Chapter 25

She was falling. No, Meira realized, still able to feel the ghost of hands that had been against her flesh moments ago. She was pushed. Rock scraped against her knees and palms as she caught herself against the cliff’s edge. A scream, angry and scared all at once tore from her as she grappled against the rocks that threatened to give way and send her tumbling down to her death.

Meira righted herself in time to turn and watch as Mrithun’s crimson gaze closed and her wings went limp at her side. On the dragon’s back, Remis clung to the harness, his shoulders bloody, and face bruised. He smiled at her. Smiled. Before both he and the Bold Wing were careening down toward the rocky shore.

Death was waiting to greet them, it was the awful knowing in her bones that had Meira ripping at what little grasses grew under her. She screamed and screamed, her throat going raw as she sat frozen in fear, confusion, and more sorrow than her body had ever known before. Her life had always been a series of hardships after hardships she had to face, but this…this was more than she could handle. More than she could live through. Her heart was shattering, splintering, and tearing through her chest.

Screaming still, Meira bolted upright in bed. Her pulse drummed inside her veins and echoed inside her ears. She couldn’t breathe though she gasped for air. All around her, the bedding was soaked with sweat. Every inch of her body was still damp and hot. The press of her clothes felt more like bindings than anything. Frantically, she pulled her leathers off her body until she was only in her underwear and the thin band across her breasts.

Where was she? When was she?

The beige walls around her were not familiar. The bed she’d been in was larger than the one she had at Mount Ridmond. Only vaguely did she recall falling onto the sheets with exhaustion.

Reality thrust itself back upon her. Yordway. The table in the darkest part of the tavern and swapping truths with Remis under the pull of a truth serum in their wine. Saying that she loved him.

Meira wanted to scream again. Love? How could she love him? But the truth had been pulled from her, dragged from the deepest part of her soul. She hadn”t meant to say it. Didn’t even realize that she truly felt that way until the words had come right out of her. Remis looked damn near as shocked as she felt. His face had paled and then turned a brilliant shade of red. Not too long after she’d thrust herself into the first unlocked room she’d found.

She didn’t know if Remis had found his own room or if he simply left. He could have easily run from her and started this hunt over once again, but the huntress mark still carved into her flesh hadn’t urged her into motion. That must have been a sign that he’d stuck around after all. After saying she loved him, she almost wished he’d run away, if only so she wouldn’t have to look at him this morning.

What a stupid ridiculous thing to say.

The room had come with a wash tub already filled to the brim with water. She hadn’t bothered to use it last night when the water was still warm. Stripping the last of her clothes, she stepped into and submerged her burning flesh. Another memory had returned to her.

Mrithun falling to her death, Remis smiling wickedly from his seat on the harness, and Meira helpless to it all. Her throat ached as if she’d been screaming all this time. The urge to continue to do so was still there so she dunked herself below the water”s surface and screamed until she had no more air left in her lungs. Then she stayed submerged for several long seconds before finally pushing herself back up.

Fresh air made its way into her lungs as she tipped her head back and began undoing her braids. Her hair was stiff at the ends, her scalp a thick layer of grease, she was grateful for the bath and the cold water that soothed the heat radiating off of her.

She didn’t want to make sense of what she’d remembered. Though part of her felt justified. Mrithun’s death? That would ruin Meira enough to take hold of that long-dormant power that lived within her veins. Bonded partners, as Meira and Mrithun were, could survive without the other but they would not live. There were tales, as old as time itself, about riders losing their bonded dragons and dragons losing their bonded riders. Neither dragon nor rider could escape the madness that came after losing a part of themselves.

Perhaps Meira had traveled through time to save Mrithun. Perhaps madness had found Meira and she’d time jumped only because her mind had gone and she didn’t know what she was doing. By the time she’d cleaned her hair and washed every inch of dirt from her body, she’d settled into a distant sort of anger. Remis would ride Mrithun to her death. Meira would go mad like some rabid animal. And she couldn’t allow that to happen.

So she dressed herself in her leathers, leaving her thick tangle of curls loose to air dry, and left her room to find the witch. The tavern was quiet except for the low murmur of a conversation at the end of the bar. Meira stepped off the bottom of the stairs and the wood creaked under her weight as she found Remis leaning over a cup of coffee chatting with Stauci while she washed glasses behind the counter. Stauci, for all Meira had done to ignore her, wasn’t exactly ugly. She was young, eighteen likely, and her blue eyes were as bright as her smile when she laughed at something Remis said.

