by Zoe Chant
"What is it?" she asked, leaning forward. "I can feel you being smug about something."
"Only thinking about how I have the most amazing mate of all time. Everyone is going to be so jealous when I introduce them to you. And don't tell me you doubt it, or else I get to say I told you so at least a dozen times this weekend."
She playfully bopped his neck scales with a fist. "You're the worst."
"Excuse me, as your alpha—"
"Excuse me, as my what?"
Draconic throats were not well suited to laughter, but Reive opened his jaws anyway, and rumbled his pleasure to the clouds.
As he entered the Corcoran family territory, he was joined by several of his younger cousins, flying as a proud escort all the way to the mountain. He landed on an upper terrace, settling more heavily than a normal dragon despite his efforts to adjust for his increased weight. The cousins touched down one at a time, surrounding him in an honor guard.
Jess slipped neatly from his back to the floor, and tapped it lightly with a slipper-clad foot. She was testing the stone, he knew. It was good and solid underfoot. Gargoyles knew such things.
So did he, now. He had never been interested in rocks at all before meeting Jess. Now they fascinated him. He'd read every geology book in Mace's library and bought a bunch more.
He didn't have the same rock sense as Jess did, but he had a faint echo of it. She was able to tell the composition of a rock and find all of its stress lines just by touching it, and she was steadily honing her rock-sensing ability under Mace's tutelage. Reive couldn't do that, but he was slowly beginning to pick up on the finer details of the rocks around him through a combination of careful observation and some sense beyond his five natural ones. Mace had donated a room in Stonegarden for Reive's growing rock collection. Someday, when Reive and Jess had their own place, he would have a special display room for his finest rocks. He was already planning it.
He had never told Jess—or at least not yet—about the Heart of the Hoard. Every hoarding dragon had one, the most prized item in their collection, the nucleus around which the rest of the hoard was built.
His, of course, was her: the finest rock that he could ever dream of holding. She was not his, in the sense that the rest of his hoard was, and that was just one aspect of what made her the most precious thing in it. He could not possess or own her. If she wanted to walk away, she would simply do so, on her own two legs, or with a touch of her hand to stone. There was no way he could hold her by force, and he could not imagine wanting to. Keeping Jess close meant spending the rest of his life making sure that she wanted to stay close, and he had already found that doing so was his chief joy in life.
The double doors to the terrace opened, and Uncle Heikon strode out with his mate Esmerelda walking by his side in a flowing green gown, her red hair a tumbling cascade down her back.
He stopped at the sight of Reive, who had not yet shifted back. After Reive knew they'd all had a chance to get a good look at him, a granite statue of a dragon come to life, he shifted effortlessly back to the dark-haired human form that they all knew.
It was a statement, as much as anything. A show of power.
I may be one of you, but I am not yours anymore.
He was becoming more comfortable with that.
"Hearing about it doesn't quite capture the full effect," Heikon said. He was a couple of inches taller than Reive, but not so tall that their eyes couldn't meet directly—one alpha to another. A small smile danced around Heikon's lips that made Reive think briefly of Mace, who was already starting to feel, in some strange way, like family. "Ah, yes. You are no longer the boy who left this clan to wander the world, are you?"
"No," Reive said, calm and quiet. Jess's hand slipped into his, and he squeezed her fingers. "I am not."
He hadn't yet told Heikon, or anyone, of everything he had gone through with his stone poisoning. He had given them the broadest outline of recent events in a series of texts and emails, but he had left the details vague. He'd told them that he had transformed into his new stone form because of the fight with the gargoyles in Greece, and that he had sought a cure before deciding to embrace it. But the fear and the pain, and the need to deal with it on his own rather than leaning on the clan as he had his entire life, was something he hadn't discussed with them yet, and he wasn't sure if he ever would.
Abruptly, Heikon went down on one knee in front of him. Reive was shocked to his core.
"What are you doing," Esme whispered fiercely, nudging her mate with her hip.
"I am acknowledging a debt," Heikon replied quietly. He looked up at Reive, who was still staring, unable to fully wrap his head around the sight of his proud clanlord on his knees. "You were injured, and turned into this, while defending my mate and her family. I—oh—what, woman?"
"Get up," Esme growled, with a hint of dragon underneath the melodious tone of her voice. Heikon's mate, Reive recalled, hoarded music. "You are embarrassing everyone."
"I like what I have become, Uncle," Reive said, smiling. He added, "Though I have to admit, I don't mind the kneeling."
Heikon snorted, and rose gracefully. They regarded each other for a moment, and then Heikon held out an arm and Reive clasped it below the elbow, while Heikon's strong fingers wrapped around his forearm.
It was the sort of greeting that might be made by one clanlord to another, an acknowledgement that he was no longer under the dominion of his clan.
For an instant he felt as if he was in freefall; then Jess's fingers tightened on his, and brought him abruptly back to ground.
We are our own clan now.
Then Heikon turned to Jess, and Reive tensed. If his uncle made even the slightest gesture of disrespect toward his mate—
Heikon held out his arm, just as he had to Reive. Jess hesitated, then reached out and clasped it.
