Dragon Fire (45 page)

“Anna, listen to me. Sh. Calm down.” He surrounded her in a warm mind-touch. “You’re going wild too.”

“What?” Anna felt sick as the tension washed out from her body. She leaned into Rakan and held onto him. “Where are they? Are they still fighting?”

“No. It’s over,” he said into her hair. “I thought you were going to kill yourself running through the shield like that.” He held her tighter. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Dvara stopped struggling. The ground was covered in blood. Anna pushed out of Rakan’s arms and went over to her. “Is she okay?” Anna asked, reaching out to touch Dvara’s vermillion dragon face. It was nearly as big as Anna’s torso. “Did you kill her?” she yelled at the indigo dragon. She recognized him as Torsten even before he morphed back to human. Dvara’s eyes flashed open. She melted into the ground. “Dvara!” Anna yelled.

* * *

Anna’s pain pierced through Rakan. “She’ll be okay,” he said. He wrapped her in his arms and she trembled against him.

“She needs time,” said T’eng Sten.

“I thought you were in the Hold,” Rakan said without letting go of Anna.

“The Eld ruled to set me free once the Meet started again.”

“But then how did Haakon get here? The Eld would never have stopped the Meet for this.”

“I don’t know. They stopped the Meet just before the Ascended called for Haakon.”

“They know about the Elythia, but don’t say anything?”

“Do they ever say anything?” T’eng Sten came closer. “Do you?”

“He won’t say anything,” Anna interrupted.

“I heard about your blood pact, Rakan’dzor.” T’eng Sten’s nostrils flared. “How could you have been so stupid?”

“I didn’t think she was Paaliaq.” Rakan held his ground. “You should have told me.”

T’eng Sten snorted. “Telling you at the time would’ve been equivalent to telling Yarlung. Or have you forgotten? You’re the one who should’ve told me about the blood pact when it was made. I might have been able to deactivate it. It’s too late now.”

“Wait,” Anna said. “What blood pact?”

“Rakan swore with his own blood to kill Paaliaq. And if he doesn’t, any dragon anywhere can kill him.” T’eng Sten stiffened. “Damn her,” he said and disappeared.

Rakan pushed Anna behind him and faced the east just as Khotan and Yarlung appeared with Yuli and Nima’kor right behind them. He searched quickly with his mind-touch, wondering if Dvara had gone and told them. But he neither smelled nor felt her trail on them.
Damn Yarlung,
he thought, echoing T’eng Sten.

“Where is she?” hissed Yarlung, scanning the desert.

“I don’t know.” Rakan cursed himself for not having shifted Anna elsewhere.

“I felt the poison react when she morphed,” said Yarlung. Her dress sparkled a blindingly pure white. “She was here.”

“What poison?” asked Rakan.

“The one you so kindly gave her when she neutralized yours,” said Yarlung, her voice silky sweet. “I made it especially for her. I knew she’d get close to you.”

Rakan’s fists clenched of their own accord but he bit down his anger. He needed to protect Anna.

Yarlung smelled the air. “I’d know her smell anywhere, even after all these years.” She twirled to face Khotan. “How could we have missed her? I thought you said the trigger would be immediate.”

“The shield slowed it down,” said Khotan, pointing to where the Elythia ring had been. “Or we would have been here when she was most vulnerable.”

“I can’t even see where she went,” hissed Yarlung, walking around the circle. Her eyes fell on Anna. “Is this the little human?” Yarlung’s mind-touch flicked out like a snake and smashed through Rakan’s protective shield. Anna cried out in fear and clung to Rakan. An indigo flash sent Yarlung flying backwards. Nima’kor launched into the air, morphing into a bright yellow dragon, turquoise claws outstretched.

“Trust me,” hissed Rakan, shifting Anna to their lair without waiting for an answer.

* * *

It took Anna a few moments to realize that they were standing in Rakan’s living room in the Tibetan House. Alone. Unharmed. Rakan was brushing her hair with his hands and murmuring something, but she was too panicked to understand what he was saying.

“Where are they?” she asked, clinging to Rakan.

