by Celeste Raye
There was a cave, one hidden by a veil of magic known only to and possessed only by dragons. They entered it slowly, breaking to the barrier without a sound. Aura stood in the center of the cave, her slim body already glowing with a nimbus of light that came from within her fiery heart.
Her heart shone out gold and white, the fire within it was the fire of purity and good. Blake’s fingers went to his chest as he changed. He opened the scales that latched over his breastplate and flesh. The deep-blue glow of his heart beamed out into the cave, mingling with the white and gold light spilling from Aura’s chest.
Those without magic stood guard by the door, their weapons at the ready. Max changed, his claws sliding down the seal of bone and tissue that protected his heart, cracking it open. The pain was intense, as it always was. That pain sliced through him and threatened to make him forget what it was that he was doing. He quickly focused his mind back to the task at hand and then he allowed the dragon fire to pour from his heart, a sheer.
His heart was the deepest, the darkest, and the most intense of red fire. That light, enough to send a clear signal through an entire world gone dark, filled the cave and then shot upward to mingle with the columns of light coming from the others’ chests.
Aura began to shake all over. In the center of her clever and narrow head scale slid up and backward. That eyelid was translucent and opaque when the armor around it first revealed it, but then it went solid and fleshy as it opened to reveal a blazing white eye.
Aura spoke in a low, powerful voice. “They come. The ones on the side of the mountain have not yet breached our defenses but they have managed to find their way through the hidden hills of the elves. The elves have made no pact with them, but they are also not here to protect their lands. They have gone to the sea; it is the time of their Gathering. They have left their gates unguarded in their rush to rejuvenate themselves and to gather the magic that will protect their kingdom when they return.”
Aura’s eyes snapped it shut and then it opened again. It directed a long and level gaze right at Max’s face. She spoke again. “Be careful of which laws you break.”
Max said nothing. Aura’s scales slid back down, hiding her magical third eye. He did not have to be told to be careful of breaking laws or wonder which she was prophesiesing about either.
On that world, a dragon could not ask a human to stay. They could not ask them to remain in that world without breaking the law that said humans had to choose of their own free will to be there. Heather and Christy had not chosen to be there. They had been dragged there completely against their will, which was already an offense, even if that offense was not theirs. That he was the king and able to get away with it, and that Blake had been the actual causation of it was the only reason why the two had not been killed summarily by the dragons who had been angered by their arrival.
They left the cave with more confidence than they had had earlier. They headed down the mountain much more quickly as well. And once they had reached the midway point they changed, taking care to keep their flight below the mountains top peak so that they could not be seen by any who were on the other side.
The village lay almost directly ahead, and his thoughts went back to that wonderful time he had had with her there. Heather seemed to take great delight in his world, but there was a difference in taking a delight in a new and exotic location and wanting to live in it forever.
The truth of it all hit him. He wanted her to stay. He wanted it with all of his fiery dragon heart.
And he was unable to ask her to do so.
Chapter Seventeen
Heather shot out of sleep thanks to the handshaking her shoulder violently. She sat up, her hands clawing at the air as a sense of danger slammed home. “What is it? What’s happening?”
Christy, her hair hanging around her face, said, “I don’t know. There’s something going on though. I can feel it.”
Heather let her jaw go slack as confusion filled her. “You can feel what?”
Christy’s face was pale, and her fingers plucked at the covers on the bed. “I don’t know what I feel. I just feel like something is really, really wrong. Like we should get out of here right now.”
Heather’s brain, followed by sleep, tried to grasp at the words that Christy was shooting at her. “Everything is wrong here, Christy. We’re in a land inhabited by dragons. We’re not in our own world anymore. Of course you feel like something is wrong.”
Christy flapped a hand at her. “Don’t you go all lawyer on me right now. It’s not that. I mean, I get it. Rationally speaking, yes, of course I feel like everything is wrong here. Because it is. That is not what it is though. I have always said that if your gut tells you that you should go, you should go. I’m gone. You can either get up and get gone with me or you can stay here and get, I don’t know, whatever it is dragons due to people. Love you, mean it. Nope. I’m out.”
The whole situation suddenly struck Heather as horrifically funny even though it shouldn’t have. Her lips moved upward in a grin and then laughter began to pour from her mouth. “You need to calm down. I think we’re okay. I think you’re just having a moment or something.”
Christy said, “If you’re trying to say that it’s all just hit me all of a sudden, you’d be wrong. It already did that. Right around the time we got our asses dragged into that council room and a whole bunch of dragons staring at us was when I realize just how absolutely crazy this place is, and just how dangerous. I keep telling you: this isn’t that. There’s something really wrong.”
The words finally sunk in. Heather surveyed Christy’s face, which had grown more and more pale with every word that she had spoken. She flung the covers aside and put her feet on the floor. “Okay, if you really feel that way, then we are out of here.”
