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Dove

A s we take leave of the omnipresent tower behind us, I spot the red, soaring flames of Saff. Taken aback by the brilliant view of the large dragon ploughing pure power on a purple egg rocks me, solidifying a piece of my broken heart back together.

“Her egg,” I gasp, and Gideon pauses in front of me.

“Fury will not go back on his word. If you find the missing parts of the key, he will release Saff’s egg and kill the king and his son. Saff has a lot of pent-up fire to release to restore her energy. She shouldn’t have any problems flying for us now.” With his piece said, Gideon continues to walk towards the fire-breathing dragon as if nothing is amiss in his world.

I only just found out dragons exist beyond my books, and now I am witnessing Saff in all her glory, giving life to her young. It is bone-chilling—or bone-thawing. My intimate is formidable in her loyalty and in her love. Seeing her red, glowing flames birth life instead of taking it away unlatches parts of me that once saw flames as destruction and death, instead rebuilding it now in equal measures of rebirth.

In the past, this display of fire would have scared me, leading me to cower in fear. Now, all I want to do is reach out and touch it, seeing what possibilities my future could hold in the resurrection of my growing spirit.

One thing I know for certain moving forward is that I will never again be the girl cowering away in the perceived safety of a temple when, in truth, it is just a house of lies. I am better off in the forest with the wolves than back in Haven with the liars and cheats.

A sense of acknowledgement falls around me as I continue my trek over to Saff, where she doesn’t let up on her flames. Not even once.

The wolf before me stops, admiring the miracle in front of us. Brilliant flames dance before our eyes, soot tickling my nose.

“How long?” I ask as I sidle up next to him. Even though we are within a few feet of the flames, no heat touches my skin.

“All night, she has been working on feeding her young.” All night?! I stand there, shocked at his statement. How can she continually spew fire all night? It seems like such an impossibility in my mind.

“Soon, you will see everything is possible, pet.” The soothing sounds of Fury lace through my mind.

“Can you please refrain from stepping in unannounced?” I push out towards the growing Fury bond in my chest.

A beautiful deep laughter firmly vibrates through my mind. “ Shall I start each correspondence with ’Dear Dove, my most ardent, bonded pet’?”

“No, you shall give me space and only talk when invited,” I speak up in my most authoritative voice, which I realise sounds more like a disgruntled child than a fierce warrior.

“Mmmm, she has teeth. I knew I made the right choice.” A tremor runs down my spine, and I choose to ignore it.

“Step back, Fury,” I reply.

“Sing for me, pet,” he counters, giving me pause to remember our bonding, when I moaned for him.

My core thaws at the memory, and laughing drifts through my mind. Stupid daemon God.

Coming out of my internal trance, I notice Saff has stopped her fire breathing and is patiently watching me. Gideon has already taken his seat on her back, and looks down at me with expectant amber eyes.

Rubbing my temples to try and forget all things Fury—“try” being the optimal word—as his bond tugs at my chest, I clasp onto Gideon’s outstretched hand and hoist myself onto the saddle. We take our accustomed seating arrangement of Gideon in the back and me in the front, this time with plenty of clothing on both of our bodies to prevent any stray body parts from touching.

Now bonded to two beings, I do not need any more feelings trying to worm their way into my body and what is left of my poor heart, that is for sure.

My back moulds comfortably to Gideon’s front, his strong arms flush against mine as we both move to hold the reins. Without asking, he wraps his hands over mine in a gentle but firm grip.

“She’s waiting for you,” the no-nonsense tone tickles my ear.

My eyes still locked on the hot, calloused hands holding mine down. The ones now leaving traces of tingles up my arms. “Who?” I ask in a daze.

“Saff.” His fingers grip tighter around my hands.

At the mention of Saff, the breath I am holding releases. “Yes, of course.”

He’s just doing his job, I remind myself. He is only protecting me so I can sing the song to get Fury off this prison island. The information is humbling, but does not dissuade the feelings this wolf attracts throughout my body in close proximity.

Reaching forward, I rub the hardened scarlet scales of Saff’s back. “I’m ready if you are, my friend.”

Saff’s leathered wings expand, and she pushes off the ashen ground.

As we begin our climb towards the murky sky above, Gideon shifts one of his hands to bind around my waist, pushing us further together, one of his large hands still covering both of mine on the reins.

“I take my charges seriously, Songbird, and your safety is my priority now,” the sound of his gruff voice scrapes against my ear.

“I…” the next words fall away as my mind goes blank. What do I even say to that? Thanks, but no thanks, Gideon. I can take care of myself. We both know that’s not true. Not where we are going anyway. Into uncharted lands.

I have no idea what to expect from this journey beyond Haven. Somehow, I’ve managed to make it to Terra unscathed, having found myself hitching a solo ride on a dragon. The old Dove would have blanched at the possibility of this new reality. Too scared to leave the confines of my safe temple, she would have cowered at the face of this life.

The girl in the temple is stronger than I once believed. Yes, the wolf sitting behind me ripped me from the safety of my lies, but not once has he made me feel unsafe in his company. He’s only ever given me resolute, unwavering strength. The kind that fills me with fire and brimstone. The kind that fills me with such intensity that I can no longer go back to the status quo of my old existence.

