Link (Keepers Of The Lake Book 5)

by Emilia Hartley

  Outside, she heard a rhythmic shink thump. It continued again and again, so she followed it. The sun had set, and the lake was dark like glass. Near the shore, Link had an axe. He picked up a log with one hand, set it on the stump, and brought the blade down with both hands. The log split and dropped to the ground, revealing the source of the rhythmic noise.

  She stood to the side, arms folded over her chest while the dragon inside her begged to go closer. It wanted to smell Link again, to feel the warmth that radiated from his body. Kiera wouldn’t get that chance again. Not now that he knew about her. She was broken. She was soiled.

  Link stopped mid swing. He dropped the axe.

  “Where did you even find that?” she asked.

  He gestured to the stump and nearby stack of logs. Yeah, that made sense. It seemed like a good shifter past time. It probably blew off steam and indulged the part of them that loved to watch destruction. She doubted there was ever a dragon that didn’t dream of dousing a village in flames at some point.

  “Go back inside,” she told him. “This is your chance to become one of them. If I’m a bother, I’ll stay out here. The lake looks nice at this time of night.”

  He cocked his head. “Why would I want you to stay outside?”

  He was closer now. When had he stepped toward her? She missed that altogether. Her heart was in her throat, pulse hammering.

  “You left because of me,” she acknowledged. It hurt, like stabbing herself with a dagger, but it was the truth. “If you don’t want to look at me, I can stay out of the way.”

  “Where is this coming from? I want to look at you all the time. I’m so obsessed with you that I can barely take my eyes off you.”

  His words surprised her. The hammer of her pulse in her throat turned to a scared flutter. That wasn’t what she was expecting. Still, Link had left the house. If that was true, he wouldn’t have taken off.

  He bent, picked up the split logs, and tossed them onto a nearby pile. Silence surrounded them as he grabbed another log and picked up the axe again.

  “I overheard your conversation.” The axe fell. It stuck in the stump below. He snarled and ripped it out. “I want to murder someone, but this whole clan already thinks I’m a murderer. If I lost control in there, a fight would have broken out and Asher has been such a nice guy that I didn’t want to trash his house. So, here I am.”

  He swung again.

  Disregarding her own life, she approached the angry dragon shifter wielding an axe. Her hand didn’t shake when she reached for him. He paused at her touch. A second later, he covered her hand with his own. A haggard breath escaped him. His eyes drifted shut.

  “I don’t know who Norman is, but if I ever come across him, I’ll kill him.”

  A laugh bubbled out of her. “Norman has a gold dragon visitor making his life hell right now. Jude sent her cousin, a clan leader, to go rough him up. Last I knew, Jasper hasn’t left Washington yet.”

  Link’s growl told her that wasn’t good enough. The promise of violence lurked in the sound, echoing the creature inside Link that she hadn’t seen yet.

  He took her hand and pulled her close. His other arm snaked around her back. She barely had time to tilt her head before his lips were on hers. The kiss was demanding, yet she had so much to give. His tongue pushed past her lips, and she welcomed it. He swept through her. She wanted more and more, tasting for the first time that night.

  He was like a strong whiskey, burning her throat and leaving her head spinning. She threaded her hands in his hair and held him in place. He staggered, like he was drunk. His grip on her tightened like he could pull her into him and become one.

  They could.

  Kiera wasn’t sure if she was ready for that, yet.

  Link broke the kiss. He nudged her collarbone with his nose. A shudder shook her spine. She gasped from the sensation. It was new and exhilarating.

  “You don’t think I’m broken?” she asked, fearful of his response.

  “I think you can be so much more than you allow yourself.”

  Her dragon slammed against her skin. It begged to break free, suddenly filled with vibrant energy. The creature wanted to wrap around Link and keep him close. It purred inside Kiera in a way she’d never known before. The vibration shook her core.

