No more.
I wobbled back to my shredded clothes and searched through them until I found the protection artifact. Dirt and blood and soot smeared across my body as I shuffled back to the edge of the mountain, one step at a time, the pain of my be-all-end-all battle with Jasmine trickling across my system. I gasped sharply, the wound in my shoulder stinging as I curled my arm to hold the protection artifact to my chest. I could heal the gash—but then I wouldn’t have the white magic to power the artifact.
And in that moment, I chose them over myself. I chose the people fighting and dying for our cause. I chose the hundreds of supernaturals and shifters who had been dragged into this horrific fight for no other reason than a fae supremacist wanting revenge—to fill her uncle’s grotesque shoes.
Tears fell harder when I reached the edge, my chest rising and falling in uneven bursts as I realized Darius was nowhere to be seen.
My lips quivered. I hadn’t told him I loved him one last time before Aden took him.
He’d known, of course. Hopefully.
I reopened my wound on the sharp edge of a stone, then sliced a new one across my palm and gripped the artifact tightly. My dragon would know I did this for him, for the others, for the survival of our cause—but he needed to know just how desperately I loved him.
I raised my hands, one clutching the artifact, the other palm forward, shaking. My head spun and my stomach roiled. My bones wanted to crumble in on themselves and my mind yearned for sleep’s sweet embrace.
And it would have it. Soon, probably. My lips parted, and I whispered my last words, hoping the wind might carry them to the man I loved.
“This is for you,” I whispered. “I love you.”
Seconds later, a brilliant white light swept through the village and swarmed the valley. I squeezed the artifact harder, fueling it with more of my blood. The light intensified. Protection wrapped around my militia, my family, and my fae sister on the back of her dragon.
Kaye…
“I know,” I murmured, closing my eyes tightly, tears streaming down my cheeks, “and it’s my choice.”
Chapter 18
“Kaye!”
We already talked about this, I thought to myself sleepily, my eyes opening and closing in slow, uneven beats. This is my choice.
“Kaye!”
I want to do this for them.
“Oh my god…” Footsteps crashed across the rocky mountain peak, falling like muffled thunder as I drifted in and out of this world. “Kaye!”
“My choice,” I whispered. My brow furrowed when I realized that the voice desperately shouting for me didn’t belong to my inner voice. The logical side of me pushed through the brain fog: the voice all but screaming my name was a man.
Large hands slammed onto my shoulders, catching me before I pitched forward. I blinked slowly, unable to focus, then looked down when a warm, clean T-shirt was wrapped around me. So warm. I closed my eyes. Like someone had just taken it out of the dryer.
“Kaye?” The voice cracked, and slowly I was eased backward, my body crumbling against a hard chest. “Kaye, say something.”
I watched familiar hands skim my body, hovering over the broken bits, the bruised skin, the blood. Thick fingers. Muscular forearms. Skin dotted with dark little hairs…
“Darius?” I croaked, not believing it for a second. Aden had taken him away. Jasmine had nearly killed him. He… Maybe this was heaven. Maybe there was an afterlife.
“It’s me, sweetheart,” I heard him rumble in my ears. “Kaye, give me the artifact.”
Cradled in his arms, my gaze followed those magnificent hands as they went for the bloated onyx stone, slick and full of blood. When I realized he was trying to pry it from my grasp, I shook my head weakly and held more tightly.
“If I do, they’ll die.” Even now, as my weakened body started to succumb to the blood loss, my reasoning behind all this was clear. “Now, they can live.”
“But you’ll die,” Darius argued. He leaned down, using both hands now to wrestle the stone from me. Slowly, I turned my head to admire his handsome profile. This had to be heaven. He looked so… clean. Untouched by this gruesome battle. I lifted my other hand, the white light of protection no longer flowing from it—but if the artifact kept getting my blood, the spell cast would remain. Gently, I trailed my fingers over his chin, nails catching on the scruff.
I hummed happily, letting my hand fall—too weak to keep it up. “Darius… I’ll die for them. Don’t be sad.”
