by JD Monroe
Then he thrust up to meet her, driving into her with a desperate need. It was almost too much, right on the sharp edge between pain and pleasure. But she felt his desire, molten hot and tinged with desperation, felt the crackling warmth of pleasure in pulsing waves as he buried himself in her. She clutched his shoulders tight, legs shaking with the effort of matching his rhythm.
All she could think about was the warm, melting place between her legs. Even as she feared she might lose her mind completely, she opened herself further. She wanted him to know that there was nothing held back, nothing of her that he could not have.
Her power entwined them completely, binding them with that golden light. For just a moment, she was in his body. She felt the sweet, hot pleasure of herself wrapped around him, felt the softness of her skin against his. She didn’t know where she ended and he began, only that they were drowning in heat and light.
With a clipped shout, he thrust hard into her, and his arms tightened around her until she could barely breathe. She stood in the ocean with warm waves slamming into her and dragging her under. With a sharp gasp, she clenched tight around him. Their pleasure was entangled, drawing them both deep into a mindless haze.
She let out a half-sob as her muscles trembled, aftershocks rolling through her. He shifted slightly, and she moaned, “No. Not yet. Stay.”
Instead, he gently stroked her back, lips buried in the curve of her neck. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. Never,” she said. She kissed his temple, then pulled away enough to look into his gleaming eyes.
He lowered his gaze. “Whatever happens, I—”
“Kaldir!” she scolded. “Please don’t.”
He kissed her brow, then placed one finger over her lips. “Please just let me speak. I know you don’t want to hear it. But I have to say it.” He cupped her scarred cheek. His thumb gently caressed the ridge over her cheekbone. “From the moment you told me I was yours, it was so. I never thought it possible, but I love you more now than I did then. When it is my time to enter the Skymother’s halls, then the first thing I will do is tell her that the greatest honor of my life was to know you.”
Her chest tightened, her eyes stinging. “Which will not be for a very long time.”
“I hope so.”
She covered his hand, pressing it to the raised scars. “It only seems fitting that you were the one to save me. When I left Ironhold, I was angry and hurt. But deep down, I still loved you. I didn’t realize how much until I saw you again.” She narrowed her eyes. “And if you find yourself in the Skymother’s halls sooner than I’d like, you can deliver a message. Tell her to send you back, or she’ll have me to deal with.”
His jaw dropped. “Sohaila!”
“You heard me,” she said. She placed her hands on his cheeks, holding him firmly so he had to stare into her eyes. “Promise me that you won’t be stupid. You will fight bravely, but you will be smart. And you will come back to me.”
“If it is in my power to come back to you, then I will,” he said. “There is nowhere I would rather be. You have my word.”
She leaned in to seal his promise with a kiss. “Then we have nothing else to worry about.”
He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re right.” He leaned back, taking her with him to nestle into the bed. His skin was still blazing hot, like stone baked in the sun. “I hope you are not disappointed. I am very tired. I’m not sure I could do that again.”
“Kaldir, if we did that again, you would have to leave me here for a month to recover,” she said, laying her cheek against his chest, where she could still feel the feverish pounding of his heart. “I am very pleased.”
With his amber eyes already closing, he chuckled. His arm curled around her, like a shield to fend off her fears. “Good.”
Within a minute, he’d drifted off, his breathing slow and even. As he fell away into a much-deserved sleep, she sent the tiniest tendrils of her power into him to search for any weakness he had hidden. A small cut on his arm had been partially healed, but the muscle beneath was still fragile. She healed it slowly, watching him carefully to see if he stirred. He shifted slightly, holding her tighter, but didn’t wake.
Watching him closely, she knit together his hidden wounds, infusing her energy into him. She’d had time to rest while they breached Ironhold, and had much of her strength to pass on to him. When she felt satisfied with her mending, she released another gentle surge of power, this time sending it to rest in his bones, wrapping around his heart, strengthening his muscles. She wove herself through every part of him, until she could imagine a thousand tiny golden threads binding him together.
