Daybreak (62 page)

“Kael …”

“Keep going! We’re nearly there.”

“Kael, please —”

“No!” 

A swell of anger filled his limbs the moment Kyleigh’s gave out. He wasn’t giving up. He wasn’t going to let her die. Even if he had to give every last bit of his strength, he would do it. So he braced her boots against his shoulders and with a roar, he started to shove.

He inched his way up the tunnel, his feet scrabbling behind him. As his warrior half grew fiercer, the craftsman lost its grip. Cracks split all down his armor. Kael bared his teeth against the singeing heat and stubbornly forced air into his lungs.

They were nearly out. He thought he could feel a wind across his back. He fought on — shoving, scrambling, every toe digging into the rock to give him even an ounce more leverage. The walls were closing in; the heat had a strangling grip upon his chest.

They were nearly there. Nearly …

He gasped when Kyleigh suddenly disappeared. For the half second it took him to scramble to the tunnel’s end, he had no breath. But when he crawled out, he saw that she lay safely upon the ground.

Her chest heaved as she sucked in the cool evening air. Color sprang back into her cheeks. She swiped the dampened hair from her face as he helped her sit up.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so. I’ll be better once I have this blasted thing off my neck.” She pulled Daybreak from around her shoulders and handed it to him.

He threw it aside. “Just breathe.”

“I am breathing.”

“Well, you aren’t breathing enough!”

“Kael,” she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her head against his neck, “it’s over, now. We’re out. I’m all right.”

He held her tightly. “Do you swear?”

Her nose scraped up and down his neck with her nod. “I was just a little short of breath, is all. I’m sure the worst is …
move
!”

It happened quickly. One minute they were together and the next, she’d thrown him aside. Roars filled the air as Kael landed: Kyleigh’s threat, a sharp reply — and a voice that shook the mountain.
 

Kael ripped his body around and his stomach lurched when he saw two white dragons go skittering down the mountain’s side — claws flailing and their pointed fangs bared.

Kael forgot his pain. He leapt to his feet and his eyes found Daybreak. But before he could reach it, Rua’s claw slammed into his chest.

Had his warrior half not already been coiled for the jump, the shock might’ve crushed him. Instead, Kael blinked the little black spots from his eyes to find that his body had been pinned to the mountain’s side.

Rua’s furious, blazing glare filled his vision; the crackling of his song matched the heated breath that spewed from his nostrils. Kael’s arms were pinned at his sides. His entire body was stuck between a single wedge of Rua’s claw.

And Daybreak lay far beneath him.

The red dragon bared his glistening teeth and for a moment, Kael thought he was about to snap off his head. But then a strangled growl from below twisted him away.

Kyleigh had won the fight. She crouched over His-Rua, the white dragon’s serpent neck clamped between her jaws. She hadn’t crushed down, yet. But by the way she growled around His-Rua’s throat, Kael knew she meant to.

Rua’s grip loosened and Kael nearly slipped out. But a strangled roar from His-Rua brought the pressure back. The white dragon’s eyes blazed defiantly as they locked onto Kael’s. She twisted in Kyleigh’s grip and her song came out sharp.

Rua’s head swung back. His voice shook Kael’s innards; he pressed him more forcefully against the mountain, and it was all he could do to keep his ribs from snapping into halves.

But Kyleigh’s grip had tightened, too.

Her fangs dug in so sharply now that His-Rua couldn’t even sing. She clawed helplessly at the ground while her eyes rolled back.

Kael knew what she wanted, what she begged for with every strangled breath: His-Rua wanted them dead. It was what she’d always wanted, what she asked for even now as Kyleigh held her around the throat — and Rua would have done anything for her.

But if he harmed Kael, Kyleigh would rip His-Rua’s throat from her scales.

“You know it isn’t really what she wants — her fire’s gotten the better of her.” The dragon’s ear cut towards Kael, but his eyes stayed locked upon his mate. “She’s
angry
, Rua. You have to be strong for her. You have to carry her anger wisely, remember?”

