by Hawke Oakley
Kass? Are you there? I called out into the darkness.
A few moments passed where he didn’t respond, and I became worried that our link had been lost somehow. Finally, his voice replied, I’m here, Halo.
Thank gods. Listen, I know I said three months but -
I could hear the shit-eating smirk in his voice. You have no way to tell the passing of time, do you?
I groaned mentally. Shut up.
Don’t worry, Kass promised. You weren’t too far off. The full moon is tomorrow night. That’s when we’re going to attack. He paused. Are you ready? We’re going to need your help. We’ll do what we can, but we need your powers.
That filled me with pride and determination. Yeah. I’m ready. There’s something you should know. Silas leaves the cave every afternoon to go hunting. That would be a good time to show up.
Okay, Kass said. That’s helpful. I’ll tell the others.
I’m… I’m excited to see you again.
Me too. His voice was warm. Well… I should get some rest. It’s going to be a big night tomorrow.
Yeah, I agreed.
We said goodnight, and I was left alone in my cage again. But not for long. Because tomorrow, I would be a free man - forever.
* * *
The hours melted by. I dozed in the corner of my cage, fantasizing to pass the time, when a ferocious, booming roar from around the corner made me jolt upright.
“Go! Now!” Zenon shouted so angrily that the hairs on the back of my neck stood.
A second later Silas stumbled from out of his den, looking exhausted and irritated. He stopped in front of my cage with a death glare.
“What?” I asked uncomfortably.
“This is all your fault,” he muttered. Up so close, I could see the dark bags under his eyes. Was he not getting enough sleep? As I thought about it, I realized he’d been gone a lot lately, sent on hunting trips more frequently as my belly swelled.
“What did I do?”
“It’s that stupid child of yours,” Silas sneered, keeping his voice low, but venomous. “Master is never satisfied with the amount of food I bring back - for you, for him, for that thing.”
I growled, putting my hands on my stomach protectively, hating him call my unborn baby that thing.
“Well, you signed up for all this, so don’t blame me,” I muttered.
Looking almost unhinged, Silas growled at me one last time before shifting into his wyvern form and sloppily launching out of the cavern.
Now, I thought. This is the perfect time for Kass to show up.
I shut my eyes and desperately tried our mental link. I called his name into the darkness, and nearly leapt out of the link when his voice replied, sounding crystal clear.
Halo? Are you there? He asked.
Yes, I said quickly. Where are you? Your voice sounds… closer.
Probably because we are close. We’re right outside the cavern. We just saw Silas leave.
My heart raced. Oh, thank gods!
Hang on, Halo. I’m coming, Kass promised.
The link cut short. My nerves were electrified. Kass was right outside. He was so, so close. We were going to be reunited.
I stood and grabbed the cage bars, my eyes trained on the entrance. Nothing happened. I hesitated, wondering if something had gone wrong. Doubts pooled in my mind.
Then, a flicker in the shadows. My mind didn’t register the forms properly at first - they were dusky red, like the light of torch fire on a rocky crag. But they weren’t light or shadow - they were foxes, slinking low to the floor as they streamed inside the cavern.
I realized they must be Luce’s skulk coming to help me. I was grateful but still confused because I didn’t see Kass among them. Where was he?
Another shadowy form slipped into view. It kept to the walls, moving quickly. When the light touched it, I almost gasped.
Kass!
It took all my willpower not to cry out happily at the sight of him. He rushed forward to the cage and before even saying anything, he kissed me through the bars. I kissed him back, desperately, knowing we both needed this brief moment of intimacy before all hell broke loose.
“You’re here,” I breathed as the kiss ended.
Kass was already at work, digging something out of the pouch slung around his waist. “Of course I am. I told you I’d come.”
“I know, idiot. It’s just romantic, okay?” I muttered.
He smiled and gave me another quick kiss, then pulled out a mechanical device from the pouch. From what I could tell, it was a handheld circular saw.
