by Ophelia Bell
Darius’s expression pinched from the sting of the words and he cast his eyes to the floor. His shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath as though he were bracing himself for an even greater confrontation. He stepped into the room and closed the heavy wooden door gently behind him.
The babies shifted inside her, somehow sensing the tension in their father’s touch where his hand rested on her swollen belly. Issa placed her hand over his and squeezed, holding tight while Darius approached their bed.
“No, it would be no burden to me, if I could bring myself to cross a line I believe is sacred.”
The intensity in Darius’s gaze made Issa sit up a little straighter. Kris opened his eyes, his expression wary, and watched the man approach.
“What line?”
“That of family. Words are of little comfort, I am aware, but I have merely come to offer a blessing for my grandchildren.”
Kris surged up from the bed. “What do you mean?” He turned and looked at Issa, brow creased in confusion, his eyes flashing with prismatic energy.
Issa shook her head, understanding dawning with the memories of Darius’s affection toward Kris and his stories of Kris’s mother, always told with a kind of sweet nostalgia. “He means you are his son. My father was a Guardian—you know this. But Darius, how? Unbound aren’t permitted to breed.”
The confusion of emotion that washed from Kris caused her heart to clench in sympathy.
“You were with me for my entire life and never told me this? You told me my parents both died! You talked about my father like he was someone else entirely. Was it all a lie, what you told me?”
Darius took a tentative step closer, his hands palm out at his sides. “I never lied to you. I am that Red with no status, so I may as well have been dead to you. It would not have served you to know exactly how little status I had. The fact of our link was merely a matter of convenience to the Council. Your mother was very special to me, and my bloodline was pure enough for the Council to release my shackles just long enough to breed with her. She chose to end her life shortly after you were born, to give you her power so you could fulfill the ritual.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Kris asked. His voice was tense with anger, the back of his neck erupting into shimmering scales. Issa reached up to stroke him, relieved when her touch seemed to calm him.
“Because your lives and my grandchildren’s lives depend on you understanding. You already know the Council is aware of their nature. It is as clear to me as your nature was when your mother was pregnant with you. They are twin Catalysts and no Catalyst has yet been born without a parent giving their life force to ensure they survive their birth. Your mother gave the last of her power to give you your mark. I would have given mine to you as well, but the Council shackled me again before I could.”
“We would gladly die for them,” Kris said. He turned to Issa again, his jaw clenched.
“And leave them at the mercy of the Council?” Darius asked. He shook his head. “No. You and Issa are far too important. There is another way, but we need the rest of the Court and the Verdanith for it to work. We must convince the Council to change Dragon Law before the babies are born. Please try to hold on until the assembly.”
“Do they want us dead?” Issa asked. “Is that why they refuse to help?”
The two men turned to look at her in unison and Issa was suddenly struck by similarities she had never noticed before. While Darius was rougher of feature, and Kris had lovely smooth lines to his face, the pair shared the same broad shoulders and solid, confident bearing. Their eyes both blazed with the same intensity and they shared a slight crease between brows that indicated their worry, though Darius’s lines were more pronounced due to his age.
“It would solve some problems for them if that were to happen. Kris is more than aware of their motivations. Aren’t you?”
Kris’s shoulders sagged. “They consider that an acceptable risk, but that doesn’t mean they’re refusing help. They simply can’t focus their magic into the desired potency without the Verdanith. And even once it’s here, it will take time for the assembly. Time I’m not sure Issa has.”
Darius stepped toward Kris and placed his large hands on his son’s shoulders. “We will find a way.”
“How?” Kris asked, the desperation clear in his voice. “The babies are at the point where they need an almost constant flow of energy to sustain them. The Unbound don’t provide me nearly enough of a supply to sustain both myself and the babies, even if they visited non-stop for the remainder of the pregnancy. I won’t leave Issa to find a human village to restore my own power. I’m no Red, it would take me far too long.”
“Then we wait,” Issa said. “And hope the others arrive soon.”
He shook his head and stepped back toward the bed to kiss her. Both his large, gentle hands cupped her face and he gazed into her eyes, his own blazing with fierce determination. “No, I won’t sit idle. There must be something they can do.”
Kris left her with a glowing sensation from the burst of energy he sent through his palms. She settled back against her pillows with a sigh, rubbing both hands over her covered belly.
“We’ll get through this, little ones,” she murmured. “Your father will take care of us.”
Breath of Fate: Chapter 2
The novelty of meetings with the Council had long since worn off. Kris now trudged wearily beside Darius up the path to the peak and into the center of the pavilion at its summit, where he regularly communed with the six immortal dragons who had overseen the progress of their race from the beginning of their existence. The slight benefit of the visits was in the trickle of power that infused him in their presence. Unfortunately without the focus of an aroused partner it was too difficult to absorb enough power to sustain him for very long.
Outside the Monastery, only Kris’s sister, Racha and the Council knew of Issa’s pregnancy and had already given what little help they were capable of. The short trek up the mountain to the meeting place seemed unbearably steep this time, as weighed down as Kris was with the certainty that the Council would have no new alternatives to his dilemma. Yet he had to ask.
