by T. A. White
Peter stopped beside her as preparations for the journey to the surface got underway. “This feels very strange.”
“What? Finally killing your enemy?”
His last words to Nathan had given her the clue she’d needed to understand his motivations. Why he kept coming into her orbit despite it being far safer to stay away. And why he’d kept Christopher company for so long.
She’d like to say she should have seen it, but there was no way she could have known his complicated history.
“Your father was just as fixated on revenge.”
It was a trait Peter would be better off not imitating. Though by the looks of things it may already be too late for that.
“You know, I wasn’t lying. My father really did put me to sleep without my permission,” Peter said.
Tate slid him a look. “Something tells me he had more reason than just ensuring a better future for you.”
It was awfully convenient that Peter woke near the same time as Nathan’s resurrection. This was exactly the sort of Machiavellian plot Kenneth would have arranged.
“If he did, he never shared them with me.” Silence passed between them, broken moments later when Peter spoke. “Though, I will admit I’m glad I was able to avenge my mother. It makes those centuries of sleep almost worth it.”
Tate shook her head. “I really hope you’re the only child of those four I meet. Suze and Trace wouldn’t have sent their children into slumber, would they?”
Peter’s expression was heartfelt. “God, I hope not. That person was a complete asshole.”
* * *
It turned out Night really did swallow the warp stone, despite Peter’s admonishments to the contrary.
With Peter guiding him, Night was able to transport those who’d survived to the lawn of the palace, still stained with blood and strewn with the bodies of those responsible for the failed rebellion.
Blade lifted his head to take in their sudden arrival, his lips quirking. Seeing where he was looking the blond Lucius looked up, letting out a sudden laugh while the other Lucius lifted one eyebrow.
“I don’t feel so bad now about the role we had to play,” the blond Lucius said. “You lot look like you’ve tangled with a pack of wolves.”
“Feels like it too,” Dewdrop shot back.
Tate regarded the unexpected trio. “You don’t look so good yourselves.”
None of the men were spotless. Bruises dotted their faces, and the brown-haired Lucius had his arm in a sling and tied to his body. Blood stained their clothes and the way they moved said they’d taken a beating.
“Next time you want to ask us to distract a minor goddess while you stage a foolhardy invasion—don’t,” the blond Lucius said, wincing as he took a step forward.
The brown-haired Lucius focused on Thaddeus. “I take it the problem with the tunnels has been resolved?”
To Tate’s surprise, Thaddeus nodded. “You can return to your courts. The empire thanks you for your service.”
The blond Lucius scoffed as he sauntered away. “As if we ever cared about that.”
The brown-haired Lucius flicked a look at Tyne standing at the back of their group and shook his head. “You play in dangerous waters.”
“Don’t we all,” Thaddeus said as the second Lucius followed the first.
Blade sauntered after them, stopping next to Roslyn. “I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m ready to collect on my debt.”
Roslyn’s face was stony as he kissed her on the cheek and followed the two Lucius’s.
Tate stared at Roslyn. “What’s that about?”
“There was a price to be paid for their help.”
Tate should have expected that. It was the Night Court after all. They weren’t exactly in the habit of performing altruistic acts.
“Do you need my help?” Tate asked after a long pause.
Truly, it should have been her debt since she was the one who instructed Roslyn to ask for that favor.
Roslyn shook her head. “Only I can pay it.”
Tate didn’t argue as she looked after the trio, wondering if she should interfere.
Roslyn flashed her a smile. “Truly Tate, considering the outcome, it’s a debt I am more than willing to take on.”
Dewdrop let out a harrumph. “There are stories about Blade and his debts. I don’t think it’ll be as easy as you think it is to pay.”
After that, Ben took charge of the remainder of the Lord Provost’s guard. Those who hadn’t been killed when Nathan kidnapped the others because they were attending to other duties on the opposite side of the palace.
A few of those guards rushed their injured Lord Provost toward the healers. Roslyn and the duke, each supporting the other, hobbled after them with Archie acting as escort.
Before they disappeared through the doorways, Roslyn sent Tate a tired smile. Tate waved.
The duke had gotten his wish. Roslyn was now a wielder of her very own relic, though its form was different than any relic currently in use, Tate would wager.
She’d very much like to know his thoughts now that he’d seen his daughter in action. Would he find her new talent an acceptable trade?
More than one guard was shaken when they learned the full extent of what had happened. George’s betrayal and the imposter posing as their leader.
Still, they kept their calm, going about their duties in an efficient manner.
Tyne stopped next to Tate, stuffing his hands in his pocket as he watched the bustling activity. “That was a fun little excursion.”
Dewdrop made a derisive sound behind Tate. Skye’s head appeared from behind Dewdrop, and she bared her teeth at Tyne when he looked in their direction.
Night blinked lazily from his spot on the grass.
Tyne’s lips curled upwards. “Something tells me I’m going to enjoy the new blood in our ranks.”
Those around them stiffened as Tyne strolled away, whistling a jaunty tune.
“We should have killed him when we had the chance,” Dewdrop said.
