Shadowed Lies (Soul of a Dragon Book 2)
Page 19
A swirling, dark portal opened behind the dragon witch.
He hated this feeling—of having to beg. But what was a speck of dust to do when faced with the power of a god? “Please, please don’t take her. I can’t take this…”
The Dragon Mother turned toward her exit. “Goodbye, Rayse Everstone. We will meet again.” Constance floated toward the Dragon Mother, brought forth by the goddess’s magic tendrils. The red imprint of Rayse’s hands marred the porcelain skin of Constance’s throat.
“Please,” he said one final time. But his pleading fell on deaf ears. His goddess and the love of his life disappeared through the portal. The magic entrance collapsed in on itself. Fraser and Marzia slumped to the ground before him. The Mother had discarded their lifeless bodies. They dropped, making a sickening thud on the floor.
Rayse was lost. He had let Constance slip from his hands and been left behind with the corpses of his friends. The emptiness of the room ghosted over him.
He should have stayed away, as he’d resolved to do before. He had made a grave miscalculation. He thought since Marzia had been found out, the danger was over. He was foolish, and had been used as a weapon against his own mate.
If he had it in him to forgive himself, he couldn’t find it. He doubted he ever would.
Epilogue
Shen searched for Rayse. It didn’t take long. His femrah was at the same spot, staring down the edge of a cliff, and standing against the harsh winds of the Everpeak mountains. Sometimes he worried that Rayse might throw himself off that ledge. Rayse would hold his dragon back, and be unable to shift on time, then he would crash against the rocks of the cliffs with the vulnerabilities of a human and die.
Shen had already lost Fraser to the events of a month ago, when the femriahl had been stolen. Almost half of the Everstones had left. The humans weren’t doing well either. Famines had started because of the lack of shipments, but Rayse couldn’t seem to care.
It seemed like everything Shen’s friend and mentor had built the last few hundred years were crumbling into nothing.
Shen steeled himself and prepared his resolve to speak with Rayse.
“Milord,” he said.
Rayse sighed. “What is it? I told you to stop bothering me.”
“The humans are requesting an audience. They want to discuss the frequency of shipments.”
A growl rumbled from the femrah’s throat. Rayse had lost the calmness of his old self. Every little action, or word, seemed to tick him off these days. “Tell them to be grateful for what they have.”
A brief pause lingered between them. Shen wavered, wondering if he should speak his heart. Risking offending the femrah at this point didn’t seem like a sensible idea.
Shen couldn’t hold his tongue, regardless. “We need you, milord. The dragons are riled up, and many are refusing to carry out their duties. Many of the humans are starving, and I don’t want this to be on your hands. I know it’s difficult, and you’re still grieving, but think about the innocents your decisions affect.”
He waited for the retort, or even for a fight. But Rayse simply continued staring down the harsh drop of the cliff.
He let out another deep breath. “I often think about taking one extra step. It’ll be easy. Just a few seconds of falling. I’ll hit my head, perhaps my neck would crack, and I’ll have my pain taken away from me. It sounds so quick—easy.”
“Milord, you can’t—”
“I know I can’t. But not because of the reasons you think. I can’t be the femrah you need me to be at the moment. Can’t you see, Shen? I’m broken.”
The femrah was wilting before Shen. It made his chest tighten to see his dear friend falling into pieces in front of him.
“How can I hope to bind together this clan,” Rayse said, “and forge two regions together, when I myself am not put together?”
Shen swallowed, not knowing how to answer.
“I have to leave,” Rayse continued. “The only reason I’m alive right now is because there’s a chance Constance is, too. I felt her heart flicker, if only for a second.”
“But the clan—”
“Fuck the clan!”
His lord’s outrage came so suddenly that Shen startled. He knew not to say any more after that. Rayse was as volatile as the winds these days, and Shen didn’t want to summon a storm with unnecessary brashness.
Shen saw a flicker of the rage and hurt Rayse had been hiding pouring from the femrah’s eyes. Then Rayse pulled it all back together, retreating behind a mask of calmness. “You have to be in charge now, Shen. You’re the second strongest here. They will follow you.”
Shen doubted himself. He’d always seen Rayse as the perfect femrah. He couldn’t hold a candle to the man who’d taught him everything he knew. “I… I’m not ready.”
“Yes, you are. All you need is more confidence.”
“I can’t lead for long, milord. The dragons won’t follow my directions. They’re not afraid of me.”
“You have to, Shen. Because I can’t.”
“When will you return?” Shen asked.
“If all goes well, within a year, I hope. I’ll find her by then. I don’t know if I’ll last much longer.”
Black wings speared out of Rayse’s back. The femrah lifted himself into the air.
Just before flying off for good, Rayse turned around. “Take care, Shen.”
“You too, milord.”
A huge weight settled on Shen’s shoulders as he watched Rayse disappear through the clouds. He didn’t want to carry this burden. How could he? He’d always been a follower. He enjoyed being told what to do, and not the other way around.
He was strange dragon, like that. Most were territorial and longed for power, but Shen preferred to keep to the shadows.
Just for a year. That wasn’t too long of a sentence.
He headed toward Dragon Keep, his footsteps heavy. It was time to glue everything back together, but first he had to prove his worth to the clan and fight for Rayse’s position—something he had never dreamed of doing.
He reminded himself he didn’t have to hold out for long, but he was wrong.
Rayse was not to return, and the Everstone dragons were never going to be the same again.
Afterword
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Afterword