Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Why aren't you celebrating?” King Vaxarion asked as he stepped up to me.

“His mate was taken from the battlefield,” my mother said.

My parents, Ellas, my King's Guard, and General Kleves had rushed to me when the fighting ended and formed a protective circle around me while I healed, even though the threat was over.

“What?” King Vaxarion snarled. “Go after him!”

“I will! I just need my fucking wings to heal!” I shouted back.

Duke Zixin smacked his mate's long neck and said, “Help him, Vax!”

“What exactly do you think I can do, Mate? I don't have healing powers.”

“No, but you can make him fly without his wings.”

“Holy fuck,” I whispered. “Water Magic!” I prayed that enough time had passed to revive my magic, then summoned it. A cloud of water appeared beneath me.

“It looks as if he doesn't need my help,” King Vaxarion drawled.

“Uh, you might do better if you shift to a smaller body,” Duke Zixin said. “It will put less of a strain on your magic.”

“Good idea,” I said and shifted to my man's body. “I should have done that earlier. My wings will heal faster now.” I began to rise on my water pillow, utterly naked and utterly uncaring. “Thank you for coming to my aid, King Vaxarion. Please, stay for the celebration feast. I don't intend to be long.”

King Vaxarion chuckled. “I'll just tidy up a bit while you're gone.”

“If you think you're going anywhere alone, you're fucking crazy,” Ellas snarled and leapt into the sky.

My parents quickly followed, along with my King's Guard. We must have been quite the sight—the victorious, naked King of Gavemor riding a water bubble while a V-formation of dragons followed him. But no one laughed or pointed. Instead, more dragons joined us, rising out of exhausted heaps to attend me once more. Because they all knew where I was going and that I would die if I failed.

“You know, I could have just carried you,” Ellas said, from my right.

I scowled at him. “Then why didn't you offer to?”

“Because I thought you should heal before you went after Aras. You need to be at full strength, Lyran. That sorcerer has spirits under his command. Who knows what he can do?”

I grimaced. “Good point.”

“Should I carry you, now? Maybe it would be best to conserve your magic.”

“Yes, very well,” I grumbled. I didn't like the thought of being carried to my mate's rescue, but it was better than failing to rescue him because I was too depleted.

Ellas grinned and snatched me off my water bubble. With his claws holding me aloft, I let go of the magic, and the water evaporated.

“That's a very fine trick, though,” Ellas said.

“Ellas, you're my best friend, and you've saved my life today, but my mate has been taken. I'm not in the mood for conversation.”

“You need it,” my father said from our right. “It will keep you steady.”

“What will keep me steady is if you bank to the right and head for Latur.”

“Latur? That's where he took him?” my mother asked. “Isn't that where the Tiger's Claw is docked?”

“The Tiger's Claw,” I murmured. “Fuck. He's taking Aras to sea!”

“So what? We'll get him wherever he goes. You can track your mate anywhere.”

“A sea battle will limit us,” my father explained. “We'll have to land to fight.”

“Can't we just burn the ship?”

“My mate's ship?!” I roared up at Ellas. “With him aboard?!”

“Yeah, all right. I see the problem.”

“It will be all right, Lyran,” my mother said, her great head angled down to look at me. “You are not alone.”

I looked back to see at least a hundred dragons flying with us. With them at my back, victory should be assured. But not all of them would be able to land on the Tiger's Claw, and how would they fight spirits, anyway? I was flying into a battle that I had no idea how to win. I didn't even know if Aras would want to be rescued. Risarren was his father. What if he wanted to be with him? And their relationship made a fight even more difficult. Aras might be upset if I killed his father mere hours after they met.

Fuck this day.

As we flew, I went silent, muttering responses to whatever my parents and Ellas said. Most of my attention was on my mate and the memories of him involving Risarren. All those times when he stared at Aras oddly. They were coming back to me now. He'd even said a few strange things. I recalled him asking about Aras's mother. And let's not forget about his eyes. They had always reminded me of Aras, but I never thought it was due to a family resemblance.

“There they are!” Ellas shouted. “Oh, thank fuck, they're just leaving the dock. Lyran, we can stop them and have this battle on land.”

“Good,” I growled, my stare locked on the Tiger's Claw. The ship had just unfurled its sails, the fabric cracking from the wind. “Release me.”

I could feel Aras below me. He was awake now. I'd felt it when he awoke earlier, anger instantly infusing him. He was restrained, but at least he wasn't frightened. No, my mate was . . . confused. Oh, fuck. He was faced with the only family he had, and he didn't know what to do. I couldn't be the one to take his father from him.

