Daybreak

by Shae Ford

  And when it came, their voices swelled to match the fury of its light.

  Shock lined the edges of Rua’s face. His claw slid down the stone and to the cliff below. Kael barely managed to escape being crushed beneath it. No sooner had he gotten away from Rua than Kyleigh crashed into the rock beside him. He held onto her horns as she lifted him to where they’d been standing before.

  Kael grabbed Daybreak from the ground and fastened the buckle around his waist. “We ought to get moving while they’re distracted. If we hurry, we might be able to make it to the Kingdom by dawn.”

  Kyleigh wasn’t listening. Her eyes were every bit as focused as the other dragons. Even after she’d slid back into her human skin, she stayed staring at the mountain.

  Dragons landed all around them. They crashed into the cliffs as Kyleigh had done and dug in their claws, each beside his mate — every eye unblinking. Kael grabbed her around the arm. “We really ought to go.”

  “Please, just a moment.”

  “We don’t have a moment! This could very well be our only chance …”

  Kael’s words trailed away at the note of a tiny song. A faint hum trilled from the mountain’s top, so small that it could’ve been lost inside a murmur of the wind. But the dragons answered it with such a burst of noise that there could be no mistaking what it was.

  A little fledging clawed its way from the mountain’s fire. Its wings were so thin that Kael could see through them; they flapped like sails in the breeze. The dragon raised his wings tentatively at first. But when it felt how the wind filled them, they burst open with another delighted trill of its song.

  “A male,” Kyleigh said, pointing to the dull gray of his scales. “When he sheds that first batch, he’ll get his color.”

  The little dragon’s wings rose and fell boldly, now. Kael had a difficult time looking away. “Well, I still think we’re pushing our —”

  “We’re safer than we’ve ever been. A hatching is a time of peace. Come here.” Kyleigh dragged him to a ledge of rock and made him sit. Then she sat behind him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and set her chin atop his shoulder. She sat so there wasn’t so much as a breath of space between them.

  And when Kael felt how her heart thudded against his back, he knew it would be impossible to pull away. “What happens now?”

  “He’ll fly to his parents.”

  “How does he know which ones they are?”

  He felt her shrug. “They just … know. It’s an instinct, I suppose.”

  No sooner had she spoken than the little dragon took a daring leap from the mountain’s top. His wings fluttered in the wind, his long tail whipped behind him. But he managed to land safely — directly before the glittering purple dragon and his mate.

  “Corcra,” Kyleigh whispered at the dragons’ delighted song. “What a lucky fellow.”

  It was hard to ignore how her arms tightened with those words … and harder still to ignore that brief pause of her heart.

  CHAPTER 44

  A New Fire

  It took less convincing than Kyleigh expected to get Kael to stay in the Motherlands one last night. The dragons clung to their hatching grounds as evening fell. They lay together along the cliffs and their great heads rose hopefully with every sputter of flame — waiting for the next egg to hatch.

  “Staring at it isn’t going to make them hatch any faster,” Kael muttered.

  Kyleigh hadn’t realized that she’d been watching, as well. But when he spoke, she found her lungs were sore from holding their breath.

  They were camped at the base of the mountain, beneath the heavy shelter of the trees. Kyleigh watched through a gap in the branches while Kael sat a few paces away, tending to the charred scabbard of his strange new sword. “I can’t help but watch. It’s exciting to see a hatching.”

  He raised his brows, and there was laughter in his eyes as he said: “Is it? I had no idea you were excited.”

  She threw a twig at him.

  He swatted it away.

  A swell of song drew her eyes back to the mountain, and her chest filled when a little dragon clawed his way out. His flight was clumsy. He glided for his parents and crashed directly into the middle of his father’s orange chest — who didn’t seem at all to mind it.

  “What are they saying?”

  Kael had crept in beside her while she watched. He sat so that their knees touched, his eyes still upon his work. There were dozens of voices drifting through the air, but she tried to concentrate on picking them apart:

  “All of the hatchlings have been male so far — which Rua’s thrilled about.”

  “I’ll bet he is,” Kael said, a trace of a smile in his voice. “He’s probably hoping they’ll grow up and take his daughters away.”

  That was exactly what he was hoping for. But Kyleigh knew it wouldn’t be that simple. “He’ll still put up a fight when they try to leave. Their mates will have to steal them away to keep from catching the barbed end of his tail.”

  “I see. And how will they steal them?”

  “Wooing, mostly. They’ll fly through Rua’s land, perhaps lead him in a chase. The boldest might even breathe fire on his head.”

  Kael frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a very decent way to get his approval.”

  Kyleigh tried not to roll her eyes. Seeking out approval from fathers was such a human thing to do. “The only one a male has to convince is his chosen. He’ll taunt Rua to prove that he can protect her. Once she’s convinced, she’ll follow him out of her homelands.”

  “Then what?”

  Kyleigh knew she shouldn’t tease him, but he left himself so open to it that she couldn’t help but prod. She looked away from the mountain and leaned against his side. Then she traced the line of his chin down his throat, across his shoulders, and murmured: “What do you think?”

