My four mates had been chosen by the gods to be mine, and in the process they’d had to give up their former lives to go on this quest with me. Only Auric and Jasin had been happy about that so far, while Reven and Slade had fought against their new roles. Though they’d both accepted their position now, I wasn’t sure if they would ever love me or truly want to be with me.
I had two incredible men who wanted me—wasn’t that enough? Except when I thought of Slade or Reven my chest clenched and I knew it wasn’t. How selfish was I that I wanted all of my mates to love me?
While the sun was setting we arrived in Windholm, a small, dusty town with tumbleweeds rolling through it. Here the pace was a lot slower than in Stormhaven, and the people wore cloaks and scarves to cover their faces to protect against the frequent sandstorms. We were taken to another inn and retreated to our rooms, while Brin sorted out the details in town. And then we waited.
I managed to sleep a little, but woke instantly when Auric touched my arm and said, “It’s time.”
Brin presented me with a stack of clothes. “Put these on.”
I donned a large, sand-colored cloak over my clothes, then pulled the hood low while yanking the scarf up so that only my eyes were visible. The others in our group did the same, and then we slipped from the inn and out into the dark, empty streets. A raging wind was already rolling through the town, and I ducked my head and followed Brin around the side of the inn, where a few people were waiting with camels. None of them gave us a second glance and no one seemed to recognize Auric. Not only did the cloaks protect us from the winds, but they disguised us as well.
I’d never ridden a camel before, but nevertheless was pleased to have my own mount this time. All of the beasts were sitting on the ground, and a man instructed me to throw my leg over the middle of the humps to mount the camel nearest me. The beast began to stand immediately, back legs first, making me fall forward, but I managed to find my balance after a moment.
Our supplies were already tied onto the camels, and then Brin took the lead. “Don’t bother trying to control your camel. Just relax, let your body follow its movements, and try not to upset them. They’re not particularly friendly.”
With that warning she set off, and my camel jerked forward after hers. I had to hold on tight to keep from falling off as the beast’s body rolled with an odd, jerky walk, completely different from the measured gait of a horse. At first my body wanted to fight it, but then I tried to relax my shoulders and follow Brin’s advice, and it became much easier as I swayed with the camel’s movements.
Soon we were riding out of town and down the hard dirt road into the desert at the bottom of the hill. The contrast was sharp and came upon us quickly, and in no time our camels’ hooves were dipping into the sand. The mountains rose up on either side of us, the wind howled loudly, and the barren desert of Sandstorm Valley stretched endlessly before us.
We rode in a line through the sand for hours while the sun rose in the sky and beat down on us. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I quickly became disoriented as we passed over identical dune after dune. All I saw around us was sand, which the wind kicked up into our eyes.
Brin called for a halt when the sun had neared its peak in the sky. We set up camp with small tents that would protect us from the worst of the sun and heat, and the men subtly used their magic to help us without alerting Brin. Reven refilled all of our water jugs, Jasin roasted a lizard he’d caught and ate it off a stick, and Auric and Slade kept the wind and sand out of our camp.
I wandered down a dune to find some privacy to relieve myself and to have a moment alone with my thoughts. The closer we got to the Air Temple the more apprehensive I became. Was I ready to bond with Auric? Would the Dragons be there waiting? And what was I going to do about Slade and Reven?
As I climbed down the dune, the sand slid under my feet, endlessly changing. Just when I’d think I’d found a firm bit to walk on it would shift and my foot would sink, making me stumble.
“Careful there,” a familiar voice said.
I spun around and came face to face with Enva, the older woman I’d met twice before. She’d always appeared out of nowhere and would disappear just as quickly, leaving me with more questions than answers. I’d once wondered if she was the Spirit Goddess, but she’d claimed she wasn’t. “Enva, what are you doing here?”
Unlike me, she wasn’t dressed for the desert. In fact, she wore the same hooded robe she’d worn the last two times I’d seen her. “Keeping an eye on you. I thought you’d be at the Air Temple by now.”
“Why do you care so much about my fate?” I asked.
She waved my question away. “I care about the fate of the world, as should everyone.”
I plopped down onto the sand, exhausted after hours of riding under the hot sun. My tailbone winced in protest, sore from being on the camel for so long. “While you’re here, maybe you can answer some questions for me.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“The Fire God told me the people who raised me weren’t my parents. Do you know who my real mother and father are?”
She pursed her lips. “I do.”
I sat up straighter, my heart beating fast. “Who are they?”
“You’re not ready for that. Next question.”
I sighed, but tried again. “What am I supposed to do about my two mates who aren’t interested in bonding with me?”
“How should I know? I’m not here for relationship advice.”
Gods, she was impossible. “Why are you here?”
“To warn you.”
The wind whipped at my hair, and I tucked it behind my ear. “Warn me about what?”
She leveled her steely gaze at me. “You may have noticed that you can sense Jasin through your bond now, and he can sense you in return.”
“Yes. I assume that will happen with Auric too once we finish at the Air Temple.”
