by C. D. Gorri
“That was not your fault-”
“I FAILED! The Wardens were disbanded, and my kind gone FOREVER! What don’t you understand? Damn you for making me remember!” He roared his agony, making her cringe. But that was nothing compared to how she felt watching him raise his fist and punching a hole clean through the stone wall.
“No,” she moved forward regardless of the plaster and stone that littered the floor, “not forever, Nathan. We’re back now. We can be of use again, and we need you,” she whispered.
She bit back her sob. Her heart was breaking for him. It squeezed painfully in her chest as she watched the blood run from his knuckles. What must he be thinking?
She’d read thousands of retellings of the Silver and of his affair with the two-faced elemental Witch who’d tried to destroy him. The heartless bitch of a woman had betrayed him and taken out his entire clan.
“You think you know it all? You don’t know how Arianna cut down my kin. She took their blood, the sacred lifegiving fluid of the Dragons, and used it to call forth a Demonic army the likes of which the world had never seen for her true lover,” emptiness consumed Phoebe as he spoke, silver eyes staring at the floor.
She knew the tale well. Arianna’s true lover was the very same Sea Demon who was currently trying to crawl back into the world through his puppet, Ao Guang. And he was headed straight for them.
“Nathan, I know you think I can’t understand so much death and misery, but the blood is on her hands, not yours,” she tried to reason with him, but he shook his head. His silver eyes were wide, panicky as he stepped back.
“No, don’t you see, I am responsible.”
Phoebe wanted to scream and sob for both the loss of life and his loss of purpose. The history books accounted for the death toll by blaming the plague, but she knew the truth. As did most supernaturals. Darkness had nearly destroyed the world. Using plague and pestilence, the maggot-riddled fiends working for the Demons had sucked the Earth dry of wheat and grain, of life and blood. The Darkness nearly overcame them all. And then he stopped it.
By all accounts, the Silver Dragon was the savior of the battle. He’d swept in, his fearsome fire glowing blue in the heat of the battle. He’d purified and cleansed the seas and fields of all evil. Sacrificing his heart’s flame for the sake of the world.
“You,” once more she walked towards him, “you gave them everything. You used the blue fire of Cancer, calling on the flames from the depths of the waters to cleanse the field of all Darkness. They say you gave your heart’s fire, Nathan?”
Phoebe couldn’t stop the rush of words from her lips. Couldn’t stand to see the pain her words caused, but she was helpless to stop them. This complicated man, this strong, stalwart Dragon had endured so much.
He’d seen suffering the likes of which she could never imagine at the hands of true evil and at the behest of the Heralds and Wardens alike. No wonder he renounced them all. And there she was to remind him. Oh Nathan, how you must despise me.
“No. Not my heart’s fire. For I am still here,” he spoke as if he didn’t deserve to be.
“Nathan, maybe-”
“No, I will not talk about it anymore with you. You work for them. You’re here at their bidding. Did you think to use your body to tempt me back to the fold? Well, I am sorry, but even one as fair as you can’t make me return to those cold-hearted bastards.”
Phoebe covered her mouth with her hand, stifling her gasp. She felt as though she were being stabbed right through her heart. Pain, intense and agonizing coursed through her. Those careless words he’d thrown at her eating away at her soul like acid.
Nathan turned away from her. He left the room and she almost fell to her knees. The vision of his tall back walking away remained with her and she bit her hand to stop herself from going after him.
She hated that she would still want to comfort him after he’d basically accused her of sleeping with him for her job. But he was hurting, and she’d been the reminder of a past too cruel to bear.
It took all of her strength, but she was finally able to see past the nasty accusation to the wound underneath. Nathan Silvertongue was heartbroken and in trying to defend whatever remained of the organ, he’d broken hers.
She didn’t know it was possible to feel so helpless. Phoebe didn’t like the feeling at all. How stupid she’d been! Naïve and eager for this chance to prove her worth amongst her superiors and peers alike. She couldn’t even make a hasty retreat! Oh no, she had to go and bespell them both to be waterlocked in his home!
