The Dragon Legion Collection 9 (23 page)

“Is it part of your plan to win my compliance?”

“As if it could be so easy,” Damien murmured, his tone rueful, then smiled at her. He winked at her, clearly not disliking that they argued so much, and Petra’s pulse skipped. “Darkfire is beyond my control,” he said then and she believed him. “It seems to be mimicking the firestorm.”

“Does it usually?”

“No.”

“It’s a different color.” Petra had to admit that its effect upon her was similar. She felt edgy, excited, filled with a desire and even more aware of Damien than she had been before. She was watching the curve of his mouth, the glint in his eye, the way he moved and spoke. She ran her tongue over her lips without meaning to do so and tasted the sweetness of his kiss again, felt herself burn with wanting.

Damien’s gaze met hers and Petra couldn’t look away. She couldn’t swallow and she couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding and her skin was heating.

It was a wonderful feeling that left her yearning for more.

“What is darkfire?” she asked.

“It’s a force associated with the
Pyr
, but an unpredictable one.” Damien’s brows drew together as he tried to explain it. Yet again, Petra appreciated that he had never disguised the truth about himself or his kind from her, and had never compromised an explanation. “It’s said to create possibility where there was none and turn assumptions upside down.”

“Magic,” Petra whispered, watching the light grow, and feeling the answering desire within her multiply.

“Chaos,” Damien said.

“Second chances?” Petra guessed.

“Some think so.”

“And you?”

“I think it opens doors that were closed.” He shrugged. “For better or for worse.”

“Like the gates of the underworld.”

Damien nodded. Petra’s hand fell to her ripe belly as the baby moved.

When Damien watched her gesture, Petra surveyed him. He was changing somehow. The blood in the cloth he’d tied around his leg was darker. Where she’d struck him, the skin had bruised, but now looked oddly dark. Maybe it was that the rest of his complexion looked so pale. Maybe he was dying because he was in the underworld or maybe he’d given some of his life force to her. Either way, he didn’t look as vital anymore and she didn’t want him to be trapped here like her. She feared they were running out of time and didn’t want his quest to fail.

Not now that her son was moving again.

“If we have a second chance, that means we made a mistake,” she said. “That means we have an opportunity to choose differently.”

Damien folded his arms across his chest. “I believed I was right to leave you.”

He looked so self-assured that Petra could have decked him again. “I just explained to you why I did what I did, that I did it for you.”

“It wasn’t up to you to try to save me,” he replied, as stubborn as ever.

“We conceived a son together. We were partners.”

“No,” he insisted. “It was my task to protect you...”

“Would you say that to another
Pyr
who saved you from danger?”

Damien was visibly startled. “Of course not, but they’re not women...”

“And they’re not Earthdaughters,” Petra replied, interrupting an argument that wouldn’t do anything to improve her mood. “We had an opportunity to work together, Damien, to create something wonderful, but you were too afraid to take a chance.”

“It’s not the same. A
Pyr
must defend his mate, as the most precious jewel in his hoard...”

As much as Petra liked his choice of language, she had to get to the bottom of this. “And if she has the ability to defend him, she should let him die?”

He was apparently so startled by this idea that he didn’t know what to say.

“Your powers have abandoned you in this realm,” Petra reminded him. “Your ability to influence me will fade. When your blood dries, we will lose the ability to communicate, and you may lose your chance to leave this place. If you let any substance cross your lips, you will be trapped here forever.”

“Stories,” Damien said, glancing about himself with obvious concern.

“They carry the grain of truth. Your skin is changing color. You are fading.”

Damien scanned himself in alarm.

“Damien, we have a chance to change the future. We always did have that chance, but your darkfire is making it possible again. The key lies in trust.”

Damien nodded and she loved how he listened to her. “You believed in the firestorm’s promise, right from the beginning.”

“I was waiting for a man like you.” Petra smiled. “The
Pyr
aren’t the only ones with prophecies, you know.”

“The firestorm is just about creating more
Pyr
...”

“Then why did you stay three months?”

Damien exhaled. “I didn’t intend to,” he admitted, his eyes lighting. “But you were unlike any woman I’d ever known.”

“And now you know why.” He parted his lips to ask for more but Petra held up a finger in warning. It was time for him to choose. “We need to find our way out of here, but I need to know that you will try again.”

“How?”

“What I want is partnership with you, otherwise my son stays here with me. Decide now.”

* * *

Damien considered Petra and weighed his options. What she was suggesting was much like the relationships the
Pyr
in the future formed with their mates. He thought of their conviction that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. He remembered their certainty that a
Pyr
couldn’t really be complete without his mate by his side.

He thought of how they healed their scales—and why they lost a scale in the first place.

Being with Petra reminded him how powerful their time together had been—and made Damien realize he’d missed her.

Maybe his relentless pursuit of women ever since had been an attempt to regain what he’d lost.

No wonder that was so dissatisfying. There was no one else like Petra.

Could he trust her, without knowing all of her abilities?

When he didn’t answer her immediately, she began to turn away, her disappointment clear. He didn’t blame her, but he didn’t want her to go either.

“Is it too late to ask what you can do?” he asked, halfway expecting her to ignore him.