“Indeed. They’ll be bound to you, and through them you’ll receive their magic. But they'll also be tied to your life force."
"What do you mean?” I asked.
"After you're mated your connection with them becomes so strong that if one of them dies, you will lose their powers. But if you die, they will die as well."
Her words shocked me to my core. “All of them?”
“Every one that is bound to you, yes.”
My throat tightened up. “What can I do?”
“Nothing, but it’s not all bad. With each man you bond with you become harder to kill, especially since you take on their resistances. Right now you can’t be harmed by fire, for example.” She tilted her head. “Of course, that means the Black Dragon is nearly impossible to defeat without destroying her mates first. But I think I’ve said enough.”
I jumped to my feet, my boots sliding in the sand. “Wait, I have so many more questions.”
She pulled her hood low as she turned away. “You’ll get your answers soon enough.”
And just like that, she was gone.
31
Kira
For the next three days our group continued through the endless desert, sleeping when the sun was high in the sky and continuing on through the evening when it was cooler. We had little time to talk at all with the sand whipping at us and the camels’ movements making it hard to do anything but continue forward. By the time we camped we were all too exhausted and sore to do anything but pass out or grumble at one another. Brin was the only one who remained cheerful, and if it weren’t for her guidance I knew we would have certainly gotten lost out there.
On the third day we finally spotted something in the distance: a tower that reached high into the sky and disappeared into the clouds hovering over it. Around it was a small lake surrounded by palm trees, a welcome oasis in the middle of the harsh desert sands. The setting sun behind the tower kissed the sky with gold, and I understood why the Air God’s Dragon was that color now.
We rushed toward the tower with renewed vigor, bolstered by the
thought that our journey was nearing its destination. Enva’s words still worried at me, but there was nothing I could do except move forward.
As we neared the tower, Brin let out a startled cry. “The tower…it’s been destroyed.”
Huge chunks of the tower had fallen off and now surrounded the structure, which I was surprised was still standing with all the damage to it. Brin lowered her camel to the ground and then jumped off it and rushed inside a crumbling doorway, calling out for Nabi, the High Priestess we were supposed to meet.
My mates and I followed after her, and once we were inside the temple the destruction was worse. A large spiral staircase that must have led up the tower was now in ruins and impossible to climb. Everything inside had been smashed or turned to rubble, as though the place had been abandoned for years—except Brin had claimed to have visited only a year ago.
We found Brin kneeling in the corner of the rubble, holding her hands to her face as shudders wracked her body. I rested a hand on her shoulder, but then I caught sight of what she was crying over: a burnt, broken body that had a woman’s shape, with four larger bodies beside her. My stomach twisted at the sight, and at the memories it brought back of my parents’ deaths.
“Nabi,” Brin cried. “Who did this to you?”
I had a feeling I knew.
A prickling on the back of my neck alerted me to something behind us. Two glowing yellow orbs moved through the dark corners of the rubble, and I grabbed Reven’s arm to get his attention.
“We’re not alone,” he said, as he reached for his twin swords.
Darkness gathered and began to form a human-looking figure across the room, and I realized the glow came from its eyes. Thin shadowy arms that ended in sharp claws reached toward us as it began to glide across the floor.
“What is that thing?” I asked, backing away.
“It’s a shade,” Auric said. “Don’t bother with your weapons. Like elementals, they can only be killed with fire, earth, air, or water.”
A shade? I stared at the thing before us in disbelief. I’d heard stories about the ghosts trapped between this world and the next, but I never was sure they were real. Few people saw them in person and lived to tell the tale, especially since shades wanted nothing more than to consume your life force. And I had a feeling they’d want mine most of all.
Brin backed up behind us, holding her long, thin blade despite Auric’s warning. “How can we stop it?”
“Stay back,” Jasin told her. “We’ve got this covered.”
He formed a ball of fire in his hand and Brin gasped, but I supposed there was no keeping the secret from her any longer. This was the only way to defeat the shade.
Jasin launched the fireball at the shade and burnt it up almost instantly, but many more glowing eyes began to emerge from the shadows and from higher in the tower. They moved through the rubble in front of them as though it was nothing but air, their dark forms tapering off near the floor. Shades could turn invisible and insubstantial, making them deadly to most people. But we weren’t most people.
Reven summoned shards of ice at the nearest shades, Slade gathered stones from the rubble and coaxed them to attack, and Auric blasted the shades with a tornado-like gust of wind. Jasin kept throwing fireballs and I conjured my own as well, though I hesitated before releasing them. What if my fire got out of control again?
Despite the men’s efforts the shades soon surrounded us, and I couldn’t believe how many there were. Eerie yellow eyes glowed from every direction, all fixed on me. One lunged toward Brin and she swiped her sword at it, but it simply passed through the monster’s shadowy form. I threw a ball of fire at the shade and it sizzled and disappeared into a cloud of smoke, but there were still more coming.
