I wish we could fly away together, never to return to Runavelius. I look back at Ruxsiu, still glowering at me, raising his massive claw, talons extended.
“Stop!” a familiar and comforting voice calls out, causing another tremble in the earth.
Guthrie, his sky-blue scales hard to mistake, parts the crowd, storming toward the king. His eyes squinted, claws raking through the dirt, tail swashing back and forth, nearly taking out every dragon he passes.
Ruxsiu turns so fast, it makes me dizzy. “You dare interrupt your king in the middle of an execution?” he demands, knowing it would be hard to argue against that.
“As one of your advisors, yes, you stupid fool. Are you not aware of the ramifications of killing this human, let alone a dragon?”
“What could you know on the subject?” Ruxsiu sneers.
“She is a human, Your Majesty,” Guthrie says, his tone mocking on the last two words. I wish I could see the look on his face. I can see his head shake. “She has family, friends, people who would come looking for her should she not return home tonight. And—”
“They would never find her. Or have you forgotten that our forests are hidden from them?” The dark king laughs as though he’s so cunning and smart.
“As I said before, you fool, she’s human. And she is within our borders, past the walls of protection covering our home. If she can break through, so can others. Think this through. Release her, banish her, place a spell on her so she can never return. Lock Yackros away to punish him for his crimes, but do not kill him either. Look around you. Our legion was thousands, and now there are only hundreds of us left. Do not take away one for such a petty crime.” Guthrie speaks with authority and compassion, and with every word, more dragons seem to be paying attention, nodding, agreeing with him.
Ruxsiu rears back, his anger blazing. “Petty?” he roars.
I watch Guthrie’s face appear over Ruxsiu’s shoulder, whispering into his ear. Considering a dragon’s incredible hearing, I’m not sure it does any good that he quiets his voice as he speaks, looking at me over the king’s shoulder. “You may have everyone else fooled, but not me. Don’t think I’ll let you get away with murder because of your personal feelings. You know what I say makes the most sense and is the best solution, given the circumstances. I will personally see to the girl’s banishment. She will not return uninvited again.”
His words sting. The adrenaline begins fading, and now the emotions are rolling in. Panic, fright, loss. I glance at Yackros, who is breathing heavily, only slightly more relaxed with his guards no longer holding him down, though he knows better than to attempt escape at this point. Not when the situation was diffused.
I hold my head high, waiting for fate to take me away from my dragon. I want to fight back, refuse to leave, knowing that once I do, I will never see Yackros again. But there’s no way I could win such a battle. And surely I would die trying.
Ruxsiu turns back to me on all fours, moving so he has me backed up against the rock once more, nowhere to go. “If I ever see you in my forest again, I will kill you without hesitation while the traitor watches, and then I will kill him too. Do you understand?”
“I do.” I know I should leave it at that. But somehow I can’t let it be all. He can’t get away with this. “But Ruxsiu, if I ever find a way back, I promise I won’t make it easy to follow through with that threat. And I promise that I will find my way back.”
He smiles, showing a deadly row of teeth. “Take the traitor to the dungeons!” he screams, nearly blowing my eardrums out.
“No!” I yell, realizing he means Yackros. I find him already staring at me, reaching out, too far away to grab. “I love you! I’m coming back for you, Sparkles!”
“I will always be with you, Alita.” His voice is calm, but sure. “I know we’ll find each other again. Be brave, my little wingless angel.” His words are more comforting than I could imagine any spoken sound to be.
Once he’s out of sight, dragged away, I look around, noticing all the dragons staring at me. Confusion in their looks. The ridges above their eyes furrow.
It dawns on me that what Yackros said wasn’t aloud at all. It was all in my head. “How?” I ask no one in particular because the one I would have asked was just taken away.
“Alita.” Guthrie demands my attention, his form towering over me. “It’s time to go.” He looks apologetic, but nevertheless, he scoops me up and half-flies, half-runs to the border of the forest, the edge between my realm and his.
“Please don’t do this, Guthrie. I thought we were friends. I thought you understood the connection between Yackros and me. What changed?”
“I am your friend, girl. I am protecting you the only way I know how that ends well for everyone. Listen more carefully, and you’d know I put a stipulation on your banishment.”
Closing my eyes, I think back to only moments before, remembering his exact words. Stopping Ruxsiu, demanding that no one die. “I will personally see to the girl’s banishment. She will not return uninvited again.”
“Uninvited?” I ask, needing clarification.
He smirks, a devious look on such an innocent face. “Alita, Yackros is your dragon. You are his human. I saw the bond happen. Why do you think I intervened when I did? You will always be welcome where Yackros is. It will take much more than the dark king to keep you apart.”
“What are you talking about?”
Without response, he sets me down just on the border between my home and his. He leans down as not to tower over me. “Alita Drake, Yackros spoke to you telepathically, inside your head. There is only one way that can be. The bond you started as a child, breaking down barriers between our realms and yours, was completed today when you offered to die in place of or beside Yackros. I alone know this aside from the two of you, and it must remain so until the time comes in which you save us all.”
“What are you talking about?” I repeat, cringing at how high-pitched my voice goes, the whining in my question.
