by M. D. Grimm
Asagoroth dove sharply, and Trystan gasped in surprise. Wind whistled past his ears as he realized what Asagoroth saw. Anna was being dragged into the dungeon spire by two guards. She was giving them a good fight, but she couldn’t overpower them.
That’s why Trystan had the freaking dragon.
Asagoroth’s chest expanded, and Trystan felt a flare of heat climb up Asagoroth’s massive neck and settle in his head. Blue fire spewed out of Asagoroth’s mouth, yet he didn’t aim for the angels, but the spire itself. The cold material melted instantly, and the guards stumbled backward, losing their grip on Annalise in their shock.
Annalise ripped away from them and looked up, her jaw dropping. The guards had the same reaction, but Annalise recovered quicker. She leapt into the sky, flapping hard toward them. Trystan held out his hand, and she gripped it, spinning around to sit behind him. Asagoroth turned away from the spire, but not before Trystan saw two demons pop out of nowhere and attack the guards.
“You did it!” Annalise crowed, hugging him tightly. “Oh, by the Light, Trystan, you did it!”
He looked over his shoulder. “I didn’t do it alone.”
Annalise lifted her head, and he saw the triumph in her eyes, in her large grin.
“No, you didn’t.” She reached over and cautiously patted Asagoroth’s scales. A rumble sounded from him, and she grinned with childlike glee. “He is truly magnificent, Trystan.”
“I know.” Yeah, maybe he sounded a tad arrogant.
Anna laughed. But then she looked up and her smile seemed to freeze. Trystan looked up as well to see a large demon keeping pace with them. He wore a dragon’s scale that was big enough—or small enough—to cover his chest completely, from his shoulders to his hips. It was strapped in place by leather cords. The scale was like a shard of onyx.
Asagoroth rumbled a purr of satisfaction, and even as Trystan puzzled over what the scale signified, he caught the direction of the demon’s gaze. He was looking intently at his sister. A flash of possessiveness had Trystan gripping Annalise’s arms tightly and glaring at the demon.
“Trystan.”
He met his sister’s gaze. He could see the nerves in her smile even as excitement brightened her eyes.
“I’m not exempt. And I don’t want to be.”
He struggled internally but let go of her arms. She kissed his cheek, lingering over it, and he felt her devotion through the touch. She pulled back before tugging playfully at his hair.
“This isn’t good-bye, brother. Never again will it be good-bye.”
Then she was gone, flying straight toward a demon who, he had to admit, matched her perfectly. Intelligence showed in his bright-green eyes, strength in his muscled body, and when he wrapped his arms around Annalise, there was an adoring smile on his broad face. Trystan had to look away, and he gripped Asagoroth’s horn tighter.
“Everything will be as it should,” Asagoroth said.
Trystan laid his cheek on Asagoroth’s head. “I hope so. I really hope so.”
Epilogue
“They are odd creatures, aren’t they?” Trystan said as he hovered in the air, fisted hands on his hips. He tilted his head this way and that, considering the newest additions to the Middle Realm.
“Quite odd. Wingless. I could not have predicted that.” Asagoroth stood upon the ground, considering the small group as Trystan did. Trystan continued to hover near Asagoroth’s head, watching his sister care for her child, who was pink, pudgy, and wingless, as Asagoroth said.
“Do you think they might develop wings as they grow older?” Trystan asked.
“I cannot begin to guess what future the Light Bringer has planned for them.”
Trystan touched Asagoroth’s head, leaning against his dragon. He saw the evident love in Annalise’s eyes as she stared at her progeny. Her mate, a demon named Lasher, knelt beside her, staring down at his child with just as much love.
Quite a few angels and demons did, indeed, become permanent mates after the Great Union, which was what that event nine months before was called. Most didn’t, however. Many demons and angels returned to their designated realms. Many females of both peoples gave birth to their children in the Middle Realm and then abandoned them. Those mated pairs like Annalise and Lasher adopted them as their own. There were also several same sex couples that adopted as many of the abandoned children as they could.
Trystan alighted upon the ground and folded back his wings. He walked over to his sister, who beamed a smile at him despite her exhausted eyes. She’d had a hard labor.
“Is it a girl or boy?” He knelt beside her. She lay on the ground, in a bed of leaves.
“A girl,” she said. “I wish her name to be Zahra.”
The name meant “light.” Trystan smiled and touched the infant’s head. The skin was warm and soft, and that surprised him.
“That is a good name,” he said.
