Chapter Eleven:

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.