The Dragon Legion Collection(57)

Their gazes locked and held for a charged moment, and Damien noted the slight rounding of Petra’s belly. He couldn’t believe she would lose their son, not when she looked so healthy in her pregnancy, but he couldn’t accept what she had done. If he remained with her, even for one night, it would be an endorsement of her deed.

“What will you do?” he asked.

She shrugged, pretending to be indifferent when he knew she wasn’t. “I can’t imagine you care.” Her tone was hurt and he felt guilt at his role in that.

“I do.”

She turned away then took the pot off the tripod over the fire. He’d never seen her cry and that convinced him that she was the mother of the prophecy.

“I’ll go to the Mothers if I need to,” she said, surprising him. He’d never heard her refer to a home or a family.

“But the prophecy...”

She turned on him, her eyes blazing, and he took a step back at the sign of her anger. She seemed to be more than a woman in this moment, and he was sure he felt the ground quaking beneath his feet.

What was an Earthdaughter?

“I don’t believe your prophecy,” Petra declared. “I refuse to believe that my son is as good as dead just because some woman in a grotto uttered a verse.” She jabbed her finger at her own chest. “I will believe in his safe arrival. I will believe in his good health. And I will do everything in my power to give him exactly what he needs.”

Damien might have been chastened, but those people turned to stone just steps away couldn’t be forgotten. Petra’s stern tone and his uncertainty about her powers made him fear the mother of his child. “I don’t think I want to know what ‘everything in your power’ might mean.”

She smiled coolly. “No, you’re just a dragon. Run away, Pyr warrior, if that’s so much easier than trusting in me.”

Damien was offended. “It’s not easy to trust someone with hidden powers...”

“And it’s not easy to believe in love. I thought you were more than a man, not less than one, but you’re afraid.” Petra straightened and glared at him, her expression filled with challenge.

“I’m not afraid.”

“Then stay and see what I am.” Her eyes were bright with challenge and there was a rosy glow surrounding her body. Damien wanted to stay and see her truth, just to prove her expectation wrong.

But when the ground rumbled beneath his feet, he shifted shape instinctively, taking flight in his dragon form. He hovered in the courtyard, but Petra stopped her humming and shook her head. She spat on the ground beneath him, her disgust clear. “Run away, dragon. I’ll wait for a man bold enough to love me.”

Damien knew he could have melted Petra’s resistance with a touch, but he didn’t want to reconcile. The idea that he could be mated with the woman who would destroy him was too real a possibility for him to try to stay. He’d watched his father’s powers ebb away to nothing, leaving him a shell of a dragon. And there hadn’t been a prophecy. He’d never be able to sleep again in Petra’s presence.

He gave her one last look, yearning for what he had believed to be true of her, then flew high in the sky. He flew over the strange frozen company of villagers before beating his wings hard to ascend over the hills.

He’d always said he’d never fall in love. He’d always said he’d never surrender his future to one woman. He’d fulfilled his firestorm and very nearly succumbed, but had escaped the consequences in time. Damien told himself he had done the right thing, that his son couldn’t be saved, that the oracle was right.

But Petra’s disgust echoed in his ears and his heart.

Little did he know then that it always would.



Damien came to a breathless halt in the endless forest. He was panting and winded, feeling an exhaustion that wasn’t characteristic of him. He looked down to see his leg was turning black. His toes were numb. The rest of his skin was becoming pale.

Petra was right. Time was running out.

He spun to examine the grey trees. They were just trees now, trees without human faces or captives, and he wondered if his eyes had deceived him.

He swallowed, knowing the prophecy had deceived him. There had never been a woman who had made him feel as powerful and alive as Petra, never a woman who surprised him and captivated as she had done.

He realized that even though he’d left her, against every inclination of his heart, he’d still been turned to stone.

Damien had gone on that mission with Drake and the others, the quest to oust one of their own kind. They’d followed a dark trail into the depths of the earth, the evil spell of the viper wafting into their ears. Many had their hearts turned against their true intention. Others fell back, unable to continue. The trail had led those who could endure the viper’s chant to one of their own.

Cadmus.

And in the battle to defeat him, those who fought at Drake’s back had been enchanted.

Turned to stone.

And trapped for centuries.

The prophecy had come true, but not due to Petra’s powers. Damien was ashamed that he had assumed the worst of her on that day, that he hadn’t asked for an explanation or given her a chance. He’d acted foolishly and couldn’t blame Petra for her anger.

But according to that same prophecy, once each obstacle was confronted, their firestorm would have a chance of a future.