A low rumble of laughter sounded in her mind.
“Yes. I can see how that might pose a dilemma for you. Let me assure you the castle will be here as long as there are Akgons here, and I will be here awhile.”
“That’s reassuring,” Maya replied sarcastically. Draakar’s eyebrows rose teasingly at her remark. She read his pleasure with her as if he’d voiced it and shook her head in an effort to clear his thoughts out of it. “Let’s try something easy. Why don’t you start by telling me why Ian calls you ‘Lord’? Are you an Irish Lord or Laird?”
“That’s Scottish, but I am a Lord, and my title is one older than Erin, conferred by right as well as might. No one granted it, I was born to it.”
“Okay, so not an easy question. I’m not sure I understand.” Maya frowned. “And why would he call me Lady? Ian used it like a title.”
“Let me start by telling you about who and what we are. But go ahead and eat.” He picked up the platter and handed it to her. After she took it and began eating he poured her a glass of water and placed it near her before relaxing back into the chair. His long fingers rested casually on the material of the chair arm. They weren’t overly thick but like the rest of him, lean and strong. What would his touch be like? The thought had her wrenching her mind away from his hands and back to what he said.
“The brethren are creatures that are both dragon and human, one and the same,” he explained. “Not separated by one side of the same coin, rather picture a coin where one side is a dragon and human and the other side is human and dragon. We are not separate creatures that co-exist but are truly one creature with one soul in two forms.”
“I think I understand. Is your human form the dominant one?”
“Yes and no. As a human, my dragon within is my guide. As a dragon, my human within is my guide. Both forms exist at the same time, but you only see the outward appearance of one at a time.”
“I get it, and the form you don’t see sorta acts like a conscience.”
“Something like that.”
“Is that…is that the voice I hear in my head?”
“Yes, in a manner of speaking, but the voice is your own.”
“How come I’ve never heard it before? How come nothing like this has ever happened to me before?” She continued eating, waiting for his reply.
“Nothing like this has happened in over a thousand years.” Maya open her mouth to ask another question, but Draakar held up his hand palm up, fingers spread, halting her. “Talon’s coming here called to the dragon blood of those nearby. Called to you. When I came back, I further called forth the dragon blood of a few brethren—as Dragon Lord, I have the power to do that—and awaken the dormant dragon within.”
She lifted her hand and swatted the air. “Came back? Came back from where? A thousand years? What happened a thousand years ago?”
“It has been more than a thousand years since brethren walked the earth.”
“But…” Her brows crinkled in confusion. “But you called me brethren and I’ve always been here.”
“Yes. The ones I called are the descendants of the brethren who stayed behind. Those that stayed had to sacrifice their dragon, their magicks to become fully human. These are the ancestors of the human brethren that exist today. You are human, but dragon blood flows in your veins. It is strong in a few but weak in a majority. Most of the human brethren will not be able to change into their dragon forms or even heed my call. The ones I have called to me are amongst the strongest.”
Okay, way beyond her realm of comprehension, and yet…. “What happened to the rest of the brethren? Why did they leave? Where’d they go?”
Chapter Eight
Draakar smiled at her questions and curiosity. The fact she hadn’t run from him in fear gave him hope, but she needed to know more, much more.
“Understand it was a difficult time for us. The time of man and the one God had begun. Religion supplanted and usurped magicks, or magic as you call it, and fewer people believed.” He paused to run his hand over his hair. “And if you did you were condemned. The Earth magicks sustaining our powers and life energies weakened and we didn’t know why exactly. Dragons were once powerful creatures, something to be feared, but when we were at our weakest, humans hunted us. Things got worse when one of our own, the betrayer, divulged secrets of the dragon, making us vulnerable and allowing us to be killed. With our magicks so weak we were easier prey for humans. The brethren were slowly being exterminated. Where once we numbered hundreds of thousands, we were down to mere thousands.”
Her hand flew over her chest. “That’s horrible. Why would people hunt you? Murder you? Why would one of your own betray you?”
“Fear. People fear what they do not understand or see as different from what they know. We had powers humans didn’t, and the betrayer thought with so many powerful dragons destroyed, the magicks left would be his to control. He would rule this realm unchallenged. He was wrong. The amount of magicks he can draw forth from Mother Earth, is determined by the amount of internal power he can control. While his powers are great, it would have been beyond his abilities. Besides, Mother Earth would never have allowed him control of that much of her magicks.”
“You speak of Mother Earth like she’s a real thing,” Maya said. “An entity.”
“And so she is. She manifest’s the powers of the earth, of nature, and can channel this to brethren.”
“So this entity, Mother Earth,” Maya began, “would have stopped him from taking control?”
“Of accessing her powers, but he would still have powers of his own. Human kind had no idea what would have happened to it had he been successful in destroying the brethren. He fed the fear, and drove humans to hunt us. The world was made up of the One God and the old ways were considered the ways of evil. They had to be wiped out. Dragons had to be erased from the face of the planet.”
“So what happened? How did any of you survive?” Maya asked.
