22. Caliel

22

Caliel

I had to concentrate hard to send messages to Bree.

Her voice was now so faint I could barely hear her. And something else was going on. It was as though she spoke to me through a fog that I could not quite penetrate.

Forcing aside the despair that instilled in me, I pushed onward through the perpetual drizzle, hugging the deepest shadows. Night in this place gave a whole new meaning to darkness.

Bree and Tez were not far behind, so I did not have much time. Putting the guard at the stairs into a coma had me using my healing power in an unchartered fashion. I had had to close off the blood supply to his brain, in order to drop him quickly. It had taken finesse to do it without killing him.

The most challenging part had been sneaking up on him—I did not want him aware that it was Slade that had put him under. Tez was not coming back to Victor's merc ranks, but I was.

I had waited until the guard had paced away from me—trailing a totally distracting griafruit scent—and then closed my hand on bare skin from the shadows.

He had dropped quickly. The mercenaries guarding the front gate would be complicated because there were two of them. But as I hugged the shadows of the wall, I realized I had bigger issues.

Victor's gate guards lay in bloody heaps on the ground.

Their killer emerged from the gatehouse into the gloomy night, and faced me. His crimson cloak swirled in the wind.

My pulse thudded erratically. It was going to take everything I had to deal with a Priest. With racing thoughts I left the shadows and approached with elevated arms, palms out.

He raised his crossbow. His hood was pulled back, exposing hairless, skull-like features with red eyes set so deeply into cavernous sockets they could not be seen in the darkness.

I slowed and began to babble. "Oh, Revered One. I embrace your mission to capture the Feathered Serpent. I bring valuable information on its location."

The crossbow wavered. "Tell me." The voice was almost a squeal.

I continued to close the distance between us. "I wish to join your organization."

The Priest opened its jaws and emitted a high-pitched cackle. "Those such as you are unfit to even clean up after the chosen ones. We do not accept such impure blood into the Priesthood."

Well, that verified the racist observations I had heard about them, all right. "I would be honored," I lied, "to serve such as you. Your mission is Just."

He had let me within ten feet of him. An errant breeze delivered the stench of rotting fish. For once, it matched what I saw. Now he leveled the crossbow, and said, "Tell me where the Serpent is."

I took a long stride to close the gap, pretended to stumble, put my hands out, and closed them on his wrists.

He was a warrior, with a fighter's instincts, and he twisted, almost breaking free from my grip. He was fiercely strong. My desperation fired something within this borrowed body—in an instant, huge new muscles rippled along my arms and chest.

He dropped the crossbow, and his foot shot up between us, hoofing me hard in the gut. But I was already sending my power coursing through him. His anatomy was completely foreign to me, and finesse went out the window when he hoofed me again, hard enough to almost shake me loose.

If I did not take this Priest down, he would kill me, and try to capture Tez, and that meant Bree could die, too… I abandoned any attempt at gentle measures, and used our skin-on-skin contact to go straight for the brain.

I had worked so hard to repair both Riggs and then Slade—but this was an attack, and I forged into the Priest's brain with one objective—to do as much damage as possible, before he managed to kill me.

I plunged in, and then, I shredded.

His hands spasmed in my grasp, and blood flowed from his ears and his nose. I held on until the last of the strength flowed from him, before letting him go.

For a moment, I stood frozen as the horror of what I had just done coursed through me. As a healer, I was sworn to protect life. But not only was I deliberately inhabiting another's body, but I had just used my ability to kill.

The reasons mattered naught. Serving the greater good was the excuse used by many. Any healer council across the realms would crucify me, regardless of the circumstances.

Despair filled me. I was no longer a healer.

Are you okay, Caliel? Concern laced Bree's mindvoice.

My sacrifice was in vain if I did not get Bree out of there. So I concentrated, and sent, Entrance is clear.

We're coming, came the faint response.

My legs shook as I jogged beyond the compound. The street was deserted, and I ducked into an alcove.

Those that usually roamed the night were more than aware that the stronghold was under siege. They were not so much gone, as hiding. Waiting to see if there was opportunity in the aftermath.

I leaned out, and looked up to blink into the rain. Clouds scudded across a sky that was alive with Dragons, rising, and then diving to fight on ledges and even the roof. I had put some feathers up there, too.

As I watched, the sky lit up with flame. The Fire Drake was not amused with his uninvited guests. And then, I saw a blast of crimson—a distinctive bloodmagic bolt—and breathed a sigh of relief. The Trinity was up there, too. And if they were up there, they would not be down here.

There was movement at the entrance—and with a flare of his red cloak, Tez appeared, running with Bree's hand clasped in his.

Once they got close, Bree tugged to direct him to the dark alcove where I waited. I reached out, and pulled her into the shadows.

Tez let her go and stood just outside. But Bree did not stop until she stood within the circle of my arms.

I thought my heart would explode. How many times had I wished I could do exactly this? I would sacrifice it all again, to feel her warm body held up against me.

And then she stood on her tiptoes, and kissed me.

Sensation exploded when I felt her warm lips against mine. Although I had been inside her when she kissed Riggs, it did not compare to this.

This might be the only chance I got to touch her. As her warm tongue pushed between my lips, a rumbling groan vibrated through me. Gryphons did not kiss, and this was exquisite. My own tongue tangled with hers as I pulled her tight against me, as if I wished to meld us back into one entity.