I leapt back from the cage bars when I realized what it was for. “Wow, not wasting any time, huh?”
Kass growled. “There’s no time to waste.”
Before he started up the device, I noticed the foxes had some gear of their own. All of them wore armor, presumably to defend them from dragon attacks.
“They’re going to fight?” I asked incredulously.
“Hell yeah, we are.”
On the other side of the cage stood James, his fox form’s eyes glinting with determination.
“What did you think?” he asked. “That we were just gonna sit around and watch?”
I shrugged. I honestly had no idea what they had been planning. I looked around and noticed one was missing.
“Where’s Luce?” I asked.
James nodded in the direction of Zenon’s den. “As the beta and leader of the skulk, he took on the most important task. To poison Zenon.”
“What?” I gasped, suddenly filled with dread.
“Why are you so surprised?” James asked. “We’re foxes. We fight dirty.”
I began to panic. “No, it’s not that - Luce shouldn’t - ”
A sudden, thundering roar blasted through the cave, followed instantly by a high-pitched yelp and a sharp thud.
My blood turned to ice.
“Shit,” Kass muttered. His cover blown, he quickly cut through the bars, no longer caring about the amount of noise the saw made.
“Luce?” James called frantically.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the walls, getting ominously closer until Zenon’s dragon appeared, exuding fury. He walked on three clawed limbs - and in his free hand, he held Luce’s limp body. A dart hung loosely from his shoulder. Luce wasn’t able to make a clean shot before Zenon caught him.
The sight made my stomach drop.
“You!” Zenon snarled. The unbridled rage in his voice chilled me straight to the bone.
“Luce!” James shouted.
Halo and the other foxes cried out in grief and confusion. They scattered around Zenon in a loose semicircle, baring their teeth despite their fear. In Zenon’s hand, Luce let out a whimpering groan. He was still alive - for now.
Steel clanged to the ground as Kass finished creating an opening for me. I leapt out of the cage and held out my shackled hands, and he quickly slided them off as well.
But I didn’t even have a moment to relish my freedom from cages and chains. Zenon was attacking the foxes. He swiped a claw through them, more annoyed than angry, like he was holding gnats at bay.
For a split second, the selfish part of me thought about running - of leaving the foxes behind, and escaping, just Kass and my unborn child and I. But the thought of it, even for just a brief moment, sickened me. The foxes returned to fight for me. They revered me. I couldn’t let them die here.
“Let’s go,” I growled to Kass.
Then I transformed. Where a small omega stood a moment ago, now stood a shimmering golden dragon with unimaginable power pulsing through his veins. Kass joined me in shifting. His dragon form towered over mine, his dark blue scales almost black in the low light.
A deep growl rumbled in his throat. “You attack him. I’ll try to protect the foxes.”
We didn’t waste any time. With power thrumming through my body, conjuring spells was easy. All my depleted magic had returned with full force. I launched a clear-magic arrow straight at Zenon’s side. He sn
arled as it struck him. It diverted his attention away from the foxes, and he dropped Luce.
James rushed forward to his friend’s body, grabbing Luce’s scruff in his teeth and dragging him away from the chaos.
We didn’t have time to check if Luce was okay. I needed to attack Zenon and end this as soon as possible.
Zenon raised a clawed fist, intending to smash it down upon the foxes yelping and snapping at his legs. As his fist fell, Kass sprung. He grabbed Zenon’s arm in his razor-sharp teeth and bit down.
Zenon snarled. “Die!”
Kass’s eyes flashed to mine urgently, signalling me to attack.
This is it, I thought.
Magic pooled between my claws. It was my most powerful natural affinity - fire. As Kass held the thrashing Zenon in place, I sent a spear of fire directly at Zenon’s heart. The foxes scattered as the fiery weapon flew through the air. Kass braced himself, then at the last moment, let go so he couldn’t be caught in the fire.
But as the spear struck Zenon’s chest, nothing happened. The fire fizzled out into smoke and vanished.
