Filed to story: The Chosen Saga Novel PDF Free
The Goddess stood and helped her up. She leaned over and kissed Araiya on the head. “You have been here too long little one. My power can only do so much. Make your choice to go back or fade but make it now while you still have the choice.” The Goddess walked away and was gone between one blink and the next.
Araiya looked back down to the forest, and watched the trees shake in the wake of a giant beast long forgotten. She looked down at the mate bonds growing duller by the minute and huffed a final breath. Then she turned and ran off the cliff.
As she was falling, she heard the Goddess call out, “Take this daughter, and know you can protect your body, but not your heart. Be strong.” Araiya felt something cool and hard hit her palm and she closed her hand around it before everything went dark.
Araiya jolted awake on the ground, surrounded by scales and deafened by roaring that shook the ground. Anguish and anger radiated from the giant dragon standing guard over her body. She could hear someone pleading to the dragon, but he wasn’t listening. Araiya looked down to the sword that the Goddess had given her in the in-between, slowly trying to figure out what was happening when she heard someone scream from the other side of the room.
“Step away from her body. She isn’t your mate. Let her mates get to her body Talon.” Araiya just listened to her friend talk so callously about her death like it was an inconvenience for her. That Talon’s reaction was somehow against her. Thankfully she had Talon, who she reached out and patted.
The giant gold dragon was mid-roar when he felt the tiny tapping on his chest plate. He stopped and whipped his head under, looking at the body of his brave friend. She smiled up at him and Araiya patted him again.
“I’m okay you big oaf. Change back please.” She laid back down as he turned back into a man and patted his arm again. “Thank you for watching over me. What happened?”
“Araiya?” She turned and Talon wrapped his arm around her and yanked her back behind him. River slowly approached with his arms in the air. “Araiya, you were dead. I felt no pulse. How?”
“It’s part of my Spirit element. I am able to go to the in-between and speak with the Goddess if I need guidance, usually on the verge of death. I am sorry for scaring you both. Talon, calm down and go see your mate.” Talon whipped around and stared at Araiya, but she quickly glanced at Shavon, who was glaring at her mate. Please, she begged with her eyes, go placate her so we can still be friends. Talon gave a tiny nod and turned back to River.
“Protect her. The Goddess had bound us together with a protector bond, do not fail her again.” Shavon paused and did a slow blink, her anger melting away. A protector bond from the Goddess, she couldn’t be mad at that, probably why Talon mentioned it.
“Why didn’t either of you say this before?” Shavon approached slowly.
“Probably since it shouldn’t matter. Talon is faithful and has proven repeatedly that he loves you, that you are his mate. You should trust that bond,” Roky called from the crowd.
Talon looked down to Araiya who nodded, and he released her. She wobbled on the spot for a minute before reaching down to the floor and picking up the sword. Araiya used the scabbard to balance herself and stood back up. Once Talon was assured, she wasn’t falling, he looked to River, who was watching Araiya closely.
“I release my Goddess-given charge into your hands River. Protect your mate, even from her other mates, or I will kill you.” Talon stalked off calling for Shavon to follow. Hopefully he talks some sense into her, Araiya thought. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to lose her two friends over her jealousy.
Araiya watched as Talon and Shavon walked off, then turned to River. He slowly approached her while the others looked on.
“River? Can you show me where I can sleep? Dying is exhausting.” Araiya chuckled to herself when she heard a few people in the crowd gasp.
“So, you actually died?” Zephyr looked smug.
“Zephyr?” He nodded. “When you allow someone into your power to return something that isn’t yours, and instead of stopping when they should,” she cut a glance to McKenna, “they take and take until the last drop of your power and life force is ripped away from your soul. Yeah, you fucking die. You said I was weak, that I didn’t protect myself.” He looked startled. “Yeah, I heard it all, but how old are you, four? As old as the first two. Part of the original dragons. I came into my power less than a week ago.” She turned to McKenna. “I have had this power less than a week. I have bent over backward so far. I have met all of your Elemental parents. I have jumped through doors and survived safety measures. I had stayed to make sure that the other Chosen made it through not once but twice when darkness came lurking. I fucking saved your goddamn element in my fucking body, ensuring Fire didn’t lose their powers and that Firwyn, your goddamn mother, didn’t lose her life in vain. I came here to not only cleanse myself from the darkness eating at my power but to return Fire to every goddamn dragon and Chosen. Then I went a step further, and without even giving myself a second thought, I opened my soul to you. I opened myself to you to give you back the last kernel of your mother. You abused that gift and me. You took more than what was meant for you and my life. I hope it was worth it.” She turned back to River. “Can we go please?”
“Wait, please.” McKenna staggered toward her. “Please.” He dropped to his knees and gripped his chest.
Araiya turned back and looked down at him. “You took me for weak. You thought I stole something, so you decided to take revenge. You took everything from me. The fire power I kept in safe keeping, the kernel that had mingled in my soul, my power and my life. You did it for spite. You will reap what you sowed here today, McKenna.”
