Furee Born: The Dragon Mage Series Book IV (12 page)

“If Furee is putting that
sad look on your face, I will be very unhappy,” her brother said, pulling her
from the sad memories she had been wallowing in.  His voice dropped to a threatening
growl.  “And I will make sure he understands my displeasure.”

Riva smiled at him; her
brother moved through the garden toward her the same way he moved through the
forest, fluid and silent with his brown and green leathers blending in with the
foliage he slid through.  Still armed with arrow and quiver, a sword crossing
beneath it at his back, and numerous knives stashed in the top of his long
boots, he was very much a man of the hunt, as she was decidedly not.  She could
gather herbs and lay traps with the best of them, but she had never had his
natural affinity for that lifestyle.  “Just thinking about the long road that
led us here,” she said, her smile going soft for him.  “And how much you
sacrificed for me along the way.”

He snorted, her smile and
words relieving some tension he had been carrying in his shoulders.  “Sacrificed? 
You kept me alive with your healing more times than I can count.”  He smiled at
her.  “I was a reckless little bastard.”

“Was?” Riva asked, her
doubt clear.  She raised her eyebrows and teased.  “You think that has changed?”

He shrugged and tugged at
a curl that had come lose from her braid.  “Everything changes, eventually.”

She caught his hand and
his shuttered eyes.  “Not everything,” she said softly.  “You will always be my
brother.”

He smiled but shook his
head, shaking off whatever was weighing him down.  “At least I know you have
someone worthy of protecting you now.”  He looked around, dropping his hand to
his side.  “Where is Furee anyway?”

“Sleeping.”

Braedon blinked at her in
surprise.  “Sleeping?”

She shrugged. “He had a
long night.”

Her brother winced at
that and held up his hand between them.  “Please, I do not need to hear about
how tired mating my sister made him.”

Riva rolled her eyes and
slapped him upside the back of his head.  “As if I would discuss that with you.” 
She glared for good measure.  “He was in battle against mutant beasts, fought
off a deadly poison, among other things.”  Her brother winced again at the last
but stayed silent when she sent another rosy-cheeked glare his way.  “He needs
sleep.”

“Fine, he needs sleep,”
her brother muttered, ducking her next slap to his head with his usual lightning
fast reflexes.  “And he’s okay with you wandering Forsaken without him while
Graedon has ‘capturing a healer’ on his current to-do list for world
domination?”

Before she could assure
him that she was perfectly safe at Forsaken, an angry dragon roar she
recognized shook the mountain fortress around them.

As soon as the ground
stopped shaking, her brother raised a single irritating brow and gave
her a half-smile.  “Guess not.”

Furee shifted to his
dragon form while the stone of Forsaken Mountain still shook from his roar.  He
did not notice setting fire to the bed or catching the drapes as he flew
through the open balcony doors and circled the keep; his mate had been taken,
the rest was less than dust.  As dragon, he sent out another roar to battle,
sending a burst of flame out a good ten feet at the same time, and watched an
answering flare of fire light the morning mists above the high gardens.  He
turned and headed at speed for the beckoning flare and saw his mate standing
well back outside the reach of her brother’s fountain of flame.  She was unharmed
and standing with her hands on her hips, her eyes on him.

He arrowed down to her as
though shot from a bow, landing like a flaming arrow, again not noticing that the
garden around her shriveled and died in fire.  Where he landed was a three-foot-wide
circle of char that was once lush and green.  His mate remained untouched in
the middle of it, her eyes looking around them in dismay, which he did not notice
as he was too busy checking the area for dangers.

“Did you just burn a
swath through my favorite garden?” Riva asked clearly aghast.  Furee in dragon
form finished his scan of the area and realized there was no danger here.  Then
he turned and glared down at his mate, who obviously had not been taken against
her will from his bed.  He felt the other dragons and mages alike coming at his
call.  Kinkaid, a great shimmering black dragon, landed next to the golden
bronze of Prince Ladon with their mage mate on his back.  Though Melisande,
Clare, and the babies were noticeably absent, Aarion and finally Asha joined
her fire mage in her ice dragon form.  None of the dragons shifted to their
warrior form but stayed dragon while they spaced themselves as a protective
perimeter around Furee and his mate.  Braedon leaned against the side of Asha’s
diamond bright neck while he watched the happenings before him with a half-smile
on his face that Furee did not understand.  Even if his mate was not in danger,
he saw no humor in the situation. 

He watched Riva look
around and then her cheeks heated at the attention they were garnering.  She
gave one glare to her smirking brother and then turned back to Furee when he
breathed smoke and fire at her to get her attention.  She waved off his flames,
clearly not a bit worried he would harm her.  “Stop breathing fire and tell me
why you woke up the entire household and burned down the gardens.” 
And why
didn’t you just send me your thoughts if you were wondering where I was?

