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Smirking, like she was getting away with her plan, Willow gave me one last kiss and whirled around, crossing the double doors.
“Need help?” Harper offered a few minutes later, nodding towards my new Dragon.
“You want to ride Venom?” I grinned when she gave me a horrified look.
“Gods, no. I’m not suicidal.” She shuddered, like the snake Dragon gave her the creeps. “I meant fly with you to the caves so I can give you a ride down afterwards.”
“Sure.” I frowned. “How can I get him a lair though? Will he need to dig it out of the mountain too?” I asked, knowing that was something Dragons did. It was how they created the honeycombs, similar to a bird having to build a nest.
“Normally, he would have.” She paused, sadness entering her expression. “But there are a few empty from the ones we lost during the last battle.”
My heart sunk with the notion. I knew they had been here for about a year, but I had no idea they fought a battle after they found this place. Nodding, I turned and mounted Venom again, seeing Tharion was already flying towards his cave. He hadn’t even waited for me, or said anything. Ass.
Together, Harper and I flew up on our rides, but she hovered on one side while I circled the honeycombs with Venom. We easily found a couple of empty ones, but he peeked inside and shook his head, moving to the next one. It turned out that the one below Tharion’s, and right across from Luna, Vyper, and Draco was empty, so he settled there—probably liking the proximity to Tharion. I wasn’t sure if they, too, had linked, but I assumed that they could feel each other’s energy, and since they had both chosenandbonded with me, they might resonate with each other.
Closing his wings tautly behind him, and without arms to help him walk on all fours like the rest, Venom dropped onto his belly and slithered along the ground until the shadows engulfed him. His light chartreuse scales swiftly came to life, and I gasped.
He was glowing in the dark.
Grinning, I turned just as Harper and Spike hovered close to the entrance, jumping onto his back. “Before we go down, would you mind if I stop by Luna’s lair for a moment? I want to check on Vyper and Draco. Make sure they are okay.”
Harper gave me a hesitant glance. “They are in hibernation. Luna is not going to let you anywhere near them.”
“I just want to try, it feels like forever since I last saw them.”
Understanding filled her eyes and she nodded, guiding Spike to the other side of the honeycombs. “Do you want me to wait for you?” she asked, when I dropped into the entrance of Luna’s cave.
“No, it’s fine.”
“I don’t mind…”
“Okay. I’ll just be a few sun-minutes.”
Nodding, she hovered away while I began to walk into the space. Luna was inside, I could feel her presence, but she wasn’t anywhere I could see. I took advantage of that and rushed along the wall to the alcove I had noticed the last time I was there. Reaching its entrance, I peeked inside to find not one, but two sleeping forms.
Both wonder and awe gripped me when I realized that Vyper and Draco were in stasis. Their forms had already grown way larger than I remembered, but they were barely breathing. The movement of their chests was a hardly visible rise and fall. At least I thought those were their chests since I couldn’t really see them. Their bodies were wrapped in what appeared to be a cocoon. Except, it wasn’t hard, not a shell but a soft network of threads and some kind of gelatinous substance.
I couldn’t see them at all through it, the only way to distinguish them was the soft blue and green hues their cocoons had. Two large bundles of shedded skin lay by the far corner.
Closing my eyes, I reached for their silver threads but our connection was still dormant. Their blue glow was almost nonexistent, like they could no longer feel me. The thought made my chest constrict. I knew we had never bonded and they weren’t mine, but we had still shared so much. I hoped that once they awoke, everything would return to normal.
Ribbed fingers suddenly wrapped around my torso, yanking me out of the alcove and throwing me outside. I crashed onto the hard ground, rolling to a stop near the entrance, just in time to see Luna growl at me menacingly. The force of it made me stumble as I stood, and I lifted my arms in surrender.
She was pissed.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was just checking on them.”
Her jaws opened wide and she roared, making it clear that I was no longer welcomed in her cave.
“Great. You’ve managed to successfully infuriate everyone today,” Harper called from outside.
I turned around, running towards Spike and jumping onto his neck. “Shut up and go!”
Dropping me off at the back of the castle, Harper hopped off too, and we watched Spike fly back up to his lair. “Do you know what your punishment is yet?”
“The chief told me to report to the kitchens tonight. He said Enix and Lais would know what to do with me.”
“Oh, Brother.” She cringed, shaking her head. “I hope you are not a puker.”
