Kyna led Cain toward the underground tunnels, her mind reeling. She had been waiting outside for a sign when suddenly this man appeared. But he wasn’t just any man, of this she was certain. He was shockingly handsome. He wore his dark hair tied behind his head, and she could sense his power from yards away.
In fact, her entire body had been electrified upon seeing him. He moved stealthily, with grace and a dynamism, like the men from the Kersh clan. He kept her attention rapt to him as he settled in to have his meal, and it wasn’t until he was able to see the lights of Kaldernon that she knew exactly what the feeling meant.
Only Dragon Shifters and Lonis were able to see Kaldernon through the rip in the atmosphere. The man was clearly a shifter, but he wasn’t part of the clan. That much was clear. Still, it was where he belonged, and it would be through him that the shifters and the Lonis would be able to return back to their own world. Kaldernon seemed to be shouting this to her, and with the same psychic surety that had led them to the clan, so too, would this man be their salvation.
“Kyna, where have you been?” Krista asked, her voice gentle, but scolding. Kyna ducked into the hidden entrance. Krista’s eyes widened when she saw Cain walk in after her, his eyes troubled and disbelieving. “And who is this?”
“This is Cain. He will solve all our problems.”
Krista was the wife of the clan’s leader, Clayton, and looked at her incredulously. Still, Kyna knew that Krista trusted her intuition and wouldn’t doubt anything she said to her. The Loni people who had recently arrived to the Kersh clan were very closely attuned to Kaldernon and had an unsettling connection with their intuitive powers that was harder for Lonis like Krista, whose bloodline had been diluted over the centuries, to achieve.
“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice hushed. Before Kyna could answer, Cain interrupted.
“What the hell is this place?” he asked, squinting in the darkness.
“You shouldn’t have brought him here,” Krista finally whispered, taking Kyna aside. Kyna sighed, but understood. Krista was nervous that the outsider might alert the Guardians to their location somehow. Times these days were strained as the Kersh clan awaited what could surely turn out to be a violent retaliation to avenge the death of their leader. Things had been quiet for a few years, but that was a bad sign.
“He won’t harm us or reveal us,” Kyna reassured her, looking deeply into Krista’s eyes. Krista nodded and her reservations seemed to dissolve.
“Still don’t know where you brought me, lady,” Cain said loudly. Kyna sighed, turning to face him. His hands were trembling, but his handsome face was composed. She studied him for a moment. He brushed the dark hair away from his face, waiting for her to answer him. His sea-colored eyes sparkled even in the darkness.
“For dinner, of course,” she said with a composed smile. She gave a respectful nod to Krista before continuing down one of the dark tunnels. She thought he might object to walking through the dark tunnels, unable to see, but he followed her through with ease.
“Would you like some light?” she asked him, turning a corner and walking in the direction of the dining hall.
“I’ve always been able to see in the dark,” he said dismissively. She smiled to herself, wondering if he knew anything else about his unique abilities.
“Here we are,” she said, proudly waving her hand to present him with the dining hall. His eyes widened as the festive décor gleamed with the same colors of her dress. The Shifter and Loni people bustled about, getting their meals and laughing loudly. The room fell silent when people began to realize that Cain had entered.
“Is that…?”
“It looks just like…”
“Everybody, this is Cain. He will be joining us for dinner tonight,” Kyna announced.
The room was silent for a moment as everybody took the man in. Some of the older dragon born were staring at him as if they had seen a ghost, while other younger members of the clan eyed him with suspicion. Cain remained oblivious and sat down heavily at the nearest table.
“What are we having?” he asked.
Kyna smiled to herself. She liked this man. Somehow, he managed to make her smile without trying. He was certainly able to hold his own, no matter what anybody thought of him. And he wasn’t bad to look at either…
Kyna shook the thought away. She was an oracle. Her job was to help this man get in the right place at the right time to help his shifter brethren. There was nothing else to it than that. She had long ago accepted the fact that she would never be able to focus on love. Her tendency toward reveling in her own mind and powers was too consuming.
It was odd for a full-blooded Loni to exist, and she was one of the few women who had been in the group. There had been four Loni men and two women. They were about as pure bred as any of the survivors from Kaldernon, but only Kyna had the ability to divine the future. The others were gifted in other ways, which had allowed them to find mates among the Kersh clan, but most men, particularly the diluted bloodlines of shifter who were just as human as they were dragon, were put off by Kyna, just as she was put off by them. So why wasn’t she put off by Cain? Was it because she knew that he was fated to save them all?
She sat down at the table across from him. The other men had shirked away as he tried to make small talk. The official thing to do was to stay mum to newcomers about shifter blood until an official announcement by Clayton showed it was all right to go on living as normal. The men were tense, waiting for just such an announcement.
