My back burned as I tried to move, skin tugging as it tried to heal.
“Be careful moving around,” Craig warned, and I opened my eyes to see him coming towards me, holding out a flask. “Water, drink. It’ll help.”
I took it, not ready to argue with my mouth so parched, I was surprised my tongue was still whole. “Thanks,” I gasped, and he nodded as he helped me sit upright. “What happened?”
“Aside from you almost dying because you didn’t listen to me? A lot.”
I frowned but followed his gaze to see Kate with her hands bound along with her feet, unconscious from the look of it, but close to the fire to keep her warm. “What are you doing?”
“We need to talk.”
“Obviously.” I tried to reach around to feel the wounds. “You… you both saved my life?”
“You can thank Kate for that, I was going to leave you.”
Reluctantly, I held out a hand. “Thank you, I owe you a debt.”
“How about you just forget about this bounty on my head? We have bigger problems, you know, the killer plague and all?”
I wanted to deny what I saw, but that… that monster, it was real, and it had come for me. Nearly killed me. How was it no one else believed Craig? If this was already spreading through the demon world, it wouldn’t be long before it reached the others, if it wasn’t there already.
“Yes, yes I believe you’re right.”
He laughed sharply. “I’m sorry, could you say that again?”
“Don’t push your luck, half-breed,” I grunted and stood, stretching my arms. “What happened to her?”
He hesitated then reached into his pocket, and I smelled the item before I saw it. “She held onto this and started to shift, while wearing that bracelet.”
I reached for it, but he yanked his hand back.
“Nope, I’m not having you go all crazy either and try to bite my head off.”
The scent coming from that piece of glass was old, very old and powerful. “Fine, keep it, but where did you find it?”
“Do you have any idea what it is?”
I shook my head, breathing deeply again. “No, but it smells… peculiar. I can’t describe it.”
“Do you think you could use it to find more like it?”
I shrugged. “Depends. We’re good at finding treasure, but this isn’t just treasure. It’s so much more.” My hand itched to hold it, but I wasn’t going to go after him over it. I was too weak to hold my own in a fight right now. “And Kate went into her dragon form when she held it?”
“Partially, it was odd,” he said, turning to look at her. “I knocked her out so I could get it out of her hands. She wasn’t herself.”
“Did she say anything?”
He bobbed his head. “Said they stole it from us, or something like that, then the shadow was going to destroy us all.”
“That’s comforting.” I moved around the fire and checked the bracelet on her wrist.
She growled but remained unconscious. The inlaid runes were ancient, and most were beyond my skill of reading, but whoever created the band knew what they were doing. “This bracelet was not meant to hold her dragon forever.”
“Is that what it says?”
“I can only make out a few of the runes, but essentially yes.”
We both stared down at her. Who was she and why was she living with a witch? Her story was complicated, I sensed that, but I needed to understand who she was and if she was a threat, or a dragon in need of my help.
It was rare to find shifters who were not part of a clan. Many of our kind lived between worlds. We accepted the modern age of humans and benefitted from many of their technological advances, but never had a dragon in her condition crossed my path.
“How long has she been out?” I asked.
“A few hours,” he said with a cringe when I glared at him. “What? I can’t take on a dragon by myself, and we’re in a cave if you didn’t notice.”
He was right, but I didn’t have to approve of him whacking her over the head. “This shard, where did you get it?”
He told me the story of finding an old text in the demon archives before he was thrown out, one that told of a glass shield that would show the way to defeating the shadow. A glass shield sounded pointless to me, and I said so, and to my surprise, he agreed.
“I didn’t think it was real until a sorcerer contacted me saying they had a piece.”
“How many are there?”
He flipped over the shard in his hand, lips pressed into a thin line. “They didn’t know.”
“Well then, that’s a great start,” I muttered sarcastically.
He tucked the glass shard in his pocket as he scowled at me. “You know, at least I’m trying to find a way to stop our worlds from winding up like this one, completely infested with no hope of saving it.”
“But you know nothing of what this shield might do.”