“Kaye—”
“They deserve to live,” I argued, holding the stone even tighter. It bit into my hand despite its smoothness, the pain sharp and precise.
“You deserve to live,” he growled. “Give me the artifact.”
“I have to save them.”
“Kaye.”
“They’ll die. I-I can’t let them die because I… I…”
“Kaye, listen to me.” He hoisted me up suddenly, the jerky motions making me dizzy, and carried me away from the edge. After setting me down against a rock, he crouched in front of me. Behind him, I noticed, figures stood cloaked in shadows—blurred. My dragon grasped my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Kaye, if you die, I’ll die. Do you hear me? I will die without you. I might live until I’m a hundred, but every day without you will be like dying a slow, agonizing death.”
“N-No.” Tears rolled down my cheeks. Why was he saying this? He could go on and live a full life as the Sanctius alpha, with or without me. The thought of him suffering, dying, each day… I shook my head, lip wobbling. “No.”
“You are my mate,” he insisted firmly. “You are my life. Without you, I don’t have a life. Sacrificing yourself for the good of others…” He shook his head, smiling slightly. “Kaye, that’s one of the thousand reasons why I love you. You’ll be the perfect alpha’s wife, mother to the clan, because of it. But, sweetheart, you can’t go right now. I need you. We need you.” His hand wrapped around my bloody fist. “Please, give me the artifact.”
My dragon—so persuasive. I didn’t have to think about it; his words struck a chord. Slowly, one by one my fingers loosened around the protection artifact, until finally Darius was able to wriggle in and yank it from my hand. Blood dropped onto the rock at my back in fat, slow droplets, and I vaguely heard Darius demanding medical attention—immediately. I studied his face, my lips curled into a dreamy smile. He was so handsome. I reached for him, but found I couldn’t lift my arm at all this time.
“Now,” Darius shouted, and suddenly the shadowy figures behind us lurched forward. No longer shadows, they came into sharper focus the nearer they came, the most familiar of them—Catriona. My smile tried to grow as she fell to her knees beside me and shoved Darius out of the way.
“Oh my god, Kaye,” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. Why was she crying? Where was her dragon? I blinked up at her, finding I lacked the energy to speak. She was so beautiful, my warrior, goddess best friend. She wrapped her hands around my bleeding palm as a few others crowded in around me, their faces only distantly familiar. All faes. Hands pressed to various parts of my body, the initial contact sharply painful. Cupping my ribs. Curling around my knee. Pressing against my shoulder. Biting agony made me wince, but within seconds all I felt was warmth.
Catriona’s white magic glowed brightly around my hand, her blue eyes locked on mine.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” she said, half-laughing, half-sobbing. “You’re going to be fine. Just try not to move.”
“Hi, Catriona,” I whispered, my mouth moving like it was stuffed full of cotton balls. She smiled, her eyes shimmering.
“Hi, Kaye.”
“You look like a Valkyrie,” I told her, though she probably only heard you and Valkyrie, my voice’s strength fading in and out. Catriona nodded at me all the same.
“Just relax,” she told me kindly. “You’ll start to feel better soon…”
I let my head fall back against the rock, wondering what she could po
ssibly mean by that. I already felt great. Everything was so warm and soft. No more pain. Slowly, however, as I watched dark shapes flit across the sky, occasionally pursued by something much larger and making an awful lot of noise, the world came back into focus. I could hear the chatter of soft conversations around me, see the faces of faes healing me. Some of their names even came to mind. Slowly, the fog started to lift, and memories of what had only just happened came flooding back.
“Darius?” I said, sitting up sharply and hissing at the jolt of pain blooming from my shoulder. Catriona told me to sit back—ordered was more like it—and moments later my dragon was by my side. I stared up at him, eyebrows raised, and let out a laugh that sounded half-mad. So, I hadn’t just concocted him in my last sane moments. Smiling, I fluttered my eyelashes up at him. With so many healers working on me, my lashes were about all I could move, but I leaned into his hand when he placed it against my cheek. “You’re real.”
