Page 21 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)

Celestina

Stop! You’re going to hurt everyone around us.

No, I wasn’t going to stop. It was past time someone else suffered the hurts I’d been forced to swallow in silence. It was time someone else burned in my place.

“Celestina .” A welcome voice cut through the darkness calling to me.

“Soren?” I floated up on the flames, feeding the fire consuming me until it sent me up higher and higher. I stretched, reaching across the wide distance separating me from him. Soren owned my heart. His love was what kept it beating. I’m here. I’m here.

“Celestina, my princess. Hold on. I’m trying to get to you. I’m—”

Pain ripped through my neck. I pressed my palms against the ripping agony there.

“Soren!”

Nothing.

“Soren?”

“No,” I sobbed. Hands were on me. Reaching for me. Wrapping around me. Pressing me down. No. No. No .

“What have you done?” someone demanded. I didn’t think they were talking to me.

It hurt too much to lose Soren again. It felt like the stars had all been ripped out of the sky and brought to earth to burn my heart to ashes.

“Celestina ,” a mocking voice called out to me in the burning void I must have fallen into. “ Celestina, did you really believe you could find happiness? Did you really believe I would let that happen to you?”

I recognized that voice. But it was impossible. It had to be a product of my tormented imagination born from the searing pain tearing at my neck and destroying my heart. Queen Beatrice couldn’t be here. I refused to accept that she still had any connection to me.

The voice cackled. “ Believe what you will, my ugly dragon. You may have lost the collar, but you’ll never lose meeeee.”

Pain rippled through my body as I hit the hardwood floor in the manor’s hallway. The heavy scent of the lemon wax that had been used to polish the floor seemed to close in around me like a shroud.

“Put more pressure on the wound!” Juniper’s shout cut through the loud buzzing in my ears. She belted out orders like a general. “Get blankets. Fetch my medical kit. More pressure. We can’t lose her. I won’t lose her.”

My eyes involuntarily drifted open. I watched from where I lay on the floor while feeling more than a little detached from the scene as the dragons rushed around me. The ceiling was made from wooden slats that had been stained to look almost black. The clan leader, Drix, was the one who had his hands pressed against my neck. It hurt.

“Dammit. You’re a mess.”

“Amaya?” I didn’t see her, but I could hear her voice more clearly than I could hear Juniper’s barking orders.

“Good, you can connect with me. I wasn’t sure if this connection would work seeing how I’m not solidly anywhere and you’re half-dead.”

“Amaya?” We had a connection? I supposed we would. We did hatch on the same day.

“I don’t know what Cullen thinks I can do to help you get this sorted. Could you just stop bleeding already? Your human body can’t survive losing that much blood. Plus, it’s gross. Guess who’ll have to clean the floor? Not you, I’m sure. They still treat you like a fucking honored guest. While I’m the problem that needs discipline. So guess what? I’m going to be the one who’ll be handed the mop. That is, if I figure out how to take some kind of corporal form. You did this, you know. You blasted me out of both my human and dragon forms.”

“Sorry? Gah! I try to stand up for myself once. Once! And the world explodes!”

“Yeah, you should be sorry.”

“Amaya’s gone!” Anther shouted as he came to a skidding halt in the hallway. “I got her outside. Got her touching the ground. There was a flash of light. And—” He tugged at his hair. “She disappeared.” He sounded out of his head with worry.

I tried to tell him that she was here. That she was talking to me. But all that came out were wet gurgles.

“Hush, Celestina,” Juniper cooed. “Anther, I’m sure Amaya took her dragon form and flew off. If there was a bright light, I bet you didn’t see her shift forms. That girl of mine has been upset and unstable ever since Celestina was returned to us.”

“Amaya did slash Celestina’s throat,” Drix said, frowning down at me as he continued to put pressure on my neck wound.

“She had better stay away,” Trace said, his voice hard. “She tried to kill our moonlight dragon.”

“I did what I did because she was trying to kill me and all of you!” Amaya shouted.

I may have been angry but… “ I wasn’t trying to kill anyone.”

“Then what the hell were you doing making my magic surge until it made me explode? We’re lucky Anther got me away from everyone before I went boom, or else I’d be cleaning dragon bits off the floors and walls in addition to your blood. Besides which, tapping into someone’s magic source isn’t right. You shouldn’t be able to do it. And even though you can do it, you shouldn’t do it. You just shouldn’t.”

Juniper, who’d been kneeling on the other side of me, started pulling supplies from a small leather bag. “Anther, go look for your sister. I don’t have time to worry about her right now.”

