“No.” I close my eyes. “I’d rather not talk about this one.”
“Back to sleep, then, knight?”
“In a minute,” I whisper.
The wind is fresh and crisp on my sweaty face. I untangle the bedroll and sit upright, waiting for my heart to calm down.
“Do you want to go flying?” he asks. I blink into the darkness.
“What? Now?”
“I used to find it helpful. To clear the mind, on a bad night. She’s willing, if we don’t mind her fishing.”
Could I have been as kind as him, if the situations were reversed? If Roiven had spent a lifetime working for the Empire to destroy my people, and my home. But he isn’t acting like I’m an enemy anymore.
I want to be worthy of that trust. If I can’t undo the past, I at least want to make a better future.
I flex my metal arm, then nod, then realize he probably can’t see me.
“Alright,” I whisper.
A crackling tangle of lightning appears in Roiven’s right hand, illuminating him and the rocks around us in a flickering burst of golden light. He offers me his left hand. When I take it the lines of our bondmark touch, and I feel him more strongly. The nervous, wakeful energy in Roiven’s body makes my heart pound harder. He hauls me effortlessly up off the ground.
The ball of lightning leaves his hand as we approach Sava, to float between us as we climb. I blink away sleep and ascend, hand over hand, fingers straining as they grip the dragon’s scales.
We settle back between the spikes. I wait for Roiven to point out we don’t need to. But he stays silent, and so do I. I lean against him and feel the rise and fall of his chest. The ball of lightning vanishes, and we go dark.
“Hold on tight,” he says. Sava launches up. For the first time I’m really ready for it. My legs, though exhausted, fall into place and grip the dragon’s scales. Flying all day made my inner thighs raw, but Roiven was right, Idoheal fast. I just spent my life passing it off as being tough, as the other squires, and then knights, admired how quickly I got back to the training ring after a bad hit.
She angles down, a slow dive. We circle towards the water, closer and closer until the air stings with droplets of seaspray. Roiven’s arms wrap around me, and I’m weightless. Sava tilts, dipping a wing. The water sprays, slashed by the outer finger of her wing.
All of a sudden my heart starts lurching and I break into a cold sweat.
“Up,” I say. “I need to be higher. This—I can’t—we’re too close—” my whole body trembles. Roiven’s arms are still around me. They tighten, one arm around my stomach and another over my shoulders.
I know he probably isn’t going to dunk me in the ocean just for the fun of it, but if he decided to, I’d be helpless. My sword’s back in the bedroll.
He has all his magic. I have none.
“It’s alright,” he says, as Sava rises immediately higher and levels out.
“The water.”
“I figured.” He loosens his grip on me. The arm around my shoulder drops. The one around my waist stays in place, and I don’t ask him to move it.
I calm down slowly. I can tell we’re high above the water now, but the night is so dark I feel like I must still be dreaming. If this isn’t real, at least it’s not a nightmare.
“I wish we could see the stars,” I murmur. Roiven chuckles into my ear. Before I can ask what’s funny aboutthat, the clouds shred apart above us, like they’ve been torn away just for me. Well, I guess they have.
Storm magic. The night feels no more real than it did before. We aren't trying to get anywhere. We're just flying. Like this. The Witch King and I.
“You told me you had nightmares after we fought,” I say.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?” His voice is even, but hefeelsamused. “Is watching a burning woman fall into the sea meant to be a pleasant experience?”
