Page 41 of Defy Me

"Your mother very special. The only one of her kind. In the human world she went by the name Margaret de Hythus, but in ours we called heraon-adharcach.She had quite the torrid affair with William the Lion, King of Scots. There's been many a tale told of them, but most get it wrong. I am rather fond of the one by that Lewis Carrol fellow. Except your parents weren't fighting over the crown, they were fighting for the Scots to keep it."

But Scotland doesn't have a king.

"It did in the 12th century when you were born and England was trying to conquer the world. Where do you think the Lion got the idea for the royal crest? His love for your mother became part of the national identity of the Scots. You practically tripped over a statue of her at their silly palace out there."

Huh. Yvaine was pretty much out of shock and surprise. She had about a million and one questions but wanted to get back to the real world and Jett to tell him all that she'd discovered.Okay. So I'm also princess. Great, I'll pop right out the shops and get a tiara. Let's skip ahead a few hundred years. Like about nine-hundred should do it.

"As you wish." Thesìththought for a minute. "Then the goddess showed up, and even though we told her she didn't belong in our realm, she insisted on asking if you wouldn't like to go on an adventure. Something about needing a match for thebrollachanbastard. None of us could talk you out of it. She planted a story in your head about growing up in an orphanage and plopped you right into the middle of the war between her children, the dragon warriors and theslaugh."

I can help turn the tide of their war, can't I?

"Yes, so like your mother. Are you prepared for cost?"

It didn't matter. If she could save Jett's brothers and end his suffering over their fates, she would sacrifice almost anything.I have to get back. How do I return? Oh, geez. Now that I know what I am, will I still look like this? Jett won't recognize me."

"No, in their world, you will always appear as the maiden. Only here in Sìtheando you take your true form. Inside you are one in the same. There are so many who spend their entire lives hunting you. But your abilities are for your own survival and can't be used for the gain of others. No one, man, beast, or otherwise will benefit from you gifts unless they are freely given by you."

That was an interesting insight that nobody had thought to mention. Maybe they didn't know. Yvaine understood exactly what she had to do. What she freely wanted to do. She trotted back toward the front of the forrest chapel. Hopefully Jett would still be there waiting for her.

"Yvaine, be careful. Like your mother before you, you are the only one of your kind and will be until you have a daughter of your own. She will become as you are when you die. There can only be one. But if you die without any progeny, your line, your magic, will be lost to their world and ours forever."

Gosh. She and Jett needed to get busy having babies. A real hardship that would be.Thank you, for everything. I'm sorry I thought you were a mean old nun.

Cait laughed and the ground shook. No. Cait wasn't laughing any more. The soft light of the otherworld fritzed like a bad TV and leaves fell from the trees. "Oh no. They've brought their war here. That stupidslaugh. They'll destroy our world yet. I'll close the veil between the two. We've survived their war before, we'll do it again. You could stay here and be safe."

Thanks but you know I can't.

Cait bowed her head and the doorway between the otherworld and Scotland opened. Yvaine slipped through and into the battle. A burst of flame lit up the sky on the hill just the other side of the trees. The battle seemed to be concentrated there and she had a feeling that was where she would find Jett and a whole lot of trouble. She reached inside of herself, found the magic that she'd used to pass through the veil, what she'd thought was her invisibility power, and slipped through the tiniest crack between the two world. This time she could see where she was and where she was going. The Sìtheancoexisted alongside the human world. A few steps went a whole lot farther in Sìtheanthough. In a second she stood on the hillside a half a mile away.

Jett's brother, the black dragon formerly known as Batstrich Boy was hunkered down, blowing a steady rapid steam of fire bombs. She followed their airborne path toward the enemy and found that stupid big Black Dragon batting them away with ease. The brother's scaly hide was torn and bleeding and he looked ready to collapse, but pushed himself to defend something or someone behind him.

The Black Dragon whipped its tail, which was on fire at one end, around, catching the brother on the jaw and knocking him backward a good twenty feet. Yvaine finally caught a glimpse at what brother black dragon was defending.

On the ground in a pile of pain and suffering lay Jett, bleeding on the ground and directly in the path of the Black Dragon's next fire tail attack.

Sacrifice

His Yvaine was alive and he was dying.

If he didn't get his sorry ass up and fend off his father's attack, she would be dying along with him.

Come on. This was the pivotal moment in his entire existence, the battle he'd been waiting for, and he couldn't get his worthless body to obey his commands. He was injured yes, but not so much that he couldn't fight. There was something else wrong. It was as if he were under Erishkigal's curse again.

"Jett, look out." Yvaine screamed and ran toward him. She pointed her finger at the Black Dragon and shouted at him. "You leave him alone you dead-beat dad, or you'll pay for everything you've ever done to him and his brothers. I swear it."

Fuck, no. He tried to tell her to run away, to use her powers to hide, to get as far away from here as she could. His mind wouldn't work. With all of the strength he had remaining, he pushed himself up and into the path of the Black Dragon's fire whip. He would take the hit to save her, but what would happen after that?

Brother, please. Protect Yvaine.He and his newly freed black dragon brother hadn't solved their differences. He was still angry that Jett had not come back to free them all. He felt they'd suffered long enough and Jett should have gotten any out that he could instead of trying to start a revolution. The cursed demon dragons didn't care if the his father was defeated, they only wanted their freedom. Jett had only forestalled his brother's attack by swearing that if they didn't find the unicorn, he would call in all of his favors with his new allies, the Wyverns to stop the fighting and killing of demon dragons and rescue them from hell instead.

That was never going to happen. It was every dragon warriors duty in life to hunt and kill his brethren. They didn't understand or care that his kind were cursed and forced into slavery. But the promised lie gave him more time. He needed that damn unicorn.

Now his time was running out.Take her to the Gold Wyvern, he will protect her.

He's not taking her anywhere, boy. She restored your forsaken soul, now she will do the same for me.The Black Dragon pulled his whip back at the last second and lifted into the air. He dove for Yvaine reaching out for her with his claws.You're mine now, little savior.

Was that what his father thought? That Yvaine had given him a soul? Could that be true? She had told him she would share her own with him. Jett hadn't thought that was possible. She had filled him up with her trust. When he'd claimed her he'd been given a new power, become stronger. When he'd allowed himself to admit that his feeling for her were more than lust, he'd found a new peace inside. Her love had done all of that.

If his father thought he could take any of that away from him and use if for himself, he didn't understand how the heart's true power. He couldn't take a soul, shard or the whole thing. It had to be given. Given in exchange for the same. Jett may not have had a piece of his soul to give to Yvaine, but he'd given her everything else of himself.

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