Our time here is almost done.
He felt it in his bones. They could disappear at any moment, called back to the Celestial Realm.
He found a secluded cave on top of a nearby mountain hidden beneath a rock overhang and landed swiftly. He extended one wing to let the riders slide off, all the while keeping Sol protected in a front claw.
“Release him,” Ben said.
“Let me see.”
Zai laid his claw down and gently unfurled it.
The blackened, bloodied and charred eagle spirit lay within his leathery palm. Alive, but just barely.
Ben immediately knelt beside the male, smoothing the tangled, blackened hair away from his face.
“You’re going to live, Sol,” the boy whispered urgently.
“Eveline said that you had died in this Challenge. That’s what all the stories confirmed. Ere said the same; you told him so.”
He inhaled a shaky breath before continuing.
“You died, but the runes kept your body whole, prevented your soul from leaving.”
All three of them looked at the Eagle King’s left side as Ben rubbed away the soot and blood as best he could.
They saw clearly the engravings in his arm, along his neck, face and temple, a bold black pattern covering his skin.
“They aren’t glowing, and they haven’t faded,” Ben said in a rush.
“Maybe that means the magic in them hasn’t been activated to save you. And that means you have one more life to live in my time, far into the future.”
Ben’s worried frown deepened as he thought out loud, “Or maybe it means your soul remains intact after this, and you’re still whole. Will remain whole as long as you live. However long it takes to find your other Half.”
Ben bent closer, until he was speaking directly into the Eagle King’s ear.
“He’s out there, Sol. Your Rai, your Ere, he’s out there waiting for you. It will take you many lifetimes to find him, but you will. Until then, you have to take care of yourself. You have to hold onto hope and never let go. He needs you. He needs you so much, Sol. He can’t find the Light without you.”
A sudden stillness permeated Ben’s body, as if he’d been struck by lightning.
His wide eyes took in Sol’s unconscious form, then wandered to Zai’s scaly face, before landing on Sin, then coming back to Zai.
“This is the Forgotten Truth,” he said with quiet awe.
The moment he said the phrase, Zai’s entire being tingled with awareness.
Indeed. His own Forgotten Truth was revealed this day.
His true form. His inner dragon.
He had existed on Earth for hundreds of years, orphaned at birth, raised in the Dark soldiers’ barracks. Trained to be a Hunter. Then, the Dark Queen’s Master Hunter.
He had fulfilled the role he was given with unfeeling precision. He was a loner; he didn’t have friends. He preferred solitude, and he eschewed all emotions.
But something within him had always lain in wait. Growling from the hidden depths of his soul.
Dragon.
He was dragon.