You will come back to me, she thought, listening to his heart. You have to.
By noon the next day, the bedraggled group of Kadirai warriors was gathered on the steps of the palace of Ironhold, ready to fly into battle once again. Sohaila’s body was tense, her stomach unsettled as she surveyed the buzz of activity. Compared to the relative quiet of the previous evening, Ironhold was now more like she remembered it, with people bustling in the streets and dragons heading south to join the massive formation outside the city. Kaldir had left her early that morning to meet with the current head of the Iron Blade, dividing their forces and preparing for the siege on Farath.
She’d spent the morning raiding the kitchens and sent Enalah down to the marketplace in search of small jars and vials. An hour later, a dozen merchants had sent crates full of glassware to suit her needs. Meanwhile, Virnan had acquired several crates of dried herbs and other supplies. Everything had been loaded with their other cargo.
Sohaila sat on the edge of one of the crates, gently rubbing Virnan’s shoulders. “Do you regret leaving the temple?” she asked him.
“Do you?”
“No,” she said. “Not for a moment.”
“Neither do I,” he replied. “I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.” He glanced back at her. “If this doesn’t go well, I just want you to know it’s been an honor to serve you.”
She frowned. “Not you, too.”
The Scalebreakers gathered gradually, until she counted all of them present. As the first of the noon bells rang out, Marlena and Velati walked out of the palace. Sohaila half expected them to walk up to her and say they’d changed their plan after Velati reconsidered.
But Marlena beckoned to her as they approached. “Sohaila, I had a thought this morning,” she said. Her tone was casual, but tension framed her eyes. “Should we try to shift here so I can get used to it? Velati said that flying for the first time is hard.”
He avoided her gaze. “He’s right,” Sohaila said. “But if you want a trial run, we’ll have to delay everything. The first time you change is hard, and when you change back, you’re going to have to rest for a few days.”
“And we don’t have that kind of time,” Marlena said. Her jaw clenched. “All right. It was just an idea.”
“A good one,” Sohaila said warmly. “I think you’ll figure it out just fine.”
Thaleza and Miko approached, hauling a huge tangled mass of leather straps. With a grunt of effort, they dropped it on the stairs. “Sir, we found this,” Thaleza said. “One of the palace guards said the Aesdar was wearing it when they hit the city.”
They circled around the mass, untangling it. It took them several minutes to get it laid out flat, revealing a massive harness sized for one of the monstrous Aesdar.
“What are these?” Marlena asked. She lifted one of the foot-wide straps. Hundreds of small loops were sewn to the underside. Here and there, a fist-sized globe of silver hung from a loop. Velati’s eyes widened.
“Careful,” he murmured. “That’s what shredded my back at Haven.”
She tilted it up to the light. “I don’t think it’s the same. Those were solid metal.” The bottom portion of the globe was made of glass, with thin silver wire wrapped around it. “You think the Aesdar dropped these?” She ran her hand over the strap again.
&nb
sp; “Like a bomber jet,” Velati said. His diction shifted strangely as he said it.
“Bomar-jet,” Sohaila mused. “A what?”
Marlena smiled. “Something from our world. I bet this harness was loaded with these things.”
“Zahila said the Aesdar rained poison all over the city,” Sohaila said. “Maybe that’s how.”
Marlena shook her head. “It’s clever,” she said. She made a pulling motion across her body. “Someone on its back could have pulled a cord and dropped them.”
“Is that something we could replicate?” Sohaila asked.
Velati shook his head. “Not with the time we have,” he said. “But if there’s anything you can do to protect us from the poison, that would be helpful. I can’t imagine Sidran would only use it this once.”
“I can work on that when we get to the outpost,” she said. “I have ideas.”
“I have no doubt.” He gestured broadly to the gathered Scalebreakers. “It’s time.”
