They walked to the stone circle, where Kai and Rhys had taken to holding court on the days it didn’t rain. Everyone had gone for the evening, and they were alone among the standing stones. A salt breeze rustled the plants that grew along the shore of the lake, and the air was full of the songs of insects and frogs.
Tensions still ran high in Eryri, but for the moment, many of the dragons just seemed relieved that the war was over. Oh, there would be dissenters. Jiang, for example. Who had disappeared. Kai could have used the mantle to call her back. With its full power, Jiang didn’t have to be in hearing distance for Kai to issue a command. But Kai had her hands full with other things, so she told Juli she’d done enough magic to prevent Jiang from killing or harming anyone, and for now she was content to leave it at that.
Juli reached out with searching tendrils, brushing the minds of a few dragons who walked along the beach. So many tensions brewed beneath the surface here. Sundering would put her out for a week or more. She felt like she was leaving her friend in the midst of a den of vipers.
But Kai, she’d learned over the past few days, was more than capable of taking care of herself.
Kai stood on a boulder beyond the circle’s edge, skipping stones into the lake with Rhys. They turned at Juli, Ashem and Kavar’s approach. Kai sat. She was so short and the boulder so large that her feet dangled off the side. She kicked them lightly against the stone. Despite everything Kai had been through, in that moment she looked like a child in a too-big chair.
Her best friend, Queen of Dragons.
Juli decided it fit.
“Are you ready?” Rhys asked.
Juli and Kavar nodded.
Rhys looked to Ashem, who scowled. Even though he wasn’t the one being sundered, his position was hardly enviable. He desperately wanted her to himself—and desperately wanted to spare her pain.
“So, we’re going to try something.” Kai sounded nervous. “You guys are kind of handing me a scalpel and asking me to do surgery. But I noticed a couple of things when I repaired our bond.” She gestured between herself and Rhys. “I think people in the past have always sundered by ripping the connections apart. But I think they might be able to be...sliced. Which doesn’t sound any better, but trust me, it will be a lot cleaner. And since there are two of us, I think instead of cutting in the middle and letting the broken connection snap back at you, Rhys and I can sever each connection at its source at the same time. No snapping. Maybe—hopefully—less pain.”
Juli swallowed, speaking with a crisp confidence she didn’t feel. “Let’s do it, then.”
“If I had heartsworn to you first, you would have loved me. You could have been mine, Juliet King.”
She glanced up at Kavar. His voice was wistful, not sarcastic. Juli gave him a small smile. Maybe he was right, but it didn’t matter. She had committed to Ashem months ago. Perhaps it wasn’t romantic, but choice held relationships together just as much as emotion. “I might have. But I am my own, and I choose Ashem.”
And so, after a glance at each other, Rhys and Kai began.
It didn’t not hurt. On a scale of pain, Juli would probably put each severed bond somewhere between a paper cut and Owain’s thug breaking her finger. But when they were finished, it was done. She waited for the pain to grow, like Kai had said happened to her and Rhys. She waited for the aftershocks.
There were none. And when she reached for Kavar, he was gone.
Kavar met her gaze and smiled. He looked pale and clearly shaken, but ultimately all right.
He gave her a sardonic bow. “Juliet King, it’s been hell. May we never meet again. Ashem...” Kavar swallowed whatever pithy thing he’d been about to say.
“Let me know when you’re settled,” Ashem said.
“Perhaps.” Without a backward glance, he walked off into the night.
Juli and Ashem said good-night to Rhys and Kai. Then, truly alone for the first time in far too long, they walked toward the mountain.
“We’ll have to visit him on holidays,” Juli observed. Then she sighed. “I’ve never met someone I wanted so badly to kill and mother in all my life.”
“Quiet, woman,” Ashem said into her mind. “This family is perfectly comfortable being dysfunctional. I don’t want to hear his name for a century.”
Juli raised her eyebrows at him. “I dare you to call me that again.”
The corner of Ashem’s mouth lifted ever so slightly. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Woman.” The way he said it, luscious and dark and husky, made goose bumps run down her spine.
She shoved him away, laughing a little.
Juli banked her power and put up the shields that made her sanity possible. She was getting better at it, but sometimes things still leaked through. She pulled a silvery bracelet from her pocket. Made of magic-blocking metal—a brainchild of Henry Harrow—it dimmed her powers enough to achieve silence when used in combination with her shields.
