Chapter 14:
Marina
Tredorphen’s words rung in my ears. He wouldn’t stop me. This was my mission now.
Alone.
In purpose, anyway. While Tredorphen assured me this was not his war, he still flew me to the top of the tower, far out of sight, and opened the door for me. He wouldn’t help me free the prisoners, he said, but he couldn’t leave my side, either. He had claimed me.
He couldn’t betray his people, and I couldn’t leave mine behind.
I felt a pang of disgust shoot up my body as I felt the flower of love blooming at the core of my body. The fact that I felt any comfort being near the golden dragon made me feel sick to my stomach.
I wanted believe he had nothing to do with the massacre that happened on the Vulcana. The tape showed nothing of him murdering, I tried to convince myself. And so in my heart, I wanted to forgive him. To make things right. To believe we could overcome our lies.
The door to the tower opened, and I slipped in through the stone pillar. I half-believed Tredorphen might slam the closure shut behind me, but instead, he followed closely behind. He grabbed my waist to maneuver me through the tight corridors, and I marveled in terror at the sight of the tower.
There were floors and floors of prisoners: large cells packed next to one another in the damp tower. The halls had something like brickwork on the floors and myriads of jails. The metal bars echoed with my footsteps, and I could hear the cries of the women.
Tredorphen instructed me to crouch down as a Weredragon began walking down the hall. I fell into the shadows and watched as the gold shifter gave a nod to the guard.
“I’m taking over for the next cycle,” Tredorphen said to the terrifying red dragon.
The guard had a large scar gashed across his face and only one arm. The rest of him was pure muscle. His large wings spread far, and he made idle chit-chat with Tredorphen. Seeing that the gold shifter was the prince, the guard could hardly argue with him.
Within a moment, the man clicked his jaw shut and disappeared out the window; flying into the night like it was nothing.
Tredorphen looked at me and nodded for me to open the doors.
“Come on,” I whispered quietly to the girls as I set the magnetic key against their cages and they began flooding out one by one.
I made my way to the cage at the back of the floor and set the lock over, causing the door to prop open. I smiled and waved the girl out, but she wouldn’t budge.
“I’m not going,” Chelsea, a brunette who had been one of my top researchers demanded.
“Like hell you aren’t,” I seethed. “Get to the roof!”
“I’m staying,” she said timidly and backed into the far end of her cage. With a hand crawling over her belly she admitted, “I’m pregnant.”
“That’s fine,” I rushed. “We can take care of it on the ship; now come on.”
“No,” she demanded. “I want to stay.”
Was the darkness of the cell consuming her mind? I clenched my jaw and looked to Tredorphen, who said nothing. He offered a pitiful shrug, and I rolled my eyes. “You’re not helping,” I snapped.
“I told you this was your mission,” he shot back.
“I’m not going,” Chelsea demanded. “I love Aithanarid,” she spoke of her shifter mate. “I want to stay with him.”
I stared at her in disbelief and shook my head, rushing to the next cage. To hell with her then. We made our way to the next floor, instructing the girls to run to the roof. As it turned out, Chelsea wasn’t the only girl to refuse to leave. It seemed the Weredragons had won their allegiance after all.
As we reached the end of the second floor, I could hear the cries and roars of the shifters. My hands trembled as I rushed to unlock more doors, and I looked to Tredorphen desperately, but he did nothing.
The girls began screaming and rushing to the door, climbing the narrow stairs to the roof.
And then the shifters came.
Two shifters, one blue and one purple, rushed into the room, staring at me and then looking to the cages dimly. It took a moment for the reality to catch up with them as they suddenly shot back into a fighter’s stance.
The purple Weredragon looked at Tredorphen with the shock of betrayal staining his eyes and he looked as though he weren’t certain what the next move should be. Was he supposed to fight the prince?
The blue shifter didn’t have the same hesitation. I watched as he drove himself forward toward me, his claws outstretched to claim me.
Tredorphen jumped in front of me and dragged his nails across the blue shifters bare chest; leaving streaks of blood trailing behind.
The purple shifter flew to the ceiling and dove down on Tredorphen, wrapping his tail around my love’s neck and squeezing with force. The blue dragon dug his claws into Tredorphen’s side and bit into his arm.
Tredorphen pulled his arms against them, flapping his wings with force and letting out bellows that echoed and shook the room. The noise was enough to cause the purple shifter to squirm off of him, releasing his neck.
I screamed and watched as the gold Weredragon pulled the blue dragon off of his body, leaving one single claw behind in his skin. My love grabbed the shifters snout and smashed him against the ground over and over until the beast didn’t move.