“Yes, Mother,” Anther said. But he stayed put, watching with the others who’d gathered around.

Juniper drew a long breath. “Drix, lift your hands. Let’s see if there’s anything I can do.”

Drix gave a nod, and the pressure and the pain slicing through my neck immediately lessened. But a breath later, a hot gush of liquid coated my neck and shoulders. The flickering lamplights in the hallway started to dim.

“Goddess, no.” Juniper sat back on her heels and pressed her hands to her face. “I-I can’t fix this. There’s too much damage.”

“You need to turn,” Amaya said to me. “ This kind of injury is nothing for our kind. Changing forms will heal you.”

“I can’t.” I felt woozy. Kind of floaty.

“They’re going to blame me. And then they’re all going to hate me for killing their shining star of hope. Maybe they’ll pretend not to hate me. But they’ll hate me. Why did you have to do that thing you do when you touch me? Why did you pull my magic like that?”

“I…don’t…”

“Fuck, Celestina, you’re not going to die and leave me to take the blame.”

Everything was going dark. The voices in the hallway had already faded away to dead silence. And it was even becoming difficult to hear Amaya’s voice, a voice that was coming from inside my head. But even with all that happening, I knew I wasn’t going to die. Not with this fire still burning in my chest.

The fire felt like life.

“Amaya.”

Nothing.

“Amaya.”

Still nothing.

I was riding in the wagon with Mary and Patty. I laughed at something Patty had said. I could see their faces, could watch their mouths moving, but I couldn’t hear them.

A bright light flashed.

I was back at the court in Earst. I tugged at the sleeves of the heavy court dress, hating how they felt too tight. The fabric pinched. The courtiers behind me pushed and nudged their way forward, not because they wanted to see what was happening in the front of the room. The courtiers kept pushing and shoving each other because they wanted to be seen. The entire room stank of desperation. Some, anxious to be seen by the queen in hopes of winning her favor. Others, slinking away to the back, frightened of what horrors might befall them if the queen did take notice of them. I stood like a wraith in the middle of the crowd wearing that uncomfortable dress as I realized that even though I knew everyone around me, I was alone. I’d always been alone here. The courtiers were always so busy watching their own backs that no one had ever watched out for mine. No one saw me. Not the real me.

But when I looked up, I noticed with a start that Queen Beatrice, still sitting on her throne atop the tall dais, was staring directly at me.

A bright light flickered.

I stumbled as a wave smashed against the side of Cullen’s schooner. In the distance, I spotted the small boat Cullen had boarded with a few of his men…all of them spies. As the sun crested over the horizon, Cullen had set out toward Earst. I clutched a small book to my chest. Cullen had handed the book to me right before leaving the schooner.

Once Cullen’s small boat was no longer visible, I snuck away. In the silence of my cabin, I leafed through the pages of what looked like an ancient diary. A few of the pages crumbled to dust as I turned them. From what I could tell, a foot soldier had penned his thoughts here. I read a few pages. The soldier talked about the terror he felt when battling the dragons during the War of the Magics. He’d been forced to feed from a fellow soldier after being badly burned in a skirmish. He didn’t like feeding on that particular soldier, because every time he took the soldier’s blood, he felt things for the other male, things he didn’t think were right for him to be feeling. He worried that the other man had noticed how his breath had hitched, or how his lips had quivered before sinking his fangs into the tender skin on the man’s neck.

I flipped through the pages, skimming over the parts where the foot soldier complained about the rain, about the food, about the lack of action. I then reached a page where the ink was smeared in several places, making it challenging to read.

“My heart weighs heavy tonight. Hortence is dead.” The foot soldier’s handwriting wavered with every word written. I imagined the smeared ink was from tears that had dropped on to the paper. “A midnight dragon, a beast that can take form from the mist hanging near the ground during the dark of the night, appeared in front of us as we made our way to our tents. It appeared from nothing and lunged. With a snap of its jaws, it tore my friend’s head off his shoulders before I could unsheathe my sword. The vile creature swallowed Hortence’s head and then vanished back into mist. If this is the enemy we are fighting, I don’t know how we can win. Tonight though, thoughts of death no longer trouble me for I don’t wish to live in a world without Hortence.”

I stared at the loopy writing on the page while a thought from the present overlapped with my memories of the past. This didn’t happen . It isn’t real .

While Cullen had traveled with a full library, he didn’t hand me a diary to read when he’d left the schooner.

The scene flashed and shook, as if angered by my realization.

