Page 2 of Jay's Silence

Gifted you dragons.

Anger made my elements flair. I stopped casting and looked at my hands. My watcher, the older man with the brown eyes, cursed me… or at least had some part in it. What did ‘give you dragons’ even mean? Why? Why the fuck trap me on thisisland away from my magic, only to hook me up with four loyal powerful dragon shifters?

My watcher’s astral projection had been human and breathing. Which meant somewhere, his flesh and blood body existed. My new ‘mates’ could literally eat him if and when we found him.

None of this made any sense. I was missing something more than just my memories.

This mess started when I got the call to help the Ley Lines. Now, a little less than a month later, objects somehow hovered in the same Ley Lines I hadn’t fixed. Nothing should be in our world’s magical circulatory system, much less holding still. It was fundamentally wrong.

I blew out a long, frustrated breath.

There was absolutely nothing I could do about any of these problems while trapped in the Air King’s oubliette. One problem at a time.

I looked at the quartz again. My mate’s power bloomed at my fingertips, only to get sucked into the spell. The oubliette glowed orange, blue, brown, and finally off-white. A shiver ran down my back which had nothing to do with the cool room or my uncertain theory. The quartz absorbed elemental magic, all kinds. No single dragon made this.

I took a deep breath and stood, pacing out the oubliette. Twelve by twelve, maybe fifteen feet tall, before the bottleneck at the top: just big enough for Lux to open his wings but not fly.

I swallowed hard. This was Lux’s castle…really his dad’s… the air elemental center of power. Did Lux know this pit existed? Did he spend time down here? That idea made my entire body quiver with rage. The Air King’s cold gaze filled my memory.

‘Make the right choices this time,’ is what his assistant told Lux.

If he’d thrown my air dragon down here–king or not–mortal life was short, and the ruler of air’s life would not be the first I made even shorter.

The lights in the room above cut off, leaving the pit in total darkness. There was no bed, no facilities, not even a rat to keep me company. A wave of longing washed through me. Although I was fine alone, I’d also spent enough time in my own company to know I wanted something different. Each in their own way, the dragon princes filled in pieces of me I didn’t know were missing.

My heart raced as I realized how important my dragons had become and, worse, how badly I needed to let them go. They had homes and goals. I’d swept into their existences and decimated their dreams.

I hardened my heart as I’d done over and over. Although I still needed to fix the Ley Lines and, ideally, get my magic back, the most essential piece of this puzzle was making sure my dragons walked away free.

They might come rescue you.

I shook my head.

They got confirmation that I was right. None of their feelings are real.

Implying yours are?

Any warmth I felt vanished. I needed to keep my mates at a distance, even in my thoughts. They were tools for me to use and then free—nothing more.

Worst “told you so” ever.

Especially because I’m telling myself.

I clenched my fists and pushed my mistakes out of my mind. Once I recovered my magic and freed my dragons, I’d think about my future.

I tilted my head back to study the oubliette’s opening, swaying slightly as the darkness destroyed my equilibrium.

Surprise, bitch. It's dark, and you can’t see anything.

Find a light switch?

I squatted back down and called fire to my fingers. Once again, the quartz nearest to me swallowed it. Still casting, I traced the entire star on the ground. The quartz at each point grew brighter, then dimmer as I moved around. The spellwork on them was short-ranged. I doubted it even hit the top of the pit.

I cracked my back. Without a doubt, the oubliette had been designed to hold one dragon shifter. Two, and they could boost each other out of range of the spell.

Right. Well, maybe I wasn’t my old self. But I could still channel all of my mates’ elements at once, while most shifters only had one.

Unless they are disabled orphans.

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