***
I witnessed magic that night.
Saw the amazingness of it before my eyes.
Merrick’s dragon, a shiny pale bronze dragon, the size of a small tractor, used to mow acres upon acres of hay, stood proudly by Merrick’s side.
It was then that I realized that the dragon was taking in just as much healing power as Merrick himself.
I hadn’t realized that the ride was as far away as it was, but the longer I watched Merrick and the dragon, Sascha, heal, the more I realized that we must’ve been further than was safe for even Perdita to go.
“You need to tell your brother where, exactly, you are or he’ll keep hounding us until he finds us. And I don’t really want to deal with the fight that I can see coming. Tell him and be done with it,” Brooklyn growled for the fourth time.
I narrowed my eyes.
“If he comes here, he’s going to try to stop you and me,” I informed her.
She shrugged.
“It’s already done,” she said.
I looked from her to Merrick and back again.
“You think he’s going to be okay?” I asked, leaning forward slightly to study the other man.
He isn’t bleeding anymore, so that was a good thing, right?
Yes, Perdita said telepathically. Your brother has found you.
I looked up just in time to see Declan and Keifer land on the soft forest floor beside us.
Keifer didn’t attack like I thought he would, though.
Instead, he calmly slid off the dragon’s back, and crossed his arms as he watched whatever healing was happening with Merrick, and his dragon, happen.
“I took the others to the sanctuary,” he said. “And I would’ve brought Skylar with me, but you never answered.”
Brooklyn snorted.
I sent a glare in her direction.
“What exactly are you thinking I’m going to do here?” Keifer asked my mate.
Brooklyn looked up, and her eyes narrowed.
“What do I think is going to happen?” she asked. “How the hell would I know? Everything that I’ve wanted since you’ve gotten back has taken a backseat to what you wanted. My best friend, my mate, they all deferred to you. And I’m tired of coming second best to the people that used to put me first before you showed up.”
As Brooklyn spoke, she leaned forward and poked Keifer in the chest, pronouncing each word with more and more force until her finger was sinking into the soft jacket Keifer was wearing.
“You done?” Keifer asked.
Brooklyn hissed at him.
Keifer’s frown cracked, and suddenly a smile overtook his face.
“You’re good for this family, you know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Brooklyn asked in confusion.
“Sorry that I haven’t tried harder to get along with you. You’re one of mine now, and I’ll do my best in the future to listen to you before I choose what I think is best for you,” he promised.
I threw one arm around Brooklyn’s shoulder.
“You’ll excuse us for a moment?” I asked my brother.
I didn’t wait for him to tell me yes or no; instead, I just walked away with Brooklyn as she dragged her feet.
We were about thirty feet away, and out of hearing distance, of at least my brother, when I turned Brooklyn to me and stared at her, studying her tired face.
“You’re okay?” I asked her worriedly.
She held up her hand.
“I think it’s healed,” she answered. “Are you okay?”
I looked at my own hand.
The flash of pain I’d felt earlier when Brooklyn had broken her arm was a distant memory now, but it still hurt to think that she’d been in pain and I’d had no way of preventing that hurt.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m fine.”
She nodded.
“I’m still mad at you,” she promised.
I nodded this time.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have chosen my brother over you. I’ll offer no excuse.”
She sighed.
“I know exactly why you chose your brother over me, and I agree with it,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t help. I’ve gotten a taste for freedom and I don’t like having it denied to me.”
I pulled her into my arms, letting my lips rest on her forehead for a long moment before pulling back to look into her eyes.
“There’s always going to be a threat to us…to you,” I told her.
She frowned, and when she would’ve spoken, I stopped her before she could.
“Listen,” I said.
When she nodded, I continued.
“Every day will be a constant struggle,” I informed her. “When there’s that many people under the same roof and in the same immediate area, tempers are bound to flare. So you’ll have to try your hardest to work with the others there, even my brother.”
She nodded.
“And when you have a problem that you can’t solve, I’d like you to come to me, talk it out with me, before you go about trying to fix it on your own. Like today,” I said.
She winced.
“I was just trying to get some air,” she said softly.
“I know,” I informed her. “But that’s another thing. You‘re going to have to get used to having security. If not me, then a dragon escort. Anything; but you can’t be left alone. You’d be a huge pawn in this war against the Purists.”
She grimaced.
“You’ll need to choose,” I said. “Your freedom, where you’re able to do whatever you want, or this place.” I hesitated, “It’s not always the best place to be in the world, but there’ll be no better place that has a greater group of friends that care about you enough to take absolutely anything for you. Even a bullet.”
“You know I can’t leave. You were the one who explained that I’d die if I was away from you,” she muttered darkly.
I smiled at her obvious irritation.
“I never said you’d be getting rid of me. I’d go with you, of course,” I said softly. “We can live out of the public eye. If we moved to a different state, it’d be likely that nobody would even know who I was.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“You’d leave this place?” she asked in stunned disbelief. “For me?”
