Chapter Twelve
Katrina
After Katrina had drafted a message to her parents, telling them all she could while still being concise and letting them know how much she loved them, she found herself unable to go back to the library. Her lungs ached for fresh air. So, Thonis went back to collect a few new books and Katrina wandered out to the courtyard, hoping to reinvigorate herself. The energy she had gotten from her burst of hope was quickly waning.
She wasn’t the only one to have sought refuge outside, she saw. Warmund lay on a blanket, a pile of books unopened beside him as he tickled Lisa. Alex napped in a basket nearby, and Mark crawled over his back. The sheer joy in the children’s faces at having their father with them made her heart ache. If this didn’t work…
It has to.
Warmund glanced up as she approached. Mark let out a wordless cry of joy and tackled her legs. Katrina picked him up, tossed him in the air like she knew he loved, then settled down cross-legged on the blanket. Lisa climbed onto her father’s shoulders and rested her head on top of his.
Katrina plucked a piece of grass out of the yard as Warmund sat, being mindful that Lisa didn’t fall off him. His gaze was slightly weary but hopeful at the same time. He seemed to have gotten years younger just since the morning announcement that there was hope after all.
She thought about what he’d said, that he had saved her from the assassins only to give her up to let her have her life on Earth. Abruptly, her chest started to tighten, and a lump rose in her throat. He had given up years of having her as his sister so that she could have the life she had. On Earth, with her parents, all the good times and bad times. The frustrations of growing up in the nineties, the mother she could always take her problems to, the father who was always so gentle and soft with her. She never lacked for anything, not physical necessities, not love or affection. Of course, they had had their problems—who didn’t? —but never once had Katrina ever doubted they loved her.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Her voice was lost in Mark lunging for his father, roaring, and she laughed as Warmund quickly flipped him upside down, getting him giggling. “I wanted to thank you,” she repeated. “For what you did. Giving me to my parents.”
Warmund brushed a lock of hair from Lisa’s face. “You should thank Penny. I wasn’t going to do it.”
Katrina snorted. “But you still did, didn’t you?”
“I suppose.”
“So, thank you. I know it was hard for you. But I’m so glad that I was able to have that life. My parents. I love them, and I don’t know who I’d be if it wasn’t for them.”
Warmund pulled the twins into an embrace. “And if it doesn’t work and you can never see them again?”
“I wouldn’t wish away the years I had with them. Would you wish away these three?”
Warmund look stricken. “Never.”
“Then you know what it feels like. If we can’t fix this,” the thought still made her shudder, “then it will hurt like he—a lot,” she corrected, glancing mindfully at the children, “but I wouldn’t want to just erase my parents from my life or my heart.”
In his basket, Alex stirred. His eyes opened, and he glanced over them, then grinned a cheesy little four-toothed smile when he saw Warmund.
“It will work,” Katrina whispered. “It has to work.”
Alex started to squirm, and Warmund picked him out of the basket and sat him down on the blanket beside him, while Lisa crawled over his shoulders and Mark started to headbutt his arm.
“Hey, now,” Katrina chided, rescuing Warmund from Mark, “be nice to your dad.”
“I wanna pway,” Mark pouted. “I fly! One day I be dragon.”
Katrina sighed. He said that often, more insistently the last few times she had seen him. He must have started to feel the difference between himself and his father. There was a high chance that he and Lisa were going to be mages, like Penny but it was impossible to tell when they were so young. One thing was certain, though. The twins weren’t going to be dragons.
They won’t be mages, either, if we can’t stabilize Byrelmore and Earth.
“So, have you gone through those books yet?” Katrina could hear the stressed pitch in her voice as she gestured to the books laying beside Alex’s basket. The baby babbled and grabbed a handful of Warmund’s shirt to pull himself to his feet. “We have to keep looking, just in case.”
“I haven’t had the chance to read them.” Warmund supported Alex with one arm and caught Lisa as she tumbled off his shoulders with the other one. Even though he smiled, lines creased his face. That weariness was started to show again. “The past few days, I realized I haven’t been taking the time to be with my kids… I don’t know what I’d regret more…”
Katrina shivered, knowing the feeling exactly. She opened her mouth to offer some comfort but before she could, Warmund turned back to her, a forced smile on his face.
“Would you like to learn how to fly?”
She blinked, then remembered. Of course–she was a dragon. The heat that filled her belly had already become second-nature, noticeable only when her flames leapt in excitement or flickered low in despair. It was like they had been there all her life and it was only now that she started to really understand that it was there.
