“He doesn’t know!” I slammed my palm against the bars. “No one will listen!”
“Our reputations are destroyed.” He exhaled a sharp breath, bracing himself against the wall. “They trusted us, and I shattered that. I deserve their fury.”
Droplets flung from my lashes as I shook my head. “I left tosaveyou—and you threw that away.”
“To save me, or Radaan? I gave my life to that kingdom. Never once took something for myself.” He stepped forward, hand reaching through the bars. “I’m a monster. Selfish. I’ve tasted joy—held it in my hands—and Icraveit. Nienna, I need you. I love you.”
His fingers curled around the nape of my neck, tugging me close.
“You can’t,” I whispered. Not now. Not after everything.
His grip tightened as he tipped my chin, gaze unwavering. “You don’t get to tell me who I love, Nienna. You don’t get to tell me who to pursue.”
The confession echoed mine from what felt like an eternity ago.
No, the heart loved who it loved. Sometimes it chose the wrong person, and sometimes it found the other half—but at the wrong time.
“I came for you.”
“This will destroy me.” My voice cracked. Tears spilled over his hand. “When you draw blades, which death do I celebrate? If you strike him down, Argos will rain fire—you’ll be lost to me either way.”
“Such faith in your dragons,” he said, mouth lifting in a crooked smile. “Yet none for my gods.”
“I’ve never seen them.”
I tried to lower my gaze, but he caught my chin with his thumb, lifting me back to him.
“They brought me to you after the mammoth. You bartered with Veridis. I’m breathing because you refused to let go. Exercise your faith, Nienna.”
I closed my eyes. Pain tore through me like splitting bark. He wouldn’t run. Even if I opened the cell and led him to the sea, he’d stay. Too stubborn. Too righteous.
His lips brushed mine again, light as breath against the iron. I slid my hands through the bars, fists closing around the front of his coat. I pulled him closer. He grunted, and I traced my fingers up the back of his neck, deepening the kiss.
I poured everything into it—ache, hunger, the fear I’d never feel him again. With every ounce of my racing heart, I offered him my pain, my fury, my love. I begged without words.
He gave me the lead. Allowed me totake,to be the aggressor. He always did, bearing every burden life dealt him.
And I hated it.
I broke away, breath ragged, searching his eyes. “I need you to fight for me.”
“That’s why I’m here,” he murmured.
“You can’t let him win.”
His jaw clenched. He winced, then nodded, slow and certain. He had seen it too. My father’s blade. My love in its path. I didn’t want to lose either of them—but I couldn’t sit back and watch Kallias die.
“I will fight for you,” he said, “my Dragon’s Heart.”
Chapter Twelve
Nienna
Ireturned to my rooms and barely dressed before dragging Freya to the library. There had to be an answer buried in these pages. Somewhere, a way to sever a Draconis Blood Oath without death.
The sun sank below the sea, casting the room in shifting shadows. Freya read beside me, page after page scoured in silence. Now that I understood the magic binding the oath, scattered clues began to align: fits of blind rage, erratic outbursts of power. It all fit. And still, we had nothing.
Kalepsi’s cries filled the night, needling my frayed mind. Whatever she wanted, it could wait.
