Wren stepped back from the Dragons glass and plopped himself on the first step of the dais. His shoulders slumped, but he didn't fully curl himself into a ball. Both arms hung limp at his sides and he stared into the distance, but Siobhan suspected he was staring at nothing in particular.
"Now you see what a danger he is." Korix growled, lowering its head to be even with Wren.
Siobhan drew her daggers again and stepped between the dragon and her friend. "Wren isn't any more a threat then I am! He can learn to control his magic just as the Draygon did. Neither of us asked for our kind to be created and I will not punish him for the choices of corrupted assholes." She sneered at the dragons, hissing back when they roared. If they wanted Wren, they'd have to kill her too. "If the hags thought he was a danger, they would've killed him before he was born."
Korix roared. Steaming breath slammed against Siobhan, nearly knocking her over. She twisted her feet, anchoring them as much as possible. Only a fool went up against a dragon and she knew it. One swipe of their talon and she'd be worm food. Hell they simply needed to step on her like a bug and her life force would end. Siobhan stood her ground, all to protect the moron sitting behind her.
Eye to eye, she and Korix stared each other down like two animals ready to fight. In many ways, she was an animal. Her blood was a mixture of creatures and magic combined into one not-so-perfect creation. Draygon were created with a purpose to destroy Garrith and were supposed to be destroyed soon after. But they fought for their right to live and she would damn well fight for Wren's right. Magic didn't create evil. Evil is what corrupted magic and she refused to believe there was a single evil bone in Wren's body.
She jumped when Wren grabbed her shoulder and nodded for her to step back. Siobhan narrowed her eyes, flexing her hand against her daggers hilt. He nodded again, the ends of his lips twitching. Reluctantly, she sighed and stepped back.
"I won't let Siobhan kill herself to defend me, so if killing me is what you want, then fine. But I think I deserve a right to speak. Don't you?"
A growl rumbled from Korix, its nostrils flaring with every breath. The dragon's talons scrapped against the floor when it stepped closer. Siobhan's jaw tightened when it lowered its head and sniffed Wren. Wren stayed still even as the dragons breath tousled his hair and clothes. It raised a talon, brushing the tip against Wren's cheek. He didn't flinch, Wren was a statue residing himself to his fate. Siobhan didn't like it. Not one bit.
Both hands tensed their grip. She knew her knuckles whitened by the force of the squeeze and she could feel the rough decorations of her modest daggers digging into her palm. They wouldn't cut her, but she wished they would. At least physical pain made sense to her. The ache in her heart at the thought of the dragons killing Wren was a feeling that made no sense to her. Losing Wren would be like losing her family all over again.
When Korix pulled back to sit on its haunches, Siobhan released a heavy breath. The dragon stayed close enough it would be able to grab Wren in a second, but it made no motion to eat the moron. Korix nodded and said, "Very well. Plead your case."
"Siobhan's species was created to fight Garrith. Is that true or just another lie she's been fed her entire life?"
"It is true."
"And they failed?"
Korix blinked and nodded. "They did. Even the combined strength of multiple beings wasn't enough to take on the evil that is Garrith. He was . . . underestimated."
"So they buried him in the ground within the lowlands, an area that created the chasm upon his release."
Siobhan frowned and opened her mouth. Wren raised a hand as if he knew she was going to ask where he was going with his questions. He lowered his hand when she said nothing. Korix watched them both, tilting its head from one side to the other as if studying them.
"I understand nothing about magic. As Siobhan repeatedly reminds me, I'm a moron. What I just saw in the Dragons glass scares me more than words can describe. How can magic convince the world my mom is Lady Lethon when she apparently was married to a commoner? How did magic create the Draygon or me? But I did understand one thing Garrith said, 'through his birth, my power will return, and this shadowy form will no longer trap me.' That means he needs me to have his physical form, correct?"
Korix nodded.
"Without me, he's just the shadow man. He's not a Wyvern, not a God, he's nothing. Yet my existence powers him somehow and that's why you want to destroy me." Wren didn't wait for Korix to acknowledge his statement. "But if you kill me, that won't kill Garrith. He'll simply move on to another woman and create another one like me. There's nothing to stop him. Siobhan says she could barely withstand him when he used his power against her. So if Siobhan can't stop him, who can? You?"
