Taevas’s eyebrows rose, inching toward his great, swooping horns. “That’s a simplification, but more or less.”
“I want to do this for mine.”
“You want to…” Those arched brows snapped down. A confused frown marred her cousin’s expressive mouth. “You want to uniteyours?As in elementals?”
Hele nodded. Her stomach fluttered with nerves. She had never said the words aloud before, had only the vague desire twisted up with her other dreams, but when they were out, she felt the rightness of them in her bones. “Yes. Mine don’t have clans. They don’t have anyone unless they are lucky like me. Calamity had no one, and because of this he was captured and tortured and then lived without a nest for many years. I hate this.”
She could feel Taevas’s steady stare on her profile, but she dared not look at him when she voiced such a fragile new dream.
As if he understood that, Taevas’s tone gentled when he replied, “It is my understanding that elementals are solitary, sweet girl. Uniting them might not be possible.”
Hele swung her eyes up to fix her cousin with a determined look. “Maybe this is true. We are not dragons. Maybe mine will not want to live together or have nests. But they should have the choice — and they should know that someone will care if they go missing. Someone willlook.”
There was a taut moment of silence before a huge purple hand cupped the side of her head. Hele leaned into his warm palm. His touch did not feel like Vael’s, but it was comforting all the same.
Taevas stroked the swell of her cheek with his thumb and said fiercely, “I am so fucking proud of you, Hele. You bring so much honor to our clan. I hope you know that.”
Her breath hitched. She could not imagine belonging to a different family, a different people. Her differences often made her stand out, but her family had always,alwaysaccepted her as she was.
In a rough voice, she asked, “Will you help me? I do not know how to do this.”
“I will give you any resources you need, but I think you should speak to your mate about where to start. I have a feeling that together you’ll have it all figured out in no time.” His smile was a rare,trueone this time; the kind that made his eyes crinkle and showed off his pearly fangs. “And maybe while you’re out in the world collecting elementals, you can take some classes remotely.”
Hele considered this, her excitement building. “Iwillhave time while my mate sleeps.”
“Precisely.” Taevas leaned over to lay a smacking kiss on the crown of her head. “Now off with you, sweet girl. Go find your mate. My guess is he’s probably discovered your absence and is worried sick.”
She shrugged. “He’s used to looking for me.”
* * *
“I swear, my mate, if you keep disappearing, I am going to put a tracker on you.”
No sooner had Hele materialized on their perch than Vael had his arms, wings, and tail wrapped around her. She withheld a laugh as he lifted her off of her feet and carried her blindly inside their dwelling, a low growl rattling in his chest with every step.
Hele curled her arms around his neck. “Only if I get to put one on you as well.”
Vael ducked his head to nip the shell of her ear. Spark flew between them, lighting up the soft darkness cast by his wings. “If it wouldn’t be a territory security risk, I’d insist on it.”
“Well,” she tartly replied, ire returning in a flash, “seeing assomeoneis stepping back from the Wing, that shouldn’t matter, should it?”
Her mate leaned back to look at her. His hard features, so harsh and angular, were pulled tight with worry. “Hele, I—”
“I am angry with you for not speaking to me before you decided this.” Hele’s brows furrowed as she thought through her conflicted feelings on what Vael had done and all that Taevas explained to her. Slowly, she continued, “I am hurt that you did this and did not tell me, but… I understand. We are the same sometimes. I’ve thought about it and decided that I would have done it this way, too. I do not like it, but that is the truth.”
Vael’s head dropped. He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry this hurt you. I didn’t want you to be anxious about it, but this… this was something I felt like I had to do — for both of us.”
“Taevas explained.” She stroked the back of his neck with her fingertips. The tense muscles there trembled under her touch. “He says that this is good for you, too, and that you will still have your position when you want it.”
“Yes.” He swallowed. “I didn’t see it before, but he’s right. I don’t know who I am outside of the Wing, Hele. I think it will be good to find out.Withyou.”
“I think this, too.” She paused, weighing her words carefully, before she slowly informed him, “When I spoke with Taevas, I decided on what I want to do.”
His arms tightened around her middle. “What is that?”
The words tumbled out of her, clumsy and fragile as pieces of eggshell. She explained how she did want to go to school, but how her dream of uniting her people came first. She told him how it hurt her to think of all of the elementals who did not have clans to love and accept them, and how it bit at her, the idea that so many might be hurt, or missing, all because no one thought to care for them.
Her throat tightened when she admitted that she imagined what it must have been like forhim,trapped under the rubble. Was it not similar to so many of her kind? They could be trapped or hurt, except they had no rogue Wing, no Taevas to come save them. They hadno one.
