She was gone and there was no trace left of his once beautiful dragon. Not a scale. Not a scuff on the floor. It was as if she’d never been.
And that tore his heart asunder. It bled pain through every molecule of his body. How could this have happened? Tears blinded him as his memories slammed into him and he cursed himself for not coming home sooner to see her.
For not ever apologizing.
She was human and I treated her like shit.
Hurt and wounded, he felt so guilty for everything he’d ever said or done. How could he have let them part like this? She’d been so important to him. Why hadn’t he told her that?
Just once?
I am an asshole.
Regret burned so deep inside him for everything that had gone unsaid. He’d hurt her and now there was no way to make amends.
Never harm a heart that loves you, for there are too many in this world that are out to cause you pain. His mother’s words haunted him now. She’d been right.
He’d wounded Xyn and for what? His own vanity?
My own stupidity.
For that, he deserved to be alone. Because in his heart, he knew he’d never have anyone else who could come close to his dragon. How could he? It wasn’t every day a guy met a woman who had those kinds of skills.
A woman who made him feel like he could fly. Whose smile made his heart sing.
How could he have given that up for anything?
Cold and alone, he’d started to leave when he caught a strange glimmer in the corner. Scowling, he headed toward it to see what it was.
How odd … Embedded in the wall of the cave was the small necklace Xyn always wore. She’d called it her dragon’s tear.
And in a small leather bag was a folded note. His hands shook as he unfolded it and then began to read the sweet, flowing script.
My dearest Urian,
While you are gone, my brother has secured my freedom. I don’t know if you’ll ever come back here or even think of me. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve regretted what happened between us.
That last night I saw you.
I miss my best friend in so many ways. There’s not a day that has passed without you in it when I haven’t carried your face in my heart, and I will do so until the day I die.
Wherever you are, I hope you’re happy, and I hope your wife knows how very lucky she is to have you as her own. That is the one thing I wish I could have called you. Just once. Please take care of yourself and if you do think of me, I hope you’ll forgive my words that were spoken in anger. And that one day, maybe, you can think of me and smile again.
Just remember that I will always love you.
Ever yours,
Xyn
Unable to bear the guilt and pain, Urian closed his eyes and choked on his tears. He sank to his knees and cursed himself for having left in anger.
What have I done?
How could I have been so stupid?
She was a dragon. There was no way he’d ever be able to find her again.
July 1, 9506 BC
“So you live.”
Urian let out a tired sigh as he heard Xanthia’s sharp, shrill tone. Reclining in his chair, he was grateful his back was against the wall. Otherwise, she might very well have driven a dagger through his spine.
He looked from Ophion and Atreus, who sat across from him while they played a game of dice in the main hall, to his wife, who stood beside an Apollite he didn’t know, and smirked. “Much to your dismay, apparently.”
Her gaze narrowed on him, then softened. “You did manage to save the lives of my children. So for that, I might be able to find a degree of forgiveness for you.”
Somehow, he doubted that. And he wondered what point she had to this visit.
Sighing, Urian reached for the cup at his elbow that held the wine he’d taught his father’s people to brew from their blood. “How are the kids?”
“Geras misses you.”
He was stunned she admitted that. Normally, she only berated and cursed him during their exchanges. “I miss him, too.” Urian reached for the dice.
And still she stood there. Eyeing him in awkward silence.
He rolled his turn and lost. Apparently, she was sucking out all his luck as well as his good humor. “Is there something else you need, Thia?”
“I was curious if you’d found a place to stay since your return.”
His brothers snorted in unison.
Urian gave them both a droll stare as he wondered why she’d bother to ask him that, given the way they’d last parted company. Surely she wasn’t offering herself to him now. Was she mad?
He glared at his brothers. “What are you laughing at, you hyenas?”
Atreus blinked at him with giant goo-goo eyes. “Take me home, you big strapping stud, and feed me! I’m starving for you!” He started panting and pawing at Urian.
That was bad enough.
Worse? Ophion joined in on it. He even went as far as to plant a sloppy kiss on Urian’s lips.
Disgusted, Urian shoved at them. “I swear to the gods, Solren should have sacrificed you both to Eunomia to spare me this madness!”
Xanthia rolled her eyes at his brothers, then turned her attention to Urian. “Should I leave my door unlocked?”
Holy shit, she wasn’t joking. She’d actually been making a play for him. Helios was riding icicles now.
And Urian would be crying them before he ever repeated the mistake of returning to Xanthia’s bed.
Smirking, he cut his eyes to his brothers. “How could I leave a home where I’m so wanted?” He leaned back against his brothers so that they could grope him more openly.
She screwed her face up in distaste. “You’re all degenerates!”
“We are?” Urian asked with a laugh. “You’re the one I caught fucking Erol! At least my brothers aren’t diseased.”
Shrieking in outrage, she rushed through the crowded hall to flee their presence as quickly as possible, while calling him every name she could think of.
Ophion sucked his breath in sharply as he moved away. “Damn, Uri, that was cold.”
Unrepentant, he sat up with a grimace and straightened his clothes. “Not as cold as I’d like to be. Besides, I didn’t do it in front of the kids and I have yet to kill her.” Tannis still wasn’t speaking to him over the fact that she was a widow after Urian had dispensed with her first husband.
Though to be honest, his sister should be grateful. Her second husband was much kinder to her than that ass had ever been. Especially whenever Urian was around, as he didn’t want to meet the same fate as Erol.
All marriages should have one good disembowelment in them. It set the tone for proper respect.
Atreus fell silent as they resumed their game.
Ophion wasn’t so kind. “So what are you going to do for food?”
Urian glanced over to where one of the xōrōn was soliciting a client while both of them eyed him like he was the sweetmeat of choice. Finding someone to feed him these days wasn’t the problem. “I’m done with marriage.”
“For now, you mean?”
His gut clenched at his brother’s question as remorse and guilt speared him. He touched Xyn’s necklace, which was concealed beneath his chiton, and tried his best not to think of the one and only woman he’d ever met who’d understood him completely. She alone had known his soul.
And she was lost to him.
“Forever.”
March 22, 9503 BC
“Urian!”
Sucking his breath in, Urian groaned at the sharp hysterical tone. At first, he thought it was his sister’s screeching howl. Surely, no one but Tannis could hit that particularly heinous note.
But as it continued and grew even louder and shriller, he realized it was Xanthia.
And it took on a whole new level as she crashed into his room and found him entwined in furs on the floor with three naked women who were draped over and under him. Not that he liked the floor. Simply, it’d been the only option as the bed wouldn’t accommodate all of them and the bacchanalian orgy they’d been having the night before.
“What is this?”