Dragon Aster Trilogy (53 page)

Sybl didn’t answer.

Cirrus clenched his fist, before taking in a long breath to calm himself. “It’s more common than anyone will say aloud. The Line of Solar has always had trouble having children. Usually when alternate arrangements for having a child are made, it’s kept quiet. When it gets out, then it can get as bitter as it did when Yri had Kayla. I’m just another case of such. Dyaus would have wanted my mother to be happy. At least I can’t blame him for her death anymore.”

Sybl pulled her courage together to speak again. “We should split up.”

He walked over and knelt before her, pulling her hands into his. “No, Sybl. I love you, and nothing can ever change that. I won’t let you leave me.”

She held back her tears. “Toria can’t have a King without the hope of an heir.”

“Then I will give the title to someone else. We don’t have to be here. I don’t care about ruling when I have you.”

Sybl shook her head. “I won’t let you do that. There are too many who believe in you—who have believed in you before all this. I would just get in the way. Like my own mother did…”

Cirrus pulled her against him so fast that she didn’t have a breath to react. “Don’t you dare say that! Your mother was a wonderful person—without her—I don’t know. I just know things would have been a lot worse, for many including myself. So don’t you dare let a word that traitor said stay in your head.” He loosened his grip and caught her face in his hands. “Sybl, look at me. Please just look at me.”

She did, and feared that his eyes might drown her in the perfect future that he alone saw.

“Say it. Tell me you love me, or so help me I won’t let you go from this spot.”

There was no way she could not say it, though she let the idea of him holding her forever linger for a while. “I love you.”

He ran his hands through her hair and hugged her again. “Don’t you ever forget that I love you even more, not so much as for a moment. There is nothing on this world or yours that will ever change that.”

His shirt soaked up her tears and she let his kisses on her hair and scent of lavender ease her to sleep.

Sybl woke to find that she had fallen asleep against Cirrus’ chest, and that they were on his bed. She remembered the first time she had awoken in his arms as it still sent a flash of heat through her.

“It looks like you’re feeling better.” Cirrus rested his chin on her head. “And you have had just enough sleep to give me the time I needed to sort things out.”

“Huh?” Sybl asked sleepily.

“It seems that there should be little trouble handing my title to Cecil, which would be the best choice as his mother was supposed to be High Priestess a long time ago. We just need you to make it official.”

“Why me?”

“Well…um… There’s just the question of Rose.”

“Ugh,” Sybl said, fully awake now as she got to her feet.

“Sybl…”

“I told you I don’t want you to give up your title. Can’t you just leave Cecil in charge till we get back?”

Cirrus didn’t answer.

“We are going back to the Suzerain Continent, right?”

Cirrus still didn’t answer.

“Oh no, we are not doing this. Damek has to be stopped. Everyone agrees on this. The last Gate may very well be on the Suzerain Continent. On top of that, I promised everyone I would come back.”

“Alright, if that’s what you want. But I won’t leave Cecil temporarily in charge. We leave my title with him.”

Sybl shifted her weight to her other foot. “Are you trying to keep me here with the promise of being Queen?”

Cirrus sighed with his hope for it, then looked to the door when someone knocked. He went over to open it and to his surprise, Kenshe was there. “I wasn’t aware you came along…”

“I belong to the Caelestis, why wouldn’t I?”

“No, you belong to the new Order with Kas and all of them on the other side of the world. Do they not have enough for soldiers to do over there?”

“Might I speak to Sybl?” Kenshe asked, avoiding his question.

“What’s wrong?” Sybl asked, walking to the door.

“The escort that was supposed to return from the Efereal Mountains made it back to the Atrum, but Nephena turned on Kas and he was taken.”

“Taken? By the chimeras?”

“No, by the Falls. They attacked in an attempt to kill us all off at the same time, unfortunately for them, Nephena made one hell of a mess of their plans. Gwa went after Kas after reaching me in the city, and they’re here now.”

Sybl pressed her fingers to her temples as she tried to think straight, but she was too worried about Kas. She walked past Kenshe and towards where she could sense her soultwin.

Kas could feel Sybl’s thoughts search him out, and he sat up on the bed in the room they had loaned him in Toria. Just being inside a castle of dragons felt unreal.

Sybl didn’t knock on the door as she opened it and stepped inside. “Kas, are you alright?”

“I have felt better,” he answered, leaning his back against the dark wood headboard.

“How did you get captured by the Falls? Is Xirel and the others alright?”

“From what I know, yes. We will not have to worry about the Falls anymore. It was destroyed when the volcano it was built into erupted.”

“What? I didn’t even know there were volcanoes on Aster that could erupt.”

“Aragmoth is fatally injured, Sybl. The world is freezing, the Keol is overheating, and the volcano is just the beginning of the end.” He knew he was upsetting his soultwin even more and pulled back the rest of what he was going to say.

“There was a Gate at the Falls, wasn’t there?”

“I did not see it myself, why?” Kas asked.

“Because there is something you aren’t telling me about the Gates.”

“What Gates?”

“I have to get to Earth, Kas.”

“Why?”

“What…?” Sybl shook her head to make sure she had heard him straight.

“There are millions of Sentry on Earth. If you pass through one, you will be defenseless against any number of them who have sided with Damek. Moon will disintegrate if he gets near the sunlight as well as your dragoon. I have seen where this ends, sister. It ends with you destroyed, and me left here without you. I will not endure that kind of pain again.”

