Lauren was my happily ever after. She was the only girl I cared about and envisioned sharing my life with. But how could I condemn her to my short and tragic future?
I was so good at blowing a good thing. Once, she’d tried to get me to talk about what was bugging me and why I’d pushed away instead of taking the next step forward. But there had been so much to sort through, so many emotions and I’d needed to find the answers within myself before sharing them with her.
Unfortunately, it took longer than I had hoped, and when Freshman year began, Derek had taken an interest in my girl and had not been timid about taking the relationship to the next level.
“Raynar! You are here!” Jonas stood in the doorway with Torin beside him. I hadn’t heard them come in, but I was glad to see that they were okay.
“I am. I came here after talking with the king. Where were you two?” I asked.
“After meeting with Henrick, I went to look for Torin. Unfortunately, the king’s guards were taking him somewhere to be questioned. Kaden found me and helped me locate Torin. Unfortunately, it also put us in the crosshairs and we were pulled in and questioned as well.” Jonas explained as he kicked off his boots and sat on the edge of his bed.
“What did they ask you?” I looked to Torin who turned his back to me while he changed into a clean shirt.
“They wanted to know why we were here and how we got here.” He turned and sat with his legs folded beneath him.
“You didn’t tell them about the dragons, did you?” I worried for Poe and his brothers.
Torin shook his head. “No. I told them we tapped our heels and wished to see King Vintras, and it worked.”
Jonas chuckled at the boldness of Torin. “You’re lucky they didn’t kill you on the spot.”
Torin laughed. “They didn’t catch the Oz reference. But Cross, we plan to leave tomorrow. If we wait much longer, I’m worried we may run into trouble leaving this place.”
“The king wants to see us both tomorrow, at the same time,” I told Torin.
“You both shall see him in the morning.” Jonas declared. “Then we will leave by afternoon without any announcement. Understood?”
Torin and I nodded in agreement of Jonas’ plan.
Chapter 13
The next morning, we packed our bags so we’d be ready for a prompt departure this afternoon.
“Do not tell anyone we are leaving today. We don’t want to raise any alarms.” Jonas cautioned us. “Let’s grab a bite before heading to see the king.” We headed to the tavern and sat at a table close to the door. Jonas waved to the barmaid who had served us the last time we had come in. She looked at us but turned a cold shoulder and walked away. Jonas pushed away from the table and approached the bar to have a word with a gentleman who appeared to be the owner.
Kaden came in and met eyes with Torin, then turned to leave without acknowledging us. Torin’s look of disbelief turned to one of conern. “Ray, something’s up. I have a bad feeling about this.” He spoke in a low voice. “Get out of here and run. Hide somewhere, and we’ll meet up with you at Kyra’s and leave together.”
“What? No!” I argued quietly. “Nothing has happened. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
“We are a threat to Larkin and his ways. If something happens to King Vintras, we will be dealt with under Larkin’s power. Something is up and the safest place for you is far from here in hiding. Now go!” Torin gritted his teeth and scanned the room, assessing any potential danger.
I stood and exited the building, and then I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. I ran in the direction opposite of Kyra’s house.
A deep voice announced, “King Vintras is dead. Long live King Larkin. Seize them.” Sounds of a scuffle broke out behind me, but I didn’t stop to look back as guards chased after me, shouting to stop.
“I’ve got him.” An approaching female guard dove and got ahold of my ankle. I fell to the ground, tugging and kicking to get free. Three more guards, weapons drawn, were only a few yards away. I gasped and fought. My captor now held her dagger in her free hand. I was gonna die. All this time I had worried about dying by the hands of vEDS. And there I was, facing an execution by blade.
I wanted more from this life.
I landed my hardest kick in the guard’s face. She grabbed her bleeding nose just as the other guards arrived.
An explosion rocked my body. Every cell felt stretched to the point of popping. I did not enter Death’s door peacefully; I rocketed through as if my presence there was long overdue.
