Chapter Twelve

W HILE GLAD SAVANNAH was finally opening up to him on a deeply personal level, Zane was heartbroken for the pain he felt in both her human and dragon heart as she told him about her pregnancy a few short years after she shunned him. He couldn't imagine what it must have felt like to go through that.

"I was young, too young to have a child, and didn't have support from the father, but I wanted it... him . My son." She released a choppy sigh and brushed away a tear. "I would have managed school, still gotten my degree, only it would have taken longer even though I was already advanced, and I was all right with that...yet..." Clearly used to dealing with this pain, she swallowed hard and went on. "I lost him. He was born prematurely. Stillborn." She shook her head. "According to the doctors, there's every chance it will happen again. That I might never be able to carry a child to term." She blinked back tears. "Never be able to give you offspring."

Pushing aside how much his inner dragon wished he'd been there for her, that her son had been his, he would forever bury those emotions because she didn't deserve them. He could care less what her doctors might have said. What did they know about dragons? Especially their breed of dragons because they were stronger than most. More fertile than most. So they would have more children together, and that's what she should focus on now. Not the past but the future.

"I cannot tell you how sorry I am, Savannah," he managed, working to push every last emotion he had about this deep, down inside. Prayed, she only ever felt his support rather than his heartache. His pity for her loss. "I cannot even imagine."

"No, I suppose you can't." She looked at him so endearingly with a small, loving smile that made him wish he could give her the world. Or at least rip away the last of an evil world and enemy he feared still clung to her.

"Tell me about your daughter," she urged. "Tell me about Freya."

He couldn't help but meet Savannah's small smile as he thought about his daughter. "She's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." She truly was. "It takes time to get to know her because she's shy at first, but then—" He shook his head in wonder— "once you gain her trust and she opens up to you, she's vivacious and loving with the heart of a true adventurer."

"She sounds amazing," Savannah said softly, her smile whimsical now. "I wish I could see her in your mind's eye. Know her better." She squeezed his hand. "But I understand why I can't. I get why she's being kept tucked away until this is all over."

He was glad she understood but knew she wished she'd been part of Freya's life, too. That their children had been shared. And they would be soon enough if it meant keeping her in his bed for years once their damnable enemy was extinguished and peace once again flourished.

Laying with Savannah was everything he knew it would be, if not far more. Where most of his breed could only take so much dominance from their females, he sensed what he and his mate would enjoy would greatly please them both. Had already pleased them so much he was desperate to be inside her again. Desperate to stay there until his seed took root, then every day after, only allowing time for birth.

As it had since he was old enough to understand, everything about Savannah aroused him, and that had only grown with time, manifesting in the best sensual experience of his life. Women had ridden him before, but not like her. Not using their whole body in a way that drove him to distraction. If her flared, curvy hips, small waist, and voluptuous breasts weren't enough, she moved in a fashion that only accentuated every inch of her perfect body. Hypnotized both sides of his personality and his inner beast so thoroughly every part of him bent to her will before exploding in pleasure.

"Why do you think Freya connected with Zoey along with Magnus's daughter in dreams?" Savannah wondered, pulling him back to the present. "I get his daughter because Zoey and Magnus were destined for each other, but why Freya, too?"

He was about to respond when he sensed something stirring outside their cave. Seconds later, a loud, ground-shaking roar echoed beyond.

"Oh, Dios , please no," Savannah gasped, recognizing the sound of her captor in another life. Almost the moment she said it, the scent of sulfur hit them.

He chanted them into clothes and pressed a dagger into her hand as they scrambled for the door, only for Rafe to appear once again in black robes. His brethren put a finger to his mouth and gestured that they followed. Everyone else was there as well, clearly glad to see Savannah awake and doing well.

"What is it, cousin?" Zane asked Rafe telepathically, holding his blade at the ready. "Why does this memory seem so much more real? Has the beast from our past made his way here? Has he revealed himself as our unseen enemy?"

"I don't think so." Rafe shook his head as they made their way through another tunnel into the spacious cave located beneath the mighty Níeh?ggr's Ash. A grand place few saw because it possessed too much magic. Far too much power. "I think we're about to witness a memory every bit as intense as the Great Serpent's tree itself. Born of his world. Part of his world..."

No sooner did he say it than the massive, majestical roots wrapping around the cave faded, and the Múspellsheimr memory they had last witnessed manifested. Zane's dragon held Savannah tight in his wings, trying to comfort her.

"No," Savannah cried moments before her captor, in all his massive black decrepit wrath, came crashing into the cave and tore Zane away. He roared at him so mightily that flaming sparks dripped off his sulfuric breath. Not afraid in the least, Zane roared at her incarnate to flee the cave, then roared just as mightily at his enemy.

"I won't go," Savannah said hoarsely, clearly voicing what her dragon was thinking because her incarnate shook her head and stayed put, not cowering in fear but looking for a way to help Zane. "I wouldn't leave you behind any more than you would leave me." She nodded once and stood up straighter, proud to see her dragon standing her ground. "I was as determined to protect you as you did me from the moment your tiny dragon covered mine and protected me from this monster's wrath."

True to form, her incarnate didn't cower in fear but stalked around them, growling with her teeth bared, waiting for a chance to pounce as the mighty males thrashed and bit at each other. They crashed about the lava-ridden cave, shaking the ground and sending flames into the air as they slammed each other with their spiked tails. Zane wasn't quite as big as her captor, but he was close. A monster dragon in his own right. One who might have ruled on this world had he not been traded away when he was young and found a heart he didn't know he possessed.

