"Do you think they're talking about us again?" Rhia asked, looking over her shoulder at Nekros, Ozin, and Tiamat.

"I don't care," Phoenix said shortly. "And neither should you. Your focus should be on the task at hand."

"Great. Care to explain what the fuck that is?"

Rhia winced as the thought escaped containment and Phoenix glared down at her. "If you are unwilling to learn from me, Rhiannon," she said icily. "Why did you accept my offer?"

"It... it's not that I don't want to learn and don't appreciate it," Rhia stammered.

"Then what is it? Why do you argue and fight every lesson as if I am asking for something entirely unreasonable."

"Because it is unreasonable to ask me to do something without giving me the building blocks to get there. When you want to teach someone how to do math, you start with counting to ten on their fingers, not throw quadratic equations at them and demand them to figure it out. I know that I'm capable of more. I just don't know how to get there, and so far, all you've done is make me feel like an idiot for not instantly knowing that X equals five, or whatever."

One of Phoenix's eyebrows rose higher and grew more critical with every word of Rhia's little rant. "So, if I understand this correctly," she asked in a painfully slow and condescending voice that made every hair on Rhia's body prickle defensively. "You think what I am attempting to teach you is the equivalent of the type of mathematics that is taught to middle school children?"

"I don't know what it's the equivalent of," Rhia hissed back. "All I know is that nothing you've tried to teach me makes any sense, and I haven't learned jack shit."

"Fine. If counting to ten on your fingers is too difficult, then we'll do something easier."

Without any more warning, Phoenix held her hand out to the side, and an impressive torrent of fire erupted from her palm. Rhia flinched back from the extreme heat, once again marveling at how different and hostile Phoenix's flames felt compared to her own.

"You can do that much, correct?" she asked sharply as the flames died out. When Rhia nodded, she started walking backwards to put a considerable space between them. "Aim your fire at me. Put as much power into the flames and hold them as long as you can. Show me what you can do. Then I'll know how to get you to where you should be."

Rhia didn't dare let herself think about anything specific or coherent in case she accidentally created another link. Even so, she couldn't help feeling that the last two weeks could have been a lot more productive if they had just started with that.

Instead, she inched her feet further apart to brace herself, raised her palms towards Phoenix, and took a deep breath. The stream of flames that came from her palms was noticeably thinner and slower than Phoenix's had been, but she refused to compare it to anything but the other times she had purposely summoned fire. Already, they were-

"NO!"

Phoenix's voice cut through her like a whip, and she knocked away the oncoming flames as if Rhia had thrown an empty soda bottle at her. The combination of the two sent her stumbling back, ripping her out of her concentration and cutting her magic off.

"Stop worrying about my safety," the older dragon barked, forcing the link back open and sending sharp bolts of pain through Rhia's skull. "You could not hurt me even if you wanted to. Stop holding back and do it again. Show me what you are actually capable of, Rhiannon, and stop wasting my time!"

"Stop calling me that!" Rhia screamed back and threw out her hands once again. "My name is Rhia! What don't you get about that you insufferable bitch!?"

With the last of her limited patience gone, the full force of Rhia's magic surged forward. Hellfire blasted from her palms with incredible force and speed, the flames twisting rapidly so it resembled a horizontal cyclone. This time when Phoenix raised a hand to deflect, it hit her invisible wall with the force of a bullet train hitting an immovable object. They curled up and around, seeking some kind of weakness in their target's defenses that they would not find.

"If I'd known this was how to get you to take your lessons seriously, Rhiannon," Phoenix goaded her. "I would have pissed you off sooner."

The sound of her name in Phoenix's taunting voice reverberated in Rhia's mind, bringing back so much of the past that she thought she had long gotten over and forgotten.

For years, she hated the very sound of the name. It was a constant reminder that she was different. A gift from the parents that didn't even want her and left her on the side of the road in the rain to be found by anyone. She was lucky to have been found by Madeline Kincaid. Madeline had tried to change it, but apparently, she would only ever respond to one thing.

Rhiannon

The first time a full-grown fae had learned her name, that full-grown adult had screamed at her, a six-year-old traumatized little girl who didn't know what her name meant to the magical breed. Then they had screamed at Madeline and Richard for daring to give her the name of their queen. The whole drama resulted in her being pulled from the school altogether and completely undoing the previous ten months of intense therapy.

Rhiannon

She had to start fresh, her parents insisting that the new school use the shortened version of her name, because it was the only thing they could do. Every graduation, every ceremony, every time someone announced to the world that she was Rhiannon Kincaid, she flinched and looked around for the nearest dark corner to hide from the next fae that wanted to scream in her face.

