“Payton’s contact might have a lead on who stole the cache,” Salena said.
“We were just in Shelter City,” Grier said, stepping out of the cleaning droid’s way. When Yusef frowned like he would say something, he added, “I know we didn’t have permission, but we had to go to rescue Fiora.”
Yusef audibly sighed. He looked as if he wanted to scold them like children but held back. “Just don’t tell my brothers you were actually inside the actual valley city. Hopefully, you were not seen, and no more needs to be said. It’s bad enough that you were spotted breaking into the stronghold.” He gave a meaningful look at Grace. “And you, especially, cannot be caught in the city. Your father—”
“I can handle myself,” Grace interrupted, stiffening in her seat and coming forward.
“Oh, I know you can, fierce one. You have nothing to prove to me, but we cannot help the burdens we are born with, and yet they are ours to carry.” Yusef crossed over to her and placed his hand on her cheek. “You did not ask for your destiny, and for that, I will be forever sorry. I don’t expect you to take comfort in the fact you helped to save all shifters before you were even born and continue to save them now.”
Grace nodded and averted her eyes. Fiora could feel the anger and frustration coming off her in waves.
“And if that wedding day ever comes, I’ll do whatever I can that is in my power to stop it,” Yusef stated.
“No,” Grace whispered. “You won’t. I won’t let you. If that day comes, it means there are no other options.”
“We don’t need to talk about this.” Jaxx took the attention from his cousin. “Let’s focus on what we need to do now.”
Grace gave Jaxx a slight nod of thanks.
“If we recover the simulator cache, and add the load we just received, we should have enough units to feed everyone,” Jaxx continued. “Whoever stole them hasn’t turned them on, so they’re not distributing food. Cyborgs scan the city and the borders. If they detect the units, they’ll punish anyone hiding them and destroy the simulators. If they catch people leaving the city to retrieve food supplies, they’ll kill them. It’s hard finding someone willing to risk it but we do have a few brave food runners.”
“Or the thief is paying off someone to overlook the fact he’s turning on a food simulator,” Salena said.
Fiora moved away from Jaxx. A prickling of apprehension ran up her spine as a new timeline came into focus. She heard the crunching of plants beneath her feet. “Someone will be passing by the house. Through the woods. They’re lost and going back and forth, desperate not to be seen. They are carrying…” She closed her eyes tight. “No, there are two of them—a man and a woman. They’re carrying something dangerous. It is making one of them nervous.”
“When?” Salena asked.
Fiora tried to look at the way the sunlight fell on the ground in her vision, and then opened her eyes and hurried to the broken glass door. “Soon, maybe. Or this time of day in the future. I…” She closed her eyes again. “I’m not sure. How long will it take to repair this door?”
“It’ll be done today,” Yusef said.
“Then they’re coming today,” Fiora answered, pointing in the direction from which she knew they’d appear. “They’ll be hiding in the trees.”
When she turned, all of the dragon-shifters’ eyes had shifted, and they stared at the door with their heads tilted, listening. Grace had risen from the couch. Grier had his arm in front of Salena to block her movements. Yusef stood beside his wife. Jaxx had moved closer to her and motioned for her to step back.
Olena whispered, “Salena, Fiora, you’re with me. Upstairs.”
“Go,” Grier urged Salena.
Fiora glanced at Jaxx. There was so much fear inside her, and she knew that it wasn’t all her own, but she couldn’t pinpoint the source. He nodded that she should follow Olena. Fiora wasn’t looking for his permission.
Olena rushed up the stairs to the walkway along the second level. Fiora was slower to follow as she tried to focus on the future of whoever was coming toward the house. The center of the room was open so that Fiora could see the shifters from above. She heard a gentle tap as Olena pressed a scanner, then the sliding of a door.
Fiora clung to the rail, staring at the broken door. Salena tried to pull her arm, but she jerked away and refused to move. Apprehension grew. She felt the worry of those below, but also the excitement of a fight. The primal thump of heartbeats sounded in her ears like drums.
