Earth's Hope Read Free

are here, we should visit the caves and make certain the everlasting spring still flows.” He spread his wings and beat the air with them.
    Dewi had been ready to teleport into the caves, but flying was better. They’d be able to lay eyes on their world, assure themselves it hadn’t been disturbed. Not that it was likely. Wards wrapped their borderworld, powerful magic that would incinerate anyone who wasn’t a dragon.
    Dewi took to the skies; once airborne, she scanned familiar landmarks and felt a bittersweet tug. Humans would never understand the attraction of the dragons’ home. Neither would the other Celtic gods. She’d always felt she lived two lives, particularly once she believed she was the last dragon. Longing rose in her like a hot tide. If she had a choice in the matter, she’d bring her children back here and settle in with them and her mate. Let the humans and Celts sort out the mess with the dark gods. She could raise another clutch of eggs, and they’d be well on their way to repopulating the Earth with dragons…
    Nidhogg circled to land, touching down in a flurry of dusty, reddened dirt. Dewi blew steam to clear her nostrils and lumbered near where he stood.
    “We could bring the younglings here—” she began, but he silenced her with a harsh look. Fire plumed from his open mouth.
    “The same thought crossed my mind, but we will not do that. How could we live with ourselves if we turned our backs on honor? More importantly, what kind of lesson would that teach our children?”
    Shame burned hot and viscous in her chest, and Dewi looked away. “Once our younglings are a month old, the Celts will want to use them in battle.”
    “They would be within their rights.” Nidhogg’s tone was devoid of inflection. “Our children will be capable of fighting once their scales harden.” He shook his head, and steam flew in all directions. “No one gets an exemption, Dewi. Not me. Not you, and not our children.”
    “I’ll be chained to the eggs in my body once I’ve laid them. I don’t know how I’ll manage being stuck in our cave in Ireland knowing how thin a margin we hold.”
    “I’ve been thinking about that.” Nidhogg raised his snout. “You will hold the eggs within you. Until the outcome of the coming battles is more certain, we will need you in battle.”
    “But how can I do that?” Dewi stared at her mate as if he’d lost his mind. “Last time we produced a clutch, the eggs came when they did. I couldn’t have stopped them anymore than I could have turned back time.”
    “It’s numbers. So long as you have fewer than fifteen fertilized eggs within you, you control when they emerge.”
    Dewi rolled her eyes. “Why do you know that and I don’t?”
    He shrugged, his black scales jangling against one another. “Maybe because I paid attention when the females got together. What this does mean, though”—he eyed her meaningfully—“is no more mating. We can’t risk creating more eggs.”
    “Not sure I like that,” she muttered and clanked her jaws together. “Let’s get going with the caves. We’ve already burned up the better part of a day getting here, and we told Fionn and Aislinn we’d be back in two.”
    “I don’t like the not mating part, either.” Nidhogg winked broadly. “But it will create an incentive to plow through to the other side of things and secure Earth once and for all.”
    “I heard the tail end of that.” Arawn, Celtic god of the dead, terror, and revenge, strode out of the mouth of the cave system. Black robes cloaked his tall, slender frame. Black hair hung loose to his waist, and his dark eyes glittered dangerously.
    Dewi puffed smoke in surprise. “How did you get here? This world is closed to all but dragons.”
    “I’m surprised ye have to ask. The Halls of the Dead link to every borderworld, even this one.” Arawn narrowed his eyes. “It got me around the problem with your ward system.”
    “So I suppose a better question,”