Chapter
Eleven:
There were flashes. Too many of
them, blinding her. Visions. Memories. Nightmares. They were all the same,
different words for the same horror. And they made no sense in their sequence,
but perfect sense in their clarity. Some were colorful, others black with
tinges of gray. The black ones were the bad ones, leaving blood red after
images in her mind, images that would forever be burned into her mind's eye.
And the sounds that accompanied
the black images were terrible. They rose and fell, muffled and crystal clear.
Futile cries and screams of pain. One insistent shriek, the cries of a young
child. Why had the child been important? Why had there been a child in that
battle at all?
She heard her own voice, shouting for mercy and for
help.
"No, don't! Hellewise!"
It was her amidst sounds of
battle, sounds of struggle. She had been hoarse from screaming but she had
continued, her throat tearing, because it had been for Rayne. The witches
against the dragons on that fateful day, and even though she had begged him he
hadn't deserted his Prince.
"Rayne! Damn it-"
There was the sound of cracking
wood and a single flash opened a vision to her, a black memory. The door had
been broken down and the witches had stormed in, like insects. Hecate had emerged
from their center, royal and beautiful, power flashing from her hands as she
had chanted huskily. Shooting off their bursts of power, taking down several of
the dragons because of their numbers. Blood had flown, sprayed the pillars and
walls. All before she could have even blinked.
Rayne's arm was around her
waist, stiff, and she struggled to hold onto it, hold onto the sensation, the
strength his presence gave her. She needed another moment, another second,
desperately. She had clawed at him in fear, nails digging into his uniform,
straight through into his arm. Hard enough to draw blood.
And there had been so many
witches, all out to win that day. The blood had been everywhere, witch and
dragon blood splattered across the walls, painting hideous pictures. The scene
whirled, dark figures dancing to a macabre rhythm, and she felt dizzy watching
it all play out.
"Come with me!"
Her hand clamped down on his
wrist and he was frozen, staring in disbelief as three to four witches
descended upon one dragon at a time, brilliant streaks of power flaring in
their struggle. He had pulled away then, broken her grip to rush to the side of
his Prince. All for the sake of his Prince. She had been left alone, left
lacking his warmth, floating in space as ice settled in the depths of her body,
freezing her as she watched the darkness envelop her.
Darkness had never been so
complete, so terrible to behold.
A flash of light closed the
vision to her, swallowed it into a funnel before it vanished completely and in
the surrounding blackness she heard the voice of Hellewise, echoing eerily all
around, sobbing.
"Chime! Chime!" she was sobbing, her voice bouncing about around
her, sweeping in close to her and then floating away for several seconds only
to return. "I'll make it right! One
of these days I'll make it right! And you'll come back to me!" There was
such sadness in her tone, heavy sorrow and pity and how could she have ever
thought she would right such a terrible wrong? She had died before she had
corrected anything. She had won the battle but in the end Maya was going to win
the war.
She shook her head as she
floated in her darkness. And when she heard her voice around her it was to
Rayne that she spoke. She had been speaking the entire time but only when she pushed
away the memory of Hellewise did her voice become understandable.
"…your prince! But he is one man…one creature!"
And Rayne, his usual soothing
voice answering her angry cries quietly but there was an edge to his tone. A
tightness in his words. "What is your
fascination with this topic? It's always the same thing!" he snapped at
her, and all around the blackness made it all the more painful to hear him
speak to her in anger.
"Your allegiance to him scares me, Rayne. He is but one man and yet you
would give up everything for him. Everything! Why?" she demanded and her
horror pulsed in the darkness. She wanted to hear him answer her but she knew,
she remembered that he hadn't said anything to that particular question.
His silence was stony.
Her voice came again,
reluctantly. "And me? Would you give me
up?" she asked faintly.
The continuous silence on his
part.
When her voice came for the last
time it was thick with near-hysteria. "Answer
me, damn it! Would you sacrifice me to save your Prince?"
She remembered this part as if
it had been yesterday. It would never go away, she realized as she waited for
him to speak. It would remain with her always, like a scar that hadn't closed
over properly.
His answer was gentle in tone
but no amount of tender words or glances would ever erase the words from her
mind.
"Yes. Yes, I would."
She curled into a ball, hovering
in the cold blackness and she slowly drifted into the familiar soft darkness
that was sleep.
The Past
'How long have we been seeing each other? Looking for
the other because the day is so much nicer with them there, close by. Does he
understand what I feel for him?
'Do I understand what I feel for him?'
Selena gazed at Rayne as he spoke quietly, staring up
at the cloudy sky over head. His hair was wild, wilder than usual. Did he ever
fix it when he awoke in the morning or did he just begin his rounds like that?