“Fiora,” Salena whispered, tugging at her arm.
“Stop touching me.” Fiora shook her sister off, trying to concentrate past the emotions.
The sound of the cleaning droid rolled across the floor. Yusef’s body shifted into the form of an upright man-dragon as he moved past his son, touching Jaxx on the shoulder. He looked like a cross between a full dragon and a man, as if his body stopped halfway.
Jaxx also shifted into a man-dragon rather than a flying one and followed his father from the house. Fiora leaned over the rail to try to watch him. Grace darted after them, shifting into a woman-dragon as she ran. Grier glanced up at them before joining the others.
“They’re not flying?” Fiora asked.
“Only the youngest generation can fly,” Olena answered. “We call what you just saw a half shift.”
As the dragons moved away from where she stood, the impressions from the woods deepen. Sending them changed the future and the couple no longer made it to the house. A man held a jagged piece of glowing metal. Cloth wrapped one end to create a hilt. Suddenly the landscape blurred as the man surged forward.
She felt pressure on her hand as the blade found a target. She caught a surprised expression as the warm sensation of blood against her skin felt so real, she jerked back and flung her hands in the air to get away from it.
Fiora tripped. As the vision faded, she felt herself falling toward the stairs. Salena grabbed her arm to stop the fall.
Fiora didn’t think as she tore from her sister’s grasp. She ran down the stairs, knowing she’d sent one of the dragons to their death. If she’d have kept her mouth shut, they wouldn’t be in harm’s way now.
11
The feel of Fiora against his mouth wouldn’t leave him. It stayed with Jaxx as he moved stealthily through the trees like a blessing upon his lips. He felt himself being pulled back to her if only to be in her presence.
Fiora had said danger was coming, and they’d listened. He trusted her without thought or hesitation. Though, he could hardly credit that sensation as otherworldly when everything she said was the truth.
Each step took him farther away from her, and he was glad she was in the safety of the house.
The familiar sounds of their footsteps were like signatures marking the members of his family. They kept pace through the trees. To his right, he heard his father. Grace approached on his left. Grier followed behind.
Jaxx focused his hearing, listening to the trees. He heard the brush of leaves in a rhythmic pattern as if someone moved through them. The sound underscored the louder crashing of leaves overhead.
Grace picked up her pace, breaking formation.
Before he could react, heavy thuds came from behind.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound caused him to hesitate. Why was someone coming from the house? His mother wouldn’t chase after them, not with two others to protect. That left Salena and Fiora.
“Don’t move,” Grace ordered.
His cousin’s voice spurred Jaxx back into action.
“Put it down,” Grace insisted. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
A grunting noise answered Grace.
Jaxx found his cousin standing behind a couple of trees. Her back was to him, her hands lifted at her sides. A blue glow outlined her body. She stood in her half-shifted form, the armor of her dragon flesh protecting her human shape. If she were to shift fully, she could have firebombed whoever she faced. They wouldn’t have stood a chance against her.
; The thudding steps sounded from behind them. His father motioned that he was going to stop the runner from passing.
“You’re safe,” Grace said, her words softening to indicate she was letting the dragon slip from her features to face them as a woman. He heard the quiver in her voice. Whatever she faced frightened her. “Please, don’t do whatever you’re thinking.”
“I won’t let you…” The shaky response revealed a female.
The thudding steps ended, and for a moment, Jaxx thought his father had stopped whoever had come after them.
Swish. Thump. Thump…
He’d assumed too soon. Someone dove through the brush behind him. The footfall quickened, the gait more uneven than before as the person went off the path.
Jaxx moved toward his cousin. Grace should not have dropped her shift to leave her body exposed. The dragon armor would protect her from an attack.
“Stop!” Fiora’s voice shot past him.
Jaxx instantly obeyed her command even though he didn’t know if it was meant for him. But he was the only one to do so. Sounds erupted all around.
Fiora dove past his line of vision, through the underbrush toward Grace, and directly into danger. Jaxx sprung back into action. He leaped between two trees. The strange blue glow intensified.
