Fire and Death.
Darkness and Light.
The end was once again nearing…
Tiny cracks appeared in the jewel-toned eggs as the full moon crested in the sky. Vane, who had been nursing the fire, eyes half-lidded, sat up. Next to her, Ana stood, clasping and unclasping her hands as the eggs broke. First came the pale dragon, then the night-dark one. Both looked to her and Vane and made tiny mewling sounds.
“They’re claiming you two,” Ana said, her breath clouding in the air. “Gods, both of them… Fates help us.”
Sora knelt, Vane next to her. It had been nearly six seasons since he had found her crying in a farm field. Her wedding neared, and Kronos had only grown crueler. She had recently had to physically restrain Vane from going to the king’s palace and getting himself killed. Bruises faded, but his life was precious to her.
The dragons spit sparks, and Sora felt the bond between all four of them settling as they crowed and hopped around the cavern. Vane’s mouth curved, and he said to the black-scaled dragon, “Heles.”
She met his eyes and nodded before brushing her fingers across the moon-pale hatchling. “Thessilnn.”
Heles: Beginning.
Thessilnn: End.
Fitting names for dragons born on the last night of the moon cycle, at the cusp of the changing of the seasons.
“Thessa,” Ana said, smiling, but she reared back as the dragon hissed, spitting more sparks.
“She doesn’t seem to enjoy nicknames,” Vane chuckled, stroking the dragon's snout as she calmed.
Ana sighed. “No. I need to go. Can you two handle them for a few hours? I’ll be back to take them to the temple at sunrise.”
“We’ll be fine,” she assured Ana.
Ana took one last, lingering look at the dragons and then hurried from the cavern, down one of the tunnels that connected back to the glen of trees that hid the entrance. Once she was gone, they watched the dragons for a while in silence until the hatchlings fell asleep, nestled in a pile of hay Ana had brought.
“Sora,” Vane said softly, nuzzling her neck.
“Mhm?”
“Marry me.”
Her breath halted. “We can’t.”
“You know I don’t give a fuck what he thinks.”
She touched his cheeks with both palms, trembling. “He would kill you.”
“I want this. I want you. Forever.”
She looked down at the golden band balanced between his fingers, and a short sob escaped her. He was all she wanted, but this was more dangerous than either of them could likely imagine.
But she was selfish. Perhaps they both were.
She kissed him as she cried, and he slid the ring onto her pointer finger, the direct line to her heart. Muttered between heavy breaths and soft, possessive nips to his lips, she vowed, “If he kills you, I will die too. Fate has bound us.”
Vane bit her lip, and she moaned softly.
“Don’t promise that,” he murmured.
“You know this is damning us both. You know, Vane. Don’t tell me you would want to exist in a world where I was gone.”
He pressed their foreheads together, his hand fisted in her braid and his breath coming quickly. “Never. I would rather die a thousand deaths.”
