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Aruan

I ’m leaving another abandoned Phaelix settlement after one more fruitless search when it happens.

My connection with Elsie goes dead.

Like a crater tearing a hole in the ground, the place where I felt her in my chest becomes a gaping void.

I stop, the nothingness slamming reversely into me just as her presence had pumped through my veins when the Phaelix had brought her to Zerra.

Impossible.

I refuse to believe it.

But the bond doesn’t lie.

It’s gone.

She’s dead.

A howl tears from my chest as impossible, scorching heat explodes from me, radiating far and wide before forming a mushroom shape far above me. Shockwaves ripple through the air, killing trees and shrubs all around me, as far as the eye can see.

It should kill me too—I wish it would—but it doesn’t. Somehow, I’m protected from the destruction around me. A destruction that will linger for eons to come—because I know what this is, what will happen if any Alit, Phaelix, or animal crosses the area.

They’ll die.

It’s the terrible, poisonous explosion from my childhood all over again, but this time, I can’t bring myself to care.

As I stand among the death and destruction I’ve caused, all I feel is rage.

It consumes me, devours me. My vision unravels.

I clench my hands, needing to kill. Wanting to kill.

Everyone and everything, but especially whoever killed Elsie.

The person who’s been after her since the day she arrived at the palace.

Maybe Tarix. Maybe not. I’m going to torture every Alit and Phaelix until I know the truth.

I hold on to that thought to maintain sanity, clinging to it like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood until it carries me back to lucidity.

When my sight clears, I’m on my knees. I don’t know how I got to this position or when I hit the ground.

I only know I’m on a path of annihilation, more dead than alive.

It’s worse than when she disappeared the first time, when I was just a child.

Because this round? I had time to get to know her.

To fall for her. To claim her and make her mine. To love her.

Now she’s gone, ripped from me again, and the agony is unbearable. The pain makes me blind. The ache is a flame scorching my soul. Yet everything continues as normal when I walk through a portal into the Great Hall, everyone going about their day as if nothing is wrong.

The sound that leaves my lips rips the palace right down the middle, the cracks running like lightning down the walls. That’s when they start running. The bridge collapses, preventing them from escaping. Windows explode, and the sky turns dark.

Somewhere on the horizon, a volcano burns red. The ground shakes beneath my feet. An earthquake uproots trees. The sea rolls closer in giant waves, washing through the lower levels of the palace.

I’m not aware of walking to my quarters. I simply find myself standing there, taking in the emptiness. Like a masochist, I let the cold claws of that suffocating notion strangle my heart. Like a stone sinking to the bottom of a lake, the emptiness settles inside me.

She’s not here.

An ear-splitting cry pierces the sky. Betty. Even the dragon knows. Animals sense these terrible things.

“Aruan!” Something shakes me. “Aruan, please!”

I swat it away like a fly. It thumps against the wall.

“Aruan, stop!”

I can’t. I can’t control the rage eating me alive from the inside out.

“Think about Elsie!”

The name twists like a blade into my gut. It burns cold and hot. “Elsie.”

“Yes, Elsie. Think about your mate.”

My mate.

My senses clear enough to recognize Gaia. She keeps her distance, looking scared out of her wits as she rubs the back of her head.

I bite out every word. “Who did it? Who killed her?”

“Killed her? Is that—” She cuts herself short, trembling as she asks in a scratchy voice, “Why do you think that?”

“Because I feel it,” I snarl, the darkness already creeping in again.

“Look at me.” Gaia rushes over and grabs my arm. “Look at me!”

She’s taking a huge risk, daring to get near me when I’m an explosion just waiting to happen. But her touch grounds me.

“What do you feel, Aruan?”

My voice is dead along with my heart. “Nothing.” Only the rage lives and grows.

“If she were dead, there would’ve been a body.”

Maybe there is. I wouldn’t even know where to look. We’re only connected as long as the bond is alive.

“Think about it.” Gaia’s command is more of a plea. “You thought she was dead once, and it wasn’t the case.”

Her words hook into my brain, clearing the fog of rage a tiny bit. “She was on Earth.”

“Yes,” she breathes. “It’s a possibility.”

A slight one, but still…

The rumbling of the walls stops. The ground ceases to shake. The sun returns, casting light on the destruction visible through the windows.

I still don’t give a dragon’s ass about what I’ve done, the terrible emptiness battling with the fury inside me. Yet that possibility, that tiny sliver of hope… “Why would she be there?” The hollow voice barely sounds like my own. “How would she even have gotten there?”

“If Tarix is nowhere to be found on Zerra, maybe he’s hiding on Earth.”

I drag in a breath, the sliver of hope expanding before my fury rises again, along with the simmering power. “You think Tarix took Elsie?” With effort, I keep the power contained, the hope just enough to make me want to do so despite the rage burning me up inside.

“I don’t know, but it’s possible.” Gaia squeezes my arm.

“Think about it, Aruan. After someone tried to poison Elsie and tampered with the bridge, Kian read the minds of everyone in the palace. The only minds he couldn’t read were yours and Elsie’s because you blocked them from him.

However, he never got an accurate reading on Tarix’s mind.

He thought the vagueness was just because Tarix is a little dumb. ”

“Except maybe he’s not.”