Kai would need her in the days and weeks to come, but for now, she was ready for a rest—and ready to relearn what it meant to be with Ashem without his brother hovering in the backs of both of their minds.
Juli sighed and wondered if Ashem was still connected to Kavar. His absence, surprisingly enough, was bittersweet. She’d wanted to bring Kavar home for Ashem. To reunite him with his brother, the last remaining member of his clan. They had done much to fix things, but not enough.
Maybe someday, they could finish what they’d begun.
* * *
Rhys and Kai stood on the precipice, where the end of the earth met the edge of the sky. Kai’s toes curled over the rim of stone, the barefoot sandals of metal chains and precious stones glittering in the light of the rising sun. She leaned her head against Rhys’s chest, and he tightened his arms around her.
They watched Evan, Kai’s parents on his back, grow distant and small. The goodbye had been tearful, and she wondered when she’d have a chance to see them again. They were the last of the humans to depart. Except for Brendan, who was staying. Kai had warned him to be careful who he touched—humans who could heartswear tended to with long enough exposure to dragons.
Brendan didn’t seem to care. He was fascinated by the dragons.
Kai thought he might even want to heartswear—if he ever stopped following Morwenna around.
That would be bizarre. How would her parents explain how two of their children and their daughter’s best friend had simply fallen off the face of the Earth?
Kai sighed. “The world is shrinking, Rhys. We can’t hide forever. It might take another hundred years. Two or three hundred if we’re lucky. But the humans will find us.”
A flash of something crossed Rhys’s mind—an island filled with dragons. Dark waters rising. He banished the image and dipped his head, inhaling the scent of her hair, then laid his cheek on her head. “I know.” The thought had haunted both of them since the dust had started to clear. In winning the war, they had protected humankind from dragons.
But they had no way of protecting dragonkind from humans.
Kai reached back and slid a hand over his shoulder, her fingers caressing his neck, lingering on his cheek. Thoughts of the mantle made her uncomfortable. They’d had to use it a few times already, mostly to stop brawls and prevent murder. It felt wrong, to be able to take away free will with no more than a little extra concentration.
Someday, she’d like to find out if they could get rid of it all together.
“One step at a time, cariad.” He twined his fingers through hers, brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a reverent kiss against her skin. They could live for another ten thousand years and he would never take this for granted. Not even one time. She turned her face, snuggling into him.
Neither would she.
“We have time,” Rhys murmured against her hand. “We’ll figu
re out a way.”
“We can try.” Kai sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not going to worry about it now. I just want to be for a little while. Breathe. Sometimes I still can’t believe we’re alive.”
Something echoed through her soul. A word. A yearning. Freedom.
He loosened his grip. Kai grabbed his arms before he could drop them entirely. “No. I’m freer here, with you, than I’ve ever been in my life. That’s not what I meant. What I wanted was...”
Rhys grinned, catching a flash of sky in her mind. The wind through her hair. The feeling of the world beneath her. He stepped back, giving himself room and called the change.
Not bothering with a harness, Kai scrambled up his side and held on to the spike in front of her, gripping his spine with her knees.
If she fell, he would catch her.
Every time.
Sensing her readiness, his heart beating in rhythm with hers, Rhys grinned a dragon grin and launched into the sky.
* * * * *
To purchase and read more books
by Caitlyn McFarland, please visit Caitlyn’s website here or at https://chmcfarland.wordpress.com/
the-dragonsworn-trilogy/.
Don’t miss SOUL OF SMOKE by Caitlyn McFarland.
Available wherever Carina Press ebooks are sold.
On a hike deep in the Rocky Mountains, Kai Monahan watches as a dozen dragons—actual freaking dragons—battle beneath a fat white moon. When one crashes nearly dead at her feet and transforms into a man, Kai does the only thing a decent person could: she grabs the nearest sword and saves his life.
As the dragon/man, Rhys, recovers from the attack, a chance brush of skin against skin binds him inextricably to Kai. Becoming heartsworn to a human—especially such a compelling one—is the last thing Rhys wants. But with an ancient enemy gathering to pit dragons against humanity and his strength nearly depleted, Kai has just become the one thing Rhys needs. A complete bond will give him the strength to fight; a denied bond means certain death.
Kai is terrified at the thought of allowing any dragon into her mind...or her heart. Accepting the heartswearing and staying with the dragons means sacrificing everything, and Kai must decide if her freedom is worth risking Rhys’s life—a life more crucial to the fate of humanity than she could possibly know.
