Kissed by Moonlight (2 page)

My throat felt like someone had taken a hot cigarette lighter from a car and jammed it down in there, a huge lump that choked and burned and made me want to throw up. The blood covering his chest was dry, not that I cared. I lay my head down next to the gaping wound as though I could still hear his heartbeat, but there was nothing. Only the sound of the wind and the gentle distant murmur from my friends.

Arms wrapped around me, too big to be Kabita, too gentle to be Jack. "I'm so sorry, Morgan." Trevor Daly's voice was soft in my ear. "It happened so fast. There was nothing we could do. We don't even know why... "

"It was her," I told my brother. "Morgana. It was the fairy queen's revenge for killing Alberich. She made me watch." I choked on the sob that rose in my throat.

"Oh my god." Trevor's arms tightened around me as I pressed my face against his leather jacket. The horror in his voice almost undid me. So much sorrow and anguish flooded my soul, I thought I might actually die of it.

I felt another hand on my shoulder, and I knew from the scent it was Drago. "It's time," he said, as if I should know what that meant. I pulled against his hand, refusing to leave Inigo. I would stay here with him until...

I squeezed my eyes shut. I hadn't seen his soul leave his body like I had Zip's. Of course, I could have missed it, being in the Other World. It was ridiculous, but I was afraid to leave in case he was still trapped in there somewhere.

"Come on, Morgan." This time it was Trevor who tried to pull me away from Inigo's body.

"What? No." I resisted his gentle tug. "I'm not going anywhere without Inigo."

"I'm sorry, but you must." Drago's voice held an edge of authority that rubbed me the wrong way. Yes, he was Inigo's half-brother and a king, but they had only met a few months ago. Inigo and I had been friends for years. More than that, he was my boyfriend. My rock.

Trevor pulled a little harder. I jerked away from him.

"Why is he here?" I snarled at my brother, glaring at Drago as though this were all his fault.

"I called him."

My eyes widened. "What?"

Drago knelt down to my level. His inhuman eyes stared straight into mine, as though he could will me to understand. "Listen to me, Morgan. If we are to save him, you must let me take him now. Before it's too late."

It was as if he was speaking Chinese or something. I could hear the words but they weren't making any sense.

"I don't understand." I lay my palm against Inigo's chest where his heartbeat should be. It was so still. "He's... " I couldn't say "dead." It might make it all real. "Gone."

Drago laid his hand next to mine. I noted vaguely that his tanned skin shimmered slightly in the weak winter sun, as if there were a little gold embedded in it. A wry smile twisted his full lips. "Not quite."

Hope, that cruel little devil, sprang up inside me. "What do you mean?"

He stood and offered me his hand. "We're dragons, remember. We are not that easy to kill."

Chapter 2

Icy water slid through trails of thick, green slime to pool at the base of the rock walls. Torchlight glittered off a billion tiny crystals embedded in the stone. The air was cold and wet. Not at all what I expected from a dragon cave.

Cordelia’s sister Sandra—now calling herself Tanith—walked beside me in complete silence. She’d explained to me that once we entered the caves, we were not to utter a single word. The only reason the dragons were allowing us to visit one of their most sacred places was because Sandra - I mean Tanith - was their Dragon Child. The first in centuries. As for me, I was the Fire Bringer. I still had no idea what that meant, but it was important to the dragons and allowed me a certain leeway. Believe me, I was taking advantage.

Drago hadn't wanted me with him when he took Inigo's body back to dragon land, deep within the Scottish highlands, but I hadn't been about to take no for an answer. I think he might have been worried that, if he left me behind, I'd just get on a plane and follow. So, he'd given in and ordered one of his beefy bodyguards to take me on his back.

The first time I'd flown to dragon lands had been on Inigo's back. It had been exhilarating. In dragon form, Inigo wasn't much bigger than a horse, which made for a fairly comfortable ride, and his mind-speaking talents made for all sorts of fun. Drago's bodyguard was substantially bigger, which made staying on his back a challenge. Either he didn't have mind-speak, or he didn't deign to use it, which was fine by me. It was a long, miserable journey made worse by bone-deep sorrow and the gaping hole inside me created by Inigo's loss warring with the smidgeon of hope he could still be saved.