All around her, dragons shifted. Virnan neatly folded his clothes, then knelt to shift into his deep blue-scaled form. She rested her hand on his side, sending a warm pulse of energy into him. “Keep him in your sight,” she murmured, a gentle prayer to the Skymother. Ahead of them, Velati rose into the sky and banked in a graceful arc, flying east.
Sohaila’s stomach lurched as Virnan took off, falling into the diamond-shaped formation behind him. Enalah was close behind them, her green scales gleaming in the early morning sun. She burrowed deeper into her travel cloak, thankful for the heavy wool to keep her warm.
Then there was a sound like thunder ripping across the sky. From the south, the Iron Blade began to rise. Rippling from one edge to the other, they took to the skies. They looked like a sheet of dark silk, undulating in the gentle breeze.
Though it was not an hour of prayer, the bells in the temple rang out, slow and mournful. Her heart thumped as she watched them fly. The Iron Blade was not a loose collection of individuals, but a well-trained body that followed orders. A thousand flew like one. And if Kaldir had honed them as well as she suspected, the Iron Blade would be an unstoppable weapon. She only hoped it would be enough to save them all.
It was dark and bitterly cold when the Scalebreakers finally landed in the outpost in the Slaterun Valley, tucked into the Azure Peaks. Two spiraling towers granted a high vantage of the surrounding valley. They were near the river, and unlike much of the Stoneflight lands, the ground here had somewhat recovered from the Great War. Thin patches of grass clung to the rocky soil.
Immediately after landing, Thaleza and Miko’s riders dismounted, while Zahila and Vikosh shifted into bird form to fly to the city with them. The Iron Blade landed half a mile out, breaking into smaller formations to form a dense perimeter around the outpost. They didn’t bother with campfires; her people were nearly all flame dragons, and would be perfectly comfortable even with the icy chill in the air.
As she watched them land, she wondered what her life would have been like if not for the Skymother’s call. Would she have been among the Iron Blade still, flying into battle at Kaldir’s command? It was a glimpse of another life; bittersweet, though not unpleasant.
With help from Virnan and Enalah, Sohaila and Citra hauled their crates of supplies into the large outpost. Wishing for a heavier cloak, Sohaila lingered at the hearth to warm her hands and brewed a pot of tea. She had just poured a cup when she caught Kaldir’s familiar scent amidst the earthy richness of her tea. “Would you like some?” she asked without turning around.
“Maybe just a taste,” he replied. Warm hands slid around her waist, and she turned to grant him whatever he liked from her lips. “Sweet and warm. Just as expected.”
She chuckled. “Is everything well with the Iron Blade?”
“As much as it can be,” he said. “I plan to sleep outside with them tonight. Though I would much prefer to lie with you, I want them to know I am with them.”
“I could stay with you,” she said hopefully. “So you don’t have to be alone.”
He shook his head. “You’re already cold,” he said, gently touching her cheek. His hand felt even warmer than usual against her wind-chilled skin.
She sighed. “I don’t often miss my dragon, but this is one of those times.”
He chuckled and leaned in, resting his hand on her hip. “Besides, it would be the worst torture of all to lie next to you and keep my hands off.”
She smirked at him. “I suppose I’ll allow it. Go on.”
His eyes twinkled with mirth. “You’ll allow it? Do I answer to you now?”
“Don’t you?”
He laughed, such a rare sound that she hated to hear it end. “I suppose I do. Good night, my comet. Stay warm.” But as he left, a thought struck her. The dragons outside were not Scalebreakers. They were well-trained, but the Aesdar were far more dangerous to them than to Kaldir’s elite force. Leaving her tea in the kitchen, she chased after him. He jolted in surprise as she caught his arm. “Are you all right?”
“Take me with you,” she said. “I can’t give the Kiss to everyone, but maybe…would it be silly to pray with them?”
He tilted his head. “It would be many things, but silly is not on that list.”
For the next hour, she walked through the camp with Kaldir, who knew each of the soldiers by name. She recognized a few, though they were taken aback to see her in the healers’ blue. Some of the soldiers had already gone to sleep, but some eased their nerves by talking quietly.
