“What do you mean?” I cried out desperately.
The Spirit faded, and the wind died down as she yelled, “Life and Death are torn asunder! They must reunite in order to repair the balance.”
After that, I truly was alone.
* * *
I woke with a start,my heart pounding in my chest and sweat running in rivulets down my skin.
Had that been nothing but a figment of my imagination? Rintha felt so real…
But it had been a dream.
I was back in my own clothes, and the air was still insufferably hot. Daegal’s hand ran in soothing gestures over my side, and it quickly became clear that he hadn’t moved.
Blinking, I yawned. “Has Xander returned?”
Daegal and Maiela cast worried looks in the direction the dragon shifter had disappeared. Aileana had moved, and now she was pacing on the stone, green threads of power spinning around her as she paced. Kysha stood near the Earth Elf, spinning purple ribbons around her hands, but not speaking.
It was Maiela who answered. “Hours have passed and we haven’t heard from him.”
Daegal frowned. “He should have been back by now.”
Worry pushed aside Rintha’s question to the recesses of my mind. If Xander didn’t get the amulet, we couldn’t leave this place. We would be stuck here in Shadowfell Mountain, slowly starving to death in front of this fiery lake.
What was taking him so long?
Night and Day
XANDER
My right hamstring burned as I climbed these never-ending steps, and my already exhausted muscles screamed every time I lifted my foot. How were there so many stairs? I could have sworn hours had passed since I left Aileana.
Strange magic was at play here. There was no question in my mind.
Worry pulsed through the mating bond, tasting sour on my tongue, and I knew she was waiting for me. I tried to speak to her through our connection, but every time I attempted to send her a message, my words slammed into a brick wall separating the two of us.
Strange magic indeed.
The only thing that kept me going was the thought that this wasfinallythe end. For over a century, I had worked towards this very moment. What did one do when the quest that had been fueling them for decades suddenly ended?
This climb was bittersweet, and thoughts of my childhood clouded my mind as I climbed walked up the stairs. How could it be any other way? Visions of my mother’s sad smile intermingled with ones of that final, fateful morning when she sent us into the forest to play. Memories of her swollen belly, days before Saena’s birth, mixed with the acrid scent of ash and death that had haunted me after the destruction of our village.
I should have protected Saena, but I’d failed.
How had the same loving, caring, spirit-filled girl that had pranced through our village become the twisted evil queen that now reigned over Ithenmyr and Drahan? How had she lost control of her dragon? That was the first lesson every dragon shifter learned. From the moment we could talk, we were taught the importance of keeping our creatures under control.
Night and day, Mother had called us. Opposites in both looks and personality. Saena’s hair was as black as a stormy night, whereas mine was as white as silver-streaked snow. I was serious, and Saena used to be filled with joy.
When we were young, we were the perfect pair.
Who was she now?
The Dragon Queen is no longer your sister,the creature within me remarked. This wasn’t the first time it had spoken in such a fashion.You must cast those thoughts aside if we are going to live.
I refused to let that be the case.
I might still be able to save her,I said, a tinge of desperation in my voice.Maybe I can reason with her.