“I, uh… I guess I haven’t thought about it,” she said slowly. “There’s been so much else on my mind.”
“I understand.”
Lisa climbed back on Warmund’s shoulders. “I fly!”
Warmund made sure Alex was stable before tossing Lisa into the air. Mark tore from Katrina’s arms, loudly demanding he have a turn, too, and Katrina retrieved Alex, who smiled and clapped as Warmund quickly got to his feet and put both twins on his shoulders and started to run about the courtyard. They squealed in laughter.
Shortly after, Thonis came out with an armful of books. He got that uncertain, weary look on his face when he saw Warmund. Whatever he might be feeling, though, he didn’t let that stop him as he came to join Katrina sitting on the blanket. Alex waved, and he waved back, grinning, before leaning over to kiss Katrina’s cheek.
Warmund jogged over, setting the twins down again. They both jumped on Thonis, babbling happily. A pleased smile stretched over Katrina’s mouth as she saw that the usual scowl on Warmund’s face when he saw Thonis was absent. The prince sat gracefully and took one of the books off his pile. He didn’t open it, though.
“Warmund and I were just talking about flying,” Katrina said, glancing at Thonis. “I think I’d like to learn. Maybe you could watch the kids for a few minutes so Warmund could give me my first lesson?”
When Warmund’s eyes lit up the way they did now, he looked like a completely different person. It was the way he looked at his children, the way he looked at Penny. A hopeful smile broke over his face.
“We can start over there,” the prince said excitedly, gesturing to a long area of thicker grass. “It’s where we work with young dragons who are first learning their wings. Softer ground. That is, if Thonis is okay with watching the children? They can be a handful.”
Thonis grinned broadly. “I’ve been helping Katrina watch the kids she nannies for years now. I can handle it.”
“Thank you,” Warmund said, low and genuine. “I really appreciate it.”
He got to his feet and helped Katrina up. “When you were born, helping you learn to fly was one of the things I was most looking forward to. I’m glad that I—”
He cut off, looking over her shoulder. Katrina twisted to see Indulf and Anna headed toward them. At first, she smiled, thinking that Indulf might want to help her learn to fly, too. As they got closer, she saw the tears running down Anna’s face and the haunted shadows in Indulf’s eyes. They clung to each other as though neither of them had the strength to stand up on their own.
Instantly, Katrina’s blood ran cold. Her fires flickered out entirely, and her knees started to buckle. Even before Indulf reached them and started to speak, she knew what he was going to say. The spark of hope that her discovery had lit inside of her faded, leaving a chasm in her chest so deep that she couldn’t even feel the beating of her heart.
“We found the methods that the ancient Atlantians used to move their city. Or rather, their land. Byrelmore was Atlantis and when they moved it, it didn’t end up in the same spot it left. In order to move the land, we would have to use a child of both Byrelmore and the future Earth to bridge the gap between them… and Audiv says that with the amount of magic required… the child would not survive.”
Katrina felt like she had been sucker-punched. The hope she had been clinging to was gone, leaving her feeling like she was falling through an endless void. She slowly sank to the ground as Lisa started trying to climb up Warmund’s leg.
“We can’t sacrifice the children,” Warmund whispered. “There’s no way…”
Indulf nodded, his massive, muscled shoulders sagging. “No. We can’t. And so, we will sever the connection. Audiv has been looking into that more… by severing our connections, since Byrelmore’s lay lines have connected with Earth’s… we will lose magic. We will lose our dragons.”
“But the children will live,” Anna choked out. “Earth will survive. But Byrelmore…”
“We’ll have a year before it crumbles to nothing.” Indulf closed his eyes briefly, then shook his head. “We don’t have any other choice.”
Except they did.
A child of Earth and Byrelmore. It was clear that they were interpreting that to mean one of the new children, who was born of one parent from the future and one from Byrelmore.
Katrina stood, keeping her face turned away so they couldn’t read her thoughts on her face. She was born in Byrelmore but had spent most of her life on Earth. She was a child of both. And an adult… stronger than a child. No, there was no sacrificing any of the children to be this bridge.
There was no way in hell she was giving this up. Letting these families who loved each other lose everything. Her hands clenched. Her stomach twisted. She’d never see her parents again and—her eyes flooded—she didn’t want to know how it would hurt Thonis. But if she could do something…
“We have to close the portals for good tomorrow,” Indulf said behind her. “It’s just too much… We can’t delay any longer, for Earth’s sake.”
That didn’t give her much time. Katrina walked faster. She had to find Audiv and learn exactly what this process of moving Byrelmore to the future would take.