But where would they go? There were those Orc creatures lurking about and apparently, they weren’t very welcoming or very safe to be around either. Max and his fellow dragons had been downstairs in the courtyard practicing swordplay earlier. And the whole castle had a hushed and quiet air: an air of anticipation and silence that had chafed against her own nerves earlier that evening.
There was something wrong. Christy was definitely right about that. If she hadn’t been so tired and so deeply asleep when Christy had shaken her awake, she would never have laughed or tried to minimize the situation. That Christy was highly uncomfortable, ready to flee, and scared to death was written all over her best friend, and Heather felt remorse for the way she had blown off Christy’s words.
Christy was already on the move. She yanked her jeans off the chair where she had left them after she had changed into one of the dresses they had been given. She found the rest of her clothes from the other world and swapped out her shoes for the slippers that they had also been given. Heather dressed just as quickly, both of them shooting glances at each other over the bed as they moved as silently as possible.
They opened the door and sidled out into the hallway. Heather’s attention ratcheted up a few more notches as she surveyed the unlit hallway. The night before, that hallway had been blazing with light. The little globes that sat along the wall at spaced intervals now held not even a flicker of flame.
The darkness was as hushed and profound as the silence. They looked at each other, their eyes trying to seek out whatever might lie in the heavy shadows that mantled the thick stone walls.
Christy’s hand caught hers and Heather took it gladly. The warmth and pressure of Christy’s fingers helped bolster her courage as they began to make their way toward the long and wide arch of the staircase that led to the lower floors. Misgivings hit as soon as Christy put her feet upon the staircase though.
That staircase was very deep and very dark. If one of them fell, they would probably break their neck! She licked her lips, wondering if this was such a good idea after all. There was no other way down however, so she gulped in a deep breath, let her free hand find the ornately carved banister, and began going down as silently and cautiousl
y as possible.
Christy still held her other hand, but she had moved behind Heather now. Christy knew that Heather was likely clinging to that banister with as much force as she was. It was their only lifeline and the only fragile bit of safety that they could find at that moment. Every single thump of Christy’s heart and indrawn breath made adrenaline streak through her system, and her legs tremble with both fear and the exertion of climbing down that staircase in the darkness.
They finally reached the lowest floor. Christy hissed, “There’s the front door! Follow me!”
They made a mad dash across the slick floor; with every step Heather was certain that she was going to fall and break a leg or her neck. Her heart was racing so fast, and one thought was clear in her mind: she did not want to leave Max. She did not want to leave this world. She did not know what it was that had Christy so afraid, but whatever it was it was serious enough that Christy was willing to make a run for it.
Yes, Christy was willing to make a run for it.
But was she?
It seemed not, but what else could she do?
She had no idea if there was any reason to stay after all, and she was frightened by the fear carved into Christy’s face. It was not like Christy to get so spooked!
Still, every little corner of Heather’s heart bled a little bit as the door swung open to reveal nothing but the front courtyard and a slice of the night sky. They ran out into the courtyard, and Heather took a look around, memories of Max practicing his swordplay down there flashing into her mind and through her body.
That primal, primitive response she felt for him, it was unbelievable and so hard to ignore. The way his body had moved, the ripple of his muscles below his skin, that way he had of walking toward her that practically screamed I want you, all of that hit home and made her lips open in a silent and never uttered protest against going.
They stood there, their chests heaving up and down as they looked about wildly, trying to figure out what their next move would be. Heather’s head went back. Her heart began to race yet again, ticking up to a degree that she was certain was enough to cause an actual heart attack. There, silhouetted against the night sky, were wings. The wings of dragons!
Christy grabbed her arm and hissed, “Come on! Before they see us!”
Heather let Christy draw her into the shadows near the outer wall. She could barely breathe, and she found herself flattening against that wall in a bid to escape any notice from the dragons landing in the courtyard. But at the same time, an almost insane urge to call out his name, to cry out for him, surfaced.
Her heart felt like it was being torn in so many different directions, right along with her emotions. Christy was her best friend. Had always been her best friend. And she was terrified out of her mind and determined to escape something: something that Heather could not see. Heather knew that Christy was the worldlier of the two of them and that she had a habit of listening to her gut because, in all honesty, Christy’s gut was rarely wrong.
She had the choice of believing Christy and running or believing that feeling inside of herself that said Max was hers, that he belonged with her. But which choice was the right choice? Why was she so attracted to him? What was wrong with her that she couldn’t seem to move even as the front door swung open all by itself yet again and the dragons, changed into their human guises, entered as it slowly swung shut behind them.
Christy hissed out, “There has to be a door out of here. There has to be!”
They moved along the wall, their hands reaching and searching along the blank face of it. Panic set in as Heather’s fingers found only slippery stone and no sign of any exit or entry. She whispered, “I think they just fly in and out!”
Max’s amused voice came to her ears, making Heather’s entire body go stiff. He said, “No. The door’s on the other side of the castle. What are you doing exactly?”