“Some changed. They fully embraced their humanity. They literally cut off part of themselves to do it. They drained their magicks, thereby killing their dragons, living only half a life. Fewer still simply ended their existence. The majority of us traveled to the realm of our beginning, Akgon.”
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “Us? You talk as though you were there.”
He returned her stare. “I was.”
“That’s…” She stopped in mid-speak and blinked. “What am I saying? Of course it’s possible. Why not? Your son can disappear. Castles can appear and disappear. Dragons are real. So of course you can be more than a thousand years old.” Maya took a drink of water then looked him up and down. “Though, you don’t look a day over three hundred and fifty, if that,” she finished flippantly.
He frowned. “Ah…actually…”
“No.” She held up one hand and placed the glass back on the table she held in the other. “Don’t tell me.”
This time he smiled before he answered. “I’m quite a bit more than a thousand years old.”
She shifted restlessly in the chair. “How much more?”
“Maya, I’m almost two thousand years old.”
The shocked expression on her face made him smile even more. “I know the world as you know it no longer exists. But there is much to look forward to.”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “This is a lot. Dragons and magic, legend and myth, are real? So is reality a lie?”
“Not at all. There are just many versions of it.”
Her head dropped forward until it rested on her knees.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Uh-huh” came a muffled reply. She waved one hand in the air. “Just give me a second.”
He leaned forward and turned more toward her. “Breathe, Maya.”
“Okay, okay, ah, yeah.” She sat up and leaned her head against the back of the chair. “I guess there’s no going back to that ignorant reality. So, where were we? Oh yeah, you’re over two thousand years old.
Oh, God! Uh, how old is Talon?”
“He’s barely past hatchling. He’s only a little over four hundred years old.”
“Four…four, huh! Okay.”
“It will be okay. I promise. Everything will be all right now.”
“So,” Maya took a deep breath, “go on. You were saying you left. And where’d you go again?”
“We went back to the land we came from, Akgon.”
“So you’re not human? You’re not from Earth?”
“Yes and no.”
“Jeez, enough with the yes and no answers.”
Draakar smiled again at her reaction. She actually took all of this rather well. “We are human. Part of us is human.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s let that one go for now. So you went back to where you guys came from, Akgon. So why are you here now?”
“The magick on Akgon is weakening. Our life energies are linked to the magicks of our world. When the magick, weakens we weaken to the point we eventually die.” He did not add the conduit the magick flowed through was him, and his magick had been slowly weakening without his truemate to nourish his life energy.
Without Sierran to help sustain his magic, the brethren would not have survived as long as they had. Now strength and power coursed through his veins. Stronger even than the first time he left Earth or left Akgon because he and his truemate were finally in the same place, in the same time. What powers would they unleash with a mating!
“Wait a minute,” Maya said, “I thought that was your ‘realm’ so why would you be weak there? For that matter, why’d you leave it to begin with?”
“I did not. None of the brethren that returned with me had ever been on Akgon. We are Earth born, but Talon and others were born on Akgon after we arrived.”
“Well were there other brethren already there?”
“No and it’s not clear why the original brethren left.”
“I’m confused. Akgon is your surname and the name of your realm.”
“Surnames are a recent human custom. Akgon is the birthplace of the brethren and thus the surname we use today on Earth.”
She nodded. “Okay, so why are you here now?”
“Because the brethren are being threatened again. The answers to our survival are here. I also believe Earth is in danger. I need your help, Maya.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What can I do? With all the magicks you seem to possess, I don’t see how I can help you. Until yesterday, I didn’t know creatures, beings…like you, existed. You were something to be found in a book. No strike that. I’ve never found the likes of you in any book.”
Draakar smiled and his eyes got brighter.
Shudders rippled through her body but not in fear. “Please don’t do that glowie thing with your eyes.”
“Why?”
“It’s just kinda creepy.” She lied and they both knew it.
“They merely mirror your own.”
“My own? What are you talking about? My eyes don’t…” Maya stopped and got up to look at herself in the small antique mirror on the wall beside the mantle. The face staring back at her was one she’d seen every day of her adult life, but the eyes, the eyes belonged to someone—something else. They glowed. In shock, she continued to stare at her reflection. The glow got stronger and brighter, until two tails of golden flames shot out of her eyes toward the mirror. The sound of breaking glass echoed around the room.
Chapter Nine
Be at ease, my Queen. You do not know your own strength.
But I do, Dark Lord. It is you who has forgotten the strength of a Dam.
Draakar moved to stand directly behind her. He did not touch her, though every cell in his body cried out to him to fuse himself to her. To join with her. To take what he had a right to.
The temptation to finally be able to come into his full power and save his people made him want to rush things, but he could not give into it. It took all of his will not to touch her. He could not let his need rule his actions. He made the error once already; he would not make it again. This time, he would not lose her.
They had to find their way through their separate pasts to each other, to a future together. They were born to be together. Their emotions were already engaged, but the physical side of their joining would have to wait on her trust. Right now, her vulnerability made her a very dangerous Dam. One who had not learned to control and harness her magicks.
