A half-roar, half-scream echoed through the chamber as I surveyed the room. I was the only thing moving, the only thing standing. Frantically, I looked around, afraid to move lest I step on someone I loved.
I spotted Missi first and loped over to her. She lay sprawled on the ground, blood trickling from her arms and throat. The slash on her throat was deep, and her skin was so pale. Her chest moved the barest bit. She wouldn’t survive the trip out of the tunnels. She probably wouldn’t survive the trip out of the cavern.
“No,” I rumbled. I coiled my tail around her and held her close to my body. Tears poured over the scales on my cheeks. I felt a stirring inside myself, then remembered what the boys had told me. I had power over death, but I also had power over life. I drew in a breath, then gently, carefully blew out over Missi’s face.
A cloud of glowing red flowed over Missi. Her skin glowed with it, and for a horrible moment I was afraid I’d set her on fire somehow. Her eyelids flickered, then opened, then opened wider. The horrible slit across her throat closed, then vanished, as did the fang marks on her arms. She yelped and began to flail a little, so I set her down gently on the stone floor. She skittered backwards like a frightened crab. I shook my head sadly, then turned to find the boys.
Aric was closest to her. He had a dagger buried in his stomach, and his pale skin was even paler. He groaned in agony, then glared up at me. Before he could open his mouth, I blew into his face. He coughed, then fell slowly backward until he laid still on the ground. For a horrified moment, I thought I’d done it wrong. Then, he drew the blade out with both hands and dropped it to one side. The bleeding stopped, and the scarred skin closed over the wound as though he’d never been touched. He squinted up at me, then nodded. I nodded back, then returned to my searching.
Galen slumped against one of his stone spikes, still in his half-dragon form. If there was anyone I needed to heal, it was the other healer. He looked up at me with heavy eyes. Claw marks crisscrossed his body, leaving him a bloody half-dragon mess. His breath rasped in his chest. His eyes widened. With obvious effort, he raised a hand and rested it gently on my snout.
“You did it,” he gasped. I could hear a faint gurgle to it, bloody and broken.
I breathed over him. He gasped again, eyes closing. The gashes closed, and his breathing became steadier. I nuzzled his cheek, then heard a cough across the room and loped over to find the source.
Chase crawled out from beneath a pile of charred corpses. He had a long slash across his chest, and several deep puncture wounds scattered over his torso and legs. He rolled to his back and lay against the stone, panting. He gazed up at me as I stood over him, and he grinned. As a half-dragon, his grin was a little unsettling with all the sharp teeth, but it was still Chase and still his grin. I breathed over him, and the grin widened.
“‘At’s my girl,” he growled contentedly as I loped off to look for Cass.
Cass was back in his human form, half-buried beneath two Chosen. They had char marks on their faces. He’d gone down fighting. His freckles stood out starkly on his cheeks, the only color on his face. I leaned in close. He looked worse than any of the others, even Missi. I saw puncture marks across his torso, deeper than Chase’s, and located worse than Aric’s. There was a dagger sticking out of his chest. My heart pounded. My mate. Not my mate.
His chest moved the barest bit. Still alive. That’s all I needed. I caressed his cheek with my snout, then breathed my healing cloud over him. Galen crawled over to us and reached for the dagger. I shook my head, pouring more energy into Cass. My head spun. I’d given so much energy already that the glow was fading from my scales. Finally, I nodded to Galen, and he pulled out the blade. I poured the last of the energy I had into Cass.
The wound closed. So did my eyes. I felt myself crashing to the ground beside him as the boys and Missi cried out.
I was sitting at a long table. My feet dangled from my too-tall chair as I picked at a plate of chicken and vegetables. The smells around me were too rich, too complex for my palate. As I nibbled at a slice of carrot, I listened to the grownups around me.
“We’re too scattered. Too far apart from each other to make a difference.” The red dragon lady was always grumpy. She pointed a fork at my mother. “We need to consolidate our forces. We need to have more representation.”
My mother. Long black hair, longer than mine, down to her waist. Pale skin, with eyes like mine, hazel to the point of gold. There was a long, thin scar along the side of her neck. She’d always had it, as long as I’d known her. She’d never told me why. She’d tell me when I was older.
Her voice was calm, but powerful. “And what, Gerta? Take over? Rule as in days of old?” She sipped at a glass of red wine. “We are outnumbered. Outgunned. We need to be strategic. We need to change what we can, where we can, as best we can. We need to out-science them and heal the earth. We need to out-magic the Chosen and take back the Serpent. Our enemies aren’t the humans.”
“The humans brought the pollution. They brought the wars. They brought the plagues. They fuel the Great Serpent.” The red dragon lady stabbed at her plate with her fork. She had scary eyes, dark black and cold as ice. “How are they not the enemy?”
