Hunted Warrior (40 page)

“The Dragon has always been one of us?” asked Kavya. Mal could feel the quiet tapping of her mind inside his, as if looking for proof of what she'd witnessed—or proof that he was actually the same man returned to them.

That wasn't the case at all. He would never be the same man.

“I don't know about always,” he said carefully. “There's always a start. But there are downward cycles, too. And there are, apparently, moments of rebirth.”

“Told you,” Hark said, grinning tiredly.

“But nothing has changed.” Leto held Nynn, who still looked dazed. “You destroyed the cartel leaders, but that doesn't mean other human opponents won't spring up in their place. And who's to believe the tales that come out of this place?”

“We rebels are but fifty-odd,” Orla added. “Leto is right. Of the few hundred of us left on the planet, who will believe what we witnessed here?”

Avyi's expression was distant. “I dreamed for decades of a time when I would no longer be plagued by visions of the future.”

“And now?” Mal asked, his words intent.

“No more static and overlapping predictions.” She sounded so relieved that Mal smiled. He embraced her, holding tight, as emotion overwhelmed them both. They were free to be together without specters of distant fears to leave them wondering at the future, always around the corner.

“What does this have to do with making everyone else believe?” Tallis asked.

“Because I have a new vision for the future now. Only one.”

Avyi gave Mal's hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. She walked to face Nynn, who eyed her warily. “I understand your hesitancy, just as I hope you can accept my apology. For . . . for so much.”

Nynn nodded, her arm looped through Leto's—perhaps for support, but Mal doubted it was because she needed physical strength. “Will you . . . ?” She shook her head as if she couldn't believe her own thoughts. “Will you tell us about our baby?”

A collective gasp lifted from those gathered at the center of the arena. Even Mal felt his heartbeat speeding. Avyi looked unsurprised.

“I would be honored,” she said softly.

Kneeling slowly, she lifted her hands toward the low slope of Nynn's stomach. Nynn's eyes widened until the whites were visible around pools of liquid aquamarine. The woman warrior was clad in soft leather lined with silk. With shaking hands, she lifted the front portion of her armor, which revealed a slim stretch of skin. She curved her free hand around her womb, so gently rounded, and nodded her encouragement. It was enough for Avyi. She slipped her fingers along that bare skin and closed her eyes.

Mal waited. Everyone did.

“She will fly,” Avyi whispered. “That's what I see. Oh, Dragon be, she will be born healthy . . . and she will fly.”

“What does that mean?” Leto's voice revealed just how close he was to losing his temper. Had he been in the same situation, Mal imagined he would react the same way. His woman and his child and their future, all unknown.

Avyi swayed on her heels. Mal caught her beneath the arms and once again pulled her into his embrace. She had always been a slight woman, but the energy still surging through his body made her featherlight. He held on even tighter.

“I saw her,” she said. “I saw her flying in the company of other dragons.”

Leto cursed under his breath. Then his gaze sharpened, pinned to Avyi's open, awed features. “But she will live? She will be born healthy?”

“Yes.”

Leto rubbed his face in agitation. “That Nynn is pregnant at all is miracle enough.”

Avyi smiled with the sleek, playful grace Mal remembered from their private moments together, there in the labyrinth on Crete. “As you say.”

“It's time. Our people deserve more,” Mal said firmly, taking control of the emotional scene. “That means relearning what it is to be Dragon Kings.”

A sarcastic voice piped up. “You fucking Tricksters.”

Mal turned to find another familiar smile. Hark, with his arm around Orla's shoulders, was grinning.

“We thought it was because of your silver-tongued way with human beings. But it's because you can fly around as the Great Dragon
and
pull off wearing a toga like it's come back in style . . . after a two-thousand-year absence from the haute couture runways.”

Mal looked down. The way Avyi had wrapped the Aster banner around his naked body indeed resembled the white togas of ancient Greeks and Romans. A shiver snaked down his back, but he only returned the sarcastic bastard's smile. “You're jealous.”

“Totally.”

“Then.” Kavya looked at the assembled faces. “What now? Nynn has had a child before. Maybe she's the only one.”

“Or maybe . . .” Avyi lifted her head to the sky, where smoke and ash obscured the lights of London. “Maybe she's just the first of many. Each of the Five Clans need their progeny. Imagine a sky full of our people, flying as high as the clouds. What was once will happen again . . .”

Mal took Avyi in his arms, face to face. They were so close that he could see every black lash and the way her nose turned up ever so slightly at the end. Her eyes shone more gold than green. “Did you see any of this?”

“Your neck slit. You burning.” She wiped away a tear. “I lost my faith for those few minutes when you were dying. How could we love one another if I lost you?”

“Doubting yourself? That doesn't sound like you at all.”

She tucked into his arms, nuzzling the flesh of his shoulder where they'd worked together to heal ravaged skin. Even that scar was gone. “Maybe I doubted because what I wanted was too overwhelming. I couldn't trust that my desires weren't obscuring my gift.”

“Now you know better. And tell me, what do you want? What are your desires?”

She smiled almost shyly. “Simple, my Giva. My Malnefoley. Just you. For the rest of the time the Great Dragon grants us. As long as you believe in it now. That's absolutely mandatory.”

“Of course I do. I'm still him.”

Sobering, he kissed her with remarkable passion, as if they were alone rather than surrounded by fixed gazes. Then, just when Avyi was breathless for him and he was breathless for her, he stepped out of her firm, possessive hold. “I didn't transform back into a human and leave it behind. I'm something new. The Dragon didn't dive into the Chasm. He lives inside me. I think it's happened this way for thousands of years—moments of renewal.”

Another few gasps gathered in Mal's ears. He wanted to shake off the truth, but it was as real as the love he felt for Avyi, this stubborn and undeniable half of his soul. “Come,” he said to her, his hands out.

As brave as ever, she stepped into his embrace. Mal closed his eyes. Just before he released a modicum of control, he whispered against her mouth, “I love you, Avyi. That will never change. Do you know that now?”

“Yes.”

Mal gripped her to his chest, then picked her up, his arms supporting her back and the bend beneath her knees. He expected pain as wings grew and tails shook loose, flicking in the night air. But no pain came. He moved easily from one form into another, as easily as inhaling the smell of Avyi's soft skin. Before he shed one body and gave himself up to another, he rasped against the mouth of the woman he adored, the woman who hadn't just made him into a better man but into a creature who could be man and dragon. Both. The true savior of their people.

“And you trust me?”

“Always, Malnefoley.”

He smiled against her temple. “Then it's time for me to show you what it's like to fly.”

A
LSO BY
L
INDSEY
P
IPER

Silent Warrior

Caged Warrior

Blood Warrior

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.