His emotions were conflicted. Desperate yet still angry. Terrified yet defiant. He had flailed against this lass too much lately. Feared nothing good could come of her survival.
“You don’t know that,”Shannon said into his mind. She was struggling against the waves and heading in their direction with Liam right behind her.“So stop thinking it.”
Shannon had single-handedly rescued his dragon. Brought him back and saved him from being Siobhán’s pawn.
“Not me alone,” Shannon reminded aloud, joining him. “It was a team effort made up of my husband and son.” Her worried gaze fell to Constance as she placed a hand on her sister’s forehead. “This isn’t good.”
“Nay.” He nodded thanks to her and Liam then nodded once at their white wolf and shifter son, Tréan, pacing the shoreline. “’Twas most certainly all three of ye.”
If he didn’t know Shannon and Liam could withstand the cold water thanks to their magic, he would tell them to go back. Not that it would matter. Shannon was willing to risk her life to save her sister, and Liam would risk anything to save Shannon.
“Thisreallyisn’t good.” Shannon’s eyes slid shut. Her hand turned red just being against Constance’s forehead. “Siobhán has more of a hold on her dragon than she did yours, Aodh. A more personal connection.” She shook her head and placed her other hand on Constance’s chest when Liam held her steady. “I’m shocked she hasn’t got all of her inner dragon yet. All of my sister, if I were to be honest.”
“Yet she does not,” he said through clenched teeth. His dragon’s fury only grew. Rage that had no name. Made little sense. “Because part of it is held back,ta?”
“Yes.Ta.” When Shannon opened her eyes to his, they shone peach with her inner druidess. “And you feel that tether now, right? A part of her inner dragon struggles to stay with you even as a greater part tries to push you away?”
However strange the sensation, he did feel it and wasn’t sure what to make of it. How to feel. “Ta.”
“Good, because you need to rein it in.” She held out her hand to him. “To do that, you need to give me your hand and trust me.”
He frowned and was about to say his hands were occupied until Liam positioned himself to keep Constance’s head above water, freeing up one of Aodh’s hands.
“Please.” Shannon’s inner druidess shone brighter. “I need your help.Sheneeds your help. Or her human half will die before we get her out of this water, and the gods only know what Siobhán will do with her dragon half.” She shook her head. “I can’t even imagine because I didn’t think your kind could be separated like this. Not until now.”
He might not be a fan of his inner beast, but he agreed with his dragon when it flared up inside him. Felt its terror and rage at such a thing. How horrific it would be.
While a part of him still felt she might deserve it, his dragon half, above all, refused to see it happen. If Constance were truly the enemy he thought her to be, she deserved to face him whole and healthy. Not shredded apart by a woman who had created so much havoc for him over the years.
So he allowed Shannon to place his hand over Constance’s heart before she rested her hand over his. Allowed her to pull his dragon forward like she had when he’d been imprisoned. Drew forth a side of his inner beast he’d given up on.
A more merciful side, to be sure.
It gave him little choice but to follow Shannon’s gentle nudge to seek out the fear rather than the defiance of Constance’s other half. The odd place it was trapped. Urged it to break free. To follow him back, for if it didn’t, it would cease to be itself.
Instead, it would be enslaved to something more powerful.
He thought he’d seen a lot in life, done a lot, but nothing compared to the feeling of him and Shannon bringing Constance’s inner beast close enough he felt its mind.Hermind. It felt familiar and foreign all at once. Like the end of all he knew and the beginning of something confusing yet intriguing.
Something that literally took his breath away moments later.