Mother sighed. “They have been led astray. We need to lead them back.”
“As in days of old.” The gold dragon lady was gentler. I liked her. She was smart, and she told good stories. “Gerta does have a point. More representation would give us more power to make change. Meriwether, for example. She stands a good chance of making the Senate. If we get her in the right committees…”
I felt a gentle kick under the table. I looked to my left. My gold daddy had a spoon dangling from the tip of his nose. I giggled. His deep brown eyes sparkled, his smile making the edges crinkle. His skin was darker than mine, dark like good chocolate. I heard my mother cough and looked over at her. She frowned at us both, but her eyes glimmered with mirth. I went back to poking at my carrots. My gold daddy ran a hand over my hair. The warmth of his touch comforted me.
Someone was smoothing my hair, but it wasn’t my father. My head was in Missi’s lap. I was lying on hard stone. There was a kink in my back, but I was too tired to move and fix it. And I was glowing.
I looked up and saw the boys standing over us, arms linked. Galen was murmuring something and radiating a leaf-green glow. It filled my body and left me feeling calm and refreshed. Galen saw my eyes open and dropped his arms, looking relieved and exhausted. The others looked down at me and sighed in relief. All except Aric, who did his best to look disinterested and wandered off to study the walls for hidden doors.
Cass dropped to his knees beside me, clutching my hand in his. “Thank the Eldest. You’re okay.” He squeezed my hand. “You gave up too much of your life force. We almost lost you.” Guilt wracked his face. “You shouldn’t have tried to…”
“Don’t even joke, dude.” I squeezed his hand back. “You’re my mate. Of course I’m going to save you.”
His cheeks burned red. He stammered for a moment.
“Your what now?” Missi tugged on a strand of my hair to get my attention. “Did you forget to tell me about something?”
Cass stammered harder, so red I thought he was going to ignite.
I smiled weakly up at Missi. “Umm, yeah, there are a few things I have to tell you.”
Cass sighed. I pulled at his hand, catching him off guard and toppling him over. He landed on top of me. I caught his face and kissed him.
“Ack! Not in my lap!” Missi laughed and gave us a shove. Cass quickly recovered, pushing himself up and beaming at me, nearly matching the red of his hair.
Slowly, I pulled myself to a seated position. Chase took a knee next to me. Galen dropped to his knees in front of me, face serious. Gently, he rested a thumb on my eyelid and peered into my eye. I made a face at him. He shook his head, sighed, and continued to examine me until I growled at him.
“I’m good. I promise you, I’m good.” I put my hands on the ground behind me and arched my back in a stretch. The kink eased out. “Whatever you did worked. I’m alive. You’re all alive.”
Missi sat, watching me, rubbing gently at her throat. “Yeah. We’re alive,” she whispered. I could feel fear radiating off of her, despite her smile. My stomach sank. My best friend is terrified of me. And I can’t blame her one tiny bit. I’m a dragon. A real dragon. And she almost died because of me. How do you come back from that? A lump rose in my throat. I didn’t know what to say. What do you say? What CAN you say, after all of this?
“I love you, girl.” Missi reached over and squeezed my bicep. “Even if you’re a big-ass, fuck-all, giant dragon.”
My heart leapt. I could still feel the fear in her, but I could feel the love too. “I love you too, Missi. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Tears poured down my face as I leaned over to hug her.
She caught me in her arms and squeezed me tight. “We’ll get through this. We’re family.” She glanced over my shoulder at the boys. “Apparently, a rapidly expanding family. You guys want in on this?” She grinned.
Cass leaned in first, followed by Chase and Galen. I was immersed in warm arms and warm feelings.
“Now, about this giant fuck-all big-ass dragon thing…” Missi whispered in my ear. “You’re not gonna do it in the pub, are you? Kitty’ll kick your ass if you break the glassware.”
I laughed, then sobered and pulled back out of the cuddle pile. “Yeah, about that. I thought we couldn’t shift to full dragons? And I couldn’t even shift to a half-dragon!”
Cass ran his fingers through his hair thoughtfully. “Well, the elemental dragons can’t shift fully. We haven’t had a Shadow Queen for seventeen years. None of us have known about what shadow dragons could and couldn’t do, because we didn’t have any available.” He smiled at me. “Congratulations. You’re the only full dragon we have. Until you’re fully a Shadow Queen.”
I blushed hard. “Well, I guess I have to get to work on that.” I winked at him. “One mate down…”
He blushed back.
Missi poked me in the side. “Seriously. Are you two engaged or just fucking?”
I slapped a hand over my face as Chase roared with laughter.