by Ophelia Bell
That temple was on this island.
* * *
Aodh stared down at the slab of unmarred stone, struggling to reconcile his memories of the temple with what lay before him. The first dragon temple had been the only one with a visible above-ground structure, which had been painstakingly carved out of a granite mountain. This mountain that Aodh stood atop now. Yet here he was in the spot where a temple should have existed, and there was nothing but solid rock.
He shifted and took to the air for yet another circuit around the huge formation. There had to be a clue somewhere … a doorway perhaps. A magical cloak that had hidden the structure from his kind until they’d required it for their first hibernation. That event was still several centuries in the future from the time he’d been trapped in, and the temple had most certainly existed then.
He could recall every smooth, polished surface of the floors and walls, the carved stone columns that lined the corridors and supported the barrel vaulted ceilings. The intricate designs adorning the massive doors to each of the chambers intended for the first generation of newly designated Court dragons to hibernate within.
He and his siblings had found the temple when they decided to protect the future generations of dragons from their enemy’s relentless hunting and capturing. Older generations were strong enough to stand against the Ultiori hunters Meri had corrupted and controlled, and the army of mind-controlled soldiers that she used Nikhil’s vast military skills to command.
This island had drawn them in, not only due to its location being closely guarded by one of the ursa clans, but by its relative remoteness even from the other races. It had seemed ideally suited to dragons in much the same way the monastery’s island had when they’d built that mountaintop refuge. In fact, the residents were some of the most receptive humans they’d ever met, once they arrived. It was as though they’d already recognized Aodh and his siblings as gods, tripping over themselves in order to serve.
The temple had shocked them with its ideal location, size, and magically protected barriers that opened only for them. The power infusing the place was so familiar it had to have been built by a dragon, but if it hadn’t been any of them, their only conclusion was that the Mother Dragon had prepared it for them, with Fate as her guide.
So where was the fucking thing?
He wore himself out hunting the rugged mountain for something—anything—to indicate that the temple existed in this spot. He could envision it in his mind’s eye, yet not even a hint of dragon magic existed where the temple should have been. Only stone and dirt and trees.
Landing at the peak of the mountain, he let out a frustrated bellow that echoed around the entire island prison. He dug his claws into the stony ground beneath him, kicking up boulders and flinging them into the air. He paced around what should have been the domed cupola roof, but was only dirt-covered rock.
As he paced, his tail swung from side to side in angry sweeps, tossing aside every loose object in his way. The not knowing ate at him. He had no way out of this place and no indication he’d be released at all. As far as Nyx was concerned, he was better off dead, only he couldn’t die. She likely intended to leave him here permanently.
His mind churned over the implications of that thought. If he remained here, eventually his time would overlap with events he recalled. Except he remembered the day he’d entered the nonexistent temple with his siblings, and he hadn’t been here. Only the perfect temple had stood in this spot, completely empty and waiting for the youngest generation of dragons to begin their hibernation within.
His talons hit something too hard to break and he realized he’d been unconsciously clawing into the earth beneath him in his rage. He angled his head to the side to peer with one big eye down at the ground. Something gleamed through the dirt, and he expelled a blast of hot wind from his nostrils to blow the dirt away.
His pulse picked up at the sight of the vein of crystalline quartz that shot through the stone. He remembered the shape of this stone and the way it let light filter into the temple below. Drawing back a fisted talon, he smashed it against the mountaintop with all his might, but only met unyielding stone with no hint of an echo to indicate what he stood on might be hollow.
With renewed energy, he worked to dig away the dirt and rocks from the area. After several hours of work, he’d clawed and swept several square dragon-lengths of the mountaintop clean so that the solid stone beneath was visible.
Taking a deep breath, he summoned as much power as he dared, then launched himself in the air a few hundred feet and angled his head down while he hovered, his massive wings holding him aloft. A gust of blue-white fire blasted from his mouth and hit the center of the stone beneath him with an impact that sent dirt and stone flying out in a massive cloud.
The entire mountain trembled, pieces of it crumbling away from the monolithic slab of stone. When Aodh ceased his blazing inferno, he landed with a heavy thud, gaze fixed in the center of the stone where his fire had been focused, his breathing shallow with utter disbelief.
An unmistakable starburst pattern adorned the stone where his fire had hit, a result of the quartz cracking and a vein of solid gold beneath it instantly melting and flooding into the cracks. It gleamed bright yellow, dimming to orange as it cooled, but the pattern was as familiar to Aodh as the scales on his own tail.
That starburst was the apex of the roof of the temple—a structure they believed had existed forever. Except if he’d been the one to create that pattern, that could only mean one thing.
He was the architect. Not the Mother or Fate, though Fate was most certainly the engineer behind this predicament he found himself in. Aodh himself had just put his mark on this island as the first dragon to set foot here, and though the paradox twisted his mind into uncomfortable knots, he knew better than to fight Fate. Just as attempting to fly through the barrier of his prison would only send him back in from the other side, running away from Fate’s plan would only send him full circle, straight back into the trap he sought to avoid.
With a deep growl of resignation, he set to work. Most temples took an army of skilled Guardians several decades to complete. As the sole architect and artisan, he estimated this particular temple would take centuries.