Anger surged through her. Anger at him for speaking to her like that. At the Heralds for not telling her exactly who she was going after. And at herself, for allowing her heart to become involved. Seriously involved. Am I thinking L-word?
She stopped that thought almost as quickly as it popped up. Flicking her wrist, she used her magic to cloth herself quickly in a long, strapless dress that fit loosely. She stepped across the floor, barefoot, ignoring the mess he’d left after sending his fist through the wall. The pain of the stone shards on the soles of her feet only reminded her she was still there, alive and well for the most part.
Broken heart aside. Damn the man. She’d had no idea the arrogant SeaDragon she’d been assigned could be the Silver of legend. Heck, she’d assumed he had died during the battle as a result of using his heart’s flame. Never could have imagined she’d meet him in the flesh.
The bards had sung his praises for centuries, but no one ever really said what became of him. Now she knew. He lived. But not really.
What kind of life was there to be had hidden away on a rock? She cried for him then. For what they could have had. Tears streamed unchecked down her face as she collected her wits.
I love him, she realized. Loved the big stupid man though it was hopeless. Pain lanced through her body from her very core. It was so unfair, but that was life, she supposed. Okay, enough, she told herself and bit her lip to keep from sobbing aloud.
She was a Witch and a Junior Station Master. She had a calling. One she couldn’t give up just to ensure her heart’s desire. And I desire him. I love him. I really do.
She acknowledged the truth of her feelings as she accepted the pain in knowing she could never act on them. Not until he could at least discuss the possibility of rejoining the world. She saw him standing by the door, unable to move through it and her heart wrenched.
“Okay, Nathan, look I know you don’t think I could understand-”
“How could you?” He bellowed.
She jumped at the tone of his voice, trying to understand his rage for what it was. Pain. Despair. Hopelessness. Abandonment. She’d just torn open his oldest wound and now he was caught up in the storm of his memories. Consumed with his regrets.
“How could you know what it is to be the last of a species? All because of a mistake! One that I made! I thought she was my mate. She betrayed me and they ALL DIED!”
“But you’re not the last! I know more Dragons-”
“No! You lie to tempt me back to the fold.”
The insult cut her deeply, and she glared at him, hands on hips. He might be the Silver Dragon, but she was Phoebe Bright. A well connected, if not mega powerful Witch, who was as honest as they came.
“I never lie!”
He harrumphed and turned his back on her. Frustration and pain rolled off of him in waves, tainting the air. She would have cringed at his suffering but was too angry to do anything but react.
Phoebe always was too volatile for her own good. But that was just the kind of person she was. She threw herself all in or nothing. It couldn’t be helped. This SeaDragon needed someone to call him on his bullshit and she was just the Witch to do it.
“Listen here, you overgrown sea snake! There is a Clan of Dragons living as we speak off the coast of New Jersey. Four brothers actually. Before that, they lived somewhere called the Isle of Pain in the North. There are more Dragons, Nathan, but that fact is not important. No, what is important, Mr. High and M
ighty, is that the Sea Demon you fought before has sent a minion to do his dirty work once again. And, in case you haven’t noticed, he is occupying your neck of the Atlantic!”
“So, what do I care-”
“He’s headed right here, you big buffoon!”
“What? Who dares come near my island?”
“Ao Guang, the Green Dragon of the East is headed straight here. Haven’t you noticed the storms? Haven’t you bothered questioning why your island has been hit by not one, but six almost-hurricanes in the last two months alone!”
Phoebe’s rampage had only just begun. She moved towards him, stalking him across the cool stone floor with slow, measured steps.
“Look outside the window, Nathan. He is almost here! I’ve come at the behest of the Heralds to do my job. To get you back in the game. But I can see now you’re too wrapped in the past to help. You’ve forgotten what it means to be a Warden.”
He winced under her cruel words and her heart shattered. She turned her back on him, unable to stem this fresh flow of tears. She had no choice now. It was over.
