Sinon’s roar swept over me, the wild gust of air ripping under my wings, and I tumbled again, the fast flow of the river rushing up to meet me. Great. I was falling. Again. A vast claw caught me, and my heartbeat ramped. Was this it, my last few minutes of life? Sinon playing games with me as a cat tortured a mouse…but he didn’t hurl me.
I craned my neck up and stared at the deep chest of an inky black dragon, larger than Sinon, his vast, translucent wings shimmering with a white-gold sheen. Was this the North American dragon? And he didn’t seem to be eager to throw me at all. For a precious second, I let myself breathe and willed strength into my aching body, forcing it to heal.
In the dragon’s strong grip, the terror of being so high faded back, and hell, I was dead tired. I fought the aching need to close my eyes, but my lids sank and I couldn’t…
My body slumped against a cold hard surface, and I struggled to find my feet. Black granite, open skies devoid of a latticework of glass and steel-I was back in Wormwood and Sinon’s tower room. My heart clenched and fear fired strength into my body. My wings arched. Kaden. Where was Kaden? I had to find him.
“Easy, Jaime.”
The words burst into my brain. I froze. What the hell…?
“Mythoi of the same species can share thoughts when we’re shifted.”
The voice invading my mind sounded familiar, and I craned my neck up. Inky black dragon, vast, glittering, filled my vision. But I wasn’t a dragon. That stupid, stupid thought bounced in my stunned brain. The huge triangular head with a golden eye the size of my head eased down level with me. His scent, warm, slightly spiced, filled my lungs, and my overworked heart kicked. It couldn’t be. That was…impossible. “Kaden?”
A distant roar burst over us. Shit. Sinon.
“I have to end this.”
“No, Kaden, we can-”
“He would never leave us. Drop your shift. You’re healed and it’s exhausted you.” He nuzzled my head, stroking over smooth feathers, the gesture heartwarming and strangely ridiculous. “Ridiculous? I think I’ll have to have words with you. After.”
Great gusts of air swept over me from the first beat of his wings, and I struggled to stay standing. My gryphon form ached, burned, the need to let her slip back into shadow a weight on my bones. He was right. I had to fall back into my human sheath. Clothes itched against me, feeling strange after the rush of air against fur and feathers.
He erupted into the open sky, and I watched him with human eyes. The relief of not holding my form sank me to the cold granite floor, the open sky high above me. Kaden soared, wheeled, and his magnificence, his beauty, caught my breath. A smug little burst of satisfaction from my gryphon had a grin pulling at my mouth. Yes, she thought her mate was glorious too.
Sinon swooped low, cutting under Kaden. His maw opened and fire streamed in a liquid spray around Kaden forming a blaze of red flame and smoke. I cried out, my body betraying me as it only let me crawl to my feet. It couldn’t end like this. Couldn’t.
A different roar, deeper, more resonant, shook the air, and Kaden burst from the grey smoke, his wings spread wide, his shadow sweeping over me. My heart leapt. How his transformation had happened I didn’t question. That it had made my chest tight and my blood on fire. He wheeled and charged at Sinon. All other thought shot from my brain.
The wild lash of tails, talons, mixing with the riot of wings, teeth and flame made it hard for me barely to breathe. Sinon’s silver hide glittered, shone, as it wrapped around the light-sucking inky blackness of my mate. The stink of ash and hot, melting metal thickened the air as smoke wreathed around the battling dragons, obscuring them. I couldn’t see who had the upper hand, who would win.
A fierce burst of wind swept down over me, and I staggered back, coughing from the searing ash that came with it. Darkness rushed over me, and I caught the image of bony wings, scorched and torn skin. Black skin. Not silver. My gut cramped, and I stared upwards, not thinking to move, to run from the crashing weight of a falling dragon. I would die…but it didn’t matter.
The falling dragon was Kaden.
Chapter Eleven
The dragon shifted in a blur of light, taking on its human sheath as it plummeted. A great claw swooped out from the smoke and caught the man in its heavy padding. I stared and tried to remember how to breathe. A black claw caught a silver-haired man.
Gently, Kaden eased Sinon onto the granite tiles and in a shining burst of light he dropped to his knees beside him. I couldn’t move. Kaden was alive. The wild joy of that fired hot blood through my body, and I staggered towards them, dropping beside Sinon. The First Dragon still breathed, but his face, once so beautiful, lay thick with raw flesh and blackened skin stretching down over his throat and chest. Smoke rose from his tattered flesh.
I found Kaden’s eyes. Tears burned there. “Kaden?”
“What am I?” He took Sinon’s lax hand and squeezed hard, forcing the dying man to focus on him. “Father, what am I?”
My stomach turned over. Father? Kaden was Sinon’s son? How was that possible? And how could a father treat his son that way? My anger at the man surged. Sinon was dying, but I couldn’t dredge up any pity for him.
Sinon coughed, his breath ragged. His eyes rolled to stare at Kaden and contempt still gripped him. “You…are…corruption.” It seemed, even as he lay dying, Sinon loathed his son.
Kaden’s mouth thinned. “No. I’m not.” He dropped Sinon’s hand and climbed to his feet.
He offered his hand to me and I took it, slipping my fingers into his warm, strong grip. We stepped back from Sinon and relief washed through me. He’d tried to kill both of us. My gryphon reared, her thoughts thick with satisfaction. Yes, she wanted him gone too.
Kaden squeezed my fingers before he turned his hard gaze on Sinon again. “I’m not corruption. I’m you, Father. I’m the First Dragon.”
Sinon struggled to push himself up, blood wetting his lips as fury gave him strength. “You’re a mongrel! A fester born on this reality. My dirty secret, hidden even from the register. I should’ve followed my first instinct and eaten you the minute you were born.”
Kaden laughed, the sound harsh, bitter. “Even you couldn’t break that law. So you turned me into a sometime-whore.” He lifted his chin. “Time for you to die.” And he turned away from his father.
I gripped his hand hard, willing strength into my legs. My stomach twisted tight. Sinon was still my master. Some reluctant part of me was unable to ignore that. Kaden returned my fierce squeeze, and the anxiety eased. No, we had a new First Dragon.
“Don’t turn your back on me!”
Sinon’s rasping voice cut through me, and I focused on something, on anything else. The air, it was changing, growing still and warm, the hint of energy itching against my skin. I stared up. The lattice of steel and glass glittered in the morning sunlight. It was a shield. At least that was one answer amongst the myriad of rising questions.
It still didn’t feel quite real. None of it. How was it possible that I was alive? That Kaden was? Hell, I knew that was more than I could’ve hoped for an hour before, but still, it was impossible. The first spark of a grin pulled at my mouth as the fact of our surviving filtered into my dazed brain. We were alive and together.
Sinon’s rasping voice burst after us, raining curses on Kaden and his corruption, and it stabbed at me, breaking my smile. Yes, too much about Kaden was still unknown. One of Sinon’s choke-voiced demands stuck in my brain: “How did you break my seal? How did you break it and shift?”