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. All is well.You re alive, you He is dead, Aleksei.The man you knew is gone.His mind isempty, only his body remains. He does not look dead to me. Lia, always curious and alwaystrying to get the upper hand in any given situation, joined them.Swiftly, as if she d never been afraid, never feared the banshee, shestepped next to her brother and put her hand on his shoulder. Actually,he looks pretty well given all the blood on the ground.I take it thebanshee didn t manage to stab him? With the tip of her toe, shetouched the knife, carefully avoiding soiling her shoes. 275TAINTED SOULAleksei snatched it up and cradled it against his chest, because itwas clear he couldn t cradle the man on the ground.The man on theground just stared at him without recognition, stared at the dragon,lifted his face into the rain, and screamed.S chn Tg ai lifted him up before Aleksei could get to him.Thefae s touch would have brought only terror, whereas his wings grantedprotection as well as safety.Gabriel s mind was shattered; his blood,though, still reacted to his.They were both dragon.And now, withGabriel s mind wiped clean as a slate by the portal s powers, S chnTg ai would be able to write a new story upon his soul, create the matehe had been looking for.He needn t be lonely ever again.You re cruel.The thought bore no surprise.Of course he was cruel.He wastaking away another man s love, and that this love did not exist anylonger didn t really matter.When Aleksei stabbed the knife into his leg, the dragon didn teven flinch.It was a good knife, no use denying it, but it couldn t reallydo much harm to his dragon skin. He s bound to me, the fae said flatly. No.The runes on his skin are gone, erased when his soul waslost in the portal.Like you said, he does not belong to anyone.Notanymore. S chn Tg ai turned, ready to leave.Aleksei held him back. He is not yours, either. But I will take him with me nevertheless.I need a mate.I cannotstand being lonely any longer.I would not have stolen him from youhad he survived this, but he has not.Not the part that made him Gabe.That part is dead. Lia dragged her brother back a few steps. This is all veryinteresting, but I would still like to know what will happen now, shesaid. What about the portals? Are we trapped here or not? The dragon was usually a patient creature, but right now, hewished he could crush the woman with a well-placed step of his foot.He might even have done it had he not felt some mercy for the fae.Theloss of his sister along with his lover would surely be too much for him. 276SAM C.LEONHARD You are free to go, all of you, the dragon said, cherishing theweight in his arms.Gabe didn t struggle against his grip.That wasgood.You could have saved him.You could have gone after him andgotten him out whole.The dragon discarded the thought as unimportant.Maybe hecould have, but he hadn t.Bad luck for everyone but him.He opened a portal.It was perfect.Lia gave a cry of relief at thesight.Another stab from Gabriel s knife, deeper this time.If Alekseicontinued like this, he would have to do something about it.A low growl emerged from Aleksei s throat, but before he couldattack again and he might have done enough harm this time toactually injure the dragon on a more permanent and painful basis Liareacted.She shared a gaze with the centaur, and they caught Alekseiand held him. You better go now, Lia shouted as more thunder rumbled overthe plateau.Kyril knocked Aleksei out and let him slip to the ground.Rainpoured down, melting the ice just as the banshee had predicted.Behindthem, the banshee s cave collapsed.Ice and snow blocked the entrance.The dragon turned, his burden in his arm, eager to get home. One more question, Lia called after him.As she knelt next toher brother, the fae woman s face grew hard and calculating. Alekseiwill want to know what s happened to Gabriel once he wakes up.Sotell me, or better promise me, if he ll be gone for good. In her words rang something like a plea.It changed the dragon smind profoundly.I m not a cruel creature.I do not steal love.I could have savedhim had I not been so slow in thinking and so greedy in my needs.On Aleksei s wrist, he saw the bracelet he d noticed much earlier,when they had been in the fae s home, the bracelet Gabriel had givenhim. 277TAINTED SOULEven if the fae had been conscious, he couldn t have stopped thedragon from snatching the bracelet from his wrist.S chn Tg ai s clawsliced open his flesh as the bracelet s catch opened under the pressure;smeared with Aleksei s blood, it then vanished in the dragon s grip.Itwas a tiny thing, but it was important. Take him home, the dragon said. When he wakes, tell him Iwill bring back his love. Shit, Lia said forcefully. 278SAM C.LEONHARDChapter 22THE air smelled of snow; winter would be early this year.Last year,the dragon hadn t bothered to warm the air, and he d shivered with coldand nearly frozen to death.It was not easy to kill a dragon, but age,nature, or accidents sometimes did it.This winter, hopefully, he wouldn t feel the urge to die.Thiswinter, if everything went right, he would have a reason to live.His wings beat the air.In the distance, he could see his nest,which was good, as Gabe, clinging to one of his claws, became restlessand tried to escape.Of course it would mean falling hundreds of feetand shattering to pieces once he hit the ground, but as he had less brainthan the average daisy right now, he didn t know that. Easy, the dragon said to himself as well as to his burden. Notmuch longer, I promise. Soothing words, meant to calm Gabe.They soothed him as well.Until Lia had spoken, his plan had been easy.Take Gabe backhome.Fill his empty mind with new experiences.Teach him how toturn into a dragon.Surely Gabe would have adapted to his new lifequickly; surely he wouldn t have mourned the loss of his former lifesimply because he wouldn t have known he d had a former life.Rightnow, he was like an empty vessel.Right now, it was possible to formhim into whatever S chn Tg ai wanted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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. All is well.You re alive, you He is dead, Aleksei.The man you knew is gone.His mind isempty, only his body remains. He does not look dead to me. Lia, always curious and alwaystrying to get the upper hand in any given situation, joined them.Swiftly, as if she d never been afraid, never feared the banshee, shestepped next to her brother and put her hand on his shoulder. Actually,he looks pretty well given all the blood on the ground.I take it thebanshee didn t manage to stab him? With the tip of her toe, shetouched the knife, carefully avoiding soiling her shoes. 