FOREVER KNIGHTS: #17 Marked As Mine

Alazar and Riaura spent the day together. He walked her through Warlock Grove. Eventually, leading her to their boulder next to Dread’s Brew Wake.

Where we first met.

“It’s strange.” She remarked.

“What?” He looked at her. Smoothing a stone in his hand and considering tossing it over the wake.

“That we met here and formed a bond that got us through years of being apart.”

“Is that what you think happened?” He gave her a sideways look.

“I think so.”

“We were never that far apart.”

“Perhaps not in heart.” She said sadly. “But we were in mind.”

“I wasn’t sure we were ever going to be close again.” He admitted. Flinging the rock over the small embankment and still managing to get the rock to dance over the surface.

“Our bond was weakened but never broken.” She nestled closer to him to rest her head on his chest.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer.

“I remember sitting here while you pointed out the birds to me.”

He chuckled at the memory. “And teaching you to make rocks ‘fly’.”

“I loved those days. They all seemed filled with sunshine and warmth. It seemed like the further I got from you the darker my days were. Filled with wind and storms. Endlessly gray.”

“You were stuck thinking the things Danbury planted in your mind. Seeds which flourished into trees.”

Sunlight danced off the surface of the Wake to light a warm golden hue across Alazar’s cheeks and brightening his blue-green eyes as they watched her.

Alazar held her hand.

She looked at where they were intertwined. Smiling fondly. “Always the honorable gentleman.”

“Was Danbury so honorable?” He finally asked the question he’d dreaded the answer to.

“No.” She admitted. “But I’d convinced him it was only right to wait until after we were wed.”

“You were never intimate with him?”

“Never.” She shook her head. “Only you.”

“Why’d you let me think-”

“I didn’t let you, Alazar, you insisted.”

That’s probably true.

“I knew Danbury was the one killing your people.”

“Why didn’t you save them.”

“Often, by the time I heard them or smelled the smoke it was too late. When I got there, they were already dead.”

“And when they weren’t?”

“If they were still there, I saved them. And I killed Danbury’s men.”

“That’s why he hated you so much.”

Alazar gave her a doubtful look. “Part of the reason, possibly.”

Mostly because he wanted you.

“Why’d you give me the nightmares.”

She’s guessing. He knew. She doesn’t know for certain it was me.

But he opted for honesty.

“I thought sharing them with you might help you understand their suffering. Be more driven to find out who harmed them. Point you in the direction of Danbury.” He finished.

“I thought it was you.”

“Yea. You were set on that course.” He sighed.

“I fear I already know the answer, but why’d you take Nightway from me?” She asked hesitantly.

“I know how much you have love Nightway, how hard you’ve tried to be an ideal queen. But you’ve been blind to Danbury’s crimes. If I’d shown you his face in the involvement of the peasant murders you would’ve denied they were happening.” He sounded as pained as he felt.

“You’d already put such distance between yourself and I that I could say nothing. I saw your loyalty to him as betrayal. Perhaps I was too hard on you.”

“You thought you were saving me from myself.”

He nodded.

“I’d like to ask Charles why he deceived me. Why he tortured them.”

“Because he was trying to get them to tell him about the Rebels.”

Alazar dropped his head on hers, resting on his shoulder.

“And really you were leading them.”

Alazar choked slightly. “I’d been meaning to tell you...”

“Sure, you were.” She flicked her eyes up toward him sarcastically.

“The people were unsettled and there were many repercussions they wanted for their suffering.”

Like you dead.

“I guided them to keep them harmless enough. They needed to know they had your attention. So, I let them kill cattle or burning a crop. It was enough.”

“It still hurts.” She said.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered. “I saw no other choice. Forgive me?”

Alazar had confided all their secrets to Riaura but she was struggling to take it all in. So he made a suggestion. “I can prove it?”

“How?”

“I can show you my primary shape. You won’t like it though.”

“Sounds promising. Show me.”

Alazar stood and dusted off his pants. Offering her a hand up so she could rise from sitting on the flat boulder.

She studied it askance. Slipping her hand in his.

He wove through Warlock Grove. Beyond the cottage and to a place near the valley of Meadow Mountain. A space big enough.

“Remember, you wanted to see who I really am.”

She nodded.

“Close your eyes. It’ll be less startling that way…I think.” He stepped away from her. Putting a distance between them.

She complied.

His back muscles separated so the bones could expand and adjust. Making him grunt softly against the strain of his body expanding. Stretching and modifying to take on the dragon’s shape.

Once he was a beast shrouded in silver scales, he lowered his head from the treetops to rest on the section of grass between them. Adjusting his feet shattered logs and scraped tree trunks. The swathing of his spined tail knocked branches loose and flattened the grass.

He huffed softly against her.

She opened her eyes and found herself level with his nostrils.

The heat of them dusting over her.

Giant yellow eyes blinking slowly at her. He was utterly still to try and keep from scaring her.

When she fainted, he stretched one clawed hand to cradle her. His massive horned head twisting as he looked at her. Curling scaled fingers around her, he dropped his belly to the grass to await her waking.