Chapter 8: Chapter 8

EVERMORE

Storm and Silver live in the Crest Mountains, hidden behind the fog of a Shadow Valley—this place is off the maps and unseen by mortal eyes. It is hidden by a special glamour Silver has access to.

Fiona and I traverse the misty path that I could walk with my eyes shut if I wanted. Storm taught me how to follow the trail, exclusive to those who know its twists and turns. A maze for any other, an endless walk to nowhere…unless you know the specific way to Crest.

The path that glints like a pond with unfeeling water reflects Fiona and me as we walk hand in hand and in unified silence. It is safer not to communicate in the Shadow Realm, lest other strange and dangerous creatures hear.

The path rises to a crest, a small hill. The fog thickens, and I run up the slope with Fiona, as the fog fills our nostrils.

On the other end, I see the color of a beautiful, lush, untouched mountainscape, bathed in moonlight. The nearest cave opens like a tunnel. It was the entrance to my childhood home and we both breathe a sigh of relief since we made it here.

Storm and Silver’s secret.

No one knew of this place.

No one but family.

To my disappointment, my parents are not here yet. They must be having a dinner date out in Requiem City, perhaps. They’ll show later.

Fiona and I bypass the open kitchen, lit by yellow flames from all the lanterns and the giant fireplace. My room is perfectly concave, with a giant circular window overlooking the mountain’s slope and the lush midnight greenery below, touched by the wall of fog, snow, and ice.

A constant blizzard so dangerous it was only penetrable from the mortal realm by a Silver Dragon. The shards of ice in that blizzard reflect the moon. They’re frozen with magic. Ice Fire.

Storm had told me it was a kind of magic he avoided at all costs. It was draining to harness—but not for me. It always worried Storm. He never understood why it was my only power over fire. The cursed kind.

Fiona stands by the window with me, overlooking the landscape touched by midnight.

“Draco…” Fiona whispers, as if calling out to our mate, “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Fiona.” I feel like I need to admit something to her, something I had been keeping hidden in the depths of my intuition, wishing it wasn’t true. “Our future…it isn’t easy. ~Everything~ is going to turn against us, wanting to rip us apart, to destroy our mate bond—to test its strength.

“If we fail, none of us will survive. We can’t hide any longer from the world of dragons. Draco has to fight his family, his aura has never been so dark and twisted. The stress. The violence. It’ll kill him if he doesn’t take control of that mob and bend them to his will.”

“If bad things are coming…then we can’t be separated. This is the last time we split from one another, ~the last time~…” Fiona doesn’t sound scared. Rather, she sounds brave and determined to face this head-on.

I let out a wicked smile in agreement.

“Hear me out,” I whisper mischievously, “I have an idea. Sini wants to kill me. He’s stalking me already. So, let’s turn the tables and capture him instead…have some fun. Play a game or two. My game, my rules—”

“Play a game or two? What game?” Fiona crosses her arms over her chest. “Evermore.”

I just smirk.

“~Ever!~ No silly games! This is reality. This ~isn’t~ a game.”

“Daughter.”

I hear a deep rumble and I spin in shock to see Storm and Silver in the doorway, after shimmering into existence.

Fiona grins and I stand straight, hands swiftly clasped behind my back.

“Father,” I answer, at attention. In Storm’s house, it was his rules. No negotiations. That meant keeping information to a minimum—so he couldn’t interfere with my adventures. They’re both dressed up like they’ve been to some important meetings. Silver is in a beautiful blue gown and Storm is in a black suit, his long silver hair tied back in a knot.

Storm watches me with his brooding, all-knowing gold eyes. Silver reaches out a hand and I walk forward with Fiona. I embrace my mother and Fiona, the devil, embraces Storm. She was far more relaxed with him.

Even though he was my father—Storm and I were too far alike and clashed often.

“What’s this silly game she wants to play?” Storm asks Fiona, who opens her mouth, about to gush.

“Nothing,” I interject, “Silly banter. Meaningless words.”

“Come to the fire, girls,” Silver asks. “Tea?”

“Mmhm,” I agree and I walk out first, not reaching for Fiona, just hoping she senses my mental pull.

Silver walks to the stove to put the kettle on, preparing the tea.

I sit on the rug close to the fire, like I always did as a kid, wanting to be as close to it as possible.

Fiona sits on the sofa and Storm takes a seat on a hand-carved wooden chair. His favorite.

“Trouble?” Storm is scary when he’s reduced to one-word questions, and he directs this at me, asking calmly.

I look at Fiona and I shrug toward her, hoping she can appeal to his softer side. He was always sweet to her.

Fiona clasps her hands on her lap and spills the critical details only.

“Draco’s father met…um, Evermore, he doesn’t like her very much.” Fiona frowns. “Expected. But—Draco is handling it.”