"No," Savannah cried again when her captor crashed into Zane's incarnate so hard he was able to pin him down and get a hold of his neck. "?Detente, bastardo! Stop, you bastard!"

Echoing her sentiment and caring nothing for their size difference nor the pure viciousness of her captor, her incarnate raced at him and went to leap on his back, only for another male dragon to snag her and fly out of the cave.

"What's happening?" ?se hissed, clearly ready to chase after Savannah and help her despite it being a memory. "Why did that dragon steal Savannah's glory from her?"

A rush of relief blew through Zane when he felt what his incarnate felt. "Because he had orders to." Despite his incarnate's struggle beneath the enemy's death grip, he issued a small smile. "Orders from his commander, not his king."

He felt his kin's surprise as the male dragons who had once dwarfed Zane's little dragon and stood watch over the caged females with relish melted out of the darkness. Some slammed into their king, tearing him away from Zane, where others released the numerous females still caged to that day.

"You usurped your king," Magnus exclaimed in awe. "On a world like that...with dragons like that..."

"But not soon enough," Zane growled, however pleased he was with what unfolded. He pulled Savannah close, remembering how he'd wished he had acted sooner and saved her from so much pain. "It took time to make them see things my way and convince them of so much in a world where they had only ever thought one way. In a place where their every instinct told them they were superior." He shook his head. "But in the end, they realized they would only ever be as superior as their master allowed them to be. That they, like the females, were prisoners." He sneered. " Slaves ."

"And you were going to be what to them after all of you defeated your king?" ?se wondered, clearly impressed with how hard Zane's dragon went after his enemy once his neck was released. " Their new master? Her new captor?"

"I don't think so," Savannah said softly as Zane, in one fell swoop, ripped off her captor's wing, disabling him in a way that would diminish any hope of him rising up again. He would be considered disabled and, therefore, useless. More sadly, still, if he weren't the tyrant he was, put to death for not being whole anymore. Not being strong and able-bodied.

Where Zane could have dealt a death blow as his enemy roared in ungodly pain, it seemed he felt the fate and indignity he would suffer going forward was better than a swift demise.

"Not just that, but I needed to be with you," he said, feeling his incarnate's desperation as he raced out of the lair after her. "I needed to keep you close and protect you no matter what."

He didn't realize he was moving until he took her hand and raced after the memory, only for it to morph around not just them but his kin, who had followed them.

"Loki's cock ," ?se exclaimed when they found themselves outside the cave, surrounded by a world out of their worst nightmare. Clearly what Christians must refer to when they spoke of hell. Nearly everything was on fire or smoking, including the trees. The air was thick and cloying making it hard to breathe, even with their shifter lungs.

"This is insane ," Zoey said, wide-eyed as her gaze rose up into a murky sky made of what appeared to be the underside of another world only caught in shadows and darkness. "Why would any dragon ever want to stay here?"

"Because they're power-hungry and greedy," Savannah said. Even though her voice sounded wobbly, she shook her head when Zane tried to comfort her. Instead, she clenched her weapon tightly, clearly ready for battle. Glared at the world that had once been theirs and had treated her so very poorly.

"But not in the end," she murmured, homing in on his dragon rushing out of the cave, relieved to find her safe alongside the warrior who had carried her out. "Because somehow this moment led to the end of this terrible place."

As if Savannah saying it kept the memory going, more dragons emerged out of the cave. Dozens. The males lowered their heads to Zane's dragon in loyalty, as well as the females who had been imprisoned. Some were almost past breeding age, and others as little as Savannah had been when she'd first arrived. Young and old alike were eager to see where Zane led them next. All looked to him with hope and respect.

"And I had no idea what to do," he said softly, shaking his head. "No idea how to help all of you other than I knew it couldn't be here. It could never be in a world so vicious that never wanted peace. Or equality." His tone dropped an octave. "Or love ever."

"And I think you wanting that made all the difference," Zoey said, still gazing up at the sky. "Look!"

"What is that?" Magnus wondered.

"A chance to heal," Quinn said softly as long, thick roots of what could only be a mighty Yggdrasil appeared, surrounding a cranberry-colored circle with an S-shaped line cutting it in half.

"If the colors were different, I'd almost think it was a Ying Yang symbol minus the dots," Zoey said.

"Fitting, then," Quinn returned. "As the Ying Yang depicts complementary forces, all aspects and phenomena of life. It encompasses the process of the universe and all that's in it, both light and dark." Her gaze went to Zane and Savannah's incarnates and their followers. "In this case, I think it provides a doorway from dark into light."

"But what if it doesn't?" Savannah whispered, her voice shaky again. She shook her head slowly and eyed the symbol with a mixture of dread and longing. "That's the same symbol at the top of the door in my nightmare." She swallowed hard and held Zane's hand more tightly as if she feared losing him all over again. "And what was on the other side was anything but healing." Her gaze dropped to Quinn. "It was a fiery death."

"Yet that is but a piece of the door," Zane said gently, feeling what his incarnate felt as he and the others gazed up at the circle. "And very much our salvation, mitt hjertes flamme ."

"But what if..." she began, trailing off when Zane's incarnate urged the others to follow and launched into the air.

Zane pulled Savannah close when she trembled in fear at their dragons rising higher and higher into the air, trusting Zane to lead them to a better place and a new beginning.

"I was so incredibly excited," she murmured, slowly relaxing in his arms. "Felt no fear. Only trust in you. All of us had such unwavering trust."

"And with good reason," Rafe said softly as the door opened like sunshine on a dark, cloudless night upon the dragons' approach. "Given what's awaiting you."

Yet he could tell by his cousin's tone there was still darkness in the light.

Darkness where they eventually ended up.