He would not be my soul mate.
My heart shrank away with the truth.
I reached through the mental bond I shared with my dragon and called out. Seren, I want to leave. I can’t be here with him. I can’t look at him ever again.
Niawen, I’m coming.
My beloved dragon couldn’t fly to me fast enough. Only she knew the intimacy of my feelings. She felt them as her own, and our heartache echoed across the bridge of our bond.
This should have been the most joyous moment of my life, but I had searched for love’s treasure too soon.
TWO
The wind waited as if holding its breath. I waited on the cliff’s ledge, knee-deep in the snowdrift, wondering why the wind did not rage with my feelings.
The chasm below seemed bottomless. If I fell, my life would be over. Even as an immortal, I could die if my body was compromised beyond my light’s ability to recover me quickly enough.
Seren protectively stretched her pearlescent wings beside me, spanning the width of the ledge. I’ll fly you away from here if you wish it.
I ached to leave.
Standing outside the immortal realm Gorlassar, I faced a choice—turn around and walk between the two boulders marking the portal to my home or fly from this ledge, farther into the mortal world, never to return.
My heart had already left. My heart longed to fly away. I knew if I didn’t, I might throw myself from the cliff. My feet shuffled in the snow. I needed only a leg up into Seren’s saddle, and she’d take me wherever I desired.
I cannot ask you to leave Cephias, I said. I cannot ask you to fly from your mate and your home.
I’d do it for you, Niawen. I love you.
I pinched my expression, knowing the sacrifice Seren was willing to make. Our dragon bond wouldn’t allow her to ignore my feelings. She was hard-pressed for relief from my turmoil—from our turmoil.
It’s your sacrifice. Not mine, Seren said. I have the power to return. You do not.
My chin dropped to my chest. What was I willing to give up to flee from my shame?
The treacherous mountain I stood on provided an impassable barrier between the immortal and mortal worlds. No human could climb this high and gain access to my realm, and no immortal dared leave this ledge to descend into the mortal world. The ledge was as far as any emrys was permitted to go. Humans could corrupt immortal souls, so if I left Gorlassar even for a short adventure, I’d be exiled.
But I didn’t fear the mortals; they were a weak, inferior race without pure light. I couldn’t see, and refused to acknowledge, the possibility of corruption from them, even though I was told that only the dragons had power to move between the worlds and remain untainted.
I considered my thoughts as I hungered for release from my disgrace.
I still couldn’t face Aneirin.
I’m removing my dragon stone. You should give it to another rider. I fumbled with the iridescent stone around my neck.
Seren lifted a claw to stop me. I refuse to accept that. I’ll have no other rider, Niawen.
My hands smoothed over the scales on her forearm. If I leave, you must move on.
Don’t ask me to do that.
“Niawen, stop!” a women shouted.
I whirled around. Aneirin’s petite sister pushed her way through the snow toward me. Catrin had difficulty lifting her thin dress—much too inadequate for the weather—as ice crystals clung to its hem. She just came from where summer reigned supreme in Gorlassar.
“Don’t leave,” Catrin said. “Please. Forget Aneirin. This grief will subside. Please, come home with me. Don’t forsake the emrys. I couldn’t bear it if you left. You’re my dearest friend. I know you’re hurt, but who’ll hold my hand when I have my first broken heart?” She paused and gave me a wide-eyed, entreating look with her almond-shaped eyes. “Let me hold yours now.”
Catrin reached me, and I fell into her arms, breathing in her honeyed scent. I murmured against her neck. “You know I’ve felt unrest for some time.”
“But you’d risk living with the humans!”
“I’m not afraid of them.”
Catrin searched my face. “What about Aneirin?”
“I knew a future with Aneirin was remote, yet I dared hope. I don’t understand how I locked so readily on to him.”
“He’s so young. Only a baby. We’ll go to a party and meet some eligible men our age,” Catrin replied.
I exhaled sharply and pulled away. Catrin didn’t understand. Age didn’t matter. Who cared if Aneirin was over six hundred years younger than I was? Once we matured in our lights’ abilities, age was insignificant. Besides, something about Aneirin had charmed me. My heart wouldn’t easily give him up.
Movement at the dragon realm’s portal made me lift my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut when the silver-blond-haired head emerged. His regret washed over me. I opened my eyes to Aneirin’s tight-lipped grimace.
I turned to Catrin. “You brought him with you? I told you, I didn’t want to see him again.” Catrin had found me as I hastily packed, and I blubbered what happened between Aneirin and me. Although I begged her to tell no one about my plan to leave, my pleas had meant nothing to her.
Catrin frowned. “Let him explain. You owe him that.”
My voice carried across the crisp air. “What do you have to say, Aneirin? Is my desperation not enough? Is my mortification? Why’d you let me look?”
Aneirin edged closer, his drooping brows beseeching me. “You had to see, Niawen. You had to know. I couldn’t hide my
