If they could forge this new peace, with the white dragons, with humanity, their future would become so much brighter. The child that Rhiannon was carrying would have a chance to know how to really live.
Any child Wesley and Dakota might have would have a future.
And, for that, Drystan would refrain from killing the white dragon who insisted on dragging out the silence that prickled at the base of his skull. Minutes dragged on. Drystan’s nerves began to fray at the edges. The tiniest sound made his skin come alive. A sweep of adrenaline would wash through him.
Too much longer and exhaustion would begin to grip him.
Against better reason, Drystan turned the lock on the outside of the cage and let the door swing open. The matter could be dealt with on even ground if that was what Raphael was waiting for. Raphael turned one eye up at the sound, seemingly unfazed by the turn of events. Drystan stepped past the silver bars. He could feel their presence, surrounding him, tingle and dull the edge of his senses. He closed the space between him and the white dragon.
Ever a man of few words, Drystan used the toe of his boot and nudged the white dragon to get his attention. Slowly, Raphael’s head twisted to look up at Drystan.
“My dragons say that you asked to apologize out there, in the forest. They tell me you want to ask for forgiveness and a second chance. What makes you think you’ve earned that?”
Silence hung in the air while Raphael stared at Drystan. He thought that, perhaps, the white dragon had been lying after all. Then, Raphael’s face broke into a wide smile.
“I did indeed,” he claimed. “I had… a bit of a revelation while sitting in your Embassy’s holding cell. This place, Snowdonia, could be mine if only I was willing to share. So, I thought to myself, if I am willing to share then I am willing to beg for forgiveness.”
Drystan didn’t want to believe the rat of a dragon sitting before him. He kept his hands in his pockets to keep from clenching and unclenching his fists before the white dragon. Show no weakness. Don’t believe a word he says. Remind him that you’re still in charge.
The words strung one after another through Drystan’s mind. They were the words that had gotten him through his years as the leader of this family. They would keep his family going.
Now, those words would help him see his family grow and expand. If he could begin to fold the white dragons into their home, into their family, then they would begin to grow. Wales would be complete once again. But, starting with Raphael was going to be hard. The rat had kidnapped his daughter-in-law and helped GOE try to kill her to start a war. The war had begun, never the less, but not with GOE.
Instead, it had started a war between red and white dragons that ended with the death of the white dragons’ leader, Malcom. To be fair, the way Malcom lived and the way that he treated people, Drystan knew the dragon had it coming. He was just happy that it was one of his own that landed the killing blow. Even if it was the witch. She was theirs, now.
Drystan sat back on his haunches so that he was eye to eye with the white dragon on the floor. “What do you think you could do to make us want to forgive you?”
“I could think of a lot of things,” Raphael said slowly, “but none of them actually include you forgiving me.”
“That wasn’t what we were talking about.” His voice was low and rumbling, but the white dragon didn’t flinch away.
Instead, the smile on Raphael’s face tightened and a nefarious gleam flashed across his eyes.
Drystan knew he’d made a mistake.
There was no time to go back and change what he did. All he could do was throw his arm up when the white dragon launched himself at Drystan’s bare throat.
But, it was too slow. The young, white dragon was faster than Drystan. His teeth clamped down on Drystan’s throat and the arm bumped uselessly against Raphael’s chin. Blood spurted around Raphael’s teeth, warm and life-draining.
Drystan gripped the white dragon by the throat. If he was going to die, then he would take the white dragon with him. His grip tightened.
Or, at least that’s what he thought. He’d already lost so much blood. Far too fast.
Drystan lurched forward, trying to pin the traitorous white dragon against the stone wall. He put all of his lingering strength into the shove. This would end right here, even if Raphael took Drystan with him. All that mattered was protecting his family. They fumbled and slammed against it. Drystan faintly heard the wet laugh that escaped Raphael’s chest, bubbling past his own blood in Raphael’s mouth. Panic flared through Drystan, but before it could move him, Raphael acted.
Raphael pushed him back and his feet staggered beneath him until he tumbled over a box of musty maps. The dark form of the white dragon, a monstrosity that was now a mix of human and dragon in ways that Drystan had never seen before, leapt upon him and all he could think about was that box of maps.
Maggie had dragged them down there with a saddened huff. She wanted to restore them and hang them all over the house, beginning to hoard them like she was a dragon herself. They’d been together so long, he would not have been surprised if there was a sly dragon now waiting inside of her, like a monster beneath a black glass topped lake.
When Dakota and Wesley said their vows in a small ceremony, both Drystan and Maggie knew they’d be needed an extra room in the cottage. It would serve for the nights that Dakota kicked Wesley out on his ass, or the nights when Dakota was too tired to make it all the way back to Wesley’s tower in the woods.
Then, if all went as they hoped, the room would be a place for their grandchildren to stay overnight. That was what they’d hoped when they moved the room full of musty maps down to the basement and paved the way for the future.
Now, Drystan wouldn’t know what that future held. Because he’d been impatient. Because he’d wanted to believe this dragon, no matter what the evidence showed.
There would never be peace in Snowdonia.
Not one that Drystan would live to see.