At least he knew he’d have something to do for the next four hundred years.
Chapter Two
Neph
Returning to the beginning was the exact opposite of progress, by Neph’s definition. Yet here he was, glowering at the same icy creek that had been his exit point from the Haven mere days ago. His sister Nyx had truly gone mad if she’d locked even him out of their home.
When he’d absconded from the Haven with Calder and his mates, his only thought was protecting them from his sister’s insane rampage. After a desperate stint of drifting around the world to all the potential portals that would take him back home, he’d discovered his sister had managed to block every last one. It had never occurred to him that Nyx would also bar her own brother from reentry. Yet here he was, still trapped on the outside, in the human world.
He felt like some kind of vagrant, having to try every last secret portal that only he or Nyx knew of to get back into the Haven.
“All right, sister. If this is how it has to be, so be it.”
He could still feel her through the River and was not comforted by the wild churn of madness that answered him. Nyx was barely coherent now, having descended even deeper into madness since he’d left. He expected her to still be enraged—ever since losing Nereus, she’d been somewhat less than rational when the visions gripped her—but their connection granted him visuals more than thoughts, and what he saw confused the hell out of him.
In the short time he’d been gone, it seemed she’d already lost control of the Haven entirely to her daughter, though how it had happened he couldn’t tell. Nor when it could have happened.
He suddenly had a strange sense of
disorientation. Nothing felt right about this scenario. Not that Assana wasn’t a capable leader of the Haven—she was the commander of the Thiasoi, after all. The image of his niece looked far more world-weary and sad than she had the last time he’d seen her. She sat upon her mother’s throne with a dragon mate by her side, and not just any dragon, but the immortal Red who’d once befriended Nereus before Nyx had chosen the satyr as her mate. There had been a time when he wondered if Gavra would seduce his sister, when he even dared to hope the seductive Red would succeed. If he had, then Neph would have had some leverage to go public with his relationship with Aodh.
Clearly Fate had had a different plan for them all, if Assana had completed such a bond with a dragon that powerful. But there was something more that resonated across the distance that separated Neph from his niece. The pair of mates were linked, Assana’s divine essence permeating Gavra as strongly as his filled her. They were blood-melded, and that fact had magnified her power exponentially. More than enough for her to keep the Haven safe until Neph could find a way back in, but when the hell had she had time to do this if not within the barely two days since he’d been gone?
He might have thought he was viewing Assana’s future—he’d looked into his loved ones’ futures often enough in the past, but made it a policy not to dig unless he believed it affected the safety of the Haven directly. Yet the quality of this image was too crisp and distinct; it had the immutability of the recent past—something that had already happened and could not be changed.
He squatted down beside the creek and dipped his fingers into the water, grimacing at the chill but needing the additional link to the River to help him understand. The River gave him no clearer image of the Haven, only Nyx locked up in her grotto as though it were a prison, his niece sitting on the throne accompanied by her powerful mate, and a strange and unexpected sight in the center of the Haven, right at the Source.
An immense and glorious tree grew there now, piercing the misty veil that separated the Haven from the ursa Sanctuary above it and emerging from the very center of the lake that fed Gaia’s Falls. The tree had Gaia’s power written all over it, and while its presence was alarming, a flickering vision filtered forth from his memories of futures to come, giving him a sense that the tree belonged there, straddling all three worlds: Earth, Water, and Sky.
Still, there was no apparent route back inside for him.
With a sigh, he stood and rubbed his hands together briskly, breathing into them to infuse some warmth through his cold digits. He hated the cold, so he chose a more appropriate form to travel in that wouldn’t require clothing to keep warm. One of the more hardy creatures of this forest who visited the nearby river would do.
A moment later he stood on four gray-furred paws, his thick pelt protecting him from the chill and his wolf’s senses pricking up to scent the wind.
The scent of humanity was close, and he turned on his heels until he could make out a somewhat clear path through the woods away from the creek. Staring into the distance, his sense of unease grew when he took in the pristine, unmarred blanket of snow covering the forest path. Nothing but pure white without a single divot to indicate anyone might have passed by recently. He sniffed again, seeking the familiar, and eventually picked up the fading scent of his nephew and the young satyr’s dragon and ursa mates.
Shaking off the sense of dread, he headed down the path following their aroma. The snow was almost a foot deep, with an icy shell on top that crunched beneath his fur-covered paws.
A bitter wind blew through, carrying tiny dry snowflakes that tickled his whiskers. His big paws crashed into the deep snow, kicking up tufts of it as he went.
After several minutes, he came over a rise and rounded a dense, green thicket of rhododendrons. A trail of smoke filtered up against the gray sky, and he picked up his pace as the cabin it belonged to came into view, a sprawling dwelling constructed of hewn logs with a porch that wrapped around its perimeter. Inviting dormers peered out from the second story like expectant eyes. The building exuded the promise of warmth and safety, something Neph hadn’t expected to ever crave, but the cold had managed to seep through even his wolf’s pelt and he ran quicker, desperate to get out of the damn cold.
