Mikolas (6 page)

“We’ll find a way together,” she reiterated.

For a moment, Voshkie really believed they would.

T
he illness was spreading faster
. All of Ondrej’s veins had turned black and hard under his skin and his eyes were no longer emerald. They were black, like an oil spill with shades of green and purple when the light hit them just right.

If they had more time, there was a chance that his resourceful nymph would find a cure for them, but the clock wasn’t going to reset simply because Mikolas needed it to.

As if they weren’t already aware of their limited time, one of the royal guard came to inform them that the ghoul army was indeed headed for Hidden Mountain. Estimated time of arrival was within the hour.

“Have you gotten in touch with Aranka?” Ondrej asked in a hoarse voice.

“Yes. She and Imre are safe,” Krysanthe answered.

“Good. If nothing else…” he nodded.

“Everyone, get in position,” Voshkie ordered.

Pride surged in his chest once again. Pride, love… and something deeper. Something more that he couldn’t name. She stood tall and honorable in the face of this terrible task. Yet, she didn’t drag her feet. She’d do what had to be done.

His Voshkie.

He stepped down into the water next to his brother.

“There’s enough time, Mik. You could—” Ondrej began.

“No. This first.”

Voshkie took his hand and their vows passed between them again, unspoken, but no less powerful.

“Are you ready, Krysanthe?”

The princess nodded. She stood at the ready to manipulate the gold into chains to restrain the infected. Especially if he Turned and tried shift into his dragon form.

Voshki didn’t look at him again before she grabbed Ondrej’s hand.

Nothing happened.

Not for what seemed like forever. Of course, it was only a few seconds, but each second seemed to last an eternity.

Until it hit.

Pain like nothing he’d ever experienced before shooting through his body, slamming into every sense receptor. It brought him to his knees.

He could see the infection leaving his brother and see it as it crawled up his arm, could feel the black tendrils inside of him curling through his veins into his heart like a thousand worms and finally, up into his brain.

From somewhere that seemed to be so far away, he heard his brother’s voice. “Stop, you’re killing him.”

He managed to turn his head and look at her, his beautiful Voshkie with her with golden eyes and he could barely feel the warmth of her skin, but he remembered touching her was like lying in a ray of sunlight.

She didn’t let go of his brother. “Can’t stop or you’ll both be infected.”

“No, I don’t want to do this. I can’t—”

He watched her tighten her grip on Ondrej. “You can. You will.”

“Tell us to stop, brother. Say it’s done,” Ondrej pleaded.

“Finish it,” he managed. His brain grew cloudy, his thoughts thick and muddled. They seemed to sink down replaced by something else. Something dark and inky. Something that was not him.

He tumbled down into the pitch, but he pretended it wasn’t dark. He pretended it was gold and he was drowning in waves of her hair.

V
oshkie felt
it when the last of Mik had been swallowed by the infection. She watched the light go out in his eyes and her heart cracked, or maybe that was her ribs when he launched himself at her, all snarling teeth and claws.

“Chain him, Krys!” she cried.

The chains wrapped themselves around him. “It’s not going to hold long.”

She looked at Ondrej and saw he was whole and well, at least physically. “Someone needs to find Glorfindel.”

“I thought you spoke with him when we arrived?”

“I thought you did?” Voshkie frowned. “Shit, this is bad.”

“Ondrej?” Krys looked at him.

“I’ll find him.” He looked to his struggling brother. “Try to hold him until I get back.”

“I’ve got this,” Voshkie said, but she wasn’t so sure.

He snarled and snapped, but still hadn’t shot fire at them. He was trapped in his Change, something in between. At least this way, his size was more manageable. If he Changed here, it could be catastrophic. Trying to get free, he’d tear a hole in Hidden Mountain.

But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. As of now, Hidden Mountain was set to become their tomb. If Mik tore it wide, there’d be another avenue of escape for the Orlaith.

He’d be a danger to them in the air, but maybe this would give their people their best fighting chance.

Her fingers itched. So did the palms of her hands. Her whole body felt like it was swarming with bugs and her skin was too tight.

She fought the sensation, focusing on Mikolas. “Sucks to be tied up, doesn’t it?”

He snarled and strained.

“What are you doing?” Krys cried.

“Yeah, I see that hate in your eyes. Sucks to be powerless.”

“I. Am. Not. Powerless.” The thing wearing Mik’s skin roared as it struggled to break free. “I will devour you.”

“Krys, run.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Yes, you are. The ghouls are coming and this place is going to be a tomb. So I’m going to open it up. Do you understand?”

“I can’t leave you alone. If I let go—”

“If you let go, I’ll be fine. Deep down, I know he’s still in there.” She turned to face Krys. “I can handle him.”

