Chapter Thirty-Six

Christ, she hadn’t meant to go down to have this conversation with him. But when she’d woken up, Garen was gone, and she’d missed him. But as she rose from bed, she’d seen Skye lying there, wide awake on his back and staring up at the ceiling.

“Go,” he said. “I need a few minutes to think. I’ll be down soon.”

She’d nodded silently and threw on some clothes. Just before she turned to leave, his hand snapped up to grab her wrist and pull her back to the bed. She found herself wrapped in his arms, his mouth against hers in a desperate kiss that threw her entirely off balance.

“You have no idea how much I needed you,” he said.

~I didn’t need you, ~she thought, astonished that her own mind would go there. But it was true. Neither of them had factored into her plans. She really hadn’t needed to fall in love.

As she turned away, she kept thinking of the stories of the faerie rings that Alec had told her about as a child. He’d told her of young girls stepping into one and getting whisked away to play with faeries for a day, but when they decided to come home, years would have passed. And so they would go back, because that’s what the faeries really wanted—they were lonely and wanted to play.

At the time, she’d thought she’d love to play with faeries forever, if they ever chose her.

Now, here she was, chosen for something that could change her life forever—something she’d never have chosen for herself, but somehow trapped by one of the most exquisite webs she could have imagined. Because for all that she felt helpless and panicked by being in it, she was beginning to imagine simply giving up the fight and staying right where she was.

But who was she now? The faerie or the one caught in time?

“I’m never leaving, Melody,” Garen said, drawing her back to the present with the force of his words, and the solid, gentle touch of his hands on her shoulders. “Neither is Skye.”

Something ached where he touched her, though, and she winced, shifting her arm away from his hand to look down at it. The etched lines of their marks blazed back at her, and suddenly she realized her skin was glowing, too. And it lit up even more brightly every time he touched her.

* * *

Skye stared after Melody’s departure through the door, following her with his senses down the stairs until he couldn’t bear his need to linger on her every action any longer. Yet he couldn’t block her out, and neither did he really want to. Her every emotion was still broadcast as though he were tuned in specifically to her. It had been this way since they’d met, and he’d loved it at first.

Now, it nearly tore him in two to know how uncertain she still was, even after the afternoon they’d spent together. Even after giving her the mark. And then giving her their seed.

Garen’s words weren’t comforting her, either, and Skye knew why. As much as Garen was dedicated to the truth, he could only give Melody half of the truth she needed to hear.

“Fuck you for having second thoughts,” he said to himself. The brief solitude had given him the smallest measure of clarity, but now he realized it was just another lonely moment to slide back into unproductive thinking. He’d already given up everything for her, simply to prove to Garen how much he ~didn’t~ need her. But the act of throwing away his inheritance had only made him more aware of how much he needed them both. He still had his wealth, and his position, but he had nothing of true worth except for what they were willing to give.

And he would take it, if they would still give it, even if it meant losing all the things he ~did~ still possess. Status and possessions would be stripped of him for the breach in their laws. Worse could still happen—the extent of which he wasn’t even sure.

He hated that he’d be disappointing Alec—the elder’s presence had been an odd comfort to him over the last day, a reminder that maybe change really was possible among their race. But if even an elder was concerned about this situation, Skye should listen.

What did any of the rest matter if they couldn’t proclaim their love for each other to the world? Or his world, at least, if not hers.

~You are her world,~ he corrected himself. At least, he and Garen had succeeded in somehow becoming Melody’s world over the last month. All they’d really sought was to override the bond Kol had accidentally made with her and then let her choose whether to stay with Skye or leave, free of any burden. His own bond was not that strong with her for her to be so attached—to either of them.

Nor his to her.

Yet here they were.

He suddenly missed his mother with a vengeance. She’d have had wise words, no doubt. Perhaps she’d say something like, “If you are faced with a choice and one of those choices is love, then there is no choice.”

Mora had been a Gold dragon, though, with very different outlooks and sensibilities than his own. Being Blue, he was tortured by not only the emotions that clouded the world around him, but also his own tormented soul.

Garen was always the best balance to his confusion. The Guardian managed to see through the tangle of Skye’s mess of feelings to the truth, and tell him so. And now there was Melody, who ~was the truth~.

She’d given that to him, and now it was time for him to return the favor.

But when he found them downstairs at the edge of the kitchen, the hum of a magic far more powerful than Garen could produce distracted him. A bright golden halo that resembled Melody’s aura filled the entire room, making Skye blink in confusion.

The pair of them stood to one side, Garen holding Melody by the shoulders, his face intent and full of emotion. He looked up at Skye just long enough to share the news. ~“Our seed took. She’s pregnant.”~

But even as perfect as the news was, it still didn’t explain the swirl of power that began to twist around them.

“Did you do this?” he asked out loud. He looked at the table, attention drawn to the box that he thought he’d been rid of. His inheritance. And from it emanated the familiar golden power of his mother’s essence.

Garen pulled away from Melody and dropped his hands. “I couldn’t let you give it up. Not after seeing what was inside.”

