It was like a light came on in Solar’s soul. “You think?”
“Yes, mate,” Zara said and drew him in for another kiss. “I think.”
Solar fell into the bed beside her, a laugh bubbling up. It didn’t fix everything, but it certainly lightened his load. The prophecy wasn’t dooming him. It was lifting him up to a new life. One where there was family.
The night was long, but the sun came up the next morning. The Surgere who gathered around for breakfast were strong, bonded, together. Plus, Rafael burst into camp with good news.
“The Oracle is waking up! Little by little. But Keiko thinks he’s gonna make it.”
A weight lifted off of Zara and she could see it lift off of Solar as well. They’d make the journey in a day or two to visit him. They’d accompany him home. Help him recover.
And then they would turn their attention to their little one. Zara watched Solar talk with a young Surgere across the camp. Her mate clamped a hand onto the young boy’s shoulder, looked him right in the eye. Solar was the leader of the Surgere. But she was his true mate. For the first time in her life, Zara was a leader too.
EPILOGUE
O stood on one side of a sheet of cloudy glass. A man stood on the other side. They both leaned forward and tried to see one another through it. No dice. The glass was too murky. O didn’t know why it was so important to get to that man, but he was certain he had something to tell him. Something important. Life or death.
O turned away and gripped his forehead. It was right there. The truth, the answers. He just had to reach out and grab them.
He turned back to look at the glass. He could see the shadow of the man there. So close and so far. But to O’s horror another shadow came into the frame. A red shadow. A dragon, hulking, poisonous, deadly. He stalked the man behind the glass.
He’s going to die. The man is going to die and O will never have gotten to tell him… tell him what? He couldn’t remember.
O rushed forward to pound the glass. But it was too late. The blood red dragon had already opened his awful jaws, leaning forward, lunging.
“This is not that big of a deal,” a woman’s voice sounded over O’s shoulder and he flipped around to look behind him.
Behind O sat a woman with a messy bun of coppery red hair. She licked her finger to flip through a magazine. One of her feet bouncing up and down.
“What do you mean?” O asked.
“I mean that this is obviously a dream. A prophecy. Whatever.”
O sort of floated toward the woman and for the first time in days, he didn’t feel the excruciating pain of his injuries. Maybe the woman was right. Maybe this was a dream.
“So who are you?” O asked.
“Duh,” the woman said as she looked up at him. “The woman of your dreams.” She paused for a second before cracking a smile. “Get it?”
O cocked his head to one side. “Funny.” He was usually the one with all the jokes. He studied her brown eyes. Her freckles. Her hair like copper.
“So, then what are you doing here?”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a stick of gum. O automatically held out his hand. Living in a jungle camp for a year pretty much meant that amenities like gum were few and far between. Even in dreams.
The woman rolled her eyes and tore the slice of gum in half, tossing it to him. “What am I doing here?” She popped the gum in her mouth. “I’m waiting for you to wake the fuck up and come fucking find me.”
The End