They entered into a huge kitchen area. To the right, a dining area opened into a library. Details were difficult to pick out in the gloom, but Rysa made out bookcases and shelf after shelf of equipment filling the alcove, some of it odd and covered with gears and handles, much like the vault-door.
On the far side of the kitchen, the walls extended upward at least four stories and curved into a dome. Doorways dotted the wall’s surface much like a Pueblo cliff town. A large spiral path snaked up the side and curled around and around into the shadows.
Cabinets in the kitchen area blocked her view of the other side of the cave. But a few more steps inside and she stopped, her jaw dropping open.
Above it all, opposite the wall dotted with doors, hung a colossal rosette window like the ones in the churches of Europe. Patterns very much like those that flowed along Dragon’s hide swirled outward from the center of the glass. They looped and danced until they washed along the edges and against the intricate metalwork of the piece’s solid frame. The whole window shimmered in greens and golds and blues like waves lapping a shore.
The window was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life, outside of Dragon’s lights.
Ladon carried her mother into the cave. “This way.”
Fabrics draped furnishings and mirrors reflected the soft starlight glow filtering in through the giant window. Rysa picked up a sense of color, of jewel tones and shimmering metallics. Pillows, blankets, candles, the whole place exuded comfort and serenity.
Deeper in the cave, garden plots spread from the kitchen area into the gloom. The scents of growing fruits and vegetables wafted to her, all warm and inviting. Farther along, past a curve that hid the other end of the cave, a waterfall gurgled and a waterwheel spun.
The dragons had built this. They’d carved the rock and planted the gardens and fashioned the marvelous, hypnotic window.
She felt the stars move behind it. All the stars that had greeted her as they drove under the Wyoming sky came together to speak as a choir through this mesmerizing work of the dragons. It sang of secrets her fate might yet destroy.
Ladon stopped in front of a wooden door that towered over his head. “My rooms. The entrance to Dragon’s nest is inside.”
Rysa pushed open the door but stopped inside the frame. “That’s…” She pointed over her shoulder. “That’s a tree.”
He chuckled. “I thought you might be distracted.”
Her mother’s mouth gaped. “By the gods, Ladon-Human. I’d heard stories. Is it…?”
Ladon walked under the tree with Rysa and Dragon following. The room stretched deep into the rock to a large arch at the back. The tree dominated the center and its crown brushed the dome above.
A massive bed sized for a dragon and a pair of humans filled an alcove carved into the side of the room. Fabrics draped over supports surrounding the bed and swayed in the light breeze drifting through the room.
Dragon ambled by, crawled onto the bed, and backed into the corner. Ladon set Mira down and touched the beast’s snout.
“The tree is a descendant.”
Mira rolled onto her side. “The olive tree. It’s an offspring of the one the Progenitors awoke under, all those centuries ago.”
“Progenitors?” Rysa looked over Ladon’s shoulder at the tree.
“Five of us—seven, including the dragons—awoke under the tree. As we are now, we were then.” Ladon pinched his eyes closed for a beat. “Sister and Sister-Dragon, myself and Dragon, your grandfather, the first Fate—” He paused, glancing at her mother. “—the mother of all Shifters, and the man who infected the first Burners.”
Ladon and Dragon—they were gods. And Rysa was the weapon meant to bring them to their knees.
Mira touched Ladon’s arm. “The mountain took it. The first tree.” She laid her head down. “I remember. Mons Vesuvius, non perdet animam Dracae.” Her eyes remained wide, her mouth slack, as she stared at the tree. She looked reverent and honestly humbled.
All her life, Rysa had never seen her mother quieted by anything. “What did she say?”
“Vesuvius could not destroy our soul.” He pointed over his shoulder. “I need to get him settled.”
Mira moaned and closed her eyes. If Rysa could heal her mother, she would. She’d fix what Billy did, no matter the damage it caused her own body.
Ladon pointed at the arch. “The baths are through there. There’s a private one inside the corner.”