Suddenly, I was back in the dragon’s manor house. I stood in the hallway with my hands clenched. Amaya was again blocking the entrance to the room where the others were meeting. She held up her hands as if preparing to fight to keep me from going through that door.

The anger I’d felt in that moment came flooding back. I’d wanted to strike out at her. I’d wanted to hurt her. She’d been raised with a family who cared for her and in a village that had kept her safe. She’d had everything. And now that I’d found a small piece of happiness with Soren, she was determined to rip that away from me. Amaya was just like the heartless midnight dragon who had killed Hortence and had broken the foot soldier’s heart.

She couldn’t stand to see me enjoy even an ounce of happiness.

The fire of anger in my chest blazed hotter than ever. “You’re the darkness. I’m the light. You’re death. I’m life. You’re the village’s assassin. I’m the bringer of hope.”

None of that felt right, but I couldn’t seem to stop the words from tumbling from my mouth. I wanted to hit her. I wanted to make her bleed. For me. For the foot soldier.

She didn’t respond. She silently stood there with her clenched fists and glared.

“There’s already enough pain and hatred on the continent. It doesn’t need you!” With a snarl, I slashed at her chest with a hand that had formed sharp talons.

The talons slashed through empty air. I spun around to find her standing behind me. I slashed again. Again, my talons found only empty air. What trickery was this? I felt as helpless as the foot soldier. How does one fight a ghost?

Everywhere I looked, there she was. Glaring. Every time I launched an attack, she disappeared.

“Fight me!” I screamed.

“I can’t. I’m not solid anymore. Nor do I understand where we are.” Amaya, her eyes wide, looked up.

I followed her gaze. Instead of a ceiling, there was a swirling galaxy filled with stars and colorful planets above our heads.

“What is this?” I asked feeling more than a little alarmed.

Amaya shook her head. “We’re somewhere you created…maybe?” She stepped toward me. “I know you want to slash me to bits. But don’t.”

I growled and slashed at her again. Before my talons could make contact, she disappeared. “I’m here because Prince Cullen sent me to help you.” She spoke quickly from directly behind me. “His brother is dying because of you and your bad decisions.”

“Soren?” I whirled around to face her. “Soren is hurt?”

Amaya shrugged. “You know, if Cullen is a prince, wouldn’t that make your warrior general also a prince? I wonder why no one mentions that when we talk about the Beast of Fein.”

“That’s none of your business. What’s wrong with Soren?”

“You,” Amaya answered. “That’s what’s wrong with him. You need to pull yourself together. I see you managed to shift enough to form talons. That’s a good start. You need to keep shifting into your true form—your dragon form—to heal your injuries.”

“I don’t know how.” I shook my talons at her. “I don’t even know how to get rid of these.”

She reached out and placed her hands over my talons. I didn’t feel anything from her touch because, like she’d said, she was no longer solid. “Use your magic.”

“I don’t have magic. Not anything of any use, anyway. I can compel other magical creatures, but really that’s kind of iffy.”

“You blasted the shackles off my wrists. You sent that embedded collar of yours flying. And, I don’t know”—she tapped her chin—“you freaking made me explode!”

“That was your magic.”

“That you drew out of me. Rude, but whatever. You could try to do that again to get us back to the real world and give me back a body.”

“How?” I demanded. “No one has ever taught me about how to do anything with magic. In Earst, only the women of the royal family have magic.”

“The royals have a diluted form of dragon magic because one of their ancestors slept with a dragon. Not that impressive. Human hybrids are so tiresome, thinking they’re special when they only have a few drops of what it means to be us.”

“Still, that doesn’t help us now. I was never taught how to control this power everyone seems to think I possess.”

“Right.” Amaya frowned. “Let’s see. When I was a youngling, Ivy would have me picture a flame in my chest.”

“Here?” I touched the spot where I felt the fire burning.

“Yeah. She’d have me picture the flame and try to control it. At first, I’d use it to make a flame on a candle waver.”

I looked around. “I don’t see any candles in here to practice on.”

The hallway wasn’t a perfect replica of the one at the center of the manor house. Instead of the wall sconces that had lined the real hallway, this one was illuminated with an eerie light emanating from the center of the swirling galaxy above our heads that made us look as if we both had a blue-green glow.

“I feel you’re beyond the flame play anyhow. You did send us to a world you’d conjured.”

“Did I?” I glanced at the galaxy above us and cringed. “I didn’t mean to.”