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Tarix is the one who tried to kill Elsie. The mere idea feeds the dark power inside me. Moon cycles of lightning flash outside, raining down from the sky.

Gaia gives a start and worriedly eyes the flashes of light through the broken window. “We won’t know for sure until we find him, and if he created portals for the Phaelix to bring slaves from Earth, he’s capable of going to Earth himself. What better place to hide?”

I’ve considered that thought, that Tarix is on Earth, but I first wanted to be sure he’s not on Zerra. Gritting my teeth, I tamp down my power as Gaia says, “Mother should be able to help. Let’s go see her.”

She pulls me toward the archway, and I let her drag me along, the ember of hope flaring brighter within me. If there’s a chance that Elsie is still breathing, I need to stay in control.

I need to save her.

My mother is dabbing a cloth to a cut on my father’s forearm when we enter her quarters.

A big bruise blooms over her forehead. Kian is pouring a potion from a flacon into a goblet, presumably something for the pain.

The room is a mess of fallen stones and broken glass.

Their injuries are no doubt a result of that.

My parents stare at me, white-faced, neither of them asking the question on the tips of their tongues. What happened? Why did I lose control of my power? They’re too scared that talking about it will set me off again.

Instead, I do the asking as I look at the deep slash on my father’s arm. “Where’s Vitai?” My voice is as emotionless as it is harsh.

“Tending to Incus,” my mother answers. “A stone from the ceiling fell on his head.”

I feel no guilt. Nothing. The numbness has set in at an alarmingly fast rate, much quicker than before.

“Elsie is gone,” Gaia blurts before turning to Kian. “Can you tap into her mind?”

The gaze he trains on me says he knows I’m not using a protective barrier to prevent him from reading her thoughts. Averting his eyes, he gives a single shake of his head.

“Then she may be on Earth,” Gaia says.

“What makes you think that?” my father asks.

“Mother sent her there once. What if Tarix has done the same?” She turns to me. “You should go look for her there.” She pauses before adding in a pained whisper, “At least then you’ll know.”

The tension on my mother’s face eases slightly. “Gaia is right. You should go.”

So if my power flares out of control again, it’ll be on Earth, not on Zerra. They don’t say it, but I can see it in their eyes.

Nobody’s even mentioning the council that would normally have to approve this. They’re only too eager to get rid of me.

For all I know, it’s a trap. Maybe I’m the one they’re banishing to Earth this time, a plan they concocted while I went feral and my power ran rampant. If I go, it may very well be a one-way ride. There may not be a portal to bring me back.

And maybe it’s better that way.

If Elsie is dead…

“Do it,” I growl, barely able to hold back the surge of rage. “Give me a portal.”

My mother nods, and the circle of lights appears in front of me. I don’t look back as I step inside.

A dissolving sensation later, I’m spat out on the other end, finding myself on a green pasture in front of a house when I come to.

It’s a small pasture but a big house. Elsie’s parents’ house.

I recognize the furniture through the window.

But I also recognize something else—a vibration that hums through my body.

Awareness hits me like a strike of lightning, firing through my veins.

Dragons.

Gaia was right.

Elsie is here.

The sensation grows inside me, filling every part of me until I’m on fire with it.

That painfully sweet longing tugs at my heart again.

It becomes unbearable, tormenting me until I think I’ll go crazy, and then everything inside me clicks into place.

Perfect peace descends on me. I’ve never felt such harmony.

For the first time in my life, I’m whole and not broken. Not incomplete.

My heartbeat quickens, keeping time in my chest with a pleasant echo.

It takes me a moment to figure out the echo doesn’t mirror my pulse but is someone else’s.

I can’t explain what’s happening to me, but the longer I listen to those twin pulses beating in my ears, the more at home I feel in my own skin… as well as in a different skin.

Then it hits me. I’m no longer alone. Elsie is here, inside me, our bond complete. She’s a part of me just like I’m a part of her, two people who’ve become one. And I know exactly where she is.

I take off toward the path, trying to get my bearings.

She’s not close but not so far that I can’t reach her through a portal.

If not for the miraculous completion of our bond, it would’ve taken a long time to find her.

I would’ve needed to go back for Gaia or my mother, who would’ve had to do continuous portal work.

A contraption with windows like a house and wheels like a cart rounds the corner.

It moves fast, heading right at me. A man sits inside what I presume is armor.

I blink as he screeches to a halt right in front of me with a blaring noise that comes from his armor.

He leans through the open window and shouts curses at me.

I don’t have time for this. I bang a fist on the front of his armor.

A huge dent appears in the shiny surface.

The man shuts his mouth and closes his window.

He moves around me and gets out of my way.

I barely make it to the opposite side of the path before another contraption in a different color barrels past.

Closing my mind off to the surroundings, I focus on Elsie. Her feelings spear through my heart. Her pulse races in my chest, speeding up my own. The cold sweat that covers my body is a mirror-reflex of our bond.

She’s scared. It’s the kind of fear one feels when one’s life is in the balance. I feel her breath leave her lungs even as I call up a portal, letting her know I’m on my way, refusing to face what the bond is trying to tell me.

That I may have come this far only to be too late.