“Please, I made a mistake.”
“That pain you feel right now will only get worse. The power and life you stole is going to build within your body until you can’t stand it. It will build and build until you release it, or you die. That wasn’t meant for you, and I can feel my power already thrashing to be let back out. When I stumbled to the ocean to release all of Fire back to the world, I knew then that I wasn’t supposed to hold all that power. When it erupted, it ripped pieces off for each of your kin and every piece was easier and easier to deal with until I only had the final two embers. One for you and one for me, two pieces for mates, equals. Not in years but power.” Araiya walked back to where he was kneeling and lowered herself to look him in the eye. “I had thousands to return that power to. You do not have that luxury. All that excess power that is going to build and build, it only comes to me. Unless I am willing to accept the power back, you will be burned out when you erupt. All that power that makes you glow from within will kill you. That piece of my soul you feel fluttering inside your chest will rip out of you so violently that your heart will stop. Your life hangs on the balance of my mercy, just like mine did a little while ago. I wonder if I will show you mercy or decide to follow your lead and let you burn away.” She leaned in, placed her hand on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear. “I hope you regret everything but know that the pain in your heart you feel right this second. That empty pit starting to get bigger and bigger. The burn in the center of your chest? That is the straining of the mate bond I am doing everything I can to break.”
Araiya got up and turned away and walked back to
River. He gestured for her to follow, and they walked up the stairs and out of the room. Araiya held it together until they were away from the main room, and she started to shake. The hollow pit in the center of where her power had settled this past week was now empty, and she was powerless. She felt like she used to back home. She clenched her fist tighter around the sword in her hand. River directed her into the room she had when she was first there.
“You can stay in this room again. I am just across the hall if you need anything.” He turned to leave. Understanding shone in his eyes.
“River, can you please send in Brooke if she is available?”
River nodded and then he left. Araiya sank to the floor, the day catching up to her. The exhaustion and emotions were just too much. She curled over her knees and just let go. The shakes worsened, and then the sobs started. How much more was she supposed to take? How can anyone love her if even her mates decided she wasn’t worth it? They didn’t even try to get to know her. They just jumped to the conclusion that she was worthless, weak and a thief. One even tried to kill her. Who the fuck does that to their supposed mate? Even now she could feel the mate bonds wrapped around her center. Once again, she plucked at them sensing a burst of light from each.
Araiya jolted when she felt someone touch her shoulder. Lost in thought and pain, she never heard the door. She looked up with tears still falling and choked on a sob when she saw it was Brooke. The sweet Chosen helped her to her feet, leaving the sword on the floor and guided her to the bathroom. Once again, she helped her bathe. This time instead of physical pains it was her emotional wounds that were wrecking her body. Her body was still weak, her life force slowly refilling but her power stayed empty. She would be powerless until her strength was returned but that wasn’t a big deal. She had just got it, even though it felt like a giant gaping hole. Like a phantom limb was ripped from her and left opened. She can live without ever getting her power back, but McKenna won’t be able to keep it for very long. He would burn out like she almost did with all of the Fire element.
“Are you okay love?” Brooke asked while she washed Araiya’s hair. She had all of it in her lap again, slowly taking her time and massaging her scalp, letting her sift through everything. “You don’t have to tell me, but I would help if I could. Even if it is just listening.”
Araiya was quiet for a while collecting her thoughts and then just released. She told Brooke everything. Her whole life of mistreatment and abuse came spewing out, and she got to her time after becoming a Chosen. Every time she saw the Goddess, her conversations with the Elementals, her time with Shavon and Talon, and finally her mates. The only one to show her an ounce of decency was River. He didn’t push even though she heard how broken he sounded when she was in the ether. She listened to his heart breaking. She knew it wasn’t love, not really, but sadly it was as close as she had ever come. The rest she couldn’t care less if they waited this long for their mate; it was honestly mind-boggling. Why wait so long to find your mate and then treat her like shit the first time you see her? She realized that she had unloaded her entire life on this woman. She had started crying again somewhere during her life story.
Brooke washed her hair and slowly brushed some hair oil through while Araiya broke down again. The old Chosen silently cried as she listened to the poor girl’s life so far. She had no doubt why she was Chosen. Sometimes the Goddess answers prayers, sometimes the Goddess creates prayers breaking a person down to become stronger and sometimes she does both. The young Chosen in front of her had suffered a lot in her first years. Sure, she had known love from her mother and brother, but she had suffered. Brooke was so lost in thought that she almost missed the last confession. One so dark that it froze her blood in her veins.
“What?” Brooke refocused on the girl in her arms.
Araiya pulled her hair out of the woman’s arms and turned resting her face on the tub’s lip. “Brooke, please.”
“Araiya,” Brooke whispered. She watched as the sweet, young, strong Chosen’s face crumpled. “Why would you ask if you were too tainted to love?”