“~And~. The Reds will die a painful death before they lay a hand on me,” I angrily say this when I see the fury rising in Storm’s expression. “Don’t interfere, father, I need to do this. This is my journey.”

“I wouldn’t fight all your battles for you, Evermore,” Storm interjects with a logical response, coming across as cool and uncaring, when I know he’s not like that at all one layer underneath. “That would be a waste of talent. The only way for you to stay sharp is to learn about evil—preferably by ending it and not becoming it.”

“I would never choose evil,” I gasp.

Fiona somewhat half-glares at me as if to say oh really? Like you haven’t considered being a little trickster in the dark, eating whoever I fancied, especially the arms, uh, which I would never do! Never!

I decide to change the subject, since my mouth is tugging up in the corner and I’m about to smile. I stay serious as I mention something else. “So. You knew we were mates? And you made Fiona promise to never tell me earlier? Why not? Why keep it a secret—”

“Children should know nothing of bonding until adulthood. Fiona simply needed to hear it to feel safe when she was brought to us. Remember, Evermore? Moments from death, your friend had no hope. You are her hope,” Storm says rather gently, and I shut my mouth, blushing, feeling like a spoiled princess that I had felt entitled to anger—when Storm’s words made so much sense.

Of course, it was to help Fiona. It wasn’t about me.

It was about her. And what she went through.

No wonder it was her gift to know we were mates earlier on, to help her through the mental trauma.

“It’s okay, Ever,” Fiona speaks sweetly, but I hear the slight shaky tone, and her sweet love shining through her mauve eyes.

She’s so good. So much better than all the scum who had ruined her childhood.

I wish I could go back in time and save her earlier…now I’m drowning in a growing Ice Fire in my gut.

It’s leaking out of my eyes, down my face.

“Breathe…go on, get some air,” Storm suggests, just as I’m standing, knowing he can read my breaking aura.

I’m about to split open with fire.

“I’ll be back,” I whisper to Fiona, and I nod at Storm.

I walk past Silver, and I see her pouring the boiling water over the tea leaves and strainer. It would have to wait a minute.

I feel my Ice Fire sprouting from every pore in my body as I start to run off, and soon my whole outfit is burning away.

I can’t stop it as I feel overwhelmed with my dragon’s emotions.

Growing up, I had many moments where I was suddenly swamped by feeling.

But nothing is as bad as this moment.

Something…

Something’s wrong.

I shift and mist into the air, outside, sailing down the mountainside, becoming my dragon, all my senses screaming.

Screaming what?

~What?~

Am I being watched?

~EVERMORE~—

I hear Storm roar my name, distress I’ve never heard him utter before now.

It’s like I’m about to die and I don’t know it.

Before I can even work out what’s going on, I feel a stabbing, piercing pain in my flesh, digging into my neck.

Searing red pain is flooding me with black poison.

A millisecond before losing consciousness, I see everything, including myself, from outside my dragon’s body.

The sleek female Silver is plummeting to the mountainside—a gash ripped from the back of my neck, a claw sliced through me, ragged and deep.

Above I see a large steel gray, iron-armored dragon. Smoke follows its path—and a Horde of Reds follow, breathing and laughing with smoldering fire.

Trees are on fire below them.

The mob burns the mountain, setting the Crest peaks on fire.

My soul flies higher and higher.

My dragon rolls down the hillside, bruised, broken, and unconscious, victim to gravity and the weight of my own body as it lands at the bottom in a lump.

It’s like a bad dream.

Like a nightmare.

Terror—ter—

All I can feel now is pain.

~Excruciating pain.~

I try desperately to reconnect with my body.

Every inch closer is more pain. Every inch I let myself fly up—I feel sweet, soft peace.

I hope Storm keeps Fiona and Silver safe.

An intoxicating mist of misfortune that I cannot fight is flying at me, a heavy wind forcing me back in heavy gusts, impossible to fight as they toss me back, away from reality, taking me to another world I don’t want to be in.

Near death.

Death?

No.

NO!

I won’t be able to fight my way out of this one—not alone!

I see another image.

The mob, the Horde of Reds.

Coming back for me. Sinking their talons deep.

To pick me up, to take me away.

Their cruelty knows no bounds, their sharp talons sink beneath my scales, stabbing my flesh mercilessly, waking me up for a split moment.

I see my dragon, shrieking in pain before I’m thrust into the mist again and my jaw hangs open, the head limp.

Carried away. Flown off to a hell Draco was trying to escape.

I had sensed his panic—his own pain.

Total shock.

Something went wrong after Fiona and I obeyed Draco and left him alone to face the monsters in his house.

We should have stayed by his side.

And I sensed it too late.

~It was too late.~

Not even the Shadow in the Sky could save me.

~