  She wasn’t disappointed. The scarlet that spread across his face made her heart beat wildly. She grabbed his hands when he tried to cover his embarrassment and peeled them away.

  “Stop it, Kyleigh!”

  “Never,” she growled.

  He could’ve stopped her if he wanted to. They both knew he was stronger. But though his face burned, laughter muddled his yells. An involuntary grin made his glare much less menacing. He grappled with her for a moment before he shoved her back.

  He peeled his breastplate away and hurled it aside; the sword landed with a thunk upon the grass. His hands curled into claws. “Don’t make me pin you.”

  Excited bumps rose across Kyleigh’s flesh as she threw herself into him. It’d been so long since he’d smiled like this, so long since he’d wanted to play. She wrestled his arms away and shoved into him with all of her strength, but he held.

  “Give up, dragoness,” he grunted.

  This only made her blood run more furiously. “Never,” she said again.

  When she dragged her teeth across his ear, his surprise hit her like a wave: a swell of shock and warmth that crashed inside her middle and brought them both to the ground. His grip tightened when her lips slid across his chin. The swell that’d tipped them over was drawn back out to sea — replaced swiftly by flames.

  They roared when she kissed him. Their fury drove her mad, made her press against him until there wasn’t a single part of them that didn’t touch. There was a wildness inside Kael that entranced her, made her forget about the rest of the world. It was an all-consuming storm that left her ragged and weak. Still, she couldn’t help but be thrilled by its power …

  Slowly, something began to change. Kael’s arms slipped from around her waist and fell to the ground beside him. The fires that’d been blazing so desperately before suddenly melted. Their wild tops sank into their bases and spread a strange warmth along the whirring paths of her blood.

  There wasn’t a place this new fire couldn’t reach. When she felt it beginning to slide into the far corners of her soul, she pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” he said. The
pale reflection of the night sky fit so effortlessly against his features. She’d already torn his tunic away. The stars’ bluish light drifted across his bare chest — not quite strong enough to chase the darkness from its rifts.

  She was about to ask him if he was sure when she felt those strange, slow-burning flames again. They ran up her arm, across her shoulder, to her throat … following the path of Kael’s hand. As if he could sense the worry racing up her spine, his other hand was there. He chased her uncertainty away with a gentle touch.

  The movement of his eyes was every bit as soothing as his hands. He took her in slowly, watched her face for any small hint of her enjoyment.

  And it was difficult not to show it.

  But when the fire crept deeper, when it slid to the edge of something she didn’t quite understand, she shoved his hands away. She didn’t know what this new feeling was — only that it frightened her. It was a new kind of love, one that threatened the borders of a wall she hadn’t known was there.

  Kyleigh couldn’t stand it. She kissed him roughly, hoping to bring those familiar fires back …

  It was a mistake.

  Kael had her by the lips, now. She could do nothing to stop the flames as they crawled down her chest and soaked into her blood. She moaned against them as they reached the edges of her soul, as they tested the strength of those towering walls. Their power frightened her. But she could do nothing to stop them.

  A dragon rose from the depths of her heart. She carried with her all of the things she felt for Kael, all of the things she swore she would never say aloud. He was human, after all. And she was certain humans couldn’t love like this.

  Her love might overwhelm him. He wouldn’t understand — it would be a burden to him, to know how deeply she felt. That was the thing that frightened her, the secret hidden behind the walls.

  Still, Kael pressed — unaware of the monster he’d woken. The world turned as he rolled her gently onto her back. He lay down beside her. His lips never left. He slid one arm beneath her head and draped the other across her middle.

  Kyleigh was defenseless. Her body had already betrayed her. It’d given in to his kisses, his touch … her strength had melted in his hold a long while ago. Only her heart still beat defiantly. It thudded to life when he reached for her belt.

  “Wait — let me.” Her voice was every bit as weak as her limbs, and she hated that. Still, she was determined not to say the things she felt aloud.

  He pulled her hand away. “Don’t you trust me?”

  With everything. There’s no part of me I wouldn’t place in your hands, the dragon in her murmured. But Kyleigh choked it back. “Yes.”

  It was painful, how slowly he moved. He could’ve worked the clasp in half a blink, if he wanted to. But Kael seemed insistent on making her wait. His eyes stayed fixed upon his work as he slid the belt free and lay Harbinger aside — and he might as well have been a thousand miles away.

  The air felt bitterly cold without his touch, without his lips — without his eyes upon her. It was strange how the world could feel so cold while the fires inside her burned with an agonizing heat. They blazed until she could hardly stand it.

  When Kael’s lips came back, the world disappeared. Her last defense fell as he coaxed her heart into a hum. It sang for him in a way it’d never sung before … and for a moment, she worried he might be able to hear it. But he conquered those worries, as well. Soon the only things she felt were his lips.

  Beneath her was a nothingness without end.

  Her eyes opened when he pulled away. She could see his face hovering just above hers. She wanted to reach for him, but her arms were too weak to move. No, she was totally and completely at his mercy.

  And she knew what he wanted her to say.

  “Kyleigh …”

  You can’t, her fear moaned. But its cries faded into the darkness beyond, and Kyleigh lay suspended.

