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The movement was inside me as well.
“I feel it in my chest,” I whimpered, not knowing what in the ever-loving hell was going on.
“How?” Soren asked. “No, you must be mistaken.”
I grabbed his face and made him look at me. “It’s inside me. The quaking. The movement. The anger. The chaos. It’s inside me. It feels like it’s penetrating my veins, Soren.”
His eyes widened and they huddled closer. In seconds, it was all over. The shaking outside and in.
“How?” Nico said, holding me tighter, even tighter than when there was trouble.
“I don’t know,” I said, pressing my hands against my chest. “I have no freaking clue.”
Chapter Twelve
Dragons rarely got sick, so when my wings felt like lead only halfway to the sea, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I’d been fine the last time, and the others were winging their way as if they weren’t tired at all. In fact, they had begun to move ahead, and I couldn’t seem to catch up.
My breathing was harsh, and my heart pounding. This hadn’t happened before.
It wasn’t as if there was even a strong cross breeze to steal my breath.
I continued to fly, keeping my wings going up and down and trying not to think of what this might mean. So many lessers couldn’t even shift. Was this a bad sign? Did this mean I might be losing my ability to fly? No. It couldn’t be. I’d hardly even gotten to use it before, shifted only when allowed by the higher-ups, and never even able to go where my dragon and I wanted to.
Fishing the last trip had been a revelation and an experience I wanted to repeat. I’d never known my dragon to be so content as when her belly was bulging with a food that gave her such satisfaction. I wanted her to have that again, and while it was her body in action and close to giving out, I couldn’t help but think it was more because of me than her.
When we got there, I could let my dragon hunt and eat her fill of fish. That should help with the energy problem, right? I couldn’t think of another thing I could do to help her. Once I could see the sea in the distance, I thought I could do it, and surged forward, trying my very best to complete our trip. I could feel her yearning for the ocean.
And somehow we made it. But as I came even with the edge of the waves, I knew I couldn’t do any more. I’d used up everything I had just getting here, and I dropped to the sand to rest.
Jude landed beside me, but I waved him on to the ocean where he could hunt. If I tried, right now, I’d end up drowning. But I hoped that I’d feel up to it soon. While we spread our wings and soaked up the heat of the sun, the other three flew out over the water and climbed high into the blue sky before plunging deep beneath the waves.
They were magnificent, in this form as in their two-legged. I watched them, hoping to come up with enough energy to join them in their antics. Each time they emerged, the water boiled around them. The sunshine sparkled on the water, and my eyes grew heavy then finally closed.
When I woke up, it was because something bumped my snout. My eyes opened to find a mound of fish several feet high piled in front of me. They were flipping around, and my dragon’s excitement knew no bounds.
Mates bring food,she crowed before chowing down and eating every one of them—whole.
Her and my pleasure at being provided for gave me that extra bit I needed to launch myself into the air and fly out to where they were still fishing and, if such magnificent beasts could be said to do such a thing, frolicking.
We were by no means as energetic as they, but we did manage to dive a few times and find more fish to continue to fill up on. This food was perfect for my dragon, I was rapidly becoming aware. Did all of them need to hunt and eat fish or other animals in order to be at their peak? Did all the higher-ups do it?
But they did not allow lessers to do so.
That was terribly unfair. Anger surged through my veins and helped me with the hunt. I fished and dove, plunging deeper every time until I was so full, I was ready to pop. Then I joined my mates who were sunning themselves on the sand and napped between them.
We were full, but we were not content this time. We were starting to realize how unfair life was in the caves.
But we had no idea what to do about that.
Did my exhaustion and the unwell I’d been feeling relate to an imbalance somehow?
And would I be able to fly home?
Chapter Thirteen
“How bad is it?” Nico asked, clearly conflicted about something. He kept looking from his black metal watch to me.
“It’s pretty bad. Go on. Do what you need to. Freya, how would you feel about getting into a cool bath?”