Tate shook her head. “From what they told me, Tyne was pretty useful in the encounter with Nathan, drawing some of his attention from Ryu at critical moments.”
“Not useful enough,” Dewdrop muttered with a look at the blood covered man.
Tate let out a humming sound as Night rose.
There will be time enough to kill him later if we need to. Night prowled in the direction of the city.
“Where are you going?” Dewdrop asked, raising his voice.
To find Mia and the cubs.
Tate shot Dewdrop a look.
“What?”
She tilted her head in Night’s direction while resisting the urge to lift her eyes to the sky in frustration. “Why don’t you help him? He doesn’t know where they are.”
Dewdrop scoffed. “This is Night we’re talking about. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Skye nudged Dewdrop in his back, not being gentle about it.
“Fine. Fine. We’ll help the grumpy Veles track down the others.”
Grumbling, Dewdrop and Daisy’s dragon trailed in Night’s wake. Seeing them go, the other dragonlettes waddled after them.
Tate watched them depart, until Ryu’s presence wrapped around her.
“It’s time.”
Tate nodded and lifted her head to the clear blue sky. Not a cloud marred its depth. It was the calm after the storm.
“We should send someone for Blaise and Jacob,” she said.
They should be here to say their goodbyes.
“Already done. Ben sent people out as soon as we arrived, under his temporary authority as acting Lord Provost.”
Hopefully they would make it in time. From what Daisy had shared, the two had gotten separated from the dragonlettes and the cubs early on when they’d remained behind to fend off the horde of sleepers Nathan had sent after Dewdrop.
No one even knew if the two were alive or not.
Something told her they had survived, however.
Neither man was easily killed.
Knowing the sleepers were after him, Dewdrop had sacrificed himself so the rest could get away, giving the cube to Daisy for safe keeping. Although Tate believed Dewdrop when he said that was what happened, she also knew he’d had more complicated motives.
He’d seen an opportunity to find where the others were being held captive and had taken it. No matter that he’d be a prisoner as well.
It was the sort of half-brained scheme she would expect from a boy who hung around her.
Not content to let him go alone, Daisy and the rest had stashed the twins in a safe place with Mia and followed behind Dewdrop.
Tate would dearly like to know how they managed to get the twins to listen. Such a tactic might come in handy in the future.
With a sigh, Tate pulled herself from her contemplation of the sky, taking the hand Ryu offered and following him to the cliffside stairs.
The black pillar of light had fallen without Nathan’s will to sustain it and the eerie sky had returned to normal.
The atmosphere was solemn as their small party descended. Ryu and Thaddeus carried Thora between them. Tate had offered to take Thaddeus’s place, but he’d denied her saying it was his duty as Thora’s emperor to carry him to his final resting place.
The dragon-ridden were the only ones afforded such an honor.
The descent took almost no time until they were standing before the Rift again, the ocean breeze stirring their hair in a sense of normality that felt jarring after everything that had happened.
Ryu and Thaddeus, carrying Thora, stepped through the Rift first. Tate followed, feeling that odd sensation of being in two places at once settle around her.
The two men set Thora down in the center of the alter and stepped back.
The dragon tilted his head back, his eyes sliding shut. “It’s been so long since I felt the touch of home.”
Tate knelt at his side, reaching down to take his hand once again. Her expression stiffened as a different feeling than she’d had in the tunnels intruded on her conscious.
It was the same as her last visit to the Rift. The press of Ilith’s home just beyond the veil.
Possibilities occurred to her. Excitement threatened to rise which she quickly suppressed, not wanting to get ahead of herself.
“If I were to excise you, would Thora survive?”
The emperor went still on the other side of Thora. “Is that possible?”
Tate ignored him and Ryu, focusing only on Thora and his dragon.
“I would die.” There was no grief or fear in the dragon’s voice; simply a statement of fact.
“Maybe not.”
Tate wished she had the cube on hand right now so she could review its contents again, even though she remembered everything from the many times she’d listened to it. Jax said he’d found a way to excise Ilith. The only thing that had stopped him was the fact she’d perish if her link was severed with Tate.
Tate stilled. That was why he’d opened the Rift. It was an attempt to establish a path for Ilith to travel home. Only he’d failed and the Rift had never been capable of traveling in both directions.
At least until Nathan had done what he’d done and then Tate stumbled into the middle of things, accidentally opening a two-way bridge. A side effect of Tate’s status as the Apportens Mortis.
The dragon studied her with wise eyes. “You would do that for me?”
“There are no guarantees I will succeed. But you will definitely die like this.”
The dragon considered.
“I won’t do it unless you both agree,” Tate continued.
Something like this, the breaking of a bond and the possible death of one, wasn’t an endeavor to be taken lightly. If Tate was to do it, she wanted permission from both parties.
There was sound at the Rift as Jacob and Blaise barreled through, their expressions wild as their gazes landed on Thora’s twisted figure. They hurried toward them.
The dragon’s gaze turned inward in an expression Tate recognized. Ryu and Tate got that same look on their faces when they were conversing with their dragons. It was something Tate hadn’t realized Thora and his dragon could do until right this moment.
