by Jaymin Eve
Clear as mud. Thanks.
There was a courtyard in the outer zone of the massive castles. Beyond, large stone blocks rose up to form a barrier. It took us a few minutes of wandering along it before we found an opening, just wide enough for us to duck through, one by one. The path on the other side was perfect, no cracked pavers or weeds littered around, as if this world had a team of gardeners, maintenance mages, and cleaners on staff. And yet it was eerily quiet, like there was no one here at all. It had an abandoned feeling, but this perfect upkeep said otherwise.
“Stop!”
A male voice rang out loudly behind us. We were about halfway along the path which led to the smaller right-side castle. The large outer stone fence blocked us from seeing whomever was the owner of the voice, but we didn’t step forward. Better to leave enough space to clearly see what we were up against.
My dragon and wolf roared to their feet, on alert but patiently waiting for my command. I liked knowing that I could shift into either of them, and even though you would assume dragon would be the choice every time, there were some things a dragon just couldn’t do, despite Braxton’s cocky confidence in his abilities. When stealth and sneaking through small spaces was required, my wolf was the perfect choice.
The moments passed slowly as we waited for the figure to appear. Probably no longer than a minute, but it felt like an hour as the tension ate away at our group. I sensed that the boys were about eight seconds from saying screw it and charging down the path, when a shadow crossed over the doorway and a figure stepped through.
“Seriously,” I said, breathing out in a great huff. “That was a real shithead move.”
I started running back along the path. Louis held out his arms for a hug, but at the last moment I sidestepped and punched him square in the shoulder.
“You’re an asshole. Why the hell didn’t you say it was you? You should know better than to just shout and scare the shit out of me.”
He laughed. “Aw, Jess, always so happy to see me.”
I was actually really happy to see him, but he still deserved that punch. Stepping back to his side, I did give him the hug he’d been waiting for, and by that time the Compasses had joined us.
“I couldn’t see you, but your pack’s energy was close and strong. I wanted to stop you before you made it any further. This is not a world you should step through lightly.”
Braxton gave the sorcerer a passive glare, like he wanted to ream him one but knew that we needed his intel right now. “You should probably tell us everything you know about this place,” he said. “How did you get down here? And can we get out the same way?”
Louis glanced around, taking in the scenery. “I fell the same as you all did, ending up in the Sea of Tranquility.”
The Sea of Tranquility? What the eff?
“It’s the waters of the gods. They’re protective and restorative. They judge all who enter, and if you’re not of worthy intentions, you’ll never make it out alive.”
“Don’t forget about the Loch Ness Monsters.”
Louis grinned. “They’re the guardians of the water. If you don’t pass the judgement, they will no longer be the serene creatures you witnessed. They turn into demons of the deep and they’re impossible for any to win against. Even a dragon,” he said, his eyes twinkling. It was like he’d heard our conversation when we’d first fallen in the water. Braxton didn’t bother to reply, but I could see on his face that he thought Louis was wrong.
“They took a real liking to Jess,” Jacob said.
Louis’ enthralling eyes locked on to me and swirls of something shot through my body. The sorcerer had a way of wrapping his energy around you and infusing it into your every facet. He was scary as shit at times, and I wondered what it would feel like to be mated to someone with that much power and intensity.
Probably a lot like being mated to Braxton, but while dragons had an ancient and wild magic, the sorcerer’s was on this whole otherworldly, epic scale. It would take a special sort of magic user to be a true mate to this mage.
“The guardians of the sea are born of the shining ones’ dreams. They’re pure fantasy. And there’s something about Jessa which screams ‘power of the gods’ as well. It was what captured me when she was a child, and what continues to draw me to her.”
I snorted. “Thought it was my charming personality.”
He joined the laughter of the quads. “You’re actually quite charming, Jess, and your blunt nature is a welcome relief to me. I’ve spent too many years dealing with lies and deceit. To find people who simply speak truth … well, it’s a gift.”
I wasn’t a particularly sentimental or emotional person, but that kind of hit me right in the gut. I had so many blessings, and Louis definitely made that list now.
“Okay, so do you think my freaky dragon mark is giving me some weird pull? A magical essence which draws creatures to me. Or is it more?”
Thanks to Louis, my mark had been suppressed for most of my life, but now that the energy was free and the king had returned, the power of the mark was burning through me. I was changing – possibly the reason for my sensitive and aching body.
“It could be your mark, or it could be that you have some blood of the gods in you. I know that Jonathon’s line is ancient and can be traced back to the time of the first awakening. Either way, Jess, you’re special.”
Yep, special fucking cupcakes are me.
Louis turned to stare around the castle grounds. “I never believed I would see this world, the true realm of the gods. This is where the shining ones built their power base. The Gold magic is so much stronger here. They protect the true center of Faerie.”
“What’s at the center of Faerie?” I asked.
“The realm where the shadows are trapped. We don’t ever want to find ourselves there. We must never wake the ancient shadow spawn.”
I’d always known that we needed Louis’ expertise. He had ten times more knowledge than the rest of us. “So where are the shining ones then?”
