Page 20

“I wish people had half the honor of dragons.”

—Terry Goodkind

“Benjamin Button!”

The most beautiful man Lizzy had ever seen swooped in on them the moment they entered Baggage Claim at Yellowstone Airport.

Ben’s “Uncle” enveloped him in a tight hug, rather like a small child who sorely missed his parent, rather than the other way around. Ben squeezed him back and patted him soothingly while Ere’s partner stood close by, his expression one of stoic indulgence and deep abiding love.

She was beginning to see what Ben was talking about. There was such an innocence to Ere.

Over Ben’s shoulder he peered at Lizzy, those same aquamarine eyes as Ben’s glittering with curiosity and narrowing in assessment.

Mischief and merriment danced in those eyes, also like a child. Though this was the first time Lizzy met him as her current incarnation, memories flooded her mind of how she bargained with Ere to take on the dragon quests. How he tried her patience as the Master of the Celestial Realm, the Jade Emperor’s corporeal representative.

All her own conjuring.

How he transformed into the wrathful half-form demon when Sorin’s soul had been under siege. How he determinedly broke into the fantasy realm that no being had ever attempted to, much less succeeded in, before.

It was, in fact, Ere’s defiance of the magical prison Seven created that allowed Seven herself to eventually break free. The force of the Black Dragon’s love for his Phoenix Mate had galvanized and humbled a once all-powerful god. Emboldened that god to reach for her own humanity.

To find and deserve her only love.

“Hello, Ere,” she greeted when he finally let go of Ben.

He cocked his head at her, shrewd gaze taking her in.

“You’re rather ordinary for being the Mate of my extraordinary padawan.”

“Ere—” Ben started

Lizzy grinned and spoke over him.

“I am indeed quite ordinary. Certainly not an obvious match for the most magnificent, the most courageous and wonderful and wise Benjamin Larkin D’Angelo,” she agreed readily.

Ben flushed under her praise, giving her a look that said “cease and desist.” But she could tell that he liked it too.

She planned to shower him with praise every chance she got, so he’d just have to get used to it.

“But for some strange reason, he seems to love me,” she continued with a shrug.

“And I…well, I plan to spend the rest of eternity deserving his love and loving him back better than anyone else could ever do.”

Ere blinked those thick fan-like black lashes at her, momentarily nonplussed.

“Hmph,” he grumbled, as if somewhat put out that she took the wind out of his sails, admitting to her own lack and unworthiness. As if he had been looking forward to an argument, for her to demonstrate how unsuitable she was for his Ben.

She grinned at him winningly.

He squinted at her.

“There’s something familiar about you…” he muttered, almost to himself.

“Oh?” she said, rolling her eyes heavenward in thoughtfulness, one hand tugging at an invisible mustache, then smoothing over a long, invisible beard.

“You!” Ere exclaimed, recognition dawning.

She raised her eyebrows innocently.

“Me? Have we met before, Black Dragon?”

“You-you-you—”

He pointed at her, accusations stuck in his throat.

This rare inability to speak reminded Lizzy of the time when Ere came to the Celestial Realm at the Jade Emperor’s behest, and the “Master” sealed his vocal cords to prevent him from running his mouth.

He seemed to have the same thought, because his eyes bulged with alarm as he continued to sputter.

“Ere, calm down.” Ben stepped in, wrapping his hand around Ere’s accusing finger and putting it down.

“That’s all in the past.”

Ere looked at Ben pleadingly, his face red with righteous indignation; eyes wild.

“But she-she—”

“I am not who I once was,” Lizzy said.

Ere’s intense gaze clashed with hers again.

“Just as you are not who you once were,” she reminded him.

She stepped up to him and extended her right hand.

“I am pleased to meet you properly, Erebu, the Black Dragon. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Winters. My friends call me Lizzy.”

Ere stared at her outstretched hand as if it was a poisonous snake.

