A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

I ’m immediately on my guard.

The dragons soar through the air above us, heading out across the ocean before circling back and landing in what looks like a well-practiced cascade.

None of them has a human rider, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad sign.

I make out Torva Viridia’s form among them. She is the forest dragon who flew us to the mountain. She and I didn’t exactly part on good terms—I threatened to give Milena’s body to the fae, at which she snatched up the body and flew away—but I hope Torva has realized that’s what I wanted her to do.

Graviter lands first, his golden scales catching the moonlight. Torva Viridia is right behind him. Then Vargo Vanem. Followed by seven other dragons whose names I don’t know, each one settling down on the grass. Even in this vast clearing, they take up a lot of the space.

Graviter takes cautious steps toward me before stopping a solid twenty paces away.

Without thinking, I’ve gripped my hammer more tightly, and my power spills more brightly around me. Erik hasn’t reached for his sword, but the tips of his claws are visible where he stands to my right.

Galeia is currently hidden in the forest with Cailey. The dragons don’t give any indication that they can see or sense her, but I’m prepared to defend her with my life if she emerges and they react badly to her presence.

Graviter can’t miss our defensiveness, but he remains subdued.

“Asha Silverspun.” He greets me formally, dipping his head in what appears to be a bow. “I have come to make amends. If you will let me.”

I consider each of the dragons carefully. Graviter is their king. For him to come to me like this…

“How?” I ask him.

How does he intend to make amends?

“You need to make a medallion,” he replies. “But your medallion must be forged from metal that is given, not taken. We are here to give you what is needed.”

With that, he lifts his right paw and extends a single talon.

It only makes me tense. Erik gives a warning growl beside me, his claws extending fully, but Graviter continues slowly.

He presses his extended talon to the scales that rest across the top of his other paw, leveraging the talon beneath one of his scales.

He grimaces but doesn’t make a sound as he pulls a single scale off the top of his paw.

It’s one of his smallest scales, but it’s still the size of my palm.

“For when you need fury,” he says.

I consider him warily, but before I can question him, Torva Viridia steps up. She is small compared to Graviter, her scales alternating green and blue. While Graviter is a picture of fire and fury, she radiates only with intense calm.

One of her talons extends and within seconds, she too leverages a scale off the top of her paw, this one emerald.

“For peace,” she says.

Vargo Vanem is already attacking his own paw, quickly succeeding in removing a single, crimson-red scale. “For wisdom.”

Each of the dragons in the background scratches at their left paw, leveraging up a scale and speaking, one by one.

Patience. Justice. Honor. Compassion. Discipline. Inspiration.

And finally…

“Water,” the last dragon declares. She has a distinctly feminine voice and her cerulean-blue scales catch the moonlight even more brightly than Graviter’s.

When the other dragons turn to stare at her, their eyebrows raised, she stares right back at them. “What? All that discipline and justice. She’s going to get thirsty.”

She winks at me across the distance. “I’m Lily Verago. Water dragon. If there’s a fire, I’m the one you need.”

When Graviter continues to glare at her, she rolls her eyes. “Okay, fine. Resilience .” She smiles. “Like water that keeps on flowing.”

Nearer to me, Torva gives a nod of approval, a smile flickering around her mouth, and it’s clear to me that she and Lily are friends.

Then Torva takes a deep breath, blowing gently across the air.

The loose scales lift up off the dragons’ paws, caught in the stream of her breath, and waft like flower petals toward me.

Before they would reach me, they veer to my left, cascading down onto the surface of the rock that sits at the edge of the cliff.

I don’t know how to point out the flaw of their gifts without sounding ungrateful. “They aren’t metal,” I whisper.

“You don’t need metal,” Graviter calmly replies, as if he’d been prepared for my question. “It is the basic tenet of your power that you can mold anything . It’s time to test how far your power can go.”

“What of the fire I need?” Then my forehead creases. “Do I even need fire?”

“I don’t know,” Graviter replies. “Do you?”

I study the ten scales of different colors neatly piled on the top of the rock. Then I consider my hammer.

