trail.”
“You can trust me to not kill you at this time, because if I do, then I will have one more pendant to search for. So long as you live, the amethyst pendant will be safe, but L. Shannon
87
when you die, it will seek out another companion. As for the others who may be after you, there are those who would rush headlong into the apocalypse to further their own goals. Stay alive long enough to reach me, and I will offer my considerable protection for your service.”
“I see.” I sort of did anyhow. Though if I couldn’t protect myself as a dragon, I wasn’t sure what help he could offer me. On the other hand he was offering to teach me to live as a dragon. Perhaps he’d already found one of the pendants. “I guess you’re still my boss, at least for now.”
“Good. Be at the checkpoint on time.” The line went dead.
I had one more task to finish before Davis returned. I started making calls to collect Davis’s materials from his former hotel room. I couldn’t bring them here, nor could I send them to any address that might link back to either of us. I tracked down a storage center in Castleton, one town over from his family home, to have his things shipped to.
If he didn’t return, I would let him go. A single call to my cell and I could give him the means to get all his belongings back and he could walk away as if I hadn’t almost ruined his life.
It was the right thing to do…no matter how wrong it felt.
“Our minion will return to us.”
“Not if you keep calling him minion. I think he made it pretty clear what he thinks of that entirely outdated title.”
“But he is our minion—fine. I will consider a new title for him, for when he returns. Because he must return.” There was an odd pain to Amethyst’s thoughts that had me looking harder into that part that was her.
“What’s wrong?”
88
Amethyst Bound
“Nothing.”
To anyone else that might have been convincing, but I was queen of that mystical place, Nothing Wrong. She wasn’t fooling me. I did the thing she’d tried to show me before, focusing on relaxing my own shields and looking into her emotions and thoughts.
Amethyst wasn’t human and didn’t have human thoughts. Her consciousness was like water swirling in a pool. At first I couldn’t make anything out, but after a moment images came to me. Dragons made out of wispy clouds circled and danced together. Dozens, maybe more, filled a huge cavern. The light from their ghostly bodies lit up the black marble floor and walls in a kaleidoscope of jewel tones.
Then as suddenly as the beautiful images came, they were locked away once more.
“Amethyst? Was that a memory?” Long minutes passed before she whispered, “Yes.”
“What happened to you all? Why aren’t you still dancing together in that beautiful cave?” She did not answer in words. Instead she pushed more memories into me. Where before, I’d sort of snuck in and stolen her thoughts, now they came at me in an overwhelming flood, pouring into me, faster and faster. A man in shadows looming up over the dancing dragons.
Chasing. Hurting. Power rushed over them, over her, over me. Magic. Pain. All being driven forward with the dragons, not dancing but fleeing before the terrible assault. One by one they were captured and torn apart.
Forced into the pendants. Locked away from everything, from everyone. Alone, so terribly alone.
“Oh my God.” The suffering and misery of her captivity faded and was replaced by a moment of bright L. Shannon
89
escape, the moment she’d awoken inside me, inside a temple and finally free from her prison. “How could that bastard trap you like that? Why would he? Oh, Amethyst, I’m glad I put on your pendant. I won’t let that happen to you ever again.”
But I felt the unease in her mind. Then I understood.
“Those other dragons are still trapped.”
“Yes.”
The words offering to free all the others hovered in my mind, but I bit them back. I couldn’t make
“You can trust me to not kill you at this time, because if I do, then I will have one more pendant to search for. So long as you live, the amethyst pendant will be safe, but L. Shannon
87
when you die, it will seek out another companion. As for the others who may be after you, there are those who would rush headlong into the apocalypse to further their own goals. Stay alive long enough to reach me, and I will offer my considerable protection for your service.”
“I see.” I sort of did anyhow. Though if I couldn’t protect myself as a dragon, I wasn’t sure what help he could offer me. On the other hand he was offering to teach me to live as a dragon. Perhaps he’d already found one of the pendants. “I guess you’re still my boss, at least for now.”
“Good. Be at the checkpoint on time.” The line went dead.
I had one more task to finish before Davis returned. I started making calls to collect Davis’s materials from his former hotel room. I couldn’t bring them here, nor could I send them to any address that might link back to either of us. I tracked down a storage center in Castleton, one town over from his family home, to have his things shipped to.
If he didn’t return, I would let him go. A single call to my cell and I could give him the means to get all his belongings back and he could walk away as if I hadn’t almost ruined his life.
It was the right thing to do…no matter how wrong it felt.
“Our minion will return to us.”
“Not if you keep calling him minion. I think he made it pretty clear what he thinks of that entirely outdated title.”
“But he is our minion—fine. I will consider a new title for him, for when he returns. Because he must return.” There was an odd pain to Amethyst’s thoughts that had me looking harder into that part that was her.
“What’s wrong?”
88
Amethyst Bound
“Nothing.”
To anyone else that might have been convincing, but I was queen of that mystical place, Nothing Wrong. She wasn’t fooling me. I did the thing she’d tried to show me before, focusing on relaxing my own shields and looking into her emotions and thoughts.
Amethyst wasn’t human and didn’t have human thoughts. Her consciousness was like water swirling in a pool. At first I couldn’t make anything out, but after a moment images came to me. Dragons made out of wispy clouds circled and danced together. Dozens, maybe more, filled a huge cavern. The light from their ghostly bodies lit up the black marble floor and walls in a kaleidoscope of jewel tones.
Then as suddenly as the beautiful images came, they were locked away once more.
“Amethyst? Was that a memory?” Long minutes passed before she whispered, “Yes.”
“What happened to you all? Why aren’t you still dancing together in that beautiful cave?” She did not answer in words. Instead she pushed more memories into me. Where before, I’d sort of snuck in and stolen her thoughts, now they came at me in an overwhelming flood, pouring into me, faster and faster. A man in shadows looming up over the dancing dragons.
Chasing. Hurting. Power rushed over them, over her, over me. Magic. Pain. All being driven forward with the dragons, not dancing but fleeing before the terrible assault. One by one they were captured and torn apart.
Forced into the pendants. Locked away from everything, from everyone. Alone, so terribly alone.
“Oh my God.” The suffering and misery of her captivity faded and was replaced by a moment of bright L. Shannon
89
escape, the moment she’d awoken inside me, inside a temple and finally free from her prison. “How could that bastard trap you like that? Why would he? Oh, Amethyst, I’m glad I put on your pendant. I won’t let that happen to you ever again.”
But I felt the unease in her mind. Then I understood.
“Those other dragons are still trapped.”
“Yes.”
The words offering to free all the others hovered in my mind, but I bit them back. I couldn’t make
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