She turned, reaching for him. But the moment she faced Dax, her hands paused. She frowned at the dark blue sandskarf wrapped around his throat, then reached to touch the fitted leather jacket buttoned up tight.
“Why are you dressed like this?” she asked, when she found his hands too were covered in dark leather gloves.
His gloved fingers twined through hers. “I told you,” he said, pulling her through the curtains and back inside the room. “I have a surprise. Come and get dressed.”
She let him pull her but glanced over her shoulder to the night sky now blocked by the curtains.
Now?She’d just changed into her nightgown.
“Why? What are—”
A loudthudcame from above, shaking the room and interrupting her question.
Roa glanced to the ceiling. “What was that?”
Dax shrugged, grinning a little.
Someone jumped from the roof to the balcony, their boots echoing loudly on the terrace tiles. Roa eyed Dax warily, then started in the direction of the sound.
Pushing back the curtains, she found Safire leaning against the balustrade, her legs crossed, her hands gripping the marble edge. The commandant wore a black jacket and gloves and her dark hair was pulled back.
“Roa,” Safire looked her nightgown up and down, clearly disappointed by something. “You’re not dressed.”
A cool shadow slid over Roa. She looked up to find Kozu’s onyx head staring down at her, jaws closed tight, one slitted yellow eye fixed on both of hers. Beside the First Dragon, at the roof’s edge, crouched Asha—her hair bound in its usual braid and her face half hidden by a sandskarf. Her black eyes peered down at Roa.
“Seriously, Dax?” Asha called at the sight of Roa’s nightgown. “We gave you one task!”
“What’s going on?” Roa asked them.
“I was supposed to make sure you were dressed when they got here,” said Dax stepping out, holding clothes all folded neatly in a pile: jacket, gloves, wool leggings, boots, and one of Roa’s sandskarves. A faded yellow one. “If you put these on, we’ll tell you everything.”
Roa stuck out her chin in defiance. “Tell me everything and I’llthink aboutgetting dressed.”
Suddenly, a second serpentine face looked down over the roof, startling Roa. It was the golden dragon Dax had escaped on, the morning of the Relinquishing. Smaller and more elegant than Kozu, its scales rippled in the misty starlight.
It clicked at Roa.
Roa stepped carefully back. Right into Dax.
“Don’t be scared,” he said, his arm hooking around her waist.
“Don’t be scared?” she whispered. “Of the dragon staring at me like I’m its next meal?”
He shook his head. “She’s gentle. And I’ll be flying with you.”
Roa tensed.Flying with me?
She stepped away from the king, looking from him to Safire to Asha above.
“Thiswas your surprise?”
Dax, who was pulling his sandskarf up over his nose and mouth, stopped and tugged it down. “Don’t you want to see Lirabel get married?”
Roa’s mouth opened. Then shut.
“That,”said Safire, “was the surprise.”
“Oh,” Roa whispered. As the realization sank in, a slow smile spread across her lips. Her heart glowed within her. She looked to Dax, who was watching her with a tender expression. Flinging her arms around him, she kissed him hard on the mouth.
