by Ladew, Lisa
The bearen laughed. “You’re one sick cheese-eater.”
Mac swallowed his mass of gummi bears so he didn’t choke on it. “Cheese─ what?”
The goofy bastard held up his hands. “Hey, sorry, I don’t know anything about wolves. Just that you’re all rather bloodthirsty. Don’t you like cheese?”
Mac frowned. This guy was a trip. Across the room Beckett snorted and yelled something.
“Look, Mac’s got a boyfriend!”
Mac flipped him the bird, grinning. “Fuck off, cheese-eater!”
He snorted and looked around to make a joke, but the only one within joke distance was the bearen. Oh, well. “Monterey jackass,” he muttered.
The bearen laughed hard and loud before he cracked his own joke. “Ah, give him a break. He’s a Gouda boy.”
Mac snorted, startled, then laughed and held up his hand for a high-five. Maybe Bruin wasn’t so bad after all.
Now if only that inhuman torch would show up so they could get this show on the road, that’d be great.
Chapter 29
Graeme stood at the top of the steps as if he also were wondering about their future. He shook it off, tucked the lantern onto the top step, then closed the door. The door and the cottage disappeared. Heather felt tears threaten.
“We have to get back quickly, so I’m going to take you through another world. The transition is hard and dangerous, through a non-world that is nothing but fire, but it will only last a minute. Come, let me protect you.”
Heather replayed everything he had said. Other worlds. Super awesome. More shit that made her feel like she was Alice down the rabbit hole. She narrowed her eyes. “You still don’t believe I can’t be burnt, do you?”
He didn’t look at her. “There are many types of fire you can’t possibly have encountered in your world.”
Ok, then, message received. She stepped close to him. He transformed and wrapped her into his chest with his wings tight around her. He sidestepped, and then there was a feeling of intense heat, darkness, and pressure, like it was a thousand tons of water around her instead of dragon wings. Like he said, it only lasted for a moment, and when he freed her from his wings, they were back in their world.
“That’s it? We’re in Serenity?”
He lifted his chin to the scene at her back and she turned around. Of course that wasn’t it. The salty smell of the ocean hit her full in the face as she turned, even though they were still on the edge of what looked to her to be a Scottish forest, not that she knew one forest from another. Was it the Atlantic? Her eyes followed the sandy beach, then out onto the horizon. But no, she could see land across on some distant shore.
Climb on.
Heather did, her throat constricting at the gulf she felt between them. What if this was it? What if, once they reached Serenity, she never saw him again? She slid right down the other side, off him, holding a hand to his shoulder.
Graeme, can you at least tell me that you won’t disappear? I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you.
He tipped his head and spoke gently inside her mind. Bonnie, you never had me.
The tears started then and there was nothing she could do to hold them back. How could he deny what they’d had? What they shared? Who they were to each other?
He pawed the ground and she felt heat coalesce around them. His words in her head were harsher this time. I never should have brought you here. I never should have kissed you or taken you in the manner I did. I’m sorry for that. I will regret that for the rest of my life.
I’m not, she said through gritted mental teeth. Even if you do disappear, know that I will never be sorry you brought me here. The last twenty-four hours of my life have been the most special I’ve ever lived. Thank you. I thank you for telling me in this manner. But please, Graeme, can we talk─
The time for talking is done! Heather, don’t make this harder than it has to be. You won’t accept that I could kill you. You won’t accept that I don’t deserve you. But accept this. I will never bring a dragen bairn into the world. This line dies with me. Now, get on!
Heather bristled at the command even as she shrunk at the tone and the message. In his voice, she heard the call of a thousand kings, all equally convinced that they were right. He probably hadn’t had much time to study history at the bottom of that loch and see just how often they were wrong.
She walked in front of him, locking their gazes, her expression just as proud as his. She could confess to him at that moment that she was unable to have children, and maybe stop all of this once and for all, but she would not. That would be like tricking him into her bed and she only wanted him there if he chose it. Because she wanted children someday, and if some miracle brought a baby to her, dragen or not, she would raise it willingly. After the last day and a half, she had to believe there was something more to her than a body that didn’t do what it was supposed to and a lost love. There’d been too much magic floating around for her to think otherwise.
“You are wrong, Graeme. You can’t see that because you’ve had too many years to think about it. But I promise you that you are making a mistake and thinking will never bring you what you want. Only action will. I don’t know exactly why you say you won’t bring a dragen into the world, whether it’s because of how lonely you’ve been, or if you are afraid it would be like your brothers, but I’m standing before you, Heather, your fated mate who you are refusing out of nothing but sheer stubbornness, telling you that you aren’t in control here. None of us are. You have to trust in the life that is brought to you and quit hating who you are.” She touched his nose. “I love who you are and I trust that you can love yourself again, too. You only have to let go.”
Then, she returned to his side and climbed back on.
Chapter 30
Graeme took a moment before stepping out of the forest. He’d never been spoken to in that manner in his life. Never been challenged in such a manner. Life with that female would be… all he could come up with were words like amazing and wonderful, so he quit trying. Stubborn, he might be, but wrong he was not.
