Page 21 of The Dragon Shifters’ Enemy (Dragon’s Reign #7)

“All the other Dragon Shifters are here so even if the Behemoth thought it could go up against just you, Raziel, that wouldn’t be the case right now.” Caden ticked off another finger.

Red eyes burned hotter at the suggestion that Raziel couldn’t defend itself and its mate.

Caden held up a hand. “I’m not saying you need backup, but that you have it.”

Raziel appeared mollified by this.

“So what benefit would it have being near here? None,” Caden answered his own question.

Caden and Raziel were evidently on the same page about the Behemoth. Valerius met Iolaire’s blue gaze. Maybe he was not alone in his fears.

“Why do you think the Behemoth is close, Iolaire?” Valerius asked the White Dragon Spirit.

Angry. Arrogant. Anxious, Iolaire said.

Valerius nodded at each adjective except the last one for describing the Behemoth. “Why anxious ?”

He could almost feel the White Dragon Spirit as it searched for words to explain. Iolaire sent images instead of an army mustering its forces, of police and firefighters placing sandbags before a storm, and of civilians closing shutters and huddling in basements before a tornado.

“It is anxious that we will be prepared for it?” Valerius intuited.

Yes, Iolaire said with gratefulness.

“How can we get prepared?” Caden asked.

Iolaire suddenly became quite fixated on the roast beef. Its eyes went meaningfully to it and then the horseradish sauce and rolls along with the sharp cheddar cheese.

“It appears that your Dragon Spirit is as into food as you are, Caden,” Valerius chuckled.

Then, as if to shame him, Raziel looked at his full plate. Valerius quickly started forking chicken into his mouth along with a delicious creamy pasta. They ate until their Dragon Spirits appeared satisfied, or not as focused at least on food.

“Okay, guys, enough stalling,” Caden said as he wiped his lips with a napkin. “What do we have to do?”

Iolaire and Raziel looked at each other then, slowly, both looked to the red and white helix in the sky. Valerius and Caden both turned in their chairs to look at it.

“Ah… not following,” Caden said as he looked back at the two Dragon Spirits.

Valerius’ forehead furrowed. “That is a symbol of their love for one another. Do you wish--wish Caden and I to… to marry ?”

That was the only way he could think to establish themselves as mates. Caden’s eyebrows rose and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

“You want to get married?” Caden asked.

“Do you not?”

Valerius was surprisingly hurt at Caden’s disbelieving tone. But could he blame Caden? A few days ago, such a thing would have been inconceivable. But now? When they already felt so close? When they were mates?

“Ah, yeah , but… I guess there’s no real buts.” Caden grinned. “Yet there is one! If we’re going to get married, we have to make proposals! I mean I want to do something romantic that will surprise you and--”

No, not human marriage needed, Raziel growled with a puff of black smoke. Already mates.

Caden looked crestfallen. “Well, yeah, but there needs to be the big romance and--”

Party after Behemoth is destroyed , Raziel said firmly.

Which had both Valerius and Caden looking a little dashed.

“And to think, we could have done one of those Werewolf ceremonies,” Valerius said, half-joking and half not.

Caden appeared gleeful for a moment. “Totally! We could adapt like one from the movies! The Alpha’s True Mate has a great scene that--”

Party after Behemoth is destroyed! Raziel repeated with more insistence.

Caden held up his hands. “Okay. Okay. But I bet we would have even better food there than this. But if you two--”

We will destroy Behemoth quickly, Raziel said after a hard look at the food.

Valerius quickly speared some beef and stuffed it into his mouth. After he chewed and swallowed--he was not an anaconda-- he asked, “So what is it that you meant when you looked at the helix?”

Again, Iolaire struggled with words, but the image it sent was unmistakable. It showed him the helix. There were many colors in the helix. Not just Raziel and Iolaire, but all of the Dragons. Caden’s forehead furrowed.

“Uh, is Iolaire suggesting an orgy with the other Dragon Shifters, because I am so not kissing Illarion,” Caden said with a meaningful cough.

Iolaire let out what suspiciously sounded like a Dragon laugh. Raziel gave a full body shudder. They were not into kissing Illarion either.

“Thankfully, no orgy apparently is needed. Though the two of you mating is what caused the helix,” Valerius pointed out to the two Dragon Spirits. “So how else would we get everyone else’s Dragon colors… oh…”

“What oh ?” Caden had narrowed his eyes at Valerius suspiciously.

Valerius was surprised at how he squirmed a little bit under Caden’s gaze. “It is probably nothing.”

“From the way that both you and Raziel won’t meet my or Iolaire’s gazes, I’m guessing it's important,” Caden said as his eyes flickered between Valerius and Raziel.

“During the War,” Valerius could even hear the capital W in the word as he drew his fingers along the wood table’s grain, still not able to look at Caden quite yet, “there was a moment when all eight of us were flying together.”

“Oh, yeah! They teach that in class. The eight of you flew around the world in this V-shape with you at the tip of the V,” Caden said, his eyes lighting up.

