He’s got his Bloodwalker in his clutches now, the central source of all our darkness, as he squeezes me like a boa constrictor and roars in my face.
I feel him pull copious amounts of energy from me now as he thrusts himself like a barbed demon right in through our bond. It catapults me hard into my darkest place as I scream from that agony raking through our bond and my flesh; it takes everything I have now not to shift up into my darkest dragon and battle him.
I give it everything I’ve got; every ounce of warrior’s restraint and all the breathing techniques I ever learned to help me stay calm, as I let my mate Wraith without taking me down as well.
He doesn’t want me to die, but he wants me to join him in this most terrible place. He wants me to go as black as he is, so he can have a companion to wreak ruin with him in his terrible wrath.
As Aesa’s Truthstone flares bright gold and crimson upon my chest, I know Mikkel wants me to become lost in my inner darkness. Lost like him, so we can fly together through the skies, decimating all we come up against.
As we fly towards ruination, destruction, and death.
“No!” I roar hard now, as I feel Baldur, Bjorn, and Ström give me everything they’ve got. I find my center as my bright inner drakaina seizes my dark drake in her jaws—and then they’re spiraling together once more, equal in might as they balance.
Because I can balance now with Baldur in our mix. Though I’ve not done it much yet, I feel that beautiful balance smooth me now, as I enter a vast trance state.
I realize I’ve spun right up into the Void from finding that suddenbalance, a spontaneous Bloodwalking. I’m facing off with Mikkel now, beyond death. Staring at him in the Void, I see his magnificence; because Mikkel isn’t just a black mamba here, out in the endless cosmos.
He’s black, chartreuse, and copper brilliance all at once as he shines through the cosmos, luminous. It’s a dark luminosity, like ancient sunlight shining off a black hole.
But that black hole has so much light in its depths; unlike a real black hole, I can see that light shining out of him. Because Mikkel has devoured stars, concentrated them, and is burning up from the inside, thanks to the sheer intensity of his inner light. It’s only gone so utterly dark because he had to over the years… or because he believed he had to.
Which we’re about to change—right now.
“Beyond death,” I say, as I maintain my trance state, “there is a place so beautifully bright. I know you can’t see it, locked into your wrathful flesh and bones as you are, but I want you tofeelit with me right now, Mikkel—this place where we are utterly light.”
As I talk to him, I show him what I see in the Void. Thrusting it down through our connection, I make him see what his real dragon looks like in the world beyond space and time; what his soul looks like when he’s not just devoured by his inner darkness, but also balanced by his light.
I show him that his power is so incredibly bright. I show himheis so incredibly bright; not just him, but his dragon, too, even though he thinks it is only a demon, tormenting him all his life.
That vision stops Mikkel cold. His jaw shuts with a snap as he ceases to squeeze me. His black eyes stare not at me now, butthroughme into the Void; I feel it, as he finally sees what he really is.
As it suddenly makes sense to him that he is not just his inner darkness, but something beyond darkness, which is so utterly bright, Mikkel stops menacing me. He gives a soft snort; as his head pauses, I reach up, touching him.
Cradling his scaled face in my hands.
Mikkel’s black eyes lock on me. They sear into me, back from theVoid, as he takes me in. I have one moment of doubt that he’s not coming back, and that this is the end; that he’ll take my head off now in one bite, and be done with our bond and all his inner light, forever.
And then Mikkel snorts, and a soft wave of love hits me through our connection. His eyes flood copper, no longer green nor black, as the demon finally finds his inner light.
Mikkel’s scaled lips come to find me, and I’m there for him.
As he kisses me deep, shifting back down to his human flesh.
24
CHAOS
Mikkel falls into my arms, tears running down his face as he kisses me. He keeps his lips locked on mine even as he shakes and shudders; I’m crushed in his naked arms now, much like I was earlier in his coils, although this is far more pleasant.
Relief swamps me as I realize disaster has been averted; as Mikkel kisses me over and over, peppering my face and seizing my cheeks in his hands as he cries, a deep brightness fills me. It’s not mine, Baldur’s, Bjorn’s, or Ström’s brightness I’m feeling now. It’s Mikkel’s, as he opens up to his own inner light.
At last.
It’s the careening, everything energy that powers his go-go-go—rather than his hate. And it’s so beautiful, as I see his eyes blaze entirely copper now, rather than green or black.
Mikkel’s energy lifts, and a soaring sensation surges throughout our Bloodbond; everyone feels it, as a towering Bloodwind goes sweeping around the dungeon, with all our amalgamated dragon-powers in it.
Because each of us has found our inner light now, despite ourdarkness. We may not do it all the time; we may still get in fights and collide in our ideals. It’s a start, though, and a good one, as I cinch Mikkel close to me now.
