Page 109 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

“Your body was under enormous stress.” Stellen’s arms are around me again, a supportive hold. Then, with a quick exhale, he asks, “Did you see the threads connecting us?”

I give him a quick nod.

He wraps his hand around my shoulder, a steadying force. “I feared they would tear out your heart.”

A heart that is suddenly thumping, a beat Stellen will be able to hear. Which he proves when his hand slides to my cheek, his thumb a soft caress beneath my earlobe.

“I kept my silences for a long time,” he murmurs, his voice melodic and soothing. “I kept my pain to myself. That pain nearly ended me. And you. And for what? I hurt you, Thyra. You could have died because of me. It’s time for the silences and the secrets to end.”

With that, he rises to his feet. “I’ll stop the fight. Then we’re going to talk. All of us.” His jaw tightens. “This serpent can’t have given his life for nothing.”

I close my eyes again and press my cheek to the serpent’s face, my palm to his scars as I whisper, “I wish I knew your name.” My throat closes over, but I manage, “Thank you for your bravery.”

As I rise to my feet, I fight the hollow in my chest, where it feels like my heart has been carved out like Stellen feared.

I take a single step forward and stumble, but not from exhaustion.

A spark flares at the corner of my vision. Golden energy. For a panicky moment, I’m afraid a blade vision is about to happen, but the spark is on my left, not along the Dragonstone Blade.

I whirl back to the serpent, only to be blasted across the ground, managing to control my ascent into the air, my levitation instincts kicking in just in time before I would have plummeted back to the ground.

My heart is leaping.

With a gusty hiss, the serpent rears his head up off the ground, his neck curving in the air.

The runes along his face spark brightly.

Like a burning rope, golden light flares along every scarred line, rushing from the serpent’s head, skipping his burned middle before continuing to his tail.

From both sides of the serpent’s wound, his undamaged scales begin multiplying, but not golden, now black. His flesh begins knitting, the wound fills out, and his new black scales close over his middle, leaving him with a large patch of charcoal scales along his left side.

He hisses, but deeply, a groaning sound that eases as he swivels his head to me, closing the gap to nudge his nose against my chest. A single touch, his eyes bright again.

I’m breathless. In awe.

I step right up to his face, pressing my cheek to his as he closes his eyes and sinks back to the rocky ground, careful to keep his horns from scraping me.

I can barely speak. “How?”

His nose nudges my nose, an action that feels like a boulder pressing to my face. Another trickle of blood reaches my lips.

My nose is bleeding.

I must have smeared blood onto his marks after wiping my nose with my hand.

Now I have even more questions than before. Does his blood bind allow him to self-heal, provided the bind is fed with blood? Would any blood suffice? Or was it mine as an Oracle?

Beneath all of those questions is the one I don’t want to ask myself.

A question that could alter my path from this moment on.

Carefully, while keeping my body pressed to the serpent, a reassuring force at my side, I turn to face the intense silence behind me.

Stellen and Nara are poised to my right.

Maxim and Antony are twenty paces away. Maxim’s posture indicates he took a step forward but stopped himself, his eyes wide, his breathing rapid, his thumping heart crashing beats in my hearing.

“Serpent.” He steps toward the beast, who slithers past me, only to stop when Maxim abruptly shakes himself and backpedals. “What am I thinking? I’ll fucking burn you again.”