The Council itself resided half in this world, half in the ether where their magical aspects existed. They were as much a part of the flow of magic through the world as their beautiful, massive bodies were a part of the corporeal world. The six immortal dragons were slaves to their circumstances, tied to each other via bonds even closer than the bond between mates. Kris didn’t feel any more charitable toward them, however, after gaining a sense of the steps they were willing to take to get what they wanted. He just wished he knew what really motivated them.
When he and Darius took their spots in the center of the Pavilion, Kris closed his eyes and calmed himself. Once centered, he sent out the mental call to the Council. The communication always felt like tugging on a collection of threads bound to his core, each one with a distinctly different energy.
The six answered simultaneously, their calls converging in his mind with a vibration of the threads that resulted in a white heat low in his belly. This answering pull was one of the more pleasant parts of communing with them, the way it aroused and briefly invigorated him. He rarely bothered to dress for the meetings, but had conjured a short sarong around his waist for this visit, suddenly irrationally modest now that he was aware of his true relationship to Darius.
Thunder rumbled through the air around the pavilion, signaling their arrival. Kris had the impression the six dragons were flying from somewhere far away, yet they always simply appeared out of thin air between the six columns of the pavilion, and hovered with wings beating in the air, their variety of colored bodies casting glimmering shadows of matching colors on the ground around him. The shadows drew closer and where they met in the center, a white light shone on Kris and Darius like a spotlight where they knelt.
Darius let out a sigh that mirrored
the sensation Kris felt deep in his belly, all the way down to his cock. Simply being in their presence was often as satisfying as making love to Issa, though by the end of his meetings the euphoria rarely lingered. He hoped this meeting would prove to be more productive.
“Greetings, Catalyst. Unbound.” The large green female was the first to speak when the six dragons settled onto the ground around the pavilion and walked forward to surround them.
“Numa,” Kris said, nodding his head toward the Green and glancing around at the others.
“What prompted this summons?” The black one, Ked, said in a deep, throaty tone.
“The lives of my children are in greater peril even now. They won’t survive much longer without aid.”
“They will survive if you and their mother give enough of yourselves. Are you giving enough?” The white dragon, Aodh, spoke. Kris glanced at him but immediately away from the blinding brightness of his scales.
“We have given all we can without jeopardizing our own lives. We will not leave them orphans.”
“There is only one way we can help.” Belah, the blue dragon answered in her delicate, gentle tone. “It is out of our control otherwise. We need the Verdanith assembled and reactivated to weave our magic together for to them to absorb. Be assured we value yours and Issa’s lives as much as the children.”
Kris looked beseechingly at Gavra and Aurum, the red and the gold. “But you can give to me in the traditional manner, can’t you? Surely one dose of Nirvana from one as powerful as you…”
Gavra’s eyes flashed red, his deep voice cutting in. “We cannot couple with you, Catalyst, as enticing a prospect as it is.” He let out a low, rumbling hum that signaled his appreciation. Aurum hummed back in agreement, her voice harmonizing with Gavra’s in a way that vibrated down to the base of Kris’s spine and made his already uncomfortable erection throb even harder. The sensation was compounded by the bright look the golden dragon gave him, as though she’d gladly couple with him, if it would do them any good.
“Can’t or won’t?” Kris said. “You forget I know where we came from. It’s been hundreds of thousands of years since the Mother created the six of you, and you found your first mates among the humans.” He looked pointedly at Gavra. “It’s time the rest of the Brood knew as well. You fathered our oldest ancestor more than a hundred generations ago. I’m not asking to mate with any of you. Only to help sustain my mate and children until the twins are safely born. Our race owes our existence to you already. Isn’t that enough?”
“They are right,” Numa said, her green eyes glowing. “The Mother was the first Prismatic, and her power only resurfaces once in each generation. As a Prismatic dragon, your power is the embodiment of the Mother in this world. The essence of her that you carry prevents you from absorbing the pure energy the six of us possess. It would be like shining a light at a mirror if we tried. The Verdanith is the only way we can effectively focus the appropriate combination of power to sustain you or any other dragon. Until it is assembled there is nothing we can do.”
Kris sensed a murmur of dissent. “Are you hiding something? Please tell me if there is any other way. I refuse to accept that we are out of options entirely.”
Numa settled her disconcerting gaze back on him. “There may be one other option. There are humans we call ‘Udara’ who possess an even greater capacity for absorbing magic and transferring it. But they are exceedingly rare and difficult to find. Even if you could find one, they would require being mated and marked before even being allowed on the mountain. It would be easier to find as many mated dragons as possible who are willing to offer their mates on a regular basis. Most dragons aren’t willing to share their mates so readily.”
“It’s the only option we have at the moment, except you have forbidden me from sharing Issa’s pregnancy with others,” Kris said.
“This close to the birth, we can make an exception if you promise to only invite those you trust the most.”
“Very well,” Kris said, relieved that he finally had more than vague guarantees. He would have to give in and call the others, and just hope those who weren’t actively trying to locate the lost fragment of the Verdanith would still be willing to help after he confessed the secret he and Issa had kept from them.