Reive let out his breath.
"Please enjoy the hospitality of my clan, Lady Gargoyle," Heikon said. "You are welcome here."
Jess smiled. "Thank you, Clanlord Heikon," she said. "I hope this will usher in a new era of friendship between our two peoples."
There was a moment of tense silence, and then Heikon inclined his head in a slight nod.
"When do we eat?" chirped one of the younger cousins. Esme couldn't hold back a smile, and Reive laughed.
The feast lasted long into the night. There were whole roasted cows; there were fine dishes from the mixed American-Asian heritage of the Corcoran clan made by their very best cooks; there were displays of aerial dancing from the younger dragons, and dancing to ballroom music provided by Esme, who also offered dance lessons to anyone who wanted to learn the steps rather than just swaying to the music. The mountain blazed with lights, and for just this one night, Reive enjoyed sinking back into the life of the clan that had been his entire world for most of his life. There were children crawling all over him all night, and seemingly endless adults wanting to offer congratulations and meet Jess. She was a celebrity in the small society of the mountain.
Jess had explained many times, to many people, that she wasn't here as a representative of the gargoyles, that she wasn't even here from a clan—the gargoyles didn't have clans, not as the dragons did. But the Corcoran clan still fêted her as if she was an important dignitary from another clan, so at some point she seemed to relax and simply decide to go along with it.
The party began to break up as the parents of small children took them off to bed, and half-drunk couples went off to be alone. In the more relaxed, sleepy atmosphere, Reive managed to find Jess and wander off under the trees with her.
"Usher in a new era of friendship between our two peoples?" he murmured teasingly, leaning close to her.
Jess smiled. "I asked Uncle Mace to suggest a good speech for introducing myself to your clan."
"I did hear a little more Mace than you in that."
"Well, I could have memorized an introductory speech out of one of my favorite books, but I figured it would be just my luck it'd be
a book they'd read."
They wandered deeper into the clanlord's gardens. It was too dark now to see the vivid autumn colors, and many of the more exotic and sensitive plants had already been tucked away for winter, wrapped up in burlap and heavily mulched, or dug up and taken inside. Still, Heikon's fairy lights lit it up like a fantasy land, wound around tree trunks and woven into arbors, glittering on half-bare branches and illuminating the deep piles of leaves under some of the trees.
The air was crisp and cool. Reive put an arm around Jess.
"How big is this place?" she asked. "It just keeps going and going."
"The gardens are Uncle Heikon's pet project," Reive explained. "He's been working on them for centuries. They were partly destroyed when the clan was conquered, but since getting back in charge he's been working twice as hard at restoring them. I think he sees it as some kind of act of redemption or reclamation."
The firelight and laughter had fallen so far behind them now that they seemed to be alone. The deeper they walked into the autumn garden, with all its signs of the oncoming winter, the more solemn it felt, like walking through a cathedral or a cemetery. Reive was thinking that he definitely could have made a better choice for a romantic stroll, and was about to suggest just going back to their rooms and finding other ways to entertain themselves, when they came around a corner and walked into another world.
It was a vast grove of cherry trees, and they were in bloom. Fairy lights draped their trunks, looped over their branches, lighting up a canopy of pink and white flowers. Their perfume was almost overwhelming. Petals sifted down like snow.
Jess gasped softly, overwhelmed. For a few moments, they both could only stand and look, and then they slowly walked deeper into the grove as the petals fell in a soft hush around them.
"How is this possible?" Jess's voice was barely more than a whisper. "How can they be blooming at this time of year? Aren't they a spring flower?"
"I have no idea," Reive said honestly. "Ever since Uncle Heikon found his mate, or I should say re-found her, the trees have been doing this. Even in winter." He held out a hand to catch a falling petal, white with delicate pink veins. "It's not all the trees all the time. But there are at least a few in bloom in every season."
"This is more than a few." She tilted her head back to look up into the blossom canopy above them.
"It is. I've never seen them like this at this time of year."
"It's like they're welcoming you home."
"Or giving me a proper goodbye."
Jess lowered her gaze from the trees to meet his eyes. There were petals in her curly hair, and her brown eyes reflected the fairy lights. She wore a gray shawl clutched around her shoulders, also frosted with petals. Under the drooping cascade of the blossom-laden branches, she looked like a queen in her bower.
"Are you sure you're all right with leaving?" she asked quietly. "Now that I've seen what dragon clans are like—and I saw you with the kids earlier. You really love them, and they love you."
He moved forward to take her into his arms. "Yes, but I guess it took almost dying to make me realize that my place isn't here with them. I love the kids, but I want to have my own kids. Everyone here will always be my family, but you're my family now too. I can always come back to visit. It's time for me to make my own home with you."
He kissed her full lips and the long slope of her pale neck, and unclasped her shawl, letting it fall to pool at her feet.
"Here?" Jess giggled, but it was delight, not nervousness. She laced her arms around his neck. "What if someone comes along?"
"They can find their own hideaway. Anyway, everyone else is busy. No one's likely to come looking for us for hours."