“I’ll work on breaking the confinement spell. And I will explain to the Heralds that I failed in my mission. You won’t hear from me again.”
With one final look at his turned back, Phoebe left the room. Heart around her ankles, she called upon her magic to aid her. She gathered all her belongings from his home and shoved them back to her storage space between realms, trying not to think about the angry Dragon in the next room. She had to focus now.
How to break the spell…
She knew of one sure way to break the spell she case, but she had no desire to do it. The ritual involved blood. Hers. And she’d vowed to never do blood magic, but this was an exception she’d have to make. Ao Guang was nearly upon them. The wild tempest outside alerting her to the Green Dragon’s proximity. He had to be stopped. She might not be strong enough, but she had to try.
So little time. She wanted to cry out in her pain. From her youth she’d wondered if she’d ever find true love and up until a moment ago, she believed she had. Rolling up her metaphorical sleeves, Phoebe sat on the floor and recalled the steps to her spell.
A huge booming noise interrupted her. It sounded like thunder only amplified as it reverberated over the island. Then the thunder changed into something else. An evil, cynical laughter seemed to shake the very island. Shit. That could only mean one thing.
Ao Guang had found them.
CHAPTER 9
The roar of the sea bashing against the far side of the island was loud even in Nathan’s home. Shit. He’d fucked up and badly.
Phoebe had tried to explain, but he wasn’t sure he believed her. Could she really have not known the Heralds would stoop to seduction to make him return? Hell, he didn’t even know if her reactions to him were real!
No, that wasn’t exactly true. His Dragon growled in his mind’s eye and he acknowledged there were some things he did believe. Like the fact that she was his fated mate.
And now, he knew that she spoke the truth about this as well. The echoing thunder and the evil laughter contained within it could mean only one thing. His old enemy, the Green Dragon was here. Ao Guang was his official title, but the Dragon King went by many names.
Jade Spring was one of his pseudonyms. That was how Nathan knew the Dragon who was King of the Eastern Seas. If you could believe it, Nathan had once studied with the Green Dragon. Had even counted him as a friend. But that was many centuries ago.
His heart’s fire had been poisoned by the death of his mate, as a result Ao Guang became a puppet for the Sea Demon. And now he was back to hunt his old nemesis. He endangers out mate. Nathan growled. He remembered the pain he experienced that day, but it would be nothing compared to how he’d feel if Phoebe was hurt!
First, Arianna’s betrayal had nearly crippled him. Then, he was made to watch the death of all the Dragons. Clearly not all. Not if Jade was back. His mate had spoken the truth.
He growled at his own stupidity and headed back to where he heard Phoebe moving around. The sight that greeted him almost petrified him in place.
Phoebe was sitting on the floor holding her arm over a silver bowl. Her hair was still tousled from their lovemaking, her face flushed though stained with her tears. How he wanted to go to her and kiss the salty evidence of her pain away.
I caused her to hurt. His admission pained him, though he couldn’t help but take her in. A vision was his fated mate. One that made every inch of him take notice. He felt his Dragon rise, even his powers of Cancer answer the call of her mere presence.
His Phoebe looked like an ancient goddess there on his stone floor. Like some flaxen, sacrificial angel on an altar. Es meus, growled his beast.
The loose gown she wore seemed to flow around her, as if by magic. She looked beautiful. But it wasn’t those things that gave him pause.
No, it was the large, wickedly sharp athame in her other hand. She was chanting words he could not make out, But he didn’t need to. It was clear she meant to harm herself.
“No,” Nathan growled and leapt across the room using his inhuman speed to reach her before she could swing the blade down. Gripping the athame, he broke her grasp on the blade gently, sending the hateful knife slamming into the far wall.
Twin tracks of tears ran down her beautiful face and Nathan’s heart constricted in his chest. To think he was the cause of such pain shamed both man and Dragon. Fury rose in his blood, directed only at himself for causing her to almost harm her precious self.
“No, flava. I will never have you harm yourself,” he growled as he pulled her into his arms. Rocking her precious body as she sobbed against his chest.
