Dreams of battle, bloodshed, and of my family, they feel jumbled and intense now that I’m awake. They’re nothing that ever happened in real life, but they’ve left an impression on me, as I take a long moment to just lay here, soaking up the peace and quiet of Baldur’s home.
A stark contrast to where I just was in nightmares.
I don’t feel Baldur anywhere inside the house, though his faintlymusky, paint-and-sunlight fragrance lingers all around me. I inhale now, feeling strangely refreshed, as if by his scent alone, rather than just the restful quiet here.
It’s the oddest sensation as I pull in another lungful of Baldur’s unique scent, deep into my lungs. Pushed by my inner drakaina, who likes that scent and wants to roll around in it like a cat, I open my lips and inhale deeply now, rolling it across my tongue and tasting it.
Because it’s not just that Baldur has Blood Magic, which resonates with mine—and strong Blood Magic, at that. It’s because his scent is like nothing I’ve ever smelled in a dragon before; though there are hints of our natural musk and fiery flavor, it’s almost like his entire body has been crystallized to perfection in sunlight, then painted with a layer of oil-based color upon my tongue.
The effect is vivid; all around me, colors seem more bright, as I taste that flavor. The strangest thing is that it’s ineffable. Though I have a few things I can compare it to, Baldur’s scent is truly unique, nothing I can pinpoint as I try again to understand it.
And fail.
Beside me, Bjorn sleeps like the dead, snoring as he conforms to me. I take a moment to peruse him now, sending my brighter drakaina’s aura through our bond and deep inside his body, to check on his recovery.
Baldur’s hide-and-seek portals did a number on us. That, plus Mikkel’s ongoing shitstorm of wrath, drained Bjorn like crazy in a short amount of time as we raced to find this place.
But being here in Baldur’s home has been good for Bjorn. Deep inside, I can feel his great golden dragon stir towards mine now, far stronger than before. Though we were badly drained by whatever Baldur’s portals did to us, it seems he’s given all that energy back now, as Bjorn gives a sleepy rumble and cinches me tighter to him, though he does not wake.
I search for Aesa’s crimson-gold and white signature inside me, filling my aura’s holes, but I can barely find it now. Though my BloodMagic has been strengthened by being in Baldur’s home, and Bjorn’s too, Aesa’s has not been given any such benefit, after everything that was done to us.
Her vibration hardly sings at all inside me now, as I feel her Truthstone give a slow pulse on my chest. It’s as if even that power is waning, as so much of her spirit’s vitality was sucked away through the Council’s holes inside me.
Thanks to Mikkel going ballistic, plus Baldur’s endless portals, I feel now how Aesa’s soul-imprint inside me is nearly gone. A deep sadness grips me, to know she gave us so much, only to have it be mercilessly ripped away in a single night.
Her Truthstone sings upon my chest then, as it flares bright crimson, vivid with golden sigils. As if to say,I haven’t given up yet, some part of me feels Aesa’s protection breathe at the back of my neck, as her great crimson eyes pierce mine.
A spirit can only help so much from the Void, however, and I know that once the last of her gift has been ripped from me by all these magical shenanigans, there will be no more.
Aesa may only have one gift left to help us with, as I put my hand over her gem on my chest now, saying a silent prayer. The silver gem flares, bolstering me—before it resonates with a different kind of knowing.
And I look up.
Baldur stands beside me now, looking down at me on the couch. He’s dressed in the same wild man outfit from earlier with no shirt on, as I blink that he snuck up on me without me sensing it at all; not my usual.
As I struggle out of Bjorn’s snoring grip, clutching the wool blanket to my chest and bristling, he holds up a quiet hand. He watches me as his cool blue eyes stare me down.
A drowning noontime-midnight color that I want to fall into‚ endlessly.
“Peace. I am not here to harm you,” Baldur says as I stare into those incredible, ethereal eyes. As he says it, I do feel peaceful. Gentle quietude fills my bloodstream, when all I wanted to do before was rage.
It’s thestrangest sensation, as the tirade I was about to unleash upon him is just halted. He didn’t flood me with darkness like Mikkel, or eros like Ström, or even hard-won restraint like Bjorn.
It’s only a deep peacefulness that suffuses me now, like I spent the last ten years meditating on a mountaintop in Tibet. I blink and fall silent. I know Baldur didn’t flood me with his energy, as I search deep within and find nothing connecting us, no bond or anything else magical. It’s only his calm presence, radiating out to touch mine.
Soothing me—completely.
“How did you do that just now? Calm me like that?” I ask him then, as I once again fail to figure him out.
“I have practiced many years to be this calm, and to have such an effect on others. Or did you think I was born this way?” he says now as the slightest smile touches his lips.
It makes him go from artistically handsome to drop-dead gorgeous in half a heartbeat, as I raise my eyebrows at the sudden change. Then he lets me feel it; the massive starburst of power that smolders deep beneath his glacial calm.
As even the barest flash of that gargantuan magic hits me, I feel a vast pull inside my blood, right to my groin. All of a sudden, I’m beyond hot and bothered as my inner Blood Magic drakaina riots hard, bursting and roiling inside my veins with searing, bright magic.
I heave deep breaths as my heart pounds, trying to get my shit under control and failing as the place between my thighs slicks, wet. Because Baldur Sigurðsson is just that mighty a scalding wellspring of magic, like some kind of fucking cosmic star being born, as he gives me the barest taste of what his power can really do.
I want it—all of it—as even my darker Bone Magic lifts its head inside me now, knowing how much food Baldur could be for my united Bloodwalker dragon. That kind of power could take us up against the Black Dragon and back again. I just know it.