The place might have been perfect to look at, but it was clear that there were no living beings here. I could feel the emptiness.
Louis shrugged, his white, ribbed long-sleeved shirt rippling across lithe muscles. “I don’t know for sure. I believe they abandoned their physical bodies and are simply one with their world now.” That could explain the current state of perfection down here. If they were a part of this world, in spirit or power form, they could probably keep the maintenance up.
“I have heard a lot of stories about when they vanished. Apparently one minute they were here, controlling the power of Faerie and existing with their wild brethren, the dragons. They monitored the dragon mating and made sure that balance was kept through the realms. And then … they were gone. Before my time of course, but I’ve been studying the lands of Faerie for many years. I’ve gathered a lot of information about the history, because so much of it still affects us on the Earth plane. In truth, though, no one really knows what happened to them.”
Both of my hands flew up, palms toward him. “Whoa, hold up. The dragons are their brethren and they monitored dragon mating? What the hell are you saying?” Before he could answer, I spun around to Braxton. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
This was the second time someone had mentioned dragon mating or mated. I had never heard that term before, and I wanted to know what it was. Like right now.
“I have some idea, just very basic information about the way dragon shifters are born.” Braxton turned to Louis. “We’re never told much of it. Faerie guards their secrets. If you know more, you better start explaining.”
I spun around again. “Yes, what he said … start talking, sorcerer.” I was fully prepared to beat it out of him, even if he could turn me into a frog with a simple spell. Okay, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be that simple, but I bet Louis could do it.
“We’re wasting time standing here,” Jacob cut in. “We need to find whatever it is that can break the dragon mar
ked ties. Can we explore and talk at the same time?”
Louis sucked in a deep breath, his eyes flittering across the castles towering over us. “I think we are going to have to venture inside, but I implore you all, stay close, do not wander off. I have no idea which of the ancient powers might be lying dormant in those walls.”
I couldn’t hold back my snort, which turned into full-blown laughter when Louis turned his sparkling purple peepers on me. “You implore us to stay close. No one speaks like you, my friend, no one.”
Okay, some of the oldest supes did on occasion lapse into a much more formal style of English, but Louis managed to combine old and new perfectly.
His grin widened. “I’ll dumb it down for you next time, shall I?”
I forced my face to go perfectly blank, before reaching up and twirling a strand of hair. “Awesome, that would be like, totally, like just the wickedest thing evers.”
I finished that by flipping him off, with both hands. Smartass fucker.
We were silent as we started our journey toward the castles again. This time Louis was leading. He chose the largest, middle castle. The light here felt natural, but we knew it wasn’t; there were no shadows, not even a darkening as we stepped up to the doorway. The sandstone building towered above us, its marble accents littered with rubies and sapphires, and the rest looked like a diamond infused membrane. So glittery.
I reached out a hand and placed it onto one of the pillars, which stood tall on either side of the main entrance. Sparks shot through my palm and up my arm, the magic skidding along my body and deep into my veins. I managed to yank myself off the wall before sinking back against Braxton.
“I don’t know what the hell that just was,” I said breathlessly. “But there’s some serious mojo in this castle. It’s so infused with magic that I would recommend not touching shit unless you have no choice.”
“Great plan, Jess,” Louis said before muttering a few words in the direction of the massive door, standing at least fifteen feet high. It slowly creaked open. I wasn’t sure what to expect on the other side, but when the sorcerer finally stepped through, and the rest of us followed, I was completely stunned.
One would think that stepping into a castle, the inside would in some way match the outside – large open foyer, huge curved marble staircases, maybe some long expanses of stone flooring, shiny marble even? Nope. Apparently in this isle of Faerie, what you got inside castles was a massive stretch of meadow, some scattered trees in the distance, and the softest looking grass and flowers flowing out across the distance. The space looked endless; the sky was dark blue, navy, and infused with light.
I couldn’t stop myself from stepping further into the meadow, sighing as my bare feet sank into the warm, dry, spongy softness. Wait … my shoes? I turned back and realized they had been flung haphazardly near the entrance. I must have kicked them off the moment I walked inside, needing to be in contact with the land.
I wanted to run and fly across the meadows. In fact, my dragon had stopped her calm pacing and was now straining against me. All of a sudden I had the feeling that this was her world and she wanted to be free. As if all control had left me, in a roar of fire and magic I felt the shift washing across my body. Braxton’s eyes captured mine just moments before my body morphed into my dragon.
My mind went into beast mode, the colors of this place even more dazzling with the extra spectrum of dragon sight. She was pushing my consciousness down, tapping into the base instincts of her kind. We were immediately in the sky, flying, roaring, sending plumes of flames around the world and into the blueness. Everything here felt right for the dragon’s existence – the temperature, the air currents, the scents, the colors. It was as if this was a dragon’s dream world.
Home.
I sensed Braxton long before he joined us. The wind carried the scent of him to us. I forced some of the dragon down, which was so much harder than it should have been. I feared for a moment that she would never let me take control again. She did not want to leave this world.
Brax...
