Page 120 of The Mating Claim
“You have the product. You tended it with loving care, my friend. You just needed a little boost…” Tara gave her a sage look, “and to stop denying your witch heritage. Accept who and what youare.”
Did she have a choice now? Lacey smiled, still heartbroken over Drust, but a little more hopeful. “I alreadyhave.”
Chapter 26
The darkness feltoppressive andeternal.
Drust sat at the table of the cavern where he’d sat century upon century, alone, not one soul to keep him company. A heavy weight settled on hisshoulders.
The guilt of the past, the hopelessness, and the sinking sadness that he’d remain here forever, no one remembering hisname.
All these feelings had vanished when Tristan and Nikita freed him. But he knew no one could free himnow.
The book was destroyed. He’d seen it evaporate like water in the desert. The price was his soul. Nomatter.
Lacey was safe. Her sarcastic, carefree self could fly off, return to her previous life, enjoy life. Being a dragon, fulfilling her dreams. Soaring free and high into thesky.
He sank further into depression. Self-pity. It clawed at him as he welcomed its familiar arms, the morass he’d known for longer than he’d been alive as amortal.
Caderyn popped suddenly into his cave. “Drust, the book is destroyed. You must return to Tir Na-nog.”
“For what? For the goddess to use me to control her dragons, her flying shifters?” He waved a hand. “Be gone. I do not wish to leave. Everyone wants something from me. You, the others.Danu.”
“That’s not the full truth,” Caderynbegan.
Drust arched a brow. “Oh? Only a partialone.”
The Shadow Wizard tilted his head, as if listening to something. “Perhaps I am the wrong one to entreat you to leave thisplace.”
He vanished, leaving Drust alone again. This time Drust welcomed the silence, the thickness in the air, the heavygrief.
Lacey at least wasfree.
Free to find loveagain.
She never truly loved you, a whisper taunted him.She used you. No one will ever loveyou.
A noise sounded at the entrance of the cave. He glanced up,frowning.
“Go away Tristan. You will not convince me toleave.”
Tristan and the other members of the Brehon had visited him twice. Each time he yelled at them and warned them away. He only wished to bealone.
“I know, my friend. I will not. But this may change yourmind.”
Tristan brought forth a beautiful pair of sparkling green dragon wings and placed them on thetable.
“What is this?” He stroked the wings, knowing the answer even before Tristanspoke.
“Lacey’s wings. She sacrificed them so you may fly free of here.” Tristan sank into a chair, running a hand through his dark hair. “Such a magnificent spirit, your Lacey. She gave you the one thing she cherished most, so you would know you are loved and you could fly once more. So your spirit would no longer sink intodespair.”
He could not speak. He could not even look at Tristan, only stare at the gift Lacey had given him, a gift from theheart.
A sacrifice of tremendous love. Suddenly he recalled the words in Caderyn’s book.To destroy the book, a wizard may take it himself into the Shadow Lands. The book will bond with him, however and he risks trapping his spirit in the Shadow Lands forever, never freeing himself. He may not shift into his animal form or call upon his powers to leave the underworld. Other wizards may coax him into leaving on his own, but mostly likely, a sacrifice of tremendous love is needed to freehim.
Drust stood. “Help me attachthese.”
Tristan held the wings to Drust’s shoulder blades. Power infused him, a rush so freeing, he felt he could soar into Tir Na-nog itself. His heart swelled with love, not the love he held for Lacey, but the love she’d exhibited forhim.