“What word from the Court on the missing fragment, Kris?” Numa said, moving on to other business.
“I only know they were close to locating it. I haven’t heard from them in several weeks.”
The Council didn’t respond for several moments. The hum of their private communion irritated Kris. Sometimes he was alert enough to break through and catch a few pieces of what they shared, but today he was too exhausted. While he waited his mind was free of them, at least. He sent a quick thought to Issa letting her know things were progressing but not in which direction. He’d tell her the full details later, when the Council wasn’t around to overhear his thoughts.
The second he’d finished the thought, his mind split with blinding pain, a bombardment of nearly deafening voices clamoring for attention. He cried out, clutching his temples. “What do you want?!” he yelled silently back.
The voices ceased instantly and he sighed in relief. A moment later, a single familiar voice came back through, sure and deep.
“It’s Kol. We have the fragment. We’re all here and on our way to you now.”
“Hurry. And bring your mates, too.” Kris sent back, then immediately sent a message to the Unbound dragon guards that surrounded the pavilion to give Kol and his retinue full access, regardless of status.
He needed all of them.
Breath of Fate: Chapter 3
After half a day in a plane flying between Tokyo and Singapore, Rowan relished the chance to stretch her wings again. They’d waited until nightfall before climbing to the top of one of the city’s tallest hotels before shifting. From Singapore it was another few hours to the island, which passed quickly now that she wasn’t confined to a metal tube.
Rowan landed in a field surrounded by men in robes, allowed Trevor to dismount from her back, and shifted to her human form. The rest of her companions either dismounted or shifted around her. Trevor and Rafe moved to one side of her while her tall, red-haired brother and his beautiful mate flanked her on the other side. With the others at her back, Rowan felt for the first time like she truly belonged. These were her people. Her family. And she would do whatever it took to help them.
A single broad-chested man with a shaved head stepped eagerly toward her, his expression filled with gratitude.
“Zak?” she said. She almost didn’t recognize him in full daylight until she caught sight of his yellow eyes and attractive face a second before he gathered her into his embrace. His strong arms crushed her to his chest. With her cheek mashed against him she gave Rafe an apologetic look, but the Shadow only laughed.
“Your timing couldn’t be more perfect,” Zak said when he released her. “Darius is with Kris and the Council now. We need to get you to the peak as soon as possible.”
Kol and the others walked toward them with determined looks.
“Can we even get up there? I thought there was a restriction,” Rafe said.
“Kris has summoned all of us,” Kol said. “However, the magic that protects the peak allows only Court dragons to access via the air. Racha will fly ahead as our representative. The rest of us will walk.”
The petite Asian woman Rowan had only met a couple days earlier embraced the bear of a human man who had accompanied her. They whispered to each other softly, then kissed tenderly. Racha quickly shifted into a majestic green dragon while her mate looked on. Rowan didn’t think she’d ever get used to seeing the transformation, even though she’d accomplished it countless times herself.
Rowan fell into step behind Kol. Her insides churned and she felt on the verge of tears after everything. This had to be the end of it. She clutched tighter to the p
air of hands that held hers, and they gave back with as much strength. The crush of Rafe’s and Trevor’s hands in hers calmed her, gave her courage to face whatever would come.
She looked around at the others climbing the narrow mountain path with her. So many she barely knew, but who she already loved. Her brother smiled encouragingly at her and she smiled back.
As rushed as their journey was, so close to the end, it had still taken them a day and a half to get back to the Monastery from the temple where Rafe and Trevor found her. From there they’d trekked back out and headed to the Tokyo International Airport. She’d laughed at the other dragons who met them there, blustering about being stuck in a tube to fly them places quicker, but grew quiet soon after when the same urge to spread her wings sank into her after Kol’s private jet was airborne.
“How the hell do you deal with this?” she asked out of the blue half an hour later. Her skin itched with the need to shift, but there was nowhere near enough room in the small cabin to do so.
“Sex,” several of the others replied. There were sixteen, altogether, filling up the cabin.
“We shouldn’t,” Kol said. His fingertips had turned into sharp talons that pierced the leather armrests. The others were in similar states of tense restraint.
“We don’t need to,” Roka said. “My Queen, will you join me?”
The large, white-haired dragon took a deep breath and expelled it in a shimmering cloud of white. Racha did the same, their breath mingling and dispersing throughout the cabin. Rowan let herself inhale the pleasant-smelling smoke. A sense of relaxed euphoria came over her within moments and the overwhelming urge to shift and catch the air currents with her wings disappeared. They spent the next several hours in subdued, but happy conversation. She got the sense this meeting was a long needed reunion for many of them. Even more so for herself and the brother she’d never known she had.
Geva had been solicitous of her from the very first moment, anxious to confirm that she was well and that Rafe hadn’t harmed her. When Rafe turned to the group to display the mark she’d given him, the subject of his loyalty was dropped. The others treated Trevor with warm interest, but he had refused to leave her side for a single moment.