Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

said it was to stop a terrible tragedy.” His eyes closed for a moment as a spasm of pain flashed over his face. “It is ironic, is it not, that her prediction has caused a tragedy beyond words?”
    The First Dragon said nothing, clearly waiting to be told what prediction had been made. Alexei passed a hand over his face, turning away, his shoulders jerking as he gave in to his emotions. Tears spilled down my cheeks in sympathy for a man who so obviously loved his daughter.
    “The soothsayer told Baltic he would die if he took a dragon for his mate.” Constantine licked his lips, his gaze skittering between Baltic and the First Dragon as he spoke. “She told him that he would find love only in the arms of a human, and that all others would bring death and destruction to him and the black dragons.”
    I clutched the chain that hung around my neck, holding the love token for comfort, my heart sick at Constantine’s words. Baltic never should have come back for me-I was a dragon when he found me, even if I had thought I was human. It was my fault the silver dragons destroyed his sept. It was my fault all those dragons died in the Endless War. If only Baltic had found this woman he had been meant to be with, none of the tragedies of the past centuries would have happened.
    I wanted to simultaneously vomit and scream my denial of such a thing. We were meant for each other. There could be no other woman who loved him as much as I did.
    “And this is your final choice?” The First Dragon simply looked at Baltic, who met his gaze without wavering.
    “Yes.”
    “So be it. Alexei?”
    Alexei turned around. “I do not wish to strip my grandson of everything he has, dragonsire. There must be something else-”
    “There is nothing.”
    Alexei’s face worked for a moment, but at a sharp gesture from the First Dragon, he faced Baltic, and said in a voice filled with more sadness than I thought possible, “Baltic, son of Maerwyn, I hereby cast you from the sept of the black dragons, naming you ouroboros before our eyes.” He slid a glance toward the First Dragon before adding, “May the gods have mercy upon your soul.”
    Baltic jerked backward, as if he had been struck, but he said nothing to Alexei. He bowed, instead, a short, choppy bow that must have cost him much, turning on his heel and striding away. He paused as he passed the First Dragon, however. “This changes nothing,” he said.
    The First Dragon’s gaze slid away from him and returned to the fire. “It changes everything.”
    The fire swirled around me, making me suddenly dizzy, which caused me to stumble forward, my hands outstretched as blindly I attempted to catch my balance.
    I stubbed my toe on something hard, swearing under my breath as my vision cleared to show me a bed occupied by a sleeping body.
    “Chuan Ren?” I said, grabbing the pillow and hitting the body smartly across its torso. “You didn’t tell me it was Chuan Ren!”
    Baltic rolled over, glaring at me sleepily from under tousled hair. “You wish to engage in lovemaking now? You have never wished to do so in the past when it is your woman’s time. Is this some new fantasy?”
    “Chuan ... Ren ... ” I said with great deliberation, climbing onto the bed next to him, an abstracted part of my mind glad that I’d sent Pavel into town for fresh supplies, including bed linens. The room still smelled moldy and musty, and I shuddered to remember what state the bedding was in when we stripped it from all the rooms.
    “She’s dead,” he said, just as if that mattered.
    “She wasn’t six or seven hundred years ago.” I knelt next to him, hugging the pillow to my chest. “She wasn’t when everyone wanted you to take her as your mate.”
    He rolled back onto his other side, grunting as he did so. “You’ve had another of those irritating visions.”
    “Yes, I did.” I prodded his back with the edge of the pillow. “Why didn’t you tell me it was Chuan Ren that everyone was pressuring you to claim as a mate?”
    He sighed and let me pull him over onto his back. “It doesn’t matter. I had no intention of taking her as anything, let alone a mate.”
    I slumped down next to him, leaning against the headboard and stared down at my feet, remembering my sadness. “All those dragons, Baltic.”
    “All what dragons? Why are you dressed and outside of the blankets? Is your woman’s time bothering you? Do you wish for me to fetch pain tablets?”
    I twined my fingers through