“You wish you could find good love again, like me and my drakes.” I understand her now, with the deepest intuition of my Bloodwalker magic. Aesa’s Truthstone no longer hums on my chest, but I know I’m right as my power directs the way to Lærke’s deepest truth.
Plain as day, written all over her face.
I know Lærke wouldn’t grovel to be in my Bloodbond; and my bond does not reach out to her, not like it did with my drakes, for her to be included in it.
But something else is happening between us, as I take up both Lærke’s hands and hold them in mine, staring her down. She doesn’t flinch, or remove them, and her eyes don’t shy away.
Only a terrible sadness envelopes her—which I can feel now, lancing deep inside her heart.
“It’s fine, Rikyava. Don’t worry about it. You can continue with your drakes, as you need to, to raise your energies and get ready for a Bloodwalking. I’ll remove myself.” Bitterness fills Lærke as a cold, solitary fire of purple darkness devours her eyes.
She moves to go, though I hold her hands, not letting her get away. Pausing, she lifts an eyebrow at me; though the look is severe, it’s also questioning, as I hold her now in this intimate space.
Something is happening between our magics; even I’m not sure what it is, as both my inner black drake and my bright drakaina roil through my veins. Wildfire scorches over my skin as I stare into Lærke’s bitter gaze; as she inhales, her eyes widen, and I see her vivid lavender eyes blaze.
Bright spring green with flecks of gold, they’re like nothing I’ve ever seen from her before. Mikkel inhales beside us as his dragon comes to high alert inside him. He moves in close beside us, touching his twin’s shoulder.
“Sister, what…?” Mikkel says as he watches that strange phenomenon sear through Lærke’s eyes.
But even as he speaks, I feel my inner dragons twist hard now into my united Bloodwalker magic. As auric wildfire bursts between Lærkeand me, flashing hard from my magic, I feel how my power resonates with Lærke’s.
Lærke gasps as that power sparks between us. With that ring of springtime flaring so bright in her eyes now, Lærke stares at me with her mouth open in astonishment, even though neither of us quite knows what is happening here.
But it’s as if my power recognizes hers somehow—and wants to do something about her deep inner sadness.
Something inside my Bloodwalker magic howls now, not to leave her out in the cold like she has been, distant and alone. Lærke’s not a mate, not someone destined to be in my Bloodbond. This power is something else, as I feel some kind of connection yearning between our two powers, roaring to be made.
I’m not thinking now, only feeling, as my magic burns like crazy now inside my skin. My united Bloodwalker power hurtles into Lærke in one masterful wave as I release one hand, putting a palm to her chest.
As my hand touches her heart, a burst of wildfire thunders between us; something rockets through me as Lærke and I are hauled close, with my drakes also pulled in tight now around us.
Memories flood into me from Lærke. I feel them sear through Mikkel’s Bloodbond to me. Lærke is masterful in her mind-magics; she would never let me see into her past voluntarily, but her horrible history comes crashing in now as she cries out and Mikkel grunts.
I gasp as my palm is hauled in tight to her chest by whatever my magic is doing to us. As memories pour into me of Lærke’s bad use by a tirade of vicious drakes in her teens, then a long string of coldly distant one-night stands after she started her and Mikkel’s clubs, I feel how she’s never let anyone get close to her. She’s let no one other than Mikkel see the real drakaina she is—beautiful, radiant, and intensely loving. No one except Ström, long ago.
And me now, as we stand in this space together, heart to heart.
As Lærke’s terrible past is cracked wide open by my magic, I feel howsomething deep inside her aches. My heart clenches so hard that I gasp, like a sob; I feel the vast ache that suffuses her, gripping in my chest like an iron band and constricting deep around my heart.
I understand it’s her broken heart I feel, as everything inside me floods into a deep, infinitely compassionate place. A place I’ve never been to in my Bloodwalker power before, it’s not a hot fire of lust that fills me now—but a deep, resonant love.
Compassion, togetherness, fealty, respect; all these things fill me now as I find Lærke’s broken heart and let it suffuse me, deep. As a massive heave of my power rushes all through me now, resonating like crazy with Lærke’s Bone Magic, I feel how deeply they understand each other.
Because I’ve had my share of heartbreak, too, of a different kind. The harmony our mutual understanding creates is unlike anything I’ve ever felt inside my magic before.
Lærke’s eyes spark hard with that luminous spring green color now, roaring.
“Sister. Your magic…!” Mikkel breathes as he waves a hand through the air. Because Lærke’s power is sparking in runnels of auric fire now just like ours, only a beautiful, scintillating opal-green as it lifts in the air around us. That power spreads in a tremendous wave through me via Mikkel, as Lærke and I stand strong in this insane synergy of understanding shared between us.
Lærke is a tidal wave of power with her Bone Magic. It’s incredible, as I feel that gargantuan magic open to me now, though not in a Bloodbond way. It’s a wave of sisterhood we’re sharing now, rather than of mates; of battle-drakainas in the trenches, of Matriarchs ready to take their place in the world. Of furious powers, resplendent, despite all our woes.
Soul sisters—found.
“We’re sisters, you and I. Soul sisters,” I say as I understand it. “Sisters in wrath and sisters in war… we’re sisters in peace and love, too. Family—realfamily. No matter what situation we were born into.”
As I finally get why Lærke and I have been resonating witheach other these past days, the truth sings all through my heart. Ever since she gave her all to protect us as we made the Soulstone, I’ve understood Lærke is with us to the end, despite not being bonded to us.
She’s a righteous bitch of a drakaina, a force to be reckoned with—just like me. We’re two peas in a pod, and we trust each other, now that she knows how much I love and care about Mikkel. She knows I am no threat to their empire, and I know she would do anything for our Bloodbond, even die for us.
