Dragon's Claim

Chapter 2-3

HOW THE OLDER WOMAN had found her was beyond Layla. But, Maggie Taniff sat herself down on the edge of the cliff beside Layla, letting her feet dangle over the edge as they looked out over Snowdonia together. Maggie still looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. Her usually sharp gaze had dulled, like she could see Drystan – her late husband’s face hovering before her everywhere she went.

They sat together in silence for a long while, Maggie gathering her thoughts and Layla trying to quiet the monster inside of her. It was mad that she didn’t kill the white dragon in the forest. It was mad that she refused to lay with the American dragon leader. It wanted the leader’s blood on its tongue. The very thought made Layla’s throat tight.

“I miss him,” Maggie began. “I will never deny that. Part of me always thought that when Drystan died, I would crumble into ash without his magic, having far outlived my human expiration date. It seems I still hold a piece of him inside of me. I don’t know if it was from how long we were together or if it was from carrying his child inside of me for nine months. Either could have struck a spark inside me that was fanned to life.”

Layla cut a sidelong look at her old leader’s wife. Maggie’s hair was a wild mess of black curls, but there was a touch of color in her cheeks while the woman remembered her life.

“I think... I think it created a beast inside of me.”

Layla’s brow furrowed. She waited, confused and impatient to know what Maggie was trying to say.

“There’s been a voice inside of me, one that I always thought was my own. I thought it was my conscience. But, when I felt Drystan die, the voice changed. It hardened and sharpened into something new.” This time, Maggie turned to meet Layla’s gaze.

There, in her eyes, Layla could see it. There was something beneath the surface. It reminded her of Scotland’s Loch Ness, like there was something mysterious and unidentifiable swimming beneath dark waters. More so, it was a reflection. It was what Layla saw when she looked in the mirror.

Drystan’s death had turned the beast into a monster. Was that what happened to Layla? Was her beast long gone, transformed into the thing she now had to live with? She sometimes missed the cat-like creature it had been. Other times, she reminded herself it was for the best. This was what she had to become. It was what she needed to be to survive and protect those around her.

“What we have become,” Maggie continued. “It won’t help you make friends in the States. It won’t help you set up good relations with the dragons or the humans while the new Embassy is built.”

Layla shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. Living without it won’t help me survive this world.”

“What I’m trying to say is that I think the thing my beast became can grow. I think it can become the best of beast and monster. I think, that if an even ground is found between the two, then healing can happen.”

Layla fought the urge to roll her eyes, the urge to stand and leave like she did with everything. Maggie was bearing her pain to Layla. She had to stay and hear the woman, her elder, her near adoptive mother.

“I understand that you might need to heal, but I don’t mind what I am now. Everyone thinks that I somehow need to be fixed, that I’m broken. I’m sick of people walking on eggshells around me. I’m not going to fall apart if people look at me the wrong way. If anything, I’m stronger than ever.”

“If you say so,” was all Maggie said in return.

The woman pushed herself up and gave the scenery one last look of longing. Did Maggie yearn to fly over these treetops like her husband and son? Did she wonder what it was like to have the strength and power of a dragon’s body? Or, did she just want her husband back?

It was one of the reasons Layla was happy she was still so young. Her mate might not come along for years to come. She didn’t have to deal with that kind of pain and anger. She didn’t have to worry about that vulnerability.

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