But Petra never was vengeful, no matter how angry she was. She paused and glanced back at him, a tantalizing smile curving her lips. “It’s never too late to ask,” she whispered. The look in her eyes pierced Damien’s heart like an arrow, and he took a step closer without even realizing what he’d done. “It’s never too late to forgive, and it’s never too late to try again.”

Damien smiled. “That sounds like part of a story.”

Petra smiled and the sight of her pleasure made him realize everything he’d risked and lost.

“Then, show me,” he said, knowing he’d beg if he had to. “Please.”

“You mean it,” she said, with undisguised delight.

Damien nodded and Petra immediately tipped her head back.

She was beautiful, so strong and feminine. It made sense for her to use her powers to defend him, just as he used his to defend her. It was different from his expectations, but was logical when he considered it.

Did they have more in common than he’d imagined? Was that why she captivated him so thoroughly?

It was an enticing possibility. Damien knew that no woman had ever challenged him as much as Petra—and none had ever satisfied him so well either.

As he watched, a rosy glow rolled over Petra’s body, like the sunrise touching the lip of the earth, and his heart skipped. Her body looked firmer and more solid, and her movements became impossibly slow. She breathed only once for each dozen breaths he took and he could almost have believed that she’d turned to stone. Her eyes opened slowly, their brown color replaced by the simmering orange of a volcano’s heat, and the glow around her body brightened. She looked so fearsome and powerful that Damien fought the urge to take a step back.

It was when the snakes began to erupt from beneath her feet that he remembered he’d lost his ability to become a dragon.

He was powerless in a strange realm and he knew it.

But Damien was resolute. There could be no greater test of his trust in Petra, and he was determined not to sacrifice the firestorm’s promise again.

* * *

Petra dared to hope.

She’d known all her life that she wouldn’t find happiness with a mortal man. That was the curse of her kind. But she’d always hoped that she would be one Earthdaughter who found a man with his own powers. When she’d met Damien, she’d imagined that future with him, one filled with love and trust. It had been devastating to learn that he was afraid of her.

She’d made a mistake by reacting in anger.

They had a second chance and he was willing to see the truth.

Even given that, Petra had concerns about showing him the fullness of her powers, lest she frighten him again. There would be no third chance.

Yet the truth offered the only way forward. Damien had to see it all, trust her, and still love her, or she’d never be able to put her hand in his again.

At least he was willing to try.

She had to meet him in the middle. That was the essence of partnership.

Petra closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, turning her thoughts inward. Deep in the core of her mind was a place of stone and rock, a center that couldn’t be moved. It was her anchor and her sanctuary, her source of confidence that the world would be as it always had been.

Because there always would be Earthdaughters, and they would keep custody of Gaia and her legacy. Petra had thought that she and Damien had common ground in this, so to speak, since the
Pyr
were the guardians of the earth and the custodians of the elements. She’d expected them to understand each other.

Maybe this was their chance to do so.

The key might lie in the prophecy, the one she’d heard only once and didn’t recall. As the power built within her, Petra realized that her dragon warrior would remember every word of the prophecy given to him.

Dragons had long memories, after all.

First things first.

The kernel within Petra grew as she bent her attention upon it. There was a connection established between the relatively quick rhythm of her human body and the unhurried cycle of the earth. She felt her heart slow and her breathing become shallow. Her muscles became more rigid and her movements were imperceptible. She stood outside of time as she knew it, answerable to the wind and the rain, and the years.

And then she hummed.

The hum began deep in her chest, growing gradually in volume until her sternum vibrated in time. She felt the resonance slip through her body and coaxed it to build. She felt the ground beneath her feet start to vibrate as well, felt the fissures in the stone open into gaps, felt the ground crack and shake. She felt the creatures of darkness come to her, the snakes rising in the earth, the moles and voles and bats that took shelter in Gaia’s embrace, the spiders that lurked in the dark chinks between stones.

The power rolled through her, as ancient and powerful as that of Gaia herself, and Petra was glad to have no secrets from Damien any longer. He would see, he would know, and he would still love her. She believed because she had to. It was their shared destiny and she would make it come true. Petra roared, the sound of an earthquake bursting from her mouth, and the earth jumped in sympathy with her triumph.

Suddenly she felt her son go still.

Too still.

The baby was like a rock in her belly again, a leaden weight that felt wrong and horrible. It was just as he had been before she’d taken the ferry. Not again!

Petra gasped, even as her hands fell protectively to her stomach. She couldn’t have to pay this price. She spun in place, turning her back on Damien for fear that he would see her reaction. He was perceptive, thanks to his inner dragon, and she only wanted to hide this fear from him. It was kinder if he never realized his presence in this realm had awakened his son, better if he believed the child lost all along.

But Petra was distraught. She folded herself around her belly, whispering to her unborn son, even as she forced her power to retreat.

The underworld came into focus again, but Petra didn’t know where she was. A deadened plain stretched in every direction.

She had time to fear, then her son kicked hard. In fact, Petra was winded by his powerful kick. It was as if he wanted her to have no doubt that he was alive.

Alive. Petra felt tears on her cheeks. She glanced over her shoulder at Damien, intending to tell him the truth this time.

But her dragon warrior was gone.

Petra was alone in the underworld, no sign of a living being in any direction.

* * *

Damien was determined to face Petra’s truth.