There’s a moment of silence as he finishes the knot. Roiven drops his arm back down slowly.
“Betraying your own people. Acting like you’re one ofthem. You seem to still have some shred of decency left.”
I stare at him.
“I wondered, when we first fought. I suspected, when I realizedyou’d survived. But just now, I felt it. A pulse of magic, from you, in the water,” Roiven says. The glow of his orange eyes seems to brighten. A chill runs down my back and my eyes shift towards the utterly dark sea.Shh, shh,the waves say as they swell up against the rocks.
My spine crawls. The pounding in my head starts up, a low, distant warning of pain.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’re alone. There’s nobody here but us,” Roiven says. I don’t answer, and he shakes his head. “You have a familiar. You're a witch.”
The pounding in my head gets louder.
“I amnot.”
“You can’t be doing this of your own will.”
“I’m a knight.” I grind the words out.
Roiven shakes his head.
“Fine. Go on killing your own kind and pretending it will save you from the same fate, as if they haven’t already decided you’re expendable. It’s not like anything you could say would redeem you to me.”
With every word he says I bristle. Harfor should have let me kill him. He’s a waste of air.
“I don’t need your redemption.”
“No,” he says quietly. “You’re perfectly happy to help them ruin the world. Whatever they did to make you into a monster… you’re lucky Savasaeirn is kinder than I am. If it were up to me, you’d be dead, no matter what it cost me. No matter whether you were just Enchanted. No matter that you’re one of us.”
“I’m nothing like you.” I don’t let myself dwell on his words.
“That’s obvious,” he says, with disgust in his voice. “Savasaeirn suggests you sleep. Do what you want. I don’t give a fuck.”
Roiven turns away from me and starts walking toward Sava. I grip my hands into fists, my breathing labored. I should make him sleep beside me so the dragon has a harder time killing me in the night, but I don’t want anything to do with the witch.
“No more talking in your head. You have something to say to her, say it out loud.”
“Fine,” he says, as if he has any choice in the matter. He doesn’t pause or look back at me.
“And no leaving here without me,” I call after him. Roiven doesn’t bother answering that one.
I know Sava could just pick him up and fly off, but at least he can’t go willingly.
There must be some way I can manipulate my command over the witch to get off the island. But it’s cold and dark. By the moonlight I can’t make out anything but the black rocks, the violent sea, and the great scaled side of the dragon. In the darkness Roiven’s shape blends into Sava's until I can’t see him at all.
I take my wet boots off, find a stretch of dry rock, and pray it’s above the tide if the seas rise. Despite everything, sleep comes quickly. My body is exhausted.
When I finally wake, it’s to the low sound of Roiven’s voice.
13
The sky looks gray, not black. Dawn’s already here. My body aches and my neck is stiff. But my clothes are dry to the touch and even though I should be cold, I’m not.
“You have to,” Roiven snaps. His voice is faint, hard to hear. He’s talking to the dragon. And he can’t do it in his head anymore, because of the command I gave him.
There’s a pause. Sava must be speaking. Slowly, silently, I push myself up and tilt my better ear, the one that didn’t burn, toward him.