Tanith was the first person I saw once we'd landed. She hadn't said a word, just folded me in her arms and let me cry right there in front of the gods and everybody. Nobody'd seemed bothered by my show of grief, and a few even joined me in shedding tears.

Tanith had led me to a room within the dragons' main citadel, where we waited for Drago to finish performing the ritual that would put Inigo in stasis. That was one thing about which the Dragon King would not budge: no humans allowed. While we waited, Tanith forced food and drink down my throat this was possibly the first time in my entire life I wasn't hungry and explained how she'd chosen to change her name to Tanith, in honor of the Phoenician goddess of love and beauty. And dragons, apparently. She'd even tried to get me to sleep, but while I obediently lay down, my mind refused to shut off. The image of Inigo dropping dead at the hands of the Fairy Queen played over and over in my mind.

I felt a hand on mine. The procession of dragon kin had stopped in front of a pair of simple wooden doors. Tanith squeezed my fingers, and I sucked in a deep breath, forcing myself back into the present as the doors swung slowly open on creaky hinges.

The procession moved forward, and Tanith tugged on my hand. We passed through the doorway, two of the honor guard staying back to swing the doors shut behind us.

Here, the air was warmer, drier. The walls were smooth and shiny, as if the surface had been melted instead of rough hewn like the first part of the tunnel. It began to widen, from side to side and top to bottom, so the path was less like an alley and more like a broad avenue.

We moved deeper into the mountain, and I tried not to think of the tons of dirt and rock above my head just waiting to crush us all. I've never been a fan of underground places.

The top of the tunnel was so high, I could no longer make out the ceiling. The path curved left, and my eyes widened at the sight in front of us: two enormous doors, at least twenty feet high and coated in shimmering gold. Across the doors in bas relief was the image of a massive fire-breathing dragon.

***

Two of the honor guard peeled away from the rest of the group. Between one blink and the next, they'd shapeshifted into their dragon forms. It made sense. The only being strong enough to open those massive doors would be a dragon.

Each dragon grasped one of the rings in the center of a door with a claw and slowly pulled them open. Once again, we passed through a doorway, and once again the doors banged shut behind us. I ignored my lizard brain, which gibbered in fear. I was a guest of the dragons, their Fire Bringer. They would not harm me. As if sensing my thoughts, Tanith squeezed my hand again and gave me a sympathetic smile. I forced myself to focus on the fact that somehow this could all save Inigo.

At the head of the procession, Drago stopped in front of a small brazier. He carefully touched his torch to it. A flame sprang to life. For a moment, it danced there as if waiting, then it leaped, racing via a trough running along the outside wall of the massive cavern. More braziers sprang to life, one after the other, joining in the dance until the fire had nearly circled us, leaving only a narrow pathway through the flame.

I wondered vaguely why they didn't just use electricity like everyone else, but I was too overwhelmed by everything to focus on the mundane thought. My head felt hazy and full. It was all I could do not to fall to my knees and either cry my eyes out or beg the gods I didn't believe in to save Inigo.

The mellow light gleamed off row upon row of shiny stones inside the circle of fire. The enormous stones, each as big as a large man, were irregular in shape, but smooth and polished like the walls outside the gold doors. Unlike those walls, these stones shone in a myriad of colors, from deep rose to pale blue.

Drago turned and waved me forward. I glanced at Tanith, who gave me an encouraging nod. Sucking in a deep breath, I stepped past the long row of dragons still in their human forms and faced the Dragon King, brother of my beloved. Drago placed his hands on my shoulders and held my gaze. I read compassion in his eyes, and it made me want to weep.

"Morgan, this is the first time in centuries we have allowed a human to pass through the gates of our most sacred place. What you see here you must not tell anyone."

I nodded, swallowing the giant lump in my throat that was half sorrow and half trepidation. In the dancing light of the surrounding fires, Drago's golden eyes gleamed eerily. In that moment he was anything but human.

He squeezed my shoulders. "You must swear it, Morgan. Aloud."

"On my life?"

He shook his head. "On your Fire."

