Reave doesn’t reply.
“Maybe there’s a peaceful option we can find,” I say softly. I’m aware of how naive I sound, but I’m so desperate to go back to that feeling of normalcy, of tranquility, that I don’t care. “If we can start a dialogue, maybe there’s a chance of forming an alliance. Or preventing war, at least.”
Still no reply.
“I know the situation is tense, but what if I could help him, if?—”
“Help him?” His grip on the letter tightens.
“Sesca and I could aid him in undoing whatever Dralsk has suffered under Meira’s rule. The gods sent divine dragons for guidance, didn’t they? So maybe…”
“He doesn’t want you toguidehim, Arowyn.” He gets tohis feet so quickly his chair nearly topples over. He catches it at the last second, only to glare at it as though he’s considering picking it up and hurling it into the glass wall.
His calmness ultimately prevails, but there’s still an undercurrent of rage in his voice when he continues. “He wants to collar you, to claim you, touseyou—and it isn’t just you and your dragon he wants. It’s the control you can exert over otherdragons as well. I’ve told you before: This is how kings and queens have built armies throughout history.”
“How can you be so sure of his intentions?”
“I had…suspicions. I’ve been sending spies in his direction since the moment we identified him, trying to track him, to pin down his exact plans. And he’s caught on to that surveillance, it seems. Which is what led to this letter.” He clenches the letter in question even tighter in his fist.
The moment stretches like a fraying rope between us while I desperately try to come up with something to say, something that could fix this, or lessen its weight, or at least buy us more time.
Why could we not have more time?
“I need to get dressed,” he says, turning away. “There are already people waiting on me.”
“What if I helped your kingdom instead?” The words rush out of me. “Not his. Yours. Truly, officially helped it, and made the rest of the kingdoms acknowledge Mouren—because how could they not, if a Flamebound decreed it?”
He glances over his shoulder at me for a moment, his expression unreadable, only to walk away without answering.
But I can’t let the idea go, now that I’ve said it out loud. I still don’t care if I sound naive. And I don’t care that what I’m suggesting is so far from my original goals that it’s laughable,or that every plan I had when I first stepped foot into this kingdom is now lying in ruins all around me.
I’ve never been afraid of traversing ruined places, after all.
I can keep going; I only need a glimmer of hope, just a few pieces that I might be able to salvage and mold into something new. That’s all I’ve ever needed to get by.
I follow Reave across the room, stubbornly positioning myself between him and his wardrobe as he tries to open it, forcing him to look at me.
“On the first night I spent in your room, you told me the Flamebound traditionally sealed their service to kings and queens by way of a divine ritual. Something that marked them and officially, magically bonded them to a given kingdom.”
“Yes.” He averts his eyes. “And I’ve told you repeatedly that I didn’t intend to do that to you, because I would never force you into serving me like that.”
“But what if I…choseit? What if you and I actually stood together in this more official way? I could help you fortify this kingdom, and it could become a stable centerpiece in this empire. And maybe there really are other god-sent dragons emerging in other kingdoms, too, and we could unite into something better than before. Maybe thisisa new divine age, like some are saying. One meant to be different and greater than any before it.”
He slowly looks back to me.
“What if I chose you? If I did that, would you…” I trail off, confused and unsettled by the new expression spreading across his face. Not concern, or anger, or even the stoic mask he’s usually so good at dropping into place in vulnerable moments like this.
Despair.
It’s a deep, devastating despair that I can’t tear my eyes away from, even when it begins to cause a physical pain in my chest.
“I would have chosen you back,” he replies quietly. “Over and over again, I would have chosen you, if given the chance. I wouldstillchoose you, if that’s what you want—gods and dragons and divine laws be damned.”
“Then it’s simple, we just…”
“No. It isn’t simple. Because as far as I know, there is no ritual, divine or otherwise, that canundoa Flamebound mark once it’s been placed.”
“I don’t plan on undoing it. If I did, I wouldn’t?—”
