Dragon Storm (Dawn of the Dragon Queen Book 2) (11 page)

“Why?”

She averted her gaze, angry with herself for hurting him and even angrier for taking pity on the man. “Must you ask why?”

“Lass, I’ve served five centuries of penance for what I have done.” His voice cracked and splintered like burning timber. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen into my heart. That you haven’t felt how sorry I am.”

Fiona risked another look at Duncan. He held her gaze firm and steady, the sincerity in his eyes more than she could bear. Loathe though she was to admit, there were times when he had drawn too near that she had seen into his heart, and what she saw both unnerved and frightened her. Though Duncan had been a dragonslayer, she sensed his love and longing and knew he would not harm her. Yet she still ran from him. How could she not? No matter how much he loved her, or how much she loved him, he was still the knight who’d murdered her dear mother.

But now was not the time for digging up the past and reliving regrets. More important was the fate of their daughter. She held out a staying hand. “Save your apologies. I take it you know of Safina. You have been calling out her name. Why?”

Though they were no longer bound, her empathetic senses felt the current of fear that radiated off his skin. “She is in trouble.”

She leaned forward, gripping her knees. “How do you know this?”

His jaw hardened. “Because my bond with her is not broken.”

Fiona’s heartbeat quickened. “Are you sure?” She remembered Josef had said the spell might not work without Duncan there. Now she realized what he’d meant. The spell had half-worked, severing only Fiona from her family.

“I’m sure.” His pale eyes darkened. “Why? Did you try to sever that bond, too? You would deny your child the right to know her father?”

Fiona slowly rose, fisted hands by her sides. “Her father, the dragonslayer? Aye, I would deny her that right, knowing her father could kill her.” Fiona doubted her words were true, but she could not help but twist the barb inside his heart.

Duncan tossed back the covers and came to his knees. “I am a dragonslayer no more.” His voice shook, though his gaze was unwavering. “I love my child, just as I love her mother.”

Fiona flinched as if burned. “Do not speak of love to me, Duncan. Our hearts are no longer entwined.”

He climbed off the bed, hovering above her. Fool that she was, she looked up into his eyes and saw the same tenderness as the night they’d made love. She trembled, her knees weakened.

“You might have cut my heart loose, but it still beats for you, Fiona.” He grasped her hand, pressing it against his pounding chest. “No amount of magic can make me stop loving you.”

All moisture in her mouth dried as her heart pounded a wild staccato in her ears. “Where is she?” she rasped.

The hand clasping hers began to quiver. “In the ocean, struggling to swim as a mortal girl because she can no longer transform into a dragon.”

“Oh, Almighty Mother!”

Fiona’s knees buckled. Had it not been for Duncan’s strong arm encircling her waist, she would have crumpled to the floor.

“Fiona, the waves are violent.” His warning was a thunderclap in her ears. “She is running out of time.”

Panic squeezed her chest like a vice. She grasped his shoulder with a plea in her voice. “Lead me to her.”

“A
nother wave.” Gabriel shouted above the din of the howling winds. “Safina, hold on!”

Safina held her breath and shut her eyes tight. They clung to a piece of driftwood as the wave pounded them, hitting her back with such force, she thought she’d break in two.

They’d been at sea for three days, waterlogged, exhausted, and parched beyond belief. Gabriel’s magic had slowed after the first day and worked sporadically on the second. By day three, he could hardly summon a current, much less keep the violent waves at bay.

Earlier that evening, Safina had seen seagulls flying westward. She knew they were close to land, but Gabriel had already drifted to sleep while the current tossed them about like a leaf in the wind.

He’d woken only moments ago, cursing himself for having failed her as he tried to summon a current to push them forward, but cutting through monster waves proved no easy task.

Though it was night, she knew the hurricane was close at their heels, for the wind became angrier with each passing wave. Soon, the brunt of the monster storm would be upon them. Though it pained her numb fingers, Safina squeezed Gabriel’s hand tight, for she feared no amount of magic would save them from the Earth Mother’s fury.

“Again!” Gabriel yelled.

Safina barely had time to catch her breath. The wave that hit pushed them under, snapping their makeshift raft in two. Gabriel was torn from Safina, and she screamed before swallowing a salty gulp. She fought her way back to the surface, clinging to a shard of broken wood.

