by Ophelia Bell
“I would have died without you, Evie. Now that we’ve made it through the darkest part of our lives together, I know we were always meant to travel that path, because it was the only path that led us here, to this place, to this day, to this moment.
“Fifty years ago, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you,” he said, finally reaching her and falling to his knees before her. Their shared bubbles of light brightened around them enough to illuminate most of the room. Tears glistened on her cheeks and she bit her lower lip, watching him. “At the time I thought we’d spend fifty years happily married, have children, grow old together. Now I know we were given a much greater gift. We have forever now. I was going to ask you then, but I’m glad I had to wait. Angel, will you spend forever with me? Will you marry me?”
He held up the tiny circle of silver with the simple setting of three diamonds. It seemed such a trivial thing now, after everything they’d been through.
Evie’s eyes brightened through her tears. “Yes, Marcus. Always.”
She let him place the ring on her finger and then launched herself at him. Marcus laughed as he stood. He kissed her madly, barely aware of the return of the light and the rising sound of singing and music around them.
As the gathering erupted into an all-out celebration, Marcus found himself suddenly the center of attention. Praise and congratulations came at him from all sides, but none of it filled him with as much joy as Evie’s kiss and the sparkling jewels on her finger.
“I’ve waited two hundred years for this,” she said to him, curled on his lap where he sat, chatting now with a few turul who had barely even acknowledged his existence until moments ago.
Ked moved toward them finally, his smile fading and a look of longing in his eyes. In the back of his mind, Marcus received an impression of his mate, of eons of self-subjected loneliness. Now the loneliness was gone, but the memory of it had yet to fade.
“A drop in the bucket,” Marcus said, his eyes meeting Ked’s.
The Shadow’s approach caused conversation to halt around them.
“Five thousand, give or take,” he said. “Not that there’s a competition, but you both are mine now, so I’d say I won, either way.”
Immortal Dragons
Book Three
DRAGON SPLENDOR
Ophelia Bell
“Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.” - Terry Pratchett
Prologue
You would think that after my five thousandth birthday, I’d be used to dealing with family drama. Just when I thought I knew which of my siblings were the tame ones, they turn around and surprise me.
It’s my turn to be the drama queen now. I may not have been instrumental in the creation and rise to power of our greatest enemy—the jury’s still out on which one of my siblings holds that honor. I may not have given birth to a secret love child I conceived with my brother—though, to be fair, literal Neanderthals weren’t exactly my type at the time, either. And I may not have accidentally traded souls with one of our sister races and let my body be stolen because I was bored screwing humans.
Right now, I would do any of those things just to change the course of events of the last hour.
After centuries of dreaming about my two fated mates, I finally met one of them. He was right there in front of me in all his beautiful, satyr glory. He looked at me with eyes that were even bluer than my sister’s. They were as deep as oceans, as turbulent as whirlpools, and as haunted as the darker half of my soul. All I could think when I touched him for that brief moment was how I longed to change that look—to show him true joy. But he was gone too quickly, taking all my elation with him.
He knew me when he saw me. That much I’m sure of. I saw the longing in his eyes as though I were looking into a mirror image of my own desires. Then he left, leaping off the rooftop into the raging river. For a moment I thought he wished to fly, and so I went after, waiting to see him shift into a bird, but he just plummeted down and down, into the churning rapids deep in the ravine.
All he said before he jumped was that he was not ready—he still had work to do. What work? If only he’d waited, I would have gladly offered every ounce of my power to help. Instead, he disappeared into the river, carried away by the flood too swiftly for me to follow.
I know where he has gone. Home, to the nymphaea’s Haven. It’s a place even more sacred and protected than the Ursa Sanctuary or the Turul Enclaves.
It’s a place I cannot go, and I would burn and bleed and fuck whatever I had to if I could only get there.
The Ultiori could have my soul, if I thought it would help.
Chapter One
Nicholas
Freedom was highly overrated.
Nicholas had never felt so helpless, even during all the days and nights he’d spent locked up in that cell beneath the mountain. He was free now, carried out by the same dark dragon who had rescued the turul princess held prisoner for half a century just down the hall from him.
Except those four walls he’d grown up inside were safe. There was constancy in that little cell, even if he barely had room to move once he’d reached his full height. Now that he was free, he lay on his back beneath the sky, afraid to open his eyes to see it for the first time since he was a baby—afraid that he might fall into that vast emptiness if he didn’t anchor himself to the earth somehow.
He was still weak from spending the last several days locked in a cell without food or even light. His entire body hurt from throwing himself at the door over and over, but he could never hit it hard enough to make it break. He’d only had Calder to keep him sane in the darkness and make him forget the pain.
His other senses told him that he was surrounded by the others—strangers to Nicholas, but he knew they were friends. Two of the female dragons knelt by his side, gently administering to his wounds. One lay a hand on his forehead, her skin smooth and warm, as comforting as he imagined the sunlight might feel, and it did comfort him.