Furee blinked great
dragon eyes and stumbled to a stop in his thinking.  With an effort, he called
his control to him.  He was not about to admit he didn’t think of it in his
panic.  So, instead, he shifted to fully-armed warrior form and stood over his
much smaller mage mate, glowering at her.  “How did you leave without waking
me?”

Riva narrowed her eyes at
his tone and crossed her arms, raising her chin to meet his eyes, clearly
exasperated with him.  “You were obviously in need of sleep.  Technically, I
left you twice without waking you.  First to check on the babies, and then when
I came back, you were still asleep so I went to the gardens.”  She waved her
hand around them looking none too pleased.  “What’s left of them, anyway.”

A wave of magic crashed
over them at that point, and Riva turned around in a circle watching the Earth
magic weave and flow around them, restoring the garden to its former glory. 
She turned with awe, wiping away her irritation to see the dragons had all
shifted back to warrior form, and Morgan was standing before them all, her eyes
glowing mage green while she finished making the flowers grow.  Furee gnashed
his teeth at his mate’s lack of attention.  He could care less what the others
were doing.  He cared that his mate understood the dangers she courted.  And he
disliked the sting of her words.  Whether she knew it or not, she had just
insulted him mightily.

“A warrior does not sleep
while his mate is in danger,” he growled out.  “If I did not wake, you should
have awoken me, rather than go off on your own.”

She turned back to him
looking surprised.  “You needed the sleep, clearly, or you would have woken on
your own.  I was not exactly being stealthy.  I was certainly not going to wake
you up when I am perfectly safe at Forsaken.”

He bent down until she
was forced to bend back, his nose nearly touching hers while he glared into her
pretty eyes.  “
Then you should have stayed with me while I slept!” 
His
human roar was nowhere near as powerful as his dragon call to war, but he
watched with satisfaction as her eyes widened at the force of his words. 
Unfortunately, her worry did not last longer than a moment before she was
glaring at him again.  Furee growled before she could give any more ridiculous
statements about his sleep needs.  “No place is impenetrable, Riva.  I awoke
with no thought but that you had been
taken from me
.”

He watched her eyes
narrow, and then he felt her senses opening and caressing through his thoughts
with an ease that even a long-mated dragon would find difficult.  Whatever she
saw had her softening beneath his eyes.  She stepped forward so that they were close
enough to touch, her hand going to his chest, and he felt the soft heat of her
touch over his heart like a warm brand.  To do that she had to put her hand
through his anger-induced fire.

I would not have left you
asleep if I knew how you would worry. 
Her words drifted through
his thoughts in soft apology. 
But I need for you to calm down and stop
breathing fire at me.  You could have found me through the mating bond if you
had just thought to look.

With an effort, he tamped
down some of his own anger and with it the fire that traveled up her palm and
wrapped around her arm, holding her to him.  He finally sent her the bald
truth, knowing what it exposed to her. 
I did not think of it.  I thought of
nothing but you in danger and reacted.

In the future, I will
wake you before I leave.

His jaw clenched at her
apology.  As if he would sleep through such a thing again. 
You will stay in
my bed until we leave it together.  End of discussion.

She looked down and no
doubt assumed he could not tell she was rolling her eyes at his heavy-handed
edict. 
Roll your eyes if you must, but I cannot go through another morning
of what I felt today.

That snapped her eyes
back to his, and he watched knowledge soften her exasperation.  He felt more
than heard her sigh of capitulation. 
Agreed.

The last of the tension
left him with her agreement, and he pulled her roughly up and into his arms so
that he could bury his face in her neck and breathe her in.  He closed his eyes
and assured himself that she was truly safe.  That no one had taken her from
him while he lay senseless and that the mating had not been another feverish
dream that faded with the dawn’s light.

I could not bear your
loss, Riva. 
He sent all that he was feeling to his
mate, and opened himself up wide to show her what she meant to him.  He felt
her breath stutter under the onslaught of his feelings, before her arms and
legs wrapped him up tight and her mage energy caressed through his thoughts,
healing his mind and heart almost as much as the feel of her safe in his arms
did. 

Neither of them knew that
mage green and dragon fire wove around them in a cocoon of power that separated
them from the rest of the garden.  Nor did they hear Braedon bark his surprise
at the sight of his sister disappearing behind a wall of fire.  Or take note
when his mate dragged him off with the rest of the dragons and Morgan, leaving
them the private use of the newly restored gardens.

***

It was some time later
that Asha asked to speak with Riva and Furee and they moved into the vast library
to talk.

“Aarion was talking about
the healing you did for him,” she started.  Braedon stood at her back,
mirroring the way Furee stood at Riva’s.  “He said you also removed some of the
dark that he did not even know weighed him down, and that Adair could see the
light and dark of a person and Furee was getting brighter as well.”

