The Dragon Legion Collection 9 (26 page)

“By planting the teeth, sowing them like seeds,” Petra guessed.

Damien looked up in surprise.

“It’s in a story,” she explained with a smile and he shook his head. “But two thousand years?”

He nodded. “I have seen the future. I thought this world lost to us.” He sighed. “We all thought ourselves adrift, until the darkfire was released.”

“Released from what?”

“It was trapped in a stone by some sorcery. Actually, there are said to be three darkfire crystals, according to the
Pyr
of future times, and one of them was broken, setting the force of darkfire loose in the world.” He frowned. “Everything can change when the darkfire burns.”

Was everything changing for her and Damien? Petra wanted that to be true so badly that she didn’t want to say it aloud.

“The darkfire brought you here, then.”

Damien nodded. “Our commander, Drake, took possession of one of the crystals. He thought it ordered him to do so. Once he had it, it began to flare intermittently. Whenever it did that, we were flung through space and time, cast down in a strange place until the crystal lit again. We lost men along the way. It was before we came here that Thaddeus suggested the crystal was taking us to our firestorms. One of us, Alexander, was taken back to the village where he left Katina and his son.”

“What happened to him?”

“I don’t know. The crystal lit again, and Alexander ran from us, determined to be left behind.” He met her gaze steadily. “Then it took us to a place where Orion’s firestorm sparked. He pursued her and the crystal brought us here. As soon as I saw the River Acheron, I knew the darkfire was giving me the chance to save our son.” He squeezed her hand slightly. “What if the darkfire is giving
us
a second chance?”

The baby kicked just as his father spoke. Petra would have turned away, but Damien was too observant to miss her reaction. He was leaning over her in a heartbeat, her elbow in his hand. “What is it?”

She had trusted him from that first night, and even though he had disappointed her, Petra realized she still did trust Damien. He wasn’t the only one who had made a mistake, after all.

She took his hand and placed it over her ripe belly. He was momentarily confused, then the baby kicked hard.

“He’s alive!” Damien said with such delight that tears rose to Petra’s eyes. “Has he been doing this all along?”

“No.” Petra shook her head. “No. The labor didn’t start, Damien, and he went still. He’d been kicking and kicking, but suddenly stopped.” Her breath caught. “I felt that he had turned to stone and I was afraid.”

Damien drew her into his arms and held her tightly against his chest. Petra was alarmed to realize that he wasn’t as warm as he had been. “That’s why you took the ferry, even when the sea was rough.”

“I had to go back to the Mothers.”

“Where?”

“The closest place to home for me.”

Damien pressed a kiss into her hair and Petra felt her tears begin to fall. “I was so wrong, Petra. Please forgive me for not trusting you as I should have done.” He framed her face in his hands and kissed her tears away.

“You’re not the only one who made a mistake,” Petra admitted quietly.

“I don’t understand. You’ve done nothing wrong...”

“I did. I invoked the Erinyes.”

Damien looked down at the corpse again. “Just now?” He leaned down, nearly touching his nose to hers, his determined gaze boring into her own. “Why did you do it?”

“You’re not condemning me?”

“Not until I give you a chance to explain.” His grin made her heart skip a beat. “Second chances only work if you learn from your mistakes.”

“It was after you left,” she admitted. “When I was on the ferry.”

“When you knew it was going to sink.”

“I was still angry. I thought everything was your fault.” She flicked a glance at Damien, surprised to find his expression thoughtful. “How could I know that carrying a child would make me want more?”

Damien caught a tendril of her hair between his finger and thumb, then wound it around his finger. His smile was crooked. “You remember that I wasn’t exactly gone the next morning.”

“No, you stayed three months. I thought that was your plan.”

“No. One night was the plan, but you were a temptation that I couldn’t easily leave.”

Petra once again hoped their thoughts were as one. “But you would still have followed Drake, even if we hadn’t argued, and you still would have been enchanted. You still wouldn’t have returned.”

“Don’t believe that. The darkfire still would have been loosed, and I might have found you faster.” Damien was winding her hair more tightly around his finger, his body pressed against her own. He leaned down and touched a feather light kiss to her earlobe, one that weakened her knees and made her heart pound.

“You don’t know that.”

“I believe in stories, especially the ones that end well.”

Petra stole a glance at him and the resolve in his expression made her mouth go dry.

“What if we start again?” he murmured, his breath a seductive caress. “What if I apologize for leaving you and you apologize for invoking the Erinyes?”

“Then what?” Petra asked, her voice husky.

Damien brushed a kiss across her lips, a fleeting touch that filled her with yearning. “Then we just have to figure out how to get out of here.”

“Partners,” Petra breathed and Damien grinned.

“If you’ll have me.”

“If you’ll trust me,” she said quietly and his smile broadened.

“I’ve learned from my mistake.” He kissed her then, sending a wonderful heat through her body and filling her with a new conviction. When he lifted his head, she was simmering and optimistic.

Until her gaze fell on the dead monster.

“We have to go to Hades and appeal to him for release.”

Damien winced. “Even I know that never goes well in stories.”

Petra shook her head and took Damien’s hand, trying to encourage him. “But no one in the stories ever had darkfire on their side.”

Damien nodded, his expression thoughtful as he scanned the bleak terrain of Tartarus.

“What is it?”

“There’s no more darkfire.” He lifted their linked hands and Petra saw that there was no glimmer of blue-green light between their hands. She looked but couldn’t see a single spark, even though it had haunted her since Damien’s arrival.