“Our only true and trusted king is missing. He has been since the wars of old that separated our kinds in the first place. Find him, and free us from this dark imposter of a king’s reign. Bring back the ways of old, unite dragon and rider once more. ’Tis the only way to save Yackros, to return here, and for all of us to truly live.”
I open my mouth to ask questions, but Guthrie pushes me back, forcing me outside the dragon forest’s perimeter.
“What are you doing?” I storm toward him only to walk into something solid. But there is nothing visible before me and the dragon that stood there moments before is gone, trees filling the space. “No!” I hit the invisible block again, stumbling forward, my loose plaid flannel shirt snagging on a tree branch. The wall is gone, and so are the dragons.
I unhook the fabric from the tree and lean against the drunk. Losing all ability to remain upright, I slide down the base of the tree, pulling my knees to my chest. I let the adrenaline fully wear off, the emotions setting in full force.
“Let me in!” I pound my fists into the dirt repeatedly, calling for anyone to undo the banishment. What happened? How could anything so perfect fall apart so fast?
“Alita,” a voice whispers, so gentle as if it’s the wind speaking to me.
I jump up, looking around for anyone or anything nearby, watching me. Every sense is on alert. My rage and pain quickly return to adrenaline.
“Who’s there?” I call out.
“Alita, Guthrie told you we now share a bond. I wish I could have told you about it before, but my chance was ruined, and now it’s already been done. I only hope you can be all right with this. That you accept me as your companion for life.”
“Companion? For life? What are you talking about? Who are you?” But I know who. I just can’t seem to embrace it because this can’t be happening.
“It’s Sparkles.” I can hear the smile in his voice.
I choke on the words I want to say, holding back tears. I shake my head, biting down on my lip.
“How?” I want to ask more, say more, to turn back the clock. But it’s as though I’m stuck in time, stuck in that moment wondering how this is all still happening. Every new development adds more and more pressure on me to figure everything out. I need to know. I have to understand what’s happening. Otherwise, I will go insane.
“The day we met, you broke through barriers ten thousand men couldn’t breach. You entered my life, and from that day, I knew I could never let you leave it. Our connection isn’t romantic, but just as deep. Our lives are forever connected.” I can hear the grunt, feel the deep timbre of his voice around me, though none of what he says is out loud.
“What do we do now then, since you’re trapped and I can’t come to you?”
“Guthrie gave you the answers. Did he not?”
“Right before pushing me beyond the barrier, forever blocking me out. He gave me riddles. Questions. Not answers.”
“Then answer the riddles, and you’ll know what to do.”
“Can’t I just ask you?” I hate the tremble in my voice, the uncertainty I’m facing.
I can almost envision the shake of his head before he rests it upon his legs, lying on the floor of his dungeon cell before he replies. “If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, though by design, once you leave the forest, our connection will become weaker.”
“But what of our bond? It has a range?” Goose bumps cover me, and not the good kind, but filled with sorrow as I consider this.
“Not technically. Under normal circumstances, such as they would be had we lived through the dragon battles, there would be nothing that could come between dragon and rider. But Ruxsiu knew this, and when he had this dungeon created, it was with the intent of separating humans and dragons. I can speak with you—I can connect with you always. But the more often I do it, the more pain I shall suffer. And the longer we continue, while the farther away you are, the more agony it causes.”
With every word, I’m stricken with guilt. My hand covers my mouth involuntarily, as though that somehow makes this easier to hear. Or understand. A gulp forces itself down my throat. “I’m so sorry, Yackros. I never meant for this to happen.”
“Never be sorry for us meeting. I’m not. I would live this life a thousand times over, and a thousand more, for the chance to know you. If it wasn’t meant to be, it could not have happened. Our bond is sacred. It was meant to be.” His voice inside my head is so soft, so comforting, and though it’s been there less than a day, the thought of not hearing him makes me physically ill.
“I don’t regret it.” I shake my head. “Not one bit.” I wipe away the tears that fall down my face, refusing to let my emotions get the better of me. “And I will free you if it’s the last thing I ever do. I’m coming for you, Yackros. And when I get there, Ruxsiu will pay.”
I push up from the tree I lean on, getting to my feet and dusting the dirt off my jeans.
“Be strong, Little Wingless.”
9
I stumble through the forest, in too much of a hurry to bother watching the ground and avoiding tripping over rocks and roots. Life went from semi-complicated to a level where anything even semi-normal has been threatened forever.
Most teenage girls are worried about boys, dating, getting their drivers’ licenses, and other everyday nonsense. Not saving their dragon, or dragons at all. But here we are. As a child when I entered that forest, when I ran away from the family reunion picnic and found myself facing what the fairy tales have taught us are monsters, I should have known that no part of my life would ever be normal.
But as a child, how could I know it was real? While I don’t remember everything, one memory stands out above the rest. Doodling with Mom at the kitchen counter. She drew with fine-tip pens. I had crayons. The large ones that barely fit in my hand.
She drew a landscape scene. I drew a massive beast with wings and large talons. Baring his teeth. What I saw was a smile. What my mother saw was something of nightmares, threatening, dangerous.