“When I was learning to use my magic, it felt more like an awakening rather than being taught how to control it. I don’t think it was the same for the other younglings. They had to practice the craft of pulling magic through them. For me, that part came naturally. I think that’s one of the ways that we’re different from the others. Our magic is different. In time, I could use the inner fire to push the magic through me and out into the world around me to wilt a plant or break a vase. I wasn’t very popular in the village when I was first exploring my powers. I made cakes fall and kitchens explode and—” She snapped her fingers, which strangely made a snapping sound even though she was made of nothing but air. “Oh my goddess, why didn’t I think of it sooner? I’m death. You’re life.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved her hand in a rolling gesture.

“I don’t want to be your enemy.” I felt the need to tell her.

“You only want to run back to help our enemy.”

“I…um…Soren’s not our enemy.”

“He’s a vampire.” She lifted her eyebrows as if to suggest that she’d said all that needed to be said about that. “Let’s get back to saving you and worry about how the vampires have completely twisted up your thoughts later. As I was saying, when you channeled my magic, you destroyed things. That’s how my magic works. It breaks things apart. Sometimes violently.”

I was starting to catch on. “We were protected together, hatched together, because our magics complement each other. We’re a set. Light and darkness. Life and death.”

“Everyone prefers the light,” Amaya softly grumbled.

“What?” It seemed as if a lifetime of pain was connected to what she’d just said.

“Nothing. You need to use your powers, not mine.”

“But I don’t—”

“Beg to differ.” Amaya pointed at the swirling galaxy.

“Right. I don’t know how I did that. But I guess since we’re stuck here, it wouldn’t hurt to try to do something to get us out.” I closed my eyes and pictured returning to the hallway, the real hallway. I kept my eyes tightly closed for a long, long time. “Nothing’s happening,” I whispered.

“Try focusing on that flame you feel in your chest. And on your emotions. I always get myself into the worst binds whenever I let my emotions take over. Since you’re the light to my darkness, your strong emotions might undo bad things.”

“Or I might create more galaxies that we don’t need.” Goddess, I hoped I hadn’t conjured an actual galaxy from nothing. “Do you think there might be civilizations up there?” I pointed to where the ceiling should have been.

Amaya made a face. “Let’s just focus on saving ourselves. If there are civilizations in that swirling mass of stars, they’re going to have to watch out for themselves. Now, work on pulling the magic that’s all around us through your flame. That’s what shapes the magic. That’s what makes it go where we want and do what we want…mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“It’s never perfect. It is, after all, a force of nature that we’re trying to control.”

“And there’s no sure way to control nature. I think I’m beginning to understand.” I drew a long breath and pictured the hallway as it should be—with a ceiling. The flame in my chest wavered.

“Don’t forget to make me solid again,” Amaya interrupted.

I nodded and started over. My body went still. The flame in my chest grew a little larger.

“Don’t forget you also have to heal yourself,” Amaya interrupted again. “The swiftest way to do that is to take your dragon form. Turning from one form to another heals our ailments. It’s great for when we feel a cold coming on.”

“Okay. I’ll…try.” I started over yet again. Drawing in a deep breath, picturing the flame, feeling the magic travel up from the ground, through my toes, up my legs, and—

“Oh! Is that a lizard?” Amaya squealed.

“Amaya!” I huffed. “Please, I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Right. Right.” She reached down and picked up the little green lizard and let it run up her arm. It looked exactly like the pesky lizards that followed us from Earst and had traveled everywhere with us. The lizard crawled on to Amaya’s shoulder just as the midnight dragon pressed a finger to her lips. “I’ll not say another word. Promise.”

Yet again, I tried to concentrate on the hallway, on the movement of the magic through my body, on Amaya’s human form becoming solid, and my neck being healed. The flame wiggled but seemed content to remain steady.

Gah! Why did I think this could work? I had absolutely no experience with magic. Plus, hadn’t Queen Frieda used her magic to bind up my powers? Maybe my approaching demise had released a magical explosion that had created this place. Whatever had happened earlier, I had no clue how to repeat it…or even undo it.

Which meant I would remain forever stuck in this strange hallway with a formless dragon who didn’t like me. Soren had promised that no matter where I ran, he’d find me. But he couldn’t come here. I’d put myself in a place that was beyond his ability to reach me. I’d never see Gray scowl at me again. Never get to enjoy girl talk with Raya. Never laugh with Patty or run away from Mary’s oversized spoon. And this was my own doing. Queen Beatrice had been right about me all along. I was useless. Beyond useless, since my ending up here endangered Soren’s life. Could our bond stretch out across dimensions? Or had it snapped? Had I already killed him?

