We had been at Olwine’s cottage for a week; the storm having morphed into a blizzard that made going outside impossible. I felt like a caged animal—I needed to get out. To run. To breathe fresh air.
I needed to fly.
All of us were feeling the impacts of being stuck inside for seven days. Even Kysha, who was the most level-headed of our group, was getting snappy.
Something slammed into the window, and I looked up as snow battered the glass. The wind howled, and the storm raged on. Aileana and I were side-by-side on the small blanket roll that was serving as our bed. This cottage had not been built to accommodate a dragon shifter of my size. My feet hung off the bottom, and no matter how I shifted, I was never comfortable. My mate had fallen asleep a few hours ago—a feat in and of itself, since she had spent most of the past few days pacing by the front door, anxious to feed her magic to the earth—but sleep still evaded me.
A hand landed on my shoulder. “Are you awake, Xan?”
Pulling open my eyes, I made out Daegal’s form in the near darkness. “Yes.”
He tilted his head, and I read the message in his expression. Extricating my limbs from around Aileana, I brushed a kiss across her forehead before tucking the edges of the blanket around her sleeping form. Privacy was a foreign concept in this cabin that was becoming smaller by the day, but we walked to the front door, near the banked fire. It took some careful maneuvering, stepping over sleeping bodies, but eventually, we made it.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.
The Fortune Elf sighed. “I had another vision.”
“I suspected as much.” Both Daegal and Maiela had several visions over the past week while we had been stuck here.
Daegal nodded. “The situation has declined.”
The situation. That could mean so many things. My sister. The country in general. The darkness that had been coming but had now arrived.
I sighed. “What do you mean?”
“War is brewing on two fronts,” he said. “The Western and Northern Kingdoms are holding Saena off for now, but I don’t know how much longer they’ll last.”
Why was she doing this? Weren’t two kingdoms beneath her rule enough? Even as the question appeared in my mind, I shook my head. I knew the answer. Drakens craved power. This wasn’t Saena—or at least, it wasn’t the sister I had once known. Her power-hungry draken had taken over.
Suddenly, a memory flashed before my eyes. It was so strong that for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
“Remember children,” Mama said to Saena and me as we sat at the small kitchen table in our home a few months before the destruction of our village, “you must always be careful to keep your dragon in check. The onus is on the shifter to never let the creature that lives beneath their skin take control.”
“Why not, Mama?” Saena asked. My sister sat next to me; her legs curled underneath her as she ran her hands through her rag doll’s red string hair. She pursed her lips, studying the toy intently.
Our mother stood. Lifting the brush off the nearby shelf, she took my sister’s long black hair in one hand, running the brush slowly through Saena’s locks. Neither of us spoke—we were used to this. Sometimes, when Mama had something important to say, she took her time putting her words together.
I always enjoyed these moments. Since Papa had died, Mama was often sad. She rarely smiled, and her eyes were heavy. Sometimes, I caught her crying when she thought we couldn’t hear her. Those days were the worst. But she seemed to want to talk as much as we enjoyed talking to her.
When Saena’s hair was ready, Mama separated it into three strands. Only then did she speak.“Dragon shifters are not like the other shifters in the Four Kingdoms.” She smiled softly at me. “Why is that Elyx?”
Frowning, I tapped my hand on the table as I thought. “Other shifters can control their animals, right?”
Mama beamed. “Very good. Yes, they have complete dominance over their creatures. Feline shifters can choose their size, what their animals do… they control everything.”
“But dragons aren’t like that, are they?” I asked seriously, as Mama plaited Saena’s hair.
A sad look came over my mother’s eyes, and she shook her head.
“No, Elyx,” she said. “That’s why the others in Ithenmyr fear us. Dragons have desires and thoughts of their own. They are real beings that simply reside within us, sharing our skin. They’re not meant to be contained.”
My own dragon woke within me at that.We’re meant to fly,it said.
“Dragons want to be powerful.” Saena smiled, putting her doll on the table. “Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, my dear. They want many things.” Mama tied off Saena’s hair before reaching over and lifting my sister into her arms. Hugging Saena tightly against her chest, Mama met my gaze. “More than anything else, dragons crave power and riches. That is why we must keep them on such a tight leash.”
I nodded, taking her words seriously. Even if Saena didn’t understand what Mama was saying, I did.