by Ruby Dixon
I have let Kael know we are coming, Dakh tells me.
Okay. I try not to be too nervous about that, or the fact that I see a dragon take to the air in the distance, golden scales glinting. That has to be him.
It is him, Dakh agrees. Though he says there have been other dragons in the area lately. He has had to chase several off, their minds completely gone.
That fills me with prickles of worry. Reds or golds?
Both.
But you said they wouldn’t attack if we were mated. I start to feel a little more vulnerable, even though I’m protected in Dakh’s claws, held tight against his breast.
They will not attack you, he agrees, tone soothing. But Kael also protects his mate’s sister, and she casts a faint scent.
Oh no. Poor Amy. Can you smell her? I ask, curious.
Faintly. She is trying to hide it, but a more determined male will still follow the scent.
That’s not good. I’m more glad than ever that I thought to bring some perfume. Hopefully we can help with things, I tell him.
You have a kind heart, my mate.
She’s a friend. I’d do anything to help her. Claudia, too.
Kael is my friend, but with the drakoni, it is different. I would battle next to him, but if you were even in the slightest hint of danger, I would abandon him to save you.
Aww, that’s sweet. I…think.
We arrow in toward the building with the gold dragon flying around it. I grow more nervous as we get closer, my gaze glued to our surroundings. It’s one of the taller towers in the old ruins, with a lot of the windows on the lower floors broken out. One side of the building looks like it has a giant hole in it, and inside, I can see a plume of smoke and what looks like house furnishings and a rug. This must be the place.
We circle again, slowly, and I’m brimming with impatience by the time Dakh folds in his wings and lands gently on the ledge. The other gold dragon lands next to him a moment later, and I’m momentarily freaked out at the sight of another dragon so close. This one’s a paler gold than my Dakh, though, and has a scar on his muzzle. I stare at him for a moment, but his eyes are a cool gold, so I relax.
“Sasha!”
My name is practically ripped away on the high winds, but I don’t need to hear it. I see Claudia standing below, her red hair whipping in the breeze. She’s thinner than I remember, and pale. My heart squeezes at the sight of her, and I hate that I ever doubted her for a moment. She’s my friend. Tears spring to my eyes, and by the time Dakh gently sets me down, I’m openly weeping.
That’s okay, because Claudia’s crying, too. “Sash!” she cries out, flinging her arms wide as she staggers toward me.
“Claud! Oh my God. It’s so good to see you!” I hug her close, burying my face against her neck. She smells…different. Spicy. Her skin feels warm against mine, and I know she’s been changed like I have.
She squeezes me tight and then gives a little hiss of pain. “The side’s still healing.” When I pull back in surprise, she rubs her ribs and makes a little grimace. “Got shot by the mayor when our little visit to Fort Dallas went south.”
I gasp, a hand going to my mouth. “You’re okay though? And you got Amy?”
“I lived, though Kael brought Melina out here for a few weeks. I’m just now getting out of bed again.” She gives me a wry smile. “You look amazing, though. Captivity agrees with you.” Her gaze moves over me, and she touches my arm. “No more sling?”
“No, I’m better now.” I give my arm a little flex and twist my wrist, just to show her. “Where’s Amy?”
“Downstairs in her bunker. Not safe for her to come up on high wind days. It’s probably better we go down there to talk.” Her smile is bright. “I can make you some coffee!”
I don’t point out that I have all the coffee I could possibly want back at the store, because that would be impolite. “I brought you a gift,” I tell her, thrusting the bag in her direction.
She looks surprised, and even more astonished when she pulls out the bottle of perfume.
“For Amy,” I explain. “Tell you more in a bit. The other part is for you. It’s tampons.”
A strange look crosses her face, and she glances over my shoulder, back to her dragon.
What’s that all about? I wonder.
She is with young, Dakh tells me. I can smell it.
Oh my God. I keep smiling, though. Seems impolite to point out that my dragon spilled her secret. Are you going to be okay if I go downstairs and have coffee with the girls?
