Searching for Thanksgiving (Dragonlings of Valdier)

Chapter 23

23

E arly the next morning, Devon silently moved around the bodies lying scattered throughout the small hut. He stretched his neck, wincing when it popped. He had slept on the couch last night, surrounded by the kids in their various shapes. The boys had shifted into their cat and dragon forms, as had the girl named Pearl. Sacha and Hope had made a bed in front of the fire on Rainbow while Morah was lying in a makeshift hammock chair that her symbiot had created.

Devon peered longingly up the spiral staircase to the loft where Crystal had retreated. His heart beat heavy at the thought of leaving her. His dragon—and his cat, long dormant thanks to his father—stirred inside of him.

We stay.

You know that we can’t, he quietly replied. Stripe, come.

His symbiot, still covered in tiny gold hearts highlighted by its black body, reluctantly rose from where it was partially curled around the two little girls in front of the fireplace. It had become attached to the girls.

Perhaps we are not as evil as my father thought he had made us, he mused.

He retrieved the magical knapsack, silently removing the toys and placing them on the table before he slung the now empty sack over one shoulder. He pulled on his boots, glanced over his shoulder one more time, before he opened the hut door and stepped out into the pre-dawn light.

The heavy wooden door creaked when he pulled it shut behind him and his symbiot. He winced and froze, listening with relief to the light, but steady snores coming from inside. Gripping the bag, he strode away from the hut. He was rounding the walled garden when his symbiot snarled a warning.

His dragon, who had withdrawn deep inside him, tried to burst free but he held it back. He stiffened when he noticed a woman walking toward him. He could tell she was human, like Crystal, but that is where the similarities ended.

The woman’s corkscrew curly hair was tied back into a long braid. She moved with an air of confidence. The way she gripped the long knife at her waist, spoke of an ease with the weapon. He noticed the huge symbiot with her. It stalked toward them with its tail up and its ears back. Devon sent a silent command to his symbiot to escape into the forest. Where there was one warrior, there would be more.

“Nice symbiot,” the woman said in greeting.

“We mean you no harm. We are leaving,” he replied, sending another sharp command to his symbiot when it didn’t follow his instructions.

“Who are you?” she asked, stopping several feet from him.

“No one,” he tersely replied.

Others come.

He took a step to the side, but she countered him. Her symbiot hissed out a snarl of warning when his symbiot clawed at the ground. The situation was becoming dire. He needed to leave.

The creak of the door behind him warned him that either Crystal or one of the kids was awake. Fear for them drove him into action. He didn’t want one of them getting into the middle of what could easily become a confrontation if he didn’t leave before the others arrived.

Leave now! he ordered to his symbiot.

Stripe surged forward only to be hit by the woman’s symbiot. The two snarling creatures rolled, one black and gold striped, the other pure shimmering gold. The force of their collision sent a shock wave that knocked him and the woman back several steps. His face contorted as his dragon surged to the surface.

The woman shifted as well. Her bronze dragon with gold and black-edged scales was smaller than his silver one. Her dragon moved with agility as they warily circled the fighting symbiots.

“Devon!”

Crystal’s voice distracted him for a split second, and he missed the twin dark shadows of the two topaz and black dragons that came at him from different directions. The first one hit him between the shoulders, swooping down from above, while the other struck him in the chest, knocking him off his feet. His dragon roared and fought to escape the onslaught as thick bands of gold wound around his legs, wings, tail, and throat.

“Stop! What are you doing? Let him go!” Crystal yelled.

Devon tried to twist his head in the direction of her voice, but sharp claws dug into his throat. He shifted, hoping the weight of the claw on his throat wouldn’t crush it, but also hoping that it would throw off his attackers. His ploy didn’t work. The two men shifted as one, their symbiots tightening around his body until he could barely breathe.

“Crystal… go,” he croaked out.

Crystal ignored everyone, pushing her way past the conglomeration of dragons, symbiots, and men. She hurried to him as fast as she could only to be drawn into a pair of strong arms. She struggled to break free.

Remorse and despair hit Devon hard. He’d always known that this day would come, that he would be captured and killed. He just never dreamed that it would happen in front of his mate.

We fight.

There is nothing to fight. This… our ending here will be more humane than living a half-life knowing we have a mate and never being able to claim her.

His body bowed at the force of his dragon’s reaction to their defeat. The pain was blinding before a void so deep, so dark opened inside him that he wondered that his heart didn’t shatter. In a brief flash, he felt his dragon withdraw as if he didn’t exist. In all the years he was held captive by his father, he had never felt alone. He had always had his dragon, his cat, and his symbiot there. Now, all of them retreated from him as if unable to bear his acceptance of their fate—and the loss of their mate.

“For-give me,” he murmured, staring into Crystal’s confused, terrified eyes.

The pressure around his throat increased until he couldn’t breathe. Darkness danced around the edges of his vision before he relaxed and gave into the void where nothing existed any longer… including himself.