by Zoe Chant
His breathing was labored, his pulse thready and weak.
Someone!! Darklis cried out with her mind, desperately wishing there was someone out there who could hear her. Someone! Anyone!! Please! Help me!
There was no sound but the wind in the trees – or perhaps that was the sound of Liev’s slowly fading breath. Cradling his face in her hands, Darklis let her tears fall freely as she stared down at him, trying to memorize the lines of his face, the brilliant blue of his half-closed eyes, the dark curl of his hair against the paleness of his skin.
Softly, defeatedly, she tried one last time, knowing that there would be no answer.
Please.
She didn’t dare to believe the first answering touch of another dragon’s mind against her own. Surely it couldn’t have been anything other than false hope – no one knew she was here, or where to find her.
But a second later, her head shot up, her heart pounding in her chest.
Darklis?? Darklis, is that you?
Eyes wide, Darklis stared up at the night sky as it twinkled with stars.
Stefan!
Her brother’s voice was unmistakable, frantic with concern.
Darklis, I’ve been searching for you. Please, just hold on a moment longer...
Darklis felt a sob rising in her chest. She felt weak, utterly drained – but she knew she had to stay strong.
I’m here, but please hurry, Stefan. My mate... he’s hurt badly.
If her older brother was surprised at her mention of a mate, she couldn’t detect it.
Instead, she simply sensed him putting on a renewed burst of speed.
I’m coming, Darklis, I promise. Magnus and Alanna are here too. We’re all here.
Magnus...
Of course, Darklis thought. He must be worried about his brother. They were close. Perhaps it had been him who had found them – he would have been able to sense Liev when he shifted, after all.
Darkness clawed at the edges of her vision. She was exhausted. The effort of helping Liev shift, and now keeping him alive with her own strength, was draining. But she knew she had to do it...
Darklis wasn’t certain if she’d blacked out for a moment or two, but the next thing she knew, her brother Stefan was holding her in his arms in a fierce hug.
“Liev,” she managed to croak out, struggling slightly. “Please, Stefan, he’ll die –”
“Shh, don’t worry, we’re here,” Stefan murmured, hugging her all the tighter. Darklis blinked, struggling to see what was happening. She swallowed heavily as she saw Magnus and Alanna bending over Liev’s supine form, Alanna holding his head up as she lifted a small vial to his lips.
“It’s manticore venom antidote,” Stefan said to her softly. “We knew they were involved, so we brought some along, just in case.”
Darklis closed her eyes, relief surging through her. When she reached out for the mated bond, she could feel it as it twisted between her and Liev – its glow was weak, but it was there. He was alive.
Liev. Liev. Please, don’t die.
That was the last thought she had, before darkness finally welled up and claimed her.
Chapter Fifteen
Liev
Liev came to suddenly, snapping awake in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed. The last thing he could remember was a searing pain in his chest and darkness all around him, broken only by a faint gold light. Everything had been silent, except for a soft, desperate voice begging him not to die...
He sat bolt upright on the bed, ignoring the pain that shot through him like jagged bolts of lightning.
“Darklis!”
“Shh, I’m here.”
Hands settled on his immediately. Blinking in the low light, Liev looked around frantically, before his eyes settled on Darklis’s beautiful green eyes.
“What happened?” Liev asked, his head pounding. He didn’t remember eating anything, but his tongue tasted horrible. “Are you hurt? What did –”
“I’m fine, Liev.” Darklis’s voice was quiet but steady. “We both are. Well – you will be in about an hour or so. But you have to take it easy until then.”
Liev swallowed. The sides of this throat rasped painfully against each other. “What happened to me?”
“Manticore venom happened to you,” Darklis said. “A direct hit. You pushed me out of the way, even though you were injured.”
Now, her voice started to wobble. Liev was overcome with the need to take her in his arms, to comfort her, protect her...
“Idiot.” Darklis’s next word came out almost as a sob, as she threw her arms around him, pressing her lips to his.
