Page 65 of Queen of the Cursed Egg
“The mages arrived, and they sent us away,” Balor answers, his voice tight with suppressed rage. His anger is almost a living thing, a palpable heat that radiates from him in waves I can feel from feet away. He pulls his sunglasses down and covers his eyes, hiding the telltale red glow that betrays his basilisk’s agitation.
“I’m going back,” Abraxis growls, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest vibrating through the air between us. Balor grabs his arm before he has a chance to turn around, knuckles whitening with the force of his grip on Abraxis’s biceps.
“You barely made the flight home. You will fall and die. Think about Lily,” Balor motions to the hatchling asleep in his arms, her tiny form rising and falling with each breath, scales gleaming like polished obsidian in the dying light of day.
“How far away were you guys?” I stare at Lily sleeping peacefully in Balor’s arms, her innocence a stark contrast to the tension thrumming through the surrounding adults.
“Uninjured dragon flight, about five hours,” Abraxis growls out, silently cursing his damaged wing, the membrane visibly thinner than it should be, veins standing out in stark relief against the translucent tissue.
Five hours by dragon, ten to twelve by griffon, not including the four to six breaks I would need. The calculation runs through my mind automatically, each number a nail in the coffin of any hope of immediate action. May as well say it’s a fourteen to sixteen-hour flight for me if I tried it. I stare out over the landscape as the sky darkens as day gives way to night. The first stars appearing in the east while the west still burns with the last crimson rays of sunset. “At least Mina feels determined now instead of scared,” I whisper more to myself than anyone else, the change in her emotional signature through our bond a slight comfort in this sea of uncertainty.
“I don’t think it’s comet season, is it?” Balor says, pointing to the west where they had just come from, his arm extended toward a bright pinpoint of light that grows larger by the second. The sight sends a jolt of adrenaline through my system, making my heart rate double in an instant.
“Usually that happens after the monsoon season,” I reply, my voice sounding distant even to my own ears. My eye shifts to that of my griffon, the transformation sending a warm tingle across my iris as my pupil narrows to a vertical slit. I focus in on the glowing mass in the sky, details sharpening with unnatural clarity. “Fuck, it’s Mina, and she’s coming in hot.” The realization both relieves and terrifies me, seeing our mate glowing with electrical energy as she races toward us.
“It’s Mina? Why? How?” Abraxis panics, his voice rising an octave as he pulls out his phone and calls inside to Ziggy and Leander, the electronic beeps audible even over the rising wind. He tells them to get food for Mina, his words tumbling over each other in his haste.
I watch as our mate moves faster than I ever thought possible, the air around her crackling with energy that makes the fine hairs on my arms stand on end even from this distance. “Iron dragons can fold and bend time,” I say out loud as I watch the orb that is our mate get closer by the minute, her form more distinguishable now—wings beating with supernatural speed, body streamlined for maximum velocity.
“Any clue why she would haul ass like that?” Balor asks Abraxis before looking at me, his sunglasses now completely obscuring his eyes, though the tension in his jaw speaks volumes.
“Maybe the ancients sent her back? I can’t see Mina running from a fight unless they sent her away for whatever reason.” Abraxis steps closer to the ledge, watching as Mina gets closer. The ground beneath our feet beginning to vibrate with the power of her approach.
The glow fades from her scales when she’s within roaring distance, the electric blue light dimming until she’s just a dark silhouette against the twilight sky. Several of the males on guard roar back at her, the sound reverberating off the mountainside in a cacophonythat makes my ears ring. Her cousins come out, having heard her, their boots pounding against the stone path as they rush to join us.
“What’s going on? Why is she alone?” Njall asks as he stares at his cousin, his silver-streaked hair whipping around his face in the wind created by Mina’s massive wings as she circles overhead.
“None of us know,” I answer as we make room for Mina to land, backing away from the center of the courtyard, the stone beneath our feet warm from the day’s heat but rapidly cooling as night approaches.
We watch her circle several times, her massive form blocking out the stars as she passes, creating momentary eclipses. Finally, she lands in the upper courtyard; the impact sending tremors through the ground that I feel through the soles of my boots. She turns immediately to watch the sky in the direction she just came from, her posture rigid with tension, tail lashing back and forth across the stone with a sound like leather dragged over gravel. The bond is silent, too silent, a void where her usual vibrant presence should be. Her dragon stands like a sentinel, staring out over the landscape, watching for Bahamut knows what. I watch Abraxis approach her and rest a hand on her foreleg, and she doesn’t even look down, her golden eyes fixed unblinkingly on the western horizon.
