Page 40 of Under Restless Skies

Shit. I fell asleep, and I don’t even know for how long. And now someone’s about to find me.

8

Click, click, click. I thank Foros for the difficult lock, rising as silently as I can, then hiding behind a pile of firewood.

As soon as I do it, the light from a lumos jar bathes the room and two sets of steps walk in.

“Oh, no!” A woman’s voice. “The fires died.”

She pokes a fireplace and then grabs wood from the other pile.

“Are you sure they’ll hatch?” a man with a deep voice asks.

“Most likely. See how they’re brilliant? They’re close.”

Close to hatching? My heart does something in my chest and I don’t know if it’s joy, relief, or some strange kind of dread.

“But last time⁠—”

His ominous tone makes me queasy.

“Was years ago,” the woman says as she’s restarting one of the fires. “We’ll be more careful now, and make sure they’re not found.”

“And once they hatch? Because that’s when⁠—”

“We’ll keep them deep within the academy, away from windows. No dragon jaws will reach them while they’re young.”

Jaws? They can’t mean that they fear the dragons would kill these hatchlings, can they? And yet they mentioned last time. A horrific shiver takes my body.

The man huffs. “I’ll trust your judgement.”

“As you should. They’ll grow, Nantos, grow and become big and stout.”

Nantos is the commander of the entire Sky Guard, so it makes sense that he should be interested in the dragons. The woman’s confident tone calms my fears, as it’s clear that she wants to protect the young dragons.

She rekindles the fires, and then they leave and close the door. Thank Foros they didn’t notice me.

When their footsteps fade completely, I dart to the fireplaces and smother the flames one by one with spare logs, plunging the room into darkness again. Only then do I slip out, lock the door behind me, and step quietly through the still dark hallway and onto the stairs.

Once outside, I keep a steady, calm pace, trying to look like a cleaning person doing her duties, even if my heart is anxious in my chest. Sunlight peers in from a sunhole, so it must be morning already.

Looking straight ahead, I cross some guards, then head to the staircase to return to the gloomy room that’s supposed to be mine.

When I open my door, I step back, startled. Alayel is sitting on my bed, his arms crossed, his eyes two flames of fury glaring at me.

“Enjoyed your night, Mayara?”

What is he even suggesting? I narrow my eyes. “What do you think I was doing?”

He springs to his feet and stands in front of me. “Tell me. Are you fucking someone? Tell me.”

How dare he? My head feels hot and my vision blurs in anger. “Is that what you do? Sleep with a different person every night? Is that what you did tonight? And what difference does it make?”

His throat bobs. “I did everything for you. Everything I could. Saved you from that prison. Saved you from a death sentence. Brought you back from that island. For what?”

I don’t owe him anything, don’t owe him any explanation, and I want to yell at him to leave me. Before I do, a small voice of sanity reminds me that he’s still a prince and crossing him is not the best idea.

My body’s trembling from head to toe, but I manage a calmer voice. “I found the eggs, Alayel. That’s where I was.”