Christy let out a little inarticulate cry. Heather turned to face him, her happiness at the sight of him quickly obliterated by the real distress written all over Christy’s face. She said, “Christy says there’s something wrong. I believe her. She wanted to leave. She’s my best friend, and where she goes, I go.”
The words felt hollow. They fell from her lips so woodenly that she was not sure how she’d even managed to get them out. Everything in her wanted to beg him to ask her to stay, to ask her to be there with him and to not leave.
Instead, he walked through the thick pools of shadows, his black hair gleaming and his handsome face lit by a small light that bobbed over his head. Proof of his magic, Heather realized. He took in both their faces with his eyes and then said, “I see. I’m afraid that if you leave now, you are going to be in grave danger. We don’t know for sure if the Orcs are planning to mount an attack against us, but it certainly looks that way. However, you are always welcome to leave. We hold no prisoners here.
“The ones from the village are entering through the back gate. If you wish to leave, you must go there. I will escort you.”
No. That was not what she wanted at all! She wanted to be there and be with him. She wanted him to put his hands on her body and kiss her as passionately as he had kissed her earlier that day when she had nearly fallen to her death. She wanted to feel his hard and strong body against hers, to feel the life and the power and the muscles under his skin. She wanted to feel the heat burning from within his dragon heart.
Christy grabbed at her. A sidelong look showed her that Christy was pale and trembling. Her mouth had compressed down into two hard and flat lines and she was shaking like a leaf in a high wind. Her voice was just as high and frightened as she said, “Is that what it is? Am I scared because I know the Orcs are coming or something?”
Max surveyed Christy and then Heather. His face gave away nothing. “I sense no power in you. Whatever you are running from, it is something within yourself.”
Heather immediately understood exactly how that felt. She had gone along with that wild rush from the castle because she too was running from something. She was running from the strong, immutable, and undeniable feelings that tugged at her every single time she was in his presence.
What was he doing to her that she could think of nothing else besides him? What was it about him that called to her like a drug she had somehow become addicted to?
Her hands came up as if to ward him off. “She’s afraid. She wants to go home.”
Max said, “I’m afraid that the portal will not open no matter how much you want it to. The portal operates on its own time. I understand. I truly do. But I can do nothing about the portal. It is immune to our magic and to the magic of your people, those who have magic. It will open again and when you choose to leave, you may.”
Heather stared at him. That yearning, that deep and unrelenting longing to have him say that he wanted her to stay came back, crashing into her like a stiff wave from the highest seas.
She swallowed and looked at Christy. Christy looked at the ground at her feet and then shuffled her shoes in the dirt there. She muttered, “This sucks. I want out now.”
Max said, “I see. I think there’s little doubt of that.”
As he spoke, his dark eyes moved to her face and Heather found herself staring at him, her lips tightly closed and everything in her battling against the urge to tell him that she wanted to stay. His words had flattened her hopes and spirits. Surely if he wanted her to stay, he would’ve said something. He had not even seemed upset that she would leave. In fact, he didn’t seem to care at all!
He said, “In the meantime, however, I could use some help on the other side of the gate. We have people here, those from the village, and they’re coming in for protection. I have had to use a great deal of magic to keep the illusion up and in place that they are still there, and still in the village. The Orcs will not know they are gone until they attempt to actually attack there, if they even do. It’s better to be safe than sorry though.”
Heather’s fingers twisted together. Sharp pain began in the
skin right next to her fingernail bed. Her nails were pressing into that flesh, pressing down hard, as she sought to counterbalance the raging agony within her heart.
She managed to speak. “I would imagine it is always better to be safe than sorry.”
Oh, how those words echoed in her heart! Now was the time to set aside the physical attraction that she felt for him and the even stronger tug she felt for him in her heart.
It was better to be safe than sorry. It was definitely better. The only way she could be safe was to close her heart off to him, and her body too. She had to battle back that complex and complicated spinning wheel of emotion, lust, and tenderness that she felt for him. She had to stop viewing him as someone capable of saving her. He had saved her life, yes, but had it not been for him, she never would have been in that danger in the first place!
He had brought her there, after all: both of them in fact. Christy was afraid and wanted to go home, and Heather was also afraid, and she too wanted to go home. She had no idea what it was that her best friend was afraid of, but she knew exactly what it was that she was afraid of.
She was afraid that Max was going to steal her heart and then keep it long after she had gone back through that portal and into her own world.
Chapter Eighteen
Max was exhausted and stumbling. The large use of his magic and the need for it to continue to be drained from him was not all that was wearing him down though. Heather had made it very clear that she did not want him. That she wanted to go home. That she was not happy there and that she would follow her best friend long before she would stay at his side.
Not that he could blame her. In her time, they may have known each other for what would have been weeks. In his time, it was a matter of days. How could he expect her to give up everything that she had in her world, things that she clearly missed and wanted back, in order to stay with him when she had no idea of what kind of dragon or man he really was?