“A very good name,” Lasher said in guttural Low Enochian. He was a tall, muscled demon with black skin, similar to the look of Asagoroth in his other form. He had no horns, but his wings were leathery and tipped with spikes. He was beautiful in a masculine way, and Trystan had to admit Lasher and Annalise made a fine couple. Trystan eyed the demon, knowing he had every reason to trust him. It was obvious to everyone that Lasher would saw off his own arm if Annalise asked it of him. Even after all this time it was still so strange to be on speaking terms with any demon other than Asagoroth.
Lasher always wore the onyx scale that now flashed with a rainbow of colors in the Middle Realm, proving its origins. It was, indeed, one of Asagoroth’s scales, given to Lasher’s ancestor during his time with Roland. It made Trystan trust Lasher even more.
Throughout the duration of the pregnancies, most of the women had stayed in the Middle Realm, finding it easier to carry to term in this place rather than their birth realms. Everyone had theories but no one really knew why.
Trystan was sure the angels that had left would pretend the Great Union never happened. And the demons, well… Lasher said the demons knew the Middle Realm wasn’t for them. Not for the long run. Yet that couldn’t be entirely true since Lasher and many others had decided to stay. The truth was, no one really knew what the future would hold for them.
Trystan glanced over as Asagoroth stretched out his neck, slowly approaching the infant. Trystan was pleased that Annalise didn’t so much as tense. While Asagoroth still caused fear in many, at least Annalise had grown comfortable with him. She even angled Zahra so he could get a better look at her.
Asagoroth sniffed the infant, who suddenly opened her eyes. She made a strange snuffling sound before she reached out a little pudgy hand and slapped Asagoroth’s snout.
Trystan snorted out a laugh. Asagoroth eyed him, his look was full of humor.
“If they are all as brave as she,” Asagoroth said, pulling back, “then they will be strong creatures indeed.”
Trystan grinned.
There were other couples around them, and some in other pockets in the forest. Three more infants lay in mossy beds, wrapped in blankets, beside Lasher and Annalise. They were the adopted ones, and Trystan knew his sister and her mate would love them as if they were of the same flesh and blood.
A female angel suddenly walked out of the forest, a bundle in her arms. She was too old to procreate, and she’d bonded with a female demon who was now her mate. Derra had stayed in the Middle Realm to help with the births. They were lucky to have her.
She stopped short when she saw Asagoroth, and fear flickered in her eyes. But when he only looked at her and didn’t move, she started forward again, though a little stiffly. Trystan couldn’t blame her. He still looked at Asagoroth with awe even after a year of being together.
“Annalise, how are you doing?” Derra asked.
“I am well, thank you.” Annalise handed Zahra to Lasher, who rocked her, sending the baby right to sleep.
Derra looked at the other three infants and sighed. “I see you have a brood of your own.
I would not want to burden you with another.”
Trystan looked at the bundle in her arms. “Surely someone else can—?”
Derra shook her head. “No, many have five and can take no more. It is too bad. He is a sweet little one.”
Trystan didn’t know what came over him but he suddenly held out his arms. “May I see him?”
He could feel everyone’s eyes on him—especially Asagoroth’s—but he only wanted to see the child!
Derra’s eyes widened as she obediently came over and set the infant in his arms. Trystan had to take a moment to angle his arms correctly before accepting and holding the baby. He looked down at the small face and felt an odd tenderness wash over him. It was strange and completely unexpected. With trembling fingers, he pushed the blanket a little away from the infant’s face and was suddenly blasted with two intense blue eyes. The baby looked at him and Trystan froze, wondering if he would start crying. They seemed to enjoy doing that a lot. But the baby just looked at him, as if considering him.
Trystan raised an eyebrow. “What, little one? Confused, are you? We all are.”
Annalise chuckled.
The baby snuffled and continued to stare. Trystan stared back in silence, wondering what they would do with a child no one could claim.
There was a pulse in the air and a loud crack and Derra gasped. Annalise chuckled again. Trystan didn’t need to turn to see Asagoroth had shape-shifted into his other form. Still, he looked over his shoulder to see Asagoroth fold his wings under his arms, around the front of his body, using them as a covering for his naked form. Then he came over to Trystan and knelt beside him, considering the baby.
The baby turned his attention to Asagoroth and snuffled again. Asagoroth leaned forward and, with one slender finger, touched the baby’s cheek and stroked his skin. The baby hiccupped but didn’t cry or even look like he wanted to cry. He just stared, curious, and looked dazed, as the rest of them were.
“I like him,” Asagoroth decided. “He is quiet.”
Trystan giggled. Asagoroth didn’t like the babies crying either.
“He seems to be for now,” Trystan said.
“Wait until he’s hungry,” Derra said dryly.
Trystan turned his head, realizing Asagoroth’s face was close to his. Their eyes met.