“Ere…” Ben nudged, bumping his shoulder, pushing him a step forward.

With the utmost reluctance, a scowl furrowing his forehead, Ere took Lizzy’s hand in his and gave it a perfunctory shake.

“I am Sorin,” the gorgeous Viking warrior-like golden male said from beside Ere, extending his big, calloused hand for Lizzy to shake also.

She beamed up at him and took it.

“Pleased to meet you, Sorin.”

“Now that introductions are out of the way, shall we get on to the matter at hand?” Ben implored.

He seemed relieved that no physical violence had broken out, though the tenseness in his body showed that he was ever prepared for it.

Lizzy smiled to herself. So protective was her Ben.

They walked out of the airport toward the parking lot and beyond. Ere kept stealing looks at Lizzy as if he expected her to sprout horns and a forked tail. She looked back at him with equanimity and good humor, batting her lashes flirtatiously whenever their eyes met.

He turned away like a petulant child, giving her his flawless profile and turning up his nose.

She couldn’t help it. She absolutely adored Ere, the interactions of their past lives notwithstanding. In this life, she found Ben’s sire endlessly fascinating and amusing. And she loved him on first sight, for it was more than obvious how much he loved Ben.

One of these days, she was going to win his approval. She was determined to do it. And she had all the patience in the world.

When they found a secluded spot on the outskirts of the airport where no one could see, Ere and Sorin transformed behind the cover of tall pines.

Lizzy’s breath held as she gazed upon the Black Dragon and the golden Phoenix with awe. She smiled with delight when Ere nuzzled and licked Sorin like an overgrown puppy while the stoic Beast stood still and bore the sloppy affection.

Before long, Sorin flapped his flame-like wings and took off into the sky, Ere hurriedly following suit, nipping at the Phoenix’s tail playfully.

“Ready?” Ben asked, holding her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Ready,” she said.

As naturally as breathing, he transformed into his dragon form and she secured her seat on his back, in the notch that seemed specifically made for her. Together, they took off after Ere and Sorin, headed southeast to the Yellowstone caldera.

They flew in formation high above a scattering of clouds that shadowed the landscape below.

Lizzy no longer wondered how she was able to breathe so well despite the thinness of the atmosphere, and how warm and comfortable she was despite the windshear. Ben cocooned her with his blazing heat. It wrapped around her like a forcefield. And his own breath filled her lungs, just like it did when they were beneath the seas and he shared his breath.

Not five minutes into their journey, Ere’s disgruntled voice came through their linked minds.

Why her of all people, Benjamin? The Black Dragon complained.

You could have chosen anyone. Anyone!

And yet, my heart and soul choose her every time , Ben said calmly, unperturbed.

Ere huffed, a burst of smoke erupting from his nostrils. He lagged behind a little, letting Ben catch up on his right. His piercing eye rolled toward Lizzy on Ben’s back, pinning her with a gimlet stare.

I’ve got my eye on you, woman , he growled ominously.

And what a beautiful eye it is! Lizzy sent back through the link she shared with Ben.

Just like Ben’s. I suppose he inherited from you, Ere.

Ere sniffed, the leathery scales closest to his great monstrous head ruffling like feathers as he visibly preened.

We both inherited our eyes from my sire, Tal-Telal, the greatest General of the Pure Ones that ever lived.

Ben spoke of him , Lizzy nodded. He sounds like the most admirable of men. I can’t wait to meet him.

As if he realized how impossible it was to pick a fight with someone who was so unfailingly polite and cheerful, Ere grumbled beneath his breath and shot off again, catching up to his Mate out in front.

Don’t mind him, Ben said through their private link. He’ll come around. You’ll be best friends in no time.

I really doubt that, but I’ll stay hopeful , Lizzy returned.

He has good reasons to be suspicious of me. After all these incarnations, all this time, if it’s one thing I know as immutable as my love for you, it’s that souls remain the same at their core. Circumstances might change, our choices and how we decide to act might change, but the core of who we are never changes.

