Chapter Eight
Sigisvult
How did I know Celeste would end up on board? I held my tongue as she entered the shuttle on Ikar’s arm and grit my teeth the whole time she emptied her things into one of the staterooms.
We were traveling to Chavatov, a small, treacherous planet located far across the asteroid trails of the major arms of our galaxy. Just a two-week journey from Udora.
I looked over at Celeste and Ikar with a hatred I didn’t think I possessed. I watched the careful way he touched her hand and could nearly feel her skin beneath mine as though his hand were my own. So this is what it felt like: jealousy, paranoia. Watching them, I began to wonder if he was the dragon she slept with and if that’s how she got her information out of him. Or if she spent her nights with him or if he pleased her.
I’d gotten a lot better at controlling my paranoia… I’d gotten better at controlling a lot of thoughts actually. I hadn’t thought of my last chosen in days now.
Like a punch to the gut, I felt our time together flood back in a rush of weight crashing over my body. I brushed my arms for heat and turned my gaze from the pair.
“Wow, you’re going nuts,” came Vordamm’s cruel laughter as he sat back in the lounge chair at the bar.
We’d already been flying for some time; just a day left before we landed on Chavatov.
“And what makes you say that?” I asked tiredly, taking a drink and setting my glass back firmly on the counter.
“All she does is hang out with the guy,” Vordamm insisted with a frown. He leaned far back to catch a better glimpse of the two and then looked at me with a prickly smile. “Think he’s getting it wet?”
“Nice,” I frowned, hating the mental image. “No, I don’t.”
“Ah, yes you do,” he laughed casually and took another drink. “But I don’t. So, don’t worry about it.”
I raised and lowered my brows dismissively. “Ah, well, as long as you don’t.”
“Maybe if you weren’t such a… charmer, she’d be spending all her time with you, instead.”
“And why in the world would I want that?”
Vordamm leaned forward on the polished walnut bar top, resting on his forearms before swiftly smacking me in the shoulders.
“Hey!” I shouted. “What was that for?!”
He laughed with heart. “For bein’ such an idiot. I don’t get it; I really don’t.”
“She’s annoying.”
“Yeah,” he waved me off. “Yeah, she’s annoying. But she’s got spunk. I like that.”
“That’s because you’re old,” I taunted. “Everything looks good to you.”
“Laugh all you want,” he warned. “But she’s got pep.”
“Pep, spunk, heart. Any other swell adjectives you want to throw my way or can I finish my drink here?”
“Alright,” he said playfully, accepting my dare. He turned to me and raised one thick, orange-scaled finger to me and grinned victoriously. “You name me one human you’ve ever met who dove face first into a crater filled with liquid as thick as oil to save a guy she barely knows.”
I set my jaw.
“That’s what I thought,” he grinned. “Just tell her about Merrill and get it over with, will ya?”
“Wow,” I said with no small measure of offense. “Throw it all out there, why don’t you?”
He let out a small ‘humph’ and buried his glass into his bristling beard. “I thought I just did.”
I stared into the thin liquid of my drink and swirled it in the square glass. It hadn’t been that long ago that I attended a choosing, but it must have been years and years now. Merrill.
Leaving Udora felt like a prize that I didn’t deserve, to go and fulfill what all other shifters could do. Mate. They would bring home their females and parade them around the capitol like they had been awarded new life.
Sure, there were the complicated ones here and there, but as a child growing up it seemed only those deemed worthy by the Koth were assigned to attend a choosing.
I’d gone along as security on one or two occasions and always marveled at the women. Their beauty.
Then I met her. Blonde hair, brown eyes, thick curves and stunningly beautiful. She took a special interest in the powers the Weredragons should possess. She wanted me to control the water.
She loved glowstones, small chips of rock with a blue hue irradiating from within. They can only be found at the deepest depths of Udorian water.
I took her to crater valley, where glowstones are cultivated, and promised to get her one. The same place where our training sessions are held. We trained for weeks, her encouraging me to move the water with my soul, feel the connection to my planet. But, I couldn’t.
Then one day she never came home. We found her at the bottom of the crater. She’d drowned, because of me.
“She’s pregnant, you know,” Vordamm said with a casual, slow droll as he looked over at me. He raised his brows, happy to impart the news on me, and tipped his bottle toward my nose. “Congratulations, daddio.”
His words snapped my out of my thoughts, and my eyes darted quickly to his.
“She told you?”
He sighed jovially and shook his head, finishing off the last of his drink. “She didn’t have to. And if your scales were glowing, you would know that already. You would feel that connection.”
“You know,” I said impatiently, “you don’t glow for her, so how the hell would you know?”
He stared at me seriously for a moment, his long face acknowledging my words. Then he laughed again, slapping his leg and then slapping me hard on the back.
“I’ve been around long enough to know, as you implied earlier.”
With that, he took his leave from me, and I sat alone in absolute terror. If she was pregnant, was I really supposed to feel that? Was it mine? If it was and she was… why wouldn’t she have said anything by now? All she’d done since she came here was go on and on about wanting to get pregnant.
I pressed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples, sat alone for some time longer before making my way back to our stateroom.
When I walked in, Celeste was already in the bed, surprisingly clothed. I took quiet and careful steps not to wake her and couldn’t help but eye her stomach as I slipped into the bed.
I tried to feel for any sensation in my body or that familiar heat in my scales as I lay next to her, but nothing came. No signs or intuition. I looked up at the ceiling and shifted slightly on my pillow.
“You know, when you move around like that it tends to keep wake me up,” Celeste complained through groggy tones, never opening her eyes. “And keep me up.”
I grit my teeth at the comment but said nothing.
“What’s up?” she asked, now opening her eyes and looking up at me through day-old makeup.
“I’m trying to go to sleep,” I said with an annoyed laugh.
“Funny,” she piped up. “So was I.”
I opened my eyes and looked across at her mane of red hair and wild gray eyes that were ready to go off at any moments. It was although at any given moment she was ready to spring into action, an argument, an adventure… a cliff dive.
I cringed inwardly at the thought.
“I never thanked you, you’re right,” I said lowly.
She cocked a brow and began to laugh. “That was like… a long time ago.”
“You dove in after me, and you shouldn’t have.”
“We’ve been through this lecture already,” she sighed playfully and began to roll over.
I propped up on my side and turned her back to me, running my fingers appreciatively along her cheek. “No lecture,” I said uncomfortably. “Just, a thank you.”
“Even though I shouldn’t have done it,” she sassed.
“You shouldn’t have,” I said grimly, suddenly realizing the parallel between the two women in my life. “It was dangerous.”
“So was coming here, but I did it anyway,” she said proudly.
I pursed my lips and looked her over. Maybe she didn’t get it, didn’t get me or what I was trying to say. But there it was all the same.
“Why?”
“Why did I come here?” she repeated.
I nodded, and she sat up. “You know, you’re right. I really didn’t think through!” she said with mock panic. “Can we just turn around and take me home?” I rolled my eyes and she pulled at my arm, laughing. “No, really! I underestimated this whole plan!”
“Celeste.”
“Alright, alright.” She released me. “I came to help. Why else?”
“You don’t even know us,” I said quietly. “Why?”
“Because I can,” she said finally, her effervescent attitude still bubbling forth through her serious tones. “And you’re welcome.”
“Well then,” I surmised. “Goodnight.”