Page 93 of Storm of Blood and Shadow

“Oh.” Reassured, he helps me up, and we go down the hill to the beach to wash ourselves in the water. Being naked in the ocean at night would have seemed foolish and frightening to me before, but with him, it’s fun, and I laugh, more than I have in months… no, years.

When we return to our blanket, I pause to pull a light cloak out of my bag and drape it over both of us for a covering. Which is a good thing, because a few hours later, we wake to the concussive sound of several pairs of dragon wings.

Apparently there were a number of small earthquakes on Ouroskelle while the ancient voratrice was suffering its death throes. Both the faraway beam of focused lightning and the column of smoke from the burning monster attracted the clan’s attention, and several of them have come to see what’s happening. Kyreagan leads the group.

“So much for getting some rest,” I grumble, rising and wrapping the cloak around myself.

Despite my complaining, I’m glad of their arrival. From what Kyreagan told me during the flight from the mainland, Varex has been in self-imposed isolation for a while; but dragons are a communal race, and he needs the companionship of the others to thrive.

After circling the dead voratrice, the dragons gather around us, and Varex tells them the story of the battle, from the moment we realized the truth about the ancestral beast to the moment his mother’s spirit ascended. Kyreagan is fiercely silent, and at the end of the tale he bounds into the air and flies away for a while.

When he returns, he and Varex go off together for a talk in private, after which both of them seem lighter and happier. Some of the other dragons stay to gawk at the voratrice and excavate it further, but Kyreagan lingers only until dawn before declaring his intent to return to Ouroskelle.

“Stay here awhile, if you’re able,” he tells Varex. “I’m sure more of the clan will fly out here for a look at the creature, and they will want to hear the tale in your words.”

I groan inwardly when Varex agrees. All I want is a comfortable bed and a soft pillow.

Throughout the morning, word of the voratrix extermination spreads. As Kyreagan predicted, dragons keep arriving, eager to see the monster’s carcass for themselves.

Thelise seems particularly excited about the discovery of such a unique creature. She even makes Ashvelon go down inside the beast to fetch samples of tissue and fluid for use in her spells.

I’ve been sitting on the grass for a while, still wrapped in the cloak, staring into space without the energy to find cover to get dressed. I’m hungry, but I don’t want to find or prepare food. I’m weary, but I can’t seem to make myself lie down—I can only sit in this one position and gaze vaguely into the middle distance while the dragons flit back and forth from East Fang to West Fang,sometimes shifting into human form. There are a lot of naked man butts and dicks on display, as most of the shifters don’t seem to have grasped the concept of bringing clothingwith themwhen they might change forms somewhere.

Varex has been greeting them all, recounting his tale over and over. But at last, around noon, he casts aside the blanket he tied around his waist, and he turns into the slender black dragon I first saw on the roof of the tenement house.

We’ve been through so much together since then. Those four weeks with my family were enough distance to last a lifetime. I never want to be parted from him again.

He prowls toward me, intense purpose gleaming in his amber eyes. They look more golden in the light of the high sun, which shines from a blessedly cloudless sky—no hint of the Mordvorren to be seen.

“Darling,” says Varex in his smooth dragon voice. “I’m stealing you away.”

I stand up and tie both the cloak and the blanket around myself, creating a makeshift dress that should remain in place while we fly. Then I sling my bag of supplies onto my back and lift my arms to him like a child wanting to be carried. “Please.”

He picks me up and we leave, without a goodbye or an excuse or any such human niceties.

It’s a long flight, and I feel so secure in Varex’s claws that I nearly doze off several times. But despite the care with which he holds me, it’s rather uncomfortable, so I remain half-awake. After an eternity in that foggy state, I realize that we’re flying along the now-familiar valley toward his cave.

There will be time later to visit the other women, hear their stories, and see their hatchlings. For now, I only want to sleep.

“I can’t think very well,” I tell Varex. “My brain can only form very simple thoughts. The sun is bright. Your scales are black. That kind of thing.”

He laughs. “I haven’t had a thought in my head since we left Twin Fangs.”

“You killed the voratrice,” I say wonderingly. “Can you believe it? All the voratrices. Voratrix? The monsters… they’re all gone.”

“It’s a story I hope to tell your niece and nephew when we visit them,” he says.

“Oh, they’ll love that.” I sigh happily as we enter his cave.

Varex sets me down, and both of us stare at the cave’s interior.

It’s been thoroughly washed and swept, and a few dyre-stones gleam softly in the far recesses, illuminating the shadowed depths of the space. The remnants of the grassy bed have been reshaped and compressed into a neat nest, just the right size for one dragon and one human. Beyond the nest, thick carpets and colorful rugs cover the cave floor, and on them sits a double-wide bed, very rustic-looking as if it was recently built. It’s piled with blankets and pillows.

Nearby there’s a wooden rack of clothes, a plain washstand with soap and towels, and—most wonderful of all—a low table with a covered pot and a plate. At the side of the cave, close to the entrance, hangs a trio of wild rabbits, freshly skinned. A trough has been carved in the cave floor beneath the game, to channel any drips of blood outside.

Tears of gratitude fill my eyes. Though I didn’t want to mention it, I was dreading my return to this place that was the site of so much pain, deprivation, and fear for both of us. But it looks completely different now, much more homelike and safe.

Varex sniffs the air. “Kyreagan and Serylla,” he says softly. “They were here not long ago. That’s why he left at dawn, to come here, so they could dothisfor us. He feels badly for how he treated you. He told me so during our conversation last night.”

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