Zenon laughed. “You did not learn after the first time, did you, Halo?”
The realization hit me too late. I should have known Zenon was immune to fire because of the first time we met - when I’d engulfed myself in flames to keep him away.
“Shit,” I muttered, feeling stupid and angry.
While I was thrown off guard, Zenon sent his clawed hand sprawling. He backhanded Kass in the face, and my mate cried out as one of Zenon’s claws caught his eye. He flew back into the cavern wall, grasping at his face.
“Kass!”
I tried to rush to his side, but Zenon cut me off. “You’re mine, Halo. You belong to me!”
He grabbed my shoulders. Instinctively, my body set itself on fire, but of course that wouldn’t work. But as Zenon laughed, I took that time to try something else. I summoned the earth beneath his feet and wrapped his lower body in hard rock.
Zenon shook his head. “You’re losing your edge, Halo. Don’t you know earth is my elemental affinity? How do you think I turned Silas to stone?”
I didn’t care about his stupid monologue. As he spoke I quickly grabbed Kass and pulled him out of the way. Blood poured out of his left eye, which swelled shut.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No,” Kass admitted, gritting his teeth, “but I can handle it for now.”
Disoriented by the bloody wound in his eye, Kass struggled to get up. I couldn’t let him get hurt anymore - not Kass, not the foxes, and not my child. I had to finish this fight.
I snarled, flaring out my wings and facing Zenon. “Come, then. If you want to own me, prove it.”
Rocks exploded from Zenon’s lower body as he freed himself. I was already gone, shooting out of the cavern’s mouth and into the open sky. I knew Zenon would follow. With a quick glance, I confirmed it. His huge form was slower than mine, but he was right on my tail. His eyes were crazed.
I took a sharp turn. Zenon barrelled ahead, swatting at the air, growling in frustration when he caught nothing.
The evening turned even colder in the sky. Magic sparked in the air, like the calm before a storm.
A storm! That’s it!
I remembered what happened last time. Zenon had been immune to fire, but only before I struck him with lightning.
All I needed was a big bolt. Air and water magic twisted together in my blood, and the energies began to form in the sky.
I climbed higher, pumping my wings hard. Zenon hurled curses at me as he followed.
Storm clouds darkened and thunder rolled.
“Give up and return to me, Halo!” he snarled. “I treated you right, unlike that weak alpha!”
I’ll show you who’s weak, I thought angrily. Fury surged through me as I thought of Kass’s eye, bloody and injured. I wanted my revenge - for Kass, and for everything Zenon put me through.
“You want me so bad, Zenon?” I taunted. “You can’t even catch me!”
Thunder rolled louder now, booming so loud it shook the trees.
Something grabbed my ankle. I shrieked as claws dug into my scales and I was pulled downward.
“I just did, Halo,” Zenon sneered, a cold grin on his face.
Now!
Lightning struck. Bright, colorless light consumed everything. The thunder cracked a moment later, like the sound of the earth breaking in two. It wasn’t until the sound of the thunder died that I realized Zenon was screaming.
He was on fire again - the magical force of my lightning had stripped his immunity away, leaving him ablaze.
But his claws were still wrapped around me. As as he fell, so did I.
I screamed. The ground neared at a breakneck speed. I couldn’t get out of Zenon’s grip. He was too strong, and too heavy.
Am I going to die like this?
A royal blue blur sliced through the air, and for a moment, I was free-falling. Then a pair of strong arms grabbed me, just a hundred feet before I hit the ground. My stomach lurched.
“I’ve got you,” Kass growled, his voice strained from pain.
“What - ”
Below, Zenon’s body hit the ground. A sickening crunch filled the air as his neck broke. His body continued to burn.
I realized what happened. Kass had sliced through Zenon’s burning wrist. I groaned in disgust and kicked it off. “Gross!”
“Are you okay?” Kass asked. “Can you fly?”
“Yes - sorry.”
