Once, Conrad had thought that he would be leading at her side, as her soulmate. Ever since he’d learned of the prophecy that their Queen would come to them from another world, Conrad had been convinced that she’d be his soulmate. Knowing he was waiting for her arrival had made him feel less lonely… but the moment he’d met her, the conviction that they were destined to be together had simply evaporated. When it came to soulmates, a shifter just knew. And as much as he admired Lana and had come to count her among his closest friends, Conrad had known from the start that there couldn’t be anything else between them.
He’d hidden his reaction, of course, but privately, that realization had been crushing. Lana’s prophesied arrival had been the only thing standing between him and heartbreak, and when he’d realized that her heart belonged to Seth, Conrad had had to confront the reality that he was simply one of those shifters who didn’t have a soulmate. It hurt. It still hurt, even years later… even with so much work to distract him. Maybe that’s why he’d been having so many dreams lately about—
“Conrad?”
“My apologies,” Conrad said, his brow creasing as he realized he’d zoned out. “What was the question?”
“That’s an answer in itself,” Queen Lana said wryly. “We were asking how the restoration efforts are going in the Archives.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling a little tiredly. “Indeed, it’s been a long day. A series of long days. The majority of the repair efforts are complete, including some truly expert repairs to the decorative stonework in the entrance hall. There’s a little more work to be done on restoring damaged records. The major ongoing work, though, is…” He glanced up and down the table. Neither Archivist was present—it was a smaller meeting than usual, it seemed. A little candor was acceptable. “A debate between the lead Archivists about the extent to which the storage system ought to be updated.” He rubbed his forehead, not missing the flicker of a sympathetic smile from Seth on the other side of the table.
“Academic debates,” Lana said with a nod. “I understand your fatigue.”
“They’re right, of course, that it’s a valuable opportunity to overhaul the storage system, especially with new resources likely to be added soon… but I wish they’d decide a little more quickly on the nature of that overhaul.” Conrad exhaled. “As problems go, though, this is a good one.”
“I’m sure Morgan will be pleased to know that space is being made for her schoolbooks,” Acantha put in. The stoic Captain of the Guard had been instrumental in the Palace’s defense, almost at the expense of her own life. And despite her characteristic resistance to change, they’d all been surprised by how readily she’d embraced the strange new future they were heading for.
“She’s looking forward to her trip?”
“I’m hard pressed to get her to talk about anything else,” Acantha remarked drily. “Ever since Cato mentioned the college, she’s had her heart set on it.”
“I’m glad she’s eager,” Lana said with a nod. “Not many dragons here would be brave enough to make a journey to a whole new world.”
“She spends too much time with Cato,” Acantha said with a shake of her head, not quite hiding the fond smile on her face at the mention of her charismatic soulmate. “He insists that the other insulas are the same world as ours, only separated by Fog… like islands in a lake. His precise words are that it ‘isn’t a big deal’.” The roll of her eyes was affectionate.
“Nevertheless, it’s a major journey. I hope she knows she’ll have all the support we can offer her.” Lana tilted her head. “I believe the subject of our resident mage was on the agenda for this meeting?”
Acantha nodded. “He wanted to be here himself, but I thought a private discussion would be more useful.”
“What news does he have for us?”
“No news. Only impatience. He wanted me to stress how eager he is to share all of his knowledge of magic. He seems to feel we could be doing more. I’ve urged patience,” she said, and Conrad sat back in his chair with a faint smile. “He doesn’t seem to know the meaning of the word. At any rate, that’s his message.”
“He’s barely been here three months,” Conrad pointed out, not bothering to hide his amusement. On dragon timeframes, that was barely enough time to make someone’s acquaintance, let alone to build trust.
“It’s a human thing,” Lana said with a shake of her head. “It’s those tiny lifespans of theirs… they feel this constant pressure to get things done as quickly as possible.”
Seth’s expression didn’t change, but Conrad felt the subtle uneasiness creep into the atmosphere of the meeting regardless. Acantha cleared her throat and changed the subject, and the meeting proceeded, but Conrad caught the worried glance that Lana shot Seth’s way when the wolf wasn’t looking. It wasn’t only humans that had short lifespans compared to dragons… wolves, too, were lucky to reach a century in age, where dragons had no such limitations on their lives.