Breathing in her heavenly scent, reveling in the feel of her warm lips against him, Liev felt himself relaxing. He knew he should be in far more pain than he currently felt – his fight with Erik Lukich had been brutal, and it had left him battered and bloody. Not to mention the fact that getting even a little manticore venom on him should have resulted in a great deal of pain – if not certain death.
“What has happened here, Darklis?” he asked, when he could finally bring himself to stop kissing her. He stroked her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Please, you must tell me.”
Darklis took a shaky breath. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll try to keep my head together.” She blinked, before setting her shoulders. Liev felt his heart surging with love for her – it was clear she was exhausted and had had a terrible shock, but she was still doing her best to remain calm and composed.
“You passed out from your wounds and the venom. I tried to keep you alive using the mated bond to send you strength, but I knew I couldn’t keep it up for long. But thankfully, Stefan, Magnus and Alanna arrived. With a vial of antidote.” She swallowed heavily. “If they hadn’t come along just at that moment, you would have died.”
Liev was silent for a moment, digesting what she’d said. It seemed strange to think about coming so close to death – even if he had known he was prepared for it, if it was to protect his mate. A dragon was always prepared to fight to the death, if that’s what it took to save them from danger.
But still, he had to acknowledge that Darklis must have been terrified.
“I am so terribly sorry, Darklis,” he said, cupping her cheek with his hand. The trails of her tears were still wet, and he wiped them away with the pad of his thumb. “You must have been so frightened.”
“Of course I was!” Darklis said, shaking her head, her voice trembling. “You shouldn’t have pushed me away. I could have survived longer than you from a hit of manticore venom. You should have let me! You ridiculous, stupid, noble idiot –”
Laughing softly, Liev pulled her gently against his chest. “I’m sorry I’m such a ridiculous stupid idiot, Darklis.”
He felt a puff of warmth against his chest as she laughed. “You forgot noble.”
“Did I? I suppose so.”
They were silent for some time after that, simply holding each other. Liev stroked his fingers through her long hair, his other hand resting perfectly in the valley of her waist. It occurred to him momentarily that perhaps he had died after all – because where else but Heaven could there be such perfection?
She is my mate, he thought, letting his eyes fall closed. My perfect, beautiful mate. She is everything I have ever dreamed of. And now, I owe her my life.
He didn’t doubt that without Darklis’s strength, he would now certainly be dead. If she had been even one ounce weaker or less determined, she could not have found the strength she needed to keep him alive.
Strong, brave, smart and beautiful. She is perfect.
And she was.
Inside his chest, his dragon was curled up in a ball of contentment – or maybe, it was simply allowing him to conserve his energy to heal. It blinked a lazy eye at him, huffing its approval.
We have found her. Our mate. The one we are supposed to be with.
It was tempting to simply kiss her again, and then again, and then take her in his arms and lie with her
forever... but as tempting as the thought was, Liev knew there were things he needed to deal with. And he had plenty of questions that needed answering.
“You said Magnus, Alanna and Stefan were here?”
Darklis nodded. “In the other room. I wanted to get you somewhere relatively comfortable to recover.”
“How long have I been out?”
Darklis hesitated a moment before answering. “Almost four hours now,” she said. “You got... a lot of venom in your system. Alanna was worried they hadn’t brought enough antidote. But once you were stable, there was nothing for us to do but let you sleep. I didn’t want to wake you.”
Liev shook his head. “I understand,” he said, though he wished he hadn’t been out for so long. “Perhaps I should let my brother know I’ve awakened.”
Darklis nodded. “He’s been worried sick. Whenever Alanna came in to check on you I could see him pacing around the living room – which is a wreck, by the way. So be careful if you’re not steady on your feet.”