275TAINTED SOULAleksei snatched it up and cradled it against his chest, because itwas clear he couldn t cradle the man on the ground.The man on theground just stared at him without recognition, stared at the dragon,lifted his face into the rain, and screamed.S chn Tg ai lifted him up before Aleksei could get to him.Thefae s touch would have brought only terror, whereas his wings grantedprotection as well as safety.Gabriel s mind was shattered; his blood,though, still reacted to his.They were both dragon.And now, withGabriel s mind wiped clean as a slate by the portal s powers, S chnTg ai would be able to write a new story upon his soul, create the matehe had been looking for.He needn t be lonely ever again.You re cruel.The thought bore no surprise.Of course he was cruel.He wastaking away another man s love, and that this love did not exist anylonger didn t really matter.When Aleksei stabbed the knife into his leg, the dragon didn teven flinch.It was a good knife, no use denying it, but it couldn t reallydo much harm to his dragon skin. He s bound to me, the fae said flatly. No.The runes on his skin are gone, erased when his soul waslost in the portal.Like you said, he does not belong to anyone.Notanymore. S chn Tg ai turned, ready to leave.Aleksei held him back. He is not yours, either. But I will take him with me nevertheless.I need a mate.I cannotstand being lonely any longer.I would not have stolen him from youhad he survived this, but he has not.Not the part that made him Gabe.That part is dead. Lia dragged her brother back a few steps. This is all veryinteresting, but I would still like to know what will happen now, shesaid. What about the portals? Are we trapped here or not? The dragon was usually a patient creature, but right now, hewished he could crush the woman with a well-placed step of his foot.He might even have done it had he not felt some mercy for the fae.Theloss of his sister along with his lover would surely be too much for him. 276SAM C.LEONHARD You are free to go, all of you, the dragon said, cherishing theweight in his arms.Gabe didn t struggle against his grip.That wasgood.You could have saved him.You could have gone after him andgotten him out whole.The dragon discarded the thought as unimportant.Maybe hecould have, but he hadn t.Bad luck for everyone but him.He opened a portal.It was perfect.Lia gave a cry of relief at thesight.Another stab from Gabriel s knife, deeper this time.If Alekseicontinued like this, he would have to do something about it.A low growl emerged from Aleksei s throat, but before he couldattack again and he might have done enough harm this time toactually injure the dragon on a more permanent and painful basis Liareacted.She shared a gaze with the centaur, and they caught Alekseiand held him. You better go now, Lia shouted as more thunder rumbled overthe plateau.Kyril knocked Aleksei out and let him slip to the ground.Rainpoured down, melting the ice just as the banshee had predicted.Behindthem, the banshee s cave collapsed.Ice and snow blocked the entrance.The dragon turned, his burden in his arm, eager to get home. One more question, Lia called after him.As she knelt next toher brother, the fae woman s face grew hard and calculating. Alekseiwill want to know what s happened to Gabriel once he wakes up.Sotell me, or better promise me, if he ll be gone for good. In her words rang something like a plea.It changed the dragon smind profoundly.I m not a cruel creature.I do not steal love.I could have savedhim had I not been so slow in thinking and so greedy in my needs.On Aleksei s wrist, he saw the bracelet he d noticed much earlier,when they had been in the fae s home, the bracelet Gabriel had givenhim. 277TAINTED SOULEven if the fae had been conscious, he couldn t have stopped thedragon from snatching the bracelet from his wrist.S chn Tg ai s clawsliced open his flesh as the bracelet s catch opened under the pressure;smeared with Aleksei s blood, it then vanished in the dragon s grip.Itwas a tiny thing, but it was important. Take him home, the dragon said. When he wakes, tell him Iwill bring back his love. Shit, Lia said forcefully. 278SAM C.LEONHARDChapter 22THE air smelled of snow; winter would be early this year.Last year,the dragon hadn t bothered to warm the air, and he d shivered with coldand nearly frozen to death.It was not easy to kill a dragon, but age,nature, or accidents sometimes did it.This winter, hopefully, he wouldn t feel the urge to die.Thiswinter, if everything went right, he would have a reason to live.His wings beat the air.In the distance, he could see his nest,which was good, as Gabe, clinging to one of his claws, became restlessand tried to escape.Of course it would mean falling hundreds of feetand shattering to pieces once he hit the ground, but as he had less brainthan the average daisy right now, he didn t know that. Easy, the dragon said to himself as well as to his burden. Notmuch longer, I promise. Soothing words, meant to calm Gabe.They soothed him as well.Until Lia had spoken, his plan had been easy.Take Gabe backhome.Fill his empty mind with new experiences.Teach him how toturn into a dragon.Surely Gabe would have adapted to his new lifequickly; surely he wouldn t have mourned the loss of his former lifesimply because he wouldn t have known he d had a former life.Rightnow, he was like an empty vessel.Right now, it was possible to formhim into whatever S chn Tg ai wanted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]