“I am,” he said, chuckling. “I’m real and I’m here.”
“How?” Before he materialized out of nowhere beside me, I remembered that Jasmine had struck him with the artifact. Then Aden. Then nothing.
“Your djinn fixed me right up after he tended to his daughter,” my dragon explained, his thumb stroking my dirty, bloodied cheek. “He put me in some clothes, got my arm sorted out, then sent me back to win the war, I guess.”
“Did he come with you?” It didn’t surprise me when Darius shook his head, though he did it without a hint of malice or distaste. Clearly Aden had stayed behind with his daughter. No one could fault him for that. “And the battle? I tried to… Jasmine, she used the artifact… I…”
“You saved a lot of people, Kaye,” he told me. Suddenly, an explosion erupted from somewhere below. Nowhere near enough to see the damage, but it shook the mountain. My healing committee huddled in around me, and when they finally moved away, muttering to each other, I noticed huge black plumes of smoke rising toward a clear, blue sky. There was no telling who the explosion hurt, us or them.
“I saw you shift,” Catriona interjected, her white magic doing wonders for my shoulder wound now. “You were magnificent. And Darius is right… You protected pretty much everyone who survived Jasmine’s attack.”
“The numbers are on our side,” Darius assured me as I looked between them, his face aglow with a sense of pride I’d never seen before. I had seen him proud of me before, of course, but this was something else. Something softer. Something more personal. My concern for the others, however must have been palpable, because Darius and Catriona continued to coddle me, telling me that the tide had turned and we were winning, and reminded me to just relax.
At that point, as strength began to seep through my body once more, I couldn’t be sure if they were telling the truth or just trying to keep me complacent as the healers worked their magic. I appreciated it either way.
And I showed my appreciation by shooting upright, finally able to push everyone aside, and blasting an encroaching demon—crab-walking toward us with its deformed limbs and stretched, ash-white skin. The blast of green magic sliced right through the creature, splitting it in two. A few of my fae healers obliterated the two halves as they continued to skitter towards us, and I sat back with a weary sigh, the exertion taking more out of me than I cared to admit.
“Are you done being a hero now?” Catriona asked, her tone suggesting she was both teasing and lecturing. The hand on her hip suggested as much too. “Can I just heal you now, for goodness sake?”
“Have at it,” I said, my cheeks reddening as Darius smirked down at me. “I think I’ve given all of me that I can today…”
Tomorrow, when I was well and recovered, I’d start to give again. By Darius’s side, I’d help rebuild. I’d help rehome. I’d help recover all that we had lost today.
And for the first time since all this started, since Aden dragged me away from the man I loved, I felt confident in assuming there would even be a tomorrow.
Epilogue
“All right, out with it,” I ordered, nudging Catriona with my shoulder and grinning. “Are you going to tell me how you managed to ride on Quinn’s back without burning yourself or what?”
My best friend blushed, her gaze fixed on Darius’s younger brother as he tried to weave his way through the celebratory crowd in front of us. Every time he seemed to find a way through, dancing, inebriated members of either the supernatural militia or Sanctius clan cut him off, making Catriona and I giggle like teenagers from our spot at the table.
All around us, celebrations from yesterday’s victory reigned. While I had initially feared the battle with Jasmine’s forces might drag well into the night, we managed to put an end to things in a tight two hours—a record for a skirmish of that size. When Jasmine’s forces realized their fearless leader had once again been burned to a crisp by one of the Sanctius dragons, most broke ranks and fled. The ones who had stayed were dealt with by ground forces and war-ready dragons alike, until eventually our side had rid the mountain range and the lands around it of Jasmine’s evil stain.
