“Quite.” Cora’s jaw was tight as she tried to smile. “When our queens rise to mate, we do so as well, so its important to be clear about what and who you want so the moment doesn’t take you by surprise.”
Chapter 19
Dain
“No, Dain!”
I shifted on this strange mattress, seeing Fern’s look of pain as she shrank back, but whatever I’d done to hurt her, I didn’t get a chance to investigate. My dream quickly transmuted, treating me to the sight, the feeling, of my girl clasped tight to my chest. Her eyes were heavily lidded, her lips parted.
“No, Dain. We mustn’t…”
Gentle as a sigh, her voice caressed my skin, but right as I bent my head, wanting to taste her words on her mouth, she disappeared, only to materialise again, her hand on the doorframe.
“No, Dain…”
A sharp shake of her head and she turned on her heel, marching off, but chasing after her only made things worse.
Something I should know by now.
Fae touched, that was the kindest way to describe me. Simply touched was what most of Coalbottom said as they looked at me askance. Some people looked me over with a gleam in their eye,asking me in hushed tones if I knew which horse would be first past the finish line at the races, or what cards someone had, but my ‘gift’ was not one that could be deployed at will. The more I tried to push it, force myself to see specific visions, the worse it got.
Just like it did right now.
Fern’s voice doubled, quadrupled, filling my head with the reverberating echo of her words and I could’ve lost myself in the rising swell. Her saying my name over and over, in pain, in ecstasy and everything in between. She was like a sea that threatened to drown me, while I was just grains of sand, fragmenting and being washed away by the tide of her.
Brother.
Argent’s voice was like a god’s, booming in my skull until it felt like my brain started to rattle around in it. He swept through the sky inside my head, tearing apart visions, dreams, everything, then my eyes flicked open to the sound of my gasp. My heart raced, just like it did anytime I saw Fern. I thought it would get better the minute I saw her in the flesh, instead… I looked down at my hands, turning them into fists when they shook and that had me rolling out of bed.
Cots spanned the dorm and the sounds of men snoring had me jerking on my armour, strapping my sword to my hip, my knives shoved into my boots and the small of my back. It felt like I was putting on more than protective gear. It wasn’t my kidneys or my gizzards I needed to protect, but my heart.
Brother?
My mind quested out, touching Argent’s in seconds.
In the courtyard, he instructed and sure enough, there he waited as I ran down the keep stairs. This early in the morning, the place was still half-dark and quiet with it, but my dragon gleamed like the moon in the shadows, his wings shifting restlessly. My boots clicked across the cobblestones, each one bringing me closer and closer until… The big lunk shoved his head into my chest, which was sweet when a bloody horse did it. Agreat big dragon had me stumbling back, forced to grip his skull lest I fall on my arse.
You daft bastard…As my hand ran over the almost velvety soft scales of his face, those hard silver eyes fell closed. My fingers found the spot above one eye ridge, his claws raking the stones as some instinct had them making the same movements, much like a dog might if you scratched it’s belly.You woke me up just to give you a scratch?
Those eyes flicked open and I was treated to the sight of an alien intelligence as he stared at me.
Your dreams haunt you, he said.Haunt us.Tied up in the threads of fate, you are.I shook my head, drawing back as the smile faded from my face. Good thing too, the muscles ached with the effort of it, the scars pulling.They bind you rather than show you the way forward.
So you decided to cut through them all?I asked.And where does that leave us, brother?
In the air, like always.
His jaws closed down on the leather at the back of my neck with no warning, tossing me through the air, and he started forward the moment my butt hit his spine. Forced to turn myself around and then grasp one of his spikes, I knew exactly what he was doing. Making me do rather than think, my heart beat faster for a whole other reason, a shout building in my throat. Only when Argent was running, his claws raking across the cobblestones, did my head go silent.
A guard let out a shout of surprise as my dragon’s wings flapped out, taking us up and over the battlements that surrounded the keep. I sketched a quick salute to whichever poor bastard was on the end of his shift as Argent’s wings raked through the air. Up, up, up into the sky we went, just in time to see the sun start to rise in earnest.
Thank you.Sometime later, my hand smoothed over my dragon’s neck, fingers tracing the staggered shapes of his scales as he hovered there, riding the rising updraft.You always know how to get me out of my head.
Had enough practise.I had to laugh at his taciturn reply. My body loosened and I sat back, wavering with the wind, right before he started to spiral back down.If thinking was what would win your mate, she’d be warming your bed and you wouldn’t be breathing in other males’ farts all night.Part of me wanted to claw at Argent’s spine, force him somehow to take me somewhere, anywhere other than here.And I’d be nestled down with our queen.
As if in reply to that, the dark silhouette of a dragon passed by in the distance, but was it a golden queen or was that just the harsh rays of the rising sun?
But we’re not.The keep roof grew larger and clearer with every spiralling swoop.So you need to go back into the keep and make clear to this Fern who she belongs to.
