of her tongue, but she bit it back and shook her head. “Serek is vital to our survival,” she said. “Not just for our tribe, but…our kind. It is my duty to bring him where he will be safe, where he will be cared for. And where he will one day be able to sire another generation.”
Arysteon released another long, slow breath, and shifted his head in a shallow nod without lifting it off the floor. His tongue flicked out after he inhaled. Closing his eyes, he said, “I understand, Leyloni. I understand what it means to have a duty to fulfill to one’s clan.”
Leyloni’s fingers tingled with the desire to touch him, to comfort him in that most basic fashion, to show him that they understood each other, that she was here with him if only for now. She tensed her muscles to keep from acting upon that urge.
She could almost envision a life here with him. Simple, quiet, contented. Only the three of them and Mother Eurynome’s bounty. They would be safe and secure. Even the Bone Wraiths wouldn’t challenge a dragon, would they?
But Leyloni could not shun her responsibility. She could not allow the sacrifices her tribe had made to have been in vain. She had to get Serek to other humans, where he would contribute to carrying on their tribal bloodlines, their species. That was her duty.
And yet, for the first time in Leyloni’s life, she was tempted to defy duty to remain here at Arysteon’s side.
5
Leyloni opened her eyes. Everything was so still, so quiet, the sounds of rumbling thunder and pattering rain from outside having taken on a distant gentleness.
Yet all was not still and quiet within Leyloni. In her mind, she was back home, surrounded by her tribe sisters as they fought the Bone Wraiths amidst roaring fire, acrid smoke, and piercing screams. It had all been so chaotic, so difficult to decipher, but each death she’d witnessed remained startlingly clear in her memory.
Those images, those memories, had risen in the dream from which she’d just woken—but unlike most dreams she’d had, this one refused to fade.
Something wet trickled along her nose. She was confused at first, wondering how the rain had reached her this far inside the cavern. It took her a moment to realize that her eyes were also wet—that she was crying. That realization only summoned more tears. They spilled from her eyes in a deluge, and she could no longer hold back the pain and crippling loss that had been clawing at her chest for days.
Leyloni squeezed her eyes shut. She struggled to choke back her sobs, releasing them in harsh, stilted exhalations.
Serek stirred against her. She opened her eyes and caught her bottom lip between her teeth to silence herself. Loosening her hold on the baby, she eased away from him, straining against her sorrow but desperate not to disturb his sleep. She’d only just lifted her arm away from him when a shuddering sniffle escaped her.
She shifted the blanket to tucked more of it around Serek and turned to lie on her side, facing the low burning fire. The flames were an orange blur through her tears.
“What is wrong, Leyloni?” Arysteon’s voice rolled to her like one of those far away peals of thunder. It was soothing, grounding, a welcome sound—and it pushed away some of the phantom screams from her memory.
Though she did not want anyone to see her tears, she could not stand to be alone with her grief in that moment. Freeing a hand from the blanket, she wiped her eyes, and her gaze fell upon Arysteon as soon as it was clear.
He was curled up on the floor on the other side of the fire, his head raised and his glowing gaze on her. He eased his head closer. His pupils rounded, and his spines flared. “Why are your eyes leaking? Are you ill?”
Leyloni huffed a soft laugh. It was enough of a balm to soothe some of her pain. “You have not seen a human cry before?”
“I have heard humans cry out, but this… This is something different, is it not?”
She laid her hand upon the blanket in front of her and sighed. “It is. I cry because I am mourning.”
His spines fell flat, and his eyes softened. “Mourning your lost tribe.”
“Yes.”
Leyloni pushed herself into a sitting position, moving slowly to stretch her limbs. Once she was upright, she became suddenly aware of the chill in the air, and a shiver raced