I wriggled out of his grip and flew on my own. As I did, Kass let out a shaky breath - he was struggling just to keep himself in the air.
“Kass,” I began, worried, but he cut me off.
“Come on. Let’s make sure he’s really dead this time.”
We lowered ourselves to where Zenon’s body burned. A hideous smell rose from the flames. Unable to take it, I finally summoned the rains from the dark, swollen storm clouds. Rain descended upon us. It put out the fire and dissipated the smoke.
We shifted to human form. Rain dripped down Kass’s face, washing the blood from his closed eye. I don’t know how long we stood there and stared, but eventually the foxes joined us in the valley below the mountain. They shifted, too, but none of them spoke for a while.
“Is he dead?” James finally asked.
I did the honors of approaching the body. Zenon’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle. Holes ripped in his wings where he hit the rocky ground. He didn’t move.
“Yes,” I declared.
“Well… That’s it, then,” the fox Halo murmured.
James suddenly groaned. “Not quite.”
We looked up and saw a dark shape approach - a wyvern. Silas gasped and dropped the dead prey to the ground before he scrambled to the ground.
“What happened?” he cried. “Master!”
“He’s dead,” Kass said bluntly. “And you will be, too, if you don’t get out of my sight.”
Silas raised his head. Genuine tears rolled down his face. But to my surprise, he didn’t attack. His shoulders slumped, like all the fight just vanished from his body.
“Well?” Kass prompted.
“No,” Silas said, shaking his head. “I’m… tired. I don’t want to live in a world without him.”
I winced at his words. Despite hating him, I understood some of his feelings. I wouldn’t want to live without Kass, either.
But I didn’t expect what Silas did next. He picked up his sword - the one he’d used to torment me with in the past - and before anyone could stop him, he plunged it through his own chest.
We watched in horrified silence as he let out a choked cry, then slumped against Zenon’s body. Both of them were dead.
Kass turned to the foxes. His face was neutral, except for the wince of pain from his eye. “Where is Luce?”
My heart clenched in fear.
“He’s alive, but hurt,” James said, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Kass nodded. “I’ll get him. Then
we’re going to return home. Is that clear?”
Kass’s assumption of leadership stirred us from our daze. He shifted and quickly returned to the cave to collect an unconscious Luce, and then all of us began the journey back to Cinderhollow.
21
Kassius
My eye never healed. Zenon’s claw had damaged the tissue too badly for it to be repaired, even with magic and in the end, I was blind in that eye. Halo had taken it harder than I did - blaming himself - but it didn’t bother me so much. I convinced Halo it wasn’t his fault and that I didn’t mind after the initial adjustment period. And besides - I knew he thought the black leather eyepatch was sexy.
I’d used the time Halo spent in the Death’s Peak cavern to do some serious homesteading. With the leftover money from four centuries ago being worth a hell of a lot more in the present day, it was enough to buy us a new home, and Halo was excited to see it. It was a red-brick home, like the old style of house in our time, cozy and sitting atop a hill surrounded by a garden.
“It’s beautiful, Kass,” he had said.
After Luce was taken to the hospital and began healing, the foxes nicely settled into Cinderhollow. I was glad to see them become part of our tribe, especially after all they’d done for Halo and I.
He’d been exhausted from the battle with Zenon, and after the adrenaline faded, he was utterly exhausted for a week straight.
Well, the fact that we had a lot of sex during that time probably didn’t help, either.
* * *
It was a cool morning, three months after our final battle, and I found Halo struggling to put the apron over now substantially swollen belly.
“Damn apron,” he muttered. “Why don’t they think about pregnant omegas when they make these things?”
I chuckled and helped him put it on, although it ended up stretched and ill-fitting. “What are you doing, anyway? I’m supposed to be the one making you breakfast.” I gestured to a kitchen chair. “Come on. Sit down.”
“No way.” Halo tied the apron string, then grunted as he bent over to root around the cabinets. “I’m so sick and tired of just sitting around and not doing anything. It gets boring.”
