Stars (Dragon Reign Book 8)

by Kit Bladegrave

  Mori leaned back confused, and I waited to see what would happen, straining to pull this memory from Malcolm’s that resided inside my mind, but there was nothing.

  “Thorne,” Mori said loudly, and a man appeared in the trees beside her. “What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

  The older god sighed with a sad smile as he first glanced at her and then at Malcolm. “Mori, what are you doing away from your realm? And without your guard. Voris will be very upset with you.”

  “I know, but Malcolm is worth the risk. I love him,” she declared proudly, and Mori’s hand tightened around mine.

  “I know, but I’m afraid I cannot let this happen.”

  “What?” she asked horrified as tears shimmered on her cheeks like falling stars. “Why? I don’t understand. What have I done wrong?”

  “Nothing, my child, and though you do not yet know, one day you will.”

  She tried to argue, but Thorne raised one hand to her forehead and the other to Malcolm’s.

  “I hated to do it,” Thorne said, but this time, his voice came from behind us.

  We whipped around to find a translucent image of the god himself watching the scene from behind us.

  “Thorne?” Mori asked and reached out to try and touch him, but her hand passed right through. “What is this? What’s happening?”

  “I wanted you to see the truth, to chase away those lingering doubts the two of you seem to be keen to holding onto,” he said, scowling at both of us before he winked and broke into a wide grin. “You two found each other a very long time ago. Mori finally took a chance and found Malcolm, sad and lonely. You and he spent many moons together, and your love grew so strong, but sadly… sadly it was just too soon.”

  “We were together before?” I turned around to face Thorne.

  “You were. I knew your souls were bound together, but Malcolm had a very different path he had to follow. When Mori found him, it was just the wrong time, the wrong path. He was needed by the Vindicar, to save the realms. And he lived out that destiny.”

  “So you erased the memory… why?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t you have let me remember?”

  “Because you needed to rediscover this bond between your souls on your own,” he told us. “It’s all part of your path, both of your paths.” He sighed as he reached out to press his fingertips to Mori’s head, but he wasn’t fully here, wherever here was. “The moment Forrest rescued you, I felt the rekindling of your souls together. You can’t fight it, not anymore. You two are meant to be together, no matter what obstacles stand in your way.”

  All this time, the sense of familiarity, that we’d met before, walked under the moonlight together, it all happened. But then, Malcolm had been called to aid the Vindicar. And Mori, she had only just been created a few centuries before. The timing had been off and now… now we could be together. We turned to each other at the same time, and a smile slipped across her lips that I knew mated my own.

  She was in my arms a heartbeat later, and I held her close, kissing her like she was the only thing keeping me alive.

  The spark between us burst into true being, and I longed to stay tucked away in these woods, forever. Away from the war. Away from Baladon and anyone else who threatened to take Mori from me.

  “Well then, I’ll leave you both to it,” Thorne said loudly.

  We parted quickly.

  “Wait, you and the others, what happened? Where are you?” Mori called out, but Thorne was already fading. “Wait!”

  “Follow your paths,” he replied as he disappeared from view. “Defeat the darkness. That is your destiny.”

  And that was it. He said nothing more.

  Mori sagged against my side.

  I held her close, but then we were spinning and falling. I grunted when we came to a stop, landing on soft grass beside a rushing stream.

  The pale light of a sunset fell around us, and as I sat up, pulling Mori with me, I saw where we were.

  “This is my home,” she whispered in disbelief, staring around. “How?”

  The grass was no longer dead, but green and filled with life. The stream was full of water once again and ran along at a steady pace. A few seconds later, I grimaced as my wounds from the fight caught up with me. But there would be time to tend to those later.

  I wrapped an arm around Mori’s waist and lifted her up against my chest the same time our lips met in another fierce kiss. Everything about that moment felt right, more than right. This was who I was meant to be with, forever. We paused long enough to take a breath, but then she cupped my face and kissed me back so hard we tumbled back to the grass in a heap.