I will wait here for you. His thoughts are full of affection.
Going to hang out with Kael and have some guy talk?
His thoughts are puzzled. No. Should we?
I smother my laughter. Not if you don’t want to. Is that not a thing with drakoni?
I…do not remember. His thoughts brighten. I should ask Kael what he remembers.
There you go. I’m a little wistful I won’t be able to pick those bits out of his mind, but Claudia’s putting a hand on my arm and gesturing that I should follow her, so I focus on my friend.
“You get used to it after a while,” Claudia says as we head down the stairs.
“What?” I ask, curious.
“The mental conversations. Juggling them. You’ve been quiet for almost a minute straight, and I recognize that thoughtful look on your face. Amy says I have it all the time.” Claudia grins. “Actually, she says I look constipated, but I thought I’d be nice.”
I laugh, and everything feels so bright and sunny.
34
SASHA
“I can’t believe you’re here and you’re well. I was so worried about you, Claud,” I exclaim. “You have no idea. I’ve been so stressed. For the longest time, I didn’t know if you or Amy made it out of Fort Dallas alive. All I knew was that I’d fallen and I woke up with a different dragon.”
Her expression is full of sympathy. “You must have been so scared. I’m so sorry, Sasha. If I had known that you would fall off of Kael’s back, I never would have tried to take you. They were just shooting at us, and I had to make a quick decision, and Dakh wasn’t paying attention to our battle plans—”
“He wasn’t?” I immediately feel defensive for Dakh. “He must have had a reason.”
“He forgot everything the moment he got close to the city.” She waves a hand. “I’m not trying to be accusing. It was just something we should have anticipated. Without a mate, their minds are like Swiss cheese—full of holes.” She gives me a curious look as we turn down the next flight of stairs. “How is Dakh, by the way? When I last saw him, he was super, super crazy.”
“He’s great,” I tell her. “Ever since we, ah, bonded, his mind has been really clear. The ravens have almost completely gone away.”
“Ravens?” Claudia looks confused. She pauses in front of a heavy iron door. “Is that what he sees? Kael shared his ‘crazy’ with me once, and it was just like a television with all the channels turned on at once. Just an endless flood. But Dakh sees ravens?”
I nod, curious about this. “He does. Says that they perch on his shoulders and tell him bad things. But they’ve gone away, more or less. He still has a hard time remembering anything about before he came through the Rift, though.”
“Kael, too.” She looks sad. “I feel like there’s so much we need to know, and it’s all missing.” She bites her lip, frustration evident on her face as she puts a hand on the door. “I’ve never said anything to Amy, but sometimes Kael will tell me something one day and forget it the next. It’s like all of his past, his history, it just slips out of his head without an anchor.”
It sounds heartbreakingly familiar. “The same with Dakh. I’ve been keeping a journal of everything Dakh tells me. I’m hoping I can piece it together.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh my God, that’s such a good idea. I need to get notebooks the next time Kael goes out.”
“I can bring you some,” I tell her.
Claudia beams and knocks on the door
three times. “Amy’s going to be so shocked when she sees you!”
I feel a little uncomfortable at her praise. Do I look that different? I know I’ve filled out from my days back in Fort Dallas, when there was no money for food and no hope at all. With Dakh, I have fresh meat if I want it, and I’ve been steadily working away at the less-expired foods on the shelves back at the store. Heck, just the other day Emma and I got out a cookbook and made fresh bread in a Dutch oven over a fire. I feel a little guilty that I don’t have it harder anymore.
Do not be foolish, Dakh tells me from afar, his thoughts full of affection. A struggle to eat is not something to be proud of. And your body needs to be healthy so my seed can grow inside your body, like Kael’s mate.
Erm, one thing at a time please. I’m still getting used to the dragon-spouse thing. Let’s not throw a baby in the mix just yet. I’m not sure I’m ready to have an egg.
An egg? I can hear the laughter in his thoughts. Not likely. Drakoni children are dropped from the belly onto the hot sands and scream their anger at their mothers before the cord is even cut.
