Shescreeches, flames licking at the back of her throat, threatening to spill.
Despite being in a body much smaller and more fragile than she used to be, with less teeth and claws, The Other looks the dam in the eye—stance steady.
Firm.
Doesn’t so much as blink.
The Moltenmaw snaps her beak shut and cocks her head to the side as a silent message passes between the two … from one mourning dam to another. Something that’s said more loudly with the cold echo of silence.
The Other dips her chin in submission, feeling the dam’s steady gaze on her as she walks onto the mist-swarmed stones.
Perhaps sensing the life now fluttering within her egg, the dam gushes into the nest the moment the path is clear. Squeaking sounds follow—the gentle coos of a nurturing dam while she fluffs herself, nuzzling her egg, rolling it.
Treasuringit.
The Other moves from stone to stone, the rest of the flock now tossing orange flames through the mist. Hot blazes that burn off some of the smog and illuminate the ghosts of a scalding past etched all over her skin.Thousandsof runes used to smooth her Precious One’s delicate flesh … time and time again.
The Moving Mists honor the dead much in the same way dragons do, gathering behind The Other like stretching wings as she comes face-to-face with the mate of her Precious One.
His face is pale and drawn, the fire gone from his eyes. All that remains beneath the mantle of his pinched brow are deep seeds of grief, his starescraping across the luminous etches that litter Raeve’s skin. Each mark a distant scream of pain she never let past her lips.
Not once.
His attention shifts to the foggy wings now stretching, tethered from between The Other’s shoulder blades. He swallows, face bunching, his next words a broken rasp. “What are you?”
“You know what I am, Kaan Vaegor. I am neither living nor dead. Once broken and now”—The Other offers him a sad smile, resting her hand over the shard held close to her chest—“almostwhole.”
Something shatters in his eyes. “H—How?”
The Other doesn’t dare utter the truth, not wanting to be the one to break this lovely male’s heart. But he’ll learn it … eventually. Before everything is put back together again.
Before the balance is restored.
So instead, she tells him a different truth. A soft, lovely truth that’s worthy of his big, warm heart.
“There is nothing she would not do for you.”
Much as there is nothing The Other would not do for her Precious Little One.
Kaan falls to his knees, his breaths coming hard and fast.
“Her many truths sit like stones in my den, waiting to be found. You are the brightest of them all. Perhaps the reason she has been so cautious of it. In her life, the brightest lights blink out.”
His face twists, hands balling into fists so tight his knuckles turn white. “Who hurt her?”
Too many.
“Those stories are not mine to share.” Another blow of flame erupts, illuminating her many runes again. “You are right not to push her. As we speak, she is searching for one of the songs she once knew. I am tending the most painful bits of her past, giving them to her slowly. She will learn the full truth when she is ready.”
As will you.
The Other pauses, thinking of the weight of everything she knows. Thinking of what she’s sure is destined to come. She lifts a hand from her precious shard, touching his face, the scruff around his jaw softer than she expected it to be. “Thank you …”
“For what?” he rasps as another blow of dragonflame ignites her skin, his eyes filling with a sheen that drips down one of his cheeks.
The Other smiles, beginning to slink back beneath the surface when she says, “For loving her as much as I do.”
She lets Raeve’s body fall, knowing he’ll catch her and take her somewhere she can truly rest.
