I begin to do a calming breath I learned in my youth, so I don’t just freak the fuck out. Because even as panic assails me, I understand what this is; a test, to see if whatever Bloodwalker who arrived here has the guts and know-how to get herself and her drakes the fuck out to where we need to be.
This is a battle, set up by the ancients to discover what I’m made of. Deeply, I do my calming breaths now, murmuring an ancient mantra of our people to center myself.
Because I need to have my wits about me in this space, and not just lose my shit. As something deep inside me understands I won’t be able to leave this place or ever see my drakes again if I can’t figure this test out, I feel Aesa’s Truthstone flare upon my skin.
As Igaze down, I see that it’s come with me into this space, along with my battle-leathers and Aesa’s silver ring upon my finger. The ring flares with an ancient light, just like Aesa’s stone now.
As it confirms I’ll be lost here forever—unless I can figure this shit out.
“Is anyone here?” I ask now, though I feel no presences around me in this place. It’s confirmed, as nothing answers me—not to my ears or inside my head. Unlike the Void, this place has no community to it. It’s meant to be solitary. The worst solitary confinement of the ages.
Until I go mad, lost in this ancient mist.
“It’s just me here, but it can’t be,” I tell myself, as I try to think this through. “Somewhere, Bjorn and the rest are all going through what I’m experiencing. A test… to see how well we can function as a group.”
As it hits me, those words of deepest instinct spilling from my lips, I know I’m onto something. As Aesa’s Truthstone and her silver ring flare upon me, I’m triply sure of it.
As I dig in hard now—ready to figure this out.
“I need to locate my drakes,” I tell myself now as I formulate a plan. “Somewhere, they’re searching for me. Though we don’t have our Bloodbonds right now, I didn’t feel them break. Somehow, they’re still with me—still with us, together. That’s the key… isn’t it? That’s the key to me finding them again. And getting through this mist where we need to go, so we can put down the Black Dragon. Once and for all.”
I know I’m right, as some deep instinct inside me confirms it. Even if Aesa’s stone and ring didn’t flare upon me, I’d still know I was right, as I center myself now, to find my drakes.
Or go insane from this endless solitude.
Which surrounds me in the mist, forever.
25
EVIL
Iclose my eyes, ignoring the mist inside the silver mirror’s portal, even though it is omnipresent. Instead, I feel deep inside myself for the connections that are usually there with my drakes. As I suspected, their imprints are gone, nowhere to be found inside me. Only my inner drake and drakaina roil through my bones and veins now, trying to not Wraith Berserk as they search in vain for their mates.
I know that if my inner dragons are still intact, however, then so are my drakes. I spiral deep inside now, as I focus.
And think about what makes up each of my precious Bloodmates.
I don’t just think about it; Ifeelit, rushing all through me as I bring each of them up in my mind. The first one who comes to me is Baldur; as I think about him, I feel his bright sunlight and his deep inner calm.
His vivid dark blue eyes come to me, and that brilliant diamond-white ring around them when he shines with his power. I feel the gargantuan majesty of his drake, ancient as the cosmos, as I smell his paint-and-sunlight fragrance lingering around me in his beautiful artist’s space.
I feel his loving, valiant heart—despite his blackest addiction to magic. As an all-encompassing love for him fills me, then, for everything he is, a rush of auricwildfire seethes off me. It scorches through the mists, burning them away as it races off to find him.
I feel Baldur then,reallyfeel him, as that fire races through the emptiness. As my bright auric fire clears something between us, blazing a path right to my Fourth Bloodmate, I finally feel him searching for me, as well.
Our Bloodbond connection sears back, hale and whole, burning like the endless cosmic skies as we finally find each other again. I feel my auric fire race right to Baldur, and his to me; as I open my eyes, the mist to my right suddenly clears, our auric wildfire devouring it as the blue-white nothingness is singed away on both sides.
Baldur stands right beside me—just where he was the instant we left. Heaving a gasp of relief, I throw myself into his arms, as he does the same to me. We kiss, wild with passion and relief, as we find each other again through the mist.
Our Bloodbond there again, like it never left.
“Baldur!” I gasp as our kiss breaks. As I clutch him close, I hold him for a long moment, flooded with relief as my heart sings.
“The others must be nearby,” he says quickly now as he kisses my lips and pulls back. “We need to find them just the same as we found each other. Focus.”
“Mikkel next.” I nod, because other than Baldur, Mikkel packs the extreme firepower we need right now, in case there are any surprises hiding for us in this ancient mist.
“Right.” Baldur nods, understanding.