When Ellas released me, I shifted, my body transforming as it plummeted to the Bay of Inler, named after the fishing village that stood on its shores. My dragon burst free faster than it had ever come before, its eagerness to find our mate driving it. But as my healed wings caught the wind, and I swerved up from the water to hover before the Tiger's Claw, I prepared to tuck the beast away again. Not just because I had to land, but also because I didn't want to fight. Not until I was forced to.

No shouts came from the deck of the Tiger's Claw when I hovered above it. It wasn't abandoned. Far from it. The crew crowded the main deck, leaving just enough room for my parents and Ellas to join me when I shifted once more and dropped onto the upper deck beside the helm. That's where my mate stood, though he wasn't doing the steering.

The helm was held steady by invisible hands.

My King's Guard couldn't land, so they hovered above the ship, the gust from their wings sending the ship backward into port. On the docks, people were shouting and running. That many dragons spotted together was never a good sign, but the fact that we were from another kingdom made us doubly frightening. I couldn't have cared less. I wasn't there for them, although I'd take this fight into their village if I had to. So, maybe it was smart of them to run.

“Ly!” Aras shouted, his voice full of relief, and his body went limp in his invisible restraints. “You're alive. You're all right.”

“We won the war, Mate,” I said. “I'm sorry it took so long for me to come after you.”

The thud of the ship hitting the dock punctuated my words.

“King Lyrandir,” Risarren drawled. “You're impeding our journey.”

“I don't want to hurt you, Risarren,” I said. “You're my mate's father and you fought for me today. There's no reason for you to abduct him. You're welcome in my kingdom.”

“He's insane, Ly,” Aras said. “He thinks we can rule Serai.”

“What the fuck is it with people wanting to rule the world?” I muttered. In a normal tone, I asked Risarren, “Have you even considered how much trouble that would be? You can't monitor the entire world at once.”

Risarren grinned. “Yes, I can, Your Majesty. I have legions of spirits to help me. Or I will, once my son joins me.”

“Let's just kill this motherfucker,” Ellas said. He looked at Aras to ask, “You don't mind, do you?”

“He's my father!” Aras shouted.

“Is that a no?”

Aras looked at me.

“It's your decision, Mate,” I said. “Do I offer him friendship or death?”

Aras looked at his father. “I won't help you. Not ever. But I would like to know you.”

Risarren made an annoyed sound. “You're so like your mother. She wanted power. She was fascinated by my sorcery. And yet, she shied away when achieving more power meant doing certain things she viewed as wrong.”

“Like trying to take over the world with an army of spirits?” Ellas drawled.

Risarren ignored him and went closer to my mate. “You don't see it yet, but you will. Once you open yourself more to the power, you will see its potential, and then you will become the man you're destined to be. I saw it. It's why she took you from me.”

“What?” Aras growled. “What did you see that scared my mother so much that she would run from you right after giving birth to me?”

“It wasn't my vision. It was what it inspired me to do.”

“Great fuck, just tell him why his mother ran from you!” I roared. “She died in that forest because you forced her to flee. So tell your son why. Why did she run?”

Aras stared at me, his eyes wide and shaky. He glanced at his crew, all of them held in spirit arms as well. Then swallowed, squared his shoulders, and stared at his father. “Tell me. You owe me the truth. I never got to know her because of you.”

“So dramatic,” Risarren huffed. “There was no reason for her to flee. I was only going to enhance whatever magic you were born with. It wouldn't have hurt you. Much.”

“Much?” I growled. “It wouldn't have hurt him much? Just enough that his mother thought a post-birth escape necessary.”

“That was her choice!” Risarren snapped, pointing at me. “I didn't want her to die. I . . .” His expression rippled through emotions before settling back into fury. “She left me! She took my son and left me! Well, now I have him back, and I'm not letting him go. The procedure would have been easier on a baby, but I can still join us. I can still—”

“Join us?” Aras asked. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“It will open your mind and give you access to powers you couldn't even dream of, Son. And through you, I can reach the divine. I can summon gods! You will be a conduit for the divine!”

“A conduit?” I snarled. “You just want to use him as a tool to gain more power for yourself! No wonder your woman ran from you. You're a fucking monster.”

Risarren narrowed his eyes at me. That was all the warning I got. Then I was lifted from the deck by unseen hands. Those spectral fingers closed around my throat as ghostly arms bound my arms to my sides and constricted until my ribs cracked. I couldn't make a sound. My parents and Ellas tried to help me, but their hands went through whatever held me. My mother was crying. My father leapt for the sorcerer. Then he was in the air too. Then Ellas and my mother.

I was going to get us all killed.

Above us, dragons roared and dove for the deck, but again, there was nothing to be done. In desperation, I summoned my magic, but Risarren only laughed and waved the boiling water away. My most powerful attack was like the buzzing of an insect to him.