***
Liana couldn’t sleep.
That was nothing new.
She thought she should be getting used to the lack of sleep by now, but she could feel it weighing down her bones. It pulled her toward the earth with the setting of the sun. Like a reminder that she, too, should be laying herself down.
But, each day, the sun would rise and she would wake gasping from the few hours of sleep she did manage to get. The gasps would turn to growls and she would roll out of bed, ready to take the day on.
Her dreams would not scare her any longer. When Cameron’s witch, Gwen, had approached her, Liana thought that she would be a savior to her people. She thought she was doing the right thing. It had ended horribly, for Malcom. For Liana.
But, instead of letting it destroy her like her brother thought, Liana had rose from the ashes of her old self. She became something new.
That something…. It couldn’t find a place among the laughing and smiling family she’d once known. She didn’t want to poke fun at Wesley behind his back anymore. She didn’t want to see how far they could skip a rock across the nearby lake or see who could climb faster on the mountain side.
That meant nothing to her anymore.
The new Liana was a predator.
She was a killer.
“What are you thinking about?” a voice asked as a lump of a shape dropped down to the earth beside her.
She recognized the voice, the scent that washed over her. Ruefully, she had half hoped that it would be the white dragon Rhys and his mate had dragged back. Liana didn’t know if she liked her brother’s new mate. Not if the woman was willing to show mercy to a white dragon.
“Can’t sleep still?” the voice asked. He pressed on like her mind wasn’t somewhere else entirely. Why did he have to constantly seek her out? Why did she find solace in his presence?
She didn’t like it. It reminded her of the old Liana, the one that died in the forest while two white dragons beat her into a pulp.
“No,’
’ she said, finally. “I can’t sleep. Thought I would come outside and look at the stars instead.”
The American dragon leaned his head back and took in the heavenly bodies floating far above them. For a long while he sat there with her, doing nothing more than existing in her presence. Liana fought the urge to lean into him.
Her leader wanted her to leave with the American dragons. The tickets had been booked, her bags were already half packed. He said something about setting up another embassy overseas. Something about helping dragon human interactions. The American dragon had mentioned being in a similar situation as they had been.
The news of the Occurrence travelled far and wide, affected every dragon and their homeland. Some had good reputations that were ruined while others stood on rocky situations and were tilted into all-out war. She knew that her brother’s mate came from a land where the humans openly attacked the dragons from time to time.
Liana wondered if her leader had other ideas, if his intentions meant for her to do more than begin an American dragon embassy. She cut a sidelong glance at the man sitting beside her. He wasn’t unattractive.
But she wasn’t interested.
Liana pushed herself up from the ground and brushed herself off. She mumbled a quick goodnight and disappeared into the house she shared with her brother. Upstairs, she could hear the muffled moans of two happy mates.
Instead of trying to sleep through that, she fell back onto the couch and pressed play on the DVD player. She didn’t care what was in the disc tray. Not in the least. It was the sound that drowned out the world so that she could lay her head back and give in to the darkness waiting for her.
***
Maggie was in her office when she felt it.
The pain was searing, tearing across her throat. Her heart seemed to stop in her chest as she cried out. Her desk chair slipped out from beneath her and the whole world tilted sideways. She crashed to the floor, drowning in the pain that gripped her and the knowledge of what it meant.
Dakota burst through the door and drooped to the floor by Maggie. She cried out, she shook Maggie, she tried to get her attention, but Maggie couldn’t hear her. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the screams of desperation that she was making.
It couldn’t be. She was imagining things. This couldn’t be true.
They still had a future.
But, that was the only way to explain the pain she was feeling.
Drystan was dead.
***
Raphael tore the red dragon leader’s throat out each time it began to heal itself. The echo of silver in the bars that caged them in made the process slow, made the dragon die faster. He wanted the man to bleed out knowing that he was weak. Their leader wanted to show forgiveness, wanted to give Raphael a second chance.
That was weak.
Only the strong survived.
Raphael had become accustomed to the silver surrounding them. He knew the kind of strength, the kind of pure and volatile rage that helped a dragon reach down deep and grasp the power that the silver tried to hide from them.
The red dragons weren’t strong. Not like him. Not like his family. The red dragons had hidden their faces here in the Territory, swallowing their sentence as if they were weak humans and had to abide by human laws. They were so much stronger than that. The dragons could have anything they wanted, anything in the whole wide world if they would only fight for it.
Fighting is what they were built for. It was why the beast whispered into their minds. It was why their bodies were built like tanks and their flames rendered the human homes into nothing but ash. They were meant to lead, to rule.
The red dragons had been too weak to see that.
Raphael would lead his people into a new world. Their last leader, Malcom, had been too caught up in owning the small things. He’d wanted to own the witch and her power; while that wasn’t bad, it had been his obsession.
Raphael set his sight on bigger things when he donned the mantle of the white dragon leader. Sooner or later, he would don a crown, too.
***
There was a commotion downstairs. Rhys felt his skin tighten, a kind of premonition as instinct kicked in. It launched him away from Farida’s tangle of limbs and out of bed. He fumbled down the stairs. His eyes scanned the house for the source of the off feeling, the source of the commotion.
