Page 47 of Ashborne: Defiance

“She loves him,” she whispered. “What must it be like to just find your person, and know they love you? No questions. No doubts. Just love. To no longer be alone?”

She sighed softly, then blinked and looked up at me.

I swallowed and whirled to leave, unsettled by the question and unwilling to examine it. “You don’t leave this spot unless the dragons tell you to do so. Kham will know when I’m returning. Until then, you stay quiet and use those skills to hide yourself if anyone comes near.”

I already had my back to her, walking slowly but firmly away because I couldn’t bear to look into those bright, blue eyes anymore.

“Will you come back alone?” she called after me nervously.

“Most likely. Unless my brother is already prepared to leave, and comes with me.”

“Your brother?”

She’d raised her voice. I scowled and turned back, gesturing for her to be quiet.

“I have an ally remaining in the castle. Hopefully by now, he has some answers about the disappearance of my friends. But regardless, the dragons will hear us coming and tell you when I’m returning, alone or not. You have nothing to worry about unless they tell you otherwise.”

She nodded slowly. “I understand. Thank you.”

Then she looked to where the dragons had disappeared. I felt that pang of sweet grief again. Shit.

“Stay quiet and out of sight. I’ll return as quickly as I can,” I muttered, then stalked off, praying she wouldn’t ask any more questions.

I needed to move, and be out from under her eyes.

I needed to be alone so I could fucking breathe.

17. A New Wrinkle

~ VOSKI ~

I slipped into the Fyrehold castle via a little-used servants’ entrance on the northern side. It opposed the main steps and was too far from the kitchen for regular use.

My heart thrummed in my chest, and pain sang through my ribs.

I was only miles from Grace and the dragons, but I’d fought my body the entire trip, as if muscle and bone separated under my skin, pulling free in an attempt to return to her.

I deny it! I reject it! I will not be bound!

There was only a whisper of Kham’s disapproval in the bond—he could reach other dragons at great distance, but while our range was a mile wider than most dragon-human pairs, we were beyond our limit now. I gritted my teeth as I slipped into one of the dark, narrow, servants’ stairways to climb to the second level, following my instincts, and the giggles of two maids, one of whom had had an eye for Gil since we’d arrived.

But when I reached an empty corridor and gripped a corner to lean slowly around it, I realized my hands were trembling, and cursed under my breath.

The pain in my chest was unsettling on its own, but it added to a barrage of questions in my head that I hadn’t battled for years.

If Grace could sneak up on me, had my senses failed me? Was it perhaps not that she was so skilled, but that I had somehow—by denying the bond—removed God’s favor? Did my gifts now abandon me?

I couldn’t remember a room I’d entered without cataloguing every corner and movement in a breath. Couldn’t fathom what it must feel like to my brothers to stand in a doorway and be at ease.

The only time in my life I could describe my senses as quiet, was flying with Kham on a clear day—miles from any other living creature. Where none could approach without being visible for long minutes before they reached us.

That was why Grace’s appearance unsettled me. While I hadn’t hidden my passage, I’d scanned my surrounds at every moment and never sensed so much as a hint of human attention. Yet, she’d had eyes on me for hours?

A bolt of genuine fear shot through my chest, right alongside the painful pang of my heart because I’d left the dragons—and Grace.

But in the same moment, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my senses sounded the alarm.

I sank into the shadows between candles in the narrow, dark hallway, and smiled.