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Trinity
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“TALIA!?” Alexio called for her, fear in his voice.
“I'm here. And I am OK, Lex. I am safe.” She rushed forward and took his hand. “Are you OK?” She was still crying, but now they looked like happy tears.
“Why are you crying?” He asked her, reaching up to wipe a tear from her cheek and smearing her face with blood.
“Lex, you idiot. I thought that you had died.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him. “That's why I am crying. I thought that I was going to lose you.”
.....
“You can't get rid of me that easily.” Alexio laughed weakly. “I am your guard for life. I will protect you no matter what, Talia.” He hugged her awkwardly as he looked around. It was clear that he didn't know what to do at the moment. He didn't think that Talia was going to hug him like that.
“Dammit Lex, don't go dying on me. I need you. When I find a mate and get married, I need you to be there to make sure that my husband isn't an idiot. And I need you to protect my future children. You're going to be with us forever, right?” She grinned at him.
“That's right, Talia.” He sat up, pushing her off of him as he went. “Forever.”
“Talia, you make sure that Alexio gets back to the tower safely. He might be weak after being healed like that. I am going to go look for your father.” I still couldn't feel him.
“I..I want to look for Daddy too.” She looked like a lost little child again, almost exactly like she had when Alexio had laid there dying in front of us.
“No. You go back to the tower. Check on your siblings. Tell them that the fighting is over. And take care of Alexio.”
“I am fine, Trinity. I do not need protection.” He stood then, moving as if he had never been hurt at all.
“Then you take Talia back to the tower and tell the others. I need to find Reece.”
“Mom?” Talia called after me. “A..are you going to be OK?” She asked me in a weak voice.
“I will be, when I find your father.” I gave her a smile, but it was a weak one that was filled with pain and worry.
“He will be fine, Mom. I..I just know that he will be.”
“I hope so, sweetheart. I really hope so.”
When I ran toward the edge of the bridge, I felt a twinge of pain in my heart. When I leapt from the invisible bridge and toward the ground below, that twinge had grown into an ache. And the moment that I ran in the direction that I saw that monster carrying Reece, that ache was so painful that it was almost too much for me to handle.
I pushed through it though. I needed to do this, even if the end result was not what I needed. Even if I didn't find Reece alive, I still needed to find him.
“Reece.” I called his name weakly, feeling the pain get stronger even as I did so.
“MOM!” Talia called after me as she stood on the bridge. I had barely heard her, but I slowed and skidded to a stop so that I could hear what she needed.
“WHAT?” I yelled toward her, hoping that I wasn't too far away.
“TAKE ANGEL WITH YOU! SHE WILL HELP YOU FIND DADDY!” The moment the words were out of her mouth, I saw a much larger version of the Dragixie than I had ever seen before.
“Angel help Talia's mom find Talia's dad.” The creature's voice was the same, even if it was more than a hundred times its usual size. “Come Talia's mom. Fly with me.” The creature was larger, and darker than it usually was. The pink of its fuzzy fur was more purplish now, sort of like a lilac or some other light shade of purple.
“Angel?” I looked at her in surprise, but didn't have time to ask questions. The magical Dragixie had flown toward me and under me all at once. She had put me on her back because I hadn't moved fast enough.
“Talia's mom look for Talia's dad while Angel flies. Look good Talia's mom. I smell blood.”
“Where is the blood, Angel? Fly towards the blood.” I ordered the creature as I held onto its fur covered back.
“The blood smells bad, but Angel fly there anyway. Come Talia's mom.”
She swerved and flew in a direction that was more north than I thought that Reece would have been in. Had the monsters changed course when they were flying off with him? I hoped that this was the right direction for Reece and not where someone else lay dying in the forest.
We flew through the trees, avoiding them with only centimeters to spare as Angel looked for the source of the blood. And we found it too, in the middle of a clearing that hadn't been there before.
Something had clearly crashed into the trees over here, and in doing so it had taken out several of the trees that once lived here. The scent of fresh dirt was mixing with the blood, and there was another smell. Now that I was letting myself calm down a little, letting my senses work for more than that scent of blood, I could smell something very faint among the trees.
That scent, the one that was faint and fading by the second, smelled like chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, and the forest after a rainstorm. It smelled like Reece. And he was fading.
“REECE!?” I screamed his name. There was only one reason for a scent to be fading like that, especially for it to be fading so quickly. He was dying. His essence was fading. And I couldn't bear to think about that. “REECE!” I screamed again. “WHERE ARE YOU?” I pulled my magic toward me, enhancing my night vision and making the world around me light up like there was a spotlight above us. At least it seemed that way for me.
Now that I could see, I was able to check the clearing for Reece, and what might have happened here. It looked to me like the monster that carried him had crashed, not when Talia killed the leader, but when Reece might have been struggling with it and made it crash. There were at least six trees that had been uprooted and thrown against others in the aftermath of the crash.
The creatures, the one that carried Reece away and the one that followed it, were not here. Of course, they wouldn't be. Talia had killed them all. She had saved so many people with her swift end to that thing. I just hope that it was in time to save Reece's life as well.
“REECE!?” I called him again. “WHERE ARE YOU, REECE!?” I had to find him. I just had to.
I followed my nose to where the blood and the source of the fading scent was the strongest. And that was when I saw him. He was laying there, half obscured by one of the fallen trees that was next to him.
“Reece!” I skidded to a halt and dropped to my knees. “Reece!” I pulled him toward me and just kept saying his name. It was all that I could say. “Reece!”
I saw the puddle of blood that was beneath him. I saw the damage that the monster had done to him. It hadn't just been his back. That was where it had grabbed him from, but it had clawed and stabbed him several times more. That must have happened after they fell into the forest.
“Oh goddess, Reece, please wake up. Please!” I screamed it as I pulled him into my arms. “ANGEL!” The dragon was at my side in seconds. “Get us home. I need Griffin's help.”
I leapt onto the Dragixie's back and held Reece's limp and bloody body against me. He was barely breathing, if he was even breathing at all. And I could barely hear his heart beating. It was slow and there was too long of a pause in between each beat. He really was fading, and I didn't know if Griffin was able to save him or not. I hoped that he was, but I just didn't know.
The Dragixie flew faster this time than she had on the way to finding Reece. She had also gone up and through the hole in the forest so that we didn't need to dodge the trees this time. She knew where the opening was, and that was all that she needed.
Talia and Alexio were no longer on the bridge when I went back. The only people that seemed to be up there now were Griffin and Lana. Even the courtyard below seemed to be empty and devoid of all people, living and dead. They must have been looking for Reece or taking the prisoners into the dungeons.
'I found Reece. I am taking him to Griffin.' I alerted the others so that they didn't need to keep looking for him. That would have been pointless, since he was already found.
“TRINITY!” Griffin waved at me. “COME ON!” Angel was the one that was directing us though, and she flew even faster as she went to land next to them.
“He's hurt really badly, Griffin. I don't know if he's even alive anymore. I can barely hear his heart.”
Griffin already had his hand on Reece's chest and was assessing him with magic. He wasn't looking all that happy either, as he tried to see what all it would take to save my husband's life.
“This doesn't look good.” He said as he looked up at me, pain filling his eyes.
