Chapter 19

"She's awake," a raspy male voice cooed with a melodic lilt, and I cringed away from the noise. "The pretty little flower is awake." Something started clanging against metal, causing the pounding in my head to become almost deafening as I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision.

There was a skeletal figure standing behind a wall of metal bars, holding something stark white in his hand as he ran it over the bars separating us. Crazed laughter sounded from somewhere further in the building, bouncing off the stone walls before turning into something between a pained, panicked scream and howl that made my skin crawl. Slowly, I looked past the old man, seeing someone rocking back and forth in another cell, holding their head like they were trying to keep it from exploding while murmuring to himself.

Where the hell was I? I moved to sit up, but when I put pressure on my arm to push myself up, it gave with a sickening pop as I cried out at the searing pain that ripped through my arm. Breathing through the pain, I slowly pushed myself up with my other arm, coming away from the stone floor with a sickly, suctioning sound, but managed to actually sit up this time.

I swallowed hard as I looked down at myself. Most of my clothing was gone, leaving me in only my thin undershirt and underwear. My legs were covered in cuts, bruises, and bite marks, coated in dried blood, but I curled them under me, testing them. Luckily, nothing seemed broken in them.

Taking a breath to steady myself for what I knew was going to be my broken arm, I pulled it in front of me to where it rested in my lap, sucking in a sharp breath as fresh tears filled my eyes when I saw the stark white of the bone protruding from the bloody mess that was my wrist. Panic quickly started setting in as I looked behind me and noticed the amount of blood on the floor surrounding me.

Trying to steady my breathing once more, I told myself that I needed to think and leaned back slightly, looking towards the simple stone ceiling before jumping away as someone grabbed a lock of my hair, ripping it out with a cackling laugh. I swallowed hard before forcing myself to scoot away from the now screaming woman. Her gaunt face looked down at the lock of my hair in pure fascination before looking back up at where I had moved away. She reached through the bars separating us with a hand that was half human, and half yellow-scaled fingers, tipped with shiny black talons. She let out another cackling laugh, her cracked lips parted in a twisted smile as her crazed amber eyes roamed over my frame, then she was screaming in pain once more as her hand slowly started morphing further. More of the yellow scales took over her other fingers as shiny black talons replaced what little nails had been left of the bloody nubs at the tips of her fingers.

'Nova?' I tried to force it down our bond, but she was too far away. I tried to search for Bane's connection to me, but they were both gone. I was truly stuck here.

I didn't know how long I sat there, listening to the tortured screams and crazed laughter bouncing off the stone around us, but I didn't dare fall asleep, no matter how tired I was, for fear that one of them would get in. What would happen if they did? Would they kill me? Or would they put me through whatever torture they were obviously going through?

Slowly, I turned, glancing back at the stone wall behind me that held a single little barred window. Why did horrible things always happen during beautiful weather? I would have at least felt a little better if it were pouring down rain or a huge blizzard was going through, but no. It seemed like the whole universe itself was mocking me as the moon hung there, full and bright in the clear, star-filled sky, as I just looked on from behind bars that I had done nothing to deserve.

I heard the wind whip the side of the building as a cold chill came in through the window, but I caught sight of something huge flying past the window. The full moon glinted silver off shiny black scales, instantly catching my attention. I tried to reach for either dragon once more. Maybe it was Bane and Xavier. Maybe I wasn't so far past the front line, and they found me.

However, when my pleas for help went unanswered once more, I felt the devastation seize my heart. It looked so similar to Bane, but if I was seeing dragons outside, that weren't Bane or Nova, then I was far deeper in Beastial territory than I had any hope of coming back from.

Then the beast landed, right outside my cell, causing the ground to tremble under its weight. All I saw was the shift of black scales as it ducked down, and one massive eye looked through the bars, narrowing in on me. I was mesmerized for a moment as I looked into that eye. It seemed to be a lighter green, but reflected the silver light of the moon. At least death had beautiful eyes. There was only one reason this beast would show up here, and it wasn't a good sign for me. Blood had most likely drawn it, my blood.

It let out a low growl, one that rumbled the stone beneath me as all the other prisoners started screaming. Whether it was in fear or pain, I wasn't sure, but either way, I tried to cover my ears as the pounding in my head made itself known once more. I didn't make it very far, though, considering I pulled on my broken arm and cried out at the pain that shot through my body. With how that beast was looking at me, though, at least I wouldn't have to suffer for much longer...

In the next moment, the wall behind me was crushed, pelting me with stone and rubble, but luckily, nothing large enough to crush me. Slowly, I forced my battered body to its feet, cradling my arm as I prepared to run, but one massive clawed foot grabbed me around my midsection, hauling me out of the cell and towards an enormous black dragon. This one was even larger than Bane, but now that I was closer, I could see that those eyes were undeniably a beautiful, shimmering green before it took to the sky.

Huge wings propelled us forward and towards a quickly rising cliff face. I shook uncontrollably as the freezing air pelted my battered body, and I fully accepted my fate. I was about to be dinner. Even then, I couldn't help but to smile at the irony of it all. I mean, who would have guessed that me, someone bonded to a dragon, would be eaten by one? 

It banked hard, rounding the peak of one of the snowy mountains before I caught sight of two very familiar dragons, and I would have cried out in relief if I could have. Nova and Bane were both standing side by side on a cliff that I was rapidly approaching. Nova, watch out. I called out to her, instantly scared as the huge beast started closing in on her, but she didn't move.

'Ari, are you okay?' She asked as Bane flicked his massive tail, sending snow flying, but also making no move to attack this dragon. Was it a friend or something?

'I... I don't know. I might need a bit of help here.' I said, but she just made something of a cooing sound up at me.

'Ari, I'm sorry, but we have a lot to tell you. You have to promise to listen, though, okay? He's not hurting you, is he?' She asked, and I was stunned, but quickly took inventory of my current position. No, he wasn't hurting me. He was honestly holding me about as gently as a dragon his size possibly could.

'What's going on here, Nova?' I asked, but before she could answer, the dragon set one huge forepaw against the cliff where Nova and Bane were sitting and carefully set me at Nova's feet. It stunned me even further as I looked up, watching as it pushed off the cliff only to land beside Bane. He wasn't much larger than Bane, but seeing the two of them side by side instantly had me terrified. Why weren't they attacking?

'Please, just try to listen to him, Ari.' Nova cooed to me, moving to where I was leaning back against her foreleg as I shivered violently from the frigid night air.

That's when the huge dragon shimmered, a lot like when Nova and Bane shrank down to their smaller sizes, but instead of shrinking small, it changed forms entirely. After a couple of tense moments, I watched as that form shifted until Xavier stood there beside Bane. Every single piece of armor was still in place, every dagger, every single little thing about him was just the way I remembered him leaving the tent we had been sharing. That's why they hadn't attacked him. They weren't even shocked, because they both knew.