His lips were moving, that low voice carrying around them as he spoke about the
day, how he could smell the rain approaching. His amber eyes were narrowed,
nearly hidden by his thick lashes. They were focused on a single cloud and he
was saying now how it reminded him of a rabbit. She looked up with it and
realized he was right. Puffs of gray clouds formed the figure along with a
separate cloud as the bushy tail. It was adorable.
She looked at him again and this time he had lowered
his head and was gazing right back, head tilted a bit. The corners of his lips
turned up slightly. And his lips moved once more. "Did you hear a word I said?"
he asked gently.
My heart did, she thought. My heart heard every
single word you whispered, caught every single look you sent to the sky.
"A bit of it." She answered quietly, smiling faintly.
"I was lost for a moment toward the end. Too many thoughts…" she shrugged,
shaking her head. She looked to the side, at the pillars, focusing on one to
cover the embarrassment she was beginning to feel. She knew her smile was a
sheepish one, as if she were shy. She was definitely feeling shy at the moment.
Rayne was leaning his slender frame against one such
pillar. He paused for a good long while, amber eyes caught on her.
She remained fixed on the interesting pillar three
down from the one her soulmate leaned on.
"Tell me about your thoughts." He asked softly, his
voice barely carrying to her as the breeze picked up all around.
Selena looked at him, a quick, sharp glance. "My
thoughts?" she echoed, caught off-guard. "Oh, no. You don't want to hear my
thoughts. They're much too boring, much too…" she blushed, averting her gaze.
"Much too…"
He nodded once. "Much too private." He answered for
her. His amber eyes were hooded, they were always hooded. And he seemed
downright lazy with that expression.
She nodded also, pursing her lips. "Yes. They're
private." She said in a low tone. "That's why they're thoughts. Not meant to be
uttered aloud." She hesitated, awkwardly. "If the Goddess meant for our
thoughts to be read she would have made us all telepathic."
Rayne was assessing her, studying her with a strange interest. "Has no one ever read your mind? Listened to your thoughts?" he asked her slowly.
She came to a dead stop, blinking at the ground.
"Listened to my thoughts?" she asked faintly. "No, no one is interested in my
thoughts. No one cares to read my mind. I don't matter to anyone out there
except Hellewise and just barely. We're friends, very close friends but we
never talk. Really…" she frowned slightly but then shrugged it off.
Rayne was merely looking at her in understanding. His
lips were pressed together as if he were forcing himself to be nonchalant. And
the next moment she realized he was doing exactly that because he looked at her
warily. "I'm interested in your thoughts, Chime. I want to hear about them." He
said in an even tone, eyeing her.
Selena swallowed convulsively, hoping she didn't
choke somehow. He really didn't want to hear her thoughts. They were nothing
special.
No, she was wrong. They were all special. Because
they were all about him. Thoughts about
what he was doing when he wasn't with her. Thoughts on how he got along with
the dragons he worked with. Thoughts on his past and his family.
Thoughts on how long it would take for him to kiss
her.
She had finally decided she couldn't fight the
soulmate bond, that she shouldn't even try. It was futile to fight something so
unbelievably powerful, especially if you knew you would fail in your attempts.
So she just had to accept that, accept that Rayne Endymion was the one the
Goddess had set aside for her, to accompany her through all her forms on the
earth. Rayne was the one she would grow with, live with and stay with.
She just had to make him see it, too. Because other
than the initial reaction he had had to her there was no proof he was even
interested in being with her. He wasn't like the other dragons who made it
clear what they wanted from their mates. He was a damn enigma, one she would
gladly try to figure out if she could manage to stay in his presence and not
feel the urge to faint away.
She looked at him, lips parting to speak. And she
realized she had waited too long. He was already focused on the ground, jaw
clenched.
Snubbed. He thought she had snubbed him. Her eyes
widened and she shook her head senselessly, taking a step forward.
"It's raining." He murmured and he lifted his face to
the sky once more.
Fat drops of rainwater fell from the sky, pelting
them gently. Rayne closed his eyes momentarily, the tears of the sky splashing
him along the lines of his face. Selena blinked, not understanding, not knowing
what to do. Was he mad? Was he hurt? How could she tell him her thoughts if she
couldn't figure them out herself?
"Rayne-" she managed to make out.
He rose away from the pillar and looked toward her.
The rain was not a mere drizzle. It was coming down and the more time they
stared at each other, the faster and more furious the downfall became. In a
matter of moments their hair was plastered to their faces, rain streaking down
their faces. He undid the Royal uniform cloak from his shoulders and moved
toward her, lifting his cape to cover her. She went into the circle of his arms
dumbly, thinking quickly. She could fix it, she knew she could. She just had to
find the right words, had to piece together at least a coherent sentence-
He was looking down at her.