All of the bad things he fears in me, all the terrible things I’ve done—they are a part of me along with the good and redeeming qualities. And the same is true of Ere. The same is true of anyone.

Lizzy accepted this about herself. She was finally at peace. She liked who she was now. Who she’d become.

A human with a Pure soul.

Ben’s Destined Mate.

Soon enough, the Yellowstone caldera came into view, like a serpent’s stormy eye glaring up at the sky.

Green hills dotted with trees surrounded a barren crater shaped like an oblong oval, roughly the size of a thousand football fields. In the middle lay a lake of greenish blue, yellow and green on the outer rings, narrowing to a deep center of sapphire blue. Around it, streaks of gold and red radiated outwards like bloodshot veins. Steam rose from the water itself, as if it was boiling hot.

It probably was, Lizzy surmised, for below the caldera hot magma from the earth’s mantle rose toward the surface. Hot springs and geysers surrounded it like a minefield. Even the most daring adventurists would not venture too close.

The super volcano that sat beneath the Yellowstone National Park last erupted over seventy thousand years ago, during the Age of the Gods. Digging into her memories, Lizzy realized that it was one of the many “natural disasters” that harkened the end of that Age, when the gods had all but destroyed themselves.

When she’d chosen her own defeat to save her offspring’s life. Byakko’s son, Goya.

A haunting refrain whispered in the back of Lizzy’s mind:

A queen becomes Queen

A slave becomes Mate

A King falls in flames

A winner loses in games

A queen gives way

A Mate displaced

A Champion reborn

A King transformed.

A stone heart in fire

A soul dances higher

When True Love reveals

And old wounds heal.

She was the one who wove these words, she now knew. A prophesy and a curse, depending on how one interpreted and applied them.

In the midst of terrain much like the one before her, she was the gray witch who warned King Ramses when he was still a Prince, a Blood Slave of the Dark Queen Ashlu. She branded these words into Sorin’s skin to keep him alive when he was still Sol, the Eagle King. She uttered them again through Morgan le Fay, overtaking her consciousness to foreshadow things to come.

Even when the bitter, dark half of her spread chaos, sought vengeance, her other half tried to guide her Pure and Dark Ones, Beasts, Elementals and dragons to victory.

There was a reason she recalled these words now. The reason was arranged on either side of the burning volcanic eye.

From the sky, as they approached, Lizzy could make out a tightly packed army of ants. Except, they weren’t ants, but black-robed soldiers, similar to the ones who attacked her friends over the past couple of weeks. On the other side of the steaming lake, a similarly sized army stood at attention, armed and ready, dressed in white.

They looked like pieces on a chess board, waiting to do battle.

Behind each army there were helicopters and fighter jets, their propellers already churning, engines revved. Gigantic missiles were pointed up at the sky, ready to fire.

Had they been waiting for each other or had they been anticipating Lizzy and her friends?

The answer was probably both.

She didn’t know what caught her attention, but there was a sudden flare in the light of the setting sun.

There!

She pointed to the head of the black battalion. Even though it was too far away to see clearly, somehow she knew who it was.

Jing Bai.

He wasn’t masked this time, but he wore the same black robes he did in the cavern beneath the Red Sea Mountains. He raised his hand in a devil-may-care salute, clearly expecting them.

Who the fuck is that? Ere growled through their Beast link.

Friends of yours, Elizabeth?

Lizzy was well aware that Ere didn’t address her by her nickname. They weren’t friends. She took it as a win, however, that he didn’t call her something worse.

Let’s find out , she said and nudged Ben lightly with her thighs, sending the gigantic gold dragon into a plummeting dive.

The three mythical Beasts landed one after the other at the edge of the caldera, creating an impenetrable wall between the black army and the lake. The earth seemed to shift beneath their mighty weight, yet at the same time they touched ground lightly too, as smooth as a feather.