Have I already killed him?

I couldn’t—I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Soren.” If my runaway emotions and uncontrollable magic killed the only man—er, vampire—I’d ever loved, I’d never forgive myself. He deserved better than me. He deserved to have a life.

Don’t be dead.

Don’t be dead.

Don’t be dead.

The ground shook. Or was that just me trembling? I reached out to catch myself as I stumbled. My hand hit not the smooth surface of the hallway’s wood-paneled wall, but the rough surface of…what was that?

I opened my eyes and stared at the small tree that had helped steady my balance. It wasn’t just one tree. There were hundreds of them…and no hallway. I looked up and spotted the night sky. A few stars winked at me.

Just past my hero tree, four horses were milling around a narrow forest trail. My gaze, as if pulled from a power outside of me, jerked sharply to the right. I sucked in a breath when I saw Soren sprawled on the ground. His head rested in Cullen’s lap. His black hair was loose and formed what looked like an ominous shadow against Cullen’s leg. Raya knelt next to Soren. She had his hand pressed to her chest. And even from this distance and despite the darkness, I could see her cheeks were shiny from tears.

“Is he…?” Raya asked, her voice sounded husky and rough.

“He doesn’t smell dead yet,” Amaya answered. I wasn’t surprised to find her standing next to me, and back in solid form. I’d been thinking about my need to rescue her as strongly as I had been thinking about saving Soren.

Cullen turned his head sharply toward us. Amaya had spoken loudly. His eyes widened with surprise when he spotted us standing under the trees. “Amaya? Celestina?” He shifted Soren’s head in his lap as if considering a need to get to his feet. He then adjusted his glasses. “How are you here?” he asked with deliberate care.

Raya scrambled to her feet, gaping at us. “Celestina? We—”

“Soren isn’t breathing,” Cullen said, his brows furrowing. “If you’re here, Celestina, and uninjured, my brother shouldn’t be like this. Amaya?” He settled Soren’s head on the ground and stood. “Amaya? What’s happening?”

“It’s complicated,” Amaya said. “Celestina is somewhere where she’s not breathing.”

“I’m right here,” I said. And I was breathing. Wasn’t I? I pulled in a deep breath of air to prove it.

“She’s right there,” Raya agreed as she pointed to me.

“She’s here and…somewhere else,” Amaya corrected.

“What?” I demanded. “I’m right here.”

“We’re working on getting it all sorted,” she said, not glancing in my direction.

“Do it faster,” Cullen demanded, his hands clenching into fists.

Amaya lurched forward and hissed. “You don’t get to order me around, vampire .”

Gray scowled quite brilliantly as he put himself between Cullen and Amaya. When Amaya took another step toward them, Gray rushed toward us, his twin swords coming out of their sheaths, prepared to fight Amaya. I was trying to decide if jumping between the two of them would save Gray or save Amaya when he suddenly stumbled to a stop. “Celestina? What’s going on? Why are you glowing?”

I glanced down at my hands. Gah! They were glowing like the moon. So were my arms. And my legs. And-and the rest of me.

I didn’t have much time to ponder that I’d never again need a candle or electric light when I walked to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Driscoll, dressed all in black, had crept up as silently as a cloud. He emerged from the shadows next to me. His beady black eyes flashed in the darkness a moment before he grabbed my wrist and jerked me away from Amaya.

“Got her!” he called in his deep, gruff voice. Just as his words emerged, he released me. He howled as he clutched his hand to his body. The acrid scent of burnt flesh curdled the air.

I rushed toward Soren. “He’s not breathing? Is he…dead?”

“Not yet,” Cullen said, still not taking his eyes from Amaya. “Vampires can exist like this for several hours. But”—he shook his head—“if you can’t find a way to recover, he won’t either.”

“I’m fine. I’m right here.”

“ I’m here.” Amaya grabbed my arm. I winced, expecting her to sink her talons into me again. But her hands were human hands. And though she tightened her fingers firmly around my wrist, it didn’t hurt. “You, unfortunately, Moonglow, still need to find your body. This isn’t where you belong. These vampires aren’t your family.”

With every word she spoke, I could feel the magic swirling faster and faster. The flame inside my chest burned so hot I was convinced my organs were melting. How did anyone survive channeling magic? This felt like torture of the worst kind. Amaya must be pulling my magic like I’d done with hers. And, yeah, I now understood why she’d been so angry about it. This did feel like a violation.