Taking a deep breath, Liev got to his feet, wobbling only slightly on his aching legs. Looking down at himself, he could see his arms were covered in mostly-healed wounds – he was no longer bleeding, but they were still visible on his skin as large red marks and bruises. Swallowing, he was reminded again of just how close he had come.
But our mate was there to save us, his dragon said, voice content – smug, almost, as if it had proved something to him.
Liev resisted the urge to shake his head.
Darklis wrapped an arm around his waist, before opening the door leading out to the living room. She’d been right about it being a wreck – debris was strewn from one end of the room to the other, almost as if a hurricane had hit it. He shuddered.
As he entered the room, his younger brother Magnus, who had been facing the impressive stone fireplace at the far side of the room, spun around. His expression was tense, but it melted into relief as he laid eyes on Liev.
“Liev...” Magnus strode across the room, before pulling him into a fierce hug. “I was so worried about you. Didn’t I tell you not to go running off on your own?”
Liev couldn’t help but laugh. “You did. But what kind of older brother would I be if I ever listened to a word you said?”
He felt Magnus’s returning laugh more than he heard it. They might have been joking, but Liev knew how frightened Magnus must have been – how frightened all his family must have been. Hadn’t he experienced that exact same terror when Magnus had failed to come home that day? And he had blamed himself for so long – after all, it had been Liev who had dared Magnus to fly farther than they were allowed, to sneak out past the boundaries their parents had set for them.
He had made a terrible mistake then, and his rash behavior had cost Magnus many years of pain. Magnus had made it clear that he didn’t blame Liev for what had happened – but now, another impulsive action on his part had caused Magnus and their parents even more worry.
“I am sorry,” Liev said. “I should have listened.”
Magnus shook his head. “Maybe you should have.” He took a deep breath. “But you’re here now. And we have a lot to discuss.”
“We do.”
Sitting, Liev at last glanced around the room. A man Liev recognized as Stefan Novak, Darklis’s older brother and the leader of the Novak Clan, was standing by the fireplace, arms crossed over his chest, expression grim.
A man – no, a dragon, Liev realized – was sitting next to him, head hanging, his arms hanging limp on his knees. Liev didn’t recognize him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somehow familiar.
Rowena, still unconscious, was bound with rope and lying by the marble breakfast bar. Alanna sat by her side, watching her closely. Ordinarily, a human would be no match for the strength of a shifter, but Liev knew Alanna was no ordinary human – she had once been an elite dragon hunter, though of course she had left that life behind when she and Magnus had discovered they were mates. If Rowena awoke, Alanna could deal with her.
“Where’s Erik Lukich?” Liev asked, when he realized who was missing.
“Dead.” It was Stefan who spoke up next, his voice low and harsh. “I don’t think there would have been anything we could have done for him – but even if there had been, we needed all of the venom antidote for you. And I personally was willing to make that choice.”
Liev sucked in a quick breath. Could he say that he was sorry to hear that? Erik Lukich was evil, of course. But still, it was a hard thing to hear that his own life had been saved at the cost of another, even if that life was one that had been as twisted and vile as Erik’s.
It was Darklis who spoke next, her voice soft. “He said... he said that he would never stop trying to get his revenge. He said the only way to stop him was to kill him.” She looked up, her eyes bright. “He told me that Landra should have killed him, instead of just exiling him. Perhaps this was the only way to... to...”
She trailed off, and Liev couldn’t say he blamed her.
“Maybe he was mad, then,” he said after a long moment of silence. “Exile is the worst punishment a dragon can endure. It was clear he was never going to stop seeking his vengeance.”
“We will need to tell Landra,” Stefan said. “Whatever else Erik Lukich was, he was still her father. He may have rejected her and exiled her when she fell in love with my cousin Marko, but she still needs to know.”
“I agree,” Darklis said. “And Stefan... will you tell her that I’m sorry?”
Liev looked at Darklis, feeling his heart swell within him. Darklis even had compassion to spare for a man who had terrorized her all through her childhood, and who was responsible for the death of almost her whole clan.