Well that sounds charming. Let’s hope they keep the fire-breathing to themselves until adulthood.
Not until they have the ritual. Dakh is amused. I cannot imagine we are much different than humans in that aspect.
Zero fire-breathing with humans, I can assure you. And I’m glad to hear that there are no fire-breathing babies.
Not at all. They take from the mother’s fire and it supports the child until he or she reaches an age to produce their own. Once our child is born, you will have to take my fires again to replenish yours, but it will be a pleasurable experience, I think.
“Boy, he’s a chatty one, isn’t he?” Claudia mentions, grinning at me. “Kael’s pretty quiet. I think he just likes to spy on my head.”
I can feel myself blushing. “There’s just a lot going on that he likes to comment on, I guess. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be rude.”
“You’re not at all.” The look on her face is knowing. “It’s hard to concentrate on the people around you sometimes when you have a very persistent dragon in your brain.”
“You aren’t kidding.”
I hear the sound of locks coming undone and then a deadbolt being slid back. A moment later, Amy peeps out the crack in the door. “Come in.”
“Amy,” I say warmly in greeting. “It’s so good to see you!”
“Go inside quickly,” Claudia tells me. “We’re trying to keep her scent to a minimum.”
We rush inside, and the women quickly latch the door behind us again. Immediately, Amy moves to a shelf and lights a scented candle with a long-stemmed lighter. “All good,” Amy says after a moment, and then extends her arms for a hug. “Now come and give me a proper greeting, Sasha!”
I give her an enthusiastic hug, mindful of her bad leg. “You look amazingly well, Amy! How is the new home?”
“Quiet,” she says in a soft voice, and her smile is bright but doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Uh oh.
Kael says the sister is troubled. She worries she is a burden, and their nest is attacked regularly. She must hide away constantly.
Poor Amy. “Well, it beats Fort Dallas, doesn’t it?” I take her hands in mine and squeeze them. “I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying being away from that schoolbus we used to live in. It would get so darn hot on the sunny days. You’re nice and cool down here.” I gaze around me, admiring Amy’s living quarters. It’s a big room—maybe once a meeting room of some kind—and there’s a futon against one wall and a shelf full of books along another. There’s sewing and a few folding chairs scattered around, and scented candles. Lots of scented candles. Amy’s always loved pretty things, so I see bright, colorful scarves draped along the walls in a riot of random color and a bunch of cheery throw pillows on her bed. “I see you guys have been scavenging for decorations,” I tease. “I like the pops of color.”
“I like it,” Amy says shyly. “It helps that it’s pretty down here when it’s sunny and nice outside and I can’t go.”
“But you’re safe here,” I say firmly. “That’s what’s important. You’re with family and you’re safe.” Over to one side, Claudia looks relieved that I’m agreeing with her. Amy must be feeling a little stir-crazy trapped here. I don’t blame her, but it’s about survival right now. “Have you guys been back to Fort Dallas since you left?”
“Nope,” Claudia says, and rubs her ribs again. “Been busy healing. I’m fine with never going back, though. There’s nothing for me there. Here, sit down and let’s make some coffee, shall we?”
I sit down in the seat Amy gestures at, curious how they’re going to make coffee without electricity. There’s no fire down here, which is how Dakh, Emma and I normally make our coffee back at the store. But Claudia grabs the coffee pot and fills it with water, then gestures at the door. “I’m going to run up and have Kael blow some fire on this. Be back in a jiffy.”
Well, that’s how, it seems. “All right.”
She disappears out the door, shutting it quickly behind her once more, and I turn to Amy. “Your sister looks thin. Is everything all right?”
Amy’s smile is tremulous. “It’s better than it was. She was touch and go for a while.”
I hate hearing that. “So she was injured that badly?”
“Yeah, she was.” Amy twists her hands in her lap. “Kael made sure she had a doctor, though. He takes really good care of her. I don’t want you to worry over Claudia. She’s doing much better, I promise.”