Jaxx roared in warning. His talons stabbed into the trunk as he propelled himself toward his cousin.
A Cysgodian woman in tattered clothing lunged at Grace. The blue glow came from her roughly hewn blade. He’d never seen such a weapon.
Fiora slammed into Grace, thrusting her out of the way as a man jumped from behind a tree. He too wielded a blue blade. Because she was in her human form, his aim would have stabbed Grace in the heart. Instead, the knife found its target in Fiora. The force of the blow changed Fiora’s course, and she did not follow Grace to the ground.
Grace smacked her head into the base of a tree with an ugly thump. Fiora staggered on her feet. The knife stuck in her shoulder. The smell of burnt flesh became unmistakable.
Jaxx felt the wound as if it had happened to him. The dragon raged inside him. He roared violently, the sound tearing from his throat.
The assailant hurried toward the Cysgodian woman, taking her blade and shoving her behind his back.
Jaxx instantly went toward the couple, ready to rip the man’s head from his body. Grace remained on the ground, unmoving.
“Stop.” Fiora stumbled toward the man, protecting him as she put her body in front of Jaxx. It looked as if she tried to lift both arms, but blood ran down her side, and one limb merely shook. “Help them.”
Help them?
Jaxx wanted to shred the man into a thousand pieces. He heard his father and cousin joining them. Grier went to Grace and pulled her unconscious body to safety. Yusef stood beside his son, ready for battle.
“Protect the babies,” Fiora said, her words gasping.
She turned toward the man and reached for his blade. The man flinched and jerked his arm back. Jaxx smelled fear. It permeated the forest like a rotting corpse.
“Help them protect the babies.” Fiora’s voice was calm, and that calmness seemed to affect the man. He dropped the second blade and stepped back. The woman wrapped her arms around him as if desperate not to be separated. It was then Jaxx saw her pregnant belly poking through the rags she wore.
“Fiora?” Salena cried from somewhere beyond them, searching for her sister. “Fiora!”
“Help them,” Fiora pleaded. She pulled the knife from her shoulder and dropped to her knees. The bleeding became more profuse.
Jaxx swept her into his arms before she fully hit the ground. Mindful of the wound, he shifted and carried her into flight. As a dragon, he held her to him, trying not to jar her as he flew as fast as he could toward his parents’ home. He saw his mother on the path below and watched as she turned to run back to the house.
Panic choked him as he landed outside the broken door. He didn’t stop to consider his actions as he scooped Fiora into his arms and ran up the stairs. His mother kept a handheld medical unit in the guest suite. A medical booth would have been preferred, but the handheld could stop the bleeding.
“Don’t leave me, Fiora,” Jaxx whispered, balancing her in his arms as he tried to input the code to open the door. His hand trembled, and it took longer than it should have.
Rushing inside the moment the door slid open, he lay Fiora on the bed and ran to get the unit from its place inside a wall cabinet. No other fear in all his life had struck him so profoundly as this moment. He smelled the copper of her blood, felt it cooling against his naked chest. Rage toward the man who’d stabbed her churned like fire inside him. It was nothing compared to the idea of losing her.
Clumsy hands somehow managed to find the unit and turn it on. He crawled partially over her on the bed and pressed it against her wound.
Her pale face appeared kissed by death. Blood loss turned her lips a horrible shade of blue. He stared at her chest, trying to gauge whether or not she breathed.
Jaxx died a thousand times in that hellish moment. Was this the mark she spoke of? Was this soulish agony the death she’d predicted? Because to lose her would be the death of his heart. He could think of no worse fate.
“Jaxx?” His mother appeared at the door.
“I can’t lose her,” Jaxx whispered, unable to take his eyes away from Fiora. When the unit didn’t seem to fix her, he lifted it and slammed it against the flat of his hand.
“Give it to me.” Olena snatched the unit from her son and hurried around the bed. She ripped Fiora’s shirt to expose the injury before pressing the unit to her flesh. The edges of the wound looked burnt as if the blue blade had cauterized the flesh, yet it still bled.
