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SAINT

“T he Trial of Fire is about to begin—unless you’ve come to your senses and decided to let your Drake out on your own?” My Sire asked. He had his hands on his hips as he glared down at me, his bushy eyebrows raised in question.

I shook my head, mutely. I was sitting on my bed in my room in the Western Tower of my father’s stronghold. Honestly, I had barely budged from this spot since General Lupe had brought me home.

I saw no reason to move—my l’lorna was dead and my heart had died with him.

“Come to your senses—we shouldn’t have to do this to bring out your Drake at your age!” my Sire exclaimed. “I’ve gathered the girls for him again—he can have his pick, now that the damned curse is lifted!”

It was true that Avery had been successful in lifting my Drake’s curse—which had ultimately killed him.

But ever since he had, my Drake and I hadn’t spoken even once.

Though I sensed him inside me still, he was silent.

I wasn’t sure if he was mourning for our lost l’lorna or if lifting the curse had done something else to him. Maybe he had lost his voice.

It seemed strange to have silence in my head. For years I’d had him raging at me like a raving madman. Now that he was quiet, I didn’t know how to act. I simply sat in my room and mourned. My loss was so great there was nothing else I could do.

“Speak, damn you!” my Sire exclaimed. “Did you hear what I said? Soon you’ll be choosing your l’lorna! You must be ready to let your Drake out!”

I shook my head.

“I lost my l’lorna. No other can take his place,” I said in a low voice.

“That witch-boy was not your l’lorna!” my Sire growled.

“You only thought he was because you were under a curse. Now that the curse is lifted, you can be free. Don’t you see my son—you can choose to be normal now!

To live your life as a proper man with a wife and, in time, children.

I might even make you my heir again if today’s Choosing goes well. ”

I only shook my head. He thought that since my Drake was no longer cursed, he would be willing to choose a woman for us to spend our lives with.

I doubted that was true. I still had no interest in the opposite sex and though my Sire seemed to think it was a personal choice, it wasn’t.

I simply did not like females—at least, not romantically.

I remembered that Avery had felt the same way—he had told me he knew he was “gay” as the humans called it, back when he was only five or six years of age. So the idea that I could now “choose” to like women when I never had before was ridiculous—not that my Sire would believe that.

“If you don’t let your Drake out to choose a l’lorna , we’ll have to conduct the Trial of Fire,” he warned me now. “It will be a great shame to see a man of your age treated like a boy of eleven or twelve.”

Normally, the Trial of Fire was only used to make reluctant Drakes emerge in younger males.

At the time of puberty, when a male’s Drake normally came out, there were always one or two shy ones.

During the Trial, four full grown Drakes would all shoot their flame at the boys in question at the same time.

In order to keep from being burned alive, the boys always Shifted to their Drake forms at once—it was an instinctive reaction—an act of self-preservation. Now, because my Drake would not emerge on his own, my Sire threatened me with it.

But what did I care for shame? I cared for nothing now that Avery was gone. My Sire had forced me to remove his Mark too—the last little thing I had left of him. My forehead felt bare without it just as my heart felt empty without my l’lorna.

“Come on—off your bed. If you want to be stubborn, we’ll make your Drake come out the hard way!”

My Sire seized me roughly by the arm and dragged me along with him. Down the tower steps and through the main part of the palace we went. I saw the servants staring at us from the corners of their eyes, but I didn’t give a damn. Nothing mattered now that Avery was gone.

The worst thing was that my grieving period wasn’t even being acknowledged.

Generally, if a Drake lost their mate, they were given an entire year before they were expected to act even remotely normal again.

Some Drakes took even longer—ten years or even the rest of their lives.

The loss of a beloved l’lorna was absolutely the worst thing that could happen to a male.

And yet, it had been only a few days since I had been forced to leave my beloved’s body lying in the mud and my Sire was already trying to get me to mate again.

But I knew what I was going to do. I would ruin his plans for me—I would never choose another l’lorna. When the four Drakes aimed their flames at me, I wouldn’t Shift to protect myself. I wouldn’t let my Drake out—even if he wanted to come out, which I sensed he didn’t.

Instead, I would let them burn me to ashes.

It would be a painful death—excruciating. But over quickly, I hoped. Nothing burns hotter than a Drake’s fire and having four of them flaming me at once ought to mean I would be neatly incinerated in a very short time.

