Those without magic stood guard by the door, their weapons at the ready. Max changed, his claws sliding down the seal of bone and tissue that protected his heart, cracking it open. The pain was intense, as it always was. That pain sliced through him and threatened to make him forget what it was that he was doing. He quickly focused his mind back to the task at hand and then he allowed the dragon fire to pour from his heart, a sheer.
His heart was the deepest, the darkest, and the most intense of red fire. That light, enough to send a clear signal through an entire world gone dark, filled the cave and then shot upward to mingle with the columns of light coming from the others’ chests.
Aura began to shake all over. In the center of her clever and narrow head scale slid up and backward. That eyelid was translucent and opaque when the armor around it first revealed it, but then it went solid and fleshy as it opened to reveal a blazing white eye.
Aura spoke in a low, powerful voice. “They come. The ones on the side of the mountain have not yet breached our defenses but they have managed to find their way through the hidden hills of the elves. The elves have made no pact with them, but they are also not here to protect their lands. They have gone to the sea; it is the time of their Gathering. They have left their gates unguarded in their rush to rejuvenate themselves and to gather the magic that will protect their kingdom when they return.”
Aura’s eyes snapped it shut and then it opened again. It directed a long and level gaze right at Max’s face. She spoke again. “Be careful of which laws you break.”
Max said nothing. Aura’s scales slid back down, hiding her magical third eye. He did not have to be told to be careful of breaking laws or wonder which she was prophesiesing about either.
On that world, a dragon could not ask a human to stay. They could not ask them to remain in that world without breaking the law that said humans had to choose of their own free will to be there. Heather and Christy had not chosen to be there. They had been dragged there completely against their will, which was already an offense, even if that offense was not theirs. That he was the king and able to get away with it, and that Blake had been the actual causation of it was the only reason why the two had not been killed summarily by the dragons who had been angered by their arrival.
They left the cave with more confidence than they had had earlier. They headed down the mountain much more quickly as well. And once they had reached the midway point they changed, taking care to keep their flight below the mountains top peak so that they could not be seen by any who were on the other side.
The village lay almost directly ahead, and his thoughts went back to that wonderful time he had had with her there. Heather seemed to take great delight in his world, but there was a difference in taking a delight in a new and exotic location and wanting to live in it forever.
The truth of it all hit him. He wanted her to stay. He wanted it with all of his fiery dragon heart.
And he was unable to ask her to do so.
