I gritted my teeth and pressed the dagger to my skin, then cut the rune into my wrist, as Seren had once done for me, ignoring the pain. Cutting the rune into her wrist, I pressed my wound to hers.
The moment our wounds touched, a jolt of white-hot pain shot through me, a pulse of energy rippling outward like a stone dropped into a lake. The air crackled, the fabric of the world shifted.
I barely registered the figures around me—Thorne, Tara, Amahle, Seth. Even the vuk at my side had gone still, but none of them mattered. Not now.
Only Seren.
Only her fading heartbeat, her cold skin against mine.
Chapter 46
Seren
The sweet scent of Paionia flowers hung in the air and I wrinkled my nose, stretching. I’d been dreaming I was flying, and I hated to tear myself from the sensation. My wings were getting stronger each day and I could fly higher each time I tried jumping from the mountainside.
With a jolt, I opened my eyes, the dream abruptly leaving me.
The unfamiliarity of the room, the luxury of my bedding, startled a cry from my lips.
I drew a deep breath and sat, squinting at the streams of light that greeted me, unhindered by a tree canopy or tent panels. Instead, the light cascaded through floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The ceiling itself shimmered like crystals in a dark cave, vaulted high above me. The sunlight reflected on the dark stone walls with an iridescent glow.
Maybe I died and went to Evermere?
My fingertips drifted over velvety fabric as my eyes adjusted. Thick green velvet draped from the four posts of the bed I occupied. A strange energy hummed beneath my skin, thrumming like a second heartbeat. My limbs felt foreign, lighter and heavier at the same time.
A creak from a few feet away alerted me to the fact that I wasn’t alone, and I turned as a woman stood from a chair. “You’re awake.”
“Where am I?” I managed.
“Be still,” the woman said with the hint of a smile, one that didn’t meet her eyes. “You’ve only just awoken. One question at a time.”
She came over to the side of the bed and sat beside me. “We’re in Cairn Hold. In Pendara.”
Pendara? I was in Lirien?
“But …” I searched my memory for those last moments before Thorne had carried me. “I died. Why am I here?”
The woman crossed her arms. “You didn’t die—obviously. The king took the Oath of Bryndis. He saved you.”
My eyes widened.
Rykr had taken the oath?
Fear snaked through me. “What about?—”
“You’re alive, my lady.” The woman took my hand in her slender fingers. She scanned my gaze. “That’s all that matters.”
I tossed the sheets to the side and stood. A desperate feeling filled me. What happened to my family? My friends? We couldn’t all have crossed the border so easily. “I’m fine. But I don’t understand what happened. Where’s my family? What?—”
The words died on my lips as I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I stepped closer to the mirror, my heart rate slowing. A dark tattoo showed on my right arm, the same shape as the one I’d cut onto my wrist when I’d taken the oath.
But my entire right arm also appeared to be covered with a unique pattern of iridescent tattoos on my skin. Beautiful and … shaped like dragon scales.
“What the hell?” I gasped.
“The dragon’s blood,” the woman said. “The poison never left your body. It was inside you when the king took the oath.”
“What does that mean?”