The purple shifter smiled wickedly at this, as though they were in some sort of game.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, and Tredorphen frowned at me, signaling for me to leave. To escape.
My legs wouldn’t move. I was frozen in place, unable to save my crew and unable to save my love.
Then he gave me a look that said: ‘I have a plan,’ and all at once my legs began running.
I took to the stairs and ran up as fast as I could before I heard a cry of flames shoot forth from his mouth; could feel the heat billowing up the stairs behind me as I raced to the top.
The group of us waited with baited breath for something to happen, for the shifters to come for us and imprison us… or for Tredorphen to emerge.
And then he did.
With his unmatched strength, the bleeding golden shifter encouraged us to grab hold of him until all eight of us were gripping onto the Weredragon for dear life as he flew us down to the ground and far north to the Serpent’s Sea.
When he began losing strength, he set us down on the ground, and we all ran like wild winds. Running for our lives.
Moments of suffocating silence emerged as Tredorphen trailed behind us, making sure we reached the Serpent Sea safely. I saw my sister in the distance and ran to her with all the might left in my legs. I cried as I reached the spaceship, nearly collapsing into Athena’s arms. She held me tight and looked up at the field behind me: saw the mere handful of girls who would accompany us.
I swallowed hard and shook my head, crying into her. “I couldn’t,” I sobbed. “I couldn’t get them all.”
She stared into the field for too long after that. We both knew we had to leave, but something drew her eyes to the distance of the land as though more of our crew would come running. But they didn’t.
“Then that’s it,” she said with a sense of finality. “Let’s go.”
My sister helped the girls onto the ship and looked over at Tredorphen with a welcoming smile. The reaction surprised me, and I looked between the two of them curiously.
“Thank you,” I said to the golden shifter, and he held my hand as the ship began humming with the signs of life: with the signs of takeoff.
“I will never have enough words to thank you for what you have been to me,” he said back to me, kissing my hand.
“That’s romantic and all,” Athena said with a laugh before hopping off the ship and pulling the door halfway closed. “And I swear I’m just interrupting for like, two seconds to say that I’m staying.”
“What?” I frowned. “No, I forbid it. As captain I forbid it.”
She shook her head once. “Tell headquarters what happened. They’ll send someone for us.”
“And what are you going to do?” I begged.
“I’m going to go to the tower,” she confirmed dutifully. “I’m going to be the girl on the inside. Don’t worry,” she said with her trademark grin. “I’ve got a plan.”
I could hear Peter urging us to leave. I looked to my sister desperately.
“Hey, I’m the likable one, remember?” she nudged me. “Now scram.”
“Look after her,” I begged Tredorphen, our eyes locking and a pang of love rushing through my system. “And then we’ll be back for her.”
“Oh no, no,” my sister confirmed with a laugh. “He can’t do that, sis, because he’s coming with you.”
Tredorphen frowned. “I… I cannot.”
“You need her,” she said forcefully, shoving the golden shifter in the direction of the ship. “And she needs you. So please, enough with the melodramatics and just… be together.”
“I have shamed my people,” he admitted shamefully. “And I have betrayed your sister.”
Athena brushed him off and looked to me seriously. “If he stays, they’ll kill him,” she said forcefully. “I know what you did,” my sister said to my love, still weakly attempting to shove him above the spacecraft. “You tried to stop them, and they attacked you.”
My eyes shot wide, and I looked to Tredorphen with a full heart. “What?”
I had never fully watched the video. I never knew…
“I didn’t want it to go this way,” the shifter said weakly.
“But it did, and it looks like it’s up to me to save the day so… Please,” my sister begged in an inappropriately jovial tone. “Protect my sister. Take care of her for me until we can all ball-bust about this some other time. Okay?”
“I love you,” Athena said, stepping away from the door and raising her hand to me, her ever-present smile creeping up her lips.
“I love you,” I said back.
Tears spilled down my skin like a great stain as the doors sealed shut. I could feel the pull of the ship as it left the earth and my hands slipped from the door. I turned and looked to Tredorphen, the intoxicating shifter with the most beautiful blue eyes I'd ever seen.
"She'll make it," he said confidently, holding my face in his hands. "She's strong."
"I know she will."
"We'll come back for them, one day," he said. "I promise."
I smiled in spite of myself. It was the same, easy smile I had so willingly given to Tredorphen since we first met. The same smile that couldn’t help but cross my lips when I felt the rush of love flooded through my body. My heart broke when my sister left, her adventure just beginning. But I knew he was already putting it back together.