Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Leaving the dining room behind him, Finn walked rapidly down the hallway to his room. Or that was the intention, anyway. He’d decided not to leave the castle walls after all, because the fight he and Jazdon had was bad enough without throwing even more fuel onto it.

He was angry and a little hurt, and he hated the way Jaz had stormed out instead of staying to argue it out. But he had no intention of wrecking his relationship before it really started. His love for Jaz hadn’t changed. If he left, then Jaz would come after him, and there would be a fight. Maybe even a physical one, this time, and he had no desire to hurt Jaz, or, more likely, to be hurt, for that matter. Physical violence was just never the answer, and he didn’t want to goad Jaz into doing something they’d both later regret.

He had pretty much walked out on Merlon, which he was sorry for too, but Merlon, though he’d once been human, had way too much dragon in him now. They all seemed to think Jazdon hung the damn moon, which Finn sort of did too, though probably not for the same reasons.

He came to yet another dead end, cursed and turned back to retrace his steps. He should have taken a right instead of left at that last cross corridor. Maybe. The palace was like a damn maze.

He was almost there when he spotted a small, familiar figure coming toward him.

“Anola, hello. I was on my way to my room, but all these hallways look alike. Can you point me in the right direction?”

She nodded and smiled, taking his arm. “I can do better than that. Why don’t I walk with you?”

“Oh, that would be great. I don’t mean to take you out of your way, though.”

“Not at all. It’s pleasant to see you again.”

They walked down first one corridor and then another until Finn was thoroughly confused. Anola was limping a little, and he turned to take her arm solicitously.

“Are you all right?”

“Just a touch of arthritis in this knee, sir. Old age…”

“You should get the doctor to look at it for you. Maybe he can give you something for it.”

“Don’t fret over me, sir. I’m fine.”

At last, they came to a door at the end of what looked like a dead end, but Anola smiled. “No worries. I have the key. We’ll just take this shortcut, shall we?”

The door opened out to the parapets, or the low protective wall that ran along the edges of the roof.  Finn had seen them often from above when he’d been flying. He stepped out curiously, having never actually been out on them before. Looking over the edge to the sea below, he saw nothing underneath him but the wild, white-capped waves.

He turned to ask Anola what was happening and why she’d brought him there, when he felt two hands hit him in the back—hard. So hard and so unexpectedly that he stumbled backward. One second, he was standing on the parapet and the next he was tumbling over backward, unable to catch himself as he plummeted down some sixty feet to the black and frigid sea below. He didn’t even have time to scream.

He didn’t have time to think either, He was so stunned that he didn’t shift to his dragon to save himself. He hit the frigid water with an impact that would have killed him if he’d still been human. The water was harder than frozen earth and knocked all the breath out of him on impact, so he quickly began to sink, still too disoriented and frazzled to summon his dragon. When his brain began to scream at him for air, he finally woke up enough to begin struggling and kicking upward. When he thought his lungs might burst, his head broke the surface, but he was winded and his limbs were stiff and frozen, and he began to sink again right away, swamped by the icy waves breaking over his head. With lungs bursting and little lights exploding behind his eyes, Finn sucked in lungful after lungful of the frigid air. Gasping to drag even more air into his lungs, half out of his mind with confusion and fear, he hung over the black abyss beneath him, looking around himself frantically for some kind of help.

Suddenly, his hair was seized in an iron-like grip, and Finn couldn’t figure out what was happening at first. He realized that in his confusion and disorientation, he had broken the surface near a small boat, and someone inside that boat had grabbed him and was trying to haul him into it by yanking him against the hull to get a better grip. He was mostly ice by that time, or it felt like it, so he didn’t remember much about being hauled over the hull. A fur or two was thrown over him and he huddled under them thankfully, shivering so hard he thought that alone might kill him.

He tried again to summon his dragon, but maybe it was the shock to his body or the extreme cold or even the fact that he was still shivering violently, but he was unable to call his dragon forth. What was happening to him? He was so disoriented by the cold, he couldn’t think.

Before he could even try to speak, a harsh voice yelled at him to keep his damn mouth shut. “If you know what’s good for you!” Or words to that effect. The threat was in some other language, but he definitely got the drift.

The seas were incredibly rough, and the boat plunged up one side and down over the other like some ride in an amusement park, but Finn was only half conscious by then. The effects of the fall and the cold had combined to almost kill him. And to think he’d been brought low by a little old lady. It was almost funny, he thought, as the light dimmed, and he fell suddenly into complete darkness.

***

Stopping his headlong flight into fucking nowhere, Jazdon banked hard and soared back toward home.

He’d been an ass.

It had taken a good while to come to that conclusion, but here he was. He had clearly lost his temper and Finn was probably ready to call off the engagement right about now. He deserved every bit of anger Finn flung his way and more.

