The storm came with no warning. One moment, the bed-and-breakfast was quiet, The next moment rain tapping gently against the tin roof, firelight dancing lazily in the hearth. Good thing the investigation had wrapped up yesterday.
I stood by the window, mug in hand, scanning the misty hillside. Curtains of rain swept in waves down the narrow valley below. The mountains had been peaceful all week, but something wouldn't settle.
All week, I'd felt it. As if someone, or something, had been watching me. A presence I couldn't place. I'd even mentioned it to Digone.
He'd brushed it off. "Just the island", he'd said.
Trato lay off Rokorega's northern shore, deep in the volcanic regions. The fire that had destroyed the city two weeks ago wasn't caused by an eruption or a lava bombs. At least, that's what the reports claimed. All 375 residents perished. Such senseless loss of life.
The thought slipped away as pain seized my chest. A sharp, tightening pull.
I gasped and clutched my ribs. The bond flared without mercy, a searing jolt, as if someone had struck a match inside my soul.
The mug slipped from my fingers and shattered across the hardwood floor.
"Deanna?!"
I was already moving, bursting from the room, the storm light flashing down the hallway in erratic pulses.
Digone stepped out just in time to grab my arm as I rushed by. "What is it, Somenaco?"
But I didn't stop. I ripped free of his grasp. I tore down the stairs and flung the front door open so hard it nearly came off the hinges.
"Something's wrong."
Digone followed close behind. I could feel his presence at my back.
"I have to get to her." I didn't wait for a reply. I reached deep into the core of who I am and let the power surge.
Shadows rippled over my skin, transmuting into scales. My dragon form unfurled in an instant, wings slicing through the storm like blades of midnight.
Lightning cracked overhead as Digone followed, his own transformation glowing green beside me.
"We'll get there," Digone said through the link. "I'm sure it's—"
His voice was pushed aside as Deanna's voice came through, pain-ripped and raw as she called my name: Somenaco…
Suddenly , that watching presence, the one I'd felt all week, tightened like a noose around my neck. Not paranoia, not instinct it was a warning, I ignored.
Her voice whisper through my mind. Interrupting my thoughts. Fading fear crawl through my veins. Not my feelings it was Deanna she was afraid.
I pushed harder, wings flaring as I forced the wind beneath them. The cloudbanks tore past, upper air currents catching like a storm-born arrow. Faster. Faster.
The flight to the cliff wasn't far. We were moving at full speed.
Then, Digone's voice screamed across the bond. "My gods!"
I pivoted mid-flight and I saw her.
Deanna. Held high in the claws of a red dragoness.
And then—
She was thrown.
I dove. The wind roared past as I tucked my wings tight and dropped like a spear.
Every beat of my heart screamed; No. No. NO.
She fell like a star torn from the sky. And then…
She struck the ground.
And my world shattered into darkness.
***
I came to in a field, back in my human form.
The metallic tang of blood clung to the air.
Everything hurt, but the one thing that mattered was gone.
The bond, there was nothing, no fear just my pain. I called to her but my voice was just a whisper.
I reached for Deanna anyway, refusing to believe what my eyes had seen.
I closed my eyes and pulled from the deepest part of me, the center of my shadows, and stretched with my soul.
I remembered her voice: "Try again," she had once told me. "Close your eyes. Reach through the shadows and feel for my light. Feel the string that binds us."
I had just come to live with her then, fresh from the shock of my mark appearing. Still new to the feeling of the bond.
I'd sat on a stone bench, Deanna's fingers pressed to my forehead.
"The bond isn't a path," she had said. "It's a heartbeat. Listen for mine."
Now, in the silence of the field, I listened, and heard nothing.
I couldn't move, paralyzed by the loss.
Then I heard it, a growling, primal scream rip itself out of my body.
Digone ran over to me. "Don't move. You're hurt."
He crouched, pulling out his phone.
"He fell out of the sky when Deanna died," he told someone, voice barely holding steady. "She's dead. Get the Elders and the healers. I'll bring him to the cavern."
He hung up and turned away. I knew what he was going to do.
"This may hurt," he spoke into my mind.
I looked up. His power stirred the leaves on the ground, drawing them into a spiral. Green mist gathered, curling around his body as he began to grow. His form expanded, scales rippling from deep emerald to pale moss with glints of gold catching the stormlight.
His wings unfurled, massive, powerful.
Digone carefully lowered one clawed and He scooped me up like I weighed nothing. He pushed off the ground. The force of the takeoff pressed against my broken ribs.
Digone carried me home.
I slipped into the darkness.