Filed to story: The Chosen Saga Novel PDF Free
“What? What are you talking about? I was taken to Fire. I am here in Fire. I didn’t leave.” Araiya stared at Talon’s face, realizing something was off. “What’s wrong?”
He scoffed at her. Actually scoffed. “I know this is just a dream, but you deserve everything my mind has done to you. That and more.” His voice kept getting louder and louder as he went. “We were your friends, your best friends. She was your best friend. I was…” He let out a soft sob. “We were your friends and now you reap what you sow.” Talon turned and left her in the darkness, alone.
Araiya called after him, but he never returned. Her mind was a cruel, fickle bastard. Why dream up her friend, and then turn him against her?
One month missing…
“What do you want me to say?” Talon paced
away from River. “I searched Air like you told me to do. Zephyr is missing, Airyn hasn’t seen or heard from him since he allowed Araiya to cut off his power. He hasn’t heard from Araiya either. He did say he has heard her cries on the wind and it’s from the south. That’s the only direction he gave me.”
“Half of the fucking land is due south from Air.” River ran his hands through his hair. He ended up screaming as he pulled at his hair. “I am sorry, I am just frustrated. Whoever took her is blocking her from us. What else did he say?”
Talon lifted a shoulder as if to say nothing while he looked off into the forest surrounding them.
“That’s it? Usually he’s more talkative.” Terran smirked. Earth and Air worked more closely, whilst Fire and Water had a similar bond.
“You and I both know the old bastard yelled at me for my treatment toward Araiya.” Talon leaned against a tree and slid to the ground.
“What did he say?” River walked closer to where the two were sitting.
“That Araiya didn’t kill my mate, and I cannot blame her for the coming darkness. The Elementals had warned us for years that the darkness would come back, and we would have to fight. We would have to die to save this world. One young girl wasn’t the cause of everything evil in the world and how stupid I am to believe she was.” Talon lifted a hand and mimicked talking. “Blah blah blah, the usual.”
“True.”
“That I was a fool for my mate, even after she showed me time and again that she wasn’t my heart song, and although he feels my pain, he knows that I know it is not as strong as it should be.”
“Sad to say, but also true.” Terran, focused on the plant he was coaxing to grow, peeked up at Talon. His face was starting to turn red from the anger building back up. “Before you blow up like Mac, just listen.” Talon looked away from them both and then gave one quick nod. “Remember when Miss Brooke first came into our lives? She had a friend, Cairn, from her village. He became Chosen with her. He was bonded to a dragon from my clutch.”
“Everest, right?” River sat down to listen.
“Yeah, Everest was head over tail in love with his mate. Those two men were inseparable even before the Anointing. This was almost eight hundred years ago Talon, so you weren’t around yet. Anyways, within our culture, the Chosen and the Dracoy, we accept all ways of life. We love who we love. And well, the others in this realm do not.” Terran scratched at his beard as he was lost in his memories. “Not back then, at least. The head Chosen at the time, Zenith I believe, picked on Cairn because she had developed feelings for Everest many years before. Anytime anyone came close to Everest she pushed her weight around until they were Anointed and found their true mates. Zenith and Everest had a partial mate bond, but he refused to accept it. He wanted to full thing. Well, once Cairn came, it was over for Everest. They were the real deal. Once Cairn was Anointed, Everest stepped up and they became mates. Well, Zenith was head Chosen and set tasks. The following cycle when the next ritual was to be held, she sent out Cairn and Everest.”
“What does this have to do with my mate?” Talon challenged. “Just because we weren’t the full bond doesn’t mean I loved her any less.”
“That’s not what he’s saying, just listen,” River countered.
“Anyways, Cairn was sent to a village in Earth. Ritual was normal, and the two stayed the night. What neither of them knew was just how vile the head Chosen had turned when her feelings were not returned. She sent notice ahead that the two were mated. Which, like I said at the time, was a big no-no. Everest went out to gather supplies, and when he got back, Cairn was missing.” Terran wiped his face.
“Everest tracked his mate by scent, and he got to a cave in the woods and what he found there was a horror story. Cairn was beaten, so severely that you could barely recognize him. He was cut up, and his heart was ripped out. Cairn was murdered within the hour of Everest leaving him in bed. The ones that did it had waited for him to be alone.” Terran paused and looked at Talon. “I only tell you this story so that you can understand what I am about to say. Earywyn sent out a call to any Earth Dracoy in the area. Everest needed to be stopped before he slaughtered the village. I got there the fastest. He had tracked those who killed his mate and was torturing them for answers. Once he got his answers, he killed them. He would have killed everyone there. I held him back as he broke down. We gathered Cairn’s body, and we brought him back to the Keep to lay him to rest. Once Cairn was in his tomb, Everest went after the Chosen. She too was brought to justice.”
“Okay?”
“Only then was Everest able to mourn his love. He shifted and laid on Cairn’s tomb and never moved. He started his keening and only stopped the day he moved past the veil.”
“Again, I don’t see what you’re trying to say here, Terran.”
“Goddess, Talon. A true mated pair doesn’t survive without their other half. They definitely don’t start to keen and then stop within a few minutes. Even a partial bond that was completed, would have mourned longer than you did.”
“That isn’t fair…” Talon started.
“No, what isn’t fair is that you knew Shavon wasn’t meant to be yours. She offered the bond and instead of sticking to your morals, you caved. You didn’t want to wait any longer. You knew she was supposed to go to someone else. You were supposed to go to someone else, but you both betrayed your actual full bonds by going forward.” Terran got to his feet.
“I have waited thousands of cycles for my mate, thousands, and you give up after barely a hundred. Then you have the audacity to be angry at me and River because you blame our mate for her death.” Terran paced away. “You do understand that her actions are hers alone, right? We don’t blame you for your mate’s actions. Fuck, there is a good chance she had absolutely nothing to do with Shavon’s death. That she just was jealous of your bond, or she saw a chance to manipulate you and you just jumped at the chance to blame anyone else.” He turned back and snarled in Talon’s face. “You blame Araiya for her death. River for not saving her. Mac for not believing her. Me for not understanding your pain. Most of all, you blame yourself for not saving her. But you know who you hold blameless? Shavon. You don’t even know all the facts and you blame everyone else. You have somehow put her on a pedestal. Perfect in her death, when in reality, the only two that are at fault for your suffering are the two of you. For pursuing a bond that never should have existed in the first place.” Terran stormed off into the forest.
“What in the darkness was that?” Talon had lost his anger, and was just sitting on the ground, looking dazed.
“That was a very angry Terran. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, watch out. Earth moves slowly until it can no longer hold back and then it’s a land slide.” River chuckled at his own joke.
“I don’t think I have ever seen him mad before.”
“Probably not. Like I said, he moves slowly. He bases his decisions and emotions off of facts and figures.”
“Why is he so mad at me though?”
“He explained it. You are so busy blaming everyone else for Shavon’s death and how that is effecting you, you aren’t seeing how it is effecting others. Your attitude towards us, towards finding Araiya, your overall treatment of everyone these past weeks. You are so busy saying woe is me, you haven’t taken a moment to look at anything or anyone else.”