“Against my will?”
“If need be.”
“And if I try to leave?”
“The guards will carry you back.”
Finally, I’ve struck the bedrock within her, and all softness vanishes from her face.
“We are not yet wed,” she says, her voice resonating throughout the room. “I am not subject to your rule.”
I keep my face carefully neutral as I regard her. Very soon, she will sit on my throne, and she will make a fearsome queen. Yes, a fearsome and beloved queen indeed.
If you can keep her, my first form hisses.
I harden myself to what must be done.
“You will do anything I ask,” I say, “if you don’t want Vasna to burn.”
Her shock is immediate. I wanted her to fear, and yet watching it seep over her fine features drives a stake through my lungs. I ignore this and address my sister. “You are to remain with Princess Serah for the time being.”
“All right,” she says brightly.
My princess still sits in stunned silence. I turn from her and start for the door.
“Soren, wait!”
My step hitches, but I keep walking, my ears aching with the sound of my name from her lips.
I let my guard down, and she paid the price.
If I am to keep her, this is how it must be.
***
When I arrive in the eastern gardens, my chief gardener and majordomo are already there overseeing the cleanup. A troop of servants files in and out of the gouges left by my claws to heft rubble over the sides. Another group seemsto be sorting through mounds of dirt for any salvageable plants from what was Tirenth’s most illustrious garden.
It couldn’t be helped.
I saw her in the second after she fell, her body limp and her gleaming hair splayed out around her. Fear and I have been strangers since I was a fledgling, but I knew it again then, knew its cold, merciless grip. That is, until I saw that wyrm Lyken, his coat split at the back, his wing already withdrawn, and a blood-tinged arrow lying in the dirt at his feet. The story told itself.
What it didn’t tell was who was responsible, and when a flicker of movement on an upper balcony revealed the answer, my first form rose up.
For once, I let the beast loose.
I shield my eyes from the rising sun and gaze up at what’s left of the exterior wall. I tore out the rooms beyond, and still the archer escaped. My lips peel back from my teeth at the thought.
Nearly as repulsive as that is being indebted to Lyken. He’s always grated on me like sand caught in a boot. Am I grateful he shielded her? Yes. Few dragons—very few—could wield their wings as he did without fully giving into their first form.
But it never should have happened. Not only that, but he used such force that hebruisedher. Word also has it that the overseer of the western province has an eye on my sister, something I cannot tolerate.
Some of the servants spot me, prompting Oiken and Isaak to glance my way. They both bow, but my chief gardener’s eyes slide to the space behind me before returning to the wreckage. I sense Ty’s presence right after.
“News?” I say as he moves in beside me.
His head tilts in an almost imperceptible nod, and I lead him to a shadowed alcove. Signspeak isn’t so rare that I want this conversation seen.
Now hidden, Ty looses a burst of signs.The poison was Sileshian.