“What shall we do with him?” Trystan asked softly.
Asagoroth considered him for a long moment before saying, quite casually, “What would you like to name him?”
Trystan’s breath hitched. His dragon could always see right through him.
“Are you sure?” he said on a breath of sound.
Asagoroth smiled and rested his chin on Trystan’s shoulder, leaning into him. Trystan closed his eyes a moment, shuddering out a breath.
“I love you,” Trystan whispered.
“I know.”
Trystan grinned and glanced at Annalise, who was smiling with wet eyes. He looked back at the baby—his son—and knew what name he wanted for him. It was the name of the first angel the Light Bringer had created.
“Adam,” he said.
Adam looked at him, blue eyes still dazed, but Asagoroth’s continued stroking of his cheek had their son drifting toward sleep. Soon the little babe closed his eyes and lay heavily in Trystan’s arms.
Even as Adam fell asleep, one of Annalise’s adopted children began to fuss and cry.
“Lasher,” she said, gesturing.
Immediately Lasher picked up a little girl they had named Eve and set her in Annalise’s arms. Trystan looked away as Annalise fed her daughter and knew he’d ask his sister to do the same with Adam. He knew she wouldn’t object.
“Asa?”
“Trystan?”
Trystan smiled and leaned into his mate. “Let us teach them. Let us teach all of them. The lifespans of those who live in the Middle Realm are finite”—and that was a sorrow he would not think of often—“and I do not know how many lifetimes of these children we shall see before it is our time to end. But let us teach them and guide them for as long as we can. I wish to see them flourish. Would you be agreeable to that?”
“You lead, I shall follow.”
Trystan snorted and pulled back, watching Asagoroth’s face. “Didn’t you once tell me that you are Dragon, and you lead while demons follow?”
Asagoroth lifted his head, and his eyes were sober as they met Trystan’s gaze.
“I am your dragon, dear angel. You lead, and I shall follow.”
Overcome with love, Trystan kissed his dragon, and Asagoroth pushed into it, one hand coming to stroke Trystan’s back, his wings. Trystan held Adam closer as sensation pulsed through his body.
“I would like to teach them as well,” Annalise said.
They pulled back, and Trystan looked at his sister. “Good, because you’re the knowledge keeper, not me.”
Annalise smiled.
They were all chosen for this. Even him. No one could have guessed how the One Who Brought the Light would design them and their world, him least of all. Trystan looked at his son, relished the comfort of his mate by his side, and though he had no clue as to what the future might bring, he was eager, for the first time, to find out.
###
About This Book
Welcome readers to the second edition of “On Wings of Thunder!” I am thrilled to finally be able to make it available for purchase once again. I revised the text just a tad, adding and subtracting a few things. I hope it enhanced the story for you. After reading it over again, I am still immensely proud of it, and find it amusing that I once thought this was a stand-alone. What a foolish person I was! Not only does it have a prequel (second edition coming soon) but I plan on writing two sequels. So there will eventually be four stories dealing with this world and these characters. Exciting stuff.
This story was my first to involve a dragon. I adore dragons. They are my favorite. And, of course, I’ve always wanted to write about one (or two or three...) but for the longest time I never found the right plot and setting to bring my desire to life. Then I saw a wonderful picture on Deviant Art and it sent my plot bunny into overdrive. I still sat on it though, letting it percolate and simmer in the back of my mind. Then I finally let it out. Trystan and Asagoroth’s story poured from my fingers and was probably one of the fastest first drafts of my life! I was convinced it would be a solid stand-alone. We see how well that worked out....
So welcome new readers and old, to the mildly revised edition of my first true bestseller. I hope it wets your appetite for the future installments. The second edition of “On Wings of Passion” will be available soon. I hope to have the next two available sometime in the near future.
Until then, stay safe, stay sane, and....
May dragons guard your dreams,
M.D. Grimm
About M.D. Grimm
M.D. Grimm has wanted to write stories since second grade (kind of young to make life decisions, but whatever) and nothing has changed since then (well, plenty of things actually, but not that!). Thankfully, she has indulgent parents who let her dream, but also made sure she understood she’d need a steady job to pay the bills (they never let her forget it!). After graduating from the University of Oregon and majoring in English, (let’s be honest: useless degree, what else was she going to do with it?) she started on her writing career and couldn’t be happier. Working by day and writing by night (or any spare time she can carve out), she enjoys embarking on romantic quests and daring adventures (living vicariously, you could say) and creating characters that always triumph against the villain, (or else what’s the point?) finding their soul mate in the process.
Other Titles by M.D. Grimm
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On Wings of Thunder
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Single Title
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