by Layla Heart
As I round the corner, I find Kit standing in front of Rune, his arms outstretched sideways, his eyes squeezed shut, like he’s ready for Rune to eat him. Behind Kit is a much smaller red dragon, moving its head nervously, until it spots us, letting out a scared sound.
“Aideen,” Phoenix whispers to me. “That’s her dragon.” What? Wow.
What is she doing here? I’ve not seen or heard from her in days. And why is Kit standing between them?
I carefully try to walk to Kit, who looks upset, but Rune’s dragon turns his head to me and Kit yells.
“No. You want me. Look at me. You want me. Rune! Me!”
I stop. Rune’s eyes are not like they are normally, they’re wrong, it’s like they’re glazed over and he doesn’t seem to recognize me. It’s almost like he’s trying to decide if he should eat me and a shiver goes down my spine.
Finn steps closely behind me, one arm around my shoulders and in the other one he’s holding a knife, pointed at the dragon. “He’s gone insane,” Finn whispers and the hand with the knife is shaking slightly. “He can’t hear us now. We can’t reach him.”
Rune finally looks back to Kit. No, he’s looking at Aideen instead, who is making herself even smaller, letting out a low keening sound.
“Rune! She’s got nothing to do with this! Leave her out of it. You want me!” Kit is waving his arms now, trying to get the attention of the crazed dragon. “It’s me you want.”
No. No, no, no. This cannot be happening, Rune can’t eat Kit! He can’t.
“He’s in pain. The dragon is in pain. He wants it to stop. He feels his hoard is in danger and he’s in pain, a very bad combo.” Finn carefully pulls me back, away from the dragon.
“He wouldn’t eat Kit, would he?” I try to look at Finn, but I can’t see his face from this angle. As I look to the others, the panic in Bane and Phoenix’ eyes tells me enough. He would. Rune would eat Kit. His dragon would eat Kit. Because the pain is clouding his mind. My stomach rolls, bile coming up my throat. That can’t happen! “No.” I push against Finn’s strong arm, stepping forward. “No.”
Finn tries to hold me, but as my magic grows inside me, much easier to control now, he has to let me go. My fire creates a barrier around me that is way too hot to stay in, just like what happened when Finn was panicking and Kit tried to stop me but couldn’t.
“Don’t,” Finn whispers, before his arm slips away and he lets out a hiss. “Don’t do this. Please.”
“I have to.” That’s all I know for sure. I step forward, and I watch Kit’s eyes grow as he sees me move. He shakes his head in panic, but I keep going.
Rune’s dragon turns his head to me again, terror so evident in his eyes, terror and rage. He slowly turns my way with his whole body, finding a new prey in me to catch instead.
I can’t let Rune do this. No matter what’s going on, I can’t let him do this, I can’t let his dragon do this. Rune would never forgive himself if he ate someone he loved, even if he has no control over it.
The dragon opens his gigantic jaws, roars my way, and makes a couple of warning snaps in my direction, but he doesn’t attack me. Not yet. He’s just testing me.
“Litha!” Kit screams and I hear both Aideen’s dragon and Bane’s wolf growl at me, but I can’t look at them, I have to keep my attention on Rune. I have to stop him.
“Stay back,” I call back to them, but I have no idea if they’ll listen.
Last time when I tried to use my magic, I’d gathered it inside me and pushed it out, blowing the soldiers away from Grandma, a bubble going outward and incinerating everyone it touched. I wince at the thought. I’d not just blown them away, I’d killed them, burned them to a crisp. But my fire can’t hurt my own people, my loves, so if I can make a wall of fire around Rune, maybe we can keep him contained. My fire shouldn’t be able to hurt him, not even as his dragon.
I try to feel how the magic flows in me, the fire inside my body bright. It’s ready to burst out at any moment, ready to protect my loves, to protect us all.
The ball I’d made hadn’t had much substance last time, it was merely the visualised outer shell of the magic that I blew up to catastrophic proportions. What if I did the same thing around Rune, but controlled the growth and made sure that the inside stayed ‘empty’, like trapping something in a balloon or a toy in a glass bauble?
