“You don’t need to exhaust yourself,” Elowen begged. “The boys and I managed while you were resting. We are okay.”
“How long?”
She ran her fingers down his long hair. “Just a few days.”
“Too long?—”
“No. You needed it, my love. You’re still weak. You have to stop shifting so much.”
Midas sighed against the steady beat of her heart in her chest. “The mountain feels wrong,” he said, causing Elowen to stiffen. “It’s too still.”
Her hand cupped his cheek. “You’re just tired, it’s nothing.”
But she didn’t believe it, and knew that he was too weakto argue. She held him for a moment before the twins joined, elated that their father was finally awake. They were intelligent boys, and understood he was still weak, so they carefully curled against him as if to use the fire in their chests to reignite his.
Then came the smell of smoke that came from none of them, nor did it come from the hearth or a cooking fire.
This smoke was wrong—acrid, wild, hungry. Midas lifted his head sharply, nostrils flaring. His body ached. His limbs shook.
“Someone has found us.”
Elowen stood pale and frozen. She had predicted this very thing, and her fears had become realized so soon after she was relieved to see Midas awake.
The boys looked up, their faces wide with dread.
Midas tried to stand and shift back to his beast form. He collapsed.
“I can’t—” he snarled. “I can’t shift again.”
Elowen rushed to him, cradling his face. “Then don’t. We will run. We will hide.”
“No,” he said. “You hide. I protect.”
Metal against stone dragged against their ears: a taunt from the humans before shouts followed. Torches, steel, and armored boots closed in on their hidden home.
Midas stood at the mouth of the cave, panting, one arm braced against the wall, his chest rising and falling in shallow gasps.
He could not shift. He could feel the dragon inside him screaming—begging to rise—but there was nothing left to give. He had no heat nor strength.
Behind him, Elowen gripped the boys tightly, her voicelow and shaking. She pushed them in the opposite direction. “Go. Deep into the cave. Now.”
“But—” Kalen began.
“Now!”
They flinched. Elowen had never raised her voice like that. Her eyes were wide with panic. Her hand trembled as she touched their shoulders, and for only the second time in their young lives, they saw what they hoped to never see again: fear in their parents’ eyes.
“Listen to me,” she said, kneeling before them. “When I find you in a moment, you stay with me. You do not leave my side. No matter what you hear.”
Kalen’s lip wobbled. “But Papa?—”
“Your father will protect us. But our job is to stay alive, to run and hide. Do you understand?”
They nodded, tears already forming.
Elowen pushed them along and then turned to Midas, who was watching her. She stepped forward and cupped his face, kissed him hard and fast.
“I love you,” she whispered. “You don’t stop fighting. You hear me? We will be okay. I promise.”