She had come to accept, embrace, and build her identity around Rhia Kincaid.

Paramedic. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Girlfriend. Fiancé. Ex. Human.

Rhiannon, on the other hand, was one thing and one thing only.

Dragon

All of the hatred and the resentment Rhia had for the dragons, the Organization, and the ancient world as a whole had finally reached the breaking point.

The base of the flames where they emerged from her hands bulged with the sudden influx of power, fueled by her anger, and exploded forward into a tidal wave of fire three times wider than Phoenix's had been. At the end of the line was Phoenix herself, surrounded by a dome of hellfire spiraling around her, seeking the tiniest crack in her defenses to consume the object of their master's hate.

As the two pyromancers faced off against each other's power, a different kind of connection was forged between them. It wasn't so much emotion or even full memories that invaded Rhia's mind. But rather, an understanding that she simply could not explain came to her all at once.

Phoenix and Nekros had been together since the beginning of time itself. They were mates in spirit, if not blood and magic, up until a mere thirty years ago when she agreed to the mate bond. They were soulmates. The first soulmates. They should have been inseparable.

Ropes of fire curled back around Rhia's hands, wrists, and up her arms to her elbows, spreading a familiar warmth through her body and relieving some of the pressure building on her joints.

A voice she longed to hear again whispered in her ear as the memory of one of the many times Nolan tried to teach her some kind of magic. "Anchor your magic to my touch, Rhia," he had said while his hands explored her naked body. "Whenever you feel like it's too much, remember how this feels. This is your magic. You are in control."

For a moment, she felt him. His chest pressed against her back, his arms parallel to hers as he helped steady her stance, and his feet on either side of hers. A graze of deadly fangs on her neck. She felt, more than she saw, a flickering image of the wyvern Nolan was always supposed to be. Black scales with a shimmer of white and blue magic pulsating beneath, and a pair of electric-blue eyes with vertical pupils.

I am going to find you, Nolan, she thought, not caring if she linked it to anyone else. Let them know just how determined she was. Maybe then they'd understand that she would not stand to be separated from her soulmate for another fucking second. If I have to burn this world to the ground to do it, I will bring you home.

Phoenix was almost bored with the girl's demonstration of her power. It was impressive that she had held out this long and that she was subconsciously tapping into her rage, but it wasn't anything to really write home about. She was wildly emotional and unfocussed. Her anger, while potent, wasn't nearly enough for her to ever fully command primal hellfire. Hard to believe this creature came from her own blood. What a disgrace.

Suddenly, without any warning, the wide cone of flames began to spin faster and faster, condensing into a tight, concentrated blast. Instinctively, Phoenix widened her stance to hold back against the girl's new tactic. The heat was growing almost as rapidly, making her break out in a rare sweat. Something had changed.

Looking into the girl's vibrant green eyes, there was more than just the anger from being poked with a sharp stick one too many times. Hatred. Hatred that could only be matched by one other Phoenix had known in her life. That hatred had come from a dragonkin that she had tried so desperately to kill, yet she and three other dragons couldn't do it even when they combined their strength.

A dark figure rose behind the girl, his body made of shadow except for the glowing gold of his eyes. It was her imagination. Phoenix knew it had to be an illusion and nothing more. But even that couldn't stop her from thinking of that cursed dragonkin, and fear flickered in her chest.

The girl screamed, sounding more beast than human, the call turning into a roar that made the entire island beneath them shudder. The shadowed figure of Erebus was suddenly sucked into the spiral of flames, and all at once they turned an impossibly bright blue. Through the girl's rage and grief, she realized that what that damned serpent told her was true: the bloodline of Erebus of the Western Sky lived on.

Phoenix's arm trembled, and her defenses cracked. She needed to end this now.

Rhia felt the very moment that Phoenix was no longer passively holding off the flames. She didn't know how else to describe it except that something was pushing back. She barely had the chance to acknowledge and respond when something hit her hard in the chest. That something then exploded, completely disrupting her flow of magic and sending her flying across the island.

She landed in the ocean a few meters off the shore of the island. As she poked her head over the waves, she was instantly engulfed in steam as the water boiled off her super-heated skin almost instantly.

Over the sound of her own racing heart, she could hear Nekros whistling while Ozin and Tiamat chirped. Unlike last time, she didn't feel any pride in what she'd accomplished. Rather, she was pissed. She was even more enraged now than when she was harnessing that anger into blasting more fire at that bitch's face.

As she started swimming back, Phoenix appeared at the top of the ridge above the water, her hands curled into tight fists at her side. Through the residual magic binding them together, she could feel the other dragon's barely contained anger, disgust, and resentment that was entirely directed towards Rhia.