  Link’s hand slid to the back of her head. He cradled it so gently that no fear could ignite inside her. There was only her and the infinite softness of the man holding her. For the first time in a long while, she wanted to shift. Kiera didn’t let her beast out often. The creature didn’t ask to be released, either.

  Now, it was overjoyed at the prospect of frolicking. Kiera took a step back, bit her bottom lip, and drew her shirt over her head. She rolled her shoulders and stole a glance at Link. He watched her like she was the only creature in the whole world. His gaze was hot and inescapable. There was a flicker of confusion until she turned away from him and let her beast forward.

  Kiera felt bad about leaving the pizza party Asher had orchestrated for her. It was such a nice thing to do and yet she ran away to play in the dark. It was just another cruel thing she added to the list she would have to pay for later. In this moment, with Link trailing just behind her, and scales brushing the inside of her skin, she wanted nothing else that to feel the air beneath her wings.

  The creature she unleashed hit the ground on four white paws. She shook herself out from head to tail and flexed her claws. The soft earth crumbled beneath her feet. She snapped out her wings and stretched them wide. When she turned around, dropping to pounce on Link, she found him with his jaw dropped.

  9

  She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid eyes on. It was as if the moon had given birth to a glowing pearl. When she moved, an opalescent sheen danced over her scales to reveal shades of pink, purple, and blue. But she was so small.

  Kiera had the smallest beast he’d ever laid eyes on. He wondered what could have stunted her growth and then remembered what she’d lived with all her life. Kiera endured a lot in her life. All that mattered was that she had survived. She was here now, with him. Not a damn soul could take her from him.

  Link knew he was made to protect her. That was his only reason for existence. Everything his father might have wanted for Link had been lost the moment Link met Kiera. Alistair had wanted a strong and dominant child, one to inherit a legacy. Link threw that legacy out the window.

  This small dragon was the only person that mattered. Link followed suit and freed himself from his clothes. He put another hundred feet between him and Asher’s house, hiding behind a copse of trees because he knew that if the clan saw him shift, they might assume the worst.

  There wasn’t much he could do to hide his beast, either. The creature came screaming out of him after being trapped for so long. It rushed out and crushed everything within a ten-foot radius. Stamping everything before it, the creature only stopped when Kiera came into view.

  She had her belly low to the ground, tail barely moving. His heart wrenched. Then he did something his beast never would have allowed before. Link dropped and rolled onto his back. He wiggled back and forth. All the while, he watched her from upside-down.

  Kiera inched toward him little by little until her nose touched his. Link swallowed his ever-burning fire and waited patiently, unmoving. The beats’s attention was on Kiera. Nothing else in the world mattered. The entire clan could rush out and find him like this, but he didn’t care.

  All his beast wanted was Kiera’s approval. He knew he was large and terrifying. His scales were a smoky charcoal color with two red stripes running down either side. Along his back were stiff spikes that made him look like a stegosaurus’s demonic cousin. As it was, with him rolling on the ground, they were hidden and carving a trench in the earth each time he wiggled.

  Finally, Kiera’s big eyes blinked. He sucked in a breath.

  Then she bounded away. He fumbled back onto his feet and stared at the direction she’d gone, feeling like a dumb fool. Just w
hen he thought he’d terrified her with his presence, her head appeared over the tall grasses. She watched him. Behind her, her tail wagged in the air. She ducked and the grasses swayed.

  He realized that she was playing. Kiera wanted to play. His heart leapt with joy and he sped off after her. Link had to be careful not to make too much noise and alert the clan. He also needed to make sure he wasn’t going to bowl Kiera over. She easily disappeared into the brush and grass. The last thing he wanted to do was step on her and hurt her.

  As if to prove that she was quicker than he gave her credit for, she always reappeared twenty feet ahead. Kiera’s head would pop up above the grass, her tail would wag, and she would disappear again. It seemed like the most fun she’d ever had.

  He doubted this was something she’d been allowed to do back in her old clan. Just thinking about the group that held her captive, the man that hurt her, brought a searing heat up Link’s throat. He couldn’t unleash it here. This wasn’t the place. It wasn’t the time.

