Page 27

Chapter 27

Cyrus

I am the worst monster. A menace, for certain. The night is cool and pleasant, but I can’t enjoy it. The memory of Delixian’s mouth on Kaya’s is stabbing my mind over and over again. Sometimes, the thought of Kaya’s accusatory eyes and her angry shouts weaves its way in, too. Damn it. I ruined everything. Our friendship. Any potential romantic relationship. Her night with someone who might actually be trustworthy—Delixian. I should wish them well. I should have been completely fine with the way Kaya melted into his arms. This is what I wanted for her. Someone steady and safe. But the second the wish came true, I found myself engulfed in fire and rage.

I rub at some odd tingling on my chest, then tug on my shirt to look at what’s bothering my skin there.

I nearly fall from the sky.

It’s a mate mark.

Tea leaves and sparkling spots like sugar surround a symbolic heart. This magic states very clearly that my body, my blood, and my soul are committed to claiming Kaya as my true mate.

I fly faster, my fire rising inside me.

For a multitude of reasons, there is no chance for that happiness.

I speed up, slashing through the sky like a meteor. I don’t need to look at the map from the library in the ruins. I know it by heart. I know it as well as the wrinkle that appears between Kaya’s eyebrows when she is worried and the scent of her skin in the morning. The lift of her laughter when she’s had a drink.

I swallow around the sparks simmering in my throat.

“Fuck it.”

I breathe a massive stream of fire into the night, scaring the shite out of anything within a mile, I’m sure. But I have to get this fire out. I can’t think straight.

Faster and faster, I fly away from Leafshire Cove and toward whatever the ancient dragon shifter ghost wants me to find.

It’s all I have right now.

When I land, my mate mark tingling like people say they do when they first show up, I’m faced with a wall of rock. The place the ghost indicated is just a ravine housed in dark purple stone.

There’s nothing here.

No rock drawings of old. No caves to explore. I go over it and over it, combing the cracks in the rock to make sure I’m not missing a passageway. I fly up and over the ravine, but barren stone goes on for miles.

Am I misremembering? Is that even a word? Kaya would know.

I swallow the ache in my throat and press a hand against my mate mark. It is incredibly uncomfortable being away from her. I didn’t think this through. Some say the pain is the worst thing one can experience when the mark is fresh. I don’t feel physically weak, though. Just a pain of the heart and soul. Maybe for dragon shifters, it’s different. Perhaps my kind don’t react the same way with the marks.

The wind bites at my chin and cheeks, but I’m always warm enough to deal with the cold. I simply stoke the fire within me, and I’m as toasty as I would be lying in the sun by the Leafshire River. I can’t stoke contentedness or happiness, though. Only Kaya could rouse such emotions in me now.

I walk slowly down the ravine again, looking for tracks of any kind. My own boot prints have likely ruined my chances on that front; I wish I had thought of that first. Small cloven prints tell me there is a deer-like creature nearby. The paws of a wolf or a large dog are stuck in the dried mud near a bend in the stone. Not fresh.

Wait. What’s that?

A print ahead of the wolf’s paws looks decidedly like bare feet. My heart beats in my ears. Behind the footprints, a swathe of dirt has been smeared as if the walker had a tail. A tail like mine, heavy and dragging the ground if one doesn’t lift it.

I can’t breathe.

“Eh, you there,” a voice says.

My pulse takes on a frenetic pace, and I whirl to see a male with wings, horns, and scales like mine.

Another dragon shifter.

“You all right? Just visiting? You’ll need to get a pass from the gate.”

He is walking toward me and it’s like looking in a mirror.

I can’t find any words at first and he’s staring at me like I’m mad. Maybe I am. Between the ache of being so far from Kaya and the shock of seeing another of my kind in the flesh, I’m truly shaken.

“Wh-where is the gate? I can’t see any entrances. And what am I visiting exactly? I just…” I clear my throat. “Someone told me about this place.”

The male blinks at me like he’s not sure how to respond. “Are you injured?”

“No, why?”

“Because it’s the usual type of gate for our kind. Firebreath entry.”

I just stare right back at him because I’m lost.

He gives me a sympathetic look, turns toward the stone wall of the ravine and breathes fire in a slow and steady stream over a wide area. Sparks dance over the rock, then come together to show a massive arch. Another arch partially appears beside this one and yet another on the other side. Through the arch, on the far side, dragon shifter females, younglings, and adult males like me walk in the sunlight. Buildings in every color of the rainbow line cobblestone streets, not too different from the streets at home.

The male with me puts a hand on my shoulder. “You okay?”

“No, I’m not.” A hysterical laugh bubbles out of me. I wish I could show this to Kaya.

“Come on. I’m Joaquin, House of Stars. I’ll show you around. Where are you from?”

He leads me through the magical gate and into the city. The buildings are tall like those in Kingstown.

“I’m Cyrus. From Leafshire Cove,” I finally answer.

“Haven’t heard of it.”

Dragon shifters fly overhead, greeting one another and carrying satchels and small younglings through the air. Two small males blow fire at one another, and a female, I assume is their mother, pulls them apart, squawking at them about manners.

“It’s near the Veil crossover.”

He whistles and raises his eyebrows. “You flew a long way. I bet your head will straighten out once you get some food and drink.”

