Chapter 43: Forgiveness

[Ona].

My son's hurt face is all I can see in the back of my mind as I fly away from this disaster. I never meant to hurt him with my words, but he needed to understand the gravity of his decision. It is more than just the fact that he pursued his mate without permission, that he went against my express orders not to do so.

He did something that will be hard for me to forgive and impossible to set aside completely.

She is the daughter of the enemy. He knows better than that, or at least I thought he did. How could he know who she is and still choose to take her to mate, to demand that he honor her? He's had many drakaina before her, quick flings that mean nothing, that he made sure wouldn't end in a clutch.

Why couldn't he have just had fun with her and been done? I know how strong the pull is, I've lived it myself. But this is my son. What is the point of teaching him from your mistakes if he is just going to repeat them?

The tears on my face turn to frost as I struggle to fly higher and higher into our planet's atmosphere. If I were a proper celestial like my mother, I'd be able to fly home and weep in my own bed. But I am trapped on this rock like any other Terran, my lack of a fourth form making it impossible for me to truly be free. But none of my siblings have one. Primus and Segundus both lacked them. Tritus was only my half-brother, we didn't share a mother, but there was no celestial in Maximus' blood to help me.

I may look like a celestial, but I am not enough of my mother's child to really be one.

How can I be their queen? I should leave the throne to Ursa.

Maybe she'd do a better job of ruling than I have. I'm a failure in everything I try. Look at my son, mating with the enemy.

Soon the atmosphere will be too thin for me to breathe. I will never make it past the outer edges of our globe where the air grows thin before disappearing entirely. My body is strong, but it can't handle the cold endless void of space.

It is not how I am designed.

And when I reach my limit, I will fall back into the planet burning like a comet.

I don't care. Let me burn. Let me fall to the earth and leave a crater where I land.

My son is lost to me.

I can feel my mate behind me. He's trying to catch me, but he would need to change into his fourth form to do so, and if he were to touch me in that form, to drag me back with him, he would hurt me and he knows this. Pure sunlight cannot touch flesh, even one such as mine that can wield fire with her fingertips.

He cannot stop me and I refuse to stop myself.

I wonder how high I can go. I've never been this high before. Using my last burst of strength, I push a little higher.

Daax roars in pain behind me, his cries begging me to stop, to say with him.

A little higher.

Something breaks away inside of me. Maybe it is a bone or an organ, but something changes. There is another small break, and another as my body struggles under the strain of what I am forcing it to do.

I should turn back. I am being selfish. There are people on the surface who need me.

Something larger cracks open and from deep inside a new energy bubbles to the surface, something bright, hot, and eternal. It feels like the rush of energy that the Elf King had shared with me when we disappeared from one place to appear in another--a little taste of eternity.

He took his energy form to make that shift.

And took me along with him, something that should have been impossible, as I have no fourth form to take.

My back burns. Looking behind me I see they have become fire itself, like the wings of a phoenix.

Maybe I can burn. Funny, I thought fire drakes were impervious to fire.

Something shifts again, and I take a form that is more familiar to me because I've seen my mother take it so many times before--Starlight. She was a creature of the stars.

And I am a Star-Fire dragon.

Fire needs air to feed it, but what I become now shines with the power of my soul.

I am no longer solid. There is nothing of my corporeal form remaining, and yet here I am. I can still think, and feel. I am still me.

I've done it. Improbable as it should be, I have taken a fourth form.

It only took me a hundred years longer than it should have.

A jubilant burst of warmth surrounds me. My mate, taking his fourth form, swirls around me as warm light to match my cool fire. Twirling around one another, he pulls me to him, helping me transition back to the planet, finding a safe place for us to reform.

When I come back into myself I am naked, cold, and crying, holding onto Daax as we stand in a cool, dark cave. Water falls around the opening, and I know that we are safe. Nobody could hear us, even if they were to fly by right now.

I pull myself away from him and gaze up at him in amazement only to find wonder and joy shining from his singular eye.

"Ona," he smiles. "Welcome back."

Tears roll down my cheeks as I trace the edges of his scars with my fingertips. Scars that he received from my brother Segundus' hand, aided by technology developed by my other brother, Tritus.

Tritus the traitor--father of my son's mate.

"Oh Aegir," I weep, using his given name. He will always be the Dreaded Daax to me, the pirate who stole me away, but he is also a Prince, a son of the Solar Kingdom. "Daax, what are we going to do."

He kisses my brow and answers, "We will do what we have always done, Ona. We will love him," he pauses, wiping the tears from my face as he takes a deep breath. "We will find a place in our hearts for his mate. And when his children enter the world, we will love them too. They are our family, Ona."

"But she's the enemy!" I shout, trying to pull away but he holds me firm, refusing to let me go.

"And so are we," he reminds me firmly. "Or have you forgotten, Princess, that your family slaughtered every member of mine, including my dear sister Jana and her entire clutch, not even hatched yet," his eye, the one that remains after the other was carved from his face by my cruel brother, blazing with the fire of a thousand suns. "By some miracle, my niece Carnelia survived that carnage and that is the only reason the royal line is still intact."

"It was genocide, Ona. The Luxandrians, more specifically House Majere," he spits my name like a curse. "Didn't just kill us, they annihilated the royal family and enslaved everyone else. So much death lies at your feet, Ona, Daughter of Maximus the Bloody."

He shakes me, forcing me to look at him, to see his anger still brimming underneath the surface.

"But fool that I am," he continues, "I love you. Your brother tortured me for forty years. And yet, even in my darkest days, knowing it was probably a mistake to ever love you, I couldn't stop myself. That's what it means to find your true mate, Ona. You are my match, my missing half."

"Daax," I let him pull me into his chest. I need to be held. "But our son..."

"Is our son in every way," he laughs. "Handsome, cocky, stubborn, and...in love with the enemy. How can we fault him for something he cannot control? Something that we can't control in ourselves."

"Or have you forgotten," the timbre of his voice deepens as he walks us deeper into the cave. "How much our bodies crave one another."

His kiss is passionate and deep, a forceful clashing of fang and tongue as he presses me against the wall. "You gave me quite the chase, Mate," he growls. "Tried to leave the planet without me. Naughty."

"You call that a chase," I banter as I pull him closer with my tail. "I chased you around the globe a thousand times over searching for you when you disappeared."

"I would chase you into the next universe," his remaining eye glows brightly, and I am reminded again of his incredible, rugged beauty. I will never be able to deny this drake--part prince and all pirate. He's had me in his grasp from the first moment our gazes connected on his ship a lifetime ago.

He bites my breast, marking me as he enters me, pinning me in place with his lower fork as the upper fork works its slow way into my core. I scream for him, letting him know that even with all the changes of time he is still my everything.

And he is right. Love like this cannot be denied.

Once Daax is done calming me in with his body, I find my mind focused and clear. I can find enough space in my heart to forgive my son. I can find a way to accept his mate as well and not blame her for the sins of her father.

But if she ever hurts him, if she ever breaks his heart, I will tear that little drakaina to shreds like I should have done to her father before he could cause my family so much harm.

I won't blame her for the sins of her father, but I intend to keep her accountable for her own.