“Will it hurt to go through?” I asked him. The wind took my words but I was touching him, so he understood my message anyway.
He told me it might tingle, but it wouldn’t hurt and that I shouldn’t fear for he would never let any harm come to me.
Secure in his love and protectiveness, I watched with interest as we entered the rift, the Drake flying right through the middle of the huge sparkly patch.
As he had said, I felt a tingling all over my skin as we passed through—all except the place on my back, where the scars had changed. There, I felt a strong burning sensation—almost like someone had set my skin on fire.
I gasped and arched my back, reaching blindly to try and stop the pain, though of course I couldn’t reach my own back. What was wrong with me? What was going on?
The Drake, who was attuned to my every action and emotion, snaked his long neck around and looked at me anxiously.
“What is it, L’lorna? What pains you?” I heard his deep voice rumbling in my head. I was learning that he didn’t speak in words unless he felt very worried or very serious about something but I also felt the emotion that accompanied his question—concern and protectiveness for me which radiated through him like steam through a pipe.
At that moment we passed completely through the rift and the burning pain stopped as suddenly as it had started. It didn’t fade away gradually—it was as though someone had cut the pain sensation cleanly with a knife. My back simply felt normal again.
“It…it’s nothing,” I told the Drake, reaching out to stroke his nose, because he still had his head twisted around to look at me. “It hurt for a minute when we went through but it’s gone now. I feel fine—honestly.”
The Drake nosed me very gently, in a concerned fashion and then finally seemed to accept that I was all right. He turned back around and his wing-beats became faster as we flew deeper into the Sky Lands.
I didn’t understand what had happened with my back, but I put it down to the fact that I had passed from one world into another. Probably the tingling that the Drakes felt when they went back and forth had become a burning for me because I was neither a Drake, nor strictly a human anymore. I was a Made Nocturne—that must be why I’d had more of a reaction to entering the rift, right?
It was the only explanation I could think of and since the pain was gone now, I decided to put it out of my head and concentrate on seeing as much as I could of the Sky Lands.
I had been excited to see this new world—this new reality—but I was disappointed to note that I couldn’t see much of anything because it was so dark.
After about thirty minutes of straining my eyes and trying to make out the landscape, I got drowsy again and curled back up in the hollow of the Drake’s neck to rest. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I had faith that everything would be all right because I knew he would take care of me.
And knowing that, I drifted off to sleep.
66
Ari
“So you were right,” I said silently to my Drake as he flapped onwards, his vast wings eating up the miles between the rift and my Sire’s palace. “You were right—Kaitlyn took to you at once—the moment she touched you.”
My Drake rumbled agreement, and though he was gracious enough not to say, ‘I told you so,’ I definitely felt a touch of smugness in his mental tone.
“Of course she took to me—she is our L’lorna,” he reminded me. “The moment she touched my skin, she felt our love for her.” He made it clear that he felt non-verbal communication—the pure exchange of emotion between himself and Kaitlyn—was much more effective in conveying our love than any silly human words that I might speak would be.
Well, I couldn’t argue with him there, I admitted grudgingly. No matter how I tried to tell Kaitlyn that she was beautiful and that I cared for her, she still seemed to hold back from me. It was like she couldn’t believe me—couldn’t see herself the way I saw her, as beautiful and perfect.
But when the Drake told her he loved her, she believed him at once.
I couldn’t quite believe it, but I was actually almost jealous of my own Drake. Which was foolish in the extreme—it was like being jealous of myself—it didn’t make any sense. But I couldn’t shake the feeling, even though I knew it was ridiculous.
My Drake felt my emotion and told me not to worry. Kaitlyn would feel the same love and affection for me that she felt for him by and by, he promised. But first, things had to change a bit.