Mira’s breathing calmed.
“She’s asleep.” Rysa touched his arm. “Vesuvius.” Two thousand years suddenly took on a crushing sense of proportion, as if time, too, were a mountain.
Ladon pulled a blanket over her mother. “It happened a long time ago. In another life, for both her and for us.” He nodded toward Dragon before stroking her cheek. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
A quick squeeze to her fingers and Ladon moved away, past the bed to another arch at the back of the alcove. He paused for a moment, silhouetted in the soft, reddish glow from what must be Dragon’s nest. Then he and the beast vanished, Dragon first, up the side of the rock.
The central nesting shaft angled into the rock and reached to within a dragon length of the mountain’s surface. Ladon swung onto a ledge and followed Dragon up a craggy wall littered with alcoves and boulders. The dragons moved debris and rocks throughout the shaft, sometimes carving new holes and at times filling others. They came in here when their humans slept and dug the entire night.
The shaft’s ventilation structures funneled air into his and Sister’s rooms and cooled the apartments. The dragons had engineered the mirrors to give their nest the dim glow of ancient light and it oscillated little between day and night. The moon’s brightness filtered through anyway, and threw deep shadows throughout the recesses.
Dragon’s hide glimmered in the shadows of a mid-level alcove above the arch leading to Ladon’s rooms. The beast turned in a circle and pushed a boulder out of the way.
Ladon rubbed his crest. “You sleep. She’s safe here.” No matter what that spike did to her mind, he’d keep her safe while Dragon slept.
Dragon nestled Ladon’s side. Yes, he pushed. He backed away and circled again, searching for a comfortable spot to rest. He coiled into a corner, his hide turning dark and his coat stony as he fell into sleep. His body blended into the cave wall, and his respiration slowed. If Ladon hadn’t known where he was, he’d be impossible to find.
Ladon stretched. His perception contracted as their flow dropped to a trickle. When Dragon slept, Ladon had the freedom to move as he pleased, though he needed to be within range when the beast woke. Dragon might sleep a full thirty-six hours this time, as exhausted as he was, so Ladon would have time.
He dropped off the ledge and caught a handhold. Dropping again, he landed in front of his door. He looked up at Dragon’s sleeping spot. He’d have the situation straightened out with Rysa by the time color returned to Dragon’s hide. He’d have a plan.
Through his door, Mira slept ten feet away, on the bed. Rysa, though, was nowhere in sight.
Chapter Forty
Above Rysa, the olive tree’s upper branches brushed against the dome. Leaves stroked the stone and touched paintings. In the boughs, birds danced.
A tree rustled in the home of gods.
This place calmed her seers. It pulled all her attention to the physical world. The dome that touched the sky, the walls that sheltered the world, and the waterfalls that sang like chimes in the breeze. Inside this mountain, life darted above her head and the earth caressed her feet.
Fire might spill back into her mind and she might find herself on the ground rocking back and forth, but for now, the fabrics draping Ladon’s bed and the soft rustle of his tree soothed the spike.
Ladon said that there were baths through the arches. She should clean up and rub her muscles, then return and lie down next to her mother. Sleep for a while, before it all came screaming back.
She pulled off her river-soaked s
hoes and walked toward the back of the room. Her toes curled into the clover under the branches and she paused for a second, feeling the ground touch her skin. She had wanted this before everything fell apart. She’d wanted a future with real air in her lungs. Real dirt under her feet. A life free of trouble for a mind that flitted between animals and trees and all the different lands and rocks and rivers.
But she was locked to the Burners now, and her reality was the talisman around her wrist.
A tunnel opened into another large cavern. About half the width of the main cave and with a ceiling the same height as Ladon’s room, it still dwarfed her senses. Humidity touched her skin like a kiss, and the scent of fresh rain, her nose. A soft shimmer of moonglow danced across the surfaces and white marble statues glowed in the silver light. Hanging plants trailed over walls and onto tables. Couches and chairs dotted terraces and lined walls. Giant unlit candles filled alcoves in the rock and waited for attention on several tables.