She repeatedly asked me why I would draw something like that. I couldn’t answer her. It had been made clear to me that I did not in fact meet a dragon in the forest the previous summer and that dragons were in fact not real.
She snatched the paper from beneath my poised hand, ready to draw myself beside my friend. She gave no explanation. No reasoning for her odd—and frankly, rude—behavior. Before I could cry out, my picture was torn to shreds and throw in the trash can.
The sound of that food-grinding waste-eating machine was far scarier than anything I’d heard in the forest. That is, until today. Every time I close my eyes, even just to blink, I see large teeth, stained from tearing flesh apart. Black scales, large wings, and evil eyes, no matter their color.
Ruxsiu must be stopped. I want to say I’m the one who’s going to do it, but I had to rely on Guthrie saving me today, and even that felt more like a betrayal. What could I do to win a battle against a dragon?
Too small, too weak, and certainly too afraid. My enemy could eat me in a single bite and not feel a bit of protest from me on the way down. But I have to fight for Yackros. I will free him.
Unfortunately, I haven’t the slightest clue how to find the missing dragon king. How could they ask that of me with no information to set me on the right course? Am I supposed to go wandering into every forest, every land where the king could be hiding, and search for dragons?
I don’t know how to do this. I’m shaking and trembling. Pain. There’s so much pain. I sway and reach out a hand, grasping onto the nearest tree to keep from falling over.
When Breighad grabbed me, he wasn’t gentle. And being carried to the rock plateau in a vise grip surely left bruises. And on top of that, Ruxsiu throwing me into a rock only made it worse. My legs feel like jelly. It hurts to breathe.
I look down, inspecting everything I can see, just hoping I’m not bleeding out and in too much shock to feel it.
It doesn’t look like I’m in immediate danger of dying, even if it feels that way. I grab the tree branch tighter and attempt to pull myself to my feet, which results in vomiting. Once I’ve finished dry heaving, I force myself to keep going. I’ll get home, clean up, and begin more research.
The logical thing to do is ask for help. But who? No one will believe me. I could tell Max, but if the last time I did that is any indication of how he would take it, it wouldn’t do me any good. Which hurts, coming from him. I wish I could fall into his arms, let him hold me close, kiss my pain away, and know he would understand. I’m sure there will be plenty of kissing, but he can’t know I’m hurting, emotionally or physically.
Just like before, I have to keep this to myself.
No one can know. No one would believe me even if I did tell them. And really, nothing has changed. I cannot break my promise to Guthrie and Yackros. I swore I would never reveal their secrets, their locations, their names. I won’t betray them in hopes of saving them.
I could make it worse just by becoming desperate.
“Ha!” I startle myself with the outburst. Alone in the forest and laughing at myself. “You’re already desperate,” I say.
The walk to my car takes twice as long as usual. The sun is already beginning to disappear from view as it sets behind the far-off mountains. I push onward, fumbling with the handle, barely able to pull the door open, falling into the front seat.
What should have been a thirty-minute drive home turns into an hour as I take it slow, unable to turn easily or move any part of my body without extreme discomfort at the least, and excruciating pain at the most.
When I pull into the driveway, I exhale, shoulders slumping at the sight of Max sitting on the front porch steps. He looks up and smiles, seeing me.
By the time I’ve parked and unbuckled, Max is bouncing on the balls of his feet outside my door, waiting for me to get out.
“Hi.” I try to sound excited, but it comes out more like a grunt. “What are you doing here?” I offer a small smile to make up for the lack of enthusiasm in my vo
ice.
“Hey!” He cups my cheek, pulling me closer and kissing me.
Yep, I knew there would be kissing. I just didn’t expect it so soon.
“Where have you been? You didn’t answer any of my texts, so I came over. Your mom said you’ve been gone since you left for school this morning.”
I lock my car door, and we walk inside. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I went for a hike. Sorry I missed your messages. My phone probably just didn’t have signal.” Or I left it in the car because I knew it wouldn’t work in Runavelius, but whatever. “I need to go shower and change my clothes.”
“Are you okay?” He looks me up and down, seeming at least a little concerned. “You’re covered in dirt.” He tries to brush some off my arm.
I wince, trying not to make any noise, though a slight whimper escapes me. “It’s fine. I just fell. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“That’s cool. I can wait.” He grins as we walk inside.
“Does that mean you’re joining us for dinner?” Mom asks from the kitchen.
“I hope so! We need to study or something, right?” He widens his eyes, giving me a puppy-dog look.
“What? Huh?” I shake my head, trying to pay attention to him, but really just wanting to get to the bathroom where I can be alone for a few minutes and try not to have a panic attack.
“I said we need to study or something, right? So your mom is okay with me staying over for a while?”
“Oh.” I attempt a grin, though I’m sure it doesn’t look quite right. My face doesn’t feel like that’s what it’s doing. “Like you need an excuse to stay for a meal, Max. My mom has learned to cook at least two extra portions whether we’re planning on you coming over or not.”
“Aw, well now, don’t I feel spe—” He pauses, his expression changing from elated to insulted in two seconds flat. “Wait … what do you mean, two extra portions?”
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