  He said her name again, whispered it roughly in her ear. She could tell by how his voice broke that he wanted her to say it badly … and she wanted that, too. Finally, she pushed her fears aside.

  “I love you, Kael.”

  His face came closer. “How much?”

  The words were out before she could stop them, bursting free with all the force of the dragon’s wings: “More than the sun loves the dawn. You are my sky — my whole horizon.”

  The earth fell silent with a whoosh. Though Kyleigh felt her heart thudding inside her ears, all she could hear was the echo of the words that hung in the air between them. They held bits of her soul inside their letters, between their pauses and breaks. She felt as if she’d been pulled from her flesh and now lay trembling, exposed before Kael.

  Once, she’d worried that her second shape would be the monster that drove him away. But now she feared it was this — these inhuman things she’d cried that probably sounded foolish to him. She knew they’d sounded foolish.

  It was impossible to put the valtas into words.

  The silence seemed to last an age. Kael’s face twisted into a glare; his lips pulled back from his teeth. But just when she thought he was about to scold her, he gasped.

  His head sank to her chest for a moment and he breathed like he’d been stabbed. Kyleigh reached for his face, her heart screaming about what a fool she’d been. “I’m sorry — I shouldn’t have said it like that! Dragons feel differently about love, Kael. I don’t expect you to …”

  Her words died. She’d managed to pry his head from her chest only to be frozen by his eyes:

  Their walls were gone. They’d been stripped of their spines and all of the little lights within them shone unfettered. She’d caught glimpses of them before, flickering with his laugh, his thoughts. She loved the fact that they were hidden. She loved to guess the sort of things that might draw them out. But that was before she’d seen them like this.

  His brows fell and his lips pulled back not in anger, but in desperation. Though the lights had broken free, he was still desperate to protect them. He guarded them as fiercely as she’d guarded her words — she understood this, now.

  Kael had bared his soul to her, as well.

  “No, dragons aren’t the only ones who feel differently,” he muttered, pressing against her hands. “I just can’t say it as well as you.”

  Kyleigh knew it was time to give up another secret — one she’d planned to hold forever. “You say it well enough. You tell me every night when you think I’ve fallen asleep, even when you’re cross with me. I listen for it,” she added, smiling when his brows rose in surprise. “I can’t sleep until I’ve heard you say you love me.”

  She kissed the red before it could stretch too far across his face … and for a while, they spoke no more. The sky churned above them and the breeze stirred the forests’ roof, but Kyleigh was oblivious to it all.

  CHAPTER 45

  Baird’s Cursed Letter

  There was no longer any doubting it. Kael woke the next morning with his heart already steeled against what needed to be done, against the fact that he stood upon the threshold of a final battle with Midlan — and aside from Kyleigh, he stood there alone.

  A few weeks ago, this realization would’ve crushed him. He would’ve been a mass of nerves, a tangle of worry. But now … well, he wasn’t sure if it was the power of Daybreak, or the sheer ridiculousness of every dragon he’d encountered thus far. But for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to worry.

  Kael was certain they would win.

  He struggled out from beneath Kyleigh’s iron grip and fumbled in the pale morning light for his clothes. The trousers went on stiffly. He tried to be quiet, but something in them kept crinkling each time he slid them an inch. He’d reached down to pull whatever it was out of his pocket when he suddenly remembered that it was the letter Baird had given him — and his hand froze.

  He decided no to touch it. He couldn’t risk falling to its whispercraft. The moment he had the chance to make a new set of trousers, he’d burn the old pair — and Bai
rd’s cursed letter along with it.

  Kael’s eyes were still too heavy to even think about donning his armor. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Even after a couple of washings, his tunic was still covered in brownish spatter stains from the fight in the Valley. But it was the closest thing to a blanket he had to offer.

  He stepped very lightly over to where Kyleigh slept — well, he supposed it was more like a hobble than steps. He had to hold his right leg out at such a ridiculous angle that he didn’t think anybody could’ve possibly mistaken it for a walk.

  But somehow, the letter still managed to crinkle.

  With the tunic’s buttons undone, it draped across her shoulders and past her knees. He moved fractions at a time as he covered her, careful not to breathe too loudly. He’d begun to creep away and had even allowed himself the faintest sigh of relief when Kyleigh muttered:

  “What in Fate’s name have you got in your pocket?”

  “It’s nothing — just something Baird gave me.”

  “Fitting.” Kyleigh’s eyes cracked open with a soft smile. “How did you sleep, whisperer?”

  Like the night watched over them while the world stopped turning — like the stars sang to him while he dreamed. The feeling he’d had as his eyes closed was one of the ultimate calm. Had he never faced another dawn, his heart would’ve stopped peacefully: content in the knowing that it’d already struck a perfect beat …

  Blast it all. Even in his head, those words sounded completely ridiculous.

  “I slept well enough,” he said after a moment. “You?”

  Her eyes blazed as she murmured: “Very well, indeed.”

  A pair of hums blasted across his ears, startling his eyes from her smile — otherwise, the morning might well have been lost.