I smiled at her.
“I’d give my left nut for you. Is it so hard to believe I’d give up my sanctuary for you?” I asked teasingly.
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s disgusting.”
I laughed, then shrugged.
“It’s the truth.”
“I don’t want you to give up your left nut,” she sighed, turning fully to face me as she said what she had to say next. “I’m not even asking you to always side with me over your brother. All I’m asking is that you at least give me the benefit of the doubt. If I tell you I’m going stir-crazy, we need to fly out as soon as possible.”
I stared at her, studied her face, and then nodded.
“I can do that. I will do that,” I amended.
She smiled then, and then walked into my arms.
Her body felt right as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her into me.
She rested her hand over my heart, and my arm trailed down her arm to her forearm where she’d broken the bones earlier in the day.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly.
She let her head fall back as she stared into my eyes.
“I’m better than okay,” she answered. “I had a lot of thinking to do while I was waiting for you to get there, and I didn’t like what I saw.”
I blinked.
“What do you mean?” I asked worriedly. “What did you decide?”
Was that panic in my voice?
I didn’t like the tightness in my chest, or the way my breathing seemed to stall as I waited for her to reply.
“I saw my life. Two different paths I could take.” She hesitated and I lifted my hand to run down the side of her head, smoothing her hair down so I could see her eyes completely.
“Go on,” I urged.
She swallowed.
“I had two choices,” she answered. “One, I could leave…test out the theory of whether or not I would die without you.”
Despair rose inside my body, but her next words calmed that roiling storm.
“Or…I could suck it up and be a big girl,” she continued as if she was unaware of the havoc she’d caused inside of me.
Her look said she knew what her hesitations were doing to me.
And she smiled.
Something eased in my chest, and I knew which decision she’d come to without her even saying because she suddenly opened herself up to me, letting me feel exactly what was going on in that head of hers.
Everything that I ever wanted to know about her was suddenly revealed.
What it was like for her as a child.
What she wanted most in life.
What she loved.
What she hated.
Everything was there for the picking, and I had to gasp as all the love she felt for me suddenly poured through the mating bond that we shared.
“Jesus,” I whispered, going down to my knees.
I couldn’t help but do that.
It was as if the strength I had to stay upright suddenly fled, leaving me with nothing else but the love I felt for Brooklyn in my heart.
I stared at her, then I gave it all back to her.
I gave her my hopes. My dreams. My wants and needs.
I gave it all to her just like she’d given to me, and I watched as her eyes lit up with each new memory or thought.
By the time I was done, she was crying, and it took everything I had to not join her.
Men didn’t cry, though.
“Brooklyn!” Keifer suddenly cried. “Oh my God,” he said in pain and fear. “We have to go. Now!”
I was up and running towards my brother before I’d even realized I was moving, Brooklyn directly beside me.
My eyes went first to Merrick, and then to Keifer. “What’s going on?” I asked him.
I couldn’t see any signs of Merrick being in distress. In fact, he looked even better now than he did a couple of minutes ago when I took Brooklyn off to the side.
Keifer’s eyes, though, were wild, and I knew instantly it had everything to do with his wife.
“What is it?” Brooklyn asked worriedly. “Is it Blythe?”
Keifer nodded almost out of habit.
His clenched hands at his waist, though, told the real story.
He was in pain.
Or at least his wife was in pain.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Brooklyn ordered, snapping her fingers at Keifer.
“She’s in labor,” he said, his voice cracking on the ‘labor’ part.
“Okay,” Brooklyn nodded. “Take me with you and I’ll go to her. Nikolai, take Merrick back with you.”
“Wait…” Keifer held up his hand. “Do you think the heart will help her like it helped him?”
Brooklyn looked thoughtful for a few long seconds before she shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. The heart healed Merrick, but it didn’t take any of the pain. I could feel the distress rolling off his body as he laid there.”
Keifer nodded then walked straight to Declan, offering his hand down to my mate without another word.
Brooklyn ran up to me, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then ran back to Declan, taking Keifer’s hand.
Once she was in position, Declan lifted off with a powerful flap of wings, and then his cloak was in place and I could no longer see him.
I looked over at Perdita, then to the side of her where Merrick lay next to his dragon.
Then, without another word, I walked over to the dragon rider and picked him up in a fireman’s carry over my shoulder.
I laid him over Perdita’s shoulders in the next instant before turning to his dragon.
“Can you follow?” I asked her.
A series of images flew into my brain, and I startled in surprise when I realized just how young Merrick’s dragon was.
Only the ones that were too small and young couldn’t voice their words, and this one, although it looked older, did the exact same thing as the little ice dragons at the sanctuary did.
Stomach knotting, I got up and voiced my order to the big beast. “Follow me.”