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He huffed. ‘Bitch, please…’
“Okay, now will you open it?”
His head shook again.
Damn it! Okay, asking nicely didn’t work. Stroking his ego didn’t work. I only had one more thing to try.
“You know, Saithar is behind us. And I bet he and Lachlan are mocking us because you won’t even try to breathe fire at this thing. Maybe we should ask him if he can do it.”
For a split moment, I thought the mountain was shaking, until I realize Tharion’s chest was rumbling with the rage my words had caused.
Holy hell.
“Stop it. I take it back. I didn’t mean it. Abort. Abort!”
“What in the gods’ name is happening up there?!” Kingston bellowed, seeming as pissed off as my Dragon was. The other Dragons became restless, stomping like they wanted to back away.
My freaking Dragon was going to bring the entire mountain down, alert Raithian to our presence, and still, he refused to melt the damn passage open.
Thankfully, Tharion’s rumble receded until he was breathing hard, embers floating out of his nostrils.
“I’m sorry for speaking out of turn, Princess Evanna…”
Lachlan’s voice echoed in the tunnel, and he hadn’t really said anything yet, but I already wanted to punch his fucking teeth out of his mouth. I knew what would come out of it.
“But we don’t have any time to waste,” he continued. “If Braxton is unable to keep his word, that means we came here for nothing. It will take time we don’t have to find another way in, and my cousin risked everything for nothing. Perhaps we shouldn’t have trusted someone who has never been a sky rider before. Clearly, he doesn’t have the connection needed with his Dragon.”
His words pissed me off to no end, but he was right. If I couldn’t do this after they based their entire plan on my word, after they had trusted me, then I had not only failed Evie and the warriors, I had failed the people we would have rescued too.
“Princess? I only mean—”
“Your concern has been noted, Lachlan.” she answered tersely. “Braxton…” Her voice took on a tone I hadn’t heard from her before, not when it had to do with me. I had to remind myself that she wasn’t just the woman I loved. She was the Skyborne Princess, and right now, I was failing her spectacularly.
“Yes, Princess.”
“The window we have for this to work is closing swiftly. All the pieces of this plan need to come together without issue, and the longer we stay in this cave, the less time we have to rescue our people. Every second we spend trapped in here, is a person we’ll have to leave behind. Now, we didn’t come here to fail, can I trust you to open this passage for us?”
My chest constricted with her words and I dropped my head. “I will try my best, Princess. I swear.”
“Thank you, that is all I ask.”
“Every second we spend trapped in here, is a person we’ll have to leave behind…”Her words burned through me but I didn’t know what else I could do to make Tharion understand this was as important as it was ever going to get. My heart tore with the thought of those people—my heart…
The words I read in my father’s journal suddenly returned, and their meaning finally dawned on me. A plea from the heart.
Leaning forwards, I lay on Tharion’s neck and closed my eyes. I had no idea what it meant to be a slave, but I conjured the images I could in my mind, knowing he would be able to read my thoughts and somehow see them. I let the hurt I felt when I learned of our people’s history capture my being. The pain Kinston’s story had caused, flourished until it was hard to breathe. My father’s story, and what all of them had endured.
“They are suffering, Tharion. They have been trapped in a different kind of darkness for most of their lives, and we are the only ones who can help them finally reach the light. We are the only ones who can help Evie and her warriors rescue them. Please, help me like you once helped my father.”
I let the foggy memory of my dad’s face fill my mind, and the pain in my chest doubled, followed by an overwhelming wave of duty and purpose.
Before I realized what was happening, Fire Fury reared back, rising to his full height inside of the cave, and a new image suddenly crashed into my mind. I saw myself on top of him while his entire body ignited, and as his jaws opened, the raging fire exploded. The stream collided with the rock blockage, swirling backwards from the force, and engulfing us both. The overwhelming heat from his breath made the entire cave glow red.
“Fuck!” I blurted, shaken by the sight. Had he just sent an actual, vivid thought into my mind? There was no time to figure out the answer, because his entire body began to ignite like it had in the vision. The fire lava rushed under the scales along his spine and chest, on its way to up his throat.
“Move back. Move back!” I frantically shouted, feeling the other Dragons swiftly fly away from us. Fire Fury’s jaws opened the next second, and the deathly stream erupted from his mouth. His wings shut harshly over me, pushing me against his back just as the fire hit the rocks and curled back, engulfing us fully.
“Braxton!” Evie’s desperate call filtered through my ears but I couldn’t answer.
