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He’s sweet to be so worried. “Rook, I’m a dragon.”
“You aren’t invincible. I can’t…I can’t lose you.”
My heart aches at his sincerity. “I’m your mate. I want to protect you and make you happy. Let me help you save your sister.”
He lets out a shuddering breath. “If I say no, will you fly to the Forgotten Tower in the middle of the night by yourself?”
“Maybe,” I admit.
He sighs. “Will I be able to stop you?”
“No.”
“Then we do this together.”
* * *
We lingerin Hexfall until moonrise.
It will be easier to free Lark under cover of darkness. After Rook buckles his armor, I shift into a dragon, and he climbs on my back.
Together, we fly to the Forgotten Tower. Fog cloaks the crescent-shaped bay and obscures the city of Netherhaven. The tower stabs the white expanse like a thorn. At the top, archers with crossbows guard the battlements.
One of them shouts and lifts his crossbow.
I ignite the archers. Screaming, they plunge from the tower and fall into the Silver Sea. Flames sizzle as they hit the water. Folding my wings, I dive under the fog.
The bottom of the tower hunches on a barren island. I land on the rocks and let Rook jump to the ground. His sword flashes in the gloom.
The door to the Forgotten Tower is ugly. Brutal. It’s forged from iron and twisted into the shape of a grotesque mouth with rings of teeth. Like a lamprey’s maw. Worse, it’s gilded with aellurium runes. They spell the words of an enchantment that I can’t read.
“Aellurium,” I mutter. “Of fucking course.”
Rook points with his sword. “Melt the lock.”
The lock sits in the center of the door, at the throat of the mouth. Pure aellurium, it shimmers, iridescent with magic. Dragonfire rushes from my jaws. The iron glows red, though the aellurium runes take longer to heat.
A hail of crossbow bolts rains down from above. Most splinter on the rocks, but a few tear my wings with ragged pops of pain.
Rook shields his eyes from the bright inferno. “Don’t stop.”
The aellurium runes melt like golden blood, dripping down the iron of the door. When the magic breaks, it shatters with a chime like broken glass, and the flames turn iridescent, just for an instant. I stop breathing fire, my lungs aching.
“Fuck.” Rook halts outside the door, his hand lingering just above the glowing red iron. “Too hot to touch.”
“Let me try.”
Dragons have a higher resistance to heat. With my talons, I wrench the handle until the door groans open.
“Go,” Rook says. “Take out the other guards.”
“Don’t die.”
With a grim nod, he rushes into the Forgotten Tower, the worst dungeon in the kingdom.
Dread weighs me down. I launch myself from the island and fly higher.Another hail of crossbow bolts whistles through the air. I fold my wings and dodge most of them, though one of them sinks between the scales on my flank.
I roar. Too enraged to hurt, I fly above the tower and unleash fire onto the archers. Some duck behind the battlements but others burn.
