Page 83 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
At first, it’s hard to understand what I see as I soar deep into that kaleidoscope of images, all of them not the same me,but me. There are too many versions of myself. Too many versions of Azrael as dragon and man. I can’t connect to what I’mseeing.
It’s too much, too fast.
No matter how I try to center myself, it whirls around me. I can’t put the timelines together. I can’t make sense of it.
It pours over me and all around me, like it’s that river again, pulling me in. And everything is caught up in the rush ofit.
Except one thing.
One thing I see repeated again and again and again.
One red thread.
The magic begins to release its hold. The river is calm again, no rush and no whirl.
And when I open my eyes to Ellowyn’s violet and sapphire Revelare glow, I don’t know what I was supposed to get from that,but I know why Azrael didn’t want me to see the past. All our beautiful chances spread out behind me.
I look at the members of my coven here with me, save one. They’re sitting around me in a circle, looking worried and tired,because they don’t know what I saw. Only the energy it took to show me.
“Well?” Zander asks.
Emerson’s gaze searches mine. “Did you find what you wanted?”
My throat is so tight, it almost feels like I’m being strangled. “I found information,” I say. “They were all very differentlives, except for one thing.” I make myself keep talking. I make myself say it. I follow that red thread. “Azrael dies. OrI do. Violently. In every single one.”
21
Everyone tries to comfort me, but I’m not comforted. Though probably not for the reasons they think. TheythinkI’m scared, knocked back, sad.
Maybe I am a little.
But mostly I’m wondering why Azrael is suddenly afraid of a past he already knew. Because there’s no possibility that he didn’talready know this. That he wasn’t fully aware our stories always end in violence and blood.
It did not stop him from acting like I was his.
Or from putting that ring on my finger.
What I’m wondering is, what changed? What about that black magic attack and the Joywood’s insistence on imprisoning him madehim suddenly so afraid of the past? Afraid of workingwithus?
It’s getting late, and Zander and Ellowyn make their excuses. Rebekah and Frost head out not long after. Before I can collectOctavius, Emerson puts her arm around my shoulders.
“I don’t want you going back to Wilde House alone.”
I am about to say what I always did, that I’m never alone because there’s a dragon in the banister, but I can’t. He isn’tthere anymore.
I wish I sounded less shaky when I reply, “I’m fine, Em. It was the crystals that put me in danger. They’re gone now.”
“You were attacked today,” Jacob says in that no-nonsense Healer way of his. Like there’s no argument I could make to that.
But there is. “Yes, but—”
“You can either spend the night here, or Jacob and I will follow you back to Wilde House. I’ll leave the decision up to you.”Emerson smiles at me.
I scowl at her. Because she knows that even if I took a stand and flew back to Wilde House, making them follow me, I wouldfeel guilty. I would end up sleepless and awash in apologies and regret.
“Fine,” I grumble.
Emerson links arms with mine and starts pulling me toward the stairs. “I’ll make up the guest room for you.” Octavius takeshis time following us. Cassie, who almost always sticks close to Octavius when I bring him out here, is right behind per usual.