Even though she couldn’t see the black-robed soldiers’ expressions clearly, they collectively gave the impression of stupefied awe in the face of Ere, Sorin and Ben.

She could empathize. They must have never seen dragons before, never mind the Phoenix, the only one of his Kind in existence. Even hardened warriors, likely immortal warriors at that, could be shocked when faced with such fantastical creatures they never dreamed could be real.

But as Lizzy slid off Ben’s extended wing and walked directly to Jing Bai, she could see that he didn’t look particularly surprised to see them. He got a preview, after all, in the Red Sea Mountains. He was the only one of the assassins who kept his life at the end of the encounter.

“Dr. Winters, we meet again,” Mr. Bai said with all politeness, bowing a little as if they had merely run into each other at a conference.

“I can’t say it’s a pleasure,” Lizzy murmured, giving a terse nod in return.

She could feel Ben at her back a short distance away. She was well within reach of his giant claws and shielding wings if Bai tried anything funny.

They had come to a wordless understanding when she slid off his back. She would approach Jing first as a non-threatening human to see if there was any possibility of rapprochement.

Jing cocked his head a little, assessing her with those unreadable, hypnotic eyes.

“Isn’t it?” he murmured.

“Are you not elated and enchanted to be surrounded by the mythical beasts you dreamed of? It seems you were right all along, Dr. Winters. Dragons are real.”

His gaze took in the gigantic Beasts at her back with both appreciation and respect before settling on her face once more.

“I think you always knew they were real,” Lizzy said. “After all, you’ve been following us on our search for dragon eggs.”

A corner of his mouth ticked up in a barely-there smile, though he didn’t confirm or deny her assertion.

“What’s going on here, Mr. Bai?” she asked, gesturing to the standoff on each side of the lake with a wave of her hand.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were intending to go to war.”

His gaze took on a distant look as he focused it beyond Lizzy to the white-robed army that crowded the other side of the caldera like a heavy fog.

“The war has already begun,” he said, his eyes still pinned to the distance.

“The war never ended.”

“What do you mean?”

He flicked his eyes back to her.

“The Great War between Pure and Dark Ones that was supposedly won by the former thousands of years ago. It never truly ended. Not for the Dark Ones who seethe against the new rules applied by the likes of King Ramses and Queen Jade. And not for the Pure Ones who are dissatisfied by their lot—the least aggressive of all Immortal Kinds. It seems they can be just as militant if they so choose.”

Lizzy opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Jing interrupted her.

“Who are you, Elizabeth Winters? Who are you really, that you should dream of dragons and now command two at your back, plus a Phoenix besides.”

He tilted his head in that scrutinizing look again, the one where it felt as if he was boring into her body, into her very soul.

“I have always known there was something…special about you. You are not susceptible to my Gift. Even Immortals are not immune to it, much less an ordinary human. That is how I knew from the start that you were far from ordinary.”

“What Gift?”

His lips quirked again, and he hesitated a moment before replying, as if debating whether to tell her or not.

“The Gift of persuasion and seduction. Believe it or not, I am nigh irresistible, Dr. Winters.”

Actually, Lizzy could well believe it. Even if she was immune, she still felt the weight of his power whenever he used it on her.

“You haven’t answered me,” he reminded her.

She squared her shoulders.

“I’m nobody special,” she said. “But I do have powerful friends, as you see.”

“And you have the ability to bring long ossified rocks to life,” he murmured softly, eyes narrowing.

“They weren’t rocks to begin with.”

“The ability to awaken dragons then.”

She shrugged.

“As you said, I’ve always dreamed of them. Maybe it’s a quirk of fate that I now get to make my dreams come true. The question is—why are you after the eggs? And willing to fight to the death to acquire them?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he returned.

“Dragons are like nuclear weapons in the world of Immortals. Whoever controls them wins.”

Lizzy felt her temper flare.