He bounded up the steps onto the cabin’s porch, shifting into his human shape as he moved, and immediately set his fists to the door, banging to be let in.
“Calder! Are you in there? It’s Neph. We need to talk!”
A big shape filled the narrow, diamond-shaped panes of the door’s window, and a second later it flew open, revealing a huge, bearded man with a tangled mane of gold hair. He stared at Neph in confusion, but the warmth that blasted from inside felt too good for Neph to care that a stranger had opened the door. Neph groaned and attempted to push past the big man, but was met with a pair of giant paw-like hands at his shoulders, holding him back.
“Hang on there, friend. I don’t know you, but I sure as shit know this ain’t your house. Want to try an introduction first?”
“Who the fuck are you? Where’s my nephew? Let me the fuck in.” He pinned the other man with the power of his spinning stare and the blond frowned, his grip on Neph’s shoulders weakening. He seemed to waver on his feet as though losing balance, then blinked rapidly and shook his head.
“Don’t know what the hell you are, man, but that won’t work on me. I’m as steady as an oak in a heavy wind. Give me your name and I’ll let you in to tell me the rest of your story. I’m betting since you’re standing out there in nothing but skin, you’ve got a good one.”
Neph gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus on the man. His huge frame and thick beard suggested ursa. Pale blue eyes, blond hair, and the obvious bulk of his big thighs—not to mention his very presence outside the Sanctuary—likely meant he was a Windchaser. One look deeper into the man’s eyes told him everything else he needed to know.
“Arcadius Windchaser,” Neph said. “I’m not your enemy. My name’s Neph. I’m one of the Dionarchs of the Haven, and my goddamned sister’s locked me out.”
The ursa’s eyes widened, his brows shooting up. “A fucking Dionarch? Since when do you guys ever leave the Haven?”
Neph scowled. “Since today. Can I come in now?”
The ursa released him and stepped to the side, pulling the door open wide and gesturing into the house with his free hand.
“Should I bow or something? Not sure what the protocol is.”
“I don’t fucking care,” Neph said, rushing into the warmth of the cabin. He darted a quick glance around and grabbed a blanket that lay over the arm of a chair. Wrapping it around himself, he moved directly to the big fireplace and stood as close as possible, letting out a long groan as the warmth seeped into him.
“Your kin ain’t here,” the ursa said as he shut the door and approached Neph. He paused and leaned his big, flannel-clad shoulder against the heavy slab of wood that made up the mantel above the fireplace. “They ain’t been here in a few days, in fact.”
Neph’s skin prickled with unease at the news. He pressed his lips together and looked at Arcadius. “How long? Exactly when did they leave?”
Arcadius frowned and scratched his beard. His gaze lifted to the ceiling. “Let’s see, the Queen sent me out the same day Gaia’s Falls dried up. I was to deliver a message that Nyx … your sister, that is … was holding the Source for ransom. And her payment was the two male dragons visiting us.”
“Just the males?” Neph asked, knowing full well that Aurum’s sister Numa was still in the Sanctuary. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as he thought.
Arcadius shrugged. “As far as I know. I don’t ask questions … I just do what I’m told. I brought the message to their sister. Didn’t even know where she’d be—just that she was out here somewhere, and it was my mission to find her and tell her where her brothers wound up. I got lucky that she was here.”
Neph settled down ont
o the worn sofa, his shoulders sagging as the weariness from the last few days of stress finally hit him. “I dropped them out here because it was the safest exit I could access quickly. Nicholas’s bloodline directed my drift when I carried them out. So you didn’t take long to find them. How long since they left?” He was ready to throttle Arcadius for taking his time with the answer.
“Oh, well, that was just three days ago, and they’d been here at least three days before that. At least enough time for that dragon to bake a freezer’s worth of food. Brother, I don’t know what I’d do without all that food she made. I mean, I can hunt and cook, but nothing like the gourmet shit that dragon put away.”
Neph’s stomach dropped. Six days. He’d known he could lose time by drifting too frequently, but had no idea it would be that much time. It’d been centuries since he’d even left the Haven. Struggling to keep his voice even, he said, “And where are they now, Arcadius?”
“Well, you can call me Cade, seeing as how I’ve seen you naked. They left right after I arrived. Said they would take the Queen’s message to the other dragons so I didn’t have to. They asked me to stay put in case anyone else left the Sanctuary. I was damn surprised to have anyone knocking on my door, much less a goddamn Dionarch. Lost, at that.” He chuckled.
“Where did they go?” Neph asked, sitting forward and gripping his knees through the blanket.
“The turul Enclave. It’s only an hour or so from here. They said someone named Nikhil is there and that he’d help them find the other fella’s father and the lost Thiasoi. Said someone named Nereus is the best way to fix Nyx … that’d be your sister.”
“Yes, I know who my sister is. She’s the reason I’m fucking here to begin with. I have to find them. If they’re going after the Ultiori, there are things they need to know.”
Cade nodded slowly and eyed Neph from head to toe. “You’re gonna want a better outfit to go back out in this shit. I’m about to bake one of those pot pies Aurum left. Sit and eat, warm up and get your bearings. The storm’ll blow itself out by morning and you can travel in sunlight.”