Kim Knox - Emergence

A distant roar burst over us. Shit. Sinon.

“I have to end this.”

“No, Kaden, we can-”

“He would never leave us. Drop your shift. You’re healed and it’s exhausted you.” He nuzzled my head, stroking over smooth feathers, the gesture heartwarming and strangely ridiculous. “Ridiculous? I think I’ll have to have words with you. After.”

Great gusts of air swept over me from the first beat of his wings, and I struggled to stay standing. My gryphon form ached, burned, the need to let her slip back into shadow a weight on my bones. He was right. I had to fall back into my human sheath. Clothes itched against me, feeling strange after the rush of air against fur and feathers.

He erupted into the open sky, and I watched him with human eyes. The relief of not holding my form sank me to the cold granite floor, the open sky high above me. Kaden soared, wheeled, and his magnificence, his beauty, caught my breath. A smug little burst of satisfaction from my gryphon had a grin pulling at my mouth. Yes, she thought her mate was glorious too.

Sinon swooped low, cutting under Kaden. His maw opened and fire streamed in a liquid spray around Kaden forming a blaze of red flame and smoke. I cried out, my body betraying me as it only let me crawl to my feet. It couldn’t end like this. Couldn’t.

A different roar, deeper, more resonant, shook the air, and Kaden burst from the grey smoke, his wings spread wide, his shadow sweeping over me. My heart leapt. How his transformation had happened I didn’t question. That it had made my chest tight and my blood on fire. He wheeled and charged at Sinon. All other thought shot from my brain.

The wild lash of tails, talons, mixing with the riot of wings, teeth and flame made it hard for me barely to breathe. Sinon’s silver hide glittered, shone, as it wrapped around the light-sucking inky blackness of my mate. The stink of ash and hot, melting metal thickened the air as smoke wreathed around the battling dragons, obscuring them. I couldn’t see who had the upper hand, who would win.

A fierce burst of wind swept down over me, and I staggered back, coughing from the searing ash that came with it. Darkness rushed over me, and I caught the image of bony wings, scorched and torn skin. Black skin. Not silver. My gut cramped, and I stared upwards, not thinking to move, to run from the crashing weight of a falling dragon. I would die…but it didn’t matter.

The falling dragon was Kaden.

The dragon shifted in a blur of light, taking on its human sheath as it plummeted. A great claw swooped out from the smoke and caught the man in its heavy padding. I stared and tried to remember how to breathe. A black claw caught a silver-haired man.

Gently, Kaden eased Sinon onto the granite tiles and in a shining burst of light he dropped to his knees beside him. I couldn’t move. Kaden was alive. The wild joy of that fired hot blood through my body, and I staggered towards them, dropping beside Sinon. The First Dragon still breathed, but his face, once so beautiful, lay thick with raw flesh and blackened skin stretching down over his throat and chest. Smoke rose from his tattered flesh.

I found Kaden’s eyes. Tears burned there. “Kaden?”

“What am I?” He took Sinon’s lax hand and squeezed hard, forcing the dying man to focus on him. “Father, what am I?”

My stomach turned over. Father? Kaden was Sinon’s son? How was that possible? And how could a father treat his son that way? My anger at the man surged. Sinon was dying, but I couldn’t dredge up any pity for him.

Sinon coughed, his breath ragged. His eyes rolled to stare at Kaden and contempt still gripped him. “You…are…corruption.” It seemed, even as he lay dying, Sinon loathed his son.

Kaden’s mouth thinned. “No. I’m not.” He dropped Sinon’s hand and climbed to his feet.

He offered his hand to me and I took it, slipping my fingers into his warm, strong grip. We stepped back from Sinon and relief washed through me. He’d tried to kill both of us. My gryphon reared, her thoughts thick with satisfaction. Yes, she wanted him gone too.

Kaden squeezed my fingers before he turned his hard gaze on Sinon again. “I’m not corruption. I’m you, Father. I’m the First Dragon.”

Sinon struggled to push himself up, blood wetting his lips as fury gave him strength. “You’re a mongrel! A fester born on this reality. My dirty secret, hidden even from the register. I should’ve followed my first instinct and eaten you the minute you were born.”

Kaden laughed, the sound harsh, bitter. “Even you couldn’t break that law. So you turned me into a sometime-whore.” He lifted his chin. “Time for you to die.” And he turned away from his father.

I gripped his hand hard, willing strength into my legs. My stomach twisted tight. Sinon was still my master. Some reluctant part of me was unable to ignore that. Kaden returned my fierce squeeze, and the anxiety eased. No, we had a new First Dragon.

“Don’t turn your back on me!”

Sinon’s rasping voice cut through me, and I focused on something, on anything else. The air, it was changing, growing still and warm, the hint of energy itching against my skin. I stared up. The lattice of steel and glass glittered in the morning sunlight. It was a shield. At least that was one answer amongst the myriad of rising questions.

It still didn’t feel quite real. None of it. How was it possible that I was alive? That Kaden was? Hell, I knew that was more than I could’ve hoped for an hour before, but still, it was impossible. The first spark of a grin pulled at my mouth as the fact of our surviving filtered into my dazed brain. We were alive and together.

Sinon’s rasping voice burst after us, raining curses on Kaden and his corruption, and it stabbed at me, breaking my smile. Yes, too much about Kaden was still unknown. One of Sinon’s choke-voiced demands stuck in my brain: “How did you break my seal? How did you break it and shift?”

Kaden drew in a breath and his step almost faltered, but he didn’t answer. He stayed silent until we rounded the silver wall bisecting the vast room. Then he stopped and pulled me into the tightest hug, his face buried in my hair. Sinon’s obscenities rolled over us until a final curse was cut short and silence stretched into seconds and then minutes. He was gone. Lord Sinon, the First Dragon of the British Isles, was dead.