The first wisps of magic don’t do much, they appear in a wide circle around the dragon and drift away, like smoke in a storm, but then I push at the magic more.
I need to make a ball around Rune, a wall, a shield, or he will hurt himself and others. I can’t have that happen. I can’t let him get hurt. Not when I can prevent it.
The outer shell of the magic slowly starts to shimmer around Rune. A patch overhead, then another patch on his left, before the patches of fire merge together to form a barrier around him, like an overturned bowl of fire. Every second I push energy into it, the shield becomes stronger, more visible, more solid.
Rune’s dragon seems to realise what’s going on, and who’s doing it, and he focuses back on me. A calculating look in his eyes. He pulls his head back, ready to break through the shield around him and grab me, but I push the last of my energy into the shield, hoping it keeps.
“Don’t even think about it.” Phoenix’ voice is firm, before she puts her hand on my back, and her energy flows through me, into the shield, strengthening it even more.
Rune’s dragon snaps at us, banging his head against the wall, but the shield stops him from coming any closer. It holds him inside, it keeps him safe, it keeps us safe.
But keeping the shield up is tiring, and even with Phoenix’ magical energy added to it, I can feel it drain me fast.
“Finn, get moving. Kit, help him make a protective circle. Just one carved into the ground should be fine. Use anything you need to make the circle.” Phoenix instructs them, as she puts her arm around my waist, keeping me up. “Try to keep holding on until they’re done.”
“What are they making?” My voice is all breathy and it’s hard to talk.
“Just a protective circle. Finn and I tried to find one that we could safely use to train your magic inside, before all of this went down, but keeping Rune locked up seems just as good a use for it.” Her breath is also getting harder.
A protective circle? Another thing I have no idea about. Another magical thing I don’t know. My energy is starting to dip low, and they’re not done with the circle yet, far from it.
“Phoenix, help them set up.” A woman’s voice sounds out behind us, before someone puts their hand on my shoulder, giving me more of their energy, Phoenix’ mum.
Phoenix slides from around me and as my legs give out, someone catches me.
“I’ve got you.” Mum’s voice is almost soothing as she adds her energy to mine too. “Keep the shield up as long as you can.”
“What are you...?” I try to make sense of it. Why is she here suddenly?
“You don’t think that a crazed dragon appearing outside the labs is going to get our attention?” It’s almost like Mum is smiling. “This is the most magic-intense thing I’ve done in decades.” She lets out a short laugh.
Phoenix runs around the circle Finn and Kit have carved into the ground, signing sigils or something on the edges of it, before she comes over to me, taking my wrist, holding it tenderly as she looks at me. “You can let the shield go now. We’ve got him.”
I nod, pulling any energy I’ve got left back inside me and all three women touching me gasp. This time, I don’t black out, which is good, but my legs do give out from under me and Mum slowly lowers me to the ground.
Rune’s dragon roars inside the circle, banging against the invisible walls. He’s still limping, his leg obviously not healed, and I wince every time he puts his weight on it.
“How long is this going to take? How long will he stay like this?” My voice is shaking. I’m not sure if its from seeing Rune’s pain, or from having done an exhausting magic spell.
“I don’t know.” Kit kneels at my side, running his hands over me, making sure I’m not hurt, then he shakes his head. “That was a dangerous thing to do.” His eyes flash with fury, which is much better than the black husk I’d seen earlier. “He could have killed you.”
“He could have killed you.” I glare at him. “Why were you offering yourself up as a snack like that? Why would you do that?”
A wall comes down behind his eyes and my heart hurts, which gets a loud roar from Rune’s dragon. Even in this form, he can still feel our emotions. “Better me than anyone else.”
“No,” I gasp as I reach out to him, trying to pull him closer, hold him close, but he backs away, just out of reach, the darkness from before deepening. “Kit...”
He slowly shakes his head, his breathing hard. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” He turns to Rune, the dragon staring back at him. “I’m sorry. This is for the best.”
“Kit!” I try to stand up, but my legs won’t carry me. “Kit!” What’s going on? Why is he acting like this? What is he doing?