All too soon, she broke away. "Come with us, Caliel."

"I cannot," I said. "You know that."

"I can barely feel you now. If you stay, you might die for real. If you go to that meeting…"

"Is that meeting really worth risking your life?" Tez asked. I'd told him I was staying for it, but had given him few details.

More than anything, I longed to go with them. With her . But I could not. "We need that proof."

Tez's eyes flashed turquoise, just for a moment. "The Dragon Empire needs the proof. Why don't they get it themselves?"

Bree suddenly looked pale. "They've tried, and failed." To me, she said, "You have the recording."

"It is not enough. People will not believe us if we only have that. We need pictures of Victor and Daize together."

She hissed in frustration. "They might not believe, anyway."

"It is the best we can do," I said. "Otherwise, it is just one person's word against another. You cannot accuse an Emperor of treason based on that."

Tez leaned forward. "They are meeting because of information they've received. How did they get it? Who gave it to them? Maybe your precious Empire has a traitor."

"I have to stay," I insisted.

Tez uttered a frustrated sound and turned abruptly away. I didn't want to talk about the meeting. I wanted to say goodbye to Bree. And remind myself of why I'd done all this.

It was so dark in the alcove—I longed for my Gryphon eyes. But that was only one of the sacrifices I had made to wrap my arms around her. As she looked up at me, her eyes reflected in the dim streetlights—and I thought I saw the glistening of tears.

I raised a hand to her face and trailed my fingers along her cheek. Her skin was so soft, her eyes luminous. She folded her fingers around my wrist and leaned her cheek into my touch.

My gaze fell on the scrape on her arm. Without thinking, I reached with my talent to soothe the pain and heal the skin.

But something was off. I reached deeper, and my mind reeled. I raced through her body, searching for a truth that I did not wish to acknowledge.

Because every cell was wrapped in inflammation. It was a process I had seen only once before—in a Dragona that had fought her heat cycle by ignoring it. By the time we got to her, she was too far gone to save.

Dragon heat cycles, if denied, could kill. Apparently, so could that of Drakes. And from what I felt inside her—there was more than one beast coming into heat. Her Dragon was there, too. I sensed it dancing around the edges, but it was sure to grow stronger.

The inflammation itself was not nearly as widespread throughout Bree as it had been in the Dragona, not yet. But that serum had started something that was not going to disappear on its own.

Tez leaned in from outside. "We've gotta go," he spoke with urgency in his tone.

"Where are we going?" Bree asked.

"Tez will get you to Jarsk," I said. "Riggs can pick you up there." I cleared my throat. "But I need to tell both of you something."

Tez stopped swaying from one foot to the other and focused on me.

And I told them.

"Can she die?" Tez asked in a curiously hoarse voice.

"Centaur heat cycles do not work like that," Bree explained, as if that would mean anything.

"You are not a Centaur anymore," I said. "And they have activated your Drake. It is affecting your entire body."

She bit her lip, but did not deny it. She could surely feel it. "What do I do?"

"The Dragona you are becoming is there, too," I said. "And you are mated to Riggs—if you can get to him in time, then it could reach its natural conclusion."

Tez's sharp gaze darted from me, to Bree. "She's becoming a Dragon?"

We both stared at him, before I answered, "Yes."

"Did the Sorceress bitch put that in her too?"

Bree sighed. "No. Riggs did it when we mated."

There was a rather profound moment of silence. Then he summed it all up rather succinctly. "So—she'll be okay if he fucks her." Then he winced, and a hand rose to his neck—I saw the little bird pecking at him.

"Yes. This cannot be ignored. She needs to be mated. That will stop it cold."

For just a millisecond, Tez's eyes flared turquoise, before darkening again. "I will get her to him," he promised. "But we need to go."

"Hold on. I will do what I can to alleviate it," I said. I took Bree's hands and concentrated.

It was a tall order with such generalized cellular involvement, which was why my mentor and I had failed with the Dragona. But I did what I could to reduce the inflammation.

I only had a few moments, but her face looked a bit less flushed when I next opened my eyes.

The moment I did so, Bree seized my jaw with her small fingers, and then she was kissing me again. Only this time, it was more than just a kiss—she opened the link between her and Riggs, and connected me to the power of the sword.

Its bright energy flooded through me, strengthening the meager connections I had managed to form in this body, replenishing my reserves. When she broke away, I felt as though I should be glowing.

"Thank you." My voice had gone hoarse. But what she had just done gave me the strength to step away.

I turned to Tez and met his intense stare.

"Where will you go afterward?" I asked.

"He can come with me," Bree spoke as though any other option was insane. Which it likely was.

"The Priesthood will be in hot pursuit," Tez argued, "now that they know I'm alive."

Bree's face now reflected her desperation. "They will not follow you to the academy."

"You don't know that," he countered.

"They are not likely to risk it." I shot a quick glimpse out of the alcove, but the alley remained deserted except for us. "The academy now represents a conglomeration of power unrivaled anywhere else."

He stared at me. "You look like Slade. But you sure do not talk like him. Remember to add the ‘fucks.'"

I nodded. "I will fuck."

Tez rubbed a hand over his face as I backed away. Every step from Bree was like leaving a piece of myself behind, but I needed to go, and so did they. "Good luck," I told them.

I set my jaw and returned to the chaos.