  “Sorry,” she said through her laughter.

  “I feel like I’m waking up from a dream,” I murmured against her lips as I wound my hands through her hair.

  She sat up, and her smile fell instantly. “Forrest, your wounds!” she said, alarmed.

  The pain rushed back to me all at once.

  “The bleeding, just hold on, alright? Keep your damned eyes open,” she scolded and quickly ripped the hem of her dress to staunch the bleeding wound at my ribs. She applied pressure, and I bit my lip to keep from cursing. I had two clashes across my chest, the wound at my shoulder, and the other at my hip. My face felt like someone had taken a battering ram to it, and I realized one of my eyes was partially swollen shut. “Don’t move.” She took my hand and placed it on the bunched-up fabric at my hip. “And keep the pressure on.”

  I wanted to ask what she was doing, but the bit of energy I thought I had was slipping away. How much blood had I lost? My clothes were drenched in it.

  Mori raced toward the stream, tore more of her dress free, and dipped it in the water. The fabric immediately gave off a blue hue, and she ran back to me. Water dripped from it as she pressed it gingerly against my shoulder. The chilly water made my teeth chatter, but when she removed the fabric, the bleeding had stopped. She repeated the process on all my wounds and lastly draped the fabric over my face.

  Once it was removed, my eye managed to open up all the way, and the pain overall had lessened.

  “I don’t know how long the magic will last. These wounds are quite extensive. We need to get you back to Torolf. Why didn’t you remind me you were so hurt?” she scolded.

  “Other things took priority.” I pulled her back in for another kiss even as she protested, trying to take care of my wounds still. “Leave it. I have plenty of blood.”

  “Stubborn dragon.” She shoved me back to the grass and gave each wound one more look over. “I need to cover these before we leave.” She helped me sit up and lifted my shirt to see how bad the wounds were. They stung now that the adrenaline of the fight had worn off, but the water had certainly helped. I might not bleed to death on my way back, at least, thanks to her efforts. She ripped and tore at her dress, working to cover all the wounds.

  “Think I owe you a new dress,” I murmured.

  She tied off another bandage a bit harder than necessary. “I’d like that, though dresses aren’t exactly good for fighting.”

  “And the orb? Is it safe?”

  She glanced about in a panic, then sighed in relief when she found it perched on the grass beside us. “Safe, but damaged.” She held it up for me to see.

  A crack ran right through the center of it.

  “I’m not sure we’ll be able to use it again.”

  “Let’s just get back to the castle first. This is going to be interesting to explain,” I grumbled. “I’m never going to hear the end of it.”

  I winced when she pressed the cloth harder to my hip.

  “Can you stand? I need to wrap this one, too.”

  “I think I can manage.”

  I got to my feet, and she tied another torn piece of her ruined dress around my hips to hold the other in place. Her cheeks burned red as my breeches rode lower, and when she straightened back up, I caught her lips with mine in a quick embrace. But I was growing weaker, and we needed to get back to the others. H
er handiwork would do until we got back to Torolf, and unless she planned on walking, we’d be flying which meant the bandaging was going to fall off anyway. Not that I was going to tell her that just yet.

  She told me to wait, that she was going to the temple to find something to carry the orb in. I made it to the stone archway and admired the maze as it came back to life around us. Vines crawled and stretched as grass sprouted between the stones, lush and full. Vibrant reds and orange leaves covered branches of trees growing between the stone columns. It was a sight, one I could definitely see myself being in for a long time.

  My smile faltered as I pictured a future with Mori. As much as I wanted to be with her, knew it was our destiny, I couldn’t bring myself to see it through. How could I, when Sabella’s vision hung over their three lives like a dark cloud just waiting to descend and kill them all? If I didn’t stay with her, if I didn’t marry her, maybe I could keep her alive.

