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But I’d tried. I tried so damn hard. She didn’t even give me an inch. Why did she still not believe me?
Leaving again was probably a mistake, but I had to get away. I had to breathe—to fly. I’d spent too much time in that house trying to make it a perfect home, and the result was destroying me. She was right about one thing—I was miserable, and I was trapped. I knew the only way I’d be able to think clearly would be to fly.
So, I left. And if I was honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d be going back. Katerina had made it clear she didn’t want me there. She was freeing me from my obligations to her and our child. Would she turn this around on me, or accept her part of the responsibility? Would she ever see that her fear of being loved was breaking us before we even had a chance to be strong?
As I flew through the sky and toward the barrier between the realms, I thought about my next action, which was critical. If I followed my anger, left and never returned, I’d be repeating the cycle started by my father. He’d abandoned Dymitri and me when we were young, and that made a hole in my heart I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
But Katerina didn’t want me and continuing to fight with her would be disrespecting the wishes of my mate. Following my heart could be just as disastrous. What if she hated me for being too pushy and aggressive? Or she could just as easily hate me for giving up.
I was damned either way.
On top of that rage, my heart ached in a way never experienced before. I’d just lost my mate—possibly forever. Katerina didn’t love me. She thought everything we’d done together was a waste. She’d kept me from being myself, quite deliberately. No wonder I felt so off in her world. I was depressed and hadn’t even realized it.
Katerina saw it. That has to mean something...
She had the wisdom to see that we came from two different worlds that weren’t compatible.Wewere not compatible, and that put me in a state of mourning. I’d been given the chance to bond with my mate, and we’d done our duty. Now it seemed that was all we’d get in our life together.
Those moments of bliss would forever remain in my memory. I’d remember what could have been, and always regret that I couldn’t figure out how to make it work. As much as I wanted to blame my father for that, I knew it wasmyproblem. Dymitri made his love and his marriage work. He’d learned how to push past his trauma and pain. Me? Not so much. It took a lot to ruin things with a soulmate. We were supposed to be perfect for one another.
But I’d managed to destroy any hope of happiness for both of us.
I crossed through to my realm, a shiver of cold passing over my skin. I was home.
I considered going straight to Damon’s castle to speak with him about my situation. If he had advice or insight that could change my fate, I’d gladly take it.
However, there was the possibility that he’d call me an idiot, have no wisdom left to share, and tell me that I was a lost cause.
The ridicule could wait. I needed solitude and a place to properly vent my feelings so I didn’t destroy the castle I’d spent so much time repairing. Besides, I felt more at home in the quietness of the woods than I did in the grandness of the castle. I wasn’t the kind of man who needed luxury. I only stayed to be close to my brother and build my relationship with my family. We were stronger together.
Without them, I’m not sure I could hold myself together.
I turned in the direction of the rudimentary house I’d spent most of my life living in. Dark, ominous clouds hung over the forest. Lightning streaked the sky. I paused to assess, slowly flapping my tired wings. The weather seemed like some kind of sign from the divine, begging me to turn around and go back to Katerina.“Make it work,”the rumbles of thunder urged. A request I ignored.
There wasn’t another settlement to land in nearby. I could cut through the storm to the house with minimal damage, or I could take the long way around and go to the castle after all. The thought of talking to my brother before I felt ready was enough to make me scowl at that option. It was just a thunderstorm. Those were common. I’d flown through plenty of them before.
Forward was my choice, entering the thick, billowing clouds. The wind tossed me, and the rain stung as it battered my scales at full force. I welcomed the pain. It gave me plenty of distraction from the torture inside my heart. All I wanted to do was get back to the house and wallow in peace.
A gust of wind gripped my wings, causing my whole body to tip and lose balance in the air current. The storm was stronger than I’d realized, but I was confident I could handle things.
Then the hail started to pelt my body. Small orbs of ice at first, that rapidly grew in size. They hit me so hard and so fast, they began to rip my skin. One tore through the softer flesh of my right wing and I screamed with surprise at the searing fire that came with the tear. Lightning flashed in front of me, and I had only a second to dodge it. Without the stability of two full wings, I lost control and tumbled backward with another surge of wind.
I rolled end over end through the clouds and toward the ground. The trees were quickly coming into view. If I didn’t do something, I was going to crash.
With a grunt and a growl, I righted myself again. My wing hurt so badly, I was starting to go numb from the pain. More hail slammed into my body, the rain falling just as hard that it might as well have been knives. This was so much harder than it had ever been before. By neglecting my dragon for so long, being in that form felt foreign and weak. I didn’t have the same instincts or the same strength that I did before I left my realm.
Lightning flashed, and this time I wasn’t quick enough to evade. Flying into the storm had been a mistake, and it was one I would pay dearly for.
Electricity coursed through my body. The smell of burning flesh and smoke mixed in my nostrils. My vision blurred, and my body spiraled toward the earth. I had just enough strength to flap my wings and push myself away from the trees and to a nearby open field.
The top branches of the forest trees grazed against my belly as I barely missed crashing into them. I landed hard into the ground, dirt and crops spraying toward the sky all around me.
I closed my eyes, my head...no, my entire body...throbbing. Spots of light came into my vision. I was so dizzy. Light, almost. Like I was floating.
Is this how it ends? Katerina, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left.
The world went dark...
“We’ve got to get him to transform,” someone said, the voice distant. “It’s the only way we can get him back to the castle.”
