Page 27 of Catastrophe

“Drakorians that are also witches do. I can’t find our bond.”

Usually, I could feel it, feel her, her emotions, and that assured me she was fine—sometimes more than fine depending if Zaide was with her. Usually, I could hear her thoughts as clear as I could hear my own and this dragon’s. Usually, when I closed my eyes, I could see it. The bond was like a bright, pulsating golden string that wiggled between us.

Yet all I could feel was darkness. I couldn’t hear or feel anything from her, and the light of our bond was gone.

“Bond’s do not go missing,” Dralie replied easily.

“Maybe you sat on it when you popped out of nowhere,” I snarked, not understanding how he still wasn’t moving. If he saw what I remembered, then he knew how important she was to me. How important they all are.

“I wasn’t nowhere. I was dormant inside you.”

“Stop saying ‘inside you.’ And get out of this hole. We need to find Clawdia.” The panic I felt was seeping into my voice. How do I get this big bastard to go? Now.

Even though I was practically a ghost in the head of a dragon, my ghost heart raced, and if I thought I felt sick before, it was nothing on the nausea rolling through me at the thought of Clawdia dead.

Did Dralie’s arrival cause the bond to break? Have I killed her? Is Zaide dead too? A flash of gold in my memory made me freeze.

“Dralie, did we see Zaide? Was he the gold thing on the floor? Did we drop him?” My voice rose to a squeak as my stomach churched.

If she didn’t die from our bond breaking, I could have killed her by dropping her soul pair through my claws. Fuck! Please tell me I haven’t just caused the death of the best thing that happened to me.

“There was a shiny object, and I thought it would be an excellent start to our hoard, but it was a titan. Although it has been a while since I saw one last. I thought the human realm barred them.”

I ignored the additional titan lore and asked, “Was he breathing? Alive?”

“I believe so.” I exhaled a sharp, relieved breath. If he was alive, Clawdia was, too. Dralie added, “There were some humans fighting for him, and they attacked us, so I gave him up. He wouldn’t have made a suitable object for a hoard. A mate wouldn’t have been impressed with him.”

Humans? On a witch-only island? What happened?

I ignored the “mate” comment. He clearly wasn’t understanding the bond I had with Clawdia, and that was fine … for now. “I’m going to need more details on the humans. What did they look like? Where did they come from?”

“I did not see exactly where they came from. However, there were large boats in the harbor and small black carriages that looked like beetles. What are they called?”

“Cars.” I moved the conversation back to the important details. “Okay, and the humans, were they in uniform?”

“They wore black too. Their clothing had the detail of a small bow and arrow. They had weapons and shot at us. It’s a very inhospitable place that you live, Charlie.”

Hunters. It had to be hunters. And they took Zaide. Daithi’s vision was coming true, and I was stuck inside the head of a know-it-all dragon.

“We need to go back. Right now, Dralie. We need to find Clawdia, then Zaide, and then Baelen. In that order. Come on, Dralie, move.”

But still he did nothing. Was he enjoying being in this hole? Did he need a plan before he moved? What was keeping him here? Did he not know the way?

My frustration was reaching boiling point, but I couldn’t be angry at Dralie for existing. He saved me. But if his existence just caused the death of my family, would life even be worth living? What use is breathing fire if your love can’t be there to see you defeat her evil ex? What use is flying if we can’t fly to nice places on vacation? Go on adventures where we aren’t in danger all the time? Wouldn’t that be a novel idea?

But, skeptic through and through, I wouldn’t believe she was dead until I saw it with my own eyes. Because if our bond had broken and she had died, didn’t that mean I had died?

I had to ask. “Dralie? Did we die? When you appeared, was it because I died? Was it like a Phoenix rebirth thing?”

“I suppose, in a sense, we died,” he replied with a thoughtful hum. “I don’t understand. This familiar, her loss hurts you. Why would you want to see her body? Do you enjoy pain?”

“She might be alive! Please, Dralie.” My voice broke. I didn’t want to fight him for control of our body. I didn’t know how to drive a dragon body. And besides that, he was a good dragon and saved my life. But fuck, I needed him to listen to me, or my whole life was going to be fucked beyond belief.

Thankfully, my begging finally seemed to persuade him, and he attempted to wriggle out of the hole we were in. Using our legs, we pushed up and shifted some of the mud we were buried under, but as we tried to flap our wings, we discovered a problem.

“Winds, that hurts,” Dralie exclaimed. “It’s been a long time since I found myself in such a predicament.”

“What’s wrong? Why can’t we move?”

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