Skye stared at his friend, astounded at Garen’s audacity—and loyalty. “You’ve seen the contents? What did you see?”

Garen started toward the table, but instead of reaching out and picking up the box, he only gestured toward it.

“Mora’s essence was all I saw, but with it was the certainty that I needed to stay by your side until you found your way to opening it yourself. I think it’s for you to see now.”

Skye hesitated. He’d given it up, resigning himself to having no more than the power he’d been born with. That his mother had seen fit to bind her final living essence into a box had seemed like the cruelest joke to him, even though he knew she never did a thing without considering closely the outcome she desired. He only wished she’d given him better clues to her true wishes.

He had no reason to expect it would open now, though. Yes, he had taken a mate, but he hadn’t ~just~ taken a human woman. He’d marked Garen, too—his oldest, closest friend and someone his mother’s essence was likely to recognize.

“It won’t work,” he said, yet continued to stare at the box as though it were some alien creature with sharp teeth.

“You won’t know until you try,” Garen said.

“What’s so special about the box?” Melody asked, and Skye gratefully directed his attention toward her.

“My mother left it to me when she died. It contains my inheritance, but I couldn’t access it until I was mated to a human woman. I’d given it up when I decided to give you up to Garen.”

“Given it up?” Melody asked.

“He threw it away,” Garen said, his voice tense enough to make Skye cringe. The underlying accusation was clear from the impression he had of Garen’s emotions. ~You threw it away the same way you were willing to throw Melody away, if it hadn’t been for me.~

He glared at his friend, but Garen’s expression remained intensely resolute.

“Fine,” Skye said, taking a step forward and reaching out for the small golden box.

Before his hand came within an inch of it, the tight bubble of power it exuded pressed outward toward him, as though reaching to him and beyond. When he picked it up, it was warm to the touch, and the aroma of orange blossoms wafted from it, evoking a sudden impression of his mother from his earliest memories.

The mechanisms were familiar enough to him now, after all the times he’d worried them in an effort to open the box over the last several months, to no avail. Yet his two lovers—the pair of people who had provided true balance to him for the first time in his entire life—had both succeeded in seeing the contents of it.

He pressed the tiny button on the top of the box and simultaneously twisted the bottom. As though responding to a lover’s touch, the box sighed and the invisible seams at each corner split open. A glowing, golden “X” appeared in the top and grew bigger as the pieces spread apart. Like a blooming flower, the inside was finally visible to him, the swirl of energy so intense it looked like a tiny galaxy floating within a solid gold well.

He was only dimly aware of the gasps of astonishment from either side of him as Garen and Melody both gazed into the center of it, and then the lights exploded outward, crashing into him with even more intensity than Melody’s last climax and the rush of her Nirvana sinking into his soul.

The world disappeared and he found himself in full dragon form, flying in a bright cloud of magic, his mother’s essence as absolute around him as though he’d been transported back into her womb. When her voice spoke, it came from all around him.

~“My sweet, beautiful son. How I’ve missed you. I had faith that you would see your way to my essence, but I sense that it was not an easy route for you.”~

“Mother, that’s an understatement. I’m still not quite sure how it is I managed to accomplish it, or precisely what it was you hoped for me to do.”

~“My greatest wish for you was always the simplest wish—for you to find a love strong and true enough to sustain you in more than just body, but deep in your soul as well. You were ever a complicated child. You sacrificed too much for your ideals, for our race, for those around you whom you loved most. You needed more than a simple task of finding a mate—but I couldn’t tell you everything. It was something you needed to discover for yourself. And it seems you have.”~

“I still don’t understand,” he said, frustrated at her cryptic words. “Do you mean Melody? Am I supposed to make Garen nullify his mark on her? Because if so, I refuse. If anything it’s my own that should be taken back.”

~“No. I would not have you sacrifice your love for anything else. It was a thing I lacked too often over the centuries and wished for. My love and hopes for you were what sustained me. And now you’ve found love, twofold. Never give it up for anything. Laws will change. Opinions will change. The love you have for these two will endure forever. The child you have conceived with Melody will carry my blessing as well as the blessings of two other dragons. No other dragon child has ever been so Blessed, but this child of yours will need the three of you still. The world is changing for our kind, and my grandchild’s generation will need every blessing it can get.”~

Before his eyes, the massive white shape of Garen appeared in full, winged splendor. Melody sat astride him, clad only in the brilliant, beautiful glow of her aura, her silken waves flowing around her like a halo. Her lower abdomen pulsed with a deep inner glow, and Skye knew that his mother spoke the truth.

The realization that it was ~his ~child she carried made his course of action clearer than ever before. He’d been a fool to consider ever leaving her or Garen again, especially after marking them both. Hearing his mother’s voice obliterated the last remnant of the idea that had lingered in his mind. Staying together was ~not~ the mistake. Failing to see their love as anything less than his fate and his right as bestowed, not only by his mother, but also by ~the~ Mother of them all, had been folly.