She is too good for this world, his dragon said. She must be protected. Never let her lose her beautiful heart.
I won’t, Liev promised it.
But for now, he had to know more about how all of this had happened.
“Rowena only explained half the plot to me,” Liev said. “But why was Erik working with a group of manticores?”
“He was a banished dragon, a rogue,” Stefan said. “No other dragon would ever help him. If he wanted to enact his plan, he needed to go elsewhere.”
Liev nodded. That made sense. But then... who was this dragon sitting so dejectedly by Stefan’s side? And why did he look so much like Stefan himself? He had the same dark hair, the same tan skin... and when he raised his head to look at Liev, he had the same green eyes. Though unlike Stefan’s, they were filled with anguish.
“I told Darklis everything I knew,” Dante said, his voice little more than a whisper. “About how Erik came to Rowena asking for her help to get the scepter. About how he told her he’d split the treasure with her once he got his revenge on the Novak Clan. It took a while to convince her, but Rowena has just never been able to resist where money is concerned.” He swallowed. “So that was why we... why they were helping him.”
Liev frowned. “We? You were a part of the manticore gang?”
“He told me what happened,” Darklis broke in quickly. “Dante didn’t want to help them. He was abandoned as a child. The manticores found him – they gave him no choice. They raised him, but they told him they’d kill him if he ever put a foot out of line.” She took a deep breath. “And he helped me. Liev, he was the one who knew how to work the scepter – he used it to turn Erik human during your fight. Without him, I’d be dead right now.”
Anger had been bubbling inside Liev’s chest before Darklis had spoken. What kind of dragon helped a manticore? They had always been enemies. But at her words, he hesitated.
“Is this true?” he asked the miserable dragon.
“Yes, it’s true,” he said. But then, he shook his head. “Everything Darklis said is true. I was abandoned by my family, and the manticores raised me. Yes, they threatened me – told me I’d be dead if I didn’t do what they said. But it was still my choice. I didn’t have to do any of the things I did. But I did them anyway. I d
on’t deserve your pity.”
“But you changed your mind,” Darklis insisted, striding across the room to confront him. “We could never have defeated Erik without you! And you were abandoned. That means –”
“No.” Stefan’s deep voice interrupted her. “Not abandoned. Lost.”
Darklis looked at her brother, blinking in surprise. “L-Lost?”
Liev frowned, staring at her as he sensed her confusion. But then, suddenly, understanding crashed over her like a wave.
Evidently, Stefan could sense it too.
“That’s right. Dante was never abandoned. He was put somewhere safe – probably in the hope that one day his parents would be able to return for him. But they never could.” He swallowed. “Take another look at him, Darklis. Don’t you recognize him?”
Liev suddenly realized what Stefan was saying. The dark hair, the tan skin, the green eyes... Of course. Of course, it’s so obvious now.
“That’s right,” Stefan said in confirmation. “Dante, you are a Novak. Your parents were most likely killed by Erik Lukich during the blood feud. They had always intended to come back for you. But they never got the chance.”
Liev watched as Dante stood on shaking legs, his green eyes open wide. He looked as if someone had just hit him over the head with a brick – no, as if a whole house had just collapsed on top of his head. He fell to his knees, clearly too shocked to stand up any longer.
“I – I’m a Novak?” he whispered, as if he couldn’t believe it. “You – you and Darklis – you’re my clan?”
“Yes,” Darklis said, sounding shocked. “I – I recognize you now. My dragon recognizes you...” She dropped to the floor next to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “Dante, you... you’re our cousin.”
Dante squeezed his eyes shut. “But after everything I’ve done... I hurt you –”
“You also helped us,” Darklis said firmly. “We couldn’t have won without you. And I know you’ll always be welcome with us. You’re our clan.” She looked up at Stefan. “Isn’t that right?”
Stefan hesitated only a moment, and then he nodded. “Yes. That’s right.”