“You’re talking about living, feeling beings,” she seethed. “They are not inanimate tools to be used.”

He examined her for a few tense heartbeats, those hypnotic dark eyes probing.

Even if his Gift didn’t affect her, she felt as if he could still see her thoughts somehow. Read her memories. Under his intense scrutiny, she reflected on the irony and hypocrisy of her words.

She had been the ultimate user and abuser. When she was the Pure Goddess. When she was Wan’er and then the Hydra. Shame flooded her like liquid fire.

She shook herself internally. Now wasn’t the time to self-flagellate. She had a war to diffuse.

“I am not the one you should be talking down,” Jing said, as if he could read her mind.

He tipped his chin toward the other side of the lake.

“I am only trying to arm myself in ready defense against a looming threat. She has taken it upon herself to eradicate Dark Ones at the slightest provocation, taking Immortal laws into her own hands. I cannot allow her to get hold of a dragon, let alone more than one. Gods only know what she would do then.”

“Neither of you are going to get even one,” Lizzy stated firmly. “We won’t permit it.”

He somehow managed to shrug without moving his shoulders.

“Then we’ll battle it out the old-fashioned way, I suppose,” he said nonchalantly. “That’s why we brought toys, after all.”

Her eyes darted to the missile-ready fighter jets and helicopters behind the small army of Dark Ones. She hadn’t noticed it before, but there were tanks too.

Good grief!

“Stay here and don’t do anything rash,” she ordered. “I’m going to talk to the other side.”

He seemed amused by her words and bent in an exaggerated bow.

“As you wish, dragon dreamer.”

She turned to Ere and Sorin.

Watch them, please. Keep them contained.

The Black Dragon flung his monstrous spiked head back and shrugged his gigantic wings in a show of defiance, like a high-tempered horse.

We don’t answer to you, human.

Do as she says , Ben said, his tone both calm and non-negotiable.

Hmph , was Ere’s irritated reply.

He rose out of his crouch a little and flapped his wings twice. It was all Lizzy could do to hold her ground and stay standing in the face of those hurricane-grade gales. Clearly, he intended to bowl her over in a show of strength.

Ben’s long, spiked tail smacked him on the back of his head like a wrecking ball.

Ow!

Behave .

You see how he treats me! Ere sidled up to Sorin, seeking comfort and support.

The golden phoenix remained stoically unmoved, not even blinking at his antics.

Lizzy climbed on Ben’s back and called out to Jing Bai.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t do anything stupid.”

With that, Ben flapped his wings and took to the skies.

You have a plan? he asked on the short flight across the lake.

Nope. Just playing it by ear , she answered.

Hmm. He didn’t sound impressed by this approach.

I’m going to talk to “her” and understand the situation. See how far she’s willing to take this , she elaborated.

By the way, in the worst-case scenario should a battle really ensue, can the three of you handle all these jets and missiles and such?

He considered it for a couple seconds.

Probably.

Good to know. She sighed with relief.

But not without causing significant damage and razing this whole park to the ground.

Aaaannnd, she tensed up again.

She really didn’t want to be party to destroying a national treasure, never mind the eradication of hundreds of Immortals on each side.

Do your dragons do this sort of thing a lot? Insert yourselves into hairy situations to turn the tide?

If our involvement can minimize the impact, then yes , he replied. But there are always consequences. Seldom are lives entirely preserved.

Vaguely, Lizzy recalled sending celestial dragons down to earth in times of human need. Yes, there were always consequences. The greater good might have been served, but it all depended on one’s perspective. The losing side certainly didn’t feel that way.

If only she could find a way to negotiate a truce. To prevent the violence and bloodshed from starting in the first place.

On that thought, Ben dove in descent, flapping his wings mightily before he landed to force some of the white-robed soldiers back.

Lizzy’s gaze was immediately drawn to their obvious leader at the front of the brigade. She knew that woman. She’d met her before, however briefly, in Bangkok.

Diana .