I waited several minutes while she rifled through it moments before she returned with a leather bound book with gold lettering etched into the front.
“What’s that?” I asked, nodding towards the book, temporarily sidelining my freak out while I tried to figure out why she was handing me a book at a time like this.
Instead of signing like she usually did when she wanted to relay something to one of her children, she held out the book.
“Read it,” she mouthed.
I blinked.
“Mom, I don’t have time to read anything. What if there’s something seriously wrong here? Who will protect the manor if something were to happen?” I growled in frustration.
I didn’t have time to read a godsdamned book.
She crossed her arms and started to tap her foot.
“Read it,” she mouthed again.
Growling in annoyance, I pulled the book open to the first page and began to read.
MATING.
That was what the first page said. One word. Mating.
“Mating?” I blinked. “What’s any of this got to do with mating?”
Of course, I’d heard about dragon riders mating.
It was an old wives’ tale. Something that I wasn’t even sure existed.
Dragon riders lived as long as their dragon did.
Which meant they could live indefinitely.
Their wives, however, did not.
They lived a normal lifespan, just like everyone else.
Which was why not many riders married. Nor ever had anyone to call their own. They’d just have to watch them die, so what would be the point?
At least that was my reasoning on never looking too hard for love.
Mating, though, was something entirely different from just being married. Mating was said to be a continuous share of power between the rider, the dragon, and the mate.
And in my thirty-five years of life, I’d never seen one single mating. Never even heard of one.
When I looked up at my mother, I could tell she wouldn’t allow me to get out of here without reading it.
So, ignoring the chaos in my head that was screaming out at me to figure out what was going on, I sat down and read.
For a very long time.
All dragon riders have a predestined mate.
Some riders may never find that mate, and they will forever stay single, never to marry or fall in love.
Others, though, will find their mate. And their mate will become immortal, matching in life spans with their dragon rider.
It took me a while to realize that all of this was written in my father’s handwriting. Every single penned letter. I’d devoured the entire book in one sitting, not moving a muscle until I flipped to the very last page.
The words swirled around in my head, taking up residence in my thoughts. In my very being.
“What…” I croaked, turning my head to look at my mom.
But she was no longer standing beside me. She was gone.
And the light that had just started to peek up over the horizon was in full bloom.
I’d been reading for a very long time.
Then some things started to make sense. Like how and why my mother lost her voice.
A mate losing her voice is one of the aftereffects of being mated; you don’t have the ability to tell all of what happened. The dragon rider’s last task is to allow his dragon to breathe his fire down his mate’s throat; if they’re able to. That will give them the ‘powers’ for the rest of their mortal lives, but also take away their ability to speak. If they don’t get the dragon’s breath, then they won’t have the powers for the rest of their lives, nor will they remember what happened while they were with their mate. It’s a fail-safe of sorts, meant to keep the secret of mating under close watch to enable future dragon riders and their mates the full abilities of their power.
Had my father instructed his bonded dragon to breath down my mother’s throat? Was that why she no longer spoke?
Then other dots started to connect.
With the first touch of mates, skin to skin, the process begins. It takes up to three full days for the process to be complete, and the two mates will be forever bound. Unconditionally and irrevocably.
So what, neither one of us had a choice?
Would my ‘mate’ hate me because I took that choice away from her? Would she resent me? Dislike me immensely?
Then another passage that I’d read came back into crystal clear clarity.
The female is fed by the male’s connection to the dragon. The two mates will forever have to be within the vicinity of the other, or they start to grow weak, and eventually die if the separation goes on too long. Never stay apart for more than twenty-four hours. Trust me, it doesn’t go away. I know.
Had my father tried and had seen its results?
How did he know all of this without having experienced it on his own?
Surely, if it were common knowledge, I would’ve heard about it by now.