Dragon Rebel (Immortal Dragons Book 4)

by Ophelia Bell

  The surface of the water held her easily, her command of it far stronger than she’d imagined. From the other side, Silas did the same, though slightly more uncertain in his movements. But the power belonged to all three of them now, and he traversed the distance to her as though they were walking across solid ground and not the liquid surface of the most sacred substance in their entire world.

  Second-most sacred, she amended to herself, as she raised her wrist and made a slice into her vein, then repeated the process with the other hand.

  “Are you ready?” Silas asked, coming up behind her and resting his big hands on her upper arms. The tingling pull of Gaia’s power infused her through his touch, reminding her how closely connected her kind was with the Earth, even though they were water creatures.

  “Sisters, what my mother has done is a terrible betrayal of your trust, but to undo it, you must trust me with the same precious gift. You must give me your blood and accept mine in return. This is only an exchange driven by loyalty and love for our home—which I know was the argument my mother used—but I only ask just enough to break her hold on you.”

  Ephyra’s voice rose in challenge. “How will we be able to break the bond to you, then? We love you, Assana, but we are not your slaves any more than we were hers.”

  “Promise that you will stay to protect the Haven and I will help you all break the bond. You just need what I have found already.” She turned her head and gave Silas a reverent look. “True love and a blood bond with your mate … or mates. Nothing can break that bond once you find it, and I will do everything in my power to ensure you all are given that chance, even if I have to hunt down Fate to do it.”

  The eleven nymphs looked around at each other in a silent exchange. Finally, Clio nodded.

  “We accept your promise, sister. But you are not the Dionarch. You don’t have command of the Source and she was using it to magnify her power.”

  “Perhaps not, but what I do have is Gaia’s blessing.”

  Behind her, Silas slipped his hands down her arms and held her gently by the wrists. He lifted her arms up high and she focused her power on the life’s blood pumping through her veins. It didn’t respond at first, still simply flowing down her arms and dripping into the pool at her feet to leave swirling clouds of red in the clear, calm water.

  “It’s my turn now,” Silas murmured in her ear.

  She heard the now familiar creaking sound of his power manifesting itself, and glanced down to see his strong legs thicken and grow mossy bark around the calves. His feet erupted into long roots that plunged down into the water of the Source, splitting into hundreds of pale green tendrils as they went deeper and deeper.

  As the power of the source was absorbed into his roots, she felt the cool flood of it seeping into her body, and once again she focused her mind on her blood, and on her sisters’.

  With her eyes closed, the flow of their life-sustaining fluid became a bright, vibrant presence, and she called to it the way she called to the River when she sought its power. They all answered, raising their arms and surrendering to her. She opened her mouth to accept their gifts and let her own blood flow in return, sending it arcing out in eleven different directions to their waiting tongues.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Gavra

  Gavra had only experienced drifting on a handful of occasions, and having the power to do it himself for the first time didn’t exactly make it second nature. But when Nyx fell into his arms, he knew he couldn’t simply lead her away by the hand. The illusion had to be complete, and this was a part of it. Luckily, he’d paid attention to the inner workings of Assana’s mind when she’d drifted them all to the Source earlier, so he attempted to repeat exactly what she had done. He called on the power of their sacred River and aimed his consciousness at his destination the way a sailor steers the rudder of his boat.

  He’d intended to take them both to her chamber in the palace, but at the last second changed his mind. When they emerged from the drift, his skin felt wet and cool as though he’d just taken a swim. Nyx clung to him, and he was reminded of a time when he would have relished having this beautiful, powerful nymph want him the way she did now.

  Except it wasn’t him she wanted, but what he represented to her in his disguise. All this love that filled her now—this desperate need to hold onto what she’d lost at all costs—was for a man he could never hold a candle to where love and honor were concerned.

  No. He rejected that thought immediately. If he didn’t love Assana so much, he wouldn’t even be here now, and his success in carrying out this plan depended on that love and his honor of his bond with her and Silas, not to mention his desire to maintain peace between all the higher races.

  He tightened his arms around Nyx for a second, drawing on that love for her daughter. He could have destroyed this woman completely—ruined her mind with his power, cursing her with a never-ending craving for sex and nothing else, then bound her in this place and left her insane. He had the power to do just that now, and more. Silas had succeeded in making his connection to the Source—the divine nexus of power that fed the Haven and the Sanctuary and provided the magic that made the nymphaea and the ursa who they were. Gavra had that power now, along with the immortal power of air and fire he had always been attuned to. All the elements were at his disposal.

  But was what he planned any better than leaving Nyx a mindless sex fiend locked in a cave? Sure, he could give her a few moments of true happiness before he locked her in, but it would all be a lie.

  Again, he silently asked for Nereus’s forgiveness before he gripped Nyx by the arms and turned her.

  The secret grotto Nereus had built his mate was even more detailed than Gavra remembered it, though it hadn’t been complete when Nereus showed it to him all those eons ago. The cave walls had been polished smooth so that the pale veins of quartz that shot through the dark granite glowed.