“No, you don’t understand. I’ve never seen another dragon shifter. I have never seen a Firebreath gate.”

“Ever?”

“Well, there was a ghost of one in the ruins by my town.”

I can’t stop smiling. It’s a marvel. Everywhere I look, there is someone like me. To say I have one thousand questions bumping around in my head is a massive understatement.

Joaquin leads me to a blue-painted building. He swings the door open—a doorway that is exactly wide enough to pass through comfortably without having to tightly tuck my wings.

“We have a new visitor, Afonso,” Joaquin says to another dragon shifter at a counter.

“Nice to meet you,” I say, extending an arm in greeting.

But instead of grasping my forearm as we do in Leafshire Cove, he and Joaquin eye me curiously.

Another shifter, a female with bright red hair, comes out of a back room. “He’s doing the greeting of the southern regions, fellas.” She reaches over the counter and grasps my forearm. I do the same to hers and then release my hold.

“I’m Beatriz, House of Sun. Welcome to Ravina Roxa.”

“I’m Cyrus. I don’t have a house?”

All three shifters trade a stressed look. Joaquin is the first to recover.

“It’s all right. Let’s get you a pass, and then we can go from there.”

“Maybe his mother moved away while she was pregnant,” Beatriz says quietly, her gaze on me.

“What does that mean? I’m sorry. But I’m just blown away right now. I need so many answers.” I laugh and run a hand over the back of my neck.

“We keep track of all dragon shifters, but when a pregnant female leaves and it isn’t obvious she’s carrying a youngling, sometimes we miss recording that individual.”

“We can get into that later,” Joaquin says.

They help me fill out a form, and then Joaquin and I head back out into the sun and the cacophony of a city filled with fire-breathers.

I feel like I’m dreaming, but my heart isn’t whole. It’s like this can’t be real without Kaya to see it with me. I rub at my chest.

“I know that rub. Where is your mate?” Joaquin is leading me down a side street.

A cart painted in shades of pink and red stands beside a fountain. The merchant is waving around knots of what might be bread. The scent of cinnamon wafts through the air.

I pause, my mate mark practically sizzling.

“Cyrus?” Joaquin eyes me. “Is it still bothering you? When did you claim your mate?”

“I haven’t. It just showed up on my way here.”

“But…”

“I guess we dragon shifters can handle distance a little better than other creatures right after the mark shows up? My friend, Romulus, is a gargoyle, and he couldn’t be far away from his mate at all on that day or even a few days after. I am hurting, but it isn’t debilitating yet.” I still ache for Kaya like someone has dug my heart out of my chest. I don’t need a mate mark to help me understand how I feel about her.

“No. Wait,” Joaquin says. “You don’t know anything about our kind and marks?”

“I guess not?”

Joaquin’s face pales. “You have one turn of the sun to claim your mate or you die.”

A chill sweeps down my body and my wings tremble.

“Mate marks are different for us dragons,” he continues. “I can’t believe no one told you. Where is she? Or he? Or they?”

“She is in Leafshire Cove.” Pain hits me like a storm wind and I stumble back a step. I feel colder than I ever have. Like my fire is being doused.

“It’s starting. You have to leave. Now. Get to her. Claim her. Or you’ll lose your fire and you’ll die. I hate that I’m telling you like this, but you don’t have any time. When exactly did the mark appear?”

“I don’t know.” My mind is spinning, and now we are jogging back toward the front gate of the city. “Maybe at sunrise? I flew from dusk until, well, you saw me right after I arrived.”

“You’re fast.”

“I am.”

“That’s good. You can do this.” He grips my shoulders and looks me straight in the eye. “Skip food, water. Everything. Just fly and get there. You don’t want to wait until the last few hours. You won’t feel like doing anything. You’ll be unable to speak if you wait too long. Some lose the ability to fly pretty quickly. You have to go. Now.”

“All right.” I grasp his forearms and he does the same to me. “Thanks for everything.”

“You must have many questions. But you can return. All dragons are welcome here at any time. It’s only the non-dragons that have to wipe their memories.”

I have no idea what he is talking about, but there isn’t time to ask. I pull him into a hug and slap his back, carefully avoiding his wings.

“Thank you, friend. I really appreciate this. I don’t know if I’ll see you again, but here’s hoping.”

I wave as I take off into the sky and leave the shining city of my kin behind. Honestly, I’m torn. It’s as if half of my heart is in Leafshire Cove and the other half is here. I hate the sensation of a divided loyalty.

My mind is spinning once more, and I don’t know what to hope for with regard to Kaya and the possibility of her also having a mark for me. She likely doesn’t. She was mad. She wanted me to leave, and Delixian seemed to tickle her fancy quite well. A snarl tears out of me, the wild dragon side of me taking over. My mate. Not his. I breathe and try to rein that side back in. I have to think clearly and be reasonable.

Blessed Stones, I hope Kaya isn’t in pain.

I’ll have to explain everything to her when I get there, but I can’t tell her that if she denies me, I’ll die. I won’t put that on her. It’s not right. But if she is somehow miraculously in love with me, well then…

The first few miles go well, with no pain worth fretting about, but on the third hour of flying, exhaustion sets in. I’m hungry, tired, and the chilling, debilitating pain begins in earnest.