Maya had enough power to change into dragon form on Akgon and here on Earth. The magicks she would unleash during a mating could cause her to change fully to dragon form and sustain it, but the magicks required for such a change could also be uncontrollable and destructive to her. To gain greater control she had to accept him, but first she had to embrace her brethren half. It would be his pleasure to aid her in all ways.
I feel your need, Dark One, Maya hissed in his mind. Know the day you touch me without my permission is the day you die.
Draakar, Dark Lord of all brethren and who bowed to no creature, bowed his head to his queen and stepped back.
My queen. I am yours to command.
“Why?” Maya asked aloud, spinning around to face him.
“Why what?” Draakar responded, as he willed the mirror to repair itself and it appeared whole again.
But he’d read her mind and knew she would ask the question she found the most troubling, and ignore what he had called her. “Why do I hate you?” she asked instead.
He clamped his own thoughts tight and hesitated before he answered. The one question he knew he’d eventually and reluctantly have to face. How did he answer her without driving her away from him? With the truth, just not all of it—not yet.
“You do not hate me.”
“No,” she whispered, but in a stronger voice stated, “I don’t hate you. But, my God, I am angry with you! Why?” Her gaze searched his features seeking the truth, her lips curved in misery.
“I have wronged you. For that, believe I am truly sorry. I have mourned us in my heart for all of these last thousand years. Know what was done was for the good of the brethren.”
“What did you do?” Why was I sacrificed?
“My father was killed, betrayed by one of our own kind, and my mother died trying to avenge him. Like my father before me, I became Dragon Lord. My first duty was to the brethren, even at my own expense. We needed every ounce of magicks to open the portal to Akgon. Once connected, someone had to hold the gateway open.” He paused, took a hard breath and stared into her eyes, willing her to understand. “I was the only one strong enough to do that, and as the leader, I had to go with them. When we arrived on Akgon, we found it to be a magicks rich realm but wild magicks, in need of balance. I had to stay to provide that balance for the power there, so the brethren could survive.”
But you had no right to sacrifice me. You could have come back. Once the magicks were tamed and a balance achieved you should have returned to Terra. Just as you are back now, but it’s too late. I will not forgive that. You did not return for me after you knew my first cycle had come. I existed, but you were nowhere to be found. You condemned me. I know what you want. Now it is my turn. I condemn you now.
She looked away from him.
What of the brethren? You have a duty….
I hold duty to no one.
Maya
She turned to face him again and her eyes had stopped glowing. “I’m sorry, Draakar,” she answered sadly. “It’s a lot to take in right now. I need…I think I need time to process it all.”
“I understand.”
“I know there’s more, but can we continue this later. I think I need to be alone for a few minutes.”
He had more to say, much more but wisely didn’t. She definitely wasn’t ready to hear about Talon’s mother and he needed to find the words to tell her. “Of course,” he said instead. “Take your time. Why don’t you rest a little? You’ve been through a lot in a short p
eriod of time, and there’s still more to take in. I’ll go and tend to my guests. Come down in a couple of hours. We’ll have an early dinner.”
“Fine. Ah, this place is enormous. How do I find the dining room?”
“We will await you in the library. You can find your way to any room in this castle. All you have to do is think about where you want to go. If you need me, it is the same. Just think of me and you will always be able to find me. I cannot hide from you, Maya. I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere.” He didn’t tack on, not without you, but the message lay in the silence between them.
He let the heat he held within for her rise to the surface and knew she wasn’t immune to him when he observed the faint flush on her cheeks. “I will wait for you, Maya. It’s my turn now.” He bowed and closed the sitting room door behind him.
She lay on the bed for a long time, no longer hungry or tired, just staring at the high ceiling. A work of art, in and of itself. In vivid colors, it depicted a golden dragon kneeling before a woman dressed in a green and gold gown with long flowing black hair. The artist painted the woman turned toward the dragon so you couldn’t see her face. One hand rose so she touched the spiked ridge atop the dragon’s bowed head. If this picture had sound, the dragon would have been purring. This damsel had tamed the mighty beast. But the art represented a work of fantasy. Right? She wasn’t so sure anymore.
Incredible couldn’t even begin to describe the last twenty-four hours. She didn’t know what to believe. Could all of it be true? She had also guessed at what Draakar didn’t say. Talon had a mother and Draakar was the father. At the thought, a sharp emotional pain stabbed at her heart, forcing a cry of despair past her lips.
Maya? Maya, answer me. Are you all right? I feel your distress. His thoughts came again in her head. Thoughts she did not want.
No, Draakar. I’m not all right. Not at all. But I will be. Please, just leave me alone. I will be down shortly.
Maya abruptly shut down the mental connection between them. Though she sensed it there still, like a living thing hovering around her subconscious, ready to return as soon as she dropped her guard. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—communicate with him that way: dragon-to-dragon and mind-to-mind. Too intimate. He had no right to lay a claim on her. None. She would not think about the other voice in her head, the one speaking thoughts that were…her own.
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