I laughed as the show Willow and I had chosen ended and glanced over to see my cousin was asleep. This was our fourth movie night, and I thought it might be our last. She was fading quickly now, and I tucked a cover around her to keep her warm. Her mother hadn’t wanted to move her, but Willow had insisted.

She’d fallen asleep before the opening theme song of the show had finished, but I kept on watching. I was too worried to sleep and too frightened of the creatures outside to get out of bed. I’d improved slightly, despite how Malcolm hadn’t come. I didn’t understand it, but I wasn’t as bad I was.

If only I could find a solution for Willow. She was so sweet and deserved a long life of love and happiness. I looked over at her and couldn’t help but smile; even as ill as she was, she wanted to bring me comfort. She was truly a giving person.

I was doing better than her, and I supposed I could live in this state of stasis—caught between mortal illness and being fine—but I knew even that would become wearying over time. I was better, and for now, it would have to suffice. At least until I could find a way back to Malcolm.

If only I had some of these superpowers that were supposed to come with being a dragon hunter. I wasn’t psychic and I didn’t have the ability to blow flames at people or freeze them. I knew because I’d tried. Mom’s old book had drawings of such things, but if I had these powers, how to activate them was a secret.

I slept after a while, Willow warm beside me. I dreamed of Malcolm, as always, but didn’t find peace in it, only more longing. I rolled in the bed, restless and too warm. I woke up with a start, the last dream ending with a gunshot. I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face. I was glad I hadn’t woken up Willow with my crazy dreams and decided to go get a fresh glass of ginger ale. The ice had melted in the old one and I could see the water sitting on top of it.

I was heading to the kitchen, glass in hand, when I heard a tapping at my window. I froze, frightened that it would be another ghost come to scare the daylights out of me but I listened to my intuition. There was a dragon out there, but it wasn’t Malcolm.

I went to the window, hoping to hear some news of my mate, and saw a very somber, younger version of Malcolm. I realized this was one of his brothers, and he wasn’t as similar as I’d first thought.

His hair was black where Mal’s was blond, and his eyes were emerald green rather than steely gray. Their features were similar though, remarkably similar, and I grinned.

“Is he coming? Where is he?” I looked around but didn’t see Malcolm. Willow stirred behind me and I turned pulling the curtain closed. She was waking up and I didn’t want her to see my dragon’s brother, so I climbed out of the window, nightgown and all, and joined him outside.

“Malcolm has sent for you, Arista.” He didn’t say anything more, he just stood there, his eyes steady on my bedroom window. What was that about?

“Fine, great, let’s go.” I was in a rush. It had been over two weeks, I wanted to see Malcolm desperately and this guy was just standing there, staring at my bedroom window as if he’d just found the best taco stand in the world!

“Who’s in your bedroom?” he asked, turning to me.

“My cousin, and if you don’t hurry she’ll wake up, come on, let’s go.” I didn’t even know his name but didn’t care. Malcolm had sent for me.

“Very well.” He didn’t say anything else, he just shifted, and I climbed onto his back. It didn’t occur to me to ask why Malcolm hadn’t come, or why he’d sent his brother when he’d spent so much time trying to hide me from his world.

The dragon grew after I straddled his shoulders and began to climb into the sky. Before long, we were high in the clouds, but he protected me from the worst of the wind and cold with his wings and head. Malcolm had taken me through the nights like this many times, and I wasn’t afraid of it anymore. I knew I had to stay still and wait, that soon enough, I’d be where I needed to be.

I wondered if there was a TSA and immigration in the magical world. Would Malcolm’s father want a passport before I was allowed in? I had to assume that’s where I was being taken because we’d crossed over the Atlantic.

Now that I’d had time to think about it, I did begin to wonder what was going on. Maybe Malcolm had been hurt and that’s why he hadn’t come himself. Perhaps he wasn’t able to fly anymore, and he’d sent this rather stony brother in his place?

