Page 42 of Ashen Wings

“While I don’t trust your judgement, our crossing sanction expires tomorrow evening,” he says, brushing his canines over his bottom lip. I don’t dare let my eyes linger too long. “Tenebris shift.”

Tenebris grunts a protest but lowers me to the ground before pacing away from us to a distant part of the clearing. He raises his arms and I rip my gaze away, letting the dragon shift into his leviathan form without an all too curious eye. My face blanches when I realize he was entirely nude in his human form. Of course he is, but gods be good, my stomach drops.

“Morvayne help us all, Nova,” Jace whispers, kneeling beside me. “I’m sorry if it was unpleasant, but I had to get the venom out of your system.”

Heat erupts on my cheeks.

“You did what you had to. Thank you for saving me,” I say, my voice hoarse.

“It was my honor.” He clears his throat and a smirk twitches at the corner of his lips. Fuck that mouth. I want it on me again. Life or death, wounded or healed.

Lock it up Nova…

“I…” Pain shoots up my spine, catching the words on my teeth. The fade of my fight or flight leaves the gates open for agony to flood up my body—searing my blood until stars speckle my eyes.

“Rest now. It’s a long flight to Storm and a longer trek still.”

I nod again.

Jace scoops me into his arms, cradling my exhausted body close to his chest. We cross the clearing and approach the Blightfang. His talons crunch in the dried soil as he lowers his back for us to mount. The world spins and my body aches. Maybe I’m not fine, but I’ll never breathe that admission to life, not when Tenebris eyes me like I’m a spoiled meal.

We secure the discarded saddle, now dusty with a few new scuffs, back around his scaly chest and mount.

18

Idon't remember the rest of the flight to the border, but when we land my temples aren’t throbbing and my muscles have stopped burning. Thank Astora.

"You slept for a while, how are you feeling?" Jace asks, unwinding his arms from my torso.

"Surprisingly okay seeing as I almost just died."

He chuckles and dismounts from the saddle. His boots thud on the ground, leaving an imprint in the green wild grasses. We're far enough from the lurkers that the earth blooms in varying shades of green, but the residual bite of those sludge-covered teeth still pricks my neck. Fuck, we could be hundreds of miles from the den—maybe even off the continent—and it wouldn't be far enough. Physically, I've recovered, but that void-bound evil still infests every corner of my mind.

“What the fuck are those things?" I lace my fingers through Jace's outstretched hand, and jump from Tenebris's back. The dragon huffs. "Its eyes, or lack thereof, were..."

"I know. Like I've said before, we have no idea where they've come from or what they truly want, but they're voracious and no amount of magic has been able to stop them," Jace replies. Tenebris tucks his wings close to his chest and throws his head toward Jace.

"If she's upright and able to speak, Bris, I think she'll live." Jace throws him a pointed look.

“Gods, I’m fine,” I say, but they ignore me, still fully immersed in some mental argument.

"Yes, I'm sure! Tenebris, please, stop your henning. She's alright."

"She is standing right here," My fists curl at my sides. Astora be damned if I let these two alpha males fight over my well-being. Jace's eyes dart to me, the inky swirls of midnight blazing and turbulent. "And I don't appreciate being argued over in a conversation I can only hear one side of."

Tenebris rumbles a growl that’s almost sarcastic.

"It’s nearly sundown. Let’s get going.” Jace unclasps his pack from Tenebris’s mount. “Storm’s border authority is east of the river. There’s a crossing point just up that way.”

I retrieve my own pack, expecting my body to shudder under the weight, but somehow it holds strong.

“We’ll send word once we’ve located Lightbrood. Make sure Roe doesn’t kill anyone and Isra keeps from breaking anymore of my dinnerware,” he says to Tenebris. My brow wrinkles. His faction sounds like it’s in…great hands. Gods help us, the two don’t start another war while Jace is away.

The Blightfang snorts and stretches his wings. With a quick pat on his front leg followed by a stern look from Jace, Tenebris launches into the skies.

“Let’s go,” Jace says, spearheading our trail. My steps fall in line. One final glance above, and Tenebris ascends through the cloud cover, disappearing into the day’s dying light.

We walk for an hour or two before stopping to rest, passing overgrown hovels and silent, distant mountain peaks. Terrafyre looms to the west, marked on the dark horizon by a smudge of amber and soot.