Rune’s dragon rushes himself against the walls of the circle again, something in his body cracking, and my stomach churns. Even in this state, Rune knows he has to get close to Kit. That panic in his eyes... He has no idea why, but he needs to get close to Kit, he knows something is wrong.
“Kit?” I can barely speak, my tears closing up my throat. “Please...” It feels like my heart is breaking into a thousand pieces, watching Kit close himself off from us.
Kit looks at me one last time, his eyes black like the night, his breathing heavy, his back straight. “I can’t. I’m sorry.” Then he turns around, walking off.
Walking away from the one he loves more than anything in the world, walking away from all of us...
5
This is not happening. This is very much not happening. Everything is falling apart, and will keep falling apart until one of us does something. The one thing we could always count on was the friendship between Rune and Kit, and now Kit is walking away, closing himself off from us.
Yeah, no.
I rush after Kit, grabbing him with one arm around his chest, locking his arms against his sides, and pushing his head back against my chest by grabbing his jaw in my other hand. “You’re not doing this.” I’m not letting our friendships fall apart even more. They’re my home, the place I always want to return to, and I’m not letting them mess it up.
“Finn!” Bane is definitely not impressed with me, but I’m not letting Kit go.
Kit struggles against me for a couple of moments, trying to get his chin and his arms free, but I’m bigger, stronger and not as exhausted as he is. And with me touching him on his skin, he knows that I’m not letting him go, he can feel that intention very clearly in me. He knows he won’t be able to fight me off.
“Let’s go back to the others. You’re not walking away from us.” I drag him along with me and he’s making it as hard for me as he can, making himself heavy and slowing me down as much as possible, but he’s stopped struggling.
Bane meets us halfway, his eyes blazing, his muscles bulging, which is king of obvious now he’s shifted back into his human shape and hasn’t put any clothes on yet. “Let him go.”
“No.” I keep going, focused on not stopping until I’m at Litha’s side. She’s the one who can convince him to stay, the only one, I’m sure of that.
“I can make you let him go.” Bane’s words are a low growl, a threat. He knows that with his power as a wolf, he can make me do this, let me let go of Kit, if he puts enough conviction behind it.
“You’d be killing Rune. The dragon isn’t going to let him shift back until he’s sure his hoard is no longer in danger, by either taking out the danger, or taking himself out... Your choice. But if Kit leaves, I know which one will happen. With Kit here, at least we’ll have a chance.” I keep going and, after a couple of growled curses, Bane follows us, his energy all gone.
Aideen is at Litha’s side, a human again, and she’s staring between Rune, Kit and Litha, her eyes wide, confused.
I stop when we’re just a couple of steps away, taking a deep breath. “Are you going to run again if I let you go?” Because holding Kit like this isn’t going to accomplish anything, not with Rune’s dragon glaring at us like that. Kit doesn’t move, so I lighten my grip on him. “If you run off again, I will catch you, and I won’t be as kind next time.” I push him down, so he sits next to Litha, and then take a step back, rolling my shoulders, taking the tension out of them.
“Fucking fae,” Kit growls, glaring back at me as he runs his fingers over his throat, like he’s making sure I didn’t harm him or something. Not that I would.
I shrug and finally sit down too, taking a deep breath, not really wanting to have this conversation. “What did you do?” I keep my eyes on Kit.
“Nothing.” Something flashes behind his eyes and he crosses his arms in front of his chest, protecting himself.
“Rune doesn’t go insane over you doing nothing. Try again.” I’ve been together with them long enough to know that their friendship doesn’t just break over nothing.
“Finn... Please... He’s...” Litha reaches out to Kit, who jerks back from her touch, and pain flashes over her face.
I didn’t see it wrong before, he’s hiding something. Whatever happened, he doesn’t feel like he should share. “Kit.”
“Fuck off.” He turns his head away from us, which means he’s looking directly at Rune’s dragon, and after a moment of shock, he stares down to the ground instead, his face going all pale.
