Zabina
I don't know what's wrong with me.
I've never felt like this before. This confusion. This absurd heat that makes me anxious for no clear reason. It's impossible to grow so attached to someone I've just met. But Abisai has something that clouds my senses. He's everything I should fear — a black dragon, a prince, an entire world that could destroy me — and yet I feel comfortable by his side. Worse still… I don't want him to leave.
We spent the whole day searching for a healer. We returned empty-handed, with the weight of a decision I have to make before dawn.
Maybe, if he gave me his protection… If my life weren't in danger in his land… maybe I'd go. Maybe.
He leaves in the morning. He has to report on that traitor dragon working with the hunters. I have to decide before dawn.
I still can't believe I have a prince sleeping in my bed.
I'm sitting in the armchair, wrapped in my bathrobe, when I hear his soft footsteps. I turn.
He's there, looking at me in that way that shouldn't be allowed. Dark, intense, as if he could see beneath the fabric and my defenses at the same time.
"Can't you sleep?" I ask, and my voice comes out lower than I intended.
He runs a hand through his tousled hair.
"Can I join you?"
The smile escapes me on its own. I shift in the armchair without thinking, making space for him.
"If you join me…" I fidget with the edge of my robe, nervous, "do you swear no one will harm me?"
He sits beside me. The heat of his body reaches me even without touching. For a moment, neither of us speaks. Only the crackling of the fire and the deep silence of the forest outside can be heard.
"You have my word," he says softly.
"You'll bring me back."
"Yes."
I sigh, trembling.
"Alright. I'll go with you and help your brother. But you have to protect me."
"I owe you my life, Zabina. No one will dare go against my word."
"Good… Then I'll trust you."
He lifts his head suddenly and sniffs the air. His expression changes in an instant.
"What's happening?" I ask, sitting up.
"Corin," he mutters through his teeth, standing up. "He knows I'm here."
"But how could he…?"
The voices reach us from outside before I can finish the sentence. Harsh orders. Bangs against the wood. They're attacking my tree, my home, the walls that have been my only refuge for years. The sound paralyzes me.
"Come on, Zabina. We have to go now."
"But…"
He lifts me from the armchair without waiting for an answer.
"Move."
I grab the cloak, and we move toward the exit. He places me behind him when we hear them struggling against the door.
"But how did they discover my refuge?" Tears escape on their own.
"Zabina," his voice is firm. "Another way out?"
"Through the roof," I say. "But there's no ladder."
He looks at me. A second of absolute silence.
"Fine."
He transforms.
The black dragon filling my living room barely fits between the walls. His wings brush against the ceiling beams and knock over the lamp onto the floor. He's enormous and dark, and suddenly my cabin is ridiculously small, and I'm ridiculously aware of what I have in front of me.
He lifts his head toward the ceiling and releases a controlled stream of fire. The wood gives way, the hole opens, and the night sky appears above.
One of his claws wraps around me with a care I didn't expect from something so large, and we shoot upward before I can scream.
Outside, it's chaos.
Hunters everywhere, torches, kirys arrows cutting through the air. The tree that was my home burns at its base, and I watch it from Abisai's claws with my stomach in a knot I don't know if I'll ever undo.
He climbs higher, taking us away from danger, and for a moment, I think the worst is over.
Then I see it coming.
Another black dragon, huge, crossing the sky straight toward us.
Abisai veers in the air. With a load in his claws, he can't maneuver well, and we both know it. He looks for a way out, and the only one he has is me.
He deposits me on a wide rock with more gentleness than the situation deserves. I lie on the cold stone and look at him. He looks at me too, just for a second, and something in that second I don't know how to interpret.
He snorts.
He rises into the sky.
The fight is brutal.
Claws, fire, bites. They strike each other in the air with a violence that makes the treetops below tremble. Abisai is faster, but the other is bigger, and every time he seems to gain ground, the other pushes him back.
The sensible thing would be to leave. I have the rock, I have the forest at my back, I have years of practice hiding. I should be running.
I don't move.
I hear the hunters before I see them. They're regrouping below the fight, bows raised, arrows pointing upward. Toward Abisai.
I count three breaths. I curse myself for being weak and transform.
My white wings spread over the rock, and the gem awakens on its own, burning against my chest. I place myself between the hunters and the dragons, and when they see me, they stop, confused, because a white dragon hasn't existed for two hundred years, and none of them knows what to do with what they have before them.
The gem shines.
I focus on that point of heat in my chest and release my power outward in a wave of silver light that envelops them all. They cover their eyes, screaming, and fall to their knees.
The spell will leave them blind until dawn.
I turn toward the fight.
They haven't noticed me, and that's good. I return to my human form and stand still on the rock, my heart in my throat, watching as the two dragons tear each other apart in the sky.
Then Abisai sinks his claws into the other's neck. The other stops moving.
He falls.
The impact against the ground raises a cloud of dust that takes a while to settle. When it clears, there are two figures on the ground. One doesn't move. The other stands up slowly, in human form, with torn clothes and blood on his arm. It's Abisai.
I climb down from the rock and run to him without thinking. I don't give him time to say anything: I hug him tightly, burying my face in his warm, pounding chest.
"Are you okay?" I sob.
His arms wrap around me tightly. He rests his cheek on my hair.
"Yes. It's done. The traitor is dead."
"I was so scared…"
I don't know why I'm saying it. Or why I'm hugging him like this. I don't know anything right now, only that a minute ago I thought he could die, and that twisted something inside me I don't fully understand.
He lifts my chin with his fingers.
And his lips claim mine.
I shouldn't allow this. I know. I'm breaking all my rules. But as it happens, I know with the same clarity with which I know fire burns… and it doesn't stop me. I surrender to the kiss, to his demanding mouth, to his tongue tangling with mine, to that heat spreading from my chest as if the gem and the kiss were the same thing. It's too much. It's not enough. And that terrifies me more than any hunter.
It's me who pulls away, panting. He looks at me with half-closed eyes, frames my face with his hands, and doesn't say anything for a moment. He just looks at me.
"We're going to Anwar," he murmurs at last. "Then I'll bring you back. I swear."
I look over his shoulder at the smoke rising between the pines. My refuge no longer exists.
"I don't have a home anymore," I murmur.
"I'll fix that," his thumb brushes my cheek. "Trust me, maybe you'll like Anwar."
"Isn't it dangerous for me?"
"Not with me by your side."
I'd swear my cheeks have turned red, and I nod because it's the only thing I can do.
He takes his dragon form. I climb onto his back, cling tightly to his scales, and when he takes flight, the wind hits my face. The Jurdiena forest remains behind.
I don't allow myself to look at it one last time.
If I look, I won't leave.