“So you are the man they spoke of,” the dragon said, the words almost reverent.“Thank you for helping our young.”
“That was all Celia,” Darian said, stepping aside so the dragon could see her.“I had nothing to do with it.”
The dragon inclined his head in a sign of respect, and Celia could hardly keep her jaw from dropping open.The dragon was offering respect to her.They should be the ones offering respect to him.
“I am indebted to you,” he said to Celia.“Because you helped the hatchlings, they brought us news of a hope that I had begun to fear would forever be lost.”
“What can I help you with?”Darian asked.“I don’t know what sort of hope I can provide.”
“I need you to come with me,” the dragon said.
Celia’s lungs stopped working, and she clutched Darian’s arm.“You can’t go with him,” she said.
Darian didn’t look at her.He was looking at the dragon with a steady gaze.
“I have to go with him,” he said after a moment, looking down at her.“They need me.”
“What do you mean they need you?”Celia demanded.
“Perhaps a human who can speak to dragons,” he reminded her.“And not just the ones that know the human language.”
The dragon made a noise that Celia could only describe as a chuckle.“You are correct, Emberlin.You have been given the gift of our language.I gave it to you as a child.”
Darian’s eyes widened.“You knew me as a child?”he asked.
“I did,” the dragon replied.“Your father was my friend, and when he was lost, we feared that you were lost too.But you have been found.”
Darian turned to Celia, determination in his face.“I need you to tell my uncles where I’ve gone,” he said quietly.“I will return when I can.”
“You can’t go,” Celia said, holding his arm tighter, hating how desperate she sounded.“Not without me.”
If Darian was going to see the dragons, she wanted to go too.And it wasn’t only because she didn’t want him to be without her.What if her babies were there?The idea of seeing Flame again filled her with hope that she hadn’t had since yesterday, and she tried not to grimace at the idea of not having that hope again.
“I need to go,” he said, taking her hands from his arm and holding them tightly.
“I’m coming with you,” she said fiercely.
“I’m sorry, but you cannot come with us,” the dragon’s voice rumbled.“I can only carry one, and you are not an Emberlin.”
Celia wanted to protest, but she couldn’t find the words.
Darian’s hands gripped hers so strong and secure.“I will come back for you,” he said, and she could hear the truth ringing out in his words.“When I am able to, I will come back.”
“But when?”she asked, her voice sounding whiny even to her own ears.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Climb onto my back.”The dragon crouched, his front leg forming a natural step.
Darian took her face in his hands.“I’m coming back for you, I promise.”He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering a moment as Celia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She could feel his promise in her chest, a bond sealed with a kiss.
Then he turned, climbed the dragon’s leg, and settled between the spikes where its neck met its shoulders.
The dragon flew up, each wing larger than a house.The air buffeted her as he flapped his wings, hovering over her for a moment.
Celia couldn’t contain the cry that ripped itself from her lungs, his name the only thing she could manage.