Fury, through his own fucked up way of protecting me, has completely altered the course of my life, and I am no longer mad about it. I am wary of this new unknown, of the challenges I will face, but I don’t have to face them alone anymore. I have the strength of an immortal dyre wolf behind me, a bonded God feeding me an unimaginable force and a golden thread that will not quit.

Since leaving Terra, I tried to ignore the golden ache, but through every sentence, every thought, every breath, it makes itself recognised.

Violet eyes swim in my vision, and I squeeze my eyes shut tight.

Our first stop will be those violet eyes, and I have no idea what we will find. The pain I felt through the bond that propelled me into blacking out was the worst kind of agony. I never want to feel it again.

I know Rivern is alive. Our bond is still strong, though hurting at our distance.

I have no clue what I will find at our reunion. I still question if he even wants me.

Regardless of the bond, he was my first. He is the first person I let my walls down for, my first kiss and the first person I wanted to experience more with. That has to count for something.

Approaching the void, my body tenses. The large crack in the land stretches from mountains to sea, and Gideon narrates the different land masses to me.

Saff also soothes my worry at the gaping black hole in the land as she flies overhead. “ We have not seen the creatures from the void for centuries. They are not land people. They thrive in the water and the cooler temperatures below.”

This information intrigues me. There are people that thrive in water.

“We are getting close.” I hear Gideon flare his nostrils behind me. He has been our compass with his hunting abilities and greater understanding of the land below. Apparently, I am slathered in Rivern’s scent, and he is our first target.

We originally headed back towards Terra, and I was more than happy to head to a familiar land first and potentially see the people we left to make their way to the underground mountain city, but that’s not where Gideon scented Rivern.

Instead, we are headed for the Silver Sands, a completely unknown territory to me except for the one time Saff brought me here. Apparently, Rivern’s aroma is the strongest in this new direction.

The Silver Sands are exactly as their name describes: grey-toned, almost white, shimmering fine sand as far as the eye can see. It is different from the sand I have witnessed at the beaches surrounding Haven, which is almost yellow in its creamy complexion.

Where the hot wind blows, I can see the sand being picked up and whisked away in multiple directions, it is so fine.

Saff glides us over the cliff face of the void, and we are officially in Silver Sands territory. Beyond the rolling, sandy dunes shimmering in the distance, a kingdom emerges.

Gideon confirms the rocky forms are our destination, and Saff confirms the same kingdom as her old home in the sands. The place where she was imprisoned until she struck a deal of her own.

I lose my breath at the new imposing spectacle. The possibilities of our deaths grow closer with the unknown of these people. Both Saff and Gideon explained on our trip that these people are different from what I am used to. They are small people with almost translucent scales, and they do not grow hair. They are also known as fighters and live and breathe combat—in a way, the opposite of the fae.

Though they do not have much to fight these turns, their culture demands respect through physical strength and ingenuity.

The wolf behind me holds firm in his grip around my waist as we grow closer and closer to the stone rising from the sand. From my vantage point on top of Saff, the kingdom looks like a large circle surrounded by white stone walls. I have never seen a stone so white in colour before.

Squinting my eyes, I can see the movement of material covering the tops of the buildings within the larger circle, understanding the need for open ventilation as the suns’ rays beat down on us from above. I have experienced hot weather in Haven, but because of the shimmering sands, the suns on this side of the lands are a new level of hot.

Approaching closer, I notice my dragon is not pulling back to land. “Saff, we need to land.”

Giving me a mental clip, she says within my mind, “ They are expecting me. They know I do not bring danger. I will bring you both safely inside the walls, and if they threaten you, I will burn them where they stand.”

“Okay.” I gulp, trusting Saff in this matter.

“They are reasonable people,” Gideon comments as my body involuntarily gets tenser as we approach. Not even the smell of spice and sandalwood surrounding me is enough to pacify my fraying nerves.

Within another circle of the surrounding walls, I see motion below as luminescent bodies jump and scurry at our approach. I am compelled to shut my eyes as my body beats a strong, harrowing rhythm I cannot control.

In the middle of the kingdom, I see a spiral circle laid out, free of people and stone, where Saff aims to land.

The circle is so wide that she effortlessly comes down with an unfortunately loud thud, signalling our arrival. Her wings retract instantly, and she bows her head. The air around us ripples out fine sand, pushing up the white sheets covering the buildings that surround us.

The golden chain connecting my heart to the violet-eyed prince gives a hard tug, and my eyes shoot upwards to a large platform dais carved out of the same white stone the buildings are created from. And on that dais, next to two luminescent, scaled, cat-eyed people, sits a wide-eyed Rivern.

My body jerks in my seat to get to him. To get to this prince who has taken parts of me I never knew existed. But the hand around my waist holds me close. “Easy, Songbird.”

Tearing my gaze away from Rivern to assess our current situation, I notice the other hairless, scaled people. I almost missed them as they blend into their surroundings, but their fighter stances yell that they are threatened.

And we are that threat. My hands clamp tight around Saff’s reins, my blood pumping loudly in my ears. Argus perks up within, ready to contribute to Saff’s fire when needed.

But my gaze is drawn back to Rivern as I see him talking to one of them, moving his arms around animatedly. The one he talks to eyes Saff and me with curiosity more than vexation.

That’s when I notice a robed figure standing from a seated position on the platform, speaking so softly that I find it hard to make out.

As one, the whole of the people surrounding us take a knee and bow their heads, murmuring one word…

“Seraph.”