By the time the sun began to dip, I felt lighter than I had in weeks, but peace never lasted long in Fogoya. The sky burned in shades of orange and red. High above the clouds, the light reminded me of kindred flames locked in an eternal chase.
We landed near the courtyard gate, our usual route. I said goodbye before heading into the castle.
That was when River arrived. But not as I began to know him.
Blood coated his black armour as he marched in, radiating danger. His sword lay at his back, slick with gore and life essences of those it had ended. Head high, eyes hard, he looked like death incarnate.
Then he saw me. The viciousness in his gaze flickered, replaced by something uncertain.
‘Did you come back from battle?’ I asked, fidgeting where I stood.
‘Yes.’ His voice was low and heavy, rough as though it had been scraped raw by shouting.
I didn't want him angry. I'd begun to cherish his light-hearted side, but I still feared the viciousness he kept buried deep within.
His darkened eyes lingered on me for too long, travelling from my gaze down the length of my body as though assessing my reaction. The weight of his scrutiny made me fold my arms across my chest, as if to shield myself. ‘Do you join them often?’
‘Not as often as I used to,’ he said, absently resting his thumb on the belt that held his blades. ‘I once commanded my own battalion.’
I nodded. ‘What changed?’
A drop of grime slipped from his sword onto the floor, and he watched it with sick fascination that broke me out in shivers. ‘I’d rather focus on training now. But I’ll join again soon.’
My eyes drifted to the rest of the blood spattered across his chest. Not his. He caught me looking and, with an unnerving calm, asked, ‘How does it make you feel?’
This was a side of him I hadn’t seen before—the soldier, the commander. ‘The fact that you kill, or that you kill Ortensians?’
‘Either,’ he said, a wicked chuckle rumbling low in his chest.
‘I knew who you were when I agreed to train you.’
My choice of words curved his mouth into something sharp. ‘The Elders forced you to train me. Would you have agreed without the treaty?’
There was no point in lying. ‘No.’
‘My point exactly.’ Inching closer to close the distance between us, I could smell the coppery tang of blood and steel that clung to him. ‘You and I… We’re alike, though it doesn’t look that way.’
I ignored the bait and asked the question that had haunted me for days. One I was afraid to ask. ‘Would you have killed me when we met if I weren’t bonded to a dragon?’
He reeled back slightly. ‘Do you really want to know?’
I nodded.
His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, as if on instinct. ‘I planned to kill you anyway. I only wanted to learn to conjure first.’
My shoulders slumped beneath the weight of his honesty. Deep down, I’d always known he hated me, hated what I was. But when I nearly died, he promised I was safe. Now I needed to know if that promise still stood.
‘Do you still?’ I needed to know. ‘Do you still want me dead?’
He used his gloved fingers to rub his temple. ‘My feelings toward you are too complex for a yes or no answer.’
‘I never cared about dying,’ I said quietly, searching for a trace of understanding in his eyes. ‘My life was just existing.My mother made sure of that. But I’m starting to hope things could change. So if you ever feel the urge to kill me, just let me go. I’ll disappear. You’ll never see me again. I wouldn’t go back to Ortensia anyway; they hate me there too.’
River sighed, something in him shifting. ‘I couldn’t kill you any more than I can let you go, witch. You’re not going anywhere anytime soon.’
The King
The armour weighed on me like it never had before. I rushed upstairs to my wardrobe, tore it off and hurled the breastplate at the wall. Droplets scattered, witch blood splattering across my clothes and most of the room.