He lowered her down into the soft banks of petals under the trees, and for a while there were no sounds except soft gasps and their mingled, quiet cries of pleasure, as the petals fell like a pink and white snowfall, the first of the season.
In the morning, there was actually snow on the highest peaks. They said their goodbyes in the gold light of dawn, with promises to come back and visit soon, but for now they needed to get back to Newfoundland. Winter would be closing on the island hard, and Jess still had to tie up her affairs in Indiana, pack or sell her things, and figure out something to do about her car. She had suggested a road trip, driving up through Maine and the Maritime Provinces, then taking a ferry. Reive was less enamored of the idea, but wherever Jess was, that was where he wanted to be. Whether it was a viable idea at all depended on how late in the year they got on the road, though.
Heikon and Esme bid them farewell on the highest tower of the Aerie. The tall doors stood open to the bracing wind coming in from the outside. There was no balcony. This was a place meant for flying creatures.
"It was lovely to meet you, dear," Esme told Jess, who looked nonplused as she suddenly found herself enfolded in a hug, half smothered in green velvet and Esme's floating cloud of perfumed red hair. "You are welcome to come back any time that you would like." Esme let go with a smile and a wink. "We mates of the Corcoran dragons have to stick together."
"You make it sound like a burden," Heikon grumbled, but he didn't look at all upset. He turned to Reive and reached out for an armclasp, one clanlord to another. "In the long run, you know, something like this was bound to happen eventually. Gargoyles and dragons, living together, having children together—it's a new world, and sometimes it's hard for us older people to adjust to it."
"You seem to be handling it fine," Reive said. "We'll definitely be back."
"You had better. Oh, and I brought something for you, to take with you to your new lands. Where did it go ..."
Esme wordlessly took a small pot off a shelf and handed it to him.
"Ah. Yes. Thank you."
The pot was crudely made clay, lopsided with odd designs scratched in it. There was a tiny sapling in it, about six inches high.
Heikon cleared his throat. "The pot is a gift from the children. The sakura seedling is from me. Plant it in your new home. I hope it will grow well for you."
"Thank you, Uncle," Reive said solemnly, accepting the gift. "Please tell the children thank you as well." He had doubts that an ornamental cherry tree would grow in Newfoundland's harsh climate ... but they shouldn't have been able to bloom in a Colorado autumn either. Maybe a little of Heikon's magic would cling to them, even that far away.
This time, he didn't take Jess onto his back. The Corcorans would have to deal with her in her gargoyle form sooner or later. Reive took her hand, and they both stepped off the edge of the Aerie together, shifting as they went. His wings snapped out, and Jess dropped gracefully below him as she spread her own smaller pair. They soared up into the sky together, catching the morning breeze. Reive held the cherry tree in its little pot clutched against his chest, his large paw closed over the top to seal it away from the cold wind.
"Can't you just send it wherever your clothes go?" Jess asked, soaring up in front of him.
"I could, but I'm not sure what it'd do to a living thing. Probably better to carry it."
"I can take a turn if you need a break," Jess offered, as she hovered effortlessly with beats of her wings. She'd never had much practice at flying because of the need for secrecy, but she was getting better with every flight. The villagers on the island seemed to enjoy seeing more than one of their lucky gargoyles flying around.
"I'll definitely let you know if I need it."
Through the mate bond, he felt her pleasure. Their bond hadn't snapped into instant existence like most dragons' mate bonds, and their ability to sense each other, even to speak at a distance, was growing very gradually as well, weaving new little threads of connection with every passing day.
But that was more perfect for them, he thought, than an instant conduit of thoughts and emotions could ever have been. They were both guarded people. They could never have let down their guard instantly, and would only have ended up building new walls between them as they struggled to cope with it. This way, they had
a chance to get used to it gradually, the same way they had gotten to know and trust each other at their own speed.
And wasn't that what it all came down to, in the end? Mates and the mate bond weren't one size fits all. It was about finding the perfect person for you, the missing puzzle piece that fit together with your own rough edges. Reive could never have handled the overwhelming presence of Esme's intense personality, but no one who was any less intense could have coped with his uncle.
And he could imagine no more perfect fit for his own puzzle piece than Jess, with her quiet demeanor masking a vast hidden wellspring of humor and intelligence that could nourish him for a lifetime. She was the bravest person he'd ever met, the most clever and curious. They had so much to learn from each other, so many things to do with each other. They had barely scratched the surface of the possibilities yet, and it seemed that there was so much left to do, endless new options opening before them with every passing day.
"You're awfully quiet," Jess said, flying up at his left wing. "What are you thinking about?"
And he smiled, feeling the flex of his new stone wings, the wind fresh and cool on his pebbled scales. "The future."
Epilogue
Since his sister left and his parents died, Mace had lived alone in the big house, rattling around in its vast stone silence with only the occasional company of a handful of villagers who came up to do part-time housekeeping and cooking. His social life had consisted mainly of visiting friends like Gio, but he had never thought of bringing anyone back to the house with him.