Page 29 of Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames
Of course the woman in my arms was Cassia. Who else could she be? I would've recognized her ice blue eyes anywhere, the glow of her irises reminding me so much of the spires of The Palace of Serenity. I would've known her sweet, but sharp scent among a million others. Nothing on this planet could ever feel like the touch of her soft, but strong hand clutching my own palm. No other woman could make my beast stir and my heart race the way Cassia did. She was my soulmate, my everything, and she was wounded. I needed to help her, as soon as possible.
Our parents did not seem to see things my way. "That's not Queen Cheimon," Emmerich's father said, his chest already glowing bright red as he gathered his magic in preparation for an attack.
Brigid's eyes flared, their emerald gleam reminiscent of the poison breath Kerryn so often used as his weapon. "I don't know what kind of shape-shifting demon that creature Snegurka has decided to throw at you, but you need to move away from her now."
Kerryn slowly got up and placed himself as a barrier between Cassia and our parents. "Mother, I would advise you to step back now. I have no idea what delusions have assaulted your mind, but lift one finger against my mate, and I will smite you down without mercy."
He would do it too, even if there was clearly a misunderstanding in the middle. Perhaps Snegurka herself was affecting our parents in some way like she had the tengu. Just the same, neither Kerryn nor I would be willing to take chances with Cassia's safety. If our parents attacked, we would retaliate and protect our soulmate, no matter what that meant.
"Son, we understand how you feel," Devin said, "but you need to open your eyes and see reason. Your mate was supposed to go to the other side of The Realm of Eternal Ice, correct? She couldn't have possibly gotten here in the amount of time we spent with the yetis and Lerna."
"Stranger things have happened, and that's no reason for you to attack her," Kerryn argued.
My father rumbled lowly in his throat. "Perhaps not, but the demonic magic clinging to her every pore is. I can smell it all over her. Your mate's scent was clear of such things. That can only mean one thing. The person in your arms is not Queen Cheimon."
Cassia did not reply or acknowledge his words in any way. Instead, she clung to me even more tightly, crawling into my lap and holding me in an almost desperate embrace. "Raijin... It hurts. I don't know what to do."
"Yes, you do, Your Majesty," an unfamiliar voice said from somewhere to my right. "Of course you know. You would not be here if you didn't."
Still holding onto Cassia, I turned to face the speaker. It was the wendigo. I had no idea when and how he had recovered cognizance, but he was watching the entire scene and had apparently figured out what was wrong with Cassia. This might have given me a measure of hope and relief if not for his demeanor. Oki's skeletal face was not capable of having an expression, but his magic pulsed with a feeling that resembled heartbreak.
"Oh," Cassia said. "Oh. I remember now. Yes. I-I'm sorry."
"I am the one who is sorry. I should have been more careful. You would've never had to take on this burden had I not failed in my duties."
Cassia shook her head, her expression smoothing and her tears solidifying into ice crystals. Her beautiful pink lips twisted into a tiny smile. "Don't be foolish, Oki. It wasn't your fault. It was... It was nobody's fault. This was always going to happen. I was only trying to pretend nothing was wrong, but I can't do it any longer. I have to accept what I truly am and what I must do."
She hugged me one more time and then got up, no longer seeming in the least bit affected by whatever injury had incapacitated her before. "I am so sorry, my dragons. I wanted to give you what you needed, to be yours like I promised, but in this, the realm must take precedence. Please, forgive me."
"Treasure?" Kerryn asked. "What is going on?"
"I don't have time to explain. Just please know... Please know that... No matter what happens to me, I will always love you."
Kerryn's breath caught and he made a grab for her arm. Shockingly, his hand went straight through her body, as if she wasn't there at all. "Cassia?"
She only smiled again, and her figure began to glow, so bright I was almost forced to close my eyes lest I be blinded. I refused to look away, even for a moment, and I almost regretted that, because the next thing I knew, Cassia's figure shattered, like a broken mirror exploding into a million shards of white glass.
The blast echoed within my magic, and I felt it all the way into the very center of my being. My beast roared in anguish, writhing and clawing at the edges of my consciousness. I did not understand what was going on. I did not understand what I'd just seen, or what Cassia had meant through her cryptic goodbye. All I knew was that something horrible had happened to my soulmate, and I had no way of reaching her or helping her.
As the last shard of what had been Cassia's body hit the ground and evaporated, a gust of wind swept over the silent tundra. Mariko, Cassia's Yuki-Onna messenger, manifested right over the place where Cassia had been before. Just like that, I snapped out of my trance. A mix of desperation and anger replaced my shock. I shot to my feet and stalked to the side of the still fallen wendigo."What just happened?" I snarled, grabbing his arm and digging my claws into his flesh. "Where did Cassia go? Why is your ghost woman here, in Cassia's place? Explain!"
It was probably a good thing that Oki's undead nature made him resilient to regular, blunt trauma because otherwise, my impromptu attack might have made him expire from his wounds altogether. Instead, he showed no reaction whatsoever to my anger, despite the fact that he must've felt some kind of pain due to the clashing natures of my magic and his own. "You have it all wrong, Raijin no Kurapati. It's not that Mariko took Queen Cheimon's place. It is the other way around."
He freed himself from my hold and stood up."I will tell you what I can, but we don't have time for elaborate explanations," he said, eerily mimicking Cassia's earlier words. "If you want to save your mate, you need to come with me. There may still be a way to stop this disaster from escalating further."
"Save her?" Kerryn repeated, a dose of hysteria sliding in his voice. "Save her from what?"
"The fate her father, Helios, condemned her to."