Behind it all, water cascaded over a cliff three stories tall. It rushed, not roaring but singing, and filled the entire cavern with a gentle, flowing sound. The water poured into a long pool flowing into several channels, some moving deeper into the cavern, some to private areas.
The gardens out front, his tree, the painted dome and the wall of cascading water all made her eyes widen and her lips round. Ladon had given her paradise.
Ladon wrapped his arms around her before she could respond. He’d snuck in as silent as a cat and now gently kissed her cheek. “I took off my boots,” he said.
“Promise me you’ll care for my mom until she’s healed.” The jolt from him sneaking up on her jostled the fire in her head.
She would set it free and it would ruin this beautiful place.
“Of course.” He didn’t let go when she tried to break away. “How are you feeling? Does your chest hurt or—”
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be this close to him.
He watched her face as if a monster was about to crawl out of her nose. “No one gets in unless we open the door. No one will hurt you or Mira while you’re here.”
“But—” She was a Fate. A Parcae. That monster had gotten in with her. Her lips parted just enough for each shallow breath to keep her body alive. How could she fight her future?
Ladon’s calm vanished. The questioning ceased. Everything she’d seen when he pulled her out of the river rushed into his eyes.
“Rysa.” He cupped her cheeks and stroked her hair. “Don’t drop into a hole so deep you can’t get out. I thought when you saw this…” He waved at the cavern. “… you’d understand. That you’d trust me. Show some confidence.”
Confidence? In her or in him? “There’s nothing you can do.” If anything, this place reinforced the concept that she’d become a weapon in a war between gods.
“I’ve seen women lose their will before. Sister did the same thing when Shifters came for Derek.” He swallowed. “That face, I’ve seen it right before women died. Right before I lost them forever.”
If he didn’t lose her, he’d die.
“You can’t think the way you are right now.”
Was he angry? Defeated? She couldn’t tell. “You should have left me in the river,” she said. “Cities burn. Whole cities, Ladon. If you rampage, or if my super-Burners riot, it’s still my fault. I’m the cause, either way. I’m the Ambusti Prime. I’m chaos’s tribute.”
“Rysa!” he yelled. “Killing yourself will not stop this! Don’t think that. Don’t ever think that!”
Her eyes darted to the tunnel to his room.
“Don’t run away from me!”
Ladon and Dragon were everything. They were better than she deserved. But she wasn’t strong enough to force her way beyond the damage in her head.
She backed away. “Fate will have its due. Faustus said fate always has its due. I’m sorry.” He tried to pull her close but she dodged his arms.
“Why are Fates like this? ‘Fate has its due’ is bullshit!”
“It’s true.”
“What about Metus? He didn’t see Sister-Dragon coming. Your seers are not infallible.”
She didn’t respond. It didn’t matter what he believed.
“Beloved, listen to me.” He caught her and held her close. “Please.”
She stiffened. “Don’t call me that.” Every time he spoke that word, he tightened his bond to her. Every time he touched her, he dropped deeper into her hell.
His body tensed the same way it had when she’d told him before not to tell her how he felt. “Why?”
She tried to wiggle free but he wouldn’t let go.
“Tell me why.”
She shook her head.
“Why?”
He’d ripped the top off a train for her. He’d destroyed Burners for her. If he said those three words, he’d solidify his actions and he’d die. “Don’t. Please.”
“I love you.”
Her breath lumped into a hard pellet above her heart. He shouldn’t do this. She pushed at his arms but he held tight.
He stroked her cheek. “You need to hear it. You need me to say it and it’s the truth, Rysa. Dragon’s loved you from the first moment you touched his snout. I can’t live without you. I haven’t been able to since Marcus’s.” The jumbled line of his lips mirrored the inflection of his voice.