That night had been for healing, for gathering the dead, and for sending wounded fighters home. Darius and I, after the healers had set me right, worked tirelessly into the wee hours of the morning to ensure everything went off without a hitch, which included hiding the hybrid artifacts deep within the Sanctius mountains—separately, so that only we knew their locations. Brisbane dragons, my father at the helm, escorted supernaturals back to portals, and after a quick nap in the alpha’s hall, they had left this morning for home—just before the party started. After everything that had happened, no one wanted to sit in sorrow for long, and the whole village—whatever was left of it—succumbed to feasting, dancing, drinking, and an all-out victory party since breakfast. Rebuilding could begin tomorrow.
I’d had, oh, about three hours sleep since yesterday, but there was no way I’d miss the celebrations. Not after Catriona and the other faes had saved me, and we had finally won the war. Not just a battle. The war. Period. Zayne had started organizing search parties to bring in higher-ranking members of Jasmine’s armies for trials in Alfheim, and while a few of his captains had already started the task, I’d assured him he could, in fact, take a day off to party with the rest of us.
The last time I’d seen my fae half-brother, he’d been face-deep in a wood nymph’s cleavage. Frankly, considering where that probably took him, I didn’t want to see him anytime soon. After all, I had enough of my loved ones here in the alpha’s hall. Catriona. Darius—the man of the hour. As the healers worked on me, he had left my side—after I all but twisted his arm—and led the final charge in battle, effectively securing our victory. It didn’t surprise me that we’d barely said two words to each other since the celebrating started, but I had more than enough people to keep me busy. My new family. My best friend. Darius’s siblings and his mother.
I’d never been happier, honestly.
“Kaye,” Catriona said softly when Quinn was swept up again by the dancers, “I learned something interesting recently regarding… that subject.”
My eyebrows shot up, hands around my ice-cold drink. “Oh, really?”
“It was in one of the old history books in the library off the alpha’s receiving hall,” she explained, her cheeks darkening with every word. “While dragon shifters won’t burn each other, no matter what form they’re in when they touch, supernaturals can only touch them if they are their true mate. Darius gave me blisters when I touched his scales because he and I were never meant to be, but Quinn and I… Well, I could ride him in the battle because, he and I… We…”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to giggle at my bestie’s floundering. Apparently, I wasn’t the only fae that fate and destiny, those crafty bitches, had paired with a Thomas shifter. Unable to watch her fumble around for the right words, I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly.
“We’re really going to be sisters now, aren’t we?” I whispered in her ear, then squ
ealed happily when her head bobbed up and down. Catriona had always been my sister in spirit. A fae sister by blood. But now, if we did as fate and destiny commanded, we’d be truly family for life.
When we pulled apart, Quinn had finally hacked his way through the dance floor, arms up and drinks coasting over people’s heads as he squirmed free.
“What is it about my face,” he demanded as he stalked back to our table, one of dozens scattered around the alpha’s hall, “that suggests that I want to dance? Am I giving off some sort of vibe that I’m unaware of?”
Catriona and I laughed as he handed a drink to my best friend, his expression decidedly grumpy. It lightened, however, the second Catriona stood and grabbed his arm, downing half her drink in the process.
“Does that mean you won’t dance with me?” she asked, fluttering her lashes up at him.
The dragon shifter grinned, then set his drink down at our table and scratched at the back of his neck. His cheeks darkened. “I… Well, I’ll always dance with you.”
I made a cracked whip sound, flicking my hand for emphasis, and his eyes narrowed at me before Catriona dragged him away in a fit of giggles. As I watched the noticeably lovesick pair go—losing them in the crowd of drunk dancers—I realized it made perfect sense that true mates would be able to ride their dragons unsinged. It wasn’t just me. I wasn’t special, even if I was a hybrid. Somehow this information must have gotten buried over the years. The news needed to be shared across the dragon shifter and supernatural communities, as I couldn’t imagine all the supernatural beings out there afraid to touch their shifted dragon significant others, worried that they might burn them. And Hogar’s saddles and protective gear wouldn’t be needed for mates to ride their dragons. That gear would only be needed for combat purposes, never for true mates.
Magic Blaze: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 3) Page 17