I hoped he would hear me. I’d dreamed about communicating with him as a dragon.
Jess, babe, now is not the time for a flying lesson.
As his warm tones washed across my mind, I gained more control over my dragon, as if she, too, was unable to stop herself from granting his request.
Apparently what I want is not that important right now. My dragon needed some her time.
He chuckled. I understand. Mine is the same, but that tells me that we’re in the right place. This is where we will find the key to defeating Larkspur.
He was right, and we had to hurry up about it. Who knew what the hell was happening in the human world while we were here. Actually, Louis might know, he’d just been there dropping Jonathon off. I’d ask him, right after he explained about this damn dragon mated thing.
I flew beside Braxton for some time, our dragons companionably gliding through the air. The scenery below did not change much. There were some lakes, a few mountains, trees, and other variances on nature – the most peaceful oasis I could ever imagine.
Time to get back to the others.
Braxton’s voice echoed across our bond again, and we banked to the right, turning our large bodies back in the direction we’d just flown. My dragon was calm now, satisfied. Her heart, body, and soul seemed more at peace, and she was content to allow control to return to me.
I tried not to dwell on how easily she’d wrested it from me; it was a relief to have our status-quo returned. We flew rapidly now, our keen sight locking in on the rest of our group. A few pangs rocked my body as we started to descend. I couldn’t quite tell if they were from me or my dragon. Still, as I landed, the change back to human was easy, effortless.
Braxton and I were both in our usual after-shift naked-state, but Louis quickly fixed that for us. The sorcerers hand lingered on my shoulder for a few extra moments, as if he knew I was still trying to pull my frazzled psyche together. It was disorienting trying to deal with the dragon’s mind as well as my own. I reached out and gripped Louis’ shirt.
“I think it’s time for you to tell us everything you know about this place.”
We ended up beside one of the large lakes, a small stream trickling down a series of staggered rocks. I don’t know which one of us decided to jump in first, but before we knew it, all of us had stripped down to our underwear and were swimming around in a sort of reckless abandon. Don’t get me wrong, we hadn’t forgotten where we were, or what we were doing here, but for some reason the urgency was lost in our need to frolic.
I might not enjoy dark, scary waters, but in a small lake like this, I was in my element, diving and rolling with the cool current, so soothing and refreshing.
“So, Louis, spill.” Tyson was flat on his back, floating around, using his magic to power himself like he was a little boat.
Louis sat on the edge of the lake, his pants rolled up and legs in the water, the only one who wasn’t swimming. “I’ll tell you everything I know, but you must keep in mind that original fey, like the shining ones and shadow spawn, are very secretive. I have inferred a lot from my fact gathering missions over the years, but there are many blanks.”
We just waved our hands at him. Even if eighty percent of his facts were made up, he’d still know a hundred percent more than most of us.
He splashed out with his feet as he spoke. “The shining ones are the original gods of Faerie, pretty much. They’re blessed to be able to contain and use the Gold. There is only one other race who have the same sort of ties to this pure energy, and that’s the dragons. The two are cousins of a sort.”
No way! I stopped my frolicking and focused on him with an intensity that would make most supes feel very uncomfortable. Louis didn’t even seem to notice.
“The reason there are dragon shifters, that dragons and supes have any relationship at all, is because of their bond with the shining ones. There used to be thousands of dragons, maybe hundreds of thous
ands. They roamed the lands and were the top predator of both Faerie and Earth. It got so bad that at one point the supes were ready to go to war with the wild dragons, but then the shining ones stepped in. They tamed some of the more animalistic nature of your wild brethren.
“The first dragon shifter was recorded over five thousand years ago, and the story goes that a wild dragonling was born to a weak body, something which happened on occasion, and always resulted in the early death of the young. The problem being that for dragons, even if the body is damaged, the soul is as strong as ever. In a desperate attempt to save him, one of the shining ones managed to set the soul free but kept it contained in the mortal realm. The retaining of an essence had never been done before, and it gave the fey an idea about how they could save these dragon souls. The dragonling was given the choice to bond with a member of Faerie or to move on to the great sky.”
I was literally not breathing right now. If Braxton hadn’t swum up behind me and cupped his hands under my butt, hauling me into his body so he could hold me up, I’d have drowned. I was all over the feel-o-meter with this story. It was achingly painful and yet beautiful at the same time. I had to know more.
“He chose to be bonded,” I breathed, my eyes fluttering closed as my head tilted back to rest against Braxton’s hard chest.
Louis made a sound of acknowledgement. “Yes, the dragon young chose to be bonded, but his stipulation was that he would choose the supernatural soul strong enough to house his spirit, one who was worthy. The transformation to dragon shifter would start at conception. He was released, and exactly six months later a child was born, the first dragon shifter, the first supernatural to be dragon mated.”
All of us had moved closer, standing in the shallower water, forming a circle around the storytelling mage.
Braxton was running his hands up and down my bare arms, warming me with his fire. “This is why becoming a dragon shifter is not genetic,” I said. “It’s an anomaly. The soul of a dragon chooses a shifter strong enough to be part of them.”