Riva blinked at the
subject.  Not exactly what she had been expecting.  “I did remove some of
Aarion’s darkness,” she answered carefully.

Asha licked her lips and
tried to hide the excitement she was obviously feeling at her answer.  “I think
you could help my brother.”

Riva felt as much as
heard Furee growl behind her.  “Lord Theron?”  She had only met the man a few
times, when she had gone to Seatown to heal Asha, and when he killed Brax in
defense of Clare, but he had not seemed so very dark to her.  As many times as
she had gone to Seatown to heal in the last few years, he had always been
elsewhere.  “Has something happened?”

Asha shared a look with
her mate, making Riva aware that she was talking telepathically with her
brother.  Braedon looked as displeased as Furee felt over the subject.  Asha
got a mulish look and turned back to Riva while her brother’s jaw clenched
tight.

“When my brother fought
Graedon, he unknowingly took a dark path.”  Her eyes looked as pain-filled as
Riva had ever seen them, and that was saying something as the first healing
Riva did for her, she had been buried alive by the man who raised her as his
daughter.  “His is a burden I am not sure he can carry on his own.  Even
looking through the weave the answer is not clear.”  She took a deep breath and
Riva felt the tears she refused to shed in her voice.  “Knowing what you did
for Aarion, and are doing for Furee, I just wondered if you would consent to
try to help Theron.”  She shook her head when Braedon started to protest.  Her
eyes stayed on Riva, ignoring both the displeasure Furee was radiating and her
mate’s worry for his sister.  “I know what I am asking is dangerous.  And not
just because he will not come here and you will have to leave the safety of
Forsaken to find him, but the blood stone may see you as a threat and try to
harm you.”  She licked her lips again, her eyes both worried and determined.  “I
would not ask this of my mate’s beloved sister, but if Theron falls to the
darkness, everyone will pay the price.  The only thing worse would have been if
Graedon had gotten hold of the stone and I assured that did not happen by
allowing my brother to take this burden in the first place.”  She suddenly
looked weighed down by her own darkness.  “I owe him,” she said simply.  “I
would be lying if I said I would not sacrifice much to save my brother.  But I
would not propose this if there was not a chance it could help us all.”

Riva could feel her mate’s
need to grab her and take her from this new perceived threat, but he said not a
word.  And Riva realized as much as he needed her to be safe, he always left
healing matters up to her.  She sent him a wave of warmth and gratitude.  She
could feel just how much it cost him to allow her into danger.  Her brother,
too, was noticeably silent, his clenched jaw and flashing eyes showed his own
anger at the subject, but his silence more than anything else proved he
understood how much this meant to his mate.

“I do not envy you your
gifts, sister,” she finally said quietly, her eyes on the other woman’s waiting
face.  “I am humbled by your strength.  The decisions you must make . . .” 
Riva sucked in a breath and let the words trail off.  She raised her chin and
met the woman’s eyes, her own filled with the fire of vows in the making.  “I
will do everything I can to bring the light back to your brother and heal him
of the damage the blood stone may have wrought.”  Then she stepped forward and
took Asha’s hand, squeezing it in gentle compassion.  “You have brought the
smile back to my brother’s eyes; I will do my best to return the favor.”

Asha squeezed her hand
back, a little too forcefully in her relief, and Riva did her best not to
flinch from the pressure.

“Now?”  Asha asked
quickly, her eyes alight with painful hope.  “Will you come with us to Seatown
and try right now?  Today?”

There was really only one
answer Riva could give despite the unhappy pressing along her back from Furee’s
displeasure.  “Yes.”

Asha let go of the
painful grip on her hand and sagged back into her mate’s waiting arms.  “Thank
you.”

Riva just nodded.

Then Furee spoke for the
first time, his voice striking sparks with each gritted word.  “We will leave
for Seatown as soon as we have informed the others of our plans.”  He pulled
Riva close to his side, his eyes hot and on Braedon.  “I will ask Aarion to
accompany us as added security and I will check with the Lady Melisande to find
out what is happening with General Solan and the others before we depart.”

“Agreed,” Braedon said
just as grimly.  Then they both dragged their mates in different directions. 
She did not know about Braedon, but Furee did not say a word to her about her
rash decision, or going into danger yet again, when they knew Graedon was after
healers, and her specifically.

She blew out a breath and
sent another wave of gratitude in the hopes of cooling his ire.  “Thank you,
Furee.”

“Do not thank me until
you have done what you need to do and are back safe,” he answered grimly, one
hand holding her arm so that she was pressed up against his side as they
marched, the other gripping the pommel of his sword as if they had already left
Kinkaid land and protection behind.  “If Lord Theron tries to hurt you, I will
end him, no matter who his sister is.”