Aileen kept her eyes closed and her focus on her own body. A couple of minutes passed, and she couldn’t say whether the pain was, indeed, subsiding, or she was dreaming, her hope having started to deceive her so she would simply die more peacefully. She didn’t feel as sleepy, though, and that had to be a good sign.
Drakon held her gently, his eyes never leaving her face. The tears had stopped, but his soul was still crying. He couldn’t lose her, not when he had just found her. Or… she had found him. She was Medea’s descendant, and she was his mate. There was no doubt in his heart, although he couldn’t explain what he felt rationally. He didn’t even want to try. Feelings had nothing to do with rational thought, and if he had learned anything in his long life, it was that feelings held more truth than logic.
She was breathing more evenly. Little by little, Aileen started regaining feeling in parts of her body which had gone slightly numb. The pain in her back was almost gone, too. She wanted to sit up and inspect her body, see if the wounds were healing. Despite telling herself she shouldn’t get her hopes too high, she couldn’t help but believe that his tears were working. Once again, they were healing her, making her stronger and healthier. Drakon was saving her for the second time. Even if it didn’t work and she died, she still believed he was saving her just by holding her against his chest. He was saving her from suffering and dying alone.
“I think it stopped,” Drakon whispered, his lips curling up in a huge smile.
Aileen didn’t open her eyes.
“The bleeding stopped.”
He moved and pulled his hand from under her to inspect his fingers. The blood had dried, and no new, fresh drops had covered the dry patches. In his enthusiasm, he tried to move her, pull her up just enough to check her wounds, but Aileen moaned in protest.
“No. Let me rest for a few more minutes.”
“Okay…”
Drakon kept silent for what felt like hours. He wanted to give her the space she needed, but he was also dying to make sure that she was all right, that her wounds were healing. He caressed her face, smoothed down her hair, kissed her cheeks and forehead. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She looked so peaceful and angelic… She didn’t deserve to die, much less die for him and for that dreaded treasure. It was way past midnight, and it was getting colder and colder. He was aware of the change in temperature, but he didn’t feel it. As a dragon shifter, his blood always ran hotter than a human could even imagine. But she could have been cold, so he leaned over her, trying to cover her body with his as much as he could. All he wanted was to love and protect her. If he knew the gods he had once believed in were still up there, in the clouds, he would have prayed.
Aileen took her time to focus on each part of her body. At some point, she knew for a fact that her wounds had healed almost completely, but she didn’t say a word. On the one hand, she wanted to be sure. When she stood up, she wanted to be able to walk on her own two feet, without Drakon’s help. She wanted to see the joy and wonder in his pale blue eyes when he realized she was fine. On the other hand, she was thinking of what they needed to do next. What she needed to do next… They couldn’t go on like this. She had to do something about the curse, even if she had no clue what that something could be.
“Aileen?”
Drakon’s timid voice pulled her out of her trance. For a few minutes, she had been completely absorbed by possible solutions. Finally, she opened her eyes. She was well again, and there was no point in letting Drakon think she needed more time.
“I’m here,” she said.
Drakon smiled, opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind and kissed her deeply. Their tongues danced around each other slowly, teasingly. For a second, he thought he could taste his own tears on her tongue. Then, he remembered about her wounds, and broke the kiss.
“How are you feeling?”
Aileen beamed at him.
“Like new. Here, let me show you.”
Drakon helped her get up to her feet. He did his best to support her, but Aileen refused him with stubbornness.
“I got it,” she said.
He circled her a couple of times, but he could find no wound. Her clothes were soaked in blood, and there were patches of dried blood on her skin, especially on her back, but there was no open wound. Not even a scratch.
“This is incredible!”
Aileen cupped his face with her palms.
“Yes, incredible. That’s what you are. You saved me again, Drakon.”
He kissed her palm, but when he wanted to pull her into a hug, she immediately put some distance between them. Confused, he looked into her green eyes, and what he saw there sent a cold chill up his spine.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think it’s time I saved you,” she said.
“What? No! What are you doing?”
Aileen started running towards the cave, and he ran after her. With his shifter speed, he could easily catch her, but when he decided to use it, he stopped dead in his tracks. Aileen was already near the entrance of the cave.
