Chapter Eighteen
Nienna
The dancers stomped in time. Shells tied at their ankles clattered with each movement as they chanted. But my thoughts wandered—high above the celebration, tucked in the Spire, wondering what Kallias was doing.
Mother warned me that negotiations shouldn’t begin until after the Awakening. Too much had unsettled our people. For now, all focus belonged on the festival meant to reunite us.
I sighed and dragged a quill across parchment, scribbling notes. Assigning the dancer order should have gone to someone else, but the task had landed in my lap. Freya sat at my side on a shaded bench, the image of perfect decorum.
Edith remained on rest since her return, though I had no doubt she’d found a way to stay busy. I needed her with me when I traveled back to Radaan.
When I left with Kallias.
“Thinking about him?” Freya asked.
I frowned and gave her a questioning look.
“You’re smiling. You haven’t smiled like that since you arrived.”
My lips pressed into a line. I rose as the dancers finally slowed, their chests rising and falling in unison. I passed the note to the nearest woman. “This is the order. Make sure Lina gets her gown in time.”
She wore simple cotton, cheeks blooming pink as she nodded. Her ceremonial attire—meant to match the others’ blue—had torn, and her mother was still mending it. Accidents happened. Even so, I hoped this Awakening would outshine all that came before it.
It would be Kallias’ first.
We returned to the Spire, and my thoughts drifted again. Would I get a chance to show him the island before we left? The black beach—the Nest. So much I wanted him to see now that he was here.
He’d be eager to rejoin his people. I could handle them. I had before. But Tallon… what had Kallias done with him? Had he dismissed that betrayal without consequence? A darker part of me burned to return—if only to show Tallon and Fyrn what real love looked like.
Let those monsters rot in their sick affections.
I had Kallias.
Elmo’s red tail flashed overhead, slicing through the wind. Tsunami wheeled behind him and I chuckled. She’d grown bolder with each year. Why she lingered around the island without a rider still puzzled me, but I never pretended to understand the minds of dragons.
By the time we reached the clearing, the sun had dropped low in the sky. I tilted my head back and spotted Kalepsi poised near the edge of the Nest. Her violet scales shimmered in the dying light, and a smile tugged at my lips.
What was I to her—some wingless dragonling? Yet she always watched over me. I reached inward. For a moment, I could almost feel a thread tightening between us. My imagination, surely.
Freya hurried to prepare me for dinner. She took extra care with my sea-blue dress, lace pooling over the bodice like seafoam. My hair, braided into a crown, framed the golden circlet she tucked in place. Once she gave her silent nod of approval, I slipped away to the dining hall.
Zane waited at the entrance, tilting his head with a familiar grin. “Hold, Princess,” he said, stretching out a hand.
I paused, casting a glance past him toward my father’s table. Then I looked back, wary.
“There’s a great debate among the riders. No one has the guts to ask.”
I relaxed slightly, lipspursed. “Or the stupidity?”
He chuckled. “We all want to know… does he always glow?”
My face scrunched. “Glow?”
“Like during the trial of the blood oath. Is that… normal for Radaanians?”
A laugh escaped me, short and sharp. If it had been any other rider, I might’ve brushed it off. But Zane was harmless.
“It’s his god’s blessing,” I said, pretending I understood more than I did. “He shines when Elohios grants him favor.”