The black slits in the middle of Rua’s eyes went almost round with thought. But even then, his claw crushed down. It strangled Kael’s words, pressed him to his limits. His legs went numb. None of his blood seemed to reach his head …

All at once, a bright light cut through the dusk. It cast every shadow from Rua’s spines and sent his head whirling around. Beneath them, His-Rua had frozen in Kyleigh’s jaws. She seemed to hardly feel the pressure of her teeth.

When Kyleigh released her, she scrambled up the mountain to Rua’s side.

Kael craned his neck back and saw a blast of fire spew from the mountain’s top. Hardly a second after the fire abated, the land erupted in song. Voices of every note filled the air as a swarm of dragons came from Rua’s lands. Even from miles away, Kael could see their wings were beating furiously, desperately. He imagined each burning stare was fixed upon the mountain’s top, waiting breathlessly for the next wisp of fire.

And when it came, their voices swelled to match the fury of its light.

Shock lined the edges of Rua’s face. His claw slid down the stone and to the cliff below. Kael barely managed to escape being crushed beneath it. No sooner had he gotten away from Rua than Kyleigh crashed into the rock beside him. He held onto her horns as she lifted him to where they’d been standing before.

Kael grabbed Daybreak from the ground and fastened the buckle around his waist. “We ought to get moving while they’re distracted. If we hurry, we might be able to make it to the Kingdom by dawn.”

Kyleigh wasn’t listening. Her eyes were every bit as focused as the other dragons. Even after she’d slid back into her human skin, she stayed staring at the mountain.

Dragons landed all around them. They crashed into the cliffs as Kyleigh had done and dug in their claws, each beside his mate — every eye unblinking. Kael grabbed her around the arm. “We really ought to go.”

“Please, just a moment.”

“We don’t have a moment! This could very well be our only chance …”

Kael’s words trailed away at the note of a tiny song. A faint hum trilled from the mountain’s top, so small that it could’ve been lost inside a murmur of the wind. But the dragons answered it with such a burst of noise that there could be no mistaking what it was.

A little fledging clawed its way from the mountain’s fire. Its wings were so thin that Kael could see through them; they flapped like sails in the breeze. The dragon raised his wings tentatively at first. But when it felt how the wind filled them, they burst open with another delighted trill of its song.

“A male,” Kyleigh said, pointing to the dull gray of his scales. “When he sheds that first batch, he’ll get his color.”

The little dragon’s wings rose and fell boldly, now. Kael had a difficult time looking away. “Well, I still think we’re pushing our —”

“We’re safer than we’ve ever been. A hatching is a time of peace. Come here.” Kyleigh dragged him to a ledge of rock and made him sit. Then she sat behind him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and set her chin atop his shoulder. She sat so there wasn’t so much as a breath of space between them.

And when Kael felt how her heart thudded against his back, he knew it would be impossible to pull away. “What happens now?”

“He’ll fly to his parents.”

“How does he know which ones they are?”

He felt her shrug. “They just … know. It’s an instinct, I suppose.”

No sooner had she spoken than the little dragon took a daring leap from the mountain’s top. His wings fluttered in the wind, his long tail whipped behind him. But he managed to land safely — directly before the glittering purple dragon and his mate.

“Corcra,” Kyleigh whispered at the dragons’ delighted song. “What a lucky fellow.”

It was hard to ignore how her arms tightened with those words … and harder still to ignore that brief pause of her heart.

It took less convincing than Kyleigh expected to get Kael to stay in the Motherlands one last night. The dragons clung to their hatching grounds as evening fell. They lay together along the cliffs and their great heads rose hopefully with every sputter of flame — waiting for the next egg to hatch.

“Staring at it isn’t going to make them hatch any faster,” Kael muttered.

Kyleigh hadn’t realized that she’d been watching, as well. But when he spoke, she found her lungs were sore from holding their breath.

They were camped at the base of the mountain, beneath the heavy shelter of the trees. Kyleigh watched through a gap in the branches while Kael sat a few paces away, tending to the charred scabbard of his strange new sword. “I can’t help but watch. It’s exciting to see a hatching.”

He raised his brows, and there was laughter in his eyes as he said: “Is it? I had no idea you were excited.”

She threw a twig at him.

He swatted it away.

