Page 18

Damian

M y claws dug deep into the soft earth of the plateau as I set us down.

“A hole?” Aurora asked, sounding as surprised as I felt. “Is that a normal thing to happen?”

“No,” I said, waiting while she quickly clambered down my wing to plant her feet on the ground.

There was no need for me to help her this time. She steadied herself for a brief moment and then walked through the knee-high grasses toward the tear in the air.

Shifting back, I followed. “Don’t get too close,” I warned, but she was already stopping.

The hole, if that was what it really was, had to be fifty feet across and the same high. A giant oblong circle hovering just off the end of the plateau. The edges were frayed in a golden energy that wove its own tapestry in never-ending motion.

“It doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger,” I said after watching the edges for several minutes.

“No, it’s just sort of hanging there. Doing nothing but looking ominous. It doesn’t even look like a hole. Like, I can see the ocean on the other side. It’s like a circle of energy. If I didn’t know there was a shield, I’d think that’s what it was.”

“Good point.” I paced out the length of it, noting that the circle dropped slightly below the base of the plateau. Was that important? I had no idea. This was all brand new to me.

“Do you think this has anything to do with the missing guard?”

I looked over my shoulder at Aurora’s musing, noting the skeptical frown on her face and letting my own match her expression. “I don’t believe in coincidences like that.”

“Then where did he go? Out there?” she asked, pointing. “Why?”

“Maybe a storm blew a ship close by,” I suggested. “It’s not that big or high up in terms of the size of the ocean, but the color is certainly very noticeable from a distance. Could be it attracted someone.”

“Maybe.” Aurora didn’t sound like she agreed.

Stepping closer, I tried to peer down in case the guard was somehow pinned to the base of the plateau by the endless waves that crashed against it, creating a never-ending roar of background noise.

“Anything?”

I shook my head, looking up into the sky through the hole just to see if our missing guard had taken to the air. I brought my hand up to shield my eyes from the sunlight. “No, I don’t—”

At that moment, light flared from the edges of the hole. Tendrils of golden energy reached out to flay against me like the ends of a whip. They touched my skin, and I exploded with pain while being tossed backward like a ball of paper in a gust of wind.

My feet caught on something, and I spun wildly, feet over head.

Then everything went black.

***

It was the tapping of fingers against my cheek that dragged me out of the darkness.

“Damian? Damian! Wake up! Wake. Up! Please!”

I blinked, slowly bringing Aurora’s panicked face into focus.

“Shhh,” I said, her voice too loud. “I’m right here. Calm down. There’s no need to get all worked up.”

My voice sounded like I’d run it across a sanding belt a few thousand times. Dry and croaky, it hurt to talk.

“Worked up? Worked up? You’ve been unconscious for five minutes!” She sat down hard next to my head.

It was only then my befuddled brain noticed the tear tracks down her face. Had she been crying over me? No, that was preposterous. More likely she’d believed she was stranded on the edges of the isles with no way back. Yes, that made much more sense.

“I’m awake now,” I rasped, trying to turn over.

Moving felt inalienably wrong . Nausea swept over me, threatening to disgorge the contents of my stomach all over the ground.

Maybe I’m not ready to move just yet. Yeah, let’s just rest for a little bit.

“Hey,” I whispered, seeing Aurora’s shoulders shake. “It’ll be okay. You won’t be stranded.”

Her head came up, a muddy confusion discoloring her eyes. “Stranded? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.” The sky was still spinning. “I don’t know.”

She edged closer, once more leaning over me. Her hair fell on either side of her face, blocking much of the spinning, twirling clouds in the sky from my view. Leaving nothing but Aurora and her beautiful eyes and pretty little face.

I reached up and touched her chin just below the little cleft at its base. “You really are beautiful, you know.”

A stillness crept over her, like a barrier between what I could see and the real her. “Um, thanks … Are you sure you’re okay?”

Despite the pullback, her eyes never left mine. I stared into the green abyss within, getting lost in it as I fought my dragon back, forcing it to stay down, to …

No, that was wrong. I should’ve been fighting my dragon, but it was strangely quiet, unwilling to speak up. Did it know that now was the wrong time? Was that why? There was a hole in the shield. Now wasn’t the time to be lying on my back, daydreaming about a human woman.

I needed to figure out what it meant and find the stolen scepters so I could stop it before the entire shield fell.

“I’ll be okay,” I said, grunting and groaning as I got first to my knees.

The ground heaved and trembled, throwing me off balance. When Aurora got to her feet and stood as if nothing were wrong, I knew it wasn’t actually moving. It was just my mind. The blast from the energy surrounding the hole had really messed with my internal circuits.

“Whoa, easy!” she cried as I stood up, only to stumble drunkenly.

Getting under one shoulder, Aurora held me tight, letting me use her for balance. I stiffened, abruptly aware of the feminine form practically molded to my side. Her entire body pressed into me. It was impossible not to feel her breasts against my ribs and chest as I hung off her like a sailor stumbling on his sea legs.

I braced myself for an onslaught from my dragon, but again, it never came, never presented itself, though I knew it should be going insane. We’d never been this close before, this … touching.

“Damian? Are you okay? You’re breathing a little deep.”

“I am?” I blinked, focusing on the here and the now and not Aurora’s body and what I wanted to do to it. “I’m sorry. I … just need a minute. That was a solid blow. I’m not sure I’ve ever been hit that hard before.”

It took another minute and a lot of deep, slow breathing, but eventually, I steadied myself. With everything properly rebooted and functioning once more, I stood on my own, rolling my shoulders to relax and loosen tense muscles.

Aurora studied my face. “You look better now. Not nearly as pale.”

Then she smacked my arm.

I recoiled in surprise more than pain. “Why did you do that?”

“Don’t scare me like that again,” she said, crossing her arms and looking anywhere but my direction. “That was not fun. I don’t want to do that again.”

“I’ll do my best not to. Trust me. I didn’t enjoy it either.”

“You’ll enjoy it less if you die and I have to come give you a proper piece of my mind for it.”

I frowned, trying to figure out just how she would do that.

“Yes, I know it’s not possible,” she said, sighing. “So, now that you seem back to normal, what do we do from here?”

We both glanced at the hole in the shield and the threatening golden energy swirling around its edges.

“First,” I said, glaring at it, “we stay away from that thing. Secondly, I take another moment to catch my breath, then we’ll go looking for our missing border guard.”

Aurora nodded. “That sounds good to me. I’d be happy to stay far, far away from that thing.”

“Me, too,” I said, walking on my own to put some space between us so I could shift back. “My muscles are all achy from it. Tomorrow will probably be tender.”

“Are you okay to fly?” There was a hint of unease.

“Yes. I wouldn’t put you in danger. It’ll be sore, but nothing that will actively impede us from looking. Besides, we’ll have a better idea of spotting anything from in the air.”

Aurora shrugged, acknowledging the truth of that. “Okay.”

I smiled at her, then closed my eyes and shifted, waiting for the surge of power that would flow over me as my dragon was set loose, freeing the beast from within.

But nothing happened.

My dragon wasn’t there.