Issa!
I’m nearly bouncing on my soles by the time the lift tops the rocks. Strangely though, Zaeyr goes rigid beside me, and when I glimpse his face, his cocky smile is gone. He took me again against the rocks outside the cave, quick and loving, whispering the word against my skin like he was branding it to me, unto and into my flesh.
But any happiness is gone.
Then I see Issa. Beautiful, dear Issa, my truest friend and huntress soulmate laughing with Leith by the central bonfire. Her long braided blond hair shining in the sunlight, her gold-kissed skin dressed in nets and white shells.
“Issa!” I yell, catching her attention as I rush forward and envelop her in my arms. She’s tense for a moment, and I wonder if I’ve ever given her a hug in the past. I’ll rectify that. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I cry.
“Aida,” Issa muses. She eases into my embrace and hugs me back. “I was so worried. Waters, I am relieved to find everyone okay. I could barely sleep with worry.”
We grip each other once more tightly before pulling back. I’m taller than her by several inches, but Issa knows how to use her shortness to her advantage, especially when we wrestle. I know to never underestimate her.
“You were worried?” I ask, finally registering her question.
“I saw the alpha dragon…” Issa’s blue eyes trail behind me and she stills. Turning, Zaeyr is as tense as ever standing nearby. Leith is several yards away looking on worriedly, having backed up, but as I glance around, I find what Zaeyr is staring at, it’s another large male.
A large green male.
My mouth drops.
A large green male with wings on his arms, emerald and jade scales covering portions of his body, and long snake-like black hair. He’s looking at Zaeyr the same way my dragon is looking at him: with blatant suspicion.
“Me,” Zaeyr says. “She saw me.”
I turn back to him. “You?”
“When I emerged from the sea, I sought him.” He points to the dangerously ripped green male behind Issa. “And saw her instead.”
“Yes,” Issa whispers. “You’re him, the alpha dragon from the ocean…” She shivers. “The one in the storm.”
The other male finally speaks. His voice deep and gravely. “Where is the femdragon?”
We all turn to him at once.
“I pushed her against the cliffs, forced her away. She fled into the clouds. She has not returned since, near mad with unrelieved heat,” Zaeyr tells us. “And since she has not come back I can only assume she has taken a lesser beta or omega draconid to nest, or that her heat has passed and she slumbers. I do not sense her.”
“Nor do I,” the other male grumps.
“And if she comes back?” I ask. I hadn’t thought about that happening, not once. My palms slicken.
Zaeyr finally drops his eyes from the other male. “We will send her away or help her find a mate nearby.”
“Yes,” the green one agrees.
A cough has the four of us turning again. Mother is standing off to the side holding a platter, eyeing all four of us, and it’s then I realize the buzzing tribe has stopped to watch our exchange. Half I know from Shell Rock, and they gaze at Zaeyr with wonder, while my tribe watches the other male.
Dragons. Two of them. No one needs to tell me the other is a dragon as well. So Issa took stock in the rumor I told her.
Mother comes forward with a platter of baked fish, fruit, and raw oysters. Issa takes it from her, and we settle around on driftwood seats beside the fire. My friend sits with the other dragon male, and his wing flutters out to caress her side.
They are bonded. It’s unbelievable. My dear friend has found a dragon of her own.
Despite Zaeyr’s growl, Leith slowly joins us and lowers between Mother and Issa—the furthest place possible from Zaeyr. While we eat in awkward silence, the tribe returns to their laughter and talk, others come to join our gathering.
They’re waiting for my decision. Mother’s gaze falls on me again and again.
I don’t know how much Issa and her dragon know, but they remain courteous, eating. Zaeyr is tense or terse, or both.
Leith asks how Issa and her dragon met, and they tell us their story.
“I stumbled upon Kaos—” the other dragon’s name is Kaos “—when he awoke in the Forbidden Jungle,” Issa says.
“She touched me,” he adds.
Issa chuckles. “Many times, actually.”
“We are bonded.”
“Oh yes, that,” she chuckles louder.
“She is pregnant with our first young.”
Shock falls upon the group.
Mother speaks first. “So it’s true? This bond, this fertility? You know you are with child?”
Kaos nods. “I sense him.”
“Him?” Mother gasps.
Issa wipes her mouth. “Kaos is very sure of his abilities.” She shrugs.
“Are you two… happy?” Mother asks.
Tulia, one of Issa’s half-sisters, joins us and sits down. “So happy it’s sickening. I’m sickened daily by it.” Tulia laughs anyway. “But our tribe could not be more joyous. I have not seen our people so hopeful in many years. We were ended, and now… Now we are not.”
Leith pipes up for the first time. “Sister, I’m so thrilled for you. I will be an uncle! I look forward to the day.”
Issa beams.
Envy strikes me. I clutch Zaeyr’s hand and squeeze it. He squeezes mine in response. Does he sense young too? Will he know when I’m with child?
Father comes to join us at some point.
Delina never shows.
I watch as my friends and family talk and laugh, ask and answer questions, continuing until the food is all gone and nothing but spirits are left to pass between us. Even Zaeyr lets up after a time, and his watchful stare on Kaos eventually comes to an end. Kaos’s glares cease as well.
Whatever it is between them, is gone for now. Knowing all that I know, they were rivals in a way, at some level, but now there’s nothing for them to rival about. I hope.
Happiness returns and I realize how much