“Your eyes, Voshkie. They’re gold, but you’re irises are green.”

“I think I’m Changing. You need to go.”

“Be careful, Voshkie.” Krys backed toward the door.

“You too. Let Ondrej protect you.”

“He wouldn’t be here without you. Without Mikolas.” Krys nodded her head. “I love you both.”

“This isn’t it, Krys. I will see you again. If you’ll allow it.” It occurred to her that maybe after keeping such a secret from her, maybe Krys wouldn’t want her to come back.

“I won’t allow anything else. You’re my sister in all ways that matter. My best friend.”

The gold bindings began to stretch as Mik’s body continued to change and his skin turned to hot scales.

Voshkie took one more look at Krys and then focused all of her attention on Mik.

She didn’t want to be a dragon, but she supposed this was what she’d always been on the inside. She already was the dragon. She’d never been the princess.

Mikolas wasn’t in love with the princess, he was in love with
her
.

She wasn’t about to lose him.

Her temperature kept rising, and her insides were on fire. Her skin was so tight, so stretched…

His dragon erupted, and it was sick, infected. His wings filled the tiny space and he crashed through the rocky ceiling, but he didn’t fly. No, he dipped his head toward her, jaws snapping.

And he breathed fire.

It was a beautiful orange lace that wrapped itself around her, burning away her clothes, but left her skin untouched.

Because she was an Alpha. Only Alpha fire could harm her.

When he snapped at her again, the whole world changed.

No, not the world. It was her. She changed.

She
Changed
.

Not only was her skin too small for her, but so was the cavern.

It started with her vision. Voshkie suddenly understood why heights bothered her, why her vision grew blurry. She had the eyes of a winged predator that hyperfocused on the smallest movement.

Wings exploded from her back, and she instinctively knew how to fly. That other tiny voice in her head wasn’t so tiny now, but it wasn’t as foreign as she’d feared. She was still herself.

The dragon was only another piece of her, something more primal, but she hadn’t surrendered anything. Instead, she’d given herself the tools to save him, and Hidden Mountain.

She blocked his attack and his took to the sky through the rubble.

Voshkie followed.

She marveled at the rush of wind beneath her wings, the way the air tasted, and even the strange acidic sensation in her throat that she knew would be her best weapon—fire.

Instead of only chasing Mikolas, she looked for the invading ghouls, and when she saw them, she knew fear. It was a plague of them like locusts covering the land, devouring everything in their wake.

She knew what she had to do.

Voshkie circled away from Mikolas and coasted lower to the ground. She didn’t dare think about it too hard, the way she simply knew how to fly—it would be like tripping because she’d been staring at her feet.

Fire shot from her mouth and incinerated a small battalion of ghouls to ash. They were replaced almost instantly, horrible crawling, snarling things crawling up from the dirt. She didn’t know how long until she could breathe the Alpha fire again. She knew it took time, time they didn’t have.

Mikolas crashed into her from the side, knocking her out of the sky and sent her spiraling to the ground below. She was in a tailspin and she knew she was going to hit the ground hard.

Fuck
.

She could only hope to get airborne again before the ghouls reached her.

Mikolas was behind her and closing fast.

When she hit the ground, it felt every bit like she imagined it would. Bones shattered, but were healed instantly. That didn’t stop it from hurting like a motherfucker.

Mikolas landed with a heavy thud in the crater she’d made and he advanced on her.

When she tried to summon the Alpha Fire, she simply couldn’t. Not because it wasn’t ready again, but because she didn’t want to. She couldn’t end him, no matter what he’d become.

So instead of fighting him, she submitted.

“Don’t tell me you don’t want to play, warrior.”

She didn’t answer him.

“Well, that’s boring.”

“No.”

“Still boring.” He leaned down and snapped just against her flesh, enough to feel it, but not enough to break through her scales. “You wanted to play earlier when you meddled in things that aren’t your business.”

“Drago Knights MC and the Orlaith are my business.”

“Such a Girl Scout. Even when you know that you’ll never be good enough for either of them?”

His words cut deep.

“This lizard bag I’m wearing will never choose you over his brother. As evidenced by this.” He motioned with a claw.

She turned and saw the ghoul horde had stopped, as if it was waiting for something. Voshkie looked back up at him and realized it was waiting. It was waiting because Mikolas had claimed her as his kill.

“Why should he have to?”

“Tsk, tsk. You can’t serve two masters. I should know.”

“Ondrej isn’t his master. And neither am I. If you looked deep enough into your “lizard bag” you’d know that.”

It laughed, the sound as dark and horrible as the creature itself. “I don’t care.”