  The center of the grotto was filled with a clear pool fed by a lazy cascade of heated water flowing down the back wall. More glowing stones lit the pool from beneath. A dry alcove occupied one side of the grotto, and above it, a wide opening cut into the stone ceiling let in the filtered sunlight. Particles of mist floated in the air, catching the light and reflecting it to Gavra’s eyes, making the entire room seem like it was filled with golden dust.

  This was the place where Nereus had first seduced his bride and proved his love to her through the sheer effort it had taken to create such a beautiful, secret retreat.

  “Come, my love,” he said, leading her to the silk covered bed in the alcove. The light that came in was enough to sustain cascades of flower-covered vines that grew from planters carved into the wall itself.

  She kept looking up at him, her eyes wide with wonder, but also apprehension.

  “I never took another lover after you,” she said as though that might be the worst thing she could do.

  “What we might have done while parted is no matter now,” Gavra said. “I would forgive you all of that, because our bond is so strong I know your heart will always be mine. Come and tell me what is truly troubling you, Nyx. What you have done to the nymphs who guard the Haven is out of character for you. Please help me understand.”

  She turned when they reached the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close and kissing him again and again. “Please, let’s make love before we talk about all that. You are back now … We must make another baby, the Haven needs more satyrs, so there is no time to waste.”

  Gavra tolerated the kisses. It was in his nature to revel in female attention, and this would be no different, if not for the dire circumstances.

  “Nyx,” he admonished, holding her back at arm’s length. “You’re avoiding my questions. Tell me what you’re hiding. You were always open with your thoughts before, even when it came to your opinion of your brother’s choices.”

  She let out
a huff of frustration and scrunched up her face. “I need you! Don’t you realize you still have the same effect on me you always did? Don’t you want me just as much?”

  The wanting would be the tricky part, and as Gavra allowed her to grab his hand and put it between her thighs, he summoned his desire for Assana to help him maintain the illusion. His cock hardened and he leaned down and kissed her hard, putting all his pent up passion for Assana into the act.

  “Gaia, yes, I want you. You are all I’ve thought of all these years. And yes, I want nothing more than to fill you with my seed again and make as many sons as you desire, but there is still something you must explain to me. Why have you been holding a dragon captive? Our daughter tells me you intended to breed with him … to force your nymphs to carry babies made from some unholy union between your spirit and his and gestated inside their wombs. Do you have no respect for their sacred right to choose their own mates? And with a dragon, no less. They’re great for a romp, but to breed with? What were you thinking?”

  Nyx scowled and shook her head, her eyes flashing with that same unhinged anger that rose to the surface whenever she was challenged. It swiftly disappeared and her mask fell in place again, her sweet smile with it.

  “My love, I had to. The Haven is in danger; you should know this after being our enemy’s prisoner for so long. Surely you understand how important it is that I do whatever I can to protect our home. The Haven’s balance of fertile power is at stake—there are too many females and not enough males—we can’t sustain this level of imbalance much longer, unless Dion himself sees fit to visit all my nymphs and grant them the gift of his own seed. You know the divine ones no longer answer our prayers the way they once did.”

  Gavra gripped her arms and shook her, genuinely frustrated. “That does not give you the right to blood meld them like a fiend, Nyx! This is not who you are!”

  “How do you know who I am now?” she shot back. “You’ve been gone! You have no idea how difficult it’s been without you! Please, Nereus, why can’t we just make love? Why do you have to be so damned honorable now, of all times? I need you! Dammit, I needed you all along and you were gone. It took all my strength to hold it together. I had to do something!”

  “You think fucking that dragon was going to help?”

  “I wasn’t …” she objected, but her brows twitched together, betraying her half-lie. Immediately she realized her mistake and backpedaled. “No, Nereus, I wasn’t! I would have let the nymphs have him how they saw fit. It would just be my spirit inside them to mix with his, to give them immortal children. We need powerful sons to help protect the Haven!”

  “How can I believe you, Nyx? I saw him bound to Assana’s bed. Were you going to make her participate in that abomination of a plan? Force your own daughter to be no more than breeding stock? I would rather see the Haven rot.”

  “No!” Nyx yelled, shaking her head wildly and grabbing at his arms even as he turned away. He paced back toward the pool and stopped, Nyx chasing him the whole way.

  “Please, Nereus I can’t do this without you, I know that now. I won’t go through with it if you promise me you’ll stay. I’m sorry for what I’ve done, please believe me. Let me fix it!”

  “I don’t know if I can trust you anymore, my love,” he said, giving her a heartbroken stare and backing away like he hated being near her now.

  “Please! Don’t go. I’ll do anything you ask, just please forgive me, please stay!”

  “Anything I ask?” Gavra latched onto the offer like a lifeline.

  “Yes!”

  “There is something you can do for me.”

  “What is it?”

  He stared down at her, setting his mouth in a grim line. This would be the key. Closing his eyes as though he hated the thought of what he had to ask of her, he let out a long sigh.