Korix roared, his breath once again jostling Wren's hair and clothes, but Siobhan's favorite moron held his ground. She smiled, finally understanding where he was going. If the dragons could stop Garrith, the Draygon would've never been created in the first place. Neither Wren nor Siobhan would exist if the dragons could defeat the king of the Wyverns.
"My power connected with Wren's when we were trying to free his fiancé from the bracelet. I could feel our connection," she said. "And we combined our powers to enter here. Those damned hags don't do anything as a coincidence. They saw something that meant Wren and I were supposed to meet."
"The Witches of Drakewood don't know everything. They cannot see the true future, only one of the possible futures."
"Trust me, I am no fan of the hags. They're liars and manipulators. Even the story they told me about Lady Lethon seeking the High Mages out was a lie. She didn't seek anyone out, they found her. However, we're a lot alike in that we'd do anything that served our best interests. If they let Wren live, I do believe there's a reason for it. That doesn't mean either of us have to play into their hands, but if Wren was a true risk to them he wouldn't be alive." Siobhan sighed, she couldn't believe she was defending a choice made by the Witches of Drakewood.
Wren asked, "Can you shift the way Garrith can? I mean, take the form of a human like him."
"With the aid of the Witches of Drakewood we could. They have a potion which allows someone to gain the ability to shift similar to how the humans use Changeling potions to temporarily change their appearance, though this change is permanent. I think I see where he's going with this, Korix. You mean to ask one of us to follow you, yes?" Jaeda asked.
Wren nodded. "If my magic becomes uncontrollable, or it looks as though I'm becoming a real threat, they can step in and kill me."
"I already said—"
Wren interrupted Siobhan, "You and I both know you wouldn't be able to kill me. A few months ago, you wouldn't have hesitated, but now? Now you can't."
She snorted, but didn't respond. He was right and she damn well knew it. He was infuriating when he was right.
"I will go with them." Jaeda spread its wings as it bowed.
Korix growled. "You will never be a full dragon again, your human form will always be your dominant one where you can only shift back to your true form for an hour."
"I know." Jaeda's lips lifted as if the dragon smiled. "It is a price to pay, but one I pay freely. We have been entombed in ice for countless generations with the knowledge that our release would mean the return of the Wyvern's. We cannot sit idly by this time, Korix. The failures of our past cannot be made again. My gut tells me to put faith in the Draygon heir and the Wyvern-human."
"Hmm." Siobhan sheathed her dagger and tapped a finger to her chin. "We're going to need a better name for his species then Wyvern-human. That's a mouthful. How about Moronite?"
She grinned when Wren glared back at her.
"Only if we can call you a Bitchrinian," he said. "How about you just see me as me, Wren. Human. Son of Lady Lethon. Because dammit that's how I feel."
Siobhan chuckled and blew a kiss to Wren. "So I guess we'll finish what we're here for, then return to the Drakewood forest to get the potion from the hags and then—"
"There will be no need to return to the Witches."
The dragons growled at the arrival of the new voice. Korix and Jaeda stepped to the side, clearing a path back to the exit. Siobhan rested a hand on her sheathed dagger while raising the one still drawn. She narrowed her eyes at the man walking toward them carrying her saddle bags over his bare shoulders. Bob followed behind him as he pulled on the reins with his right hand. There was something familiar in the green scales ridding up his left arm from the back of his hand to his shoulder, erasing all signs of his light bronze skin. His strong jaw rising with high cheek bones, the thin nose with a slight hook at the end, and his narrow white eyes . . . all of it was too familiar. He was Draygon, that much she could tell long before he stopped inches before her, but why was he so familiar? The man set Siobhan's saddle bags down carefully and reached into a pocket of his tattered pants. When he extended his arm, he unrolled his hand, revealing a narrow vial of yellow liquid.
"This is the potion you seek, Sibby."
"Sibby? Nobody has called me that since . . ." Siobhan dropped her dagger and covered her mouth. "Oh my Goddess. Cion?"
He smiled and nodded. "Hello, big sister."