Page 29 of Entwined

I’m a long way from calm or peaceful. But it’s no longer threatening to explode and destroy everyone around me.

There you are. Hyperion ducks my latest, half-hearted eruption, and plants one taloned paw right in the center of my chest and shoves, hard, his massive wings flapping with gale force.

I careen backward, my wings pumping frantically to right myself and avoid slamming backward into the ground below. It’s a near miss, but just before I’m about to collide with a small office complex, I flip over. The wind from my wings uproots two trees, but I don’t destroy any more of Liz’s precious human buildings.

When did I start caring about whether I destroyed her little human shelters? Why do I care at all? Liz isn’t even here. She’d never even know.

Except when I wing my way upward, closing the space between Hyperion and me, I sense her. She’s moving toward me. Quickly.

You’ve put on quite the show. Hyperion’s looping in a lazy circle overhead. Care to tell me why?

To remind the blessed who leads them. What flame blessed truly means.

Smoke billows from Hyperion’s nostrils when he snorts. Try again.

I have to mate with Asteria, I finally admit. And I—I don’t want to.

Do I even want to know why not? Hyperion arches one scaly eyebrow.

I shake my head, picking up my speed, flying in a circle after him—chasing him.

You know what would buy you some more time? Hyperion wheels and pivots abruptly, dropping like a rock.

I bank and drop too, landing next to him on the ground. We’re not too far from my tower, but I can’t help wondering how Liz is approaching so quickly.

You’re distracted by that human again? Hyperion sighs. I need to get myself one. I hear she has some little whelps. Maybe one of them?—

I forbid it.

My brother very seldom looks shocked, but he does right now. Why? You plan to bond them all? You can barely handle the one you have.

It would upset her, I say. And they’re too young to bond anyone yet.

If you really don’t want to be forced to mate, then do the other thing—the thing Dad wants most of all. Find the heart, brother. Follow the lead you found before I came, and instead of flipping out about the chosen one mating, Dad will be delighted that we’ve made another kind of progress. Do that, and you can tell Dad to find Asteria another mate.

He’s right about that. Dad micromanages only when he feels we aren’t getting results on our own.

You’re suggesting I accelerate our departure again—you’re the reason it was delayed.

We can find everything we need once we’re there—there are humans to do our bidding in Iceland as well.

I suppose you’re right. Though Liz won’t like it. She’s having the humans we’ve organized and trained here gather up a month’s worth of supplies because she’s insisting we leave them all behind.

But why don’t you want to mate all of a sudden? I thought you liked Asteria. She’s attractive, smart, and not pushy.

She is all those things, and I did like her well enough. Much more than her sister. But. . .

It upsets Liz.

It’s a stupid reason that I can’t even articulate without Hyperion scoffing. But it’s still the truth. I don’t want to do anything that upsets her, and for some reason, the prospect of me mating with Asteria does. Even more frustrating, the thought of her mating with a perfectly appropriate human—a union that might yield even more brights, which is a good thing if we wind up being on Earth for a long time—upsets me just as much.

Nothing could prevail upon me to confess any of that to my brother.

“Azar!” Liz bursts into the clearing.

On Euphrasia’s back.

At least two dozen other blessed are flanking them, mostly other water blessed, but earth blessed begin arriving in waves afterward.