  “Forrest? What’s wrong?” Mori rushed back to my side, checking the worst wound at my hip, but I gently caught her hands and lowered my mouth to hers, I was never going to tire of kissing her. When it ended, I noticed a leather satchel, beat up but still usable, was slung across her body.

  “Nothing. Ready to go?”

  She nodded, but her eyes narrowed on my face. “Something you’re not telling me?”

  “No, no just bracing for the onslaught of attention we’re going to get once we’re back.”

  “Wait, are we flying back?” she asked distressed. “Your wounds?”

  “I’ll manage. We’re not that far away. I’ve had worse.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” she muttered and draped my arm over her shoulders to help support me.

  I hadn’t felt too weak when I first stood up, but I’d clearly lost more blood than I first assumed. The walk through the maze was much less stressful than our last one, and we talked quietly together about the temple.

  She said the cage was gone and the temple was rebuilding itself. That she sensed no trace of the darkness remaining in her realm. It was the first clear sign of hope that we had a fighting chance against this darkness.

  Once we reached the opening, we stepped through and entered the never-ending night.

  “Any chance we can use the orb?” I asked, knowing the amount of pain I was about to endure from shifting.

  “My light is too weak, and if I use it now, there’s a chance I’ll break it. I can’t tell how extensive the damage is. We can walk. It won’t take us that long.”

  I chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be fine. Just thought I’d ask.”

  I moved away from her, ignoring her protests, and shifted.

  My dragon roared as the wounds ripped and tore, but they only bled a little.

  Mori moved to my side to check them all, muttering under her breath and cursing at my stubbornness.

  Finally, I lowered my shoulder and she climbed onto my back. She held on tight as I pumped my wings and soared up into the clouds. The wounds started to take their toll sooner into the flight than I liked, but the castle was in view when I faltered, and my eyes started to close.

  “You’re losing too much blood,” Mori yelled to me. “Just land!”

  Before I started to circle around to find a good spot in the field to touch down, I shot out a fireball into the sky. Someone at the castle would see it.

  I settled into the grass and Mori barely had a chance to slide off my back before I lost control of my dragon form and fell to my knees in the dirt.

  “You’re going to make me worry too much, aren’t you,” Mori sighed, lifting my shirt to check the multiple injuries I’d endured, and cursed more.

  I glanced down at the bloodied mess and then fell back into the grass.

  “Idiot.”

  “Really? That’s what you’re going to say to me right now? I’m bleeding.”

  “And whose fault is that!” She was still muttering angrily under her breath when the sound of horses rushing toward us met my ears.

  I managed to point.

  Mori rose, waving her arms over her head as she yelled for help. “Here! We’re here! Forrest is wounded!”

  Two wolves reached us before the riders did. Tristan and Boris shifted together.

  “Forrest! By the gods, where the hell have you two been? We thought Baladon stole you away from us,” Tristan growled, taking the hand I held up in offering.

  “We had some business to take care of,” I replied.

  “And that would be what exactly?”

  Boris knelt beside me, checking over my wounds. “You’re going to need stitches, my friend.”

  I let my head fall back with a groan. “Damn.”

  “Can one of you please explain to me what’s happening?” Tristan demanded. “It’s been nearly two days.”

  “it’s my fault,” Mori told him as she removed the satchel from her body and held it out to him.

  “What is this?” he asked confused.

  “Just open the bloody bag,” I growled, the pain starting to get to me.

  Tristan did as I said, then glanced from me to Mori, and back again. “I take it there’s a damned good story to go along with this?”

  “One of the best.” I growled as Boris continued to check my wounds. “Stop poking them, alright? Just get me to Magnus and Lucy. They’ll patch me up.”

  Mori’s hand found mine, and she moved around, lifted my head, and rested it in her lap. “Thank you by the way.”

  “For saving your life again? Anytime, though I think this time it was a tie.”

  She rolled her eyes but leaned down and kissed me.

  I reached back and held her there, kissing her again as she laughed.

  When she sat back up again, both Tristan and Boris were grinning.