I decided I didn’t care, I was going to see him soon enough, and that was all that mattered. Before long, the sun was rising, and we were flying down to a coastal town that shone in the sunlight. We flew through some kind of bubble, a thin veil of something, and the world below changed. A castle surrounded by a moat, stood tall and sprawling on a hill with a village spread out below. The village was encircled by a tall stone wall and served as a barrier between the castle on the hill and the outer wall below.

A real-life castle with turrets and walkways for guards took up most of the space on the hill. It appeared to be three stories tall with flags jutting from the top of three spires. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked the place over. It was every schoolgirl fantasy of a castle, where a young maiden would find her future king.

I wondered if I’d get a long gown with a corset to wear. One of those dreamy confections with overly long arms, a train, and a corset that would push my boobs up to my eyeballs. I glanced down and laughed, I didn’t have enough of a chest to cinch up that high. I felt the most carefree and happy since I’d last seen Malcolm. He was near, I could feel him. It wouldn’t be long now.

The dragon landed on a spot marked similarly to helicopter landing pad on one side of the castle, and I dismounted. He shifted right away and indicated I should follow him through a door. I wanted to stick my tongue out at the silent man but behaved myself as he led me down the stairs.

When he kept going, despite having gone down four flights of stairs, I started to protest. “Where are we going? Why is Malcolm down here?”

“Madam, Malcolm is a prisoner. As a dragon hunter you shouldn’t even be here but this is a dire situation. Malcolm is the heir to my father’s throne and he is dying. Now, if you’ll shut up and let me take you to him, perhaps you can save him before it’s too late.”

“Too late?” I all but shrieked. “What do you mean too late?”

He was halfway down the next flight of steep stairs and I hurried to keep up. Malcolm was dying?

We finally came to a door that he didn’t pass, and the man pushed it open for me. I walked in and saw two cells side-by-side, but only one with a door open. A tall older man stood in that one, a sour expression on his face. In the other, a man slept with a blanket thrown over his body. I felt pulled to that cell but the older man stopped me.

“In here, dragon hunter.” His words were a smirk, a sneer, and I knew he didn’t like me.

“Where are we?” I demanded to know. I could feel some instinct within me, primed and ready to attack this man.

“In my castle, of course, hunter. You can put away the hunter act, I know you haven’t been trained. You probably couldn’t kill a bug, as weak and untrained as you are.”

He looked me up and down and I felt as if I’d failed some major inspection by the time he finished. “The hunters of old would be ashamed to see what their progeny have become. Look at you, puny, weak, and unprepared. I’m not sure why you worried me so much now.”

“Who are you?” I knew who he had to be, but I couldn’t believe it, even with that silly gold circlet with rubies on his head. I walked into the cell and looked up at him. He was taller than Malcolm, so my head had to tilt back even more than usual.

He looked at me with a sneer that set my hackles on edge. My fists clenched at my sides as I stared back at him, unafraid. Something told me I might be weak, but I could still kill this man if I wanted to.

“I am Godwin, King of Jorvik. You are Arista of the Carolinas, and my son’s mate. You are my prisoner and will remain as such.”

“Excuse me?” I cried out as he stepped around me and slammed the door shut.

“Malcolm will recover with you near. When he is well, and we have found a way to end this curse placed on him, you will be taken to the executioner. Have a good day.”

He made to leave but I stopped him with a screech as I ran up to the bars, reaching for him through the irons. If I could just get my hands on him, I could snap his neck.

“Wait! What are you talking about? End the curse? The mating? And executioner? I don’t think so buddy, I’m a US citizen, you can’t lock me in here, and you certainly can’t execute me!”

I heard an amused laugh from the other man before he turned around to face me. “Your citizenship has no meaning here, my dear. You are supposed to be dead but my son chose to spare your life. Here, you are nothing more than a tool, and you will be used as such. Good day.”

This time my litany of questions didn’t stop him, and I hurled some rather nasty swear words at him. You’d think that would have had him turning but it didn’t, he just kept walking.

