I made my way back to the cave, calling out for Arista to let her know I was back. When she didn’t come out, I thought she must be asleep and went inside. The sun was going down now and the cave was only growing darker.

I placed my feet carefully as I went. I didn’t want to kick her in the dark, so I moved with caution. I’d covered the entire cave without finding her. Where was she?

I went back out to the front of the cave but didn’t see her. I glared into the darkness, and moved around, thinking perhaps she’d gone to use the “outside facilities”, but she wasn’t there. She simply was not there! Where was she?

I looked around and felt like the world was starting to spin when she didn’t appear. I fell to the ground, panic making me hyperventilate. Arista was gone and I had no idea where she was. Had she run off? Had my father taken her?

Surely he would have stayed behind for me if he’d been the one to take her? I ran back to the cave entrance, looking around for any clues. I found a soft leather scrap of cloth that had been kicked to one side that hadn’t been there before. Near the outcrop of rocks, the cloth had a symbol on it that made my blood run cold.

Dragon hunters.

There were dragon hunters here, this scrap proved it. Two dragons locked in combat but caged within a circle, the symbol of the hunters of old. They knew I was here, and they’d obviously taken the one they’d considered their own. Would they harm her? How had I not sensed them?

Maybe it was that potion, I thought, as I sat down once more. Looking into the coming darkness, I knew something had blocked me sensing them here. We’d thought they were all gone, but it would seem they’d just gone into hiding, right under the noses of those they hunted. Were these untrained as Arista had been?

She’d gone with them, so obviously they’d either taken her or convinced her to go. I knew she wouldn’t go without me, so I doubted she’d just traipsed off happily with them. No, they must be aware of what they were, of what I was, and had come to save Arista. Why not attack me, I wondered? Maybe they weren’t strong enough.

I knew there was little chance of finding Arista, but I went out into the jungle anyway. I followed the path we’d thought was just an animal trail, but now I had to wonder because it seemed to be a special place. If the dragon hunters had found Arista so easily, perhaps the cave was a sacred place to them.

I looked throughout the night, wishing my powers would come back so I could take flight and look for her from the air. Henry had said that the potion was wearing off and I kept trying but I couldn’t shift. I felt helpless, the same as I’d felt in the prison because I couldn’t help Arista, I didn't even know for sure where she was. Depression became a heavy weight on my mind. I felt like I’d failed her again.

I avoided the sounds of animals and the slithering of snakes in the trees as I walked through the dense forest. This was not a safe place, not like I’d thought it was when we had first walked into it fleeing from my father. In the darkness, it seemed even more sinister than the plans my father had for us. I did not know what kind of animals lay in the dark, or what might be in the trees waiting to devour me, but I was not totally helpless.

Even without my powers, I was still strong and I still had the skills that I’d been trained with. I simply couldn’t shift into a dragon or use the senses that I had when I was in my dragon. I had almost become human and it didn't feel that bad. I was worried the dragon hunters would be able to overpower me, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was getting to Arista and getting her to safety.

The sun was starting to rise by the time I smelled the first hint of smoke. There was a village close by, and I hoped it was the right village. I was exhausted from my trek through the jungle, covered in mosquito bites, hungry, and dehydrated but that didn't stop me. Even without my dragon powers I knew that Arista was close, I could feel her.

Those first niggling pains of separation had started during the night. That tight ache had started in my chest and squeezed my stomach, and it was already making me tense by the time I smelled the smoke. I moved carefully to the few trees at the border of what I thought was a village. I came to a wide tree and stared out into the distance.

There was no way I’d be able to get Arista out of the city which stood before me. Torches lit the buildings up. Every building and every floor had a torch. It almost looked like a modern city at first, because there were so many lights. The rising sun showed me it was full of people.

It looked like an Aztec city or a Mayan ruin, but it was in the middle of the jungle of a magical world and was, perhaps, even bigger than the place we’d run from. I didn’t know where to start, so I watched for a while. I didn’t see any men, only women and children as the women began their morning routines. The women were taking down the torches and putting them out while the children were passing out baskets of bread. They left the baskets at doorsteps and knocked before they moved on to the next door.

I watched as each door was opened by a woman; I didn’t see any men at all. This was some kind of matriarchal society and yet that didn’t mean that I could just go in and take Arista. These were women who knew how to protect themselves and they'd been here for generations from the looks of the place.

I started through alleyways, keeping an eye out for anyone who might spot me. I made my way to the center of the city just in time to see the slanting of sun rays as the sun brightened the sky. Women were gathered there already doing their work for the day. From what I could see it looked like they were training for battle, but none held weapons or wore protective clothing.

The sun blinded me for a moment as it continued to climb in the sky, but I was certain I had seen Arista. They were bringing her from one of the thatched roof houses that dotted the area around the main pyramid in the middle. Everything flowed from the pyramid: avenues, the round houses with thatched roofs, water wells, and stalls for selling goods—it all flowed outwards from the pyramid.

