Page 17 of The Power of a Myth

“Istill can’t believe dragons really existed.” Hayden turned his head to look at Jessica Raven as she spoke.

The witch was sitting next to the dragon bones, touching them. She’d been looking inside their make-up via magical spells to see the dragon they once belonged to. It had been killed by a group of humans even though it was no threat to them.

It was a shining example of what fear did to humans when they discovered the unknown. Hayden had witnessed a lot of that since he’d been made a multi-shifter fifty-two years ago. It hadn’t stopped him researching as much as he could about the future and learning to tame the dragon within him. He was going to help another person become what he was—something truly scary, a mythological beast. Despite his own fears of being discovered over the years, he’d tested his powers. The only issue he faced now was the occasional flicker of an eye change that he couldn’t always control. It happened rarely these days, but if seen by a human, it would expose him as something different.

“It must have been a majestic sight, seeing a horde of them flying high in the sky,” Ethern Lennox said wistfully.

Ethern had taken over the care of Hayden after Caleb had laid down his life in the heat of battle. Hayden missed his old mentor, but Ethern was also a good friend. Ethern continued to stay away from the dragon bones even though it was perfectly safe for him to touch them now he was no longer a multi-shifter. He’d died in that form a few weeks ago and had moved onto his third life as a reaper. He looked strange dressed all in black. Hayden was more accustomed to seeing Ethern in the sharp tailored suits he used to wear when he was the leader of the shifter Council.

“I was pretty impressed when I saw you as one, Hayden!” Jessica exclaimed.

“Who knows? One day there may be dragons flying in the sky again,” Hayden responded.

“I really hope so.” Jessica smiled at him. She got to her feet and came to where he was sitting. “How are you feeling? Surely this cave isn’t a good place to be living. It must get cold.” The witch shivered against the icy blast of the Siberian winter outside the cave.

“Not at all. It’s peaceful, and I like it here. I’m not sure I could be around people all the time.”

“Even Molly?” Jessica questioned.

Hayden had asked Jessica about the love of his life the first time he’d been introduced to the witch. He knew Molly and Jessica were friends.

Fifty-two years—it had been such a long time.

Both of them were seventy-one now. It was a lifetime ago since they were a young couple in the middle of the Vietnam War, dancing away their evening together.

He missed his soulmate. Surely the time was nearing when he could see her again.

“Molly knows her part in this prophecy. We have to stop the coming war,” Hayden replied, but even he could hear the sadness in his tone.

Jessica gave him a tender smile and reached out to him, but Hayden pulled away, frightened by the prospect of coming into direct contact with one of the most powerful witches ever.

“It’s safe, Hayden. I’ve put a spell in place to prevent multi-shifters gaining my powers if they touch me,” Jessica reassured him. But she placed her hand on his shoulder over his clothing instead.

He fought against the need for scales to appear under the touch of her soft flesh. It was his body’s protection mechanism. It was one of the key things he’d learned about being a dragon—they fought every day to protect themselves and those they cared for. Dragons weren’t the monsters they’d been made out to be.

“Prophecies are such a big part of the multi-shifter world. I know we have a few in the Wicca world but not as many as you seem to. How do you know so much?” Jessica questioned.

Hayden watched as Ethern pulled his lover into his lap.

“It’s because multi-shifter magic is ancient—even older than yours. It remained undiscovered for many centuries. The first multi-shifters kept themselves hidden away in the shadows. They didn’t even reveal themselves to the normal shifters. Their fear was too great because the first multi-shifter was so powerful,” Ethern explained.

Hayden had heard this story from Caleb a few months after he’d changed. He’d been going through a particularly bad patch, struggling to control the power within himself. He’d needed to learn as much as possible about being a multi-shifter, and Caleb had spent many hours with him telling him about the history behind who he was. It had calmed Hayden and given him the urge to try harder with his dragon. He’d made good progress over the weeks that followed, but he’d also realized he’d never be free from the Reichstag until it was the right time—when the first female multi-shifter was ready.

“Who was the first multi-shifter?” Jessica continued her questions.

“He was a seer. Many think the first seers were those written about in the sixteen hundreds, but they were fake ones. The real ones have been around a lot longer. The first and most powerful was a man called Morwen. He originated from Wales and had experienced visions most of his life. He knew the exact moment he would die, but he still went on the quest that would eventually lead to his death. He’d not been able to see what would happen after his demise, but he’d believed something different lay beyond the path of his human life, and he was right. He was reborn as a multi-shifter in the cave in Death Valley.”

Every time Hayden heard the story of the first of his kind, he was reminded that he’d touched the dragon bones knowing he’d never be able to live safely in the human world again. It was the path chosen for him, and he’d had to follow it. That was an essential part of being a multi-shifter—you were given great power but great responsibility came with it. Not that he knew what it was like to change into other animals. He’d only ever known the one—his dragon. His ability to change stopped there because it was the only one he could handle.

“When he was reborn a multi-shifter, it was a vision that told Morwen to touch an animal so he could become it. When other multi-shifters started to appear, the visions increased for the first seer,” Ethern continued while Jessica stood up from his lap and returned to the dragon bones. She took hold of one again. Hayden understood only too well the pull of them.

“Then what did he do?” Jessica asked, intrigued.

“He began writing everything down.” Hayden took up the story. Jessica turned to face him. “For years and years, he had visions of all sorts—some of them far into the future, even further than we’ll ever exist…until the end of time. He wrote them all down.”

“Does the writing still exist?” Jessica looked concern.

Hayden shook his head. “No, common sense eventually prevailed. If those words had fallen into the wrong hands, they’d have been more dangerous than anything ever unleashed on the Earth. Instead, he decided to commit everything to his memory and then burned the papers. Every written word about the future was gone. But his memories were saved. On his death bed, dying of old age, he used telepathy to send his thoughts out to every multi-shifter in the world. He shared his prophesies, as they came to be known, so they could be passed down through the generations to those who needed to know, to those fated to help restore balance to the Earth. In the past, wars have been stopped and some have been prevented because of those prophesies. Now it’s our turn.”

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