A pang of jealousy stabbed Meira low in her gut. It had her exhaling slowly, contemplating shoving her sword straight through Stauci’s gut. Before she could act on the notion though, Remis looked up. Held her stare. Grinned. Her jealousy evaporated. Only hate remained. That smile, his smile, wasn’t much different from the bloodied one he gave her in the memory before he’d led Mrithun to her death.

“Where is Kindred?” Meira demanded.

Stauci’s giggling was cut short and her grin fell. “I’ll go get her,” she answered, and disappeared behind the door to what Meira assumed was the kitchen. Then she and Remis were alone.

“You stayed.” Meira watched as his features puckered in confusion. Her steps were slow, carefully measured, as she came around the counter and sat on the stool next to him. All the while his eyes never strayed.

“I stayed.” He finally nodded. Sitting next to him, she could smell the crisp scent of soap on his skin. The stubble that had been growing on his cheeks had been shaved away leaving only the hair over his upper lip and down around his chin. The wild mess of his hair was perfectly combed away from his face.

She touched her own frizzy curls, certain she looked like a crazy mess next to him. How he could look so polished after everything that had just happened was beyond her. Remis tracked her subtle movement.

“Your hair is…” He trailed off, looking at the mass of it as every second that dried made it larger. The braids were much easier to manage when she was traveling and flying.

“Big?” she finished for him. Over the years she’d heard it all from her peers. Her hair wasn’t slick and shiny like Jaselle’s but it also didn’t require the braids that either Willa or Quincy always wore to tame their tight coils. She was something in-between.

“I was going to say pretty.”

She snorted. “The serum has worn off, I see.”

He reached out between them, found the end of one of her curls, and twirled the strand around his finger.

“Don’t touch me.” She shoved his hand away, leaned away from him.

“You,” he chuckled, “are something else.” He pointed a long finger at her, shaking it as he laughed dryly. “You hunt me. You want to kill me. You say that you love me. You look at me like you want to fuck me. You don’t want to touch me.” He sighed. “You’re confusing.”

She opened her mouth and promptly closed it.

“Are you scared?” Remis whispered.

“Scared of what?” she snapped.

“Scared of loving? Of getting your memories back only to find out that we were something?”

Her hands shook but she fisted them in her lap to hide it. Meira was scared. She was scared of a lot of things. She was scared to love someone she didn’t know in this timeline. Scared to love someone enough that losing them would hurt like it hurt to lose her parents. She couldn’t help that she was terrified of whatever could possibly be between them. And she certainly couldn’t help that she was even more frightened about losing her dragon and her mind.

What she’d remembered last night had felt an awful lot like betrayal. How could she open her heart to someone she knew was going to hurt her?

“You don’t even know me.”

“Maybe I want to,” Remis challenged.

The door behind the counter opened and Kindred strolled forward humming. She stopped just shy of the counter and clapped her hands. “I hope you slept well last night.”

Reluctantly, Remis pulled his attention away from Meira and gave Kindred an easy smile. “The accommodations were wonderful. Thank you.”

Meira exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d held onto and turned away from Remis. She didn’t offer Kindred her thanks or even a smile. All she wanted was her memories and answers around the curse and then to be on their way.

“When do I get to speak to the witch?” she asked.

“Right to business, I see.” Kindred placed her hands on her hips. “You’re speaking to the witch right now.”

Meira glared and let every ounce of her hatred pour into the one look. “Can you get my memories back?”

“Maybe,” she shrugged. “Lucky for you, I am a mind witch so I do specialize in this sort of thing. As for the curse,” she pointed to Meira’s hand, “that can only be undone by the witch who did it or by completing the task.” She gave a good show of frowning toward Remis, who shifted in his seat.

“Come, girl, let’s dig into that pretty little head of yours and see what we can find.” Kindred motioned for her to stand and come around the counter. Meira obliged but shivered when the witch’s cold fingers settled against her temple. “Take a deep breath.”

Meira was mid-inhale when the pain hit her. She could still feel Kindred’s fingers resting gently against her temple but another sort of touch was digging in through her flesh, her bones, and deep into her brain. Her eyes closed to the assault of images and the feeling of needling fingers sorting through every thought she’d ever had.

In one heartbeat, she was nursing a bite from Mrithun as a hatchling, in the next she was practicing fighting in the sky. Agony shot down her spine. There was a flash of skin on skin, Bram’s lips trailing the space between her breasts and then he was looking at her with that angry cold look of his, telling her she wouldn’t be coming for the mission. Her muscles cramped, contorting her body as the spasms refused to let her go. She saw herself laughing in the heat of summer at something Isaac had said. There was the flash of a blade as she fought against the pirates trying to pillage a seaside village. And she was a child again, running through the woods, crying and looking back to see if she’d been followed. Mental fingers dug themselves through her head, clawing with razor-sharp nails. She was starving on the streets, begging for food or money or even a place to sleep. Remis stood there, in the middle of a hallway, the doors at his back closed, mud on his boots, water soaking his pants, and his mouth dropping as he looked down at the curse upon his flesh. Pain. Dark all consuming pain.