I looked to see where Arista was once more and saw that they were leading her to the pyramid. I didn’t know anything about this culture, and it seemed unlikely they were taking her as a sacrifice but it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. I felt my power surge suddenly through my veins and wanted to shift immediately but I still couldn’t.

Suddenly voices broke the quiet of the waking city, a shout that I knew translated to dragon. Women of all ages surged around me, but I still couldn’t shift. It reminded me of the one time I’d tried to drive a car but the engine wouldn't turn over. It would work if I could just get that one little bit of power through, but it just wouldn’t come through. I tried to remain calm as I looked at the sea of unfamiliar female faces.

“You are too late, dragon, we are sending her home. That's where she belongs, not with you. How dare you defile a hunter like that? She does not even realize what she is, not truly.” A woman broke through the sea of faces and came towards me. Her face was creased with disgust and again I wondered at a world where two people who loved each other could not be together based on old prejudices.

“She is my mate, hunter. We cannot undo what fate has deemed to be perfection.” I stared her down, watching as the women began to take battle stances. Some were crouched in front of me as if they would pounce on me, while others near the back began to pick up rocks. I might not get out of this alive.

“That is impossible, dragon. Why would fate decide that a dragon and a dragon hunter should be mates? That makes no sense.”

I looked up at the pyramid as a sound like thunder cracked through the air. A portal had opened at the top of the pyramid, a circular shape of distorted air appeared there. I saw Arista being pushed through the portal, and even from this distance, I could hear her shout my name.

“No, you can't send her back! My father will kill her or take her prisoner. On top of that, we will die without each other.”

“You are not mated,” the dragon hunter sneered. “It is impossible. You will not die without her and she will not die without you. What will happen is she will go on to live a normal life, as a normal human. Without you or your filth defiling her.”

For the second time in my life, I heard these terms used to describe Arista and me. I wanted to scream at the injustice of it, but I knew there was little I could do. My fate was uncertain but I was certain of one thing: if I couldn’t shift I was about to die, and that meant Arista would die as well.

The leader menaced towards me, watching me intently. I knew Arista was gone and I knew where she would be, as for the 500th time that day I tried to shift. Power surged through me, wiping away my exhaustion, as finally something went right for me. I kicked off from the ground. The screams of anger from below mattered little to me. If I hadn’t been in my dragon shape I would have shouted with glee.

Instead, I flew as fast as I could, as high as I could to get away from the death that awaited me below. I soared into the rising sun, aiming for the clouds, and flexed the muscles that hadn’t been used for months. It was not normal for a dragon to go so long without shifting, but it didn’t show as my tail sailed out behind me, my rudder to guide my way through the wind.

I headed for the familiar, away from the land of the eternal sun and sand. I didn’t head home or towards Arista’s home. I flew to a place where I knew I could seek refuge, the land where pineapples and lava ruled. Over the ocean I flew, a streak of black and red that human eyes would not see. I had no plans other than to get there, regroup, and figure out a way to get to Arista. My father would have people there, I just knew it, and I would not be able to help her if we were both imprisoned.

My instinct, of course, was to fly straight to her, but I knew better. Love can make you do stupid things, but sometimes it was better to wait and go in with a plan. I was sensible enough to know that.

I was near to the chain of islands when I began to descend to the ground. I didn’t get far before my flight down was halted. My father and my own security team—a team I’d trained myself—interrupted my descent and captured me with a net of silver alloy. I wouldn’t be scarred by the alloy, but I was contained as the net was painful against my skin. The burns would heal much better than if the net had been made of pure silver. I plummeted to the ground, a tight ball, and lay there defeated at last. I couldn’t even try to fight anymore. Exhaustion took me the moment I’d shifted back into human form when I hit the ground.

The effort to shift had drained me completely after my night of trekking through the jungle. A priest came and created a portal for us to travel through, and I was dragged away in my silver chains, but no one said a word. There were no congratulations, no laughs of triumph. It was just a security team quietly taking in a prisoner.

I went peacefully to the prison cell where my father had kept me previously. The fight had left me for now.

“He can live without his hunter now,” I heard my father saying to someone. I was too exhausted to lift my head to answer or to question him in any way.

The last of the world left me when a needle pricked my arm and the flames of a million fires began to burn in my blood. I didn’t know it, but I screamed the scream of the damned, a scream that made everyone in the room cringe with sympathy. Everyone but my father.

“This should take care of that little problem of his. You can destroy the hunter now. And that abomination she carries.” The satisfaction in his voice should have had me up off the bed with my hands around his throat, but I was too busy being consumed with the agony of having my mating torn away from me. Curled up into a ball on the bed, all I could think was that I would die from the agony of it, and perhaps that was a blessing.