“Nice to see you made yourself useful, knight,” Avreen shouts, and the dragon tilts up, circling higher.
“You’re alive,” I breathe. Tears well in my eyes.
“Fuck, they broke your nose?” Roiven asks. He grabs the sides of my face and tilts it up towards him, inspecting the wound.
“At least I didn’t get skewered.”
Roiven looks down without letting go, studying the rest of me. His eyes darken when he sees the wound on my stomach.
“Are they already dead?” he growls.
“Yes. And you’re one to talk.Younearly died.” My voice only shakes a little.
“Still.”
“Worried I’ll heal uglier?”
“No. Just worried I’ll hurt you when I do this.”
He tilts my chin up and presses his lips to mine, more carefully than I think he ever has, making sure he doesn’t bump into my broken nose.
I kiss him back, and hold onto his shoulders when he pulls his lips from mine.
“I’m sorry, Roiven. They got away. We tried to chase them, but…”
He shakes his head.
“They lost nearly a dozen ships today. We lost a dragon, but I don’t think they’ll be back soon.” He isn’t as flippant as he sounds, about the death of the green and Imili. And another member of the coven rode double with her, which means one of the baby dragons will need to bond someone new.
Hafgúa’s head rises from the ocean beside us, inspecting Roiven with one dark, inky eye. Roiven’s lips part as he stares in awe at my familiar. And then the Witch King bows low, teeth gritted in pain from his wound.
“It is an honor, ancient one.”
“He said—” I start to translate.
I know,Hafgúa tells me.Very polite. You may keep him. Are we going to stand here all day? I would like to hunt soon, if there are no ships to catch.
The mention of it reminds me that even if the Hellions escaped, our work is far from done.
“We set some of the ships aside, Roiven. There were Enchanted…”
“Four Hellions,” he tells me. “Nor and Torain’s dragons towed the ships to a bigger isle. They’re bringing them out already.”
“I need to help.”
“Do you want to fly back with us?”
I glance at Hafgúa, not wanting to delay him. The kraken is amused.
As if I would let my bonded fly when she could swim, much more sensibly.
“I’ll meet you there,” I tell Roiven, and rise to my tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.
47
“Nowkick your legs,” Roiven says. His hands press gently on the bare skin of my hips as he supports me in the water. The witch stands so close behind me I keep bumping up against him. We’ve both stripped down to our undergarments to swim more easily.
We’re just outside the Tower, not in the gentle cove but in the sea itself on the mountain’s other side. I kick down and out, then draw my legs back in toward my body, then do it again. I stay vertical, but it’s hard to know if that’s all me, or if it’s Roiven’s hands supporting me.