But, there was no one in the house.
Not even his sister.
What he did see was a stack of DVDs kicked to the floor and a soft blanket trailing toward an open door like a finger pointing him where he needed to be. He didn’t think. He just ran.
Outside, two figures struggled against one another. Overhead, a dark form circled before it dropped and crashed to the ground in a human shape. Drystan, Rhys thought until he came closer to the human form.
It was one of the American dragons. He’d been so distracted by Raphael’s grip on his sister that he hadn’t noted the color of the dragon. But, the American dragon stood by his side, seething with rage.
Pulled like there was a line tied around his heart that reeled him toward the struggling shapes, Rhys surged forward. That line tightened into pain when he saw it for the fight that it was, saw who was holding who.
“I couldn’t find the witch,” Raphael growled at Rhys and the American dragon. “But this works just as well.”
Rhys’s heart stopped where he stood. Raphael had his arm barred over his sister’s chest, a crooked claw pressed to the pulsating vein in her neck. She didn’t look afraid. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid for her. This was his baby sister.
And, once again, he could not help her.
Liana closed her eyes, her face tightening for a split second, then releasing as if she’d let go of some emotion that had been holding her tight. Her body grew limp in Raphael’s arms. Had she given up? Was she done with living?
Rhys’s heart cried out, but his feet couldn’t move. He wouldn’t dare. Not if it meant his sister’s life was forfeit.
“You could have had a second chance,” Rhys called out to Raphael. “You could have made a home here. Right alongside us. Farida gave you that option when I would have killed you. Are you going to waste that?”
“Because, if you are,” the American dragon began. “I will kill you.”
Around them, the world seemed to move. Only, it was just the rustle of the trees and brush around them, leaves scraping on leaves. Twigs snapping. Rhys spun around in time to watch a white dragon breach the air. Its wings spread wide and cast an ominous shadow over the clearing.
More burst into the air and circled them like scavengers. The American dragon, why hadn’t Rhys bothered to learn his name, shouted a loud strong of obscenities, hiding his helplessness behind them. What could they do? Fight their way out? How long would they have to do this before there were no more white dragons? Before they lost friends or family?
Farida skidded to a halt behind him. She threw her hands up to stop herself with his shoulders as her head tipped back and her lips parted. With wide eyes, she took in the sky above them and paled.
Rhys couldn’t blame her for having a heart, but just then his was on fire. He was furious. Mercy had gotten them into this situation. It put his sister into the arms of the enemy.
More dragons, Gareth, Wesley, Cameron, the American dragons, appeared on foot. They all looked up at the sky with a mixture of apprehension and anger. Behind Cameron, the Witch of Caernarfon broke from the brush. She was wearing nothing more than Cameron’s shirt and her underwear. She didn’t look up. Her eyes were like a laser across the clearing, boring into Raphael’s head.
Where was Drystan? Why hadn’t their leader appeared?
Rhys swallowed hard.
“We could take them, one on one. We’re strong enough for that,” Rhys whispered.
“But we can’t risk your sister,” Farida finished. Her grip on his shoulders tightened for an instant. Then, it fell away. She slipped behind the cover of Rhys’s broad shoulders and he fo
ught the urge to glance back.
She had a plan. He would trust her.
Liana stood, stick still in Raphael’s arms. Her eyes were closed against the world. Rhys thought she looked almost Zen. She was shutting down, pulling away from the real world, he thought. No one had been able to make progress with Liana, unable to bring her back to the woman she’d been. Now, they would go tumbling even further back.
But, he didn’t know what was going through his sister’s mind. He didn’t know that she closed her eyes against the red that raged across her vision.
All Rhys knew was the sound of a phone ringing behind him. His stomach turned. He had an idea of what his mate was doing. As much as he hated it. They would need help.
“Did you even want revenge?” Rhys shouted to cover the soft sound of Farida’s phone. “You say that you wanted the witch, I assume for what she did to your leader. But, if I were to guess, I’d say that you’re fine with Malcom’s death. It opened all new doors for you. Didn’t it?”
Farida whispered furiously into the phone behind his back. The Egyptian dragons wouldn’t come to her rescue. Not on his behalf. They would be more than content to watch the red dragons crumble.
Ahead of him, Raphael’s grip on Liana tightened. Rivulets of red ran down her neck. She didn’t flinch. Rhys feared that his sister was already dead on the inside. This pain… it might be nothing compared to what happened to her before.
“Not really.” Raphael’s smile turned into a promise of violence. “I owe the witch a thank you, actually. Wanted to do it in person. I couldn’t exactly send her a card with thanks for killing our leader and making me a king on the inside. It seemed too impersonal.”
The beast slammed against the surface of Rhys. It wanted their family back. It wanted to bring peace by tearing each white dragon limb from limb until there would never be a threat to them again.
“What does Liana have to do with it? Leave her out of this.”
But, life didn’t work that way. If they got a reputation for bloodshed, even among their own, the red dragons would be feared more than ever. This had to be shut down. Everyone had to live.
Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5 Page 39