Dragon Heartstring(25)

“Always.”



*

I set the tray with two cups of hot mint tea on the terrace table.

“Thank you, Shakara,” said my aunt, picking up a saucer and cup and placing it in her lap.

The Morgon hotel on the north side of Gladium where she and my father were staying had a lovely view of the Feygreir Mountains where the Icewing clan nestled in a sprawling village. I’d never known prejudice among my kind, but then they weren’t exposed to humans there. I was reminded of Demetrius’s question. What would my clan think of us? Of me with a human?

“What is bothering you, my dear?”

“Hmm?”

Aunt Asheera gazed at me with those all-seeing aqua eyes. Her long white hair hung in braids at her temples, a wrinkled brow raised in question, awaiting my answer. “There is something on your mind. Or perhaps someone on your heart.” She nodded at my chest where I clutched a fist. “Tell me what you are feeling.”

Not realizing what I’d been doing, I pulled my fist into my lap. The pain I’d felt since that night on the rooftop of Spire Maiden with Demetrius had not gone away. It was a strange tightening and loosening, like a spindle unwinding then winding again. It had made its presence known slowly, since that day at the park with Jessen, Julian, and Demetrius. Hoping it would disappear as some strange ailment of the mind, I hadn’t told a soul. An aching in my body seemed to worsen in the presence of Demetrius. I didn’t know why. I wanted to know, and yet I didn’t, afraid of what I would find.

Watching gray clouds gather in the distance, I lifted my cup and saucer from the table to have something to do with my hands. “I’m afraid to tell you.”

She laughed and sipped her tea. “Why? Because a human man has captured your heart?”

My tea cup clinked in the saucer when my fingers slipped. I’d finally admitted to myself the desire I felt was nothing more than an infatuation. But when my every waking moment became filled with longing for his dark eyes and deep voice, I knew it was more. There was no denying it, even to myself.

“How—how could you know that?” My Aunt Asheera was remarkable in many ways, but she wasn’t a seer.

“Tell me what hurts you, my dear. Physically.”

“It’s nothing. Just a slight strain of some kind. I think I overexerted myself.”

“Hmph. If you will not tell me, then I will tell you.” She placed her tea on the glass-top table and leaned toward me on the sofa. “Does it feel like the prickling of needles in your left chest cavity? Is there a constriction that feels as if you can’t breathe? A winding of the clock, drawing you tight? Perhaps even a sharp sting from time to time.”

My pulse pounded at her precise diagnoses. “Yes.”

“It comes and goes, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.” Tears pooled in my eyes. “Do you know what it is? What I have?”

She took my tea and set it on the table, then pulled both my hands into her lap. “Close your eyes, dear,” she said as she closed her own.

I did, trusting her to seek out and find the ailment. I floated in that lovely place where my Aunt Asheera connected with my psyche and body. She was the only healer I’d ever allowed to treat me, to make the Icewing connection. She wasn’t invasive as she explored. Rather the opposite, she touched gently like a nurturing caress. I practiced the art frequently, but I doubt I’d ever be as skillful as she. Finally, she broke the connection with a soft snap, electricity vibrating in the air as she still held my hands in her lap.

I opened my eyes to find her assessing gaze on me.

“Do you know what it is? Is it terminal?”

“Aye. I’m afraid it is.”

Oh, heavens. It must be as I thought, some malignancy rooted inside me. “Go on. Tell me.”

She smiled, an unexpected response to whatever my dire illness was. “You’ve found your mate, Shakara. And he is human.”

“What?” My chest rose and fell more quickly. “What are you talking about?”

“Shakara. Have you recently been seeing a man? Not a Morgon man?”

“Yes.” There was no point in lying, not that I wanted to anyway. My aunt was an open-minded, compassionate person. Still, there was no one in my family who had taken a human mate.

“If what you’re telling me is true, this pain you suffer is the ache to heartbond with him.”

“How can that be?” I shook my head. “Morgon women do not contain soulfire.”

Soulfire burned within every Morgon male when he found his mate. When she accepted him, the burn would transform to an erotic elixir, binding their hearts and syncing their lives as one.

“No. They do not. But every woman experiences the binding of the heartstrings when she is mated to a Morgon man.”

“But I—”

She squeezed my hands and gave me a shake of her head. “Listen.”

Confused, I held my tongue.

“It is the dragon in us, you see. The dragon always knows his or her mate. For Morgon men, they discover it first through soulfire. For Morgon women, it is different. And for Morgon women whose dragon has chosen a human mate, it is different entirely than what other Morgons experience.” Her bright eyes lit with tenderness. “It happens rarely. I’ve only known one other in my lifetime. But it does happen. And it appears that it has happened to you. What you’re feeling, the physical sensation here.” She placed a hand on my chest, fingers splayed. “It is the pull of the dragon heartstring.”