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“Kham, I need you! I need your help! Please!”

A dark shadow appeared almost immediately, flitting through the clouds above. I didn’t know how far I was from the circle anymore. Didn’t know if they’d be able to make out my words—or how much they’d see of Kham. But it didn’t matter anymore.

I backed away from the small clearing, into the trees, to give Kham what little space was available to land as he descended in a dive, then pulled up just a few dragon lengths from the tree canopy, back-flapping, his long body curled under, tail lashing, and the wind from his great wings whipped through the leaves as he brought himself to an almost complete stop in the air before he let himself drop the final feet to the earth.

Whomph. Whomph. Whomph.

And then he was down—with a thud that shook the ground under my feet.

I rushed to him as he turned, finding me with his eyes. “Oh, thank God! Kham, I’ve been a fool. You were right. I should have listened. I never wanted to—”

His head turned on his long neck and he fixed me with a gaze that was as deeply loving as it was sad—and angry. And I realized… he couldn’t reach me past the barrier of that sick darkness I’d surrendered to.

He couldn’t talk to me. And it was my fault.

You Do Not Receive, Because You Do Not Ask

~ VOSKI ~

I staggered the last feet to Kham’s side, saturated in shame and self-loathing. Hating myself—and so, so embarrassed that I’d been so blind.

I didn’t try to save face. I was at my wits’ end—and terrified of losing. I needed him.

So I walked straight to his foreleg, leaned my forehead against it, wrapped my arms around his leg as far as I could reach, and I shivered.

“I’m sorry. I’ve gotten all of it wrong. And I don’t know how to fix this. I need your help. Grace needs your help. I don’t know how to find her in time and…”

A hot blast of dragon breath rushed against my back. Kham had turned his head and pressed me into the embrace with his snout.

I shuddered and shook… but didn’t speak. I wished I could speak. I wished I could let him into my head so he’d see that I meant it this time. That I’d seen what was wrong—and that it was me.

I wished I could hear his wisdom now, and do whatever he told me to do.

Because it hit me in that moment: I was more afraid of losing him, of losing the Creator’s light through him, than I was of my mother.

How had I not seen it before?

I loved him—and Grace—more than I feared her.

I’d slipped and told Mother that just weeks earlier. But I finally understood it myself.

I feared losing the real love in my life more than I feared losing life itself.

A shiver skated down my spine, and something deep inside shook loose—a thorn that had been embedded deep in my heart. But, even as I felt that little pain slide away, I shook my head.

“I’ll do anything, Kham. Everything. I don’t know how to break this. But I need to save Grace. Please… Take me to her. I’m asking. I’m begging. I’ll listen. And I’ll never lock you—or her—out again.”

With a deep, weary sigh, Kham groaned and dropped the harness I’d asked him to bring. It jingled and slapped to the earth just behind me. His head swung away from me and for a second I feared he didn’t have the answers, but he took two steps away, then stopped and turned back, looking at me. Waiting for me to harness him.

I’d never moved so fast in my life.

It seemed only a blink before I was mounting, silently, clipping into the strap, and praying that Kham could find the space to take off without running the trees down and alerting anyone who didn’t already know where we were, to our location.

But once we were in the air—only a few snapped branches victims to our launch—I lay on his withers, hugged his thick shoulders, and prayed that somehow, the Creator would let him see and know that I meant what I’d said. And that I wasn’t ever going to stop listening to him again.

He flew low, right above the trees, because it made it harder for anyone at a distance to see us. We were virtually silent in the air, except for the wind rushing past my ears. But I knew that wouldn’t be the case once Kham had to land.

Sure enough, within moments, I heard the rhythmic pounding of hoofbeats. From above, they sounded like hollow taps on the hard earth.