I couldn’t say anymore. It felt like a weight I’d been carrying since I was ten years old fell away then and I was impossibly light as a result. An arm was wrapped around her waist and I hoisted her up, spinning my mother around before setting her back down again.
“Lad.” My throat was almost closed up as I spoke to my dragon. “This is my mother.”
He leaned forward, sniffing with an air of suspicion before finally relaxing the grip his claws had on my shoulder. With a happy chirrup, he ruffled his wings and sat back.
“Well, aren’t you a marvellous beastie?” She dashed her tears out of her eyes and then gestured for the lot of us. “Come inside. The children have all had their supper, but I’m sure I can rustle something up for the lot of you.”
My fingers clasped hers, holding on like I was still a little boy as she led us into the house.
Chapter 7
Dain
This was the moment when I lost my family.
Everyone else was in bed. Kael was utterly focussed on Elsie and his dragon, so he didn’t notice when I slipped outside after everyone had gone to bed. I’d intended to leave Argent where he was curled up on my pillow, but he lifted his head and gave me a sleepy chirrup in protest. Bundling him up inside my shirt, I felt like I couldn’t take a full breath until I was outside.
The estate was no grand building, but the lands were rich and fertile,with a massive lake not too far from the front garden. I’d been taught to judge the unseen riches of the land by those that bore me. That tutelage ended after my first fit. My feet took me further and further away from the house as Argent scrambled up onto my shoulder. His wings flapped out, as if imagining what it would be like to fly, right up until we reached the water’s edge. A large, flat stone was the perfect place to brood. I pulled out a packet of jerky Barry had given me, working it between my teeth before handing it to the dragon.
“He won’t need us now, lad.” Argent looked up mid chew, as if he could understand everything I said. “Only reason Kaeljoined forces with me and Lorien was because he thought his mother was dead.”
I glanced back at the house, seeing only a vague, dark shape. The moon was high, but its rays were too weak to illuminate it.
“We were his family, his brothers.” Argent bobbed his head at that, and I felt that rush of pleasure I’d experienced the moment his shell cracked. “But he has plenty of them now.”
Barry had funnelled out all the problematic people from the city, resetting them in other duchies, finding them other identities. Away from the bastard duke’s eye, they could live out their lives happily. The children? Elsie seemed to make up for the fact she’d lost her own son by mothering the lot of them until they were old enough to leave. Kael had more brothers than he’d ever need.
So what was the point of staying bonded to me?
“We’ll stay for a few days, lad,” I told my dragon. “Then we’ll slip away.” Argent stopped mid chew and cocked his head sideways. “Go wandering, just the two of us. I’ll hunt rabbits, stags when you’re older.” The dragon seemed to think that was a very good idea. “Then we’ll fly across the entirety of Nevermere, going from place to place, and you can burn anyone who seeks to cross us.”
“Including me?”
My head jerked around only to discover I wasn’t alone. Usually whatever the hell was wrong with me alerted me when another approached, but perhaps it wasn’t sensitive to them. Kael stood there with a smirk on his face and Slate on his shoulder. Lorien was rubbing at his eyes, Brightfang a lump in his shirt.
“And me.” Lorien came stumbling over to plop down on my stone. “As much as you might like to be free of me.” Pretty sure he thought that was a winning smile, but it was just annoying. “But we’re stuck together now.” Brightfang came clambering outof his shirt and bunted the idiot with his head. “We’ve created our very own dragon wing.”
“One that can protect this place.” Kael stared out into the darkness. “And everyone in it. My father tries to kill any one of our people? He’ll meet his death by dragonfire.”
My eyes went unfocussed right then, a vision coming unbidden. There was a truth to his words, but it wouldn’t be by us. The Duke would die and all of his ambitions with him, but where would that leave the duchy?
And Kael.
“You want us to protect your mother,” I said.
“I want to protect us,” he corrected, “and everyone else like us. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. The king has all his dragons to protect him and his people. I just want three to protect mine.” His eyes met mine in the darkness, and not for the first time I shivered, seeing his father’s face overlaying his. “What do you think, brother?”
When he thrust his fist forward, mine moved on automatic. All three of us touched knuckles in the way we had since the first time we met.
“Protect the estate,” I said, hearing a slight echo inside my head. “Keep those weaker than ourselves safe.” With a nod, I smiled. “Sounds like a good life.” I glanced down at my dragon. “What do you think, Argent?”
He coughed, making me lean over in concern, only to vomit up a silvery substance onto the rock.
“What the hell…?”
Lorien and Kael leaned over, only to watch the quicksilver burn through the rock with a sizzle.
“Is that what you can do?” Kael looked Slate over with a smile. “My father, anyone, will rue the day they tried to cross us.”