“There won’t be a world left if Damek isn’t stopped now.”

“Once Damek has the festra, he will take the three thousand names bound to it and go to Earth. What happens to that world is not out concern. If anything, we have bought Earth more than enough time to prepare for his arrival.”

Sybl paced back and forth, frantic. “And when Earth is dust and ashes, where do you think he’ll come back to? Kas you aren’t making any sense. I need you to help me.”

“No, you do not. You will always do what I think is wrong. If I tell you to stay, you will go. If I tell you to stop, you will only become more determined to move forward. It is over, Sybl.”

“I don’t believe that! We can still save Aster.”

“No, sister. We cannot. It is…too late.” Kas stopped as everything went dizzy for a moment. He didn’t want it to end like this; his last words to his soultwin that of anger and mistrust. “Aragmoth is almost dead…and soon…I will not be able to exist in the realm of the living.”

Sybl stopped fuming and caught his shoulders to keep him sitting upright. “Kas? Kas look at me.”

“I am sorry…you have to see me like this. I had hoped to be far away…when…”

“Kas!” Sybl shouted at him, catching him before he could fall against the bed. “Kas! What’s wrong? Someone help!” she cried at the door. Two dragoons ran in, before one ran back out to get a Healer. “Kas! Kas what do I have to do? Where are you hurt?” He didn’t answer, and she lifted his legs and lay him down on the bed. She couldn’t heal him if she didn’t know where he was injured.

His hand found hers, and he smiled as he set it down over his heart. “Do not cry. Just…listen. Please.”

“Kas!” Sybl cried, not knowing what to do. His body wasn’t absorbing her aeri.

Cecil ran into the room and quickly tried to figure out what was wrong with him. “Sybl, what happened?”

Sybl felt Kas’ grip let her go, and she sank to her knees as it felt like he was taking her heart into death with him.

“Sybl!” Cecil shouted at her, then shook her shoulders. “Sybl!”

She blacked out just as Cirrus reached them and took her from him. He immediately tried to somn with her, but something was blocking him out. “What happened!?”

“I don’t know—she’s going into shock!”

Cirrus pressed her against him as he closed his eyes and followed after her by the Mei they shared, praying that he could bring her back.

Sybl stood on a dark rooftop in her city back on Earth. The same one that had started it all. A home and a life that had all been a lie. After all her time on Aster, she had forgotten what it felt like to stand out in the rain during a storm. The rain drops were surprisingly warm against her skin. The city took shelter, and she alone knew it to be not any normal thunderstorm. The clouds overhead rumbled, and she looked back up to see a flash of lightning. Sybl didn’t feel afraid despite being on one of the higher apartment buildings of her old city.

After a while, the rain turned into snow and she looked around for the enemy who was capable of challenging the weather in such a way. Her eyes caught sight of Damek’s golden armor and the unfailing glow of his green eyes. He was watching her from the rooftop of another building. This was where she saw it would end, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

‘Between Heaven and Hell there are Fay.

Those in darkness have seen into the future.

Those blessed by the light would shine it on the past.

They see all destinies within the Threads that they touch.

There is a Heaven for each of us…

‘But I will not find mine here.’

She jumped and spun around as Damek appeared instantaneously behind her.

“You have disappointed me, Asil. I could have given you everything if only you would open your eyes to the truth of the power that I am. If only you would understand that my will is the only outcome that will come to pass.”

“Killing everyone won’t get you what you want,” Sybl replied.

“It is only a matter of time before they see,” Damek said, walking till he was next to her to take in the view of the city. “And that time is very soon.” He looked back at her as several bolts of lightning struck the buildings and towers in the distance. “Do you remember how the energy storms of the Dragon Moon tore the first Aster apart? Perhaps the remains of him will remember as well when I am done.”

Sybl let out a cry of pain, then grasped her left arm with her Mei. It felt like Damek had sent the angry fire of a thousand destroyed worlds through her body. She looked helplessly at her arm as Damek’s Curse returned to her, only this time he had intertwined it around her Mei to Cirrus.

“Shall I continue? I can make you suffer as much as necessary until you remember that there is no escape from me.”

Sybl didn’t have a breath to dodge him when he suddenly grabbed her by the neck and whipped her off of the side of the building as if she were a mere doll. She screamed before she hit the street. Only she didn’t hit concrete, but what felt like a soft bed. A familiar bed.

A loud rapping came at the bedroom door, and she looked up as her foster mother stormed into the room. She looked disapprovingly around, before leaving Sybl in peace to contemplate the madness that was getting more and more confusing.

But peace did not live here. It was a cruel joke that her first foster home was; a boy’s home. She wasn’t a boy, and she didn’t feel she deserved to be punished for what happened in her lie of a life, now that she knew the rooftop incident wasn’t her fault.

She touched her neck and found her golden fairy there. This was one of Damek’s mind games that he had no doubt designed to try and break her. Sybl could only guess this day of nightmares was about to get a whole lot worse. She left her room when someone collided with her hard enough to throw her down the stairs. She landed on the middle turn against its window bench with a squeak. Once everything stopped spinning, she looked up at the top of the stairs where the two boys had vanished. She squinted to make sure she was seeing right and reminded herself that this wasn’t real.