As I floated high above the ground, I remembered hearing people on YouTube recount their near death experiences. Some spoke of floating above the scene of their death, as they watched emergency crews try to resuscitate them. The guards below stepped back and pointed at me with panicked expressions. Could they see me? Surely not. I saw my White Pony T-shirt in shreds on the grass near the female guard who had held me. My jeans lay in pieces nearby. Where the hell was my body?
“Get the archers! Hurry!” One male guard commanded. “Shield wall!”
The remaining handful of guards on the ground formed a circle with their shields encasing them in a layer of protection.
“What abilities does this dragon have?” The one commanding everyone asked.
Dragon? I bent my head and saw scaled limbs and a long, deadly looking tail extending behind me. I wanted to fly higher and found the mere thought was enough to propel me where I wanted to go. I soared high above the ground and circled back to the scene below. The guards crouched lower to hide their vulnerable bodies. Arrows flew at me from a distance and one landed in my thigh. I howled in pain, only it sounded like a monstrous roar, frightening me. I needed to land somewhere safe to tend to my wound and figure out a plan for saving Torin and Jonas.
I flew over the circle of oaks that marked the village boundary. The landscape beneath looked different from when Fenick brought us. If only I could find my way back toward the shop that Poe and his brothers kept, they could help me.
I circled the of oak ring and noticed more and more guards congregating and shooting arrows at me. I widened my path, careful not to stray too far and lose my bearings.
“One who flies in circles is either lost or protecting something.” A female voice said. I turned and saw a large sea-green and silver dragon fly up next to me. She flew all around me as though she was studying me. “You’re new. I can tell by your irregular flight pattern.” She flew so close I thought she would hit me and I swear she sniffed me. “You’re a hybrid and you’re wounded. Come. Follow me.”
She took the lead, and soon I recognized the clearing behind the shop. Remembering that Ren and Fenick dressed in the nearby bushes, I landed awkwardly on a tree in that same area, snapping the wood in half under my heavy weight, causing me to fall to the ground. I lay on the forest floor, naked and once again human. Shutting my eyes, I let out a deep breath. I was alive and surprised that I had survived the trauma I had put my body through.
“Are you alright?” The female voice called from far away.
“I’m alive.” I covered my privates with my hands in case she approached.
“Naked?” she asked.
“Yep.”
She laughed and threw a set of wadded up clothes in my direction. They landed a short distance away from me. “Try those.”
I rolled over and scooched with my good leg to get them. “Thanks. Not sure the pants will work with this arrow sticking out of my leg. Any chance you could go in the shop and ask for Poe?” I worried about moving too much, unsure how close this was to my femoral artery. Maybe as a dragon I could handle injury, but my human form was fragile. I had years of knowing what actions could be deadly, and this qualified.
Poe appeared through the foliage, his eyes wide in shock. “Hey, I didn’t think I’d see you, or this much of you, this soon. I heard you’re part dragon! No wonder you healed so quickly last time.”
“Poe, right now all I can think about is this arrow. Help me get it out,
and we can have a long talk about dragon life.”
Poe laughed and knelt down beside me. “Deal. There’s not too much blood so it probably missed the important stuff. Close your eyes and don’t open them till I tell you.”
“What? Here? Now?” I asked.
“Yes. I don’t have the man power to get you in the house. Now, close your eyes or you’ll mess up the spell and end up with half a leg.”
“Seriously? Shit.” I shut my eyes tight. His hands wrap around my thigh and the skin warmed with his magical ability. Then I felt a tug at my thigh and heard a snap. “What are you doing? Why is my leg getting cold now?”
“Ray, relax—almost done.”
“Have you done this before? Are you qualified? I’d feel better if you could just cut it short and get me to a hospital.” I panicked. I knew with my vEDS that I needed to have skilled hands operating on me that understood and anticipated complications, not a teenager with backwoods magic.
