Free Broken Gates by D. T. Dyllin Page B

her palms against my temples. A sudden burning heat began to spread through me.
    “Wait!” I cried out. “I still have so many questions. You can’t do this yet!”
    “The answers will be shown to you when the time is right. You will have the guidance to take control of all of your powers new and old when you need to.” I began to feel light headed as the heat emanating from her palms began coursing through my body. “I am sorry about your hair,” I bewilderingly heard her say. “Of course I am partial to the new color, but I know how much you’ll hate it.”
    “What are you talking about?” I mumbled with distress. “What about my hair?”
    But then a bright warm light engulfed me and I suddenly felt like a nice nap was in order as I felt my eyes flutter shut.
    So many questions . . . I had so many questions. They were all swirling around in my mind as I regained consciousness. Was I really a full-blooded dragon? Then why couldn’t I do the whole disappearing act that even Bryn had already managed to master? How could I have grown up with the people I thought were my parents, and never known I wasn’t human? Why when I had been behind the boundaries of Khol’s lair had I not been able to have visions? We’d thought it was because my Seer magic was blocked and my dragon magic had taken control . . . but if I was truly full-blooded dragon that would mean my visions came from my dragon magic. So why had I been effected the same way that Bryn had? Maybe the magic my people possessed and the dragons possessed weren’t as different as we had all originally thought. But I guess I couldn’t really say they were my people anymore. My people . . . or species to be more specific . . . was dragon. How was I supposed to ever get used to that—to knowing I wasn’t even human? I certainly still felt human.
    “Peej!” I heard Bryn’s voice call out with alarm. “What the hell happened to her?” I felt warm strong arms scoop me up and press me into a rock hard chest . . . Bryn’s chest. His enticing scent washed over me and I snuggled into him and inhaled with delight. I was home . . . finally.
    “Amazing,” I heard Khol murmur. “I didn’t know. She hid it from all of us.” It was in that moment I knew Khol understood it all . . . who I was . . . what had happened . . . all of it.
    “Don’t just stand there, heal her. That’s what you’re good for after all,” Bryn growled, ignoring Khol’s words.
    “She doesn’t need healing. She’s perfect,” Khol said with reverence.
    “Peej? Can you hear me? Peej?”
    I was completely conscious and fully capable of responding to Bryn, but I didn’t want to open my eyes and deal with reality just yet. I simply wanted to remain burrowed in his arms, where I felt so safe and content. There, pressed up against him, I could pretend that nothing had changed between us. I didn’t want to open my eyes and face the very real reality that I could still lose him forever.
    “There’s no reason to keep clutching her to you like a rag doll,” Khol ground out. “Place her back down on the bed. She’s fine.” Uh-oh . . . the jig was up, Khol must have sensed I just wanted Bryn to hold me and obviously he wasn’t a fan of my plan.
    “Bryn?” I murmured, pretending that I was just waking up.
    “But then again, maybe I should give her some of my healing energy, just to be on the safe side,” Khol spoke up, not letting Bryn get a chance to respond to me. “Give her to me,” Khol ordered, and surprisingly Bryn obeyed.
    I opened my eyes just in time to meet Khol’s deep green gaze instead of the sea storm eyes I’d been hoping for. “What are you doing?” I hissed between clenched teeth.
    Khol’s eyes twinkled. “Why, healing you, of course, since you didn’t seem able to regain consciousness quickly enough, pointing at the fact that you might indeed be injured.”
    I glared up at him angrily, but his face told me if I called him