Chapter Eleven

ZOEY HAD NEVER been so acutely aware of another's emotions as she was Magnus's as they made their way through the icy wind and driving snow toward the area he'd lost his wife and daughter. Better put, she'd never been so aware of how high a wall one could build in their mind when they were grappling with such loss and grief.

But then, she'd long made a habit of feeling compassion for others but never letting her own emotions get too close to any one situation, and with good reason. In her profession, she had needed to keep a level head.

Yet this felt different somehow. As though she wouldn't be able to keep her distance from it if she tried. She'd be unable to stop feeling everything Magnus felt now and on that fateful day. There would be no separating the two.

That had become clear when his thoughts infiltrated her dreams before she woke from his spell-induced slumber that morning. When she somehow saw things from his perspective as he'd sat beside Zane when they were teenagers and saw what Magnus had seen. Felt his disappointment in Zane's callousness toward female dragons. Understood once more that Magnus was so much more than she'd given him credit for at the beginning.

Then again, despite her sexual frustration the night before, he'd made it clear he was an admirable sort when he didn't take her when he could have. When she had wanted him to so badly, it was a wonder he'd been able to say no, given she was in heat. Because she understood what that meant more by the moment. Their proximity. The incredible inner strength it had taken for him to chant her asleep until her head was free of lust and she could make a clear-minded decision about how far she was willing to go with him.

And she respected him that much more for it.

She also wanted him so much more because of it she was shocked she could walk. Shocked the near-crippling need she felt for him at this point hadn't made it impossible. Yet somehow, it had not, and as they continued through the Forest of Memories, her desire became more of an ache in her chest. A deep pain she barely understood until Magnus murmured they were drawing close.

"Is that why the weather's changing?" Athena asked softly, her tone respectful. "Are we entering a memory?"

Zoey was startled to realize she was right. The snow had lessened, and the winds felt slightly warmer. Even the snow they trudged through didn't seem as deep.

"Ja, perhaps." Rafe glanced at Magnus. "What time of year was it, cousin?"

"Summer warmth was fading, and winter wasn't far off." Magnus eyed the ghostly leaves blowing in the wind above them now. "The wind off the sea was brisk, and the scent of salt and pine was strong in the air." He slowed as they approached an area no different than the woodland they'd already been walking through. "I remember thinking how grateful I was for that...how..."

He didn't need to finish his sentence for them to follow his thoughts. To understand the sea had blown in on the wind, making the scent of blood and death a tad less overwhelming. Needing to touch and comfort him, Zoey slipped her hand into his and squeezed, so aware of his pain now that it was very much hers. A terrible heartache that made it difficult to breathe.

"I do not want to see it again," he growled, stopping. His eyes flared a brilliant turquoise with his inner dragon, and he shook his head. "We should not have come here."

"Yet we're here," she said gently, giving the others a look that they should hang back. Give them some space. "Because you need answers. We all do." She squeezed his hand until his pained gaze drifted to her face. "Whatever you see here, whatever you feel, know that you've got your kin with you now. You're not alone." She shook her head, hoping he understood how much she was here for him, too. "Never alone."

Their gazes lingered on one another in a way that made it clear, yet again, how close they had once been. How close they were growing once more, whether she understood the dynamics of it yet or not. An inner beast she'd long repressed was clawing to the surface toward him in a way that made her feel more and more helpless but, at the same time, free in a way she couldn't explain. Strengthened by him somehow, even as she sensed she could strengthen him in return.

And something about that, something about understanding what grew between them, or perhaps had already existed in another life, made him calm in a way she not only saw but felt.

Good thing, too, given what happened next.

"Look," Quinn whispered as if she didn't want to disturb the women and children that had manifested nearby.

Magnus didn't need to say a word for Zoey to home in on a lovely dark-haired woman walking hand in hand with a little girl who couldn't be much older than three or four. Her hair was the same dark blonde as Magnus's, and her eyes were just a shade off from his.

Zoey blinked back tears at the anguish Magnus felt at seeing them again. At finally witnessing a day he'd never been able to access in its entirety. One that, mercifully enough, flickered by quickly rather than played out in real time. At least most of it as male dragons seemed to appear out of nowhere as if they'd been stalking the small group.

The women who were dragons shifted and tried to fight them off, but it was too late. There were too few female dragons, and it was a catastrophe. Some females were taken, and others slain.

All the while, Magnus watched with narrowed eyes, a clenched jaw, and equally clenched fists as Zane's men were so violent his kin grew just as enraged. Disbelief and anger rose in Athena and Quinn as well. If this didn't prove Zane was every inch the enemy, nothing did.

"No," Magnus roared when his wife and child were cut down. He raced toward them only to skid to a stop when a huge red dragon crashed down over the two and roared fire at the male dragons who dared approach.

He roared so mightily in not just anger but notable anguish that his fellow dragons scattered, leaving the red dragon alone with the fallen. A dragon who nuzzled the bodies as if trying to stir them awake or see if they had been truly slain before he shifted into Zane, only older than he'd been when he and Magnus battled as teens for the Keep.