“What are you doing?”
She stopped for a second, turned to him, and whispered: “This ends here.”
Drakon heard her so clear and loud that her words kept ringing in his head minutes after she had spoken them. Then, he understood what she wanted to do, where she was headed, and his blood froze in his veins. He was a dragon shifter. A dragon shifter’s blood never froze. The foreign sensation took Drakon by surprise and paralyzed him. He watched Aileen disappear inside the cave. His sight was perfect in the dark, but hers wasn’t, and that thought made him overcome his temporary shock and run again after her. He would hate himself forever if he let her wander through the cave in complete darkness and hurt herself. As he entered the cave, he saw a light dancing in front of him, down the corridor, and he knew that meant she had found something to light her way with. A candle, maybe.
“Aileen, please don’t do this! Come back!”
She didn’t stop, didn’t answer, she just kept going.
Drakon cursed under his breath and started walking at a brisk pace. He was afraid to run after her. If she was looking for the place he thought she was, then chasing her would soon turn into a hunt. She would become his prey only because the curse would kick in the moment the Golden Fleece was threatened. He wanted to go after her, wanted to try and stop her, but running, and especially using his shifter speed, would surely trigger the curse and his Guardian instinct faster.
“Aileen, you have no idea what you’re doing,” he tried again. “You don’t know what you’re risking.”
She kept running. Her lungs were starting to burn, and her vision became blurry after waving the flashlight on her phone all over the walls, checking the rooms she was passing by in a hurry. She needed to find it. The Golden Fleece, the treasure, the thing that was keeping Drakon stuck in this place. She didn’t know what she would do once she found it. She hadn’t figured that part out, yet. But she trusted the solution would reveal itself to her. There was no other way. She was going on instinct, and it would have to be enough. She could hear Drakon walking behind her, getting closer by the second. She didn’t stop to wonder why it was taking him so long to catch up with her when he could have easily reached her by then and thrown her over his shoulder to take her out of the cave. She had no time for these details.
Aileen slowed down when she realized she was in a part of the cave she hadn’t seen before. It was deep in the heart of the mountain, or so it seemed. The flashlight revealed a much taller ceiling. After walking for another minute, she spotted it: the wide, tall room where the Golden Fleece had stayed hidden for so many thousands of years. It was right ahead of her. She took a deep breath and walked towards it. It glowed so warmly in the dark, that she didn’t need the flashlight anymore. Nonetheless, she kept it.
She was two steps away from the entrance, when she heard Drakon stop behind her. He had run like a blur, like a rush of hot wind, and the little hairs on Aileen’s arms stood on end when she noticed the change in the air. She turned around, illuminating his handsome, manly face with her flashlight. His pale blue eyes didn’t show kindness anymore. His features held no trace of the love and adoration he had displayed earlier, and that chilled Aileen to the bone.
“Drakon?”
He sneered at her. His reaction surprised him, too, but he couldn’t fight it. When he spoke, there was barely contained hatred in his voice.
“You have to stop,” he said. “If you go inside, I will kill you.”
Aileen shuddered and bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself under control. She couldn’t back down at this crucial moment.
“You won’t kill me, my love,” she said softly. “I trust you.”
“But I don’t trust myself. I can’t risk trusting myself when the curse is so strong. It’s inside me, it’s running through my veins, poisoning my blood. Please, Aileen, don’t go in there. Don’t force me to do this.”
She shook her head. There was sadness in her eyes, but hope still lingered in her heart.
“You won’t harm me. I know it, and you know it, too. Trust what you know, Drakon.”
Then, she turned around and entered the room.
Drakon saw pure red in front of his eyes. He felt as if someone had just pushed a button inside his brain and turned him insane, thirsty for blood. He stepped inside the room, after her, barely resisting the powerful urge to tackle her to the ground and rip her to pieces. His body started convulsing, wanting to shift into the dragon who could turn Aileen into a pile of ashes in an instant. He fought his body, fought the commands his brain kept sending to his muscles, fought everything with all his might. And when he felt like he was failing, like he was about to lose control, he fought harder.