Because Rhia was the reason the bond between Nekros and Phoenix was broken. Their mating hadn't failed, like everyone said it had. It had been entirely successful. Right up until the moment Phoenix laid a single black egg.

They were entirely at odds with what to do with the child they had created together, accidentally or otherwise. Phoenix did not want the child, and whether she lived or died did not matter. Nekros wanted to be a father, and if he had to do it alone, he would.

Their differences could not be resolved, and the bonds that held their hearts and souls together shattered.

"It seems we do have something in common after all, Rhiannon," came Phoenix's cool voice through the link. "Foster that anger against the people who killed your lover. Then, maybe, you just might be worthy of the power that fate has given you."

"I see your mask slipping, Nyx," Rhia seethed back, using the nickname she knew was wholly reserved for Nekros and Nekros only. "How long do you think before everyone else realizes that this little teacher-student, mother-daughter bonding skit you're putting on is nothing but a pile of dragon shit?"

Phoenix's eyes flared for a second. But it faded quickly, and it was like a wave of calm washed over her. Her hands relaxed, and she set her shoulders back. The corner of her mouth pulled up in a cold smile. She didn't have to pretend anymore.

"That was incredible!" Nekros shouted, racing towards her. His excitement and the broad, proud smile on his face was bright enough to lighten Rhia's black mood as he leapt into the knee-deep water, Rhia up into a crushing hug and spinning her around. "You were incredible! I told you; you could do it!"

"All she needed was a gentle nudge in the right direction," Phoenix called out, her laugh making Nekros smile even wider. "Give me time, and you won't even recognize our daughter as the little hatchling she is today."

Another deliberate dig, but if Nekros noticed, he was too damned excited to say anything. He put Rhia back on her feet and ran back up the ridge to scoop Phoenix into his arms and kiss her hard on the lips. Rhia turned away from the couple so neither would see how her lip curled in disgust. Their connection was fading rapidly now, but Rhia caught the tail-end of Phoenix's smug superiority, tainted by a sour note of... was that fear?

"We should celebrate!" Nekros announced excitedly.

"Celebrate?" Phoenix laughed, but it didn't sound remotely genuine to Rhia. "Darling, we've only made small steps today."

"I wouldn't say this was a small step," Nekros argued, undeterred.

"Rain check," Rhia spat. The words had come out a lot harsher than she intended, but she couldn't imagine following after them as the awkward third wheel as Nekros ignorantly fawned over Phoenix.

A few seconds later, Nekros was wading through the water towards her again. "Come with us," he said softly. "I know it doesn't feel like much, but trust me, this is worth celebrating. I have never seen so much improvement in such a short time. Especially with the introduction of a new teacher."

"Every improvement I've made is because of you," she bit out between clenched teeth. "Everything I've learned about magic is from you. All she did was piss me off enough for me to not give a shit about holding back."

"But that's a good thing."

"It's a good thing that she made me so angry that I actually wanted to hurt her?"

"Magic has a connection to our emotions. Now that you know what it feels like to go all out, you can learn how to harness it. What you're feeling isn't personal. It will pass after-"

Nekros hesitated as the steam around Rhia thickened into a dense cloud until he could barely see her turning her head away. "Go on without me," she told him flatly. "I need to cool off and think about what I actually want in my teachers."

His heart slammed painfully against his chest, wanting to do anything to comfort her when she was clearly struggling with something he didn't understand. But he was pretty sure he knew her well enough not to push. Slowly, Nekros retreated to rejoin Phoenix on the ridge.

The two dragons launched into the sky. Phoenix started north immediately, but Nekros circled over Rhia a few times, singing mournfully before following his mate.

Rhia's legs buckled under her, and she slumped to her knees. The water stopped bubbling where it touched her skin and the steam cloud faded into the wind. It seemed the last of the rage-fueled adrenaline had run its course, leaving her cold, empty, and exhausted.

Despite that, a smile tugged at her lips. The water was cold, and she was beginning to shiver. Deep blisters were forming on her hands and forearms where her fire had touched, and her throat burned like she'd just spent the last several hours vomiting nothing but stomach acid. She could hear the waves against the shoreline, but it was a blur of sounds instead of hearing each individual rock shifting against the tide.

She felt extraordinarily human. She felt normal.

"Are you hurt, Rhiannon?"

Rhia heard Tiamat the old-fashioned way, which meant the dragoness had shifted without Rhia feeling the ripple of magic or the change in the air. God, it had been so long since she had been unaware of something around her. "I'm fine," she answered, her voice raspy and hoarse.