“Gabriel!” she screamed frantically. “Gabriel, my love, where are you?”

Gabriel surfaced with a gasp, arms flailing. Safina kicked toward him, grasping his collar and hauling him toward her.

He looked into her eyes as she clung to him. “I’m sorry I failed to protect you.”

Safina was too weary to cry, though her throat and chest constricted with emotion. Gabriel knew their death was imminent. Had Safina been trapped beneath the ocean for the past five hundred years, only to die within a week of finding freedom and true love? She and Gabriel had so much left to share. She had hoped someday they could have children, and now all her hopes and dreams were drowning in despair.

“It’s not your fault,” she said. If it was anyone’s fault, it was the dragon queen’s. How could her mother have been so heartless as to sever their bond and rob Safina of her immortality?

“Had I been a better earth speaker….” he spoke on a sob.

Safina held up a silencing hand. “Your magic grows stronger every day.”

“Not strong enough.” Gabriel’s dark skin shone in the moonlight, and his mahogany eyes dazzled. “I wanted to spend an eternity with you.”

Her eyes fluttered shut when he tenderly cupped her cheek, stroking her lips with his thumb.

She brought his hand to her lips. “We shall be together an eternity. I love you, Gabriel.”

His soft smile did not mask the desperation in his eyes. “I love you more than words,
mija
. I will wait for you on the other side.”

* * *

Fiona’s wings and back burned as she used every last ounce of energy to push forward. Never before had she flown into winds so powerful, and she wasn’t in the thick of it yet, for her dragon-touched eyes discerned a violent, catastrophic storm on the horizon.

Please, Almighty Mother, don’t let me be too late.

Duncan leaned over her neck, pounding on her scales. “Slow down. She is near.”

Fiona stopped flapping, soaring against the blasts of air that threatened to send her spiraling into the watery abyss. She saw a flash of white in the distance.

What is that?
she asked Duncan.

“Our daughter!” Duncan exclaimed.

Fiona glided in a circle around them, debating whether it would be safer to land or pluck them from the sea. Then she saw what looked like a tidal wave heading right for them. She scooped each child from the cool water with her mighty talons.

The boy’s body was listless. Had it not been for the faint beating of his heart, Fiona would have thought him dead.

Safina spun around in her mother’s clutches. “Mother,” she screamed against the wind. “I’m sorry for leaving you.”

Do not fret over that now, child.
Though Fiona wanted to shout for joy at finding Safina alive, she knew their world would never be the same. The man riding between her shoulders was testament to that.

Safina hugged Fiona’s talon. “Thank you for saving us.”

A gust of wind blasted Fiona’s back, and she dipped sharply to the left before catching an air pocket beneath her wing.
We are not saved yet,
she answered grimly.

Though Duncan tightly gripped her scales, he had surprisingly gone silent. Fiona feared another storm was brewing. Once they landed, she would have to contend with a maelstrom of heartache and pain, for now a new man threatened to turn Safina away from her.

* * *

Safina shuddered in relief when they reached shore. The wind had calmed considerably, though the choppy waves indicated calamity was on the horizon.

Her mother set them down on the sandy beach, then flew behind a dune.

Safina rolled onto her side, her limbs so heavy from exhaustion, she couldn’t sit up. Her mate was lying on his back, staring vacantly up into the heavens.

Panic seized her chest. “Gabriel!”

Men’s voices carried from afar. Fear nearly robbed Safina’s mind of reason until she saw Señor Cortez and his grandsons racing toward them.

Safina tossed a rock next to Gabriel. It hit the ground hard, spraying sand on his cheek. Still he did not respond.

“Gabriel,” she cried. “Wake up.”

Señor Cortez fell to his knees beside Gabriel, clutching his grandson’s limp body and sobbing into his hair. “
Niño
, open your eyes.”

Safina’s heart shattered along with her world when Gabriel did not respond.

Almighty Mother, if he is dead, take me, too.

Fiona appeared from behind the dune, kicking up sand in her wake as she rushed to Gabriel’s side. She grabbed Señor Cortez’s shoulder, pushing him aside. “Let me, Josef.”