“All the text said was the one who was meant to wield it would bring together the pieces and stand against the darkness, forcing it back to oblivion. That’s all any of the texts said,” he mumbled and sat down hard. “I watched people I grew up with die of this,” he whispered bitterly. “Watched as the darkness took them and my father did nothing to save them. So many dead and he just let them die—his people.”
“Leaders are forced to make tough decisions—” I started.
Craig shook his head. “No, my father saw the disease, and he banished them to the outer reaches of our world,” he snapped. “He turned his back on them when they needed him most.”
It was no secret the dragons loathed Raghnall, but I never truly understood why until now. Letting his people die was a sin, one that could not be forgiven. “You tried to stop him I’m guessing?’
“Yes, and then he disowned me, wanted to put me in a cell. So, I ran.”
“This shield you speak of, who is the person meant to wield it?”
“That’s another question I need an answer to,” he admitted. “I know it won’t be me.”
“But why not? You’re the one who’s been fighting against this shadow, you’re the one searching for the pieces.”
“And I’m a thief, a murderer, and a bastard. I don’t deserve to wield such a weapon.”
Forrest walked around the cave, his back tingling as it healed. “I’m sure we’ll find this person, whoever they are.”
“Now you’re on board with my plan? You couldn’t have decided that before we were sent through a portal and into this world?” he asked, but when I turned to rebuke him, he was grinning.
“Does nothing dampen your spirits?”
“Eh, I’d rather stay on the positive side of life than on the dark side.”
Kate shifted, and her eyes opened as Craig, and I cautiously stepped closer.
She tried to move her feet, and when they got stuck, she tried to sit up. “Ah, guys? What’s going on?”
“You’re not in crazy mode, are you?” Craig asked.
“What? No. Untie me!”
He freed her wrists, and her legs then stepped back quickly.
She frowned at him then looked to me for an answer.
I had none to give. “He said you went dragonish on him.”
“I did?”
“You don’t remember?” he asked, as his hand reach into his pocket.
“Don’t bring it out again, not yet,” I ordered. He glowered at my commanding tone but removed his hand. “Kate, you need to be honest with us before we go any further.”
“I need to be honest? That’s rich,” she snapped, scooting closer to the fire. “I’m stuck in this world with a half-demon and a dragon, but the human needs to be honest? About what? I told you, I’ve lived with Mama Lucy for years, didn’t know she was a witch, and no I didn’t know I was a dragon.”
“But someone did,” I insisted. “Your bracelet, who gave it to you?”
She stiffened, and I saw pain pool in her eyes. “None of your business.”
“It is if that thing’s not going to contain you forever,” Craig added.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your bracelet,” I informed her and gently reached out for her arm. She let me take it, and I sensed the power coursing through her body, stronger than any dragon I met before, even my father. I ran my fingers over the runes but gained nothing new from staring at them. “It was meant to fall off when you were ready.”
“Ready for what?’
“We don’t know, and so yet again I ask you, who gave you this bracelet?”
She worried at her bottom lip and whispered so quietly, I almost couldn’t hear, “My father.”
I glanced to Craig, worried that her own father would try and keep her true identity a secret. “What was he?”
But she was lost in her own memories as her eyes closed and she hung her head. “Doesn’t matter. He’s dead. They killed him… just like they killed my mother. Dead, they’re all dead,” she breathed.
“Maybe this can wait a bit longer,” Craig tried.
But I needed to know. “What is your full name, Kate?”
But she shook her head violently and tore herself away from me. “No! Those were the rules, never take the bracelet off and never speak my name. Never!”
I followed her, but Craig grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Back off her, prince,” he snapped in warning. “She’s already unstable enough, and the last thing I want is for her to go into a form she doesn’t know how to control.”
I bared my fangs at him, but he was right. “You will have to tell us soon,” I commanded. “Our lives may depend on it.”
“What are you talking about?’ she asked sharply.
“You’ve been dragged into this mess for a reason, and I have a feeling, it was not merely to fall through a random portal with a half-demon and a dragon.” I stepped closer and looked her right in the eye. “You have a destiny, Kate. It’s time you start embracing that fact.”