“Get dressed.” He strolls toward the door. “We’re leaving as soon as we dock.”
When I’m bundled in the best quality winter gear money can buy, I meet my father on the deck of the vessel. Icy wind tries to cut at my face, but doesn’t bother me much. The extra layers mean I don’t have to call on too much of my internal fires to stay warm.
Still, I miss the balmy heat of Georgia.
Navigating through icebergs, we come upon a settlement that looks more like a space station. There’s nothing meant to be aesthetically pleasing. These structures were built for survival.
I expect my father to lead me into one of the buildings, sit me down in a chair, and have some other pompous assholes lecture me on what a glorious thing it is to be a dragon with a well-known family name. Instead, with a firm hand on my shoulder, he directs me to a vehicle.
“Where’s Mom?” I ask, looking around for her slender form.
“She’ll be here in a few days.”
Fuck.So, this isn’t going to be just a day or two visit.
A man with a bushy beard and rosy cheeks gets behind the wheel, and my father sits in the passenger seat, leaving me on my own in the back. As the man drives us through the intimidating landscape, I silently wish Esme were here. Not only because I miss her and want to be wherever she is. But also because the curious harpy would find this place fascinating. She would make this trip fun rather than my personal hell.
After an hour of driving, a note of foreboding sounds in my head. “How much farther?”
“Ten minutes to the boundary,” our driver responds.
The boundary of the town? At least, I hope there’s something like a town, where our kind live in human form near the colony. But what structures or businesses could last in this harsh climate?
When the vehicle stops, I don’t see anything but a long stretch of snow outside the window.
“On foot from here.” The bearded man pushes open his door, and my father follows suit.
Could I steal this truck? Drive back and sail away?
But there’s no road, and I doubt the boat captain would leave without my father. So, I climb out and trudge behind the two men. Not long until the bearded guy reaches up a hand in aclear signal to stop. Despite the below-freezing temperature, he removes a glove, does something with his hand, and presses his palm against what I thought was empty air.
A red light erupts from his hand, patterns spiraling out until we stand in front of a glowing arch of light-infused symbols.
“Through. Now.”
Too confused at the display to protest, I allow my dad to shove me forward, under the arch. The air is just as cold on the other side yet calmer.
And that’s when I hear the roars.
“Welcome to the colony,” the bearded man grunts, his expression stony.
The archway collapses behind us, and in that moment, I know I’ve made a mistake.
“Fuck!”
I try to charge back the way we came, but I crash into a force that flings me spinning backward through the air. I hit the ground hard, wheezing with the impact. Lying facedown in the snow, air knocked out of me, I can’t fight when my father takes the opportunity to grasp my arms and twist them behind my back. Painfully cold metal surrounds my wrists.
“Wha—” I gasp, still choking on my breath.
“Magicked cuffs. You want out of them? Then shift. They can’t contain a dragon.” His harsh words make no sense.
Shift? Get stuck in a form I can’t leave for forty years? No way in hell.
The true purpose of this pilgrimage slams into me harder than the magic of that barrier.
He means for me to live here. To give over to the dragon and separate myself from the human world for decades.
Fifty-eight. If I shift today, Esme will be fifty-eight next time I see her. A life lived without me.
