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Pull it together, Bloom.
Or maybe she just needed to truly fall apart? What she had been doing, her whole life, it just wasn’t working. This brought on a fresh bout of sobbing and tears.
I sure am nailing the falling apart at least.
She was trying to figure out where to go from here, what to do with these new awarenesses, when she saw a huge shadow crossed the road. The sight of it shocked her enough to stem the flow of tears as she jerked her head up instinctively toward the sky. At first she saw nothing. But a moment later she saw him.
For a second she wasn’t sure she was seeing correctly. Could it really be him?
But how? Why?
She felt a tenuous hope building in her chest.
Maybe he was just passing over. But she knew that wasn’t true, he didn’t just fly around as his dragon on the regular.
The witches would have his hide for all the forgetting spells they would be forced to cast.
But as he swept lower over her the doubt receded and the hope began to turn into a warm excitement in her chest. That, combined with the awesome sight of him cleared her mind of any and all of her previous thoughts.
Her body reacted. She felt it relax, or open, but only enough to let her know just how constricted she had been.
What does he want?
Was he here to scold her? To tell her how she had destroyed what little hope they still had of saving Fae Crossing from a slow steady decline into becoming a drug haven like Pratt’s Pass?
Or maybe he was going to just tell her to steer clear. That he couldn’t stand the sight of her.
You stick to your side of the tracks, and I’ll stick to mine.
Or something like that. She had never felt so torn in her life. Fear gripped her. But beneath it there was something else.
Hope? Was it still possible?
She was almost afraid to entertain the possibility. But she couldn’t help it either.
He was coming down fast now. Swooping down. He had started as a dot, high above, and now was coming in with his wings almost folded. Just as she was afraid he was coming to pluck her up, or dash her to pieces, he unfolded his mighty wings, catching the air in great flaps that sent the rain against her like a spray.
He hovered above her before dropping down to his feet on the asphalt. This time he did not land out of sight, or flee behind a building to make his change. No, it was right before her eyes that he transformed. His wings pulling in, his scales disappearing, even as his great snout and talons all receded. Impossibly his mighty dragon retreated, shifted, until it was him, Dax, in the flesh. In the glorious flesh, standing before her. Only, his eyes shone bright now, a last vestige letting her know he and the dragon were one and the same. The transformation had been magical. Incredible to see. Far more intimate than she could have imagined. He had wanted her to see. She could feel it.
She stood stunned for a moment, taking in his rippling musculature. His perfect abs. All of him. The rain made his skin slick, and it glistened as the rain pelted against him.
After a moment she found her tongue.
“Dax?” It was almost a question, as if she still couldn’t believe he was here in the flesh. “What are you doing here? I thought you never wanted to see me again.” She began to find her words and spoke more quickly. “I wanted to explain. The paper, the headline. Finch. All of it. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the one who is sorry, Bloom. I’ve been such a fool!” he said as he walked closer.
“You have? Wait, what?” She was gobsmacked. “But everything that happened. It was all my fault. Please believe I never meant for that headline to come out! I should have just trusted you. You were right. You have to look out for all of Fae Crossing. I’m sorry, I was so selfish,” she said. The words were just pouring out.
“No, no, Bloom,” he said, as he stood right in front of her now, gripping her shoulders gently. “It is I who needs to apologize. I let the situation…everything… blind me. Blind me to you, and to us. I’m so sorry.”
She heard what he was saying, but couldn’t even really process it. She still had so much she wanted to tell him.
“But you aren’t angry? I screwed up so bad. I messed up everything with Finch. But I didn’t know! I didn’t know.”
Now she felt the tears come.
“I just wanted to belong, Dax. For once, the council, the real Fae council, came to me and wanted my help. I’ve never belonged anywhere. It’s always been one foot in this world and one in the old one,” she said, as tears streaked down her face.