Within me, I thought I felt my Drake stirring. But if he disapproved of this plan, he made no indication. Indeed, I got a faint feeling of agreement from him. This was a fitting end for us, both of us. We had lived a cursed existence from the start—why should our end be any different?

For a time, we had allowed ourselves to have hope—to have love—but now, with our l’lorna gone, there was no point in continuing.

Knowing that my Drake agreed with my choice to end things made me even more determined.

As my Sire dragged me to the center of the Choosing area—a grassy courtyard where four immense adult Drakes were already sitting ready to shoot their flames—I felt a sense of peace.

This, then, was the end. A fitting way to go, after the murders my Drake had committed back when he was cursed.

At last the families of the girls he had killed would be at peace.

And the girls my father had gathered for him to choose from this time would doubtless feel relieved.

They had to be scared to death, even though my Sire’s personal Bruja had declared my Drake free of the curse which had held him for so long.

Everyone still remembered the rampage he’d gone on before and the killing spree which had followed my Sire’s first attempt to make him choose a l’lorna.

“We will have the Trial by Fire,” my Sire announced as he deposited me in the center of the grassy courtyard. Soon the grass, which was green now, would be burnt to a crisp. But then, so would I. Not that I cared.

“After the Trial, the Choosing will commence,” my Sire continued. He turned to his chief advisor. “Have the girls waiting and ready—once Santiago’s Drake emerges, I want to bring them in immediately.”

“Yes, Sire.” The advisor looked distinctly nervous—as well he might be. His own eldest daughter was among the candidates for my new l’lorna. I wanted to tell him not to worry—she was safe because I would rather die than choose a new love. But that would be giving away my plan.

My Sire and his councilor, still in human form, stepped back to the edge of the courtyard.

I stayed in the center. Ranged around me were the four largest Drakes in our kingdom—well, other than my Sire’s Drake and my own, which was the largest on record.

Not that anyone would be seeing him ever again.

I stood there stoically, waiting for the flames…waiting for the end.

“All right. Let the Trial of Fire—” my Sire began. But before he could finish his words, someone else rushed into the courtyard. To my surprise, I saw it was my cousin, Ari. He had a worried look on his face which grew even more anxious when he saw what was about to take place.

“My Uncle, why are you doing this?” he asked my Sire. “Why is Saint about to undergo the Trial of Fire?”

“Because the foolish boy won’t let his Drake out any other way,” my Sire growled irritably. “And if he won’t let it out, how can it choose a l’lorna?”

“What? But you can’t force Saint’s Drake to choose a new l’lorna.”

“I can and I will,” my Sire said shortly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get this Trial started. We still have the Choosing to do afterwards.” He nodded at the Drakes surrounding me. “Flame him!”

“But Saint’s l’lorna still lives!” Ari protested. “Avery is alive!”

I heard those words just as the super-heated flames reached me. And my Drake heard them as well.

Just as my Sire had wished, he came out at once—I Shifted in the blink of an eye from my human form into a huge, flying Drake.

“Ah—there we are!” my Sire exclaimed, clearly happy to see my Drake. But his excitement turned to anger in a moment when my Drake reached down and grabbed Ari in one huge hand.

“Avery…alive?” he growled, glaring down at Ari, who was struggling in my/his hand.

“Yes! Let go of me Saint!” he exclaimed. It was considered wrong for one Drake to handle another in his human form. But my other half didn’t give a damn for that—neither did I for that matter.

“Where?” my Drake demanded.

“Back at Nocturne, of course! Dios —let me go! I’ll Shift and fly back with you!” Ari said.

My Drake dropped him in midair—which would have been a death sentence for a human. However, my cousin simply Shifted into his own Drake form and then we were flying side-by-side.

“Avery lives but he is under a curse of his own now,” I heard Ari’s Drake tell my own. “We need your help to break it!”

“We will help—he is our l’lorna. We will not fail him!” my Drake promised, speaking for both of us.

I felt a surge of joy and determination rush through him and felt it echoed in myself.

No matter what was wrong with our l’lorna, at least he was still alive!

But I knew my Drake wouldn’t truly believe it until he held Avery in his hand and “cuddled” him.

Until then, we were both going to be worried and anxious.

“Faster!” I urged him. “Fly faster!”

But I didn’t have to tell him that—already we were flying as fast as we could and I knew that if there was any way to save our l’lorna, my Drake and I would do it or die trying.