I tried to open my eyes, but I could not tell if they were open. I tried to move, but I could not tell if my limbs had shifted. The world was dark and I wasn’t even sure of my own name.

I felt as if I was on fire and there was nothing I could do to put out the flames. I didn’t even know how to escape because I didn’t know which way was up or which way was down. I could only hang there, in limbo. My mind was blank, no thoughts came, and I simply was.

I don’t know how long I was in that place or even what I was. I just knew consciousness and unconsciousness, and those I could only separate by how much pain I felt. This was not a pleasant place. Time passed but I don’t know how much. I could have been there for years or it could have just been days. Maybe only hours passed, but I didn’t know.

At some point a light appeared. It was little more than a lightness in all the unbroken darkness. It began to glow brighter and was soon a real light. I reached for that light with my unseen hands, wanting out of this hell. This truly was limbo.

Thoughts began to return—memories of a woman. A dark-haired woman with eyes that made me smile. Her smile was even brighter than the light, and the memory of it made me want to find her. I had to find her. I didn’t know why, but she was important and I had to get to her.

Between waking and the odd state of unconsciousness, I thought only of her. I thought perhaps it was her, that odd little light in the dark, pulling me back to the world where she existed. When I could I reached for her and tried to fight my way out of limbo. Time kept passing and I struggled for freedom. Each time I came back to the world of pain, the light patch in the darkness became brighter. I almost felt as though she was there with me, but I knew she wasn’t.

I wondered who she was. My mother? My sister? A lover?

I didn’t think she was a relative, not the way she made me feel. Well, the way her memory made me feel. The heat that seared my flesh began to leave me and my limbs awoke with pinpricks of pain. I knew I was coming back to life and excitement began to flood me. The excitement replaced the nothing that had been there before.

What would I find on the other side, I wondered? Would she be there, would there even be a world there, a world I was only starting to remember? I didn’t know what I would find but I kept trying because I knew she was there, just out of reach.

That tiny spark, that little spot that was only just less dark than the rest, soon became an almost blinding light. I was close to escape, almost there. She was so near, I could almost hear her breathing. I could almost feel her next to me.

A new sound reached my ears over time. A sound of sickness that worried me. That worry drove me even harder to find her. I pushed against the state of unconsciousness that wanted to take me at every turn. I pushed it away from me because I knew she needed me.

Out of the darkness came a name. Her name. Arista.

That was the name of my mate, the name that meant the most to me. Arista.

I fought against the great weight that held my eyelids sealed, ignoring the pain that felt like my flesh was tearing, and finally opened my eyes to see a cell of silver. Memories rushed back, thoughts, words, and emotions. My father’s anger surged into my mind, and even the memory of his cold stare made me shiver as I remembered the last time I’d opened my eyes.

I knew my mate was close, so tantalizingly close. Arista was very nearby, perhaps even right next to me. I moved from the bed, pushing myself up off the mattress covered in my stale sweat. My clothes clung to me. I knew I'd been ill, but that didn't matter right now.

Arista.

I was surprised I had the strength to stand much less move. Arista’s presence, for I could feel her now, drove me up and I had to get to her. She had come for me in the darkness and saved me when nothing else could. I reached for the bars, ready to bend them open, but paused as I realize they were covered in silver. I was still in my father’s prison, a prisoner unable to escape.

"Somebody let me out of here," I shouted into the small room that served as the guard's station. "Let me out!"

"I’m here, Malcolm." I heard her voice from a space unseen beside me. "I'm right here, my love."

I saw the nails of her fingers appear on the side of my cell, between the bars and moved to them, my lips brushing against her skin for a moment before I took her fingers in mine. I was careful to avoid the silver bars, but at last, Arista was here.

"You pulled me from the darkness," I whispered, my strength ebbing as quickly as it had come. I sank down to the floor, her hand still in mine. "You came for me."

Gratitude and love flooded my veins as I felt her energy flow into me. I'd almost died, I'd been right there at death's door, and she’d pulled me back. That was the power of our bond, but more importantly, the power of our love. I had to get her out of this place, my brain screamed at me, I had to find a way to escape.

"I waited for you, Malcolm. I tried to think of ways to find you but I had no idea where to start. Your brother Henry came for me at last. I'm just glad I didn't get here too late." Her voice sounded strong, but her breathing wasn't right.

"What's wrong with you, Arista?" I let my head rest against the edge of my bed, nearly panting for my own breath. I was just so tired.

I didn't want to fall asleep again. Fear unlike any I had ever felt made me want to sew my eyes open so they would never close again. She was so near that I could touch her. I didn't want to lose her again.

"I'm... oh no, not again." Her fingers jerked from mine and I could hear her being sick in the cell next to me.

I heard her tears as she retched and I wanted to comfort her. I didn't know how to, not when I was unable to touch her, to brush her hair from her face or wipe away her tears.

"I'm so sick, Malcolm! I don't know what it is. I thought it was the mating sickness but it hasn't stopped. It just keeps getting worse." I heard her pitiful voice, strident because of her tears, and felt a tearing in my guts.

