AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She huffed. “I am so tired. I feel like I have been running my entire life.”
“Then let me help you,” Kell said.
She wanted to tell him about Ren, but she made a promise, so she revealed another truth. “Breggar knows Mara is the seer. Once Legion claimed her, he promised he would use me to get to her. He has caught up with me a few times, so I am worried about returning to Colorado. As long as he is alive and has this rune on me, I am a danger to her.”
Kell nodded. “He must be purged. He cannot be allowed to remain alive with his mark on you. Putting a rune on a druid who is not your mate is a death sentence. Is there anything else?”
She swayed on her feet and Kell growled low. “You are exhausted. We must grab the claw, but you need to rest before we journey home.”
“Do you know where the claw is?”
Kell pointed to the end wall. A red claw gripped the rock as if the dragon had been climbing it when his limb was severed from his body. He led her over and touched the scaled knuckle.
The claw quivered and released its grip on the rock as if it were aware it was about to make a journey to its new home.
“That was a little creepy.”
Kell smiled. “The claw seeks to be reunited with his brethren. It senses we no longer reside here. The wards are weakening.” He pointed the way they had come. “Let’s retire to one of the rooms.”
She held his hand. “There are rooms here?”
“Yes. The druids who chose dragon mates lived with us. It was simple and wonderful. I was born in these caves.”
“I would love to. I thought you had a village.”
“We did. Druids and dragons need the open skies to thrive. We traded with other villages and prospered until the war. Our village was destroyed and only the caves remain.”
Kell led her back the way they had come and through a network of tunnels until they entered a room with two wooden cots and fur skins on the floor before the circle of rocks with stacks of firewood beside it. “I will start the fire, lay down on the bed, and rest. The magic is fading, and we will lose the light soon.”
Alana ran her hand over the bed before lying down. There was no dust and while the room looked to be from a different era, it was strangely comforting. “It’s amazing this still exists.”
The fire made a whooshing sound as it ignited and crackled instantly. “We left the caves over a hundred years ago, but we did not modernize the cave much after the druids perished,” Kell said as he grabbed two of the wooden bowls from the stack beside the fire pit. He grabbed a can of stew from the backpack after slipping it from his shoulders and placing it on the ground.
He poured the stew into the bowls, and she assumed he would heat them over the fire, but he whispered under his breath and steam began to rise from the bowls. He took two spoons from the pack and joined her on the bed. “Here, eat this and then you can rest. We will lose the light soon, but the wards will last a few more hours. We will leave before then and collapse the entrance to the caves.”
Alana sat up and shoveled the stew into her mouth. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the first taste of simmering meat touched her lips. Kell handed her one of Mara’s croissants and she inhaled that too, but declined a second one when he offered.
She glanced around the room. “If we collapse the entrance, no one can ever come back.”
“I know. This time has passed.” He placed his empty bowl on the ground beside the bed and lay down beside her. She snuggled against his shoulder with her hand on his chest. “I remember when Legion came to us and said we would be moving to Colorado. Most of the dragons had no interest in waking, and Legion used his power to relocate them. Some flew to our current location.”
“Natalie said some of the dragons hadn’t woken in over a thousand years. I didn’t make the connection. How did Legion transport them? I mean, aren’t there hundreds of you?”
“Over a thousand when we made the trip. Legion carried his brethren one at a time. There were few dragons that woke to help him. Some have returned to the caves in Colorado to sleep. I was not one of those dragons. I was carried by my brother Ergen.”
Alana half sat up. “You didn’t wake? Was it too hard? Legion said it was a process. That some take almost a year to wake.”
“That is true, and some take longer, but we were given more than enough time to prepare for the journey. Most of us had lost hope. We didn’t believe the druids would re-emerge. I was afraid to wake, in the fear I would turn dark. I believe it was why so many had to be transported. We can’t turn in our sleep. We must wake for that choice to be made.”
She lay against him, snuggling close. “You could never turn dark, Kell. That isn’t who you are, but I am glad you waited for me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I prayed for you. I drowned in the endless darkness of my race until your voice pierced the emptiness. I didn’t care that you weren’t real. Or that I assumed you were my imagination. It was as if heaven had smiled on me and sent me my own personal angel. I never wanted to wake up. I planned to slumber for eternity so I could listen to your voice.”
Alana didn’t know what to say. His devotion dripped with every word. She had felt his adoration when she had reached for him. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I’m not sorry I connected with you. Those first few years were rough, and you were my only friend.”
“I know the magic of this place affected you. I can’t bond with you until you are twenty-three, but tomorrow I wish to complete our ceremony. I feel like I have been waiting for you since the day I was born into this world, and I don’t wish to wait anymore.”
Her eyebrows scrunched. “About that. I realized later that you didn’t... make love to me because I wasn’t twenty-three.”