Was he?
He shook his head like a horse and set off to clear himself of the forest so he could take off. A family of beach wanderers a mile to their left took one look at him, screamed, and ran, mom and dad scooping up the littlest child and pulling on the hands of the older ones. Their archaic clothing of bonnets, full skirts, farmer’s hats and pantaloons made Graeme think of his childhood.
Heather patted him on the neck. “Aren’t you supposed to hide yourself, big guy?” He heard the hitch in her voice and knew her words and tone belied her true feelings. His fault. One more affront to add to his long list of grievances he could never make up for.
He could not pretend her pain did not eat at him like acid but he tried not to let her see it.
He spoke to Heather, the pull of his past still strong in his mind. This is not my world. I dinnae care to follow its rules or conventions. I dinnae even know what they are. Mayhap they see dragons every day.
“Wait. Are you saying there may be dragons living in other worlds? Then how can you say you are the last dragon?”
A being can only thrive in the world it is meant for. Anyone can visit for a short time, however naught but travelers can hop between worlds like visiting another city with the option of living there. I have never met a dragen who was a traveler. It is not in our nature.
She fell silent but Graeme could feel she was physically ready for his ascent, her body tight against his back. He leapt into the air, catching the wind, trying not to replay what she had said to him over and over in his mind.
They were across the short sea, the condensed version of the Atlantic Ocean, in only a few moments. This world was smaller than their own, so traveling took less time over its borders. In ten minutes, they would be back at the approximate location where Serenity was located, then they would sidestep back into their world. Easy.
When they arrived, he would do the one thing the wolven nee
ded from him, then quietly disappear, leaving Heather safe with them.
Below them, a thriving open-air market bustled on this far shore. Heather was not looking down, but rather had her cheek pressed against his back as the fingers of her right hand ran circles over his scales.
He would miss her. Her smile. Her laugh. Learning more about who she was. Her incredible spirit. A thick yearning pushed its way into his throat, making him unable to swallow. He turned his thoughts away, to the water, to anything that would allow him to do what he had to do. What was best for all of them.
Heather shook slightly on his back and he knew she was crying. But he could not help her. She would get over him. He would never, ever get over her, but she had a full life ahead of her. She would choose a good male─
The thought made him snap at the air around him. Those thoughts were not safe either. He gnashed his teeth and stared at the sky. What could he think about? Nothing. But he’d never been good at that.
It was going to be a long century.
***
“Pull it together, girl,” Heather whispered to herself. It wasn’t over yet. Until he actually dropped her off somewhere and made like Houdini, it was not over. Even then, it was not over. She had some powers, she’d proved that already. Maybe she could follow him. Convince his big, dumb, stubborn ass some other way. There had to be something she could do that would open his eyes to the fact that he would suffer without her and that she would never take anyone else. That they were meant to be together and that only good things could come of their union.
She took a deep breath and sat up, looking around them for the first time. They were high up, but not so high she couldn’t see the last vestiges of what probably passed for a big city in this world. Tiny huts a lot like Graeme’s cottage were grouped in messy squares below them, stretching out between what looked like acres and acres of farm lands. She saw no roads, only foot paths and horse paths and a few double paths that probably allowed wagons. People dotted the landscape, all moving or working. Whenever any of them saw Graeme, they pointed and called out to their fellows, or just screamed and ran.
A forest slid beneath them and she watched the tree tops form strange patterns, until it ended at the edge of more vast farmlands.
A group of people on a path caught her eye and she watched them, thinking the energy of the small crowd looked strange. There were five uniformed men on horseback, their horses nervous, sidestepping and gigging. One man bent over his horse, his posture tense, talking to another man who stood on the path, his brown hat that reminded her of the Amish in his hands, his family behind him, a woman with three children hiding in her skirts, their faces covered.
What’s going on down there? she asked Graeme.
He looked, but dismissed it quickly. Not our business.
Heather couldn’t turn away like that. As she watched, the man who had been bent over his horse dismounted and punched the father in the stomach. He doubled over and his wife startled, pulling the children in closer to her.
Graeme, oh my God, that soldier just punched that man!
Graeme said nothing and Heather had to twist in her seat to continue watching. The punched man was on the ground and the soldier stood over him, then pulled a knife out of a sheath on his belt. The woman began to scream and plead and the children were barely visible, they were buried so far under her skirts.
Graeme, stop, turn around! We have to help them!
Nay, leannan, we do not.
Heather ran through everything she knew about Graeme. What could she say that would make him turn around? As she watched, one of the children stepped away from his mother. He was dressed in brown, with a hat just like his father’s. He approached the soldier, his head high, his posture saying he would fight for his father. Was he nine? Ten?
She shifted her weight. Turn around Graeme, I will help them, even if you won’t. I swear to God, I’ll jump if you don’t turn around.
You’ll die, he responded, his voice dull.
So be it, she said, pulling her right leg over his back to meet her left and pushing off into the open sky. She would rather smash to a pulp on the forest floor than see that little boy get killed in front of his mother and father and not do whatever she could to help. As she plummeted through the air, her hair streaming out above her, the soldier sliced a gash up the little boy’s cheek. Even from her height, she could see the blood well up immediately.