“When it happened, it was not looked on so happily by the humans,” Valerius said with a faint smile.

“In school, they talk about it as the moment when humanity realized that it didn’t have a chance and then the peace talks began,” Caden explained with a shrug.

“It was the end of death and destruction. I’m sure that Jasper Hawes and his people wouldn’t see it as good, but I do. I did even when I was human.”

Valerius nodded. “It was the end, but it also felt…” He licked his lips. How to explain that moment as the Dragons had flown as one? “It felt like the beginning of something too.”

Caden plucked some of the dark purple grapes and smooshed goat cheese on them without looking away from him. Which was really quite the feat. Valerius found himself feeling that welling of affection that ran so deep for Caden to warm up in him again.

“What did it feel like? The beginning of what?” Caden asked as he popped a grape in his mouth.

“Make me one of those, please,” Valerius said. Caden did so and Valerius chewed on the sweet and salty combination. “Huh, it is good.”

“Oh, yeah! Want another one?” Caden asked.

“Bread, goat cheese and apples this time,” Valerius asked.

“Of course, my king,” Caden said with relish to please him.

As Caden made the little sandwich for him, Valerius explained, “It felt as if all of the Dragons could… connect on the Spirit level.”

Caden’s eyebrows rose and his hand froze in smearing goat cheese on bread. “Like--like the Behemoth? Like you could become one big multi-headed thing--”

“No, no, not like that!” Valerius chuckled dryly. He tented his fingers beneath his chin. “You have said to me that you feel--before now--that I have been alone .”

Caden nodded slowly as he carefully laid apple slices over every inch of bread and goat cheese for him. “Definitely.”

“I think perhaps that there was a moment when the Dragons could have connected . When, instead of being alone, we could have been one of a--a spiritual… clan, I suppose?” Valerius struggled just as Iolaire did to put the feeling he’d had in words.

“I remember looking at Esme and seeing tears in her eyes. She nodded. I know she did. Was she saying she wanted the connection or did she already know what we would all do?”

“Which was?” Caden handed him the piece of bread.

He took a bite of the sandwich, but though it was rich, creamy and sweet, there was the faint taste of ashes in his mouth as he chewed and swallowed before answering, “We rejected each other, of course. Like eight snarling dogs that slowly back away from one another.”

“I don’t think I have to ask why. Territoriality and stuff, right?” Caden guessed.

“That is what we all thought. But what if…” Valerius’ gaze slid to Raziel.

He thought of the violent reaction the Black Dragon Spirit had to Iolaire’s arrival.

He thought of its intense need to be alone until…

until it experienced something different and wonderful. “What if we are not meant to be alone?”

Caden didn’t look surprised at this. “When you think about it, the Dragon Shifters are… should be… like the guardians of this world. Keeping order. Protecting people.”

“Illarion? Protecting people?” Valerius lifted an eyebrow.

“Okay… well, maybe that’s a stretch except… when you’re in charge, he does ,” Caden said with a helpless shrug. “Think about it. He kept his word to you during the War and--despite the amount of times he’s threatened to leave--he’s stayed and is trying to help. In his own way.”

“We would be at each other’s throats if we were connected though,” Valerius said with a hiss of breath through teeth.

“Or since we’d all be connected, warring among ourselves might be something that has too high a price,” Caden suggested.

“That is worse, Caden. Illarion, despite his stupidity, has done many evil things,” Valerius said.

“He is doing evil things. Not protecting his people, but imprisoning them. I cannot… I do not think I can allow that to stand. So if we are--are connected when we fight the Behemoth, what about after ?”

Caden bit his lower lip. “Yeah, I guess I see your point. But--”

Caden did not get to finish that sentence as Celestine hurried out to him with a phone in her hand. She normally did not hurry. But this time he could almost see her feathers ruffling as she practically ran towards him.

“It is Chione, my kings!” Celestine got out as she laid the phone on the table between them. It was on speaker.

“Caden? Valerius?” Chione sounded breathless as if she had been running with the phone.

“Yes,” he and Caden said practically as one.

“You’re at Valinor?” Chione asked.

Knowing this wasn’t what she needed to know or tell them, Valerius growled, “Yes, what of it?”

“I’m glad! I’m so glad!” And Chione did sound utterly relieved when he had expected her to chide them for avoiding their duties.

“What’s up, Chione?” Caden pressed.

“Landry sent another text,” Chione explained. “And this time her phone hasn’t been shut off.”

“What did the text say?” Caden was practically hunched over the phone now as if getting closer to Chione’s voice meant getting closer to Landry’s whereabouts.

“Just two words,” Chione said, her tone grim, “Wall.”

“Wall?” Valerius repeated.

“Yes. And death. Wall and death,” Chione explained.

“That doesn’t mean anything!” Caden cried.

“Perhaps not, but maybe Landry herself can tell us what she meant,” Chione rushed out, “We’ve tracked her phone’s signal. It’s right by Valinor. Just the next valley over!”

And in the silence that followed Chione’s words, Iolaire repeated its earlier statement about the Behemoth, Close.