Aileen knew what she was doing. She understood the gravity of her actions when she was finally face to face with the object in the middle of the room. It was soft, golden, and as big as a winter coat. The Golden Fleece seemed to be, indeed, a piece of golden fleece, and it could cover Aileen’s body easily if she wanted to wear it. But, she didn’t want to wear it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to touch it. She stopped one step away from the tall rock on which it was sprawled, and focused on the energy coming from it. It was calling for her. Not only that, but Aileen could swear it was telling her something, sending her a message. It wanted to be stolen. That piece of huge, soft, golden fleece wanted to be stolen, wanted to be taken away from this cave it had always seen as a prison, but it also whispered something else in her ear, something dreadful: “He will kill you.”
“No, no he won’t,” Aileen said, reluctantly.
She swallowed hard. She could hear Drakon pacing the floor behind her, stepping closer to her, sneering, then withdrawing. She knew he was fighting the curse. By standing there and simply staring at the fleece, she was only prolonging his agony. So, she took the final step and screamed at the top of her lungs:
“No, he will not kill me!”
She sank both her hands in the softness of the object. It was so smooth and warm that she could die of pleasure and happiness right on the spot.
Drakon’s body hurt everywhere. He had fought to keep himself from shifting, but when Aileen touched the artifact, the bones in both his legs simply snapped. Golden scales started appearing all over his bare skin. He fell to his knees, painfully arched his back, and let out a roar towards the open ceiling. The sound reverberated through the mountains and forest.
Aileen’s heart jumped when Drakon roared. If he could make that kind of sound, then it meant he was shifting and couldn’t do anything about it. If she had been wrong all along, he would soon lose the battle with the curse and be upon her. If, on the contrary, she was right, then this was the moment, the only moment, when she could break the curse. She had to take it, do with it what she could, because a second one would never come.
With a loud scream, Aileen pulled the Golden Fleece off the rock. It wasn’t easy. The thing was heavy, and it looked like it was glued to the piece of stone. After thousands of years, the two seemed to have merged in some weird, unnatural way. Aileen propped her feet firmly on the ground and pulled again, harder. This time, the fleece came off, and she found herself holding it in her trembling arms. It was heavier than she had expected, but that wasn’t what left her speechless, paralyzed in shock, with her ears perked up to listen for another sound which might have come from the direction of the rock. No other sound came. It had been just that one sound, loud and sharp – the fall of a metal object on the stone floor. Apparently, it hadn’t only surprised her, because Drakon’s body stopped convulsing.
The bones in his legs moved back to their normal position, and the scales retreated into his skin. He stood up, his eyes fixed on Aileen’s back. The rage was gone. He could almost trust himself to approach her without the fear of tearing her apart. He chose, however, not to push his luck.
Aileen threw the Golden Fleece to the floor and stepped towards the object that had fallen from under it. It was old, made of rusty metal, and resembled the form of a rather big hand mirror. She knelt, grabbed the handle, stopped to contemplate the iciness of the metal against her sweaty palm, then turned it around and lifted it in front of her eyes. She only saw her face. It was dirty, covered in mud and dried blood, but it was hers. There was nothing unusual about it. The intense green eyes she knew so well, the plump lips, albeit a bit chapped…
“What is this?” she wondered out loud.
Aileen stood up, not taking her eyes away from her own image in the mirror. It was as if she was waiting for something to happen, for some sort of weird trick to be revealed to her. Her heart jumped in her chest when a second reflection appeared behind her. Drakon. Then, she saw the pale blue eyes she had fallen in love with, the love and caring flickering inside them, and the gentle curve of the lips she had kissed so many times in the past few hours. She relaxed.
“A mirror?” he asked.
Aileen nodded. She didn’t know what else to say. Neither did he. They stayed like that for a while, simply looking at their own reflections. Drakon analyzed his feelings carefully, and realized he felt no urge to kill her anymore. Could it have been because she had tossed the Golden Fleece aside, showing disinterest in the treasure? He had no idea.
Nonetheless, he could finally trust himself with her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gently pulled her against his chest.
Aileen sighed, smiled cutely at him in the mirror, and relaxed in his embrace.
The mirror broke into a thousand small pieces, startling them both.
“What just happened?” said Aileen.