“Then why did you talk about it? To hurt me? To make me doubt myself? So I defeat myself before I begin? No. I won’t do that. I can beat you and I will.”

“Then why didn’t you roast me?” He pressed her down onto her back. “Because you can’t. You think he’s still in here. He’s not home. There is only me.”

“Mikolas, I know you can hear me.”

“I said, he’s not here.” The voice dropped several octaves and the ghouls on the front lines of the show exploded at the resonance.

“Why does that make you so angry? Why do you hate? Don’t you know how weak it makes you?”

“And you, you hate. You can’t say you don’t hate me.”

“No. I don’t hate you.” And she didn’t. “I love you.”

He bit at her throat.

Voshkie let him. She didn’t stop talking. “I love you for making me become who I was meant to be. I love you for—”

He tried to rip out her throat, but he wasn’t strong enough.

“—accepting all of me. Loving all of me.”

The beast roared and fire shot from his nose and mouth.

“I love you for being my partner, not my beta or my Alpha.”

“There’s nothing you can do here. You can either kill him or join him. Your words mean nothing.” He said through the bursts of flame.

“Much like your fire.”

“You’re the one on your back with your belly exposed.”

“Because I don’t care. I’m not afraid of you.” She realized that she wasn’t. Just like the earlier comparison she’d made to the monsters in the dark. She’d been afraid to turn off the light because then it could hurt her.

But what if she wasn’t afraid of the dark? What if she turned off the light?

“You don’t have to be afraid to be consumed. I mean, I like the taste of fear better than defiance, but it’s been so long since I’ve tasted it, it might make for a tasty meal.”

She turned her head to the side as she had before when she’d invited his mate mark. “So do it. Take me.”

“You think I won’t?”

“I hope you will. Otherwise, you’re a lot of hot air and I was expecting an axis power kind of evil.”

He tore at her throat and as the darkness filled her, she summoned her power again. Just like the flying, she suddenly knew instinctively how to beat it.

If only she’d acknowledged the dragon part of herself sooner.

No regrets
, the new voice said.

It was right, she was right. No regrets.

Her power came as easily and as strongly as before—acknowledging her dragon hadn’t diminished her at all. It had only made her stronger. Just like Mikolas.

It surrounded the darkness pouring into her and before long, she was draining it out of him. Mik struggled against her power, and even though she was the one on her back in a pose of submission, it was he who had to submit.

She took and took, pulling the darkness out of him and taking it to some secret place she didn’t know she possessed.

Voshkie wrapped all the doubt, fear, anger and hatred in the love she had for Mikolas and the love she had for her whole self.

And the ugly darkness became like a pearl, cushioned in layer after layer of iridescence and light until it became too heavy, and it collapsed in on itself only to supernova and decimate all the dark things within its vast reach.

W
hen Mikolas became
aware of himself, it was with the taste of blood on his mouth and fear in his heart.

The creature on the ground next to him was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen—a gold dragon.

Voshkie!

Her wings were like hammered sheets of metal, her scales like gold armor, and on her belly, like iridescent pearls.

Her eyes were closed and he saw ghouls slowly clawing toward them through the burning of ash of what had once been their brethren.

“Voshkie, wake up.” He nudged her with his snout.

She didn’t move.

This was not the end. This wasn’t how things worked. Voshkie had to survive. The rest of the world was nothing without her.

He nudged her again.

Her chest wasn’t moving.

He reminded himself that gold nymphs didn’t need to breathe.

The ghouls closed in on them and as they leapt for Voshkie, something inside of him changed. It was an audible snap, at least to him.

And he breathed fire.

Not just any fire, but Alpha fire. The ghouls on the front lines were incinerated and those that were left ceased their advance.

The implications of what that meant… Mikolas refused to accept it.

If he was breathing Alpha fire, he’d lost that which mattered most to him—his brother and his mate.

A roar was torn from him, and to his surprise, it was echoed back at him from the sky. He looked up to see Fabian, wings spread wide, also breathing Alpha fire.

Ondrej, his brother, is all of his majesty with his mate on his back burning through the ghouls and the darkness that had gathered around Hidden Mountain.

And the smallest sound from the still dragon in front of him.

Her golden eyes open.

She struggled to her feet. “What are you waiting for? Let’s fry these bastards.” Voshkie tossed him a sassy look over her shoulder and took to the skies.

Even though every muscle in his body ached, every cell, he launched himself into the air after her.

For a moment, he wondered if he was dead and this was heaven. Everything was as it should be, everything he’d dreamed of. It couldn’t be real.

Even Fabian breathed Alpha fire. It was too good to be true.

