Even from inside the mental prison, his dragon's shouts rang in his mind. No, no, NO.
His beast burst from the invisible prison and slammed Alistair into a corner, turning the tables and making him the captive.
He did his best to break free—pushing, shoving, pounding with all this might—but Alistair couldn't get the walls to budge.
He'd barely tried all those methods before he could do nothing but watch in horror as his dragon shifted, not caring that the chains and cuffs broke their forelimbs and back legs as their shape changed into that of a dragon.
Because the full shift was enough force to split the metal. Which meant as soon as their bones healed in a week—even if somewhat poorly due to not being set—his dragon would hobble if need be to find Kiyana and do unspeakable things to her.
Alistair had one week, only one fucking week, to think of a plan. Because no matter what it took, even if it cost his own life, he wouldn't allow that to happen.
So as his dragon thrashed their tail and did his best to creep along the floor to the nearest water source, Alistair sat down inside his prison and started thinking of possible solutions. This time, he didn't want to fail. Yes, he'd do what needed to be done to protect Kiyana, but he'd lost one female before and he sure as hell didn't want to lose another.
There had to be a way to win over his beast. There just had to.
~~~
Kiyana tried to ignore the tall, imposing form of Iris Mahajan behind her, so she could focus on the barely legible words in the book in front of her. However, even with the woman being silent, Kiyana could feel the dragonwoman's dark eyes on the back of her head.
Play nice, Kiyana. She's just doing her job. While she didn't think Alistair would make it through the clan and into the archive building without someone catching him, Finn wanted to be prepared. Which meant Kiyana had a guard or two with her at all times.
Iris was the least of her worries, though. It'd been nearly a day, and no one had yet found Alistair.
On top of that, even with Kiyana receiving regular updates from Finn, no one had unearthed anything to help cure him, either.
Including Kiyana.
Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she tried to push down her frustration. Kiyana hated feeling powerless, unable to contribute in any way. Until she could find something meriting the attention of the DDA director—she'd already tapped all of her trusted DDA contacts to no avail—all she could do was stay safe and continue her research on more long-term methods of assistance.
Surely there had to be something she could use from one of the books to improve communication and alliances. After all, dragon-shifters hadn't always been isolated, and she was determined to find out the reason why.
Opening her eyes again, she concentrated on the page of dense text once more. Research was how she could help Alistair, even if it was only to carry out his dream. Wondering about this or that would accomplish nothing.
The book, A History of Dragons from the fall of Rome until 1900, had mentioned a few times how the dragon clans had once been united across the world. She had yet to read any specifics, though. Of course, she had only made it through the year 1200 C.E. and still had seven hundred more years to comb through.
Undeterred, she scanned down, looking for anything related to unity.
About twenty pages later, she paused at the section's title: “The Dettifoss Gathering, Iceland.”
In the past, gatherings had been more important and played more significant roles in the daily lives of dragon-shifters. Combine that with the fact the author had yet to mention any gatherings for the last hundred or so years, and it was most likely important.
Kiyana switched to reading instead of skimming:
Many believe the Dettifoss Gathering to be one of the biggest assemblies of dragon clans in history. Representatives from every clan in the Northern Hemisphere met to discuss future ties. After six weeks of negotiations, the Dettifoss Assembly was born. The dragon clans continued to meet every two years to share information, settle intra-clan disputes, and other items that have been lost to history.
The Assembly survived for a few hundred years and eventually included clans from the Southern Hemisphere as well. However, the dawn of human European colonialism slowly destroyed the alliances as the dragon clans in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific battled new enemies and focused on their survival above all else.
Several attempts have been made to restart a similar Assembly, but due to the overreaching rules and laws passed by the various human governments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the dragon clans have been unable to accomplish it.
Kiyana stopped reading. Ideas swirled through her head, but she needed to check something first before fleshing them out. Turning in her chair, she blurted to Iris, "Have you heard of the Dettifoss Assembly?"
Iris's brows came together. "Aye, although I'm not sure why you're asking me about it."
Turning all the way around, she asked, "Does everyone learn about it in school? Or are you a special case?"
Iris shrugged one shoulder. "On Lochguard, we spent a few days learning about it as teenagers, and another day practicing our own Assembly. However, I can't speak for any of the other clans on whether they do the same or not."
Standing, Kiyana closed the distance to the dragonwoman. "Is there a way I can ask some of the other British clans if they study it, too? Maybe even the Irish one in Glenveagh National Park as well? You know, the one with the female leader."