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Copyright ©2015 by Caitlyn McFarland
Author Note
I can’t believe these books are finished! When I wrote the first draft of Soul of Smoke (then called Sworn) in January of 2011, it was the first book I’d ever written beginning to end. I’d tried to write novels a few times, but nothing stuck until I discovered this story and these characters. Leaving them behind for other stories feels a little like moving across the country. I can still visit, but it won’t be the same as seeing them every day. I’m going to miss them. Thank you so much for sticking with them (and me) to the end.
Acknowledgments
The creation of these books has been such a journey. As always, thank you to Angela James, who first gave me a chance with Soul of Smoke. Thank you Libby Murphy, who got me through the whirlwind of writing books two and three of the trilogy and for convincing me not to kill off Kavar. Thank you to my masterful agent, Marlene Stringer, for always being there to answer my questions and Get Stuff Done. Thanks to my husband and kids, for dealing with me as I write books. Thank you, as well, to Charlie Holmberg, Erin Summerill and Kim Vanderhorst, who took the time to read this book and give me feedback, even though none of us had much time. Thank you also S.M. Carrière, who was very helpful in translating much of the Welsh used in this trilogy.
Also available from Caitlyn McFarland
and Carina Press
SOUL OF SMOKE
SHADOW OF FLAME
About the Author
Originally from the Midwest, Caitlyn McFarland currently lives in Utah with her husband and three young daughters. She has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Brigham Young University. When she’s not writing about dragons or running around after her daughters, she can be found hunched over a sewing machine making elaborate princess costumes. You can find Caitlyn online in the following places:
Website: caitlynmcfarland.com
Twitter: @CHMcFarland
Facebook: Facebook.com/caitlynhmcfarland
Discover the roots of Dragonsworn. Books one and two are available now!
SOUL OF SMOKE
DRAGONSWORN, book one
“McFarland crafts a complex mythology that underlies a world in which the fate of humans and dragons hangs in the balance.”
—RT Book Reviews
Kai Monahan’s uneventful hike in the Rocky Mountains ends with a dragon shapeshifter named Rhys magically bound to her. Now she must complete the bond and give up her freedom or risk unleashing dragons on humanity in a war that will decimate both.
SHADOW OF FLAME
DRAGONSWORN, book two
It’s been two months since Kai Monahan’s life changed forever. To end a war that has raged for a thousand years, she and Rhys ap Ayen, her shapeshifting dragon mate, must navigate a labyrinthine network of spies, prejudice and divided loyalties. But if they can’t stop denying how much they need each other first, they’ll lose everything to an enemy they never saw coming.
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Escape into a world ruled by dragons!
Discover Lorenda Christensen’s Never Deal with Dragons series—available now!
NEVER DEAL WITH DRAGONS
NEVER DEAL WITH DRAGONS, book one
Winner, 2012 Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart Award, Paranormal Romance
Consoling a sobbing dragon and serving pig buffets are just part of the job for Myrna Banks. Working for a mediation firm, it’s her job to get humans compensated for damages caused by the dragons who now rule. But her “typical” day is interrupted by Trian Chobardan, an old flame who sneaked out of her bed two years ago, taking her heart and a handful of classified documents with him. Myrna would love to show him the door, but he’s been sent by North America’s reigning dragon lord for help negotiating a truce with a powerful rival to avert war.
DANCING WITH DRAGONS
NEVER DEAL WITH DRAGONS, book two
If Carol Jenski knows anything, it’s fashion—and it’s not in fashion to consort with dragons, even though they’ve coexisted with humans since World War III. Still, she would never have agreed to take part in a plot against them. Now a dragon lord has called for her head, her boyfriend is MIA and she’s been abandoned in a foreign country.
’TIL DRAGONS DO US PART
NEVER DEAL WITH DRAGONS, book three
Savannah Cavenaugh became a top art thief thanks to a secret ability—a dragonmorph, she can literally fly away from the scene of the crime. Next up: stealing a priceless painting out from under the snout of Lord Relobu, North America’s fearsome dragon ruler. True, she’s never had to work in the midst of Earth’s most polarizing nuptials before. Keeping her identity hidden will demand she get creative, to say the least.
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Truth of Embers
ISBN-13: 9781459290228
Copyright © 2015 by Caitlyn McFarland
Edited by: Angela James
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
Truth of Embers Page 36