“Release them now!” Aras roared.

Everything went still.

I shifted my stare down, but not by much. Because my mate hovered above the deck, freed from whatever had been holding him. His eyes glowed and an unseen breeze undulated his hair and fur. He looked as he had on the battlefield. Except for one huge difference. This time, Aras knew what he was doing.

Pulses of power lashed out from him, not only freeing us but also releasing his crew. Hulfrin sailors started to snarl and raced for the upper deck while I was still gasping in air. Aras didn't need them. He didn't need anyone's help to face his father. Risarren's arms were locked to his sides, much as Aras's had been, and he was rising to the level of my mate.

“My son!” Risarren declared. “I had no idea. No idea at all that your power would be even greater than mine. This is incredible! I am the greatest sorcerer on Serai, but you have unseated me. You will be a power this world has never seen before. And I can help you, Aras. I can teach you how to—”

“Cease!” Aras growled.

Risarren's mouth snapped shut. And I don't think it was willingly. His eyes went wide as my mate floated closer.

“I thought I had no family,” Aras said. “Raised by humans. I had nothing of my parents, not even their names. Not even the reason my mother died with me in her arms.” He paused to look at me.

“Aras,” I said. “You have me.”

“You have us, Son,” my father said. “We are your family.”

“You have the whole fucking dread,” Ellas said. “There are still a lot of us left.”

Flying in circles above us, my dragons heard this and roared.

Aras looked from them to his father. “Now, I have my answers. I understand why my mother died in that forest. I see what drove her running after my birth. I feel the power you speak of. I know who I am now. Half Hulfrin. Half Eljaffna. But I will never become a sorcerer like you.”

Risarren made sounds, desperate sounds, but his lips remained closed.

“Oh, I'm not saying that I'll reject this magic.” He held out a hand and something swirled around his arm, ruffling his fur. “It is magnificent.” He resettled his stare on his father. “But I will use it to protect those I love, not hurt them.” He looked at me. “I bet you never expected it to be me protecting you, Ly.”

I grinned at him. “No. But I'm not all that surprised. I've always felt your strength. I thought it was my soul that magnified it. But now I see that my soul was only a catalyst to awaken yours. The power has been inside you all along, my love. You are fucking incredible and I'm so proud to be your mate.”

Aras's grin was sublime. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

His expression hardened as he turned to look at his father. “I would have sought a relationship with you, even knowing your part in my mother's death. That's how badly I wanted a family. But I don't need you. I have a real family. They don't want to use me, and they don't want to rule the world. They just want to be a part of my life. Still, I would have at least let you go. Patricide is not something I thought myself capable of.”

Risarren's stare went panicked.

Aras narrowed his eyes at his father. “But then you tried to kill my mate.” He pointed at his father. “You tried to kill my family.”

Squeaking noises came from Risarren.

“That changes a man,” Aras said. “Goodbye, Father.”

Aras didn't make a motion with his hand or any other signal to the spirits. They just knew. And they carried out his command instantaneously.

Risarren the Sorcerer, father of my mate, died a better death than he deserved. His neck snapped, his stare went empty, and then his head kept turning until it twisted free of his body. When he was truly dead, beyond healing, my mate stepped over to the body. It rose before him, both pieces. Aras held his hand out to me. I joined him and clasped his hand even though I wanted to hold him. Soon. I had to let him finish this first.

Surprisingly, he wanted me to do the finishing.

“Ly, can you burn his body for me?” Aras asked.

“Yes, of course,” I said. “Perhaps it would be better to take him out over the water.”

Aras nodded, and the corpse floated away from us and over the railing. When it was above the water, I summoned my Fire Magic and incinerated it. Ashes spiraled in the wind, floating away peacefully. Only when all traces of his father were gone, did Aras spin into my arms and embrace me tightly.

“You can still be sad,” I said as I stroked his hair. “He was your father, no matter what he did. You have every right to mourn him.”

Aras lifted his head and met my stare. “I can't. Not yet. Maybe after a few decades, when my anger has softened. Right now, I only regret killing him so quickly.”

I chuckled and brushed my lips over his. “That's my mate.”

Aras glanced at our family, then up at our dread. “So, we won? You're still King?”

“Yes. Thanks to the arrival of our allies.” I nodded toward Ellas.

“Then we had better get back so we can celebrate.”

“I will carry you home, Mate,” I said.

“That sounds wonderful.” He looked to the docks and added, “But I'd best see my crew out of the bay before we go. Those villagers may have sent someone to fetch their king.”

I snorted a laugh. “Yes, we'd better go then. The last thing I need is another war with a dread of dragons.”