Though she felt awkward, she walked up to each soldier she saw and asked if she could bless them. A few rose to greet her, but she waved them off, instead kneeling next to them and asking if she could touch them. She would never remember all the hundreds of names, but she gave each one her full attention for as long as she could.
Her feet ached from trudging over the uneven stone by the time Kaldir gently tugged on her arm. They hadn’t made it through the entire formation, but most of the Iron Blade were asleep now. It was pleasantly quiet and warm amidst hundreds of sleeping flame dragons.
Hand-in-hand, they walked back toward the outpost in fraught silence. There was nothing to say that they hadn’t said last night, but it felt wrong to be quiet. Even though she hated it, some fearful voice in her murmured this could be it. Don’t let him go. She squeezed his hand tightly, savoring the feel of his pulse beneath her fingers, the tingling current of his power washing over her.
“You should get some sleep,” Kaldir said.
“You’re right. I want to be at my best.” His eyebrows lifted, and she smirked at him. “You thought I’d argue with you, didn’t you?”
“I can’t imagine where I got that idea,” he replied. “Good night, my beautiful comet.”
“Good night, my little spark.”
Sleep did not come easily as Sohaila contemplated the worst possible scenarios, each one painted in stunning, bloody detail. Well before dawn, she rose and started a large batch of antidote for the poison that had rained down on Ironhold.
While the pot simmered, she bundled herself in her cloak and walked outside to pray under the open sky, where she would be in the Skymother’s sight. Like she was simply talking to an old friend, she talked quietly into the stillness, beseeching the Skymother for her protection and guidance. When the sun crept over the horizon, she rose with aching knees and chilled bones. The Skymother would do her part, and Sohaila had to do hers.
Citra was up and about by the time Sohaila walked back inside. With her help, Sohaila opened the globe they’d taken off the harness. The powder inside smelled foul. Using it as a base, she and Citra created a traditional Marashti remedy that would neutralize the poison. It wouldn’t repair all the damage it wrought, but it might be enough to keep one of their soldiers from death’s door.
While Velati and Kaldir went through the final planning with their men, she and Citra bottled up as many vials of the antidote as they could, going through the crates of glass sent by Ironhold’s merchants. When
they finished, they filled more with balirash and kept filling until they reached the end of their surplus. She carefully calculated how much to hold back for their own use.
By the time they were done, her hands ached from handling hundreds of the tiny jars and vials. Without asking, Citra grasped her hands lightly. Her healing energy tingled in Sohaila’s hands, easing the pain. She smiled at Citra and did the same.
As Citra cleaned out the large pots, Sohaila brewed a kettle of Irazia’s special rejuvenation tea and drank a large mug of it. Within seconds, her cheeks were flushed, her heart racing. The older woman wasn’t kidding about it being strong. She felt like she could breathe fire again.
Jittery with nerves, she headed to the mess hall where the Scalebreakers gathered and knocked lightly on the open door. Kaldir glanced up and smiled at her. “Good morning. Do you need something?”
She held up two of the vials. “I want all your hybrids to carry these, and then distribute the rest to as many of the Iron Blade as possible.”
Velati tilted his head. “What is it?”
“If Sidran has another of these…what did you call it? Bomar-jet?” she said, rolling her tongue over the unfamiliar word. Velati chuckled. “If they drop poison on the city like in Ironhold, this will neutralize it.” She showed him the jar. “And this is balirash. If they’re wounded and bleeding badly, they can put this on the wound. It will be unpleasant, but it will stop the bleeding for a while.”
“Thank you,” he said. “This is very helpful. Have Citra explain to Inshadir and Kamina, and they will distribute everything.” He sighed. “We’ve done as much as we can to prepare. Dawnblaze, relay our most recent intel to the Iron Blade. I’ll make sure Marlena’s ready.” As he said her name, his voice caught ever so slightly. He looked to Sohaila. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. “Are you?”
He laughed, though it was a joyless sound. “No. But I’m not going to be.”