“Malcolm!” Stupidly, I realized he was in the cell right next to me a little late in the game. “Malcolm!”

I didn’t hear a response, but I could feel him. I closed my eyes, listening, feeling, but all I could find was the faint sound of his heartbeat.

“Oh, Malcolm, what have they done to you?” My strong fearsome dragon was only a shell now. There was hardly anything left of the man I loved.

“You must work hard, hunter, to bring my brother back from death. He’s almost there now, so you’d best get to work.” A young woman, another sibling I assumed from her looks, came out of the shadows around the guard’s station and approached me.

Her hair was blond like Malcolm’s, but her eyes were green. A gift from her mother, I assumed. Godwin’s eyes were the same as Malcolm’s: cold, steel gray. This female version of the man was just as beautiful as the male version was, even if her eyes were hard and full of distrust.

“What do I do?” I had no experience with this and didn’t think there was much I could do when we were separated by a cell.

“I don’t know, we’ve not had to do this in a long time, if ever. Not in my memory. Do what your instinct tells you to do.” She didn’t appear to be any more clued up than me. Great.

“My instincts tell me to crawl into bed with him,” I told her, waiting for her to open the door.

“That won’t be happening. Father won’t allow it. Think of something else.” Her eyes told me to hurry or she’d kill me before I ever saw the executioner.

“Let me think. Sheesh, I just got here, this is all really way too much.” My head swam, and I sank down to the bed.

Reality sank in then. I was a prisoner, as was Malcolm. I’d been kidnapped and my mate was dying. Oh, and his father wanted to kill me for being alive. Yeah, I think that was all of it.

I put my head in my hands and wanted to cry, but I knew Malcolm needed me. I pushed down the sob that was squeezing my throat closed and tried to think. How do you heal someone like this? Malcolm had said we only needed to be close to each other, but that didn’t seem to be helping. His mere presence was enough to bring me back from the brink, which had been something I couldn’t tell my mother all those times she asked why I was getting better again.

I didn’t know why I had improved, but she’d kept looking at me like she knew. I realized I was stalling, distracted, and forced my thoughts back to Malcolm. I leaned against the wall and could feel his warmth even through the barrier.

“Can you move his bed to this wall? Bring him closer to me?” I looked up to see the woman still there. “I’m sorry, what is your name?”

“I’m Mary. The dragon that came to get you is Henry. Yes, let me get the key.” She retrieved the key and went into Malcolm’s cell.

I heard wood scraping on stone and a grunt as she pushed Malcolm and the bed to the other wall. I heard some fabric tearing and then something banging into the wall before she came out of the cell once more.

“You don’t have long, hunter. You’d better make this work.” Her eyes, hard as glass, pinned me to my position on the bed. “I wasn’t joking. I will kill you myself if you can’t heal him quickly.”

I gulped and put my hand back to the wall. I could feel him now, so close, but so far away. I could only try.

I pushed back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. Godwin was right, some hunter I was. I’d fallen right into the trap, traipsed into it happily even. I might have been stupid, but it had led me straight to the one person I wanted to see the most, so it wasn’t completely pointless.

I focused my energy at the wall or tried to do so. How do you focus something when you don’t know how? I imagined a purple ray of energy and beamed it at the wall where Malcolm was, hoping it would go through the cold stone. I didn’t feel any changes, or hear anything, but I kept trying.

I didn’t want to lose him, not when I’d just found him again. I put my hands to the wall and pushed, wanting to push through it to get to the man I loved. I wasn’t just mated to Malcolm, I loved him. I couldn’t let him die now, even if it meant I would die at the end of it all. I don’t know what Godwin or Mary meant when they said they were trying to find a way to break the mating bond, but I knew what I thought it meant.

I didn’t like the sound of it, but I knew Malcolm and I knew myself. We didn’t need some mysterious quirk of fate to make us belong to each other. We simply did, mating bond or not. Love was our bond, not physiology. I just had to find a way to keep him physically alive otherwise we’d both die.