Dragons and Princes - [COMPLETE]

9. Marquis

One of the wolves at the prince’s back whined, but Marquis hesitated to look away from Fae. The moment he did, he knew he would lose control of Faeana. So instead, he stretched his mind to Morgana to see through his dragon’s eyes. The seven wolves of the men he’d sent into the Freyja forest were all kneeling to him, the signal that they had her. His pulse began to pump heavily in his veins, and though his head was throbbing from his concentration and his body was aching from the long stillness, Marquis maintained his hold of Fae and her other, Princess Faeana. The princess was struggling to wake. She sensed that something was amiss because she was fighting his hold more strongly. Fae tried several times to pull her golden eyes free, but he held the great war cat still with his will.

The safest thing to do was to try to force the princess to sleep, but it was risky because he could kill her if he wasn’t careful. There was no way to know how much pressure it would take to force her under. "Sleep, Faeana," he whispered, pressing his will not upon Fae, but upon her other.

Fae freaked, her body rippling with rising fur and tensing muscles as she yowled and slashed at him with her claws. Marquis applied his will for Fae’s stillness once again, and then reassured Fae before returning to his task of compelling her other into a deep sleep. "I will not hurt your other, golden cat, calm yourself." Her growling continued for a few minutes more and then dissolved. He could feel the thunder of her rapid heart through the ground.

Marquis checked on Deáthan’s distance from the group taking Faeana into custody and then ordered his wolf to approach the men. He was beginning to regret his decision to send Gray.

Faeana’s lids began to droop, and her head began to bow, too heavy to lift. She’d rarely ever dreamed of her exhaustion taking such a toll on her. The rough trail she followed through the bones of old white ruins was not one she knew. It was not a path her people ever took through the Giant’s Forest. The Freyja stayed well away from the Lora, just as they kept their distance from the remains of other forgotten castles and keeps within the deep forest that stretched across the mountains. These were places Freyja disappeared never to return, and the stories were full of superstitions of such places. That her dreams would include the Lora in such detail was a journey she’d never expected her mind to take.

Faeana’s right knee gave, and she barely caught herself before vertigo claimed her. She did not feel Arrand take her arm to ensure that she would not fall on the remains of a frey cat.

Fae . . . where was Fae . . .?

Faeana had never dreamed so long a dream without her companion. When would she wake to find her near? She needed her companion’s nearness because she felt threatened by this unusual dream.

The bones of the white ruins twisted and curled in unnatural ways, as though the world was warped about them, and they disappeared into the canopy far above. The infallible giant trees about the ruins were dead here, when the Freyja had never known such trees to die. Only their hallow skeletons bore testimony that they had once stood proud and tall– perhaps before the castle had been built, the trees had already been ravaged. The Freyja knew nothing of the previous inhabitants of the Lora or the other ruins, only that the skeletons of Freyja and frey lie in the dead cradles of white stone, alongside the skeletons of dragons and other human-like creatures who seemed almost as human as they seemed dragon.

Faeana’s feet slowed as she struggled to shake off the grogginess. "Fae . . ." It was difficult to force her name out again, and she searched for her frey cat in the darkness, but Fae was nowhere. The Freyja princess could see those red eyes, those cold, frightening, controlling eyes.

Black magic . . . She was dreaming a Morganthe was luring her to her death with dark magic. Even with her vision narrowing and turning dim, her heart began to race with a flood of icy fear. If she went to sleep in this dream, she may never wake up. What would her father do if she died in her sleep? Were Fae and Faeana of the rare bond that killed the other when the animal died?