“I know Kael will take fantastic care of her if he’s anything like my Dakh.” I feel sad for Amy, because she seems a little lost. Funny how I’ve always been a little jealous of the bond she and Claudia had, and now that Claudia’s with her dragon, Amy probably feels a little edged out. Added in with the strange circumstances of her place here outside of Fort Dallas and she probably doesn’t feel like she is safe anywhere. Not that Claudia would let any harm come to her baby sister, but I absolutely understand the uncertainty she must be feeling. “And how are you? How are you coping?”
“I feel like a burden, of course.” Amy shrugs. “How can I not? They have to protect me and keep me in this room at all times, and we still get attacked by others. I can’t help with much of anything. I worry my sister’s going to start resenting the fact that she and Kael are stuck here…with me.”
“Never,” I tell her. “Your sister loves you. She’ll always look out for you.”
“That’s part of why I feel so guilty, I think,” Amy says. She picks at the hem of her long tunic top, not meeting my eyes. “I’m always the problem, never the solution. I feel like I can’t do anything to help out. And everything changes on a day-to-day basis. I…I just don’t know what the future holds.”
I reach out and grasp her hand. “It’s going to be okay, Amy. I promise. If you need to, you can come live with me. Dakh and I have set up in an old SuperMart on the outskirts of the ruins. We don’t get the dragon attacks that Old Dallas does. And we have lots of perfume and you can disguise your scent, just like my friend Emma.”
“Emma?” Amy’s brows furrow.
“A friend I’ve made,” I tell her. “She lives alone, and she disguises her scent from dragons so she’s safe.”
“Who’s safe?” Claudia asks, returning to the room, the coffee pot in hand. Steam rises from it, and the scent of brewed coffee fills the air.
“Emma. I met her when Dakh and I stopped at a SuperMart off of one of the old highways. It’s out quite a ways, but quiet there.” I tell them all about how we met Emma and how Emma disguised her scent with deer urine at first, and now perfume. “There are ways to do it,” I tell them eagerly. I want to give Amy hope, and I know she must be struggling right now. “Emma hasn’t been on anyone’s radar. Her scent is well hidden. Dakh says she smells awful to him. If we can make Amy smell awful, then she’ll have a bit of freedom, too.”
The sisters exchange a look.
“It’s a nice of
fer,” Amy says, her fingers still picking at her hem. “But what am I going to do even if I have the freedom to move around? I can’t go anywhere with my bad leg. I have to sit all the time.” She shrugs. “It’s probably smartest just to continue on as we have been.”
I hate hearing such defeat in her voice, but I can’t force her to be braver. “The option is there, at least.”
“It is. Thank you.” She smiles at me. “And can I just say how amazing it is to see you again, and looking so healthy? After we didn’t hear from you, I feared the worst.”
Claudia pours coffee into a mug and hands it to me. “I admit, I’m curious as to what happened. I’d love to hear your side of things.”
35
SASHA
I take the mug from Claudia and sip it carefully, thinking about what I should say. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. “I remember falling. I think I passed out, because the next thing I remember, I was waking up in a strange place with Dakh staring at me.”
“You must have been so scared,” Amy murmurs, sympathetic.
Claudia says nothing, but the look on her face is miserable, as if she’s aching for me. She pours a mug of coffee and hands it to her sister, then makes herself a cup and sits to listen.
“I was scared,” I admit. “I didn’t know what was going on, and Dakh wasn’t very…focused.” Sorry, babe.
Do not apologize. But you are wrong. I was focused—focused on you.
Okay, good point. I smile at the others. “Dakh says he was focused on me. Anyhow, he treated me well enough, but I was scared because we were attacked by another dragon, and we were up high and there was nowhere for me to escape to. I was trapped with him, and even though I knew, thanks to Claudia, he could turn human, it was still really unnerving.” My cheeks heat as I recall our meeting and how Dakh reacted. “It was also very obvious that he wanted one thing in particular.”
Claudia makes a strangled noise.
“What?” Amy asks, curious.
