Page 77 of Taloned Heart

Lore approached him, her bag in her hands in her heart in her eyes. From the depths of that dwarven magic, she pulled out the armor he had been gifted. The armor that would keep him safe.

Though it would be difficult and heavy to wear, he would bear such discomfort to know she didn’t worry as much about him as she might have before.

Docile and still, he froze as she placed the armored plate on his chest, pressing against the rune that made it widen and thicken and stretch over his form like a second skin. It spread up his neck, the links clacking into place up and around the sensitive flesh of his spines and all the way over his shoulders.

The saddle she kept, though. She did not want anyone to see him as anything other than an avenging dragon fleeing from this realm once more.

“You will bring them back to me.” Her voice rang out through the small clearing in the forest where all the Ashen Deep stood to watch. “You will bring the dragons back to Umbra, as they should have been for years. We will show everyone and everything in this kingdom that the dragons are alive and well. We will strike fear into the hearts of those who defy us and hope into the hearts of all those who are still kind.”

The Ashen Deep cheered as one. And for the first time, Abraxas thought he could see a future where dragons like him were accepted. Where they were not seen as weapons to be used, but as a people to be bartered with.

Perhaps the future that Lore fought to bring into existence was possible after all.

Swallowing hard, his eyes trailed along the ranks of elves to Beauty and Zephyr, who sat side by side on a stone just outside the Ashen Deep home. They both watched him with the same hope that Lore spoke of. They saw more than a beast in him, and for that, he would fight. He would prove to them that they were right. He was worthy of that hope.

Shaking out his neck, he readied himself for a long flight and a hard battle to get his children here. Tanis knew what island to meet him at, the same one with the oasis in the center where he’d stopped with his children for the very first time. He’d reach it before them, and then he had to wait until they arrived.

Tanis would bring them and then return to her own children. They could not risk having more dragonlings here when their focus needed to be on the war itself. A last war. The final one until they could reach the end.

Lore stepped in front of his face and ran her hands down his muzzle, her touch soft and loving. “I love you,” she whispered against his scales. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, dragon, so you have to come back in one piece.”

“I’m risking very little on this journey. But you are risking much.” He had heard her talking with the Matriarch in the darkness. He knew they were going to use this time to gather as many people into an army as they could.

Soon, they would make their final stand against Margaret, who would never back down. No matter how foolish it was to fight against a goddess.

Oh, by the gods, it was time for him to go. He didn’t want to. He had to.

Abraxas spread his wings wide, and because they were no longer hiding, he let the flames build in his throat and then let out a roar that shook the very forest. It would spread across the kingdom, and those who feared the dragon would know he was here.

But then they would also see him leave, and he wondered how that would leave his friends. What danger would follow them to this forest where they no longer had a crimson dragon to watch over them?

His goddess grinned up at him and as he watched, she called a storm over their heads. Black clouds blanketed the sky so no one would see him leave, no one would even know that there was a dragon flying over their head.

And he felt better knowing that he left his dear friends in the hands of a goddess.

Bursting into the air, he fought through thunder and lightning. Flashes pulsed around him, but none ever touched his scales until he burst out of the storm and into the bright, clear sky above.

Alone.

But not for long.

Opening his wings wide, he soared over Umbra, but could not see when he passed the castle or any of the other familiar landmarks. The only one that remained was the high peak of the mountains far beyond, where the spiders now lived and a magician’s tower had once stood.

And then he passed the storm to find himself over the sea once more. The sea where they had found themselves and their future all laid out before them. With it came a sense of peace. Of understanding that he was headed in the right direction. Toward his children, his family, and to gather them up where they all belonged for the first time in a very long time.

Abraxas let his mind settle and his thoughts fade away as he flew. He was nothing but the wind that flowed underneath his wings, the water that sprayed up against his scales, and the clouds that meandered above his head. This was where he was meant to be. He was going to gather up the pieces of his heart so they could all finally be together.

The island appeared on the horizon. A storm had hit it recently and most of the trees he remembered had fallen after the wake of the wind. But the rest of it was the same as he remembered. Abraxas landed hard on the ground beside the open pool of impossibly fresh water.

Dipping his head to take a drink, he remembered how many days it had taken him to get here last time. How he had struggled with the weight of two half grown dragons and the heartache that had dogged his every step.

Now, he had made it in only a day of travel and had to wait for the others longer than he’d anticipated. Or perhaps he was stronger this time. All the flying he’d done over long distances, learning how to use his body not as a weapon for others but as a dragon really should.

Curling into a ball near the lake, he settled in to rest and wait. There was no telling how long it would take for his family to get there.

It took them three more days. He knew exactly how long because he watched the sun rise and fall, and he stared into the moon as though Lore herself could feel him watching. He wanted to be there for her, even if he wasn’t physically beside her.

And then he saw them. On the horizon, there were three dots and two of them moved ahead of the last. One speared itself in a blinding flash of blue into the water and, like her mother, Nyx became a glittering glow beneath the waves that raced toward him.

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