Until he saw a ghoul tear apart one of the Orlaith soldiers on the ground.

He turned and dove for the ghoul before it could reach anyone else and crushed it in his claws.

Ripping and tearing, breathing fire when it would come, he fought alongside his brothers, his mate, and the Orlaith to save Hidden Mountain.

Krysanthe turned many of them to gold, and before long, the mountain was surrounded by macabre golden statuary and the dragons melted it down, sending the abominations back down into the earth.

Back into Hidden Mountain to shore up what they’d broken.

Finally, the ghouls stopped coming.

In the aftermath, they all gathered outside the ruins of the entrance to the mountain, each retaking their human form.

“I told you I’d find a way.” She put her hands on her hips as if she dared anyone to doubt her after everything that had happened.

Krysanthe hugged her. “I knew you would. You always do.”

He met his brother’s gaze and Ondrej nodded slowly. “I understand now. But she saved us all.”

Ondrej embraced him. “I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost her.” He grabbed Fabian and pulled him in close. “You too, fucker. Where have you been?”

They broke apart and Fabian shook his head. “I was with Glorfindel. He’s been taken by goons working for Peter Breslin. They released me only after he agreed to give them gold.”

“My father…” Krysanthe shook her head.

“Princess, they have collars to keep shifters from Changing. They have an army more terrible than the ghouls. And Breslin.” Fabian shook his head. “He’s power mad. So we’re going to have to plan his rescue very carefully.”

“You know, of course, this is a trap.” Ondrej said.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to come for him anyway,” Voshkie said and took Krysanthe’s hand.

“No. Of course, we will. But we need a plan,” Ondrej said.

“What he would want us to do at the moment is see to the wounded and the dead,” Krysanthe said.

“There’s something we have to do first.” Ondrej looked first to Mikolas and then to Voshkie. He took her hands.

She turned to look back at Mikolas and while he had no idea what his brother was about to do, he did know that Ondrej would never hurt her. So he nodded encouragingly.

“Today, you saved my life. My brother’s life.”

Voshkie shook her head and said, “I didn’t do—”

“Let me finish. Allow me to honor your gift and your sacrifice.”

Mikolas sensed Voshkie’s discomfort, but he allowed Ondrej the latitude with his mate.

“You have sacrificed.” Ondrej nodded. “You exposed a secret that could lead to your death. To suffering. You risked everything for my brother, for me, and for your people. You are the most worthy mate I could ask for my brother. But I don’t want to lose my brother. I don’t want to lose what’s left of the Drago Knights. Not because they’re my pack, not because I have to be Alpha, but because they’re my family.”

Voshkie had tears in her eyes and as they fell down her face, they solidified into diamonds.

“So you, Voshkie of the Orlaith, are now my family as well and I’m offering you a chance to join the Drago Knights. It seems that when we were threatened, what was left of us all became Alphas with the power and responsibility that comes with that. I ask you to give me the gift of your submission as Alpha of Alphas. In return, I offer you myself. My brothers. I offer you family.” He nodded slowly. “I offer you honor before gold. Loyalty before gold—”

“Brotherhood before gold,” Voshkie finished. She stood silently, with the diamonds falling freely.

“Where we are more than our dragons. More than our blood.” Ondrej drew her closer and Voshkie allowed it. “If you don’t want this, I’ll release my brother from his vow to me. I want you to join the Drago Knights because it’s what you want, because you believe in what we stand for.”

“Gods, yes.”

Mikolas didn’t know he’d been holding his breath until she answered. It was like being punched in the gut with a wrecking ball.

Ondrej released her and kissed both cheeks. “Welcome to the family, sister.”

Voshkie hugged Fabian next and it was a clapping of fists on backs like the camaraderie found between two warriors. Then, it was Krysanthe.

“I’ll hate diamonds forever now that I know they come from your tears,” Krys said.

“No, you should wear them always, if you love me. They come from my joy.” She hugged the other nymph tight.

Finally, it was Mikolas’s turn.

He’d been content to wait, to allow the other people in her life who loved her and those who would love her to get their welcome out of the way.

Mikolas had bigger plans.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me, Mik.”

Her voice didn’t contain any of its usual sass. She wasn’t telling him he was stuck with her, she was asking. After everything that happened today, after she’d just fought a war and almost died, she was still unsure of her place.

Mikolas vowed he’d make sure she was never unsure again. Her place was by his side. In his arms.

Underneath him, while he was thinking about it.

Or maybe on top. He liked that, too.

He drew her against him and for a moment, was simply content to hold her there. “So, you know there are no takebacks and no mulligans, right? This is forever. You spoke the words. You’re mine.”

“And don’t you forget it,” she demanded.