A soft, warm hand touched her shoulder. "You've depleted your magic. That's why I couldn't reach you through the link. Oh, darling, your hands."

"It's nothing, really, Tiamat. I'm- Oh my god, why are you naked?!"

Rhia's eyes bulged and she looked away quickly as the completely naked woman came around to kneel in front of her. "I find this form restricting enough," Tiamat said with a verbal shrug, taking Rhia's hands and pulling them deeper into the water. "I don't want to confine myself further."

The water around them started to shimmer as Tiamat's healing magic came to life. The pain in Rhia's wounds eased and turned into a tingling sensation.

Getting over her own awkwardness, Rhia allowed herself to steal a few glances at her. It was the first time she had ever seen Tiamat's human form. Like most of the dragons and their kin, she was tall, nearly approaching six feet. Her hip-length hair draped around her body like a bold, azure-blue veil, the same color as her feathers and eyes. Her features were softer than the other female dragons, who were mostly made up of hard angles and sharp expressions, but she carried the same ethereal, inhuman beauty that both dragonkin and the elves had.

No matter how hard she tried, however, Rhia could not stop herself from gaping, open-mouthed, at Tiamat's very round belly. "Oh my god," she whispered again. "You're... are you pregnant?"

"It is much more obvious in this form, no?" she laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. "It's alright that you didn't know. We don't announce my gestation periods."

"Why? Isn't this a huge deal?"

Tiamat's smile faltered, and the water seemed to ripple with her emotions. "This is not the first egg I have grown," she said sadly. "We have had many in the past. It's not until after they are laid that we know for sure if there is life within."

"Jesus. Tiamat, I am so sorry."

"There is nothing for you to apologize for. You do not hold the strings of life and death."

"Not for that. I'm sorry because... well..." Rhia looked around at everything and nothing, desperately searching for the words to convey her meaning. "I mean, it couldn't have been easy hearing that I was born when Phoenix didn't even want kids."

"Your hatching brought me hope," Tiamat insisted, her eyes and the water glowing brighter. "I have allowed my last ten fertile cycles to pass without seeking Ozin's company because I had lost faith that we would ever be parents. This is the first time in many, many gestation cycles that I have allowed myself to believe that this time, we will be successful. When we return home, I will build a nest for the first time in as many years."

"And I will build our home where we will raise our child once their magic goes dormant," Ozin called out from the top of the ridge. Looking over her shoulder at the man, she saw a broad grin on his face and his earthy brown-green eyes brimming with pride as he looked upon his pregnant mate. "And they will never go a day without knowing our love."

"The only thing that hurts us, Rhiannon," Tiamat continued. "Is watching you reject us when there is nothing we wouldn't do for you."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing. We would move heaven, earth, and all the other realms. All you need to do is ask."

Slowly, Rhia pulled her hands out of Tiamat's grip and stood up. The wounds on her arms were still raw and bleeding, but she didn't care. "Some parenting advice to the two of you," she said quietly, not looking at either of them. "Don't make promises you know you won't keep."

"Rhiannon-"

"Rhia."

She didn't yell. She wasn't scolding or yelling at them. It took too much effort to be truly angry anymore.

"Your name is Rhiannon," Ozin said slowly, exchanging confused looks with Tiamat and very much not understanding what the problem was. "Names have power. Changing your name is to dishonor the-"

"Quin changed his name," Rhia cut over him again. "Was he not Soliel for billions of years before changing it to Quintiles, and now just Quin? To call him by anything other than what he chose for himself would be a dishonor to him, but calling me what I want would be a dishonor to... who, exactly? Nekros? He's had no problem calling me Rhia since the day we were reunited. Or would it be a dishonor to a faerie who's been dead longer than a handful of species have even been alive? Because the fae made it very clear what they thought of me having their queen's name."

She looked back down at Tiamat. She couldn't even bring herself to feel bad about the tears welling up in her big blue eyes. She was just so tired.

"You are not owed anything by bringing a child into the world. Not respect, not loyalty, nothing. Nekros gets it. Lysander and Ares get it. Hell, Luna, of all people, gets it. You don't. I have asked you to call me Rhia. Countless times. I have been gracious. I have been patient. I am not asking much.

"I am not Quin. I'm not going to threaten and bully you, but I'm not going to beg you, either. If I can't count on you to call me by the right name, then why on earth would I ask you to move realms for me? Kids are smarter than we give them credit, and they figure out real quick that words don't mean anything if your actions directly contradict them.

"Tiamat, I can't imagine the pain you've been through trying for a child. I don't wish that pain on you or anyone else. But maybe fate realizes something you don't; every child deserves a parent. But not everyone deserves a child."

~ 

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