  There would never be a place or time if he chose to stay here. Link would always have to be on his best behavior around these dragons. They expected the worst from him. If he wasn’t a perfect opposite to his father, they would turn on him. He could feel it in the clan leader’s watchful gaze. Link thought he might be able to take the gold dragon, but not the whole clan.

  Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t realize that Kiera was racing toward him until she landed on his head. He grunted as her body slammed his cheek into the earth. She made a chittering sound and bounced off him. Behind them came a chorus of laughter.

  Both Link and Kiera paused. Behind them, the pizza party had found its way to the backyard. The clan members who stayed were watching them. There wasn’t an ounce of tension around them. They were all relaxed, leaning on one another while nearly empty pizza boxes scattered the ground.

  Link let out a breath and felt his heart lighten. On the other side of him, Kiera brushed up against his flank. She purred like a cat. Hell, she even played like a cat. So, he bent and carefully picked her up by the scruff of her neck like a mother cat to a kitten and brought her back to the clan.

  Behind him, the waves of the lake slapped the shore. The sound was growing ever louder. The rush of water filled his ears and made his lungs tighten. He paused, dropped Kiera, and glanced back expecting to see the lake monster from before. Yet, there was nothing on the lake’s horizon. The fear pinching his spine was all in his head.

  Tonight was a quiet night, the kind where no one fought and nothing fell from the sky. The kind where they could sit with one another in peace and enjoy the company of another creature that understood what it meant to have a beast. This was what Link had craved. He struggled with humanity and being surrounded by those who couldn’t know about the largest part of himself.

  He had to shave himself down to the bare minimum all the time. He kept his beast from his eyes so that co-workers wouldn’t fear him. He pulled back his free throw tosses so the basketball wouldn’t go through the backboard. He lived a half-life.

  Even though they still watched him like he was a shark in the water, Link felt seen. They knew what he was capable of. During the sparring fight with Asher, Link didn’t have to pull his punches. Asher hadn’t either. Link felt alive with each landed blow, with the sting of pain. He was living to his full extent for the first time.

  He would have to ask Buffy if it had been the same for her. He doubted her beast was as large or as strong as his, but the situations had to be similar.

  “He looks so much like Alistair,” a woman muttered.

  Link just barely caught her words and the shudder in them on the wind. He tried to make himself smaller, but it was uncomfortable. All he wanted was to live his full truth. These dragons saw not him, but his father. They would always see his father.

  Kiera pounced his leg. Sharp teeth slipped past scales and made him yelp. He leapt back from her, surprised at her audacity. She lowered her head to the ground, but her back end wiggled like she would pounce.

  There was a chorus of laughter again. The tiny dragon had bitten the larger one. He heard one gasp, like someone thought he would reciprocate with vengeance. With anyone else, he might have unleashed a hot flame, but it was Kiera. His beast couldn’t hurt her. It just wasn’t possible.

  He strained to hear what the clan was saying about him now, but all he could hear was the water. It crashed, cacophonous like it demanded to be heard over everything. The lake was coming alive. It was rising over the shore and falling in great waves.

  Link leapt and grabbed Kiera. A giant wave pummeled the ground where she’d been. Some of it grazed Link’s flank and brought a hiss from his muzzle. He snapped his wings open and took to the air where the lake could not reach them. He didn’t understand what was happening.

  The monster. Could it control the lake? Why was it attacking them?

  From above, Link watched the clan rush to the shore. Why weren’t they running away? He roared at them, wanting them to run for their lives. The pink-haired woman broke ahead and waved her arms over her head. Link couldn’t hear what she was screaming. Not over the ruckus of the water.

  Kiera squirmed out of his grasp. She leapt into the air like a baby bird learning to fly and dropped. He dove to catch her, but her wings opened, and the air carried her away like a cloud. He was so impressed with her display, with how the air lovingly cared for her, that he wasn’t aware of just how close he came to the lake.