Damn it.

In his defense, he wasn’t used to someone questioning his decisions, except for his father. And sometimes Vargla. Thinking of Vargla, the ice dragon appeared on the horizon, zooming towards him.

“What’s wrong?” Jazon said through their link.

“Merlon said Finn left the council room to go to his room, but when he checked, Finn wasn’t there. I have the guards scouring inside and out.”

Jazdon shot like a rocket toward the rocky opening and zoomed inside the castle and shifted. He ran, sending out his senses to find Finn. They were linked now, through connecting their bodies and so much more. He half-shifted to lend himself speed and tore through the inside hallways and passages with no luck. He even checked the fucking weapons and war room.

There was no feeling of his love anywhere.

Panicked, Jazdon launched out one of the open windows and shifted in midair. He tore around the rocky crevices until he picked up the very faint scent of Finn. Changing into his half-shifted form, he dropped like a stone and landed with a crouch on the parapets. Lifting his head, he sucked in the cool breezy air. It wouldn’t matter how long-ago Finn had been out here, Jazdon would be able to smell his mate for months. He jumped off the parapet and shifted into his dragon form in the air.

His dragon roared and Jazdon frantically called to Finn through their link.

Silence.

Nothing.

Finn was gone just as surely as the dark sea churned beneath him.

“What’s the plan?” Vargla said through their link. Just like him, the dragon was hovering in mid-air, his wings spread.

Several Isatolia guards had lined up behind Vargla awaiting orders. Scales of bronze created an armor that was almost impenetrable. Their wing spans were forty feet and from tail to nose just as long. With orange-colored eyes, the dragons bred to become Isatolia guards were a mighty force. The biggest dragon guard who hovered close to Vargla was First Lieutenant Change. Jazdon had always found Change to be loyal and very driven to protect clan and homeland.

“I’ll follow his scent. You go back and tell the king,” Jazdon told Vargla.

“No,” Vargla said. “Where you go, I go.”

“Damn it! This is not the time to argue.”

“I’m not arguing, I’m coming with you.” Vargla opened his link to Change. “Go, tell the king that Finn is missing. We don’t know if it’s by choice or by force but tell him that the prince and I are going after him.”

Without a word, the first lieutenant whirled and swept away with the rest of the guards at his flank. Jazdon didn’t wait for anything further to be said, and he turned toward the open water to streak across the sea at warp speed.

Vargla had been correct. They didn’t know if Finn had taken off or if he’d been taken. Was Finn thinking of flying back to America? Or just blowing off steam? Had someone taken him? What had Finn been doing out there on the parapets? Getting some air? It didn’t matter, Jazdon would find him, and he’d spend an eternity making up for his hot-headed fuckup. He was willing to change his way of thinking for Finn. Perhaps it was time to soften just a bit and not be so determined. Or set in his ways as Merlon called it. Vargla called it hard-headed.

He’d think about all that later, because right now, fear drove him.

Jazdon dropped low and raced across the top of the churning sea, keeping so close to the water that his talons scraped the wet surface. Vargla easily flew at his flank, the link between them stayed silent. There really wasn’t anything to say at this point.

About another mile out, Jazdon opened his link to Finn.

“Finn! Talk to me.”

Silence was the only reply.

“If you don’t want to talk to Jazdon, then talk to me and tell me you’re okay,” Vargla said, intruding in on Jazdon’s link, but the prince didn’t shut Vargla out like he could have.

He was that desperate.

Still, no response came. He thought for sure that Finn would talk to Vargla. It was then that Jazdon suspected Finn might not be in his dragon form. If that was the case, then Finn had no protection against whoever had taken him.

That’s if he was taken.

Still, Jazdon couldn’t shake off the feeling that something wasn’t right and as each mile passed, he grew more positive that someone had captured his love. A cold streak of panic like he’d never felt before swept through, and his dragon roared with rage. The wrath filled sound rang out across the sea. Both he and Vargla continued zigzagging back and forth with Jazdon leading the way.

Suddenly, the scent of Finn grew much stronger, and his dragon purred between snarls. They were reaching dangerously close to Parsmitt territory, but still had a few miles of leeway. If he could reach Finn before that border, he could avoid a war. Regardless of how Finn felt about him wanting the Parsmitt to stop reproducing, Jazdon didn’t want a full-scale war breaking out before the coronation.

Hell, if he were being honest, he didn’t want a war breaking out at all.

During battle, both sides lost loved ones. But if it came to recovering Finn, he’d cross any border.

“There!” Jazdon told Vargla and banked hard to come up on the boat. It was a small engine boat, fighting the angry sea, and going at top speed, which was laughable, because every wave sent the boat cracking down to the surface.