This had never been a problem… that was, until the first time a dragon found a non-dragon soulmate. There was nothing in their culture more heartbreaking than the prospect of losing a soulmate. When dragons did pass away, due to illness, injury, or misadventure, it was rare that their soulmate would live much longer. The same was true among wolves, from what Conrad had learned… bonded pairs would spend their short lives together, then when old age came to claim them, it would usually do so at about the same time. It was intimately connected with the magic that made them shifters, and the connection that that magic had with the soulmate bond.
At some point, they were going to need to confront the question of what would happen when old age came for Seth, or for Cato. Would Lana and Acantha simply be left behind to grieve their loss? It seemed so cruel, when most soulmate pairs rejoiced in the knowledge that they would spend the rest of their lives with their loves. It was almost enough to make Conrad glad that he had no soulmate of his own. What would be worse—never to love, or to love and then lose? For now, they all seemed happy simply to have each other. Maybe that much really was enough… it wasn’t like he was in any position to know.
He walked back to his quarters after the meeting, lost in thought with the weight of his weariness pressing down on him like stone. Work was a welcome distraction, but it was never long before the emptiness came back to gnaw at him. His quarters, cozy and well-appointed as they were, had never quite felt right to him. He’d moved a dozen times before he’d realized that the problem wasn’t with his rooms… it was that it was only him inhabiting them. With a soft sigh, he dropped onto his back on his bed, staring up at the stone ceiling.
Maybe all of this ruminating on soulmates was what had been making his dreams so vivid lately. Dreams weren’t uncommon among dragons, of course, and the Archives were full of folklore detailing the prophetic power of dreaming. These weren’t those kinds of dreams, though. Conrad grinned a little at the thought. No, these were much more… personal. They’d started around the time that Lana had arrived, and at first he’d hoped they might be a sign he was about to meet his soulmate. But even after those hopes had been dashed, the dreams had kept coming. Not every night, but at least a few times a month, there she would be… a woman with the most incredible golden eyes, a soft smile curving her plump lips, her ringlets of chestnut hair falling around her face.
All of the rest of his dreams involved people he already knew, but this woman was different. She was a dragon, but nothing like any of the dragons who lived here in the cavern. He’d even taken to searching for her face among the wolves he occasionally met, wondering whether his subconscious had borrowed the image of someone his conscious mind had forgotten. But there was nobody like her out there. And the dreams... he always woke up blushing from their intensity, their detail. At first they’d been simply physical, the two of them melting into each other’s arms and satisfying their passion for one another. But as time had gone on, the dreams had changed. Sometimes, the two of them simply walked together, hand in hand, through landscapes that were totally unfamiliar to Conrad. Slowly but surely, they began to talk to each other, too… and though the details of their conversations often escaped him when he woke up, he still couldn’t shake the feeling he was getting to know her.
It was embarrassing, really, how much he looked forward to their occasional dream meetings. How fond of her he felt, how much he enjoyed her company. She wasn’treal, he kept telling himself. She was just a dream, some figment of his imagination intended to ease his loneliness.
And the joke was on him. Because every time he woke up from a dream of holding her in his arms, he was only more acutely aware of just how alone he really was.
Chapter 3 - Mira
It was already dark when Mira got home that night, shadows from the streetlight outside her house falling across the yard as she headed for her door. She loved her little workspace, but with no windows, it was easy to lose track of the passage of time—it had been well after eight before she’d realized it was time to go. Still, she’d gotten a good start on the week’s orders, and she was in good spirits as she shifted her takeout to one hand to unlock her front door. A quick glance at the street behind her, and a cold feeling settled over her like a shroud. The van was still there.
Paranoia, she told herself firmly as she shut the door behind her. That was all it was. The gray van had been parked down the block for a week now, and it didn’t seem to have moved… but that didn’t mean it hadn’t. She’d never seen anyone driving it, but she also hadn’t been spending a lot of time at home lately. Maybe one of the neighbors drove it for work. There were any number of explanations for why it was there that had nothing to do with her. She put the TV on and poured herself a glass of red wine, trying to make herself relax.