Señor Cortez silently nodded as tears streamed down his face. He and his grandsons huddled around the dragon queen as she placed her healing hands on Gabriel. Safina noticed another man standing behind them, hands in his pockets and head hanging low. Somewhere on the edge of her awareness, she recognized this man with blue eyes as pale as hers. As their gazes locked for the briefest of moments, she swore she heard his cry echo in her mind.

Safina,
he whispered.

Father,
she answered.

Aye. I have searched for you for so long.

She turned away, refusing to acknowledge the man whose cruelty and betrayal had forced her to live in a prison shell for five centuries, listening to her mother lament her broken heart.

But this man saved you, Safina.

She pushed back the voice of reason. She knew her dragonslayer father had led her mother to them, for Safina still felt her father’s bond, stronger now than ever before. How else would Mother have found her?

Mother hunched over Gabriel, smoothing his face and chest with anxious hands. Only when Safina saw Gabriel’s fingers twitch and heard him sputter water did she breathe a sigh of relief.

“Safina?” he said roughly. “Is she safe?”

“Aye,” Mother answered in a tone that was surprisingly soothing, before sitting back on her heels and wiping a bead of sweat from her brow.

Josef knelt beside Gabriel, crying as he held his grandson’s hand.

Tears of joy and relief clouded Safina’s vision. Her mate would live thanks to her mother’s healing magic. For that, she’d be eternally grateful to the dragon queen. She could not have gone on living in this world without Gabriel.

“Gabriel,” she cried, unable to stop the sobs that wracked her.

Safina stiffened when her father lifted her into his arms. She refused to look at the man holding her, though she could feel him pining for a kind word or tender smile.

Gabriel’s brothers placed him in the back of Señor Cortez’s cart and handed him a canteen of water. He greedily drank, and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. With a heavy sigh, he slumped against a pile of sacks which appeared to have been filled with sand. After her father set Safina next to Gabriel, she took her turn drinking from the canteen, relishing the cool water as it quenched her parched throat.

She handed the canteen to Pedro, then wrapped an arm around Gabriel’s neck, burying her face against his shoulder. “I thought I’d lost you.”

He stroked her hair, murmuring into her ear. “I told you, I would have waited for you on the other side, mija.”

Heedless of the others who crowded around them, she choked back a sob. “And I would have swiftly followed.”

“Shhh.” He tapped her mouth with a silencing finger. “No more talk of death. We are safe now.” Gabriel clasped Safina’s hand before looking up at the dragon queen. “Thank you for saving us.”

She bore down on him with a scowl. “I do not need to be thanked for saving my child.”

Safina squeezed Gabriel’s hand tight as his tanned cheeks flushed.

He humbly bowed his head. “Well, thank you for saving me.”

Mother jutted hands on her hips, her stony glare traveling from Gabriel to Safina. “I had no choice. It’s clear my daughter loves you.”

Gabriel let go of Safina’s hand, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “As I love her.”

“You had better.” The embers of Mother’s dragon fire swirled within her eyes. “If you ever break her heart, my wrath will know no end.”

Safina stiffened. “Mother, please.” The last thing Gabriel needed after what he’d been through was a lecture. For three days, he’d fought brutal waves to keep Safina alive. Wasn’t that testament enough that he loved her?

“It’s okay, Safi,” Gabriel murmured in her ear while squeezing her tight. Then he placed a hand over his heart. “You have my word I will love her always.”

The queen hovered over him, jabbing a finger in his chest. “And if you ever steal her away again, I will haunt your very nightmares.” The fire in her eyes faded when she looked at Safina. “Now, will you come with me or do you go to Gabriel’s home?” Though Mother’s face was a mask of stone, her mouth twitched ever so slightly.

Safina knew it was taking all of her mother’s reserve not to break down and beg her to come back.

Safina’s heart broke for her mother. It was then that she realized how badly she’d hurt her by running off with Gabriel. “We are mated, Mother. I go where Gabriel goes.”

Pain flashed in the dragon queen’s eyes. “I see.”

Safina’s gaze shot to her father, who hovered behind Gabriel’s brothers, and she was struck by a wild idea. If he and Mother found a way to reconcile, the dragon queen would no longer be alone, and her broken heart would mend. It was a crazy notion, to be sure, for mother’s stubbornness knew no end. Besides, if he truly had been the dragonslayer who’d killed her grandmother, Safina could understand why the dragon queen couldn’t forgive him.