As tall, if not a fraction taller than his Sigdir brethren, Zane was just as well-muscled and broad-shouldered, only far more tribal looking with his multiple piercings and tattoos. More vicious in appearance, to be sure.

Magnus trembled in fury now and started toward the memory, but Rafe stopped him and shook his head. "You must let this play out, cousin. This is why we're here. Why you are here."

Magnus's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head too as though he were going to bypass Rafe but settled some when Zoey wrapped her hand with his again and gestured he watch what unfolded because it said much.

Especially when Zane crouched over Magnus's wife and child, clearly in grief, hung his head, and murmured what sounded like a Norse prayer of some sort. More shocking still, given Zane's reputation, a tear slipped down his cheek when he cradled the little girl tenderly, closed her unseeing eyes, and rested his forehead against hers.

"What is he doing?" Athena whispered, as caught off guard and awed as the rest of them. "Is that some sort of ceremonial thing with Viking dragons?"

"No," Magnus ground out, his voice not quite right. "That is the act of a guilty dragon who allowed his beasts to get out of control."

"Just as you allowed your beasts to get out of control with Athena, if you're going to look at it like that," Quinn said gently, resting her hand on Magnus's shoulder. "Yet we both know male dragons in these parts have become desperate. Rogue. Not thinking clearly. Not staying true to their lieges when their desperation gets the better of them."

Magnus ground his jaw and kept shaking his head as if he wanted to dispute her but knew it to be true.

"What is Zane doing now?" ?se said through clenched teeth, not helping matters when her dragon eyes flared at the memory. "Why is he—"

She stopped talking when Tyr put a finger to his mouth and shook his head. With good reason, because Zane's behavior only grew stranger. He didn't lay the broken body of Magnus's daughter back down beside her mother but shifted into his dragon with her resting in his talon. Moreover, he brought her close to his chest, his heart perhaps, and released a low, deep keen before he launched into the air.

In turn, Magnus released an anguished roar of rage, shifted into the most magnificent dark turquoise beast she'd ever seen, and launched into the air after the memory, only to slam into an unseen wall when Rafe roared, "No!"

Zoey hardly realized she moved until she was beside Magnus. More so, and dauntingly enough, she didn't realize she'd shifted into her dragon for the first time until she noticed she was taller than she should be. And while that terrified her, something deep inside, undoubtedly her inner beast, eased her into her new reality so she could focus on calming Magnus.

More specifically, she needed to redirect his focus.

"It's all right,"she murmured gently into his mind as his great beast kept slamming against Rafe's wall in a desperate attempt to follow his daughter. To save her and end Zane. Because he couldn't see the caring way his cousin had been with her. Could not see that it was, in truth, nothing but a memory now.

"Magnus,"she kept on. "Look at me. She's gone. They're gone. It's all in the past now."

Zoey repeated those words until she must have broken through his rage and anguish because he suddenly stilled and swung his great head her way. When he did and their eyes connected for the first time in dragon form, everything else faded away. Her fear of the body she'd embraced. The presence of others. It all vanished as they gazed into each other's eyes in a moment that seemed to transcend time.

What didn't vanish but seemed to explode inside her was her need for him. Her longing for a connection she knew they hadn't been allowed to share in their last life. Had not been able to experience like this because he had been fully human and she, a shifter. He was destined to marry Quinn and her? Someone else, but she couldn"t remember who.

"Zoey,"Magnus rumbled into her mind, sending pleasant shockwaves through her. "You are—" he hesitated as if searching for the right words— "the most beautiful dragon I've ever laid eyes on."

She had no idea what to say but certainly knew how she felt when he rubbed his neck against hers. Unable to do anything else, understanding on a primal level that he needed her, she nuzzled closer and released a contented purring sound when he folded her in his wings. Better still, he released his own rumble of contentment that mingled with hers and soothed their aching hearts. Because hers ached just as much as his over everything he'd lost.

Feeling him like this, so much more intensely than she had before she'd shifted, was an untouchable sensation. Irreplaceable. Part of her in ways that made everything clear in a split second.

She could not be apart from him ever again. Not in this life or any to follow. He was hers as she was his. They were merged in ways they were only just beginning to understand. Connected in ways that could never be broken.

"I sense something at your border, cousin," Rafe warned, interrupting the intense, intimate moment. "Dragons are coming."

Zoey wasn't sure how Magnus did it, but the next thing she knew, she wasn't a dragon wrapped in another dragon's wings. Instead, she was human again and wrapped up in Magnus's very human arms. More so, she was lost in his very human eyes when he tilted her chin until their gazes aligned.

"Thank you, min lille droning," he whispered hoarsely. "For bringing me back from my anguish...for reminding me how important it is to keep a level head right now."

"Did I do all that?" she whispered just as hoarsely because what they had shared felt like so much more.

"And it was," he murmured, clearly answering her thoughts. "So much more, but now is not the time to discuss it. Not when potential strife heads our way. Strife that could affect so very much."

"Strife that dares to cross onto your land," Rafe warned.

It turned out he was right.

More than that, it was moments away.