I thought of the story Beth Miller had shared on our Facebook support group. She was a mom who had lost her daughter at age fifteen to vEDS. Her daughter had been undiagnosed at the time and had gone to the ER with severe abdomen pain. They’d spent too long getting blood tests and ruling out common causes and finally had found a perforated colon. They’d taken her to surgery, but she’d died on the table. Her tissue had literally fell apart as the doctors had tried to repair her. For years, I had been told that all surgeries, unless life-saving, were out of the question, but they recently revised the precaution to state that non-elective surgery was safe if performed by a skilled surgeon with knowledge of vEDS. Removing an arrow from my thigh qualified as non-elective since I could not go through life with a rod of wood through my appendage. But I also knew that Poe, number one, was not a skilled surgeon or really any surgeon, and two, had limited knowledge about my rare condition.
My fingers found the Guardian’s medallion around my neck as I let it transport me back to my youth and the day I learned how to ride my bike. The spell of the medallion was powerful; I could smell the fresh cut summer grass, hear kids playing, and feel the wind on my face.
“Take a big breath in…” I did as Poe instructed, and then he pushed and pulled at my leg making me sick to my stomach. “It’s out.”
I rolled to the side and puked.
“I have to keep pressure on it.” He pushed down hard on the wound.
“Dammit! It hurts.” My voice choked.
“Yep, but I have to slow the bleeding.” I opened my eyes to see Poe covered in sweat. He turned toward the shop and yelled, “Mom?”
“What?” The woman’s voice sounded far away.
“I need my supplies, Mom. Bring me water, gauze, a wrap and the tincture in the blue bottle.” He looked back down at me. “You doin’ alright?”
“Yeah, the cold sensation helps with the pain. She’s your mom?”
“Yep.” He nodded.
“Makes sense. Are you part dragon too?”
“No, my dad’s genes are dominant in me. My ability to heal came from him. What I wanna know is how are you part dragon?” Poe asked. A magenta colored cloth approached, drawing Poe’s attention. “Better cover your junk. Here.” Poe handed me the sweatpants which I laid across my privates.
“Here.” She handed him a small basket with the supplies. “How is he?” His mother was beautiful. She had very few wrinkles and a slender figure that appeared to be somewhat athletic. She had dark eyes and her brown hair was accented with silver streaks.
“Good. He’s a fast healer and the arrow head came all the way through and was intact.” Poe poured water on the wound and handed the bottle to me encouraging me to drink the rest. He dabbed at my thigh with the gauze till the bleeding had slowed, then he coated a wrap with the pungent tincture from the blue glass bottle and wrapped it snug around my thigh. “Smells awful but works like a charm.” The smell reminded me of rotten eggs. “Glad you gave him Fen’s joggers; Ren would have gone ballistic if you sacrificed his,” Poe said. “Here.” He handed her the garbage and supplies. “Take this in, please? We need a guy’s minute here.”
After she left, Poe helped me pull the clothes on, then hoisted me up to a standing position. “Take it easy, today. Tomorrow you can move around more but nothing crazy. After that, depending on how fast you heal, you may be ready for normal activity.”
I hobbled toward the shop with Poe supporting some of my weight. “Poe, I’m curious, did you use magic to remove the arrow or did you yank it out?”
He turned to me with a smile. “Yanked it.”
“Dammit, I knew it.” I shook my head and chuckled.
“You wouldn’t have let me near that thing if I you’d known I was gonna yank it out. Would you?” He cocked his eyebrow.
“No. Probably not. Thanks for getting it out.”
“You’re welcome. Let’s get some food in you and set you up somewhere comfortable so you can rest. Then you can tell us what happened and where the others are.” We entered the shop, and Poe helped set me up in a comfy chair where I could prop my feet up onto a table.
His mom returned with a bowl of some sort of stew that had better flavor than the Yardinian stew. “Here, if it’s not spicy enough I can bring over some spices.”