“He’s in pain.” Aideen sits up, her eyes on Kit dark. “A lot of pain and he doesn’t know how to deal with it.” She keeps looking at him, as we all do now.
“Shut up, dragon,” Kit growls at Aideen, who doesn’t look very impressed, simply raising an eyebrow his way.
“Or what? You going to fight me?” She huffs. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you’re in any state to take me on right now.”
“Guys, please?” Litha’s voice is full of tears and even Kit softens as he looks at her. “Don’t do this. Don’t fight. Not now.” She leans back against her mother, tears flowing down her cheeks and my heart hurts for her. “I don’t know what’s going on, why this happened, but Rune is hurt enough. His leg, and now his shoulder... He needs rest. He needs to rest somewhere comfortable. He doesn’t need his dragon banging all over that cage and break his body down even more.”
More people are coming over to see what’s going on, why there’s a dragon trapped on campus, even people who are supposed to stay inside their halls. Litha and Phoenix’ mothers get up and go over to the groups of people, sending them away. We don’t need any onlookers here, dealing with everything on our own is going to be hard enough.
“What’s going on, Kit? Why did Rune react like that?” Bane drops down next to Litha, letting her lean on him, his eyes on Kit tired and I realise that the exhaustion isn’t just from the crap sleep we’ve all had but also because he’s still healing from the venom and the antidote in his body. He shouldn’t have shifted into a wolf earlier, he’s not strong enough for that yet.
“Who says it’s my fault?” Kit doesn’t look up, but his voice is full of tears and I can see the shuddering breaths he’s taking.
“You did, just now. And Rune, or he wouldn’t look like this.” Bane moves closer to Kit, sitting between him and Rune so he can’t look at the dragon again, putting his fingers under Kit’s chin, making him look up and meet Bane’s eyes. “What happened? I know it wasn’t just now, before he shifted, something happened last night. You turned your back on him. Why?”
What? When did that happen?
I blink, trying to go through my blurry memories to find a clue. I slept at a table most of the night, waking up from time to time to check on Bane and Rune, but I didn’t do much else. Although, Kit did appear at the table, also asleep, when I woke up. It was right as Rune had been awake for a couple of moments, when everyone else had b
een asleep, it had been just the two of them awake.
I stare at Kit and then at Rune, before looking back at Kit, and my stomach drops. Oh, fuck. No...
There is one thing that Rune does, especially with Kit, which explains everything that has happened since... Rune will have tried to convince him that he’d be all better soon enough, while Kit was still reeling and trying to make sense of almost losing Rune. For someone who knows Kit so well, Rune can be so dense. Kit didn’t need Rune telling him everything would be okay, he needed Rune to hold him and love him, let him feel that he was still alive.
Phoenix looks at Kit, but then her eyes fall on me, narrowing. “What happened between them?”
I shake my head. It’s not for me to tell. Kit will have to explain it himself. Aideen is right, Kit is in so much pain, and he only knows one way to deal with that pain... to run away from it. Running away to Rune, generally, but he couldn’t this time.
The panic in his eyes, the pain, his willingness to let Rune eat him... It makes too much sense, way too much sense.
I reach out to Kit, pulling him against me the same way I’ve seen Rune do so many times, his head to my chest, balled up and protected. He fights me for a second, but then relaxes against me, his fingers gripping my shirt tightly.
“He loves you,” I whisper into his hair. “He loves you more than anything in the world. I know it’s the same for you. There is no way to get around the heartache that comes with a love as strong as what you two have.”
“I can’t do it,” he whispers against my chest. “I can’t. I’ll break.”
“We all have to.” I close my eyes. I’ve not done this before, trying to console them. I always try to stay away from the others emotionally, my own past is crap enough without adding their feelings and emotions into the mix, but for Kit, for the bond I know there is between Kit and Rune, I have to. Because if they’re not with us, then who are we? The four princes do not exist when two of the princes are missing... I try to feel the sensation I get when we’re all together, when I know that things are right between all of us, when everyone is where they belong. If Kit can feel emotions, he can feel mine too, he can feel these emotions, my wish for him not to leave.