“Kaden?” I pressed my lips to his neck, tasting skin and the bitter burn of ash. “What-”

The lift pinged, and the two karkadann burst from it, their shadows fierce and both of them on the verge of losing their human sheaths.

Kaden stepped forward and pushed me behind him. “Stand down.” The authority, the power in his voice, rippled over me and I shivered. His shadow filled the wide corridor, and the two women stumbled to a stop. Both of them narrowed their eyes and one tilted her head. “Now.”

“ Rhodes…”

He strode forward. “You will address me as master or Lord Kaden.” His voice burned with raw power, and the gryphon in me surged, wanting to revel in the strength of our mate. His mythoi loomed over the woman, and a spark of terror had her sucking in a quick breath, her eyes wide. She dropped to her knees, her mirror image falling down beside her.

“Master.” They murmured the awed word in unison.

“Announce my ascension.” He paused. They hadn’t moved, still kneeling, tremors shivering through them. “Now!”

As one, they ran for the lifts.

Kaden shook his head and a wry laugh escaped him. He turned back to me. But all I saw was his long, lean body and the incredible force of his shadow. The familiar heat, the desire that had driven me since I first saw him in the club a lifetime ago, sank low in my belly. I ached, I was tired and dirty, but damn, I wanted him again.

His eyes gleamed with satisfaction, burning a rich, molten gold. “That felt really good-”

He got no further as I leapt at him, my mouth covering his. His arms wrapped around me as our tongues fought, as our shadows spiralled together, their joy and relief washing hard down over me. I tasted my own tears.

Kaden pulled back with a smile. He brushed the wild tangle of my hair from my face. “Thank you,” he murmured.

“For what?”

His gaze flitted over my shadow, my gryphon warmed by his attention. “You broke his seal.” A smile curved over his lips, and that insane need to kiss him rioted through me again. He obliged me with a soft tasting, his mouth brushing against mine. “Taking you as my mate, the coalescing of our shadows, shattered a block I didn’t even know I had.” He stepped back from me and gripped my hand. “The frustration of seeing him hunt you.” Kaden pulled in a tight breath, a crease deepening across his brow. He shook his head and started a measured walk to the lifts. “It burned…and then I was crouching on all fours and exhaling smoke.”

The doors opened before us and I stepped inside. My reflection stared back at me, wild haired, sweaty and patched with grime. Kaden, of course, looked cool and beautiful. I smirked, and his eyes narrowed on me.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I ran a hand over my tangled hair. “So what happens now?”

“Now? We wash and head up to Jura.”

“Jura?” I pushed the disappointment from my voice. I’d hoped that we’d spend the afternoon in a large bed. Then the evening and possibly the whole of the next day… The lift pinged and doors whooshed open on a long corridor, a mirror of the one in the tower room. The City’s buildings stretched away in a chaotic jumble of glass, brick, stone and steel, but the fear, the terror of falling, no longer gripped me. I’d fallen and survived, after all. “Why head up there?”

“I’m the new First Dragon. I must be seen.” He stopped and took my hands in both of his. Sunlight splashed over his face, and his amber eyes gleamed gold. “And you’re coming with me as my mate.” His head tilted. “Sinon drove the idea of corruption through his own loathing. He had no memory of his past life to say whether it was right or wrong.” He let out a heavy sigh, and his mouth twisted. “He lacked control when he first emerged and demeaned himself with a gryphon. It’s time to let the idea of corruption die with him.”

“Don’t you wonder what you are?” The image of the inky black dragon with burning amber eyes seared through my memory. “How-”

“Mythoi are fluid. We blend.” He grinned. “I’ve lived with whatever I am for a long time. I think I’ll survive.”

Kaden’s voice had dropped low, and my nipples peaked. He stepped closer, and I lifted my chin, feeling his warm breath. I didn’t resist the need to move, to press my body up against his. I ran my hands over his backside and wiggled against his erection.

He wet his lips. His eyes darkened and need lurked in their depths. “And did I mention that as First Dragon, I’ll travel in style? No cramped seats.”

“Interesting.” My lips brushed his, aching to deepen the kiss. My shadow wrapped around us, finding Kaden’s and melting together in blissful relief. “Though I’ll always love that car.”

Kaden grinned. “Yes…” He drawled the word. “And of course, I have yet to give you a proper birthday present.”

“It’s my birthday.” I blinked. I’d not once thought of the day with anything other than fear. Now I was alive and free. Well, almost free. I’d bound myself to Kaden, for now, forever. The satisfaction of my gryphon flowed hot through me and caused a wicked smile to curve my lips. It also came with a warm realisation. What he was didn’t matter. Both of them belonged to us. “Is there a bath and bed at the end of this corridor?”

Kaden smirked. “Yes, to both.”

“It’s not…Sinon’s…bed?”

“No. He never slept at Wormwood.” Kaden looked over my head to the crowded, bustling city stretching out all around us. “He hated being this close to humanity.”

I grinned at him. Good. The idea of rolling around in Sinon’s bed held little appeal. “My birthday present?” I pulled free of him, took his hand and tugged him down the corridor. It earned a protest from my gryphon as I dissolved her union with Kaden’s shadow. I ignored her. She’d be satisfied soon enough.

The doors opened before us, and hand-knotted rugs led up to an ornately carved, four-poster bed hung with velvet and silk. It sat in front of the great curve of a white screen, sunlight playing across it. The delicate scent of citrus flavoured the air. “As First Dragon, I know what’s most precious to you. So I demand an extra hour of your time.”

“I think you underestimate this First Dragon.” He pushed the jacket from my back, and it dropped to the thick rug. “You’re more precious. You always have been.”