The men worked together to fight the shades back, and I conjured fire whenever one slipped through and got too close to me or Brin. It was a lot like fighting the water elementals, except the shades had a cold, cruel hunger unlike anything I’d ever seen before, which terrified me in a primal way. These were the things that came for you in your nightmares, except they were real.
Another shade got too close and nearly reached Brin, but I shoved her out of the way and took it out with a burst of fire. Something slashed into me from behind that was both freezing and burning at the same time. Pain consumed me and I stumbled forward as I let out a cry, but then turned to blast the shade behind me as it lunged for me again with its claws. My knees gave out, and Slade caught me in his arms.
“Kira’s hurt!” he called out.
The men formed a tight circle around me while the burning freeze continued down my spine, along with something wet. I reached back and found blood coming from the gash running along my back, which must have been from the shade’s claws. Oh Gods, a lot of blood. A wave of dizziness washed over me and I would have collapsed if it weren’t for Slade holding me up.
“Hang on, Kira,” Slade said in his low voice that rumbled through my body. I rested my head against his chest as he carried me out of the ruined tower and into the darkening night.
“I’m okay,” I managed to get out.
“Put her down here and I’ll clean the wound,” Brin said, as she rushed around us.
Slade set me down on my stomach and I closed my eyes as my face pressed against the cooling sand. I soon felt something soft press against my back, while I heard movement nearby.
“They’re gone,” Jasin said. “We got them all.”
The men kept talking, but their voices blended together and I began to drift away. My back throbbed relentlessly, and I could only hope that my gifts from the Spirit Goddess would be enough to heal me.
32
Jasin
When Kira woke, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Even though I’d felt her through our bond and knew she would live, it was still a comfort to see it with my own eyes. Especially since I’d felt some of her pain when she’d been injured.
The gash on her back had completely closed, though the skin there was still red and swollen. Her other mates and I had taken turns resting our hands on it in case our energy would somehow help her, though we weren’t sure if it did or not.
“Jasin,” she said slowly as she tried to push herself up with a pained expression. “What happened?”
“One of the shades sliced through your back, but Slade managed to get you to safety while we defeated them. You’re mostly healed now, but you shouldn’t move too much yet.”
She managed to sit up, though she leaned against me. The tent over us flapped against the wind, and Auric had warned us there would be a bad sandstorm tonight. The others were currently moving our things inside the temple ruins now that it was empty, where we would be safer.
“I could have died,” Kira said, clearly shaken. “And you too.”
“We all could have. But we didn’t.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Her fingers wrapped tight around my wrist. “Enva visited me again the other night.”
“She did? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because I knew it would only make you all worry, and we needed to focus on getting to the temple.” She drew in a ragged breath. “But I should have told you what she said.”
I drew her closer against me. “What is it?”
“Once we’re bonded, our life forces are tied together.”
“Yes, like when you gave me your energy on the boat.”
“Exactly. It’s how I can share your powers as well, but Enva told me it comes with great cost.” She closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. “If I die, all of the men bound to me will die as well.”
I nodded slowly. “That makes sense. It also explains why the Black Dragon is always surrounded by some of her mates. They know if they lose her, they’ll lose their lives as well.”
“Jasin, what if I had been killed today?” Her grip on my wrist tightened and she spoke frantically. “You would have died too. And if I bond with the others, they’ll all be tied to my fate. I’m not sure I can do this any
more.”
“Yes, you can. This is your destiny, and we all know there are risks.” I touched her cheek softly. “Besides, even without the bond losing you would be the death of me. I wouldn’t want to live in a world without you in it.”
“Maybe so, but the other men don’t feel that way.”
“They do. Auric certainly does. Slade and Reven do too, they’re just afraid to admit it. But trust me, they love you as much as I do. How could they not?”
She looked up at me. “What did you say?”
I stroked her face as I gazed into her hazel eyes. “I love you, Kira. I’ve loved you since that first tussle we had in the forest and every day since.”
The hint of a smile lit up her face. “I love you too.”
I pressed my lips to hers, relieved to finally tell her how I felt and to hear her say it in return. The bond flared between us, confirming everything we’d said with a calm warmth.
Auric slipped into the tent. “Good, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Kira said.
He settled in beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist. “I just explained everything to Brin. She took it pretty well, all things considered.”
Kira nodded. “Is everyone else all right?”
“Yes, we’re okay,” Auric said. “Shaken up, but mostly by seeing you get hurt.”
“Hard to believe there were shades in the temple,” I said. “I didn’t think they were real.”
“Me neither,” Kira said.
Auric’s brow furrowed. “I’ve read about them in books, but never imagined I’d see one in person. It has to be more than a coincidence they were waiting for us, especially after seeing what happened inside that temple.”
“Do you think they’re working for the Dragons?” Kira asked.
“Perhaps,” Auric said with a sigh. “The Dragons must have destroyed the temple and killed the High Priestess and her mates, though I’m shocked they would go to such lengths to stop us. Especially since they’re all supposed to serve the Gods.”
Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series Page 31