“Our cousin is a wyrm dragon now,” Ty whistles low, looking Mina over, his breath fogging slightly in the rapidly cooling evening air. Her size has increased noticeably, scales gleaming with a metallic luster that speaks of power beyond what any of us previously imagined.
Abraxis pulls away from Mina and walks over to us, his footsteps heavy with resignation. “Klauth is on a rampage, lost in his dragon’s rage. Thauglor has gone after him to make sure he doesn’t die. Thauglor made Mina promise to return home; otherwise, he wouldn’t go after Klauth.” Abraxis swallows hard, the sound audible in the tense silence, and looks down, unable to meet our eyes. “Thauglorpromised Mina he wouldn’t risk his life, that she will not lose both of them.” He exhales loudly, the sound carrying the weight of all our fears. “She’s mad he made her leave, but she understands why.”
“Will she shift back?” I look up at my mate as she stares off towards the horizon, her profile etched against the darkening sky like a statue carved from living emerald and silver.
“I don’t know.” Abraxis looks up at Mina, then back at me, his eyes shadowed with doubt. “Was this how she was with me? I mean, when I almost died?” He leans against her hind leg, looking at me, the question carrying an undercurrent of something I can’t quite name—jealousy? Insecurity?
Mina turns her head to look down at us, the movement sending a wave of her scent washing over us—iron and wildflowers now tinged with the sharp tang of ozone. We can hear her dragon sigh, the sound like wind moving through a mountain pass, low and mournful. Carefully, she lays down with her head on her forelegs, still keeping her eyes on the horizon, scales rasping against stone as she settles her massive bulk on the courtyard floor.
“She laid beside you, leaving only to go to the bathroom,” Balor answers as Lily squirms in his arms, tiny claws scratching against his clothing as she struggles to be free. He sets her down, and she climbs up her mother’s scales and onto her neck, the tiny click-click-click of her claws against Mina’s harder outer plates barely audible over the ambient sounds of nightfall. She lays down, and we can hear the soft purring Mina does for her daughter, a sound like distant thunder, soothing rather than threatening.
“We had to get her to eat by letting her feed you broth. Every bite she fed you, we got her to take a bite.” I glance down at the ground, staring at some of the deep grooves that Klauth’s claws had dug when he helped make this nest for Mina. The gouges in the stone are a reminder of the power of the ancient dragon now lost to rage somewhere far from here.
Abraxis nods slowly and looks up at Mina, his expression unreadable in the gathering darkness. “Hopefully, we’ll have some better news tomorrow.” Abraxis turns and walks inside the nest, his footsteps fading as he retreats, leaving Balor and me outside with Mina and her cousins. The scent of his disappointment lingers like a bitter afterimage, sharp and unpleasant.
“Why is he acting like that?” Njall asks as he watches Abraxis heading inside, his confusion evident in the furrowing of his brow, in the slight tilt of his head as he watches our mate abandon his vigil.
“Two theories. The first: he’s jealous that she’s waiting and watching for the ancients to return. The second: he’s seeing firsthand how she was with him, and because it’s not him, he’s jealous,” Balor says flatly, and that gets Mina to turn her head to look at him, the movement causing her scales to catch the last light of day, sending iridescent flashes across the courtyard walls.
Mina turns her gaze to her cousins and starts rumbling, the sound reminding me of the ocean during a storm or the thunderstorms that roll through our valley during monsoon season—deep, primal, and laden with meaning I can’t decipher but they somehow can.
“Got ya,” Njall says before looking at us, his expression betraying both amusement and concern. “Mina says Abraxis can be as butt hurt as he wants.” She rumbles more, and he nods, the movement exaggerated in the dimming light. “Correction: he can be as petty as he wants, but it doesn’t change the fact she was the same with him.” She rumbles and ends it with a growl before turning and looking back out over the landscape, the sound making the stone beneath my feet vibrate slightly. “She’s not just out here watching for her other mates; she’s watching for mages. Just in case.” Mina huffs one more time before her tail stops thumping on the ground, the sudden silence more noticeable than the sound had been.
“Thanks for translating, Njall.” I reach out and rest a hand on hisshoulder, feeling the tension in his muscles, the shared concern for his cousin clear in every line of his body.
“Anytime. Oh, and Lily wants to stay with her mom,” he adds at the end, glancing up at the tiny hatchling nestled against her mother’s frill. “Don’t worry, Ty and I will sleep out here with Mina and make sure she’s safe. I would have thought her remaining dragon mate would have stayed with his mate and child,” Njall adds, and I feel like it twists the knife a little more, the barb intended for Abraxis but cutting all of us who care for Mina.
