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14
The pain Dragons felt when losing one of their own was like nothing I had ever experienced. Even now, away from the honeycombs, I felt Aeramen’s ache flowing through me. He was only a baby, yet he felt Ember’s loss as strongly as the other Dragons did.
It opened my eyes to a new truth about them.
Each of them was their own independent being, with their own personality, conscience, powers, and feelings… but they were also linked as one through the grand family tree I had the honor to witness. The glowing leaves and branches were their spirits, connected through life and beyond death, and now I was one of them. Linked to their beautiful golden essence because of my father and Tharion.
There were no words to describe how it felt to finally know who I really was, my purpose, and destiny.
I welcomed it all. I claimed it. And I would honor it until my last breath.
A soft whine escaped Aeramen, bringing my attention back to him. “I know, buddy. I know.”
Soothing him, I caressed his tail that was wrapped around my hips, turning him around to carry him against my chest just as we reached the entrance to the Dragon daycare.
His head nestled against my neck, and I winced when his sharp horns scraped my skin. Pretty soon, I was going to have to wear full armor just to carry him. A drop of blood slid down my skin, but he sent his healing into me immediately, making the cut disappear.
“Sorry.”A small whimper accompanied the apology, and he licked my cheek with his tiny tongue, but I just smiled, kissing his forehead.
“It’s okay, little dude.”
“That’s the thing about Dragon babes, honey,” Imogen’s voice filtered through the sound of cascading water, and my gaze lifted to find her placing a tiny orange Dragon in the pool. “They are adorable but dangerous.”
Golden auras came to life all around me as my glowing gaze fell on the babies.
“Truer words have never been spoken,” I joked, placing Aeramen on the ground to nuzzle my leg one last time before joining the other, older babies. I swore the others were like Great Danes by this point. Dragons developed so fast.
“They’ll soon be leaving my side and joining their mothers in the lairs full time,” Imogen echoed my thoughts, walking to my side. “There, they’ll learn to fly and start using those sharp claws and horns of theirs to defend themselves.”
A sense of longing accompanied her words, and I couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be for her to care for these cute little creatures every day, just to give them away to become adults. It had only been like two weeks since I last saw Vyper ad Draco, and I was already getting desperate. I missed them like crazy.
Wait, weeks? It felt like months.
My gaze went to the tiny orange baby, noticing a few others with him in the pool. “New recruits?”
A sweet smile illuminated Imogen’s freckled face. “Oh yes, darling. If there is one thing you can always count on, is Dragons humping each other. They never stop.”
Laughter left me and I shook my head. “Not sure if I needed that information, but okay.”
“Hey, if I ought to know, you ought to know too!” Chuckling, she nodded towards my eyes, reminding me they were still glowing.
My hands lifted to my temples as I blinked, trying to make the golden light go away, but it wouldn’t. Shit. It was stuck again. “I’m sorry. This is new, and I don’t quite know how to make it stop yet.”
“You are different, Braxton. That ain’t a bad thing.” Her searching gaze examined me for a few silent minutes. “It happened with the Dragons, didn’t it?”
How the hell did she know? “Not the very first time,” I admitted. “But yeah, I just went up to the honeycombs with the princess and the glow returned.”
“Mm-hmm.” She nodded knowingly, then sat on one of the boulders that surrounded the waterfall. “I know my Dragons, darling…” Imogen added by way of explanation, but didn’t offer anything else.
Joining her on the boulders, I followed her gaze to the Dragon babies playing in the water. It was a beautiful thing to choose this path, to take care of these magnificent creatures at such a vulnerable age, but I still wondered…
“What made you stop being a warrior?” I asked her, immediately regretting the question when her story slammed into my memory.
The love of her life had been murdered in front of her eyes, by the sentry she gave a second chance to during her first battle.
My eyes instantly widened in dread. I shook my head, mortified, just as she looked at me. “I am so sorry. I forgot your husband died in battle. I should have never asked that, I—”
Damn. Talk about putting my foot in my mouth.