“No, Nathan, it’s okay. I wasn’t trying to hurt myself. I was only trying to break the spell-” she hiccupped as she spoke, but he simply held her tightly and smoothed a hand over her golden locks.
“Shh, it will be alright, flava, I will make it so,” he whispered, leaving kisses on her forehead and cheeks. The feel of her safe and secure in his arms helped to somewhat soothe his Dragon, but it wasn’t enough. He could never get enough of her.
“Seriously, Nathan. I was trying to break the spell. The only way to do it without fulfilling the terms are to draw my blood. At least, I think that should do it,” she pushed against his chest and he relaxed his hold, but still refused to let her go. He needed that connection to remind him she was alright. He would never stop making it up to her, he vowed to himself.
The confusion in her bright blue eyes wounded him. That this beautiful, brave Witch should risk a single drop of her blood to release him from a spell was unthinkable.
“I am not so dishonorable as to ever wish to see a drop of your blood spilt on my behalf, flava meus.”
“I am sorry. But you refused your role, and now I have to meet the Green Dragon and fight him. I respect you, but it’s my sworn duty to protect this world-”
“I understand sworn duty better than anyone, Phoebe.”
“You don’t have to say any of this, Nathan. I should have never let us get involved,” she trembled, and he hated himself for doing that to her. For making her doubt them.
“Listen to me, flava, right now, I swear to you that I will meet Ao Guang, that I will defeat him, and that I will protect you. Always. Es meus,” the power of his vow rang throughout the room. The magic innate of his Dragon-self imbuing the very air with his promise, Nathan’s eyes glowed with power as he made his oath to the only woman in the entire universe that mattered.
A Dragon’s word when sworn was a sacred pact, that much he recalled from the days of old. A mate’s oath was unbreakable. And she was his. His one true, fated mate. He knew that now.
The entire house, maybe the whole island, shook with the force of his promise to Phoebe. Then, as if the sun itself had heard his vow, it came out. Shining brightly through the floor to ceiling windows, and he felt her spell break as the front door slowly unlocked and opened.
Nathan smiled as Phoebe stared
in wonder at him and at the heat that seemed to pulse between them. Need and desire rose up like the tide inside of him, swelling and growing with each breath they took. Mine. Es meus, growled his SeaDragon in his mind’s eye.
He felt his true purpose for the first time in a millennium and it filled him with a righteous fire that burned brightly inside. His heart’s fire. Nathan recognized it for what it was, awe filling him at the depth of his feelings. Rekindled in his chest with the love of his mate, his heart’s fire was the source of his flame, the tie to his magic and the powers of Cancer.
True, she had yet to accept him as a mate, and he’d yet to claim her with his bite, but he would rectify that as soon as possible. There was no other recourse, she was his and he was hers.
“Phoebe, I speak from my heart when I say this week has changed me-”
“Nathan, we don’t have time to discuss whatever this thing is between us now. Ao Guang is practically here,” her wide, bright blue eyes met his, fear and longing in them.
“After then, after I defeat him, you and I must talk,” he wanted to taste her lips, to give himself one more sweet reminder of his soon-to-be-mate, but before he could sweep in to steal a kiss, she seemed to fly away from him. A thick green limb wound round her middle as she screamed for him.
Nathan gave chase but was knocked to the ground by a deafening trumpet of a roar split the air, followed by a booming crash of thunder and lightning overhead. Ao Guang! Nathan growled as wind whipped palm trees and shrubs viciously outside and tore his front door right off its hinges.
“I see you have grown tired and complacent, old friend,” a raspy voice hissed through the air a split second before a long, serpentine tail wrapped around Phoebe’s waist and hauled her outside.
“Nathan!” She screamed.
“No!” Nathan roared. Fury and anger flooded his veins, but he could not allow them to cloud his thought process. Not when Phoebe’s life depended on him.
“Jade? Is it really you?”
“Yessss. It is I, but you don’t get to call me Jade any longer. I am the Green Dragon of the East and you shall feel my wrath!”