I Married A Dragon (Prime Mating Agency)(22)

The larger pathway that had opened after the other two collapsed seemed to swell further. Then, at the very end, maybe twenty meters away, a light sparked, growing bigger by the second. I squinted, trying to see what it was. It looked like the shimmering sky of Dramnac. Could it be a doorway back out into the real world?

I headed that way, hoping that Cedros had either noticed my vanishing, or that someone traipsing around the market had noticed what had happened to me. After barely five meters towards the luminous doorway, its light quickly began fading. The fifteen meters remaining of my original destination shrunk before me as the pathways shifted, new corridors opening all around, including one overhead. I was only grateful one hadn’t opened beneath me, making me fall to my death or who knew what else.

Once more, I silenced the fear trying to take root as more corridors lengthened and others shortened. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Cedros’s voice shouting my name suddenly resounded everywhere at once. I couldn’t even begin to guess which direction it came from. But hoped soared in my heart. He knew I was lost in the void. He was looking for me. I shouted his name back. To my utter dismay, the void appeared to swallow the sound. I almost felt it getting snuffed out barely a few centimeters in front of me.

Another bright doorway opened to my right, a mere two-meters away. On instinct, I hurried through it as I recognized the sky and some trees. But as soon as I exited the void, my heart seized in my chest. Instead of the black gate’s open market, I’d landed on a tiny floating rock covered in moss, no bigger than two-meters in diameter. Floating islands of varying size—but none large enough to hold a house—surrounded me. The larger ones that would have given me a bit more safety all hovered out of range, either too far up, sideways, or below.

To make things worse, a powerful gust of wind nearly knocked me off my tiny refuge. I shouted in fear and dropped to the ground, trying to make myself as small as possible so the wind wouldn’t get me. I couldn’t see a single soul. Way down below, at least a couple of kilometers down, small moving dots hinted at potential wildlife roaming a valley.

I couldn’t even run back inside the void that had led me to this death trap. Any sign of an anomaly had vanished the minute I’d appeared here. I shouted Cedros’s name at the top of my lungs. While my voice carried, there was no one to hear it.

This time, the panic I’d kept at bay while traipsing between worlds finally took root. I never should have exited the void. In there, Cedros could have found me. But now that I was back out in the real world, could he still track me? Who would come to this forsaken place and find me here?

My teeth chattered under the chilling cold that swirled around me with the gusting winds. I should have brought my jetpack. At least then I could have flown down to the surface and maybe found a proper shelter or some village or dwellings. I shouldn’t have allowed my temper to make me wander off. Cedros had warned me anomalies could happen at any time. If only I had remained next to him, this wouldn’t have happened. I should have—

A violent ripping sound, akin to a thunderclap, interrupted my string of self-recrimination. As if in response to my silent prayers, a giant black vortex opened vertically about fifty meters above me and maybe a hundred meters away. It no sooner finished forming than a gold and midnight-blue dragon shot out of it with a powerful roar.

Tears welled in my eyes, and my heart soared upon recognizing the beloved being.

“CEDROS!” I shouted, jumping to my feet.

I didn’t think he could hear me from such a distance, but the name no sooner left my lips than his head jerked towards me.

“My Kaida! I found you!”

A teary laugh poured out of me when I heard his telepathic voice resonate in my mind as he dove towards me. But it quickly turned into a terrified shout when another gust of wind knocked me off my feet. I tumbled over the edge of my small island, barely catching myself on an overhanging rock. However, the moss covering its surface gave me little to no purchase.

And then my hands slipped.

I screamed as I started tumbling down. It was a short fall. With a few powerful flaps of his wings, Cedros reached me in seconds. His massive paw closed around my body as he caught me. I felt no bigger than a Barbie doll in his palm as he brought me up to his chest, covering me with his other hand.

Weeping with relief and gratitude, I pressed my head against his wide chest, listening to the hammering of his twin hearts. Cedros threw his head back and fired the most impressive stream of shadow flames. In that instant, I knew beyond any doubt he was expressing an excess of joy and relief to have rescued me.

“I have found you, my Ejaya. You are safe. Do not be afraid anymore. I have found you,” Cedros kept repeating to me in his telepathic voice.

A rumbling sound further up drew my attention. The portal through which he had arrived appeared to fold in on itself and inside out before stabilizing again. At a subconscious level, I surmised he had reset its destination. Holding me tightly against his heart, Cedros flew through the portal.

To my shock, we came out half a second later on the terrace of his house. He landed, the portal unraveling behind us with a slight swishing sound.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, my Kaida…” Cedros telepathically said, even as his size steadily shrunk as he shifted out of his battle form.

Still holding me, this time with his arms instead of his hands, once back to his normal form and height, Cedros gave me a bone-crushing hug. When his ability to speak returned, he multiplied the apologies for his perceived fault in this.