mountain until that time is over and once you do, you will become enemies once more.”

  With a final burst of magic, he finished his wicked spell and cursed them both to a life together. Then he left, laughing his way out of the cave. Several minutes passed before either of the still figures began to move. The woman was first, climbing up to her knees.

  She looked around her. “My sword.”

  Aidan didn’t see it anywhere. It must have fallen from her hands while the sorcerer moved her to the cave. She raced out to get it and came back. By this time, the former dragon had found his footing, but he had to grip the cave walls for support. He had no understanding of how to walk with human legs and feet yet.

  “I’m not waiting ten years,” the woman swore.

  She lunged toward the vulnerable man with her sword pointed directly at his chest. He put an arm up, attempting to deflect it. A breath away from striking him, she came to a stumbling halt. Her hands shook. The expression on her face said she was struggling against some unseen force that would not let her go farther.

  “I can’t…I can’t kill you.” After another moment, she tossed the sword away. “That bastard!”

  The man lowered his arm a fraction. Curiosity began to enter his gaze now that he knew she could not harm him, but he did not speak. He simply watched her as she began to pace the cave, cursing the sorcerer. Every so often, she would stop to glare at the former dragon and then begin her ranting again. Aidan could see what was happening. She still sensed the beast buried deep inside the man, and it brought out her instincts to kill him, but the magic had done something to prevent her from attacking him. For a slayer, that would be next to torture if she didn’t learn how to get her instincts under control.

  More scenes flashed before them after that. In the beginning, the woman kept her distance from the dragon man. She made it clear he was to stay away from her, but the food resources on the mountain were limited. More often than not, he was the one to bring back an animal he’d captured. He’d offer her a portion of meat each time, and she’d refuse. It was only after three days of eating nothing except a few onions she found growing nearby that she gave in. He blew fire to cook the meat for her, and with reluctance she accepted it. Not long after that, she began teaching him how to speak.

  “This is how shifters came to be,” Phoebe said, awed. “I thought we’d been around as long as the pure dragons.”

  Aidan had believed the same thing. It was what they were taught growing up.

  “How did the slayer line start?” Bailey asked.

  “There were always foolish humans around attempting to kill dragons,” Aidan answered, pulling Bailey closer into his chest. “One particular family made it their business to kill them. Eventually, they discovered consuming dragon hearts gave them greater strength and protection from fire. After a few generations of such practices, the children of the family began to be born as slayers, only needing to pass the ritual to gain their full gifts. You would be descended from them, and now we know where my race began.”

  The timeline moved forward, and they were shocked to discover the slayer and shifter became intimate. They’d developed feelings for each other over the long months that passed and began to work together to survive on the mountain. A few scenes later, the woman’s belly appeared rounded. They had conceived! Aidan did not think such a thing was possible, but perhaps the sorcerer’s magic had something to do with it. A little girl was born. The man and woman doted on the baby and took it everywhere with them.

  Dragons came to the mountain occasionally, and the two fought them off, protecting the female child. Aidan glanced over at Bailey and caught a tear running down her cheek. He reached over and wiped it away. Two more boys were born after that, and then another girl. They were a family with no clan or other people to share their life with, but they were happy. The oldest girl eventually made her first shift into a dragon to the amazement of her parents. Later, the oldest boy did the same. They were the first true shifters, and though the father could not join them in the air, he still gave them instructions from the ground on how to fly.

  “We were born from slayers,” Phoebe muttered between scenes. “I can’t believe it. What will our toriq think when we bring news of this?”

  Aidan sighed, certain it would make little difference. “They will be in denial.”

  A new scene began, showing the dragon man collapsing while out hunting. The woman ran to him, frantic and screaming. He went into convulsions as she watched helplessly, and the children joined them, holding hands. Fire began to consume the man. A pit formed in Aidan’s stomach as he realized what was happening. From that fire emerged the pure dragon the male had once been. His family backed away from him in horror. He roared with a wild look in his eyes that had not been there during the ten years he’d been human. The woman put herself in front of the children in a protective posture, shock and sadness in her eyes.

  “You have to go,” she said, her voice shaking a little.

  The dragon stared at the family that was no longer his. For a moment, his gaze cleared and there was regret there. He extended his neck toward them, snuffling loudly.

  “I promise I will take care of them,” she vowed, then took a step forward to touch his nose. “And I will always love you, but please don’t make me ever fight you.”

  A mournful sound came from the dragon’s throat. He swung his head back and forth in a sign of grief, then he took off into the air, glancing back only once. The room went dark, and then the stone began to glow around them again like it had when they first arrived. Their lesson had ended.

  “That was the most depressing movie I’ve ever seen.” Conrad wiped some suspicious moisture from his eyes.

  Bailey’s face was pale.

  “I had no idea,” Phoebe said, shaking her head.

  Aidan turned the slayer in his arms and pressed her head against his chest, needing to feel her close. “That wasn’t us. You must remember that.”

  She shook a little. “I know, but it was still sad.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  Savion ap
peared and they broke apart. The older man gave them a knowing look.

  “Now you know the first part of the story, but there is more to come.” He gestured at Conrad to come forward and gave him a dark fragment of glass. “This is the first piece you are seeking. No one other than him may carry it until it is time to make the orb whole.”

  Conrad took the jagged piece into his hand and stared at it. “Why me?”

  “You have been chosen to be its protector, and as long as you hold it, no other will be able to sense it on your person.”

  That explained why I suddenly couldn’t detect its dark presence anymore.

  “Where is the next fragment?” Aidan asked.

  A piece of parchment appeared on the pedestal where the stones had been. “There is your map. It will guide you to your next location.”

  Bailey grabbed it before anyone else and looked it over. “There are no state borders or highways on here.”

  “No, but there will always be enough to help you find your way.” He moved in front of her and put his finger over a spot near the top. “This hill cluster to the north is where you must go next.”

  Aidan leaned over Bailey’s shoulder. He did not recognize anything around the section where Savion pointed, but he did find some of the other landmarks toward the bottom to be familiar. The old man was right that it should be enough if they compared it to the terrain maps they’d brought.

  “Is there anything else we should know?” Phoebe asked.

  “Your journey will only become more dangerous from this point forward. Take care and protect the man holding the orb piece. It cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands,” he said, voice ominous.

  Then he waved his arms, and a flash of light blinded them. When Aidan’s vision returned, he found they were now standing outside the cave. Kade and Miles were a short distance away, staring at them in surprise.