“Shhh, be still,” one of them said. Carried on her words was the scent of citrus and sunflowers. It made his mouth water and his heart ache with longing.
The other female touched his sore shoulders gently. She smelled sweetly fertile, like summer rains that made him think of home. Even though he’d never been inside the Ursa Sanctuary, these two females reminded him of what he’d always imagined it might smell like. When he found his mother again, he would be embraced by such scents.
The dragon exhaled a sweet smoke reminiscent of mossy trees and forest floors that he gratefully inhaled. Her magic filled him, made him stronger, and healed his bruised body within seconds.
But the first dragon … Nicholas took another deep breath, hungry for more of her luminous scent. It didn’t just make him feel alive, but gave him the absolute certainty he would find joy in his life. He hazarded a crack of his eyelids, just enough to see a golden cascade of hair framing a beautiful face. Eyes the color of honey looked down at him for a split second before a noise distracted her and she was gone, leaving Nicholas aching for another touch—another scent of her.
When he tried to rise to go after her, the one that smelled of forests pushed him back down.
“You’re still hurt. Tell me where you are injured.”
Nicholas pushed back against her, frustrated at not being able to see what the commotion was behind him, or to follow the enticing scent of the other female, but this dragon was stronger than she looked.
“Let me go!” a familiar male voice yelled.
Nicholas twisted away from the grip of the dragon who had healed him and rose halfway up onto one elbow, ignoring the pain that shot through his side and the resulting dizziness that nearly made him collapse again. The others who had been gathered around him turned as well.
Nicholas’s heart clenched when he s
aw Calder struggling against the hold of the male dragon who had carried him out of his prison moments earlier.
“Ked! Let him go!” the pretty, golden-haired female yelled.
Calder tore from the dragon’s grip and stumbled to the ground, collapsing in anguish Nicholas felt deep in his own gut. They had failed. Their entire purpose for staying behind in this awful place had been in the hope of capturing their enemy, but she’d been too devious. She’d taken the bait, but they hadn’t bargained on how powerful she would be, nor how angry when she learned she’d been tricked.
Calder bowed his head when the golden woman went to him and crouched, reaching out, almost too hesitant to touch, but clearly wanting it. The joy and love she radiated was infectious. Everyone around them stopped what they were doing to watch. A few of them gravitated toward each other and embraced tenderly.
She was the one, Nicholas realized with a start, and his heart broke a little bit in spite of the joy he felt for his friend. This female was the one Fate had set in Calder’s path. The one Calder somehow dreaded meeting too soon, and the one Nicholas had always hoped would take her time arriving for his own selfish reasons.
He was no more prepared for Calder’s reaction to the woman than she was. When Calder suddenly ran to the edge of the roof and vaulted over, Nicholas let out a yell and tried to rise to follow, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. The golden dragon, however, did follow. She dove after Calder, shifting into her true form mid-arc and roaring her protest loudly enough to shake the entire mountainside. Her call echoed through the valley long after she disappeared into the distance, the pain of Calder’s absence reverberating within Nicholas’s heart just as loudly.
“Easy, child,” the green dragon said, resting her hand on his arm and urging him back down. Nicholas’s shoulders sagged in defeat and he stared at the edge of the rooftop where Calder had leapt over into the river beyond. The woman’s shimmering green breath settled on his skin, sank in to heal him, but he could only feel the dull ache of loss.
He closed his eyes again, hoping to quell the heartache and jealousy. Nicholas had heard him speak to the female before he’d gone. His words had been filled with regret over leaving her. He hadn’t even said so much as farewell to Nicholas. It didn’t matter that they’d said their farewells the day before, in the dark confines of that prison cell, tangled together on Nicholas’s tiny cot. He wanted Calder to acknowledge their parting in the light of day—it didn’t matter that Nicholas knew Calder had no choice but to go.
He kept his eyes shut when the dark dragon who had rescued him came to crouch at his side, silently inspecting him. He continued to feign half-consciousness when the golden one returned moments later, wild with agitation.
“I lost him, but I’m going to find him. He’s in the water now, so I’m going to the Source. You’ll help me, won’t you, brother? I need you. I need all of you to help me find him.” Her footsteps were quick on the rooftop as she paced around them. “We have to leave now! If we get to the Source, we can find him, but we can’t waste time.”
Nicholas finally registered what “Source” she was referring to, and as much as it pained him to get involved, his conscience forced him to. Jealousy was a petty emotion, and there was far too much at stake for him to let it control him.
This is for you, Calder, whether you like it or not.
“The Source is protected,” he said, then took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
Mentally bracing himself for all their questions, he struggled to sit up again. The green dragon’s healing had helped, but he was still sore and weak, his muscles fatigued from his constant, futile efforts to escape his prison. His vision swam and he shut his eyes again briefly, taking in a deep breath and bowing his head while the world see-sawed around him.