Inside me, the Fire woke up, straining against the bonds I'd placed on it. My hands trembled, and I clenched them into fists. Clearing my throat, I spoke loud enough for the entire gathering to hear. "I am Fire Bringer. On the Fire within me, I solemnly swear nothing I see within this sacred place shall pass from my lips." It was embarrassingly melodramatic, but I would have done anything for a chance to save Inigo.

Drago let go of my shoulders and beckoned me forward. I followed him past the first line of braziers and into the rows of stones. The others disappeared from view as he led me deeper into the cavern. There were dozens of stones. Maybe even hundreds. I squinted at the closest one, a pale pink with an undertone of gold. Had something moved inside? Surely not. That was impossible. Things didn't move inside rocks.

We finally stopped in front of the most beautiful of all the rocks I'd seen so far. It stood as high as my head and was perhaps four feet wide and equally deep. It shimmered in iridescent tones of peacock blue, green, and gold.

"This is gorgeous," I breathed. "What is it?" I held my hand out, not touching the stone, but close enough to feel the tingling energy radiating off it. I felt heat, as if a fire burned inside it. Startled, I glanced up at Drago.

"That is what your people call a dragon egg. Touch it."

Baffled, I laid my hand gently against the side of the rock. Except it wasn't a rock at all. The surface gave slightly beneath my hand, like one of those stress-relieving gel balls. The heat felt good. It was gentle and welcoming, and the Fire inside me basked in it, rolling around like a dog wanting its belly scratched. Could it be? Surely not.

I cleared my throat. "An egg? I thought dragons gave birth like humans do." Give me a little longer to pretend.

"We do," he said. "We are not born from eggs. We are reborn from them."

I blinked, still not wanting to accept the truth. Knowing I had no choice. "You mean... "

Drago placed his hand beside mine on the brightly colored egg. "Inside this egg is my brother and the man you love."

***

I jerked my hand back, staring at the egg in confusion and horror. "Inigo's in there?"

"Yes."

"How do we get him out?" I stepped toward the egg as if I would single-handedly rescue him.

Drago grabbed my arm. "We don't. This is how we heal our wounded. Even those near death have been known to recover."

Hope sprang up inside me. "This will heal him?"

Drago hesitated. "Maybe."

I whirled on him. "What do you mean, maybe? Will it heal him or won't it?"

"Morgan, please. I cannot answer what I do not know. Inigo was badly injured; he’s a hairsbreadth from death. The egg is keeping him alive, but beyond that,"—he shook his head, a heavy line forming between his eyes—"we do not know. He is a halfling, and we have no idea if the egg can repair the damage. Or how long it will take."

I placed my hand against the egg once again, feeling the welcoming warmth. I tried to reach out somehow, to communicate. But it was Inigo who had the mind-speak, not me. I sensed nothing.

"What do you mean?" I spoke barely above a whisper, choked with tears, but Drago heard me.

"His injuries were extensive and, because of his human blood, he is more difficult to heal. If the egg works... it could take a long time."

I caught his gaze and held it, determined to wrangle the truth from him. "How long, Drago?"

This time the sympathy was like a dagger to my heart. The only thing that kept me upright was the egg beneath my hand.

"You'll be dead, Morgan," Drago said. "By the time the egg heals him, if it does, you'll have long been ashes and dust."

The bottom fell out of my world. And then a thread of hope. "Jack said I might be a Sunwalker," I whispered so low only Drago could hear me.

He squeezed my hand. "If that's true, you might have a chance."

Chapter 3

Heavy mist swirled around my feet, curling its way up my ankles to my calves. It was cool and cloying. I couldn't seem to find my way out of it. The more I pushed, the thicker the mist became. I couldn't see the ground beneath it, either, so I stepped cautiously, feeling my way along. No telling what was underneath.

A tendril slid across my face, sticky as a wet spider web. I slapped at it. There'd better not be any spiders hiding in the mist. Spiders freaked me out.

Ahead was a shimmering wall of white light dancing with sparkles of color. It stretched from one side to the other as far as the eye could see. I moved toward it. As I drew closer, I realized it wasn't a wall at all, but a curtain of energy more like a force field. How strange. It was warm and gave of a faint sound almost like a wind chime in a gentle breeze. The sparkles danced faster, like facets on a disco ball. I felt dizzy, disconnected from my body. I reached out to touch the wall, drawn by some force beyond myself.