Had the darkfire abandoned them here?

“It’s leaving us to our own resources,” she guessed.

Damien nodded and squeezed her hand. “Fortunately, we have plenty.”

His optimism was undeserved, though, at least in Petra’s opinion. She could see that her dragon warrior was fading and feared that he might be the sacrifice that was required.

Not if she had anything to say about it.

“He is supposed to hold court on the other side of Tartarus,” Petra said, refusing to believe that everything could be lost. Damien nodded and tightened his grip on her hand, setting a quick pace in the direction she indicated.

* * *

“You have to be joking.” Damien folded his arms across his chest and glared at the dark ribbon of water. Its surface was moving in a way that he distrusted. They had walked for ages, even though there was no good measurement of time in this place. He was tired and his stomach was so empty, it felt hollow. He was having a hard time keeping his thoughts focused and now this. “We have to cross the river without a ferry?”

“I don’t see a ferry,” Petra said mildly. “I’ve never heard of there being one on the River Leche. If you want to appeal to Hades, we have to cross it.”

“We have to go deeper into the underworld.”

“Until we reach its heart.”

Petra moved toward the water with a confidence Damien couldn’t echo. He watched the water and realized its surface was covered with dark creatures. “Snakes,” he muttered under his breath.

“Well, I told you. They make sense here,” Petra continued calmly. “We’re in the underworld, deep in the earth, which is where snakes are supposed to live. In stories, they symbolize lost secrets and forbidden desires.” She gave him a smile that reminded him of all his desires for her.

“I hate snakes.”

“Maybe you’ll conquer your fear.”

“It’s not fear...”

“They’re said to only attack in self-defense. Don’t hurt them and they won’t hurt you.”

“That’s only a rumor.”

She didn’t answer him, just smiled then walked to the bank.

Damien shifted his weight from foot to foot, the sight of those black snakes making him sweat. There had to be thousands of them, maybe millions of them, writhing over each other in a kind of frenzy. The idea of being surrounded by them, of having them touch his skin, was enough to make him feel sick. “It’s fine for you to take such a chance. You’re dead already.”

She cast him an amused glance. “Such a bold dragon,” she said under her breath, her gaze taunting him.

Damien was on the cusp of arguing that he wasn’t a dragon any more, or at least not in this place, but she wasn’t really talking about his shifting powers. “Can’t you cause an earthquake and make the seas part?”

“It wouldn’t necessarily get rid of the snakes.”

“I say it’s worth a try.”

“I’m saving my strength,” she said, and he heard that she was tired. He saw her hand cup her ripe belly again and wondered if she felt the baby’s time was coming. “They’re just snakes, Damien.”

He marched down to the river to stand beside Petra, deeply uneasy about the whole exercise. “It would be a lot easier if I could still shift shape,” he noted. “We could just fly over the river.”

“Which might be the point. This might be a test of your determination.”

He gave her a sizzling glance. “I’m determined enough.”

“We’ll soon find out. This river isn’t supposed to be very deep.”

Even the possibility of snakes up to his waist made Damien shudder. “Does anybody know for sure?”

“No one who’s telling.”

He exhaled and tried to find his courage. It also would have been much easier without the sight of all those sinuous bodies entwining and tangling, glistening wet, and much easier if he’d been feeling his usual self. “Doesn’t this river have some kind of power?”

“You’re stalling,” Petra teased with a laugh.

“I’m gathering information to make the best choice,” Damien retorted and she laughed again. He couldn’t help but smile that she knew him so well.

“The Leche is called the river of oblivion, which is a tempting prospect in a way.”

Damien was surprised. “What could you want to forget?”

“You broke my heart, Damien,” she said softly. “And forgetting that ache would make any situation easier to bear.”

He caught her hand in his, wanting to make this right while he could. He had absolutely no confidence that he could pass through this river unscathed, and this one thing, he had to set straight with Petra while he could. He turned her hand in his, trying to find a way to explain. “I thought I was supposed to take care of you.”

“I thought you were the one man who could accept me for what I was.”

Damien nodded, knowing he should have done better. “I’ve been with others of my kind while I’ve been gone,” he said. “These other
Pyr
have an idea that their mates are more than the mothers of their sons.”

“I like them already.”

“They think of their mates as their partners, and in fact, they believe that making a permanent bond with their mate makes them stronger.”

“The whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts?”

“Exactly.” Damien nodded. “I know I disappointed you, Petra, and I know I was wrong, but I’ll take that chance you offered.”

She considered him. “I thought you came just for your son.”

He smiled at her. “I thought so, too, but seeing you again has made me realize how empty my life has been without you. Come with me, Petra. Be partners with me.”

She averted her gaze, her throat working. “It’s not up to me. We have to appeal to Hades, but you have to know that he never lets anyone leave.”

“I won’t believe it. The darkfire has to be making the impossible possible. I have to believe that if you decide to be with me, then we will be able to leave.”

She considered him for a long moment. “You won’t abandon me again?”

“Never.”

Petra studied him for a long moment. She squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek, then turned and walked into the dark water. The water stained the hem of her tunic first, making the fabric look dark. She walked steadily into the water, showing a bravery Damien wished he felt, especially when the first of the snakes wound around her legs. He shuddered and couldn’t bear to watch, but couldn’t turn away either.

As Petra continued to wade deeper, the snakes merely slipped around her body. They seemed to create a path for her and carry on with their own business, untroubled by her presence. It looked as if the water was only as deep as her hips.