When he opened his eyes to look around, the world had steadied. Nine pairs of eyes watched him. He looked at each one in turn, knowing them all from the dreams Calder had shared with him many times. He had known this day would come, but not even Calder’s stories had prepared him for the pressure of this moment.
Finally, he took another deep breath and said, “Solstice. That’s when we go. What day is it today?”
“November twentieth.” The pretty, dark-haired female who spoke gave him a soft smile of recognition. He knew her voice well, and knew the man who held her even better. The turul princess and her Elite lover were finally together.
He gave her a nod of thanks. “My mother will help us find him. You must take me home on Solstice.”
“And who, pray tell, is your mother?” the green dragon asked.
Before he could answer, the turul female said, “His name is Stonetree. His mother is the Ursa Queen, Maia Stonetree.”
Nicholas stared at her, surprised until the breeze swirled around his head and he closed his eyes, anticipating one of the whispered secrets he often heard when the air currents moved around him just so. He cocked his head, listening, but the wind only encouraged him to continue the conversation.
The dark dragon beside him rose and swiftly moved to the turul’s side, pushing her away from the group.
“This is Aurum’s ordeal, not yours. Be careful,” the dragon said to her.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “He’s different. How can he hear the Wind the way I can? He’s an ursa, not a turul!”
Calder had explained that very thing to him when he was much younger and trying to understand his own nature.
“I am many things,” he called after them. The female pulled away from the dragon.
“Please tell me,” she said.
Nicholas swallowed, realizing he would need to explain how he came to be. His dubious origins might make them hate him, but the only sure way to earn trust was by speaking the truth. Calder had given him his truth, at least, which was more than he could say for their captors. So he told them all he knew, even though much of it occurred before his birth.
Two hundred years ago, his mother had been captured by the Ultiori, held and experimented on in much the same way as the turul princess who had requested his tale. His mother had been locked in a cell with a captive male ursa during her estrous. The ursa—a Windchaser, Calder had told him—had been through dozens of experiments, his genetic makeup altered as a result. Nicholas was the product of those experiments, so was mostly ursa, except for the part of him that wasn’t, which he understood now must be similar to what this turul female was, if the soft breezes spoke to her as they did to him.
Thankfully, his story seemed to be enough and they continued to question him about his captors. He told them everything, including the unfortunate outcome of Calder’s plan to capture their enemy, but kept to himself the reason he managed to survive his captivity for so long without going mad like most of the ursa did. Instead, he confessed one of his deepest desires.
“My mother did not have the chance to give me my ursa name before I was taken from her. I need to go home so I can learn my true name. And if you take me, I can help find Calder.”
The golden-haired female frowned at him. “What is he to you?” she asked, spearing him with a gaze so intense he blinked and stammered.
“We … we were captives together for a very long time.” He gritted his teeth, holding back a sudden surge of emotion. “I know what he wants and I know how to find him, that’s all.”
He closed his eyes, hating the lie and hoping he sounded convincing enough. When he opened his eyes again he caught the turul princess giving him a sad look, but was grateful she didn’t call him out. The look on the gold dragon’s face was enough to tell him she didn’t entirely believe him, anyway.
“We’ll take you back to the Monastery until Solstice,” the dragon said, rising decisively. “When we get there you must promise to tell me everything there is to know about him. I have dreamed too long of the day we would finally be together. If that day isn’t today, I at least want to hear w
hat you know of my mate.”
Chapter Two
Aurum
“You have to replenish your energy, sister. We aren’t in the Glade anymore.”
Aurum stared over the railing of the balcony off into the cloudless sky. The emptiness inside her panged with longing for the lover who had been within her grasp so recently she could still feel the roughness of his beard under her fingertips. Yes, she was empty. Maybe it was because she needed to refill her well, but she didn’t care about that. This emptiness ran far deeper.
Was this how Belah had felt all those years in the Glade after they’d locked themselves in? Belah’s love for the Blessed human man who’d become their enemy had haunted Aurum’s sister for centuries before their dreams began. And even long after, Aurum knew her sister yearned for him, despite what he’d become.
Or maybe this was how Ked had felt ever since being forced to kill the Elite female he’d once loved. To be so close to true happiness and have it ripped away within moments must leave anyone feeling this hollow.
Gavra’s warm presence moved closer, his hand coming to rest upon her shoulder. In a quieter voice, he said, “We need you whole and happy, Aurum. We will do whatever we can to find him for you, but you must not neglect your needs. Let me bring you one of the Unbound to fill your well.”
Aurum turned to face her brother, registering the deep circles beneath his eyes that betrayed his anguish. This was her doing, she knew, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Not when the mate she had dreamed of for so long was within her grasp, and then lost to her within a matter of moments.
“No. We released all the Unbound from their shackles. I refuse to use them the way we used to. Only the true lawbreakers need to be punished that way. I won’t be party to our continued abuse of dragon offspring whose only sin is that they were born to parents who broke our laws. Laws that we’ve abolished, I might add.”