She screamed, hoping to get their attention. If the soldiers ran to find her body, maybe the family could get away.
But then her dragon was under her. Hold on, leannan! he cried as his angle sharpened and he screamed towards the ground. She curled her fingers around his wingmounts and held tight with her legs. Thank goodness he had come. She was not ready to be a meadow hamburger.
Before she had time for another thought, they landed on the ground next to the horses. The three closest horses, including the one the soldier had been on, reared up and ran. Heather could not tell if their riders went willingly or not.
She slid off Graeme and stepped forward on shaky feet, taking in the scene. The woman had fallen to the ground, her eyes wide on Graeme, and the two children left with her were blubbering in terror, trying to disappear against her body. They were younger than the other boy.
The man who had been punched scrambled to his feet, grabbed his boy who was bleeding from the face, and backed away from Graeme, unnoticed by the soldier, who was also staring at Graeme, mouth open, knife in his hand forgotten.
“What is going on here?” Heather cried, having no idea if they would understand her or not. She ran close to the soldier on the ground while Graeme snorted behind her and another horse whirled and ran. “Why did you hit this man?”
The soldier on the ground looked at her, his face astonished, then back at Graeme.
“Answer me!” she screamed. “Or I will have my dragon eat you.”
Seriously? Graeme said in her head. No thanks.
Play along, she urged him. This wouldn’t work without him.
The soldier licked his lips, then looked around. The last horse, with another soldier on its back, had backed away, both rider and horse looking ready to bolt any time. “H-He did not have his taxes. King Dilmer only gives one warning. That was his warning. I am only following orders.”
“Ah,” Heather said, her thoughts whirring. “King Dilmer. Ah. Right. You tell him that Graeme, the fierce and hungry dragon, is displeased with the way he runs his kingdom. You tell him that Graeme the fierce will visit him in his sleep if he does not change his ways. The people need compassion. The king is there to provide for them, not the other way around.”
Graeme chuckled in her head. Not happy with saving the family, are you? You have to save the entire world.
Quit it! she snapped. Do something.
Like what?
I don’t know. Chew on him.
Graeme laughed again, but stretched out his neck and opened his mouth, shooting fire just to the right of the soldier. The man screamed and turned around and ran, trying to catch the last horse and rider who were already fifty feet away, the hooves of the horse barely touching the ground, he was running so swiftly.
Heather turned her attention to the family. The man was throwing them terrified glances and trying to get his wife to stand and run. But the boy. The boy with the homemade clothes and the knife slice down his cheek. Heather’s heart broke for him. His eyes were far away, looking at nothing. He didn’t even try to stop the drops of blood that dripped openly onto his shirt.
She went to him, her hands open, telling Graeme to stay back in her mind. She spoke to the parents. “We aren’t going to hurt you. You don’t have to run. I just… can I talk to your boy?”
The father nodded slowly and watched as Heather approached him. She bent to look into the child’s face. He was tall, but his soft features told her she’d been right in her assessment of his age. She tried to touch his hand. He startled and took a step backwards, his eyes haunted and rollin
g in his head but not finding her. “That was very brave of you, sweetheart. I know that was scary. Terrifying. But you’re ok, alright. Your father is ok. Your family is ok. You can go home.”
He lurched, then turned and threw up a pitiful thin stream of nothing in the weeds to his right. His mother made a sob that told Heather her heart was broken. “Caius, come away,” she called, her voice shaking. He wiped his mouth and stood, but finally his eyes met with Heather’s.
She smiled at him, reaching in her pockets, hoping to find a piece of candy for him, anything to make him feel better. All her fingers settled on were coins. She pulled them out. Two pennies, a nickel and a quarter. She held her hand open with the coins on her palm and smiled wider. “Here, these are money where I come from. I doubt they will help you, but you can have them if you want them.”
He only stared. She glanced at the rest of the family and saw the other two children had finally emerged from under mom’s skirts. Two girls with soft blonde hair and big eyes. Caius looked at the coins on her palm and made as if to reach for them. The cut on his cheek had finally stopped dripping blood.
She held perfectly still, noticing the little girls had come her way a few steps and the parents hadn’t stopped them. Caius took the coins, holding them in both hands like a treasured live animal, then backed away.
Heather, Graeme called in her head. You need to send them on their way before those soldiers come back. Send them through the grass, not on the path.
Heather crouched in the grass, wishing she had something else to give them before she did so. She was going back to her own world, where things were different, better, softer. They would have to stay here. She wanted to see them smile, if only for a moment.
She checked her coat pockets. Gloves and her hat. She dropped them on the ground in front of her. “Here. These are for you and your sisters.” Her hands flew to the inner pockets of her coat. On the left side, her fingers grazed the circlet she had taken from Graeme’s treasure room. No. You will need that. She heeded the voice, though she did not know if it was her own or not. On the right side, something heavy dropped into her pocket as she was reaching her fingers that way. She thrust her hand after it and felt something cool and bumpy, with a chain attached.