  A tendril of water slapped his back. Pain lanced through him as if it were a knight’s blade. He sneered and turned back toward the water. The pink-haired shifter was still screaming. She was beseeching the water with words Link couldn’t hear.

  Did this clan live in fear of the lake monster every day? Were they trying to stop it from drowning their clan now that the gold dragon had rooted here? Link could help them with that. He checked to make sure Kiera was okay.

  She had retreated to the castle tower. Her wide eyes beckoned him back. They begged him to retreat to safety. She didn’t understand that this was his moment to prove himself. If he wanted to be accepted, he would have to show them that he could be of use. That he wasn’t his father’s clone.

  Link dove into the lake. Air and water were very different. Especially when the water was controlled by an unknown beast. It fought Link, trying to grapple him and drag him deeper. Link let the current pull him to where he needed to be.

  The water was dark and nearly opaque. Link’s plan was quickly dashed by the cloudy water. He could feel movement, currents slipping around him, but now that he knew the whole lake could move at this monster’s command, he couldn’t tell what was beast and what was magic. He beat his wings to clear the water, but it only stirred up more dirt.

  His eyes stung and he snarled. Bubbles slipped from his muzzle and breached the surface far above. This was the den of a creature Link had never heard of before. It was stronger and more violent than any other lake monster in the world. He worried, briefly, that the monster hiding here was his father.

  There was no way Link could take on Alistair. He recalled the story the clan had woven for him, involving an epic battle and a witch. The witch could have easily locked his father in here, but then Link remembered how the witch had betrayed them.

  The monster in the lake wasn’t his father. It was just another earthly beast bent on destruction. If Link could kill it and save the clan, then maybe they would trust him.

  You! A voice boomed around him. This is all your fault! You will pay the price for everything you’ve put me through.

  Link didn’t recognize the voice. He’d never hurt anyone in his life. Belatedly, it dawned on him that the source of the voice must have mistaken him for his father. By the time Link made the connection, a tendril of water had wrapped around his ankle. It yanked him deeper.

  Link tried to cry out, but only a bubble came from his lips. Lost air. He had less time now. With every ounce of determination he could muster, he tore his ankle from the
thing’s grasp. It wasn’t too difficult to break the water considering his size.

  Twisting and blinking, Link tried to get a sense of up and down while he searched for the source of the voice. Out of the peripherals of his vision, he caught movement. A shape darted like a fish, deeper into the water. Link lunged for it, using his wings to propel himself.

  The shape felt him coming. It darted upward and Link slammed through empty water. Before he could stop himself, the monster latched onto his back. Sharp claws raked over scales. Link bucked to throw him off. The creature’s claws dug in deep.

  Link was larger. He was stronger. He could defeat this monster.

  It would show everyone that he could be trusted. He only wanted a family. Not just any family, but one that could see his worth. He knew that if he could shake off his father’s legacy, then these dragons would be able to see him. They would understand.

  Link reached back and grabbed the creature on his back. He caught the thing by the neck and yanked, tearing its claws from his own back. It hurt, but it was worth it. Blood was staining the water. He would soon dye it red with this monster’s blood.

  A crimson haze was slipping over Link’s vision. He dragged the monster in front of him only to realize that it was a dragon. This dragon wasn’t like any other he’d seen. The water had shaped it. Gills fluttered at its neck. Webbed fingers clawed at the air and a fin ridged its tail. The creature snarled and tried to slash at Link’s eyes. All Link had to do was lean back and the creature was powerless.

  It seemed so small. This was what they were all afraid of? It was almost nothing. All Link had to do was tighten his grip and crush the gills in its throat. He began to do just that when the thing in his hands dissolved into nothing. Water filled his fingers and rushed through the gaps.

  He was stunned. Confused, he whipped around. The water rushed around him, but he couldn’t tell if it was the monster or his own movement that caused it. The creature was nowhere to be seen. Link didn’t understand how it could just disappear like that.