I close my eyes and imagine forging a medallion for the first time.

Within my mind, I can hear myself instructing Thaden that day in the human forge.

My own voice is so clear in my memory.

Count the heartbeats. One… Two… Three…

“Yes,” I say, my heart sinking a little because I’m certain the dragons haven’t brought crimson coal with them—I can’t smell its honeyed scent on the air. “I need fire.”

Graviter gives me a solemn nod. “Then allow me to give you the flame you need. If you will step aside.”

The dragons stiffen behind him. Torva edges forward. “Graviter?”

He has already stepped up to the rock.

His scales ripple with an intense heat that sends me back a step and propels Torva away from him. A visible flame rushes from his chest through his throat, burning so brightly that it glows startlingly within his body.

It reaches his mouth, and I prepare for the burning heat.

He puffs out a single, perfect flame. It fills the concave section in the rock’s surface and then—impossibly—it stays alight, glowing serenely even as the wind rushes around it and the waves send spray into the air that would surely dampen it.

The other dragons give a collective gasp.

“Graviter!” Torva cries, jolting toward him again. “ No …”

I cast anxious glances between them, aware of the way Erik has stepped up to my side. “What’s going on?”

Graviter takes a step back, stumbling a little, but quickly rights himself. “Every fire dragon has an eternal flame,” he explains. “It can only be given once, and once given, it will shorten my life by hundreds of years.”

He gives Torva a reassuring smile before he turns to Vargo. “I will live long enough for your son to be born, but I will not be able to teach him what he needs to know. You must do that.”

Vargo’s eyes fill with tears that leak down his crimson scales, but he gives a firm nod. “I vow it.”

Tears roll down Torva’s cheeks. “Graviter, your twin boys won’t be born until after Vargo’s son. They will never know you now.”

Graviter turns to the other dragons. “Which is why you must all promise me: You will watch over them.”

Words fail me. “Graviter…”

But he is already swinging away from me, this time toward the trees.

“I am not the only one who has given their life for this,” he says.

At the edge of the trees, Cailey appears, her silhouette bright again. Galeia is propped on her hip, not a small feat, given that Cailey is only small herself.

Galeia’s growls can be heard above the crashing waves, and with a quick glance at me, Erik hurries across the distance toward them, taking Galeia from Cailey before Galeia can leap from her arms.

Even with my power, I can’t hear what he says to Galeia—or if it’s spoken in growls or words—but she calms immediately. Even so, they stay at the edge of the trees while Cailey steps forward.

All of the dragons bow low to the ground, each one murmuring her name. “Caoilainn Liadan.”

Once again, I wonder, Who is she?

Torva edges toward me, her emerald eyes bright as she whispers, “She is your Celestial Star.”

My breath catches.

Oh… Of course.

She came to witness the making of my hammer. Then she stayed while I fought the Valkyries. She saw Erik revive. We were separated from her when she gave us some space, and then the storm hit us.

Graviter told me that she was as old as the Earth. She had seen the births of gods and titans and had, until now, watched over the Valkyries in the End Lands.

It makes sense to me now that the Valkyrie Queen reacted so intensely to Cailey’s presence.

But the Celestial Star was an orb of light, and now she stands before me in the form of a girl. A sense of foreboding fills me as I take in the sadness on the dragons’ faces and the way Graviter told me his wasn’t the only sacrifice made for me.

A wash of new sadness fills Torva’s expression as she continues. “She chose to burn out her light to save you. It was the only way to pull you out of the darkness. She has become mortal and will perish soon.”

I shake my head, a cry of denial rising to my lips.

No.

It’s too much.

I fight the sob filling my throat and the pain filling my heart.

First, Erik chose to burn out his deep light so he could forge me a hammer. Then Graviter gave me his eternal flame. And now I’m told the Celestial Star fell to the ash to pull me from the darkness.

It’s too much.

Graviter Rex swings back to me and his eyes are suddenly filled with fury. “Sacrifices have been made, Asha Silverspun, and they won’t be the last.”

His voice is a command that I can’t deny. “It’s time to forge your medallion.”