“We are willing to risk it,” the dragon rumbled.
Tate squeezed his hand. “Very well. Will you allow his friends to say their goodbyes? Just in case this fails.”
The dragon inclined his head with a pained grunt.
Tate stood, withdrawing to allow Ryu and the rest privacy. Thaddeus joined her, staring in the direction of the snowcapped peaks beyond the hazy fog.
“I’m not sure how I feel about you releasing the minor goddess. The idea that such a powerful entity is in my territory fills me with unease.”
“To tell the truth, I’m not sure either,” Tate confessed.
At that, his gaze came to rest on her. “Then why did you?”
“Once upon a time, my friends advocated for the death of all the Creators’ creations. They stayed their hand because of the possibility those creations might become the very thing this world needed one day.”
And because of that, people like Ryu and Thaddeus were born.
“Ai, her brothers and sisters, they deserve the same chance to make their own fate.”
“Will they become a threat?”
“Who is to say?” Tate slid him a sidelong look. “I guess part of that depends on you and the rest of the humans.”
Thaddeus’s lips twitched. “At least we’re on the same page.”
Tate didn’t know about that, but she was okay with letting him believe it.
Ryu lifted his head and beckoned Tate. They’d finished saying their goodbyes.
“Good luck, lady dragon,” Thaddeus said softly. “I pray for your success.”
Tate walked slowly toward Thora as Blaise and Jacob backed away, their eyes and noses red from crying.
Ryu offered a hand to Tate that she took, allowing him to steady her as she knelt at Thora and the dragon’s side again.
“Are you ready?”
“I am,” they answered.
Tate closed her eyes and reached for that part of her that she’d come to realize was the Apportens Mortis. It answered her call, painting her vision in dozens of colorful lines. She felt carefully, identifying those that belonged to Thora and his dragon. Mentally, she gathered them to her.
“What is your name?”
His name came to her on a whisper. “Naido.”
Ilith rose to share her conscious, lending Tate her strength.
“Goodbye, Naido. Safe passage to the other side.”
Her will moved, the Apportens Mortis flexing. One by one the strands interlocking the two lives severed.
Naido’s dragon came free, his incorporeal form hovering over Thora’s chest as the man’s body reverted slowly, agonizingly to a human’s.
Behind him, Tate felt rather than heard the bell-like toll of the other side. Naido turned to look, joy showing on his face as he flapped his wings and rose into the sky.
Those present held their breath at the incomparably beautiful sight of colorful strands of light embracing his body. Tate didn’t think she was imagining the impression of wings she caught in the prism of colors.
Ilith lurked in the back of her mind, watching the dragon being engulfed by his world until finally the passageway closed, and the Rift was as it had once been.
Nobody spoke, caught between the transcendent experience they’d all just had watching the dragon return home and the worry of what was to come next.
Tate dropped to her knees, reaching for Thora. He groaned, showing signs of life. The dragon-ridden present roared their relief to the sky.
Thora grunted and opened his eyes. “What an unseemly display. Double the training is in your future—just as soon as I can get on my feet again.”
Blaise bent down, his hands gentle as he helped the other man sit up. “For once, I won’t argue about any punishment you choose to give. It’s good to have
you back, old man.”
Jacob was a little more reserved as he patted Thora on the shoulder gently. “I’m glad we don’t have to bury you, my friend.”
Thora’s smile held relief as he looked at Tate. “Thank you.”
Her face was uncomfortable as she waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t mention it.”
His eyes sharpened into a look she was familiar with. “Though I would have liked to have known about that ability sooner. It would have taken a lot of worry off my shoulders over the dragonlettes.”
Yeah, she’d had a feeling that was where his mind would go if he survived. One of the reasons she’d kept it to herself until now.
“I had my reasons.”
It wouldn’t have felt right excising a dragon with no way home and facing certain death, when they’d been kidnapped from that home in the first place.
“I’m sure you did.” Thora focused on the emperor. “What are your orders?”
Thaddeus raised an eyebrow at him. “For now, take some time to recover. Your subordinates can handle the rest.”
Thora let his weight sink against Blaise who was still partially propping him up. His eyes drifted closed. “Not a bad idea. They’ll need practice. One day one of them will need to take my place now that I have a human lifespan again.”
Not quite, Ilith whispered. Naido left him a gift.
“What do you mean?” Tate asked as the others’ eyes came to rest on her.
Though physically weaker, he holds a dragon’s lifespan now.
Tate’s smile widened. “You’ll have to wait a while for retirement, Thora. Ilith says your lifespan is still the same as before.”
His mouth dropped in surprise as Ryu moved. “Jacob, Blaise, take care of things. Tate and I have matters to attend to.”
He stalked toward her, his dragon in his eyes. Tate didn’t move when he reached her, picking her up and carrying her away.
She sent a wave over his shoulder at the dumbfounded expressions, and the look of amusement on the emperor’s face as they disappeared through the Rift.
“Dragon man, is there something you want to tell me?” Tate asked, looping her arms over his shoulders.
Ryu stopped at the top of the steps and touched his cheek to hers. “I never want to see you die again.”