  “If you want to prove yourself, do this. Confine yourself to this grotto I built for you, remind yourself everyday why you loved me to begin with and why I loved you. Remind yourself how we each earned that love. Because you are not entitled to my love, Nyx. Not without earning it the way you did when we were young. Stay in here and prove to me that you have earned my love by remembering how to be the honorable woman you once were. When I return, if I believe you are that woman again, I will stay and we can be together.”

  As he spoke, he began to back away from her toward the entrance to the grotto. Nyx eagerly hung on every word, so clearly anxious to prove herself again to Nereus that Gavra knew his tactic was working. He hated himself for it, but Sweet Mother, it was working and he had to see it through.

  When his heels hit the steps leading up and out of the grotto, he ascended them slowly, raising his hands and seeking out the power he needed to complete his task. Silas’s channeling of the power of the Source gave him the deepest well of energy he could ever imagine and he took advantage of it, letting it flood from his palms. He mixed his own magic with it as he created a barrier that would hold this powerful, beautiful woman who had fallen from grace. He extended the barrier out from the entrance, creating an unbroken shell of magic that encompassed the entire grotto so she would have no way of escaping, though from the earnest look of love and longing in her eyes, he doubted she would risk losing Nereus again.

  She rushed toward him as he completed the prison, tears streaming down her cheeks. Gavra’s heart lurched as she collapsed to her knees, crying out her husband’s name and begging his forgiveness. The words echoed hauntingly in his ears as he turned and walked away.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Silas

  Silas’s limited understanding of what his power could do had in no way prepared him for the overwhelming flood of it that coursed through him now. Every single one of his senses were fully engaged. His vision filled with the mesmerizing pattern of the trails of blood that criss-crossed between the nymphs as they made their exchange with Assana. Her fertile, delicious scent filled his nostrils, mixed with the coppery fragrance of the blood. Her warm body was a welcome weight against his chest and he slid his hands down to rest at her hips, not wishing to interfere with her melding of her sisters, though his palms ached to touch her in a more intimate way.

  The sounds that reached his ears seemed to come from all sides, and even from beyond the waterfall-bordered clearing where the other pools of the Source were. He could hear Nyx’s pleas as she fell victim to Gavra’s trick. Their plan was working, but he wasn’t yet prepared to rejoice; he had yet more to do.

  The flow of the Source to the Sanctuary had been interrupted when Nyx began this new ritual, and it was time for him to reconnect the flow and keep his promise to Sathmika.

  The flow of Gaia’s energy seemed to instantly grasp his desires, and he surrendered to the need to fulfill that last duty to his home, to fulfill his potential as a Miteradoro.

  Closing his eyes, he reached even deeper with his senses, down into the farthest reaches of the Source until he hit the core of power. Gaia’s magic shot into him with the force of a lightning bolt.

  In his mind he heard a rich, female voice echo. He knew the voice, yet she was somehow still foreign to him, like his ears had only just attuned themselves to the language she spoke.

  “There is no return from this path once you commit to it, Silas. Be certain this is what you want before you allow it to happen.”

  But he had made his oath long ago when he was a young ursa joining the ranks of Sanctuary guardians. He would do what was required to see his home kept safe, and this was one thing that must be done. He must ensure the Sanctuary’s link to the Source could never be broken again.

  “I am sure. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

  “As you wish. Grow, Miteradoro.”

  The pure, vibrant power of all life filled him, pushing deep through the extended tendrils of his body and up into his limbs. His back arched and he gasped. He released Assana and lifted his han
ds, staring at them as they transformed, becoming the verdant, woody green of new saplings and then hardening and leafing out. They longed for the sun and he reached his arms up high, knowing instinctively that this transformation required the light above to work. As he stared upward, his arms grew and his torso elongated, pushing higher and higher toward the sunlight.

  “Silas, what’s happening?” Assana yelled, staring up at him.

  He couldn’t tilt his head down to look at her, but his consciousness was still tightly bound to hers in their sacred blood meld bond. She had completed her own task, as had Gavra, and they both stood at the edge of the wide pool of the Source now, staring up at him in worried awe.

  “This is what I must do … It’s my task to complete. Please understand. I love you both, but my home was at risk too.”

  “Of course we understand, Silas, but what the hell are you doing?” Assana asked.

  “Couldn’t risk the chance of the connection being broken again. This will make it permanent. It has to be done.”

  “Sweet Mother, not like this!” Gavra yelled. “There has to be another way.”

  “What’s wrong, you don’t like how hard I get when I’m doing the right thing? My dick’s bigger than yours now, isn’t it? I can’t see it, but it feels huge.”

  Gavra uttered an expletive that was half laughter. “Just tell me you can come back to us like you were once it’s done, brother.”

  Silas’s growth picked up momentum from the power flooding into him and seeking out the nourishing light from above. He tried to focus on Gavra’s request, but everything was moving too fast. All he could do was give in to his swift upward climb, the branches his arms had become splitting and growing into numerous limbs that continued their steady expansion into the sky.