“He stabbed her,” Jaxx said needlessly. His mother could easily see the injury. “Some crude blade. I’d never seen one like it.”
“Who?”
“Cysgodians,” Jaxx said.
“I’ve seen stab-burns like this before,” his mother said. “It’s a blade meant for cutting through harder materials. I would guess they thought it would cut through shifter skin armor.”
Olena’s hand shook.
“They didn’t hurt anyone else,” Jaxx said, assuming she thought of her husband in danger. The love his parents had for each other was strong. “It was a couple in the forest. The woman is pregnant. Fiora told us not to hurt the babies, but—”
“Then you must trust her,” Olena stated. “She can only speak the truth and would have her reason for saying it. Your father will take care of it.”
“How can you be so trusting?” Jaxx asked. “You barely know her.”
“You trust her,” his mother answered. She brushed a piece of Fiora’s hair away from her face. “Why?”
“I…” Jaxx stared at Fiora. “I feel it. I feel her. I trust her more than myself. All I want is to fly her away from here and hide her from the world.”
“I know.” Olena nodded. “I just wasn’t sure you did.”
She kept her attention on healing the wound. The burned flesh began to seal shut.
“That is why I know we can trust her because I trust you,” Olena continued. “I see the way you change next to her. I see the way she changes when you touch her. If your father’s love has taught me anything, it is trust. And believe me, it was not a lesson I learned willingly or easily. His love…” She gave a soft laugh as if at some distant memory. “His love saved me. It taught me that the universe could be exploding all around us, but it’s just noise. That kind of noise is always there, waiting to challenge us and make our lives harder. Love is a constant if you let it be. It’s a ribbon that connects your father’s heart to mine. And, if you let it, it will be the tie that links you to Fiora.”
Jaxx thought about the death mark but refused to tell his mother about it. He did not want to cause her to worry. It wasn’t as if he had answers to the unknowns—what, when, how…?
“Fiora saved Grace’s life by jumping before the blade. Grace wasn’t shift
ed. She was trying to talk the woman down from her attack when the man she was with jumped out from behind,” Jaxx said.
“Then our family owes her a great debt,” Olena said.
Jaxx watched Fiora’s chest lift with breath, but her eyes remained closed. His mother pushed a button on the unit and moved it to the side of Fiora’s neck to inject her with medicine before returning it to the wound. “I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.” Olena lifted the unit. Skin had grown over Fiora’s wound. “The handheld can only do so much. She’ll need a little time to rest after the blood loss.”
Jaxx lifted Fiora’s hand into his to make sure any dreams she had were easy ones. “I’ll wait with her.”
“First Salena and now Fiora. At this rate, you are well on your way to saving what is left of their family,” Olena said. “Do they have any idea where their third sister is?”
“No.” Jaxx sat back and lifted Fiora’s hand in his. “I thought we might talk to Alek and see if he can help us. I remember hearing a story about how they found Kendall’s sister when she was lost in space. Maybe they can get lucky twice and find Piera.”
“That sounds like a good place to start,” Olena said. “I’ll get in touch with him.”
Alek was his father’s first cousin. He and his wife, Kendall, lived in the Northern Mountains. Two of their sons, Zavir and Thorn, were adventuring off-world. They were all around the same age as Jaxx, but Jaxx had never had that same kind of wanderlust. Mirek had taken them all up into space when they were younger so they could see what the world looked like from the heavens.
He loved Qurilixen. From the stars, the planet appeared so small, like he could hold it in his hand and protect it from the rest of the universe. Sometimes he thought about that trip, seeing the red surface dotted with clouds. Everything he cared about had been right there in front of him, some so small he couldn’t see them, but there. In the concept of time and space, it was but a spec of dirt on a timeline longer than anyone could imagine. Yet, it was everything to him.
He had the same feeling now, looking at Fiora’s face, that feeling of love and fear, of the desire to cup her in his hands and keep her safe where he could watch over her.
Marked Prince Page 10