“They can’t come through T’eng Sten’s shields. You’re safe.”

“Yes, but…” she began, but Rakan’s lips found hers. They were so warm, so soft, so full of life… she responded, needing to feel his energy. Fire burned through her. Rakan’s fire. His hand slid to her lower back, angling her into him as the fire continued to spread. “Fire,” she said into his neck. “Rakan. What does dzor mean?”

Rakan pulled back surprised. “Dzor? It means bird. Why?”

“So you’re a firebird?” Her hands wandered up his chest and over his face.

“My full name is Rakan’dzor Sa’aq. The Flowing Firebird of Aq.” Rakan leaned his head against hers, his hair enveloping them both. “I’ve never told anyone that before. You’re the first.” His lips brushed slowly against hers. He took the time to explore them before gently going deeper, stoking the already burning fire that threatened to explode from her aching body.
“Let go,”
she felt him say and she did. She dissolved into him. They melded and she had no idea where her body ended or his started. And she didn’t care. She let herself flow into his burning passion that throbbed like lava. Until a freezing cold drip oozed down the back of her skull and she gasped in pain and shock.

“I’ll kill Liv,” hissed Rakan. Anna’s head swam and Rakan steadied her. “I’m so sorry, Anna,” he said, holding her close. “How can you ever forgive me for everything that has been done to you?”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is. I shouldn’t have gotten close to you.”

“I shouldn’t have set off the trigger.”

Rakan kissed her hair. “Maybe you should never have kissed me either.”

“Probably not,” she said, finding his lips. “Should I stop?”

“No,” he mumbled into her lips. “Never.”

“Good,” she said, wrapping her hands around his head and pulling him in. But he didn’t meld with her. “What’s wrong?”

“Even though I don’t like it, I knew about Liv’s shield. Although I didn’t realize it would stop us from melding completely. Still, I knew it was there.”

“But?”

“I didn’t know about T’eng Sten’s.”

“T’eng Sten? When? He never touched me.”

“But it was his shield that protected you from my mother’s mental attack. Not mine.”

Anna’s knees almost gave way. “That was your mother?”
Her father’s murderer?

“Yes.” Rakan closed his eyes. “Can I look into your mind to see when he placed it?”

“Will you see everything?” She wasn’t ready for that.

“No. Only the memory and when he placed it.” Rakan paused. “And I’d like to check if there are any other shields, if you’ll let me.”

Anna hugged him. His warmth spread through her and she wished they could just meld again. “Will it hurt?”

“It shouldn’t. But if I feel any pain, I’ll pull out. Okay?”

She nodded and felt him surround her. She tried to let go but couldn’t.

“You’re too tense,” he said, tilting her chin up to his. “Relax.” He nuzzled her face and the knot that had gripped her insides eased away. She reached for his lips. Suddenly, she saw the second floor corridor at school, Rakan shifting in front of her, T’eng Sten and two other shapeshifters between him and Dvara. She dug her nails into Rakan and screamed.

“It’s okay, it’s over,” Rakan said. “It happened the day of the first sun rise.”

Anna trembled uncontrollably. She had felt herself transported into the hallway, not into a memory. She leaned against Rakan. “He erased my mind, didn’t he? Just like Red did to Ulf. And I would never have known.” She put a hand on Rakan’s face. “Promise me never, ever to do anything like that. To me. Or to anyone else.”

“I don’t have to promise. I don’t know how.”

“Good.” She paused. “But then you don’t know how to remove it?”

“I might. But I’d rather T’eng Sten did it. Just in case there’s a trigger I didn’t feel.”

Anna nodded. She’d have to ask Liv to remove the one she had placed as well. After the events of the past few days, everyone seemed to know everything. She walked over to the window. “Did you feel anything else?”

“No. Just T’eng Sten’s repression of that one memory and his shield to protect you from any dragon’s unwanted mental probing. His shield reacted first to my mother because it was set to be triggered when the intent was felt.” Rakan’s voice was full of respect.

Anna looked back at Rakan. She still had an uncontrollable loathing of T’eng Sten. No matter what anyone told her about him. “Could he have made it so I hate him?”

