I’d told Ben not to kill him, but there was a moment as I followed him outside when it would have been easy to forget that.
Ivan was still in his human form as I shifted, and I clutched his smaller, human body in my claws and leapt off the balcony for the second time that night, winging toward the open ocean. Not thinking clearly enough to know what I wanted to do with him, other than the immediate need to get him away from the people who mattered to me.
“Devin is my mate,” I hissed at him, anger still surging through me at his callous disregard for my family. “He doesn’t ‘serve a purpose.’ I love him.”
“Our kind doesn’t ‘love,’” my brother scoffed, wriggling away from me as he shifted into his otherself. He was too fast for me to grab hold of—my claws barely grazing him as he twisted away. He didn’t go far, though, stopping to hover in front of me—just out of reach—the moonlight picking silver glints from his darker hide. “And you’re right, love is not a purpose. That is your weakness.”
I knew that the dragons he’d known didn’t value love, they saw the accumulation of power and territory as their only purpose. If Dane hadn’t shown me a different way to live, I could have become one of them, never knowing the true friendship of men I admired—not recognizing the love fate intended for me when it came my way. I shuddered at the thought. Ivan had been taught only contempt for the kind of relationships I was blessed with.
“You’re wrong. Love is my strength,” I told him quietly, all the anger draining out of me as I realized how thoroughly I’d failed him. “If I had been able to save you, Ivan, you would have grown up knowing that.”
“‘Save’ me?” he repeated in a mocking voice. “You?”
“Our sire didn’t tell you? When you were born, I… tried. I was there when he pulled you from your human father’s body. As soon as I found out about you, I came for you. I wanted to rescue you from the life he intended for you.”
He laughed coldly. “Then you are a hypocrite as well as a weakling. You wanted the same thing I do now—but your reasons were as weak as your effort. Our sire was right. Your hatchlings will be better off if they are raised to understand their true legacy of strength and power. Your softness will only pollute them.”
His words were ugly, but his disdain didn’t hurt me. It made me pity him… and feel guilty. He deserved better than the life I’d left him to.
“If you had succeeded,” Ivan spat. “I would be—”
“You would be happy,” I cut him off. “You would be surrounded by people who care about you. About you, Ivan, not just about what you can do to preserve a ‘legacy.’ You would have friends, and you would know that there’s someone out there who is fated for you, just like Devin is for me.”
“I don’t need ‘fate’ to find a human when I need one.”
“But only fate can find you the one that you really need, brother.” I sighed, knowing he didn’t believe me. I wasn’t going to convince him to change a lifetime of belief in one night. “You won’t succeed here, Ivan,” I said forcefully. “You can’t. Go home.”
I felt his surge of anger at my dismissal, and it was enough warning that when he dove toward me, flaming with his claws extended, I was able to dodge and knock him aside. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he had to know I wasn’t going to let him get past me again.
“I don’t give up as easily as you, brother,” he snarled. “I didn’t expect you would just let me fly away with your hatchling. Our sire did tell me about your failed attempt to take me when I was born. He told me that you were too weak to stand against him. That is what your ‘love’ gets you. You made the choice to run, instead of fight. You abandoned me, when you could have killed him.”
I grimaced, thinking back to that long-ago confrontation. I’d been young, and heart-broken to discover that the cost of my new brother’s life was a human one. At the time, I’d done my best to fight for him, but my sire’s experience and callous brutality had overwhelmed me. Even with Dane at my side, we hadn’t been able to stand against him without the cost becoming too high.
“Killing him wouldn’t have been as easy as all that, Ivan. And not just physically. He outmaneuvered us, both in his fighting skill and in his willingness to hurt others—humans—to manipulate us. I tried, but… I’m truly sorry I didn’t do more.”
“Don’t be. I’m grateful you failed,” he said, glaring at me. “If you had taken me, I would now share your weakness—but I don’t. I never expected you to give up your hatchling without a fight. I came fully prepared to kill you, ‘brother.’”