“All vampires are our enemies.” Amaya glared at Cullen. “Stay away from us!” Her scream tore through the night as the magic she was pulling through me burst out of my eyes. With a deafening explosion, we shattered into light and air.

Silence.

Blessed.

Silence.

I groaned when I managed to pry open eyelids that felt like they’d been glued closed. Pain smacked me hard in the…everywhere. My neck especially burned. And my arm felt like someone had ripped off my skin.

I blinked as I stared blankly at the wood slats that made up the ceiling in the manor house’s long hallway. Whatever Amaya had done with my magic, it’d brought me back to the plateau, back to the manor, back to my broken and bleeding body.

I took a shallow breath, wincing as the slight movement made everything hurt even more.

“Celestina took a breath!” Juniper shouted. The older healer was kneeling beside me. Much like Raya’s face had been in the forest, hers was shiny from tears. “She’s breathing!” I wished Juniper’s voice wasn’t so loud.

Trace dropped to his knees next to her. His hand went to her shoulder as he peered at me. “She—she’s alive?”

Juniper nodded happily. “She’s still bleeding, but it’s slowed. And her injuries look—” Juniper shook her head. “It looks as if she partially shifted. Look at that. She’s healed enough that I can stitch up the wound.”

While everything still hurt, I could feel the difference. My neck was bleeding, but it was a slow ooze instead of the gushing of blood leaving my body like it had been before.

“Let me get started on stabilizing her,” Juniper said.

Amaya fell to her knees next to me. She was laughing.

“You did it!” Her jubilant voice sounded distant even though she was leaning directly over me. She grabbed one of my hands and held it in front of my face. “Look! You’re no longer glowing. You no longer have talons. And I’m able to pick up your hand.” She laughed again. “I’m solid.”

You are. We did it. You and me . Those are the words I tried to speak. But I only gurgled troubling noises. And I felt woozy.

“Get her away from Celestina!” Trace shouted.

Arms reached down and pulled Amaya away.

“Don’t you dare touch her.” Trace rose to tower over me. “I’ll not let you harm my girl again.” He growled. It was a low, inhuman sound that made my skin prickle.

“I didn’t—”

“You slashed open her throat. We all saw you!” Trace shouted. “If you weren’t important , I would insist your father call for a tribunal to hold you accountable for your actions. You’ve been allowed to get away with too much. You’re dangerous, Amaya. You shouldn’t be allowed to be around the other dragons. If it were up to me, I would seriously consider whether you should be allowed to exist.”

Amaya folded in on herself.

“Come along,” Anther said as he wrapped his arms around Amaya’s chest from behind. “There’s nothing for you here to do anyway.”

“I didn’t—”

“I know,” Anther said, cutting her off. “You never mean to do harm. It’s simply who you are.”

Amaya shrank into herself even more as she allowed her older brother to pull her away.

“Put a guard on her door,” Amaya’s father said quietly to another dragon I didn’t recognize once Amaya was gone. “Make sure my daughter stays in her rooms until we can figure out what to do with her.”

“Drix,” Juniper cried. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to harm the girl.”

“She never means to do harm,” he said, his expression grim. “But things always seem to fall apart, and dragons get hurt whenever she’s around. Now that we have the moonlight dragon back, we might need to rethink how we handle Amaya. Trace isn’t wrong. The few stories we have of the midnight dragons have always emphasized how dangerous they can be.”

I wanted to defend Amaya. I wanted to tell them how Amaya had saved me from myself. But I could only manage to make more gurgling sounds. I thrashed a bit and tried again, only to slur a few unintelligible words.

“Are you sure she’s going to survive this?” Trace asked as he placed a steadying hand on my shoulder. He pushed me back down to the hardwood floor.

“She’s a dragon,” Juniper said with considerable pride in her voice. She poked my neck with a sewing needle and started to stitch up the gaping wound. I jerked from the sting of pain. But her movements were swift and sure. “She’s one of us, Trace, which means our Celestina is going to be just fine.”

Trusting in her confidence that I’d survive the pain and blood loss, I closed my eyes and allowed my tired body to rest. I could figure out the rest another day.

Like how to tell them that I’d never be Trace’s mate.

And how to convince them that Amaya wasn’t a danger to them.

And how to get back to Soren. I needed to get to him, to see that he’d recovered from the damage my bond had caused. If I had the strength, I would have run through the village, searching for a way off the plateau that didn’t involve tumbling off a cliffside. My need to get to him was that great. Goddess, I hoped my returning to my body meant Soren had started breathing again.

But, right now, my body simply needed to…heal…