“Maybe. He didn’t actually delete the memory. He just transformed part of it and suppressed the other with a shield. He’s much more respectful than I ever gave him credit for.” Rakan paused. “But maybe that’s because I’ve only ever known my mother’s way of doing things.”

“What are you going to do about the blood pact?”

“There’s nothing I can do.”

“Will you kill her?”

Rakan came and stood in front of Anna. He took her hand in his and turned it over so he could see the Firemark. He traced it with his fingers and it blazed coral. “No.”

Anna threw herself into his arms. “You can learn to hide like Red has. We could hide together somewhere.”

Rakan held her gently. “I can’t live my life hiding, Anna. And I’d never ask you to live that way either.” He cradled her face in his hands and brushed the tears away from her cheeks with his thumbs. “I won’t kill her and I’ll face the consequences.”

Anna nodded and gripped him tighter. “I love you,” she whispered. Her mind slipped into his and she felt herself expand in an undulating wave of warmth.

“I love you, my firecat,”
he answered in her mind.

* * *

Rakan pulled back slowly, carefully extracting his mind from Anna’s. Yarlung and Khotan had left. And he needed to confront them. Anna resisted, and he smiled. “I’d rather stay here, too. But if I don’t stop Yarlung, she’ll kill June herself.”

Anna dropped her hands. “What are you going to do?”

“Try to convince my parents not to kill June.”

“Will they listen?”

“Probably not. Maybe T’eng Sten can help. Or the Eld. If I can speak with them.” Rakan stood next to her by the window. “But what I do know is that if they kill June now, they’ll kill her kais too.”

“But is she really Paaliaq?”

“Yes. No. Or maybe a fragment of Paaliaq. I don’t know. But I saw her kais.”

“Would you kill her if there weren’t any kais?”

“No,” Rakan said. “Not June. But I don’t know what she was like before.” He held up a hand to keep Anna from interrupting him. “June isn’t like any of the stories I heard about Paaliaq. She isn’t the Destroyer.” He looked out the window. “But no one with a rök can go in the light. So she’s changed in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Whoever or whatever June is now, she isn’t Paaliaq anymore.”

Anna slid her hands around Rakan’s waist. “Will I see you again?”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her.
“I don’t know.”

* * *

Rakan shifted onto the ledge outside his father’s lair. He needed to gather his thoughts before he could face Khotan and Dvara. They were inside, tense with excitement. He looked at the empty plateau and breathed in deeply. The air was moist and the earth was stirring. Life, as meager as it was, was everywhere. He stretched his arms and embraced it. His mind sank into the land he had grown up with. The land he had loved. He dropped his arms. The land he would join all too soon. He turned and entered Khotan’s lair.

“Rakan,” said his father. “I wasn’t sure you’d come. Are you alright?”

Rakan nodded. He didn’t want to talk about their last encounter. “I take it the Meet started again?” Otherwise Yarlung would have come as soon as he arrived. And he was glad she hadn’t.

“Yes. Did you find Paaliaq?” he asked. “We can’t locate her.”

“I don’t know where June is. But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Why not?” snapped Dvara. “How can you doubt who she is anymore? You saw her.”

“Yes. But I’ve also seen her morph into an Elythia. And no Draak can do that.”

“Yeah, well, no Elythia can turn into an emerald green dragon either.”

“So she’s neither a Draak nor an Elythia. She isn’t Paaliaq.”

Dvara threw her hands up. “You drive me crazy. Why’d you come here?”

“Did you know the Elythia had survived?” he asked his father.

“No. No one knew. And Yarlung wishes to keep it a secret.”

Rakan nodded. For once he agreed with his mother. The hatred for the Elythia hadn’t diminished even with their presumed extinction. “Could a Draak and an Elythia have offspring?”

Khotan stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Theoretically, yes, since humans and Draak can. But I doubt it’ll ever happen. There has been too much hatred. And even if it did, the children probably wouldn’t survive very long anyway.” Khotan paused and added quietly. “Just as with the human-Draak children.”