She became aware of it right then and there. Became
aware that he was embracing her, holding the cloak around her to keep her from
getting any wetter. She stared at the dragon emblem emblazoned across his
chest, blinked to keep the brilliant colors in focus. And she heard his
breathing, deep and slow. Calm.
She looked up into his eyes almost reluctantly,
scared of what she would find in those amber irises.
His gaze was blank. He seemed content to stare at her
from inches away. A muscle was clenching in his jaw, faintly, arms wrapped
lightly around her, pressing the soft fabric of the cloak to her arms and
shoulders.
And just when she thought maybe, just maybe, it was
possible he held romantic thoughts for her he smiled mischievously, one hand
releasing her shoulder to latch onto her wrist.
She looked down, a frown crossing her forehead.
With a surprising gesture and no indication of what
he had in mind he spun her around, coming up behind her, hand still grasping
her wrist. She tried to look at him over her shoulder but he was letting go of
her, lifting his arm over her. The cloak covered her completely as she found
herself sheltered under his arm. He threw her a wicked grin, his free hand
winding around her ribs to seize the same wrist he had held before.
"Rayne-" she tried again, realizing she was
practically stuttering.
"Come on!" He shouted over the pounding of the
torrent and the drops of rain ran down his face, falling from his square jaw.
She shook her head, not comprehending him.
With a twist of his lips he began to pull her along,
pushing her to move. She allowed him to lead her, wondering where they were
going. He was pulling her out from under the marble awning of the side entrance
to the First House. They nearly stumbled down the large steps, moving out fully
under the shower.
"Where are we going?" she asked loudly, automatically
winding her arm around his waist and digging further into his side.
"I'm taking you home. To the Witch Village." He
answered over the roar of the rain. He looked toward the village which was not
too far away but to Selena it was unbearably close. She didn't want to go back.
She wanted to stay with him, try to make him understand what she was feeling
even if she herself wasn't sure. Perhaps he could make sense of her confusion.
"I don't want to go home." She said to him, and she
wound her other arm around him, holding him to her tightly.
He glanced down, a small frown crossing his face.
"You wanted to know what my thoughts were, right?"
she asked him, ignoring the pelting rain, ignoring the drops that rolled down
her face and threatened to blind her, to blur his face from her. "You said you
wanted to know what I thought about."
He nodded wordlessly, his arm slowly coming down to
slip around her shoulder absentmindedly. He also paid the rain no mind, his
attention focused on her. Only her.
She felt beautiful. In his eyes, as the object of his
intense fascination she felt exotic, wet as she was, bedraggled as she
appeared. She smiled at him, her lips turning up. "I think about a lot of
things. I think about my future, where I will be fifty years from now, a
hundred years from now…and…" she shook her head, feeling the need to laugh
happily because she knew what she was saying now, "And… all I see is you! Yours
is the face that I see everywhere, whatever I envision, you're there!"
His lips had parted but no word made it passed them.
"I keep thinking, before you Helle was all I had and
now…now it's all different. Now I can't leave anymore, I can't pick up and go-"
"You were going to leave?" he asked in disbelief,
slanted amber eyes widening.
She shook her head, squeezing him reassuringly. "I
never felt at home anywhere. Never! All I ever did was wander. My mother died
and I left this village, went away but I always came back because my roots were
here. And I promised myself, when I came this last time I would make my visit
short and then I would go away, I would never come back here again."
Rayne seemed wounded, merely staring at her.
"But I can't do that anymore, Rayne! I can't do it
anymore!" she cried and her vision blurred. She was sure it was from the rain
but for a moment she let herself believe they were tears of happiness. "I have
to stay here because you're here!"
Rayne blinked as if he were catching on. Or
recovering from his initial shock.
She exhaled, gazing at him. "And I also thought about
you, what you thought about me. I wonder because you're too hard to read." She
nodded as he opened his mouth to speak, already knowing what he was going to
say, "Yes, I could've used the soulmate link but I get scared just being around
you! What would a dragon, you, a royal guard, see in a half-breed?" she shook
her head, "I'm nothing!"
He clenched his jaw, obviously ready to fight her on
that.
She didn't let him. "So, you wanted to know." She
said to him, "You wanted to know what I think about, what takes up all my
thoughts and time, my dreams?" she smiled once more, serenely. "This is what I
think about."
And she rose on tiptoe and kissed him. She kissed him
with all she was, all she felt for him. And it was wonderful, the sparks of
their soulmate link flaring heatedly. They seemed to mold together, two halves
of one whole, melding and uniting into what felt like one single being. Because
that was what they were, one whole that had been ripped apart.
She knew he felt the same way, felt that they had
been cheated when they had been separated. But it was all over and done with
because they were whole once more.
And all around the raindrops felt cool falling from
the sky, a tinkling melody carrying around them.
