Page 74 of Sapphire Seas

“He talked about needing the matching set, that it wouldn’t be right to separate them, like anything he’d done was right. Goddess, his words were so fucking creepy. I’ve never been able to get them out of my head. He was touching your eye socket, stroking it, like, like….”

Another deep breath, his body shuddering when he exhaled.

“He was fascinated by it. He slid his fingertip into the socket, then leaned over you and kissed the hole he’d made, licking the blood away like some deranged fucking vampire or something. He said he was going to have a great deal of fun with them once they healed. That’s um, when your other eye opened, only it was white, like ice.”

“I don’t remember waking up again until the forest,” I admitted.

Lips pressed in a grim line, he nodded. “Jagged spikes of ice erupted out of you. Well, it was more like you became an icy porcupine. He kept away from you, gushing blood like a macabre sprinkler. It was everywhere. His fury was like a hurricane. One of his henchmen tried to apply pressure to the wound in the side of his neck and he turned his fury upon him and ripped him apart. I was terrified that he was going to kill you, but he just snarled and said you could protest all you wanted, you would belong to him. He said other things too, in a language I didn’t recognize until we came here.”

“Draconian.”

“Yeah.”

“But we escaped. If he was so determined, how did I wake up in the forest? How were you and Canyon able to get me away from him?”

“We didn’t.”

“I woke up in the forest with you and Canyon with the village two mountain ranges away. Which still shocks the hell out of me because we left Ronan behind."

“We didn’t have a choice. Canyon was hurt too badly and with the leeches all over me I was next to useless. Daigle ordered his men to kill Canyon to teach you a lesson about what would happen to everyone you cared about if you didn’t quit resisting. Your dragon did not take that well.”

I waited for him to add something more, but he went tight lipped again.

“You’re still leaving something out,” I said. “You might as well tell me all of it since you’ve come this far. You keep saying the leeches weakened your abilities too much for you to be effective, but if that were true, we’d still be in the village.”

“It was you.”

Screech.

Blink. Blink.

“Huh?”

“Kes, you were the one who got us out of there, not me. Your dragon was still in his ice form, he carried us out, killing two more henchmen in the process, one with the ice spikes covering your tail and one with another ice spike, straight through his skull. You almost got Daigle too. He started speaking in Draconian again. I could feel your strength wavering but somehow, you kept flying, even after you clipped one of the peaks and spun out of control. Somehow you leveled out and kept flapping until you couldn’t stay in the air any longer. You crushed several trees on the way down, dirt flying everywhere when you finally hit the ground. You were out cold, your dragon retreated, but we were safe and had the chance to heal.”

“All this time…” I shook my head, the weight of what he’d said crashing over me like a rogue wave. “Why did you let me think that it was your choice to leave Ronan behind?”

Upalo cocked his head, tears shimmering in his eyes as he locked gazes with me. With sudden clarity, I knew. It was because of the connection I’d had with Ronan. He’d hidden behind me as often as he’d run to his brother when he was frightened. The way he’d curl up by my side, stroke and braid my hair, using it as a touchstone whenever anything worried or terrified him, had been a comfort to me too. I’d loved him the same as if he’d been my sibling, and he’d trusted me with his life.

“After what Daigle did to you, I couldn’t let you bear the guilt of abandoning Ronan on top of everything else. If I’d been stronger, I could have done more to help you, but I wasn’t. I failed all of you that day. The very least I could do was carry that burden.”

“So I never had to,” I said, throat tight as I yanked him into a hug.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, stroking his hair as we sobbed together.

So much more than my eye was taken from us that day. Having everything out in the open now made it easier to breathe. I understood why he hadn’t wanted to share the full horror of that day and loved him more for trying to protect me from it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize that you saw yourself as somehow weak or unworthy because of what you went through, I swear I would have told you the whole story sooner if I had.”

“I know now, We don’t ever have to talk about it again.”

He hugged me tighter, the surf lapping around our feet as we clung until the sudden sound of Mattias’ voice startled me.

Mate! Come to the nest immediately! We have cracks appearing in the eggs.

“Oh shit!” I blurted out loud, while mentally replying that I was on my way.

“What is it?” Upalo asked. “What’s going on?”