There was no way in hell that a boat could outrun him. He smelled Parsmitt on board and Finn. Why a fucking boat of all things? Did they seriously think that would throw them off? Jazdon had to admit that it would have worked if he and Finn had not already made love. Then, there would have been no scent for him to follow. Of course, the Parsmitt didn’t know that he and Finn had mated and that was their big mistake.

It would cost them their lives.

Next step after this would be to teach Finn how to call his dragon even during times of extreme stress. It took some getting used to plus a quiet mind. Changing under duress was one of the most advanced capabilities of a shift. The reason Finn had shifted with King Daltor had been because he was angry. Apparently, Finn wasn’t angry enough at the moment.

The three Parsmitt saw him coming and two of them jumped and shifted in the air. Their black scales and gleaming eyes glinted. They were half the size of an Isotolia and very outmatched up against him and Vargla. While they did have their own fighting capabilities, their only advantage was they usually ran in packs like roaches. It had been an error to send only three.

“I got Finn,” Jazdon said.

“I got these two fuckers,” Vargla agreed, squaring off with the two in the air.

Jazdon dropped like a stone to the boat and took off the driver’s head before the fucker could even shift. Not bothering to change, Jazdon lifted Finn up in his massive claws and shot up into the air. He sent a stream of fire at the boat—incinerating the thing in seconds.

His dragon roared. He knew why Finn hadn’t been angry enough to shift into his dragon form, his love was out cold.

Vargla had crashed through the pair of smaller Parsmitts, and they now clawed at the ice dragon, drawing blood on Vargla’s chest. The ice dragon launched upward and then stopped to hover. He drew in a humongous breath, and just before the pair reached him, he released a blast of ice. Frost and icicles hammered the two and pierced through scales. One dropped dead before he even hit the water. The other tried to run, but Vargla had a special ability that he rarely used.

He froze the fucker’s ass, and the Parsmitt dropped to the water and sank.

Not only could Vargla blast with icicles and frost, but he could also freeze when he wanted. Which he rarely did because it made him weak and feel like shit. He almost dropped into the water but managed to force himself to stay in the air.

This wasn’t going to do at all.

“I need to get higher,” he told Jazdon and then raced upwards toward the cloudy sky.

“Go,” Jazdon ordered, there were words necessary—he understood that Vargla knew his own capabilities.

Jazdon was more worried about Finn. He couldn’t get a response from his love. Nor could he talk to him without shifting. They were so far out to sea with nowhere to land so trying to wake Finn up was nearly impossible. Talking would need to wait. While Vargla shot straight upward, Jazdon zoomed horizontal carrying his precious cargo toward home.

His dragon gave a rumbling purr, trying to comfort Finn’s dragon. He could tell that Finn was out of it when there was no response. He was sure that Finn wasn’t hurt because he could feel the dragon’s heartbeat through their connection and feel the shivers that racked the man’s body through his talons.

Reaching the rocky opening, Jazdon gently placed Finn on the landing pad and shifted. He snatched Finn into his arms and stalked through the corridors toward the medical bay. Several of his guards were on his ass as well as Merlon and Meridous.

“What happened?” Meridous said draping a royal cloak around Jazdon’s shoulders.

“I don’t know,” Jazdon said.

“Where’s Vargla?” Merlon asked, his voice filled with worry.

“He froze one of them.”

“Shit!” Merlon shouted and raced back the way they’d come. Being an ice dragon, Merlon would know first-hand how weak Vargla was right now. He’d be able to find Vargla by scent, so he didn’t bother asking Jazdon for help.

Jazdon placed Finn on one of the medical beds and threw a heated blanket over his body. He cupped the man’s face and kissed him softly on the lips.

“He’s fine. I don’t know why he’s not waking up,” the doc said removing the stethoscope from Finn’s chest and wrapping it back around his own neck. The doc took Finn’s wrist and felt his pulse “I checked his head and bones, and there are no injuries. He might be in shock. It sounds like he has a bit of water in his lungs. I’ll give him some fluids, which should help.”

“Why? What’s wrong? What are you giving him?”

“It’s just a saline solution to rehydrate and replenish his fluids. It will help him, Your Highness.”

Jaz nodded, distracted and upset. He held tightly to Finn’s hand as the doctor hooked up the solution. As soon as the doctor was done, he said, “Leave us.” Then he lowered the lights and then crawled up on the bed to pull Finn into his arms. His dragon was restless and upset too, and holding Finn close this way might soothe him.

Legend was told that some Greengile dragons could hibernate when they needed to escape injury, grief, or stress. If that was the case, Jazdon had to wonder how long it would last. If it wasn’t hibernation, then what the hell was it?

Holding Finn close, Jazdon brushed his lips against Finn’s ear.

“Come back to me, baby.” He nuzzled into Finn’s temple. “Please come back to me. I’ll promise you anything. Just wake up.”