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“Is that why you stopped being a warrior?” I finally asked.
Blinking the past away, Imogen offered me a small smile. “No. That was the day I became a true warrior.” Glancing behind me, she stood. “The reason I stopped fighting is a story for another day.”
I watched her walk to the entrance of the space to find Eli and his sister Mila had arrived, probably to visit his baby Dragon, Sky. I waved at them when they said hi, but I couldn’t get Imogen’s story off my mind.
Leaning back on the boulder behind me, I pulled out my father’s journal, and began to read.
For what seemed like hours, I was lost among his words, and the meaningful things he discovered with Tharion. There were also a few hilarious anecdotes of his experiments going terribly wrong. Dad had a hard time getting Tharion to let him ride him after the first time they flew, which sounded awfully familiar.
He also spoke about a few other Dragons he referred to as Knight, Ardor, Storm, and Nocte. They hadn’t bonded with Dad like Tharion did, but they had kind of chosen to help him and share a strong relationship with them. His notes specifically made the distinction, explaining there was a big difference between the two actions.
I found it curious, because I was experiencing something similar with Vyper, Tharion, Aeramen, and Venom. The more I thought about it, the clearer the notion became.
Tharion had chosenandbonded with me. However, Venom hadn’t chosen me. He responded to my desperate plea for help, and then bonded with me. Vyper and Aeramen had chosen me, but we couldn’t bond until they transformed into their adult selves. The complexity and depth Dragons possessed humbled me. Yet, based on everything Evie had explained about them until now, I understood that wasn’t normal. So perhaps it was something my dad and I shared.
Still, I was certain that when Vyper came out of hibernation as an adult, he would bond with me, and when his turn came, so would Aeramen.
Other parts of my father’s journal didn’t contain a single word about Dragons. Instead, he spoke about Mom, and the love they shared since they met as kids. He talked about knowing he could endure any hardship as long as she was by his side. My heart swelled reading those words, because it was just as I remembered. He adored her. He was completely devoted to her, and had the certainty that he would be with her until the day he died… and even after that, in what he calledTranquillitas Lacus—the Lake of Tranquility.It was their heaven.
Other pages contained things I never knew, like the fact that they tried getting pregnant for years without luck. Through war, through loss, they never stopped hoping they’d be blessed with a baby. My chest constricted when Dad talked about wanting a boy more than anything, so he could teach him everything his father taught him, and hopefully give him a world he was proud to call home.
Pausing while appreciation gripped my chest, I realized that everything he did, he had done for me. My parents never lost faith that they would win the war against the Warlock King and reclaim Caelisium.
Taking a deep breath, I turned the page, and immediately frowned, caught off guard when it jumped to what looked like mathematical formulas. It wasn’t the fact that they were in his journal that confused me, after all, Dad had been a healer before becoming a warrior, and a pharmacist later in the Mirror World. It was the fact that they looked like intricate biological equations, something too advanced to be from this world.
Had my father gone to Earth before he left for good? Sitting up, I turned the page again to see scribbles, clearly made in a hurry, that mentioned intracellular reactions, and hormones. Another one cited something about genome mapping. My breathing accelerated when I saw the drawing of a glass syringe on the bottom of the page.
Snapping the journal close, I stood, running out of there.
“Ashton, are the horses here?” I blurted the moment I entered the stable near the landing pad. He was the man that looked after them.
Jumping back from the start, he frowned. “Yes, I just finished bathing them. What is going on?”
“Nothing, I just need one, please.”
A grunt escaped him. “Is it important? I just finished cleaning them and they need to rest.”
“Very. But I’ll bring him right back, I promise. I won’t take more than an hour.”
“Fine…” Sighing, he gestured for me to come in, and I went straight for Luhc, Harrison’s horse—knowing he wouldn’t mind.
Jumping onto his back, I guided him out of the stable, and we dashed through the bottom of the large fissure that allowed us in and out of the mountains. It was almost like he could feel my urgency, and his hooves struck the earth on our way to the Lost Kingdom.
We rushed through the tall archway of the castle, only stopping when we reached the grand staircase. I wasn’t sure if I should leave him loose, and Harrison would kill me if I lost his horse, so I tied his reins to the banister, soothingly patting his chest.
“Easy, Luhc. I’m just going upstairs to search for something. You will wait here for me, please?”
He nodded, bringing a brief smile to my face. He was such a loyal animal. Stroking his chest once more, I turned and began to make my way up the broken stairs. The same awe I felt the first time I entered theHall of the Forgottenfell over me then, and I paced myself, taking calmed steps towards the table Kingston had uncovered when we were here together.
That didn’t stop my pulse from jumping, or my mind from imagining all kinds of crazy things—including the possibility that my father had used some kind of genetics so my mother could get pregnant.
Kneeling before the large trunk, I reached the iron handle and began to pull it out, cursing when the weight became far more than I could handle. I had conveniently forgotten that last time, it took both Kingston and I to move it enough to open, and the chief was like three times stronger than I was.
Well… not really.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and summoned my Dragons, channelling them for strength. Immediately, Tharion’s fiery power and Venom’s electrifying energy coursed through me. Preparing myself to try again, I yanked the oversized trunk with all my might, and was sent stumbling backwards when the damn thing glided effortlessly from under the table, forcing me onto my ass.
Okay, that was new.