“We’re having a specialty from our native land,” Kyna said, fixing her eyes upon Cain. He gazed at her for a moment, staring into her eyes as if trying to decide what to make of her. This in itself was impressive. Most men were uncomfortable when they looked into her eyes and saw their truest selves reflected back at them. Cain was perfectly comfortable with who he was. An honest man, she decided.
“Native land? Are you foreigners? Where are you from?” Cain asked, leaning back in his chair. A woman graciously placed a plate of food in front of him and his eyes lit up. “Thank you.”
The woman bowed and moved on to continue serving the food to the others.
“That is a topic best left for after dinner,” she said. He was almost visibly longing to dig into the food and he gave her a short nod before bringing the first tantalizing bite to his lips. He closed his eyes, relishing in the mixture of flavors. Nothing like what could be found normally on Earth. It was food that had been animated and blessed with Loni magic.
“This is the best thing I’ve ever had,” he said once his plate was empty.
“Good,” she said. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”
“All right,” he said with a shrug. He looked sadly at the empty plate and she tried to hide her grin. He was cute.
“What?” he asked, catching her immediately.
“Oh, you just look so disappointed,” she said, surprised that he had been able to read her so quickly. He must have been on high alert, paying attention to this strange place and the strange people who had made their home underground.
“I wouldn’t mind seconds,” he admitted. “But honestly, I couldn’t eat another bite.”
“Nothing is more satisfying than Loni cooking.”
“Loni?”
But she didn’t answer. Instead, she led him through the tunnels once again, until they arrived at her bedroom. He ducked through the doorway and looked around. He seemed surprised by how beautiful the room was without any natural light or windows.
“Take a seat,” she said.
“On your bed?” he asked, his voice tight. She laughed quietly.
“I’ll stand.”
“Um…”
“It’s all right,” she reassured him.
He sat reluctantly, running his broad hand through his hair.
“What do you know about your heritage?” she asked him softly.
“Practically nothing,” he said with a short laugh. “I was adopted. Parents found me in the woods. About two years old, scared out of my mind. My real family must have left me there to die.”
“That’s awful,” Kyna said, furrowing her eyebrows. So he probably didn’t know anything about who he was. But judging by the way he looked and the powerful way he moved and presented himself to the world, his bloodline wasn’t very diluted. He looked almost pure shifter, but that was rare and unlikely.
“It is what it is,” he said with a shrug, though his eyes reflected his pain to her. He didn’t try to hide it, but he seemed eager to change the subject.
“What if I told you I had an idea about where you came from?” she asked, trying to select her words carefully. She could already tell that Cain was a stubborn man, and if she said anything wrong, it might make him think she was crazy.
“What could you possibly know about me?” he laughed. “To be honest, I’d think you were full of shit. We barely even knew each other’s names.”
“Does any of this feel, I don’t know, familiar to you?” she asked.
“Familiar? No, can’t say that it does,” Cain said. “In fact, I think this is about the most out of place I’ve ever felt anywhere in my life.”
“I see,” she said, disappointed. Apparently she would have to reject that route. “Well, I have something to tell you and it might be strange to hear.”
“Stranger than all of this?” he asked, quirking his eyebrow at her.
“Probably much,” she admitted. He smiled and she gazed at him from across the room. He was so approachable and kind. Would it be cruel to introduce him to his true identity when he felt so sure of everything about himself?
“Can I be honest with you?” he asked.
“Of course,” she replied.
“I’m not sure I even want to know. I’ve spent all my life trying not to think about where I came from. I’m happy with things the way they are. What difference is it going to make what I know or don’t know about my family?” he asked. “They’re as good as dead to me.”
“It could make all the difference,” Kyna said, her eyes suddenly serious. Cain looked like he wanted to say something, but he decided against it. “In fact, you’re far more special than you could ever believe.”
“I don’t know about – “
“You belong here, with us,” she said, suddenly walking toward him. She could feel her self-control slipping as the urgency of the situation consumed her. He was the only way out of this underground prison. Her people – his people – could find liberation if only he could come to terms with his identity. Their fate was in his hands, and the truth suddenly bubbled forcefully from her lips.
“You’re a dragon shifter!” she said, unable to keep the train wreck of words from coming out of her mouth. “You can help us get back home.”
Cain stared at her incredulously for a moment and then lowered his head. She couldn’t see his face as his shoulders began to quake. She worried that perhaps she had unleashed a flood of painful memories, but when he finally looked up, a cackle pierced the room. His eyes were certainly watering, but it was from the effort of holding back his laughter.
“I don’t usually want to make fun of pretty girls like you,” he said, standing up. “But that’s about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know what a dragon shifter is, and I’ve certainly got nothing to do with them.”
He stood up from her bed and pushed past her, into the dark tunnels.
“Thank you, though, for dinner. It really hit the spot.”
“But – “
Kyna started toward him but Cain raised his hands defensively in front of his body and backed up toward the doorway. “I can see my way out.”
Her face fell in disappointment as she watched Cain’s back disappear in the dark tunnels. What was she going to do now?