The
Present:
A knock sounded at the door.
Thea leaned back against Chime's
bed as the dragon rose. She walked over to the door, throwing the witch a wry
smile at her laziness and pulled the door open to see Iliana standing there.
The Witch Child broke into a
knowing smile.
Chime stepped back with a frown
to allow Iliana to enter. Remaining wordless she shut the door behind the girl
as she swept in and then she turned to face both witches.
Thea sat up slowly.
"Guess what came early this
morning?" Iliana sang mischievously. She slipped over to the bed and plopped
down beside Thea, lying back and stretching across the mattress luxuriously.
Thea's eyes flew to Chime.
Chime nodded in understanding,
stepping closer to the witches. "The dragon scrolls." She stated, crossing her
arms over her chest. She smirked, shaking her head. "Overnight Delivery. I
can't say I'm surprised."
Iliana lifted her gaze to the
dragon, looking innocent. "Night World UPS." She murmured. "Arrived four a.m.
this morning."
Chime clenched her jaw. "Where
are the scrolls now?"
Iliana hesitated, looking away.
"Winnie has them. She's been studying them, all morning in her room."
Chime leaned forward slowly,
looking the Witch Child dead in her eyes. "Winnie?" she demanded distinctly.
Her eyes closed when Iliana didn't answer her and she ran a weary hand over her
face. "Great."
"It's not so bad." Iliana said
soothingly. "Really, it isn't. Besides, she says she wants to see you, talk
over your problem." She shrugged. "She wants to help."
Thea's expression was the same
as Iliana's. She was practically begging Chime to trust Winnie.
"Oh, spare me." Chime sighed.
"All right. All right. Let's go and have the chat with her." She turned in
defeat but whirled back on them suddenly. "Do not expect me to be happy about
this."
Winnie looked up the moment the
two witches and the dragon entered the small kitchen. Her blue eyes caught on
Chime and she stared at her thoughtfully. Standing beside her, away from Chime,
was Keller, jaw clenched, arms crossed over her chest. Galen was leaning his
entire weight upon the table Winnie sat at, seeming exhausted. He looked up as
Chime entered and then moved away, standing beside Keller quietly.
Chime glanced over her shoulder
as she entered, just in time to see Nissa enter the kitchen and stand before
the exit, blocking it.
Chime surveyed the situation.
There were two exits, one being blocked by Nissa, the other on the opposite
side of the room, behind Keller and Galen, several feet away.
Winnie gathered up the scrolls,
laminated papers lying across the table, and Chime happened to see several
computer printouts. She raised her blue eyes to the witch as Winnie collected
all the papers into a bundle and stepped away from the table, practically
floating.
"Sit down, Chime." Winnie
offered, and animosity gleamed in her eyes. "Selena."
Chime felt a cold shiver. She
didn't remember telling them her real name. Had Thierry? Or Thea, even? She
shook her head though, arching an eyebrow. "No, thank you. I'd rather stand."
She said politely, but she did wind around the table, placing it between
herself and the red-curled witch. "What's this about?"
Winnie smiled, clutching the
scrolls carefully to her chest. She pulled forth a manila folder of computer
printouts and from that folder she pulled out several papers clipped together.
"These," she began, "are the names of the dragons put to sleep, the ones of the
Royal House and the several villages surrounding it. All listed alphabetically
by first name. Only because several of the dragons' last names were unknown."
Chime nodded. "Fascinating."
Winnie smiled again and there
was no humor there. "Yes, it is." She agreed. "Not only does it have names but
a bit of lineage, too. You're not listed here as asleep. But you are listed."
Chime frowned slightly and
became aware of just how still the Witch Child's bodyguards were standing. This
was where it was all going to start making sense.
Winnie pulled forth another
packet, juggling the papers to her chest. "This is the spell that put the
dragons to sleep. In common tongue." She smiled once more. "For me to
understand."
Chime's eyes flew to the sheets
before returning to the witch's face. Thea was rigid to the side, Iliana
confused. And the others were stony-faced, even sweet Galen.
Trap.
"There are a lot of other
goodies," Winnie continued, rambling on, eyes still caught on the sheet with
the old spell, "like the actual resting place of your…dragon." She stated and
she lifted her blue eyes once more, smirking.
Chime inhaled and exhaled slowly
to calm herself.
"But you won't be getting it."
Winnie shrugged apologetically, sifting through the papers again. "Nor the
spell to awaken him."
"Winnie-" Iliana whispered.
"Would you like to know the name
of your father?" Winnie asked quietly. "It's all here." She waved the first
packet again before tossing it to the table top. "Selena Chimes, daughter of
Salma…"
Chime looked down at the papers
slowly.
"And Azhdeha." Winnie finished
coldly.