  “Shut it, both of you,” I growled.

  “Not saying a word, Forrest, not a word.”

  The riders finally arrived and dismounted.

  Craig and Kate.

  They eyed me and Mori like this was the best day of their lives.

  Sabella was right behind them, muttering something about, “It’s about damned time.”

  Tristan handed her the satchel, and she stared at it, then us, like we’d lost our minds. “What happened to going back there will be a trap, and we can’t risk it?”

  “It was an accident,” Mori said with a shrug.

  “An accident, right, well I’m glad you’re both back alive. And with this, but we have problems.”

  I tried to sit up, but Mori gently pushed me back down, and Boris growled in warning. “What’s wrong?”

  “Drake and Ashan,” Craig told me, his eyes dark with worry, “they never arrived.”

  “And no messages have come from Silver Valley, or Boshen… or Gregornath.”

  “Baladon? Did he attack?” Mori asked the exact question on my lips.

  We’d heard him right before we left, but he might not have been there the whole time we were.

  “We don’t know. We sent riders out a few hours ago, so it’ll be a while before we hear any news, but with the way this war’s going, I doubt it’ll be good.”

  I held Craig’s steady stare before his eyes flickered to Mori.

  The sudden resolve I saw in them made my chest tight.

  Whatever was happening to the rest of the realms could only mean what Sabella saw in her visions was creeping closer by the hour.

  And we still had no way to stop what was coming.

  11

  Mori

  Forrest rested in his room, his hip stitched and bandaged by Lucy and Magnus. The wounds across his chest were covered in salves, and the one at his shoulder also had stitches. His face was a mess, but he managed a few smiles once they were finished and Lucy gave him a draught to help him sleep and quicken the healing.

  Lucy and Magnus said he would wake in a few hours, and until then all I could do was keep him company. I stayed by his side for the first day, but on the second, he woke up long enough to kiss my hand,
and sit up to eat and drink something before he passed out again. I worried the wounds were infected, but Magnus assured me he simply pushed himself too hard, too fast.

  On the third day of waiting for him to recover, Sabella and Kate had a bath drawn for me and found some clothes that would fit since my once pristine glowing dress was ruined, covered in dirt and blood. Forrest’s blood.

  As Forrest’s wounds were tended to, I explained to everyone what happened and apologized for running off and risking Forrest’s life. I also told them about my past with Malcolm; Kate had wiped away tears in her eyes, mumbling something about her being so damned happy and not even sure why she was crying. None of them seemed angry with me. It was quite the opposite actually. Kate and Sabella kept hugging me and saying they were glad Forrest would no longer be alone. They were equally happy and astonished to have the orb back in our possession, even though it was damaged, and I feared it wouldn’t be much use to us. As long as Baladon didn’t have it, though, we had a chance to keep whatever gods remained alive and out of his reach.

  Once I was cleaned up, I dried off and picked up the black breeches and blouse Kate had given me. There were boots too, but I’d never worn shoes in my life. I tugged on the new clothes and admired myself in the mirror. My hair was too long and loose for the fight to come. After having Agaris use it against me, I found a dagger in the wardrobe and hacked it off, so it only hung at my waist. The long locks fell to the floor in a heap, and the stars twinkled out with them. But I was quite alright with that. I braided what remained as tightly as I could to keep it out of the way.

  “If only Agaris could see me now,” I mused sadly, taking in my reflection.

  This was the new Mori. The old Mori was gone. She served her purpose, but this was who I was meant to be. Me and my dragon. I smoothed my hands down my new clothes and smiled. I’d found my true path, and nothing was going to knock me from it now. Agaris’ death weighed on my mind for the first couple of days back, but I knew if she were here now, she’d tell me how proud she was of me for standing my ground. For fighting back and doing what was right, instead of what was easy. I would miss her, and the others, but I no longer felt their absence. Instead, I felt their souls joined with mine. They would always be a part of me, whether I saw them again or not.