“You can’t know that. You can’t be sure. No one—”
“Yes, I can! I’m old enough to know the difference between infatuation and desire and honest love. With you, I’ve finally found a reason to walk this earth. We absolutely, utterly love you.”
She’d more than snared him. She’d jammed the hook so deep into his throat that if he pulled it out, it would drag his innards with it.
“I’m leaving, Ladon. Now. Right now.” He’d take care of her mother. If she vanished into the wilderness, maybe he’d take care of himself.
He swung her legs up and jostled her in his arms, then he tossed her to get a better grip when she came down. “You are the most willful woman I have ever known. You are more willful than Sister, and I thought that was impossible. You are willful to the point of extreme irritation.”
“Willful? I’m not some damsel you need to rescue.” She slapped his shoulder.
He flared his nostrils. “You slap like one.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Put me down! Stop acting like a caveman!”
“You stoop to your uncle’s manipulations and it’s your decision…” He scowled and tossed her again. “… but when I lay bare my heart I’m a caveman who’s oppressing you?”
“Damn it, Ladon—”
“I am sick of you not trusting your own strength.” He tossed her again. “And I am sick of you saying cruel things to push me away. I don’t like it and you’re going to stop doing it.” A small tic moved across his cheek.
She hadn’t realized how much her words injured him.
“I’ve spent centuries with women. I know exactly what you are doing and it still cuts me. You do it and parts of my soul break off because you are the center of our world. You are the center of everything and I love you.”
“Ladon—” If she kept him at a distance, he’d not hurt as much if she became a Burner.
“You feel the same way I do. You told me, in the park. You said ‘the men I love.’” His nostrils flared again, his mouth twitching. “I’m the man you love. Me. I know because of the way your soul opens when you look at me. In how you respond when I touch you.” His lips set into a hard line. “I brought you to three orgasms our first time.”
Her mouth rounded again. “Put me down.”
“Not until you tell me how you feel. Tell me what you want. Tell me the real future, not the one your uncle forced into your head.”
“Ladon, it doesn’t—”
“Yes it does!” He swung her legs around so she faced him and scooped a hand under her bottom. “Tell me.”
She shook her head, refusing to look at his face.
Three quick st
eps and he pressed her back against the stone wall next to a settee, between the end of the long piece of furniture and an alcove full of huge pillar candles. “Say it.” His mouth traced her jaw and her earlobe. “Damn it, you’re going to admit it. This weight you carry will kill you if you don’t push it off. You are no one’s tribute.”
She didn’t have the strength to argue. Not with him.
“You are not alone.” His lips traced her ear. “Dragon and I will help you. We love you.”
He ground his hips against hers in a slow, tight circle. This moment with him pushed back her uncle’s injection. She focused on his warm scent, on the way his lips trailed over her neck, on how his teeth tickled her skin.
Before she had seen the inevitable, when she believed that she was only locked to the Burners, she let herself feel the tingle when he stroked her arm. To enjoy his company and to talk about field work and caves and the land in the places they’d lived. But also to talk about her education and what she wanted to do and her life before all this happened.
Though he was immortal and he’d seen everything and lived through more than she could imagine, he wanted to learn about her as much as she wanted to learn about him.
He kissed her with enough force to pull her breath from her body. “All the lies about us ending the world infuriate me but the thought of losing you turns my blood to ice.” He touched her temple. “So you are going to tell me what you want. Not the other Fates. You.”
She wanted to finish school and work a real job and clear the flowerbeds while he mowed the lawn. Most importantly, she wanted Ladon and Dragon.
She closed her eyes. Her voice disappeared and only her mouth formed her words. “You and Dragon, you mean more to me than anything. More than my own life.”
“Dragon has two humans. You are my mate and nothing’s going to change that.” He kissed her again, his free hand finding a breast. “I know you love me. Say it.”
“It doesn’t matter.” What she wanted, what he wanted. The Jani triads of Empire and Strategy overran her Burnerized life.
Games of Fate (Fate Fire Shifter Dragon Book 1) Page 28