Hands smoothed over her face. Her body was jostled but cradled gently against firm muscles. “Meira!” The voice was frantic. She sucked in a breath, smelling the familiar scent of the tavern”s soap. “Meira!”

Her lashes fluttered. Two dark onyx eyes stared down at her. A hand was brushing her curls away from her face.

“She’ll be fine,” Kindred said somewhere beside them.

Meira was coming back to herself, the pain receding as quickly as it had come. Remis’ arms held her tightly against him but she sent her elbow into his gut and removed herself from his embrace. He grunted. Glowered.

“You’re welcome.” He rubbed a hand against his stomach where the point of her elbow had met.

“What did you see?” Meira asked from the floor behind the counter.

Kindred stood above them watching with an arched brow. “A witch and a scale rider? Clever girl.” The woman clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Sadly, there isn’t much I can do for you. You already assumed correctly, time traveler. Your memories will return, but first they must catch up to you from the reality you left. The more you alter it the longer it will take for them to arrive.” She looked from Meira to Remis, both of them still sitting on the floor. “I’ve lived for many long years as have several of the women in my family. When I was a girl, my great-grandmother often told me stories. Would you like to hear one?”

Everything inside of Meira felt brittle. She’d have to wait for her memories, to fully understand what and how and why she’d done all this. What if by the time they came, it was too late? What if Mrithun would always be fated to die? What if Remis would always betray her? Worse still, what if she couldn’t stop herself from loving him?

Now the witch wanted to tell stories? After she’d pillaged Meira’s mind and didn’t even bother to warn her of the pain?

“This hardly seems like the time for a story,” Meira growled.

“Actually,” Kindred’s eyes sparkled, “I think this might be the best time.”

Remis stood, straightened his waistcoat, and retucked his shirt into his trousers. Then he offered Meira a hand that she ignored. He rolled his eyes as Meira stood on her own and frowning took a step away from them.

“I’m sure you’re aware, Meira, that there are several different types of witches. We’re all different, born with different talents, but all of us have the same magic that made this world blossom running through our veins. Anyone of us could use that magic to create minor spells, like the huntress mark you both carry, but not all can travel through time or shuffle through someone’s mind.”

Meira scoffed. She knew these things, if only in a vague recollection of what her mother had once taught her, but she hadn’t come to find another witch for a history lesson.

Kindred continued, ignoring Meira’s look of annoyance. “The first witch was one of harvest. Every crop she nursed grew far faster than anyone else’s and never died or took to disease. The next witch born controlled the weather. The next after her could manipulate metals. Then one was born with the ability to speak with animals. Beasts would bow to this woman who went on to become the first to tame a Bold Wing.”

In all the history Meira had been taught it was scale riders who’d first tamed the dragons, not witches.

“It was dragons who told her then of the greatness of this world and the connection of the magic within us.” Kindred leaned forward. “She learned how witches, bonded with dragons, could also be bonded to mages.” Her eyes jumped to Remis. “How they could share power. Share minds.”

The silence that followed the statement was deafening until Meira and Remis broke it at the same time.

“Ridiculous,” Meira said.

“How?” Remis gaped.

Meira turned, staring at Remis as if his brain had suddenly dribbled right out of his ear. How? How? Could he not hear this story and take it for what it was? Falsities and myths? She doubted the secret to unlocking greater power was a mage like Remis.

Kindred shrugged. “Believe what you want, witch, but what I see here is an opportunity and a gift. I see something great that perhaps you knew in another timeline but is lost to you now.” Then she turned with a grateful smile to Remis. “Riders are bonded to their dragons. Connected in ways that even they do not fully understand. I suppose all it would take is for you to bond to that same pair as they have with each other.”

“Do not fill his head with stories that cannot possibly be true.” Meira grabbed at Remis’ arm trying to drag him away. They’d come here seeking answers and would leave with only more questions.

Remis pulled against her but gave in and allowed her to lead him to the tavern door.

“All stories contain small truths. All stories come from somewhere,” Kindred called after them.

Meira knew well enough that myths and legends could be true. She was one. A witch who shouldn’t exist with a curse that people had only whispered as cautionary tales to get their children to behave. She believed there was some truth to what Kindred spoke, felt it in her spirit, but to allow Remis inside her head? To give him access to her dragon? All to have him betray her? She’d never allow that to happen.