"It's alright, darling, we'll figure it out. Calm down. Shhh. Come back to me, come on, over here, take my fingers again." Slowly, she pulled herself back to me, and I began to sing a song my mother had sung to me when I was ill as a child.

It was a dragon song, but I knew she understood. It was about the joy of flight and how it took away all that ailed you. Arista listened, her sobs going quiet as we held hands through the bars. I sang until I could barely sing anymore, and her breathing became even. She was asleep.

It came to me then, the reason for her illness. She was carrying my child.

I heard a small voice in my head. A tiny voice that laughed with excitement because he could talk to me at last. My child, our child!

"Father, we must escape this place. Mother is so ill and so very unhappy." The tiny voice of my son brought tears to my eyes, tears that I quickly swiped away.

"I will find a way, my son," I spoke back to him with my mind.

"Good, I don't like it here. They won't feed Mother what I want to eat. I'm not quite sure what a taco is but when she thinks about them I want one."

I chuckled at my son's thoughts. Arista loved the crunchy little treats and I'd seen her eat many of them.

"They do look nice, son. Maybe we can make some for her once you're grown and old enough to help cook." I could picture our son in a kitchen, telling us off as he tried to make food for us.

I had to find a way out of here. That was all there was to it.

My mate slept in her cell, still unaware of the life growing inside of her. My son and I talked in the way of dragons. We made plans for the future and I knew that life could be completely different from what I had planned. I did not plan on a future with a child and a wife, but the moment I knew my son I knew what life I wanted.

Just then, my father came in and life took a new twist. He had ideas on how to free me from the bonds of my mating, he roared as he bounced through the door gleefully. He came into the guard's station, Henry and Mary with him, with a jaunty air that did not match his angry face. He gazed down at me on the floor and sneered.

"This is what you are reduced to for that dragon hunter of yours, Malcolm? Wallowing like a pig, in your own sweat and dirt? This is the life you choose?”

I glared up at my father from the floor, not recognizing the man before me. He had always been a fair ruler, but this was a hard man with an iron fist and I did not recognize him. Ruling a land of magic could be difficult but he had always managed it with aplomb. He walked a border between ruthlessness and vicious actions, but he had always been fair. I had never known my father to take an evil action, but it was almost as if he had gone insane. His eyes burned with anger, with glee at the pain he was about to cause, and I almost felt as if he hated me. The man before me had never been evil, but now I wondered.

“What would you like me to say, Father? That I will do your bidding and be a good boy? Because it’s not going to happen. Breaking the mating bond will not end this and if you try it will not end well for you.” I didn’t care if the threat was empty, I had to make the promise, even with an uncertain future.

I could barely hold myself up against the edge of the bed, but I still held onto Arista’s hand.

He looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Hundreds of years spent keeping the peace between werewolves and vampires and between vampires and dragon shifters was in jeopardy because of me. That’s what he saw at least. He had spent so much time keeping that peace that he couldn’t break out of his own prejudices now. Where my father used to be able to find a fair option, he was now looking for the simple one that would tear my mate from my life.

The worst part was, he seemed to be enjoying it, and I just couldn’t fathom why. Even if he thought humans were worse than the muck that gathered in the crevices of his shoes, this hatred he felt towards me was unreasonable.

“You might be the son that will take my place one day, Malcolm, but you won’t take that place with this woman by your side.” His jaw all but cracked as he spoke, and I knew he was furious.

“Father, she is my mate, and you can break that bond but you can’t make me stop loving her. She is the woman I love and you can’t break that no matter what you do.”

“We’ll see, Malcolm. You were always a good son, but you can’t bring this filth into our land. She will destroy us all. You might not think it fair but breaking your bond is the only solution.”

I didn’t point out that he’d brought her here, not me. I was too tired to continue to argue. I let my head hang between my hands as I considered what to do. He was telling me that he was going to rip her from my life, a move he hoped would make me forget her.

I knew that breaking the bond would not make me stop loving her, if anything breaking the bond would only show me how much I truly did love her. My father would not understand. He thought the mating was the only bond between us. He was wrong, we loved each other, bond or no bond.

Arista was a true hunter, fierce and loyal, and would fight for anyone she loved. There was far more to my mate than just a shared bond.

“Father, you can try but the only way a bond has been broken throughout our history is through death. Try your best, you will not break it.” I could cling to that hope. I didn’t feel threatened by him at all now, other than in the matters of freedom.

I knew we didn’t need the bond to love each other, Arista and I, so he could break it if he chose, it wouldn’t change things.

He considered me for a moment, staring at me as he would a specimen in a jar.

“You’d better hope we find a way because the only way you’re getting out of this prison cell is if that bond is broken. She will stay here forever if I have to keep her here, as will you, because I will not unleash her on our world.”

I looked back at him, my world suddenly tilting on its side. From his rigid stance and the cold look in his eye I knew he meant every word he said. He would keep us locked up here for eternity if that’s what it took. I could not allow that, but I didn’t have any idea how to get us out of here.

I looked behind my father at my brother and my sister, but they were not looking at me. I—the man who was supposed to be king—was now a prisoner. Even worse, my mate was a prisoner with me in a world she did not understand.