A swell of song drew her eyes back to the mountain, and her chest filled when a little dragon clawed his way out. His flight was clumsy. He glided for his parents and crashed directly into the middle of his father’s orange chest — who didn’t seem at all to mind it.

“What are they saying?”

Kael had crept in beside her while she watched. He sat so that their knees touched, his eyes still upon his work. There were dozens of voices drifting through the air, but she tried to concentrate on picking them apart:

“All of the hatchlings have been male so far — which Rua’s thrilled about.”

“I’ll bet he is,” Kael said, a trace of a smile in his voice. “He’s probably hoping they’ll grow up and take his daughters away.”

That was
exactly
what he was hoping for. But Kyleigh knew it wouldn’t be that simple. “He’ll still put up a fight when they try to leave. Their mates will have to steal them away to keep from catching the barbed end of his tail.”

“I see. And how will they steal them?”

“Wooing, mostly. They’ll fly through Rua’s land, perhaps lead him in a chase. The boldest might even breathe fire on his head.”

Kael frowned. “That doesn’t seem like a very decent way to get his approval.”

Kyleigh tried not to roll her eyes. Seeking out approval from fathers was such a human thing to do. “The only one a male has to convince is his chosen. He’ll taunt Rua to prove that he can protect her. Once she’s convinced, she’ll follow him out of her homelands.”

“Then what?”

Kyleigh knew she shouldn’t tease him, but he left himself so open to it that she couldn’t help but prod. She looked away from the mountain and leaned against his side. Then she traced the line of his chin down his throat, across his shoulders, and murmured: “What do you think?”

She wasn’t disappointed. The scarlet that spread across his face made her heart beat wildly. She grabbed his hands when he tried to cover his embarrassment and peeled them away.

“Stop it, Kyleigh!”

“Never,” she growled.

He could’ve stopped her if he wanted to. They both knew he was stronger. But though his face burned, laughter muddled his yells. An involuntary grin made his glare much less menacing. He grappled with her for a moment before he shoved her back.

He peeled his breastplate away and hurled it aside; the sword landed with a
thunk
upon the grass. His hands curled into claws. “Don’t make me pin you.”

Excited bumps rose across Kyleigh’s flesh as she threw herself into him. It’d been so long since he’d smiled like this, so long since he’d wanted to play. She wrestled his arms away and shoved into him with all of her strength, but he held.

“Give up, dragoness,” he grunted.

This only made her blood run more furiously. “Never,” she said again. 

When she dragged her teeth across his ear, his surprise hit her like a wave: a swell of shock and warmth that crashed inside her middle and brought them both to the ground. His grip tightened when her lips slid across his chin. The swell that’d tipped them over was drawn back out to sea — replaced swiftly by flames.

They roared when she kissed him. Their fury drove her mad, made her press against him until there wasn’t a single part of them that didn’t touch. There was a wildness inside Kael that entranced her, made her forget about the rest of the world. It was an all-consuming storm that left her ragged and weak. Still, she couldn’t help but be thrilled by its power …

Slowly, something began to change. Kael’s arms slipped from around her waist and fell to the ground beside him. The fires that’d been blazing so desperately before suddenly melted. Their wild tops sank into their bases and spread a strange warmth along the whirring paths of her blood.

There wasn’t a place this new fire couldn’t reach. When she felt it beginning to slide into the far corners of her soul, she pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said. The pale reflection of the night sky fit so effortlessly against his features. She’d already torn his tunic away. The stars’ bluish light drifted across his bare chest — not quite strong enough to chase the darkness from its rifts. 

She was about to ask him if he was sure when she felt those strange, slow-burning flames again. They ran up her arm, across her shoulder, to her throat … following the path of Kael’s hand. As if he could sense the worry racing up her spine, his other hand was there. He chased her uncertainty away with a gentle touch.

The movement of his eyes was every bit as soothing as his hands. He took her in slowly, watched her face for any small hint of her enjoyment.

And it was difficult not to show it.

But when the fire crept deeper, when it slid to the edge of something she didn’t quite understand, she shoved his hands away. She didn’t know what this new feeling was — only that it frightened her. It was a new kind of love, one that threatened the borders of a wall she hadn’t known was there.