“No, it’s fine. Tastes better than what I had in the village.” The flavors were stronger and the meat was more tender.
“Fenick and Ren bring us back spices from further south when they travel and trade with others.” She took a seat next to me and extended her hand toward me. “We haven’t properly met. My name is Meina.”
Meina—as in King Vintras’s Meina? My heart stopped beating. My mind raced to connect all the dots while a million words that begged to be spoken became lodged in my throat.
“What is it? You look troubled.” Her expression softened with concern.
I thought of the king’s stories. This woman seemed about the right age. But if she was the one the king spoke of... “Do you know King Vintras?” I cut to the chase.
She blinked and considered what I had asked. “I have not heard that name in years. How do you know it?”
“He’s my father. I met him a few days ago. He spoke of a girl that he loved named Meina.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “He spoke of you.” She nodded and covered her mouth with a shaky hand. I reached over and took her free hand in mine. “He said you are my mother. Is that true?”
A sob bellowed out of her as she nodded her head, too upset to speak. I leaned closer and put my arm around her, wrapping her in as much of a hug as I could.
“I never thought I would see you again.” She looked into my eyes and smiled. “And here you are, right before me like a dream come true. What do they call you?”
“My name?” She nodded. “My name is Raynar Cross.”
Her smile grew bigger. “They kept the name I gave you! You have a twin brother that I had named Torin. Do you know of him?”
“I do.” My tone of voice sounded dismal.
“What? What is it?” She noticed and became alarmed.
“He and the Guardian who has cared for him these years were taken prisoner in Yardis.”
“Yardis? Have they committed a crime against the king?”
“No.”
She looked relieved. “Well then it is a mistake. Does the king know that Torin is his son?”
“He knows, but as I fled, I heard a guard announce that King Vintras, had died.” Meina’s eyes widened. “His son Larkin has taken power. The villagers fear him and the king’s guard.” Meina stood and began pacing the room as I continued. “With the barrier lifted, he must feel threatened that all will flee and seek freedom, so he forbids the villagers to leave and executes those that plot a safe passage away from Yardis. After the king’s guards announced the passing of King Vintras, they were immediately ordered to seize Torin, Jonas, and me. But Torin had sensed something was up and begged me to run and hide.”
My mother turned to face me. She smiled, but her eyes looked sad. “I lo
ved your father. I don’t know what he told you about us and you and Torin, but he was a kind and loving man. I wish with all my heart that I could have seen him once again before he passed.”
Poe entered the room and when he recognized his mother was upset, he hurried over to her. “Mom, are you okay? What’s wrong?” He wrapped her in a hug.
“Sit. We have much to tell you,” she urged.
Over the next hour or so, Meina and I told shared the story of my parents with Poe. I added the latest details about Torin and Jonas being held captive and expressed my concern that Larkin could kill them at any moment. Poe did not say much as he listened intently. When we had finished, he cleared his throat and said, “Let’s make a plan to kick Larkin’s ass and save my brother.”
Chapter 14
Later that evening, when Ren and Fenick returned, we shared the stories with them and made a plan for saving Jonas and Torin. Thankfully, due to the spell or Ren actually listeing, he managed sit through the conversation without losing his cool.
After the evening meal, Poe checked my wound and we were both surprised to see how much it had healed. He rewrapped it with the smelly tincture and a new wrap and said he believed I’d be as good as new in the morning. I was thankful my body seemed stronger and healed faster, because I didn’t trust Larkin and worried that there was no reason to keep Jonas and Torin alive much longer—if they were even still alive. The sooner we got them out of there, the better.
The plan was simple but dangerous. We needed to create a diversion to draw the guards and hopefully Larkin away from the castle area where I assumed Torin and Jonas would be held. The rest of us would help free them and attack Larkin. We didn’t get detailed as we knew we’d have to improvise based on what Larkin and the guards did.
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