~“You see the truth of it finally,” ~his mother’s voice said, permeating his mind. ~“The Mother’s blessing on you all, my son. Keep your new family close, for they will be your true salvation, but you must see them safe until the Laws of our race are prepared to accept your union. You must make this happen.”~

“Thank you, Mother,” he said, knowing he wasn’t only thanking her with that word. His gratitude was directed first toward the Mother, their goddess—their creator, to his own mother second, and finally to the mother of his unborn child. To Melody.

Within the cloud of power, his lovers shimmered, their gazes fixed with love on him, and he went to them with purpose, convinced for the first time that nothing in the universe could keep them from staying together.

The real world faded back in when he reached them, the late afternoon sun streaming through the high, west-facing windows of the dining room, landing on his face where he lay on the floor, staring up at the pair of faces he most loved in all the world.

The return to reality brought with it the need for a true solution to their dilemma, however.

“We have to leave,” he said, his voice rough and scratchy to his own ears.

Garen nodded. “Melody and I heard everything, but where should we go?”

Skye sat up and shook his head. “I don’t know. The Monastery would normally be the ideal retreat, but in this case, ~farther~ from the Council would be better. But there’s no place far enough to wait out their judgment.”

“Take Melody to the house in Yosemite. I will go deal with the Council,” Garen said.

“I can’t let you do that. Our child will need us both if it’s to be as Blessed as Mother promised. Once the Council has judged either or both of us, there will be no power left for the baby. Not before it’s too late.”

A blur of movement caught his eye out the window, a huge, winged silhouette blocking out the deep pink of the sunset for a second before shrinking into a human shape as it descended to the deck. Alec’s broad-shouldered shape came toward them, his clothing fading into existence around him just as he walked through the door.

His lips pressed together tightly as he took in the three of them, all their marks clearly visible and glowing.

Skye grimaced at the obvious displeasure in the elder’s gaze as it passed over him and Garen. The golden eyes softened when they fell on Melody.

“You found your dragons, I see,” he said, stepping toward her and reaching out a hand to lightly brush the mark that covered her shoulder.

“I think they found me,” she said. “Thanks to you.”

“I’d hoped they wouldn’t resort to breaking laws to make you happy,” he said. “But what’s done is done.” After a moment studying her face, he asked, “Are you happy, Melody?”

Skye tensed for her answer, and was minutely aware of Garen doing the same beside him. Her answer could condemn them.

“I will be, once we figure out what to do next,” she said. “I guess we’re rebels now. Like you.” She bit her lip, clearly trying to hide a smile. Her demeanor was so different with Alec, it mesmerized Skye. Like the pair of them had some little secret that no one else could comprehend without being in their heads.

He could read only a small bit of Alec’s emotions—only the pieces the Gold was willing to make visible—but in those he sensed the unbreakable love and pride for the girl whose mother Alec had marked. The girl Blessed by the Gold. And the love was clearly returned by the daughter he’d never had.

Alec’s expression clouded, and he turned to Skye and Garen. “I had a feeling this would happen. A premonition, more than anything, considering my connection to her. The Council won’t like it.”

Knowing he should defer to his elder’s wisdom Skye inclined his head slightly. “What would you have us do?”

“Come with me. The place I’ve taken Julia to is the safest place for Melody. And for you. The Council has no issue with my presence now, so I hope my seniority can influence them. I will go speak for you.”

“Alec, please don’t do this for us,” Skye said. “We can take it. You’ve earned your peace after the last twenty years in exile.”

Alec fixed his eyes on Melody for a moment, then on Skye. “This is what I have to do. It’s what her mother wants, too—I shared my worries with Julia before I came back here. Melody’s happiness is what matters most to us both. Whatever they do to us, we can endure now that we have each other again. My request for the two of you is to take her where I tell you to and keep her there until I return.”

“Dad, no! You just got back!” Melody said, surging into Alec’s arms. “What about Mama?”

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. She won’t have to wait as long as before, I promise.”

The despair that washed off Melody’s body, small in Alec’s embrace, made Skye ache for her. A child’s love that profound was something he wished for, something he’d always felt for his own mother, but never properly expressed. It had always been difficult for him to let his emotions out, as confused as he was about them his entire life. At least until he learned that most of the emotions he felt weren’t his own.

At the moment, he wasn’t sure which emotions were his, until he worked to separate them all and realized that he, Garen, and Melody were all feeling the exact same thing. The combination of hope and sadness was too bittersweet to bear.

He took a hard swallow and stepped close to Alec. “Thank you, Father,” he said.

Alec smiled, his mood far too bright in contrast to the general mood. “Make my girl happy and I’ll gladly be that to you. You, of all people, need it most.”

He wrapped Skye into a hard embrace and held him there. Skye pressed his face into Alec’s shoulder, finding it difficult to hold back a bout of tears at the man’s selflessness. He’d have objected, but it was a matter of honor for a dragon to comply with the wishes of their elders. That both of Melody’s parents wished this made him hold his tongue and silently pledge to see it through.

“Where to now?” Skye asked.

“Pack your things,” Alec said. “These aren’t dragons you’ll be staying with. And I hope you like living rough.”