Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
ZANDYR
T hrough the roar of the storm and the harsh wind bending the trees, I heard her footsteps long before she stopped behind me.
I didn’t turn, mesmerized by the small light flickering in the distance beyond the drapes.
For the past two weeks, this had been my nightly torment.
“You’ve lost weight, too,” Adara murmured, followed by a slew of curse words she could have only picked up amongst the mercenaries.
“Good evening to you, too, Adara.”
“Are you planning on killing me with worry?”
“That’s precisely why I’m wasting away,” I drawled. “To annoy you.”
Since the wedding, I’d been in constant agony.
My blood was boiling and clammy.
My bones ached.
I could barely muster up the energy to care about either.
I was a few steps away from death or insanity, whichever one mercifully came first.
“At least you still have your wits.” Adara finally stepped next to me, staring at the same flicker.
The lone candle in Evie’s room.
For fourteen nights, I’d been silently guarding the woman I’d hurt beyond comprehension. This was as close as I could get without affecting her–and without her threatening to incinerate the entire house. If she’d only wanted to burn me, that would have been easier to navigate. But I wouldn’t risk Evie hurting herself.
She refused to see me and I refused to give up hope.
I still couldn’t tell her the truth without bleeding right there at her feet. Maybe I should’ve done that in the first place. Let the oath snuff the life out of me, word by word, and pleaded for her to forgive me with my last breaths.
Sadly, it wasn’t just my life on the line. I’d waste my existence for her; I probably would be forced to, judging from the constant threats on her life.
My blood sang for her.
My mind echoed with the barrest tremors of her thoughts, no matter how hard I tried to shield mine and how tightly she gripped hers to keep them from slipping away through our bond.
Each breath not drawn in her presence was painful.
I couldn’t sleep.
Barely ate.
A visceral need to be by Evie’s side was my loyal companion.
The signs were all there. The wedding ritual had revealed what I’d already suspected.
Evie and I were undoubtedly, unavoidably, unforgivingly true fated mates.
The legends said mates could not live without the other. If I died, she was in danger of following me out of this existence. Though I was starting to suspect her current hatred for me would save her from that fate.
I was hated, despised, and feared throughout all of Malhaven. The monster in children’s lullabies from other Clans. I hadn’t had a problem with it. Sometimes, I actually used the fearsome rumors to my advantage.
Until now.
Until Evie.
Because I had hurt her.
Me.
She’d trusted me .
Now she was suffering more than any mortal should withstand. I’d felt her soul crack on our wedding night. She’d been fading a bit more since then, day by day. Whenever I got too close, the pain inside her quickened.
My presence harmed her.
The memory of me haunted her.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to do.
How to fix this.
How to protect Evie–from me.
Since getting close to her was not an option, I needed information to cling to the barrest traces of sanity. Adara had agreed to our midnight encounters. Most likely to have an opportunity to reprimand me, sometimes with her sharp words, sometimes with her unflinching stare.
Now she was unusually silent.
“Are you going to make me ask tonight?” My patience had vanished in a daze of fatigue and the simmer in my veins.
Adara huffed a sigh. Her annoyance was palpable, even as the wind howled louder and meaner. The trees and shrubs concealing us bowed closer to the ground, a tornado of leaves whirling toward the sky.
“She’s still suffering,” Adara said at last.
I clenched my jaw. I’d felt the flame of her slowly dimming, powerless to stop it. But I’d felt a great big spark of it mere hours ago, so strong it had blazed through me.
“What happened today?” Perhaps I’d imagined it out of sheer despair; but my blood told me otherwise.
“She left her room.”
Hope .
Hope was the only fucking thing keeping me upright.
Relief, swift and crisp, cooled my veins.
“She’ll recover,” I said with the utmost conviction. Evie was strong. Stronger than anyone knew, even herself. “She will live a long, long life.”
“Do you truly believe in prophecies, Dragon?”
I huffed a laugh, the only real one I’d managed to muster since the wedding. “I’m Blood Brotherhood, I can’t afford not to.”
Adara grimaced, nothing but the wind breaking the silence.
The candle continued to flicker beyond the drapes. But there was no sign of Evie’s shadow inside, the only glimpse I’d had of her. I savored every shade.
“You know what the Oracle told me when she had my mind and soul in her grips?” I asked. “That I would grow to love the enemy and trust them with my life. That I’ll find my true partner in the gravest of circumstances.”
At the time, the Oracle’s words had sounded ridiculous and hollow. Falling in love with the enemy? The Vegheara girl I’d been betrothed to had become nothing more than a cautionary tale about what could happen to Clan heirs poised to inherit the throne. I had bigger issues than some dead girl I’d never met–I’d just discovered how heinous Banu and Valuta truly were and began planning how to rid the Blood Brotherhood of their rot.
Those same words now rang painfully true. At least the Oracle thought Evie would survive for a long time–and that I’d do anything to make that happen.
For a moment, Adara looked on the verge of spitting on the ground. But the former General would not lose control like that. “No mortal being, no matter how ancient or how many jewels it digs into its flesh, can predict the tides of fate. The Oracle and her entire bloody order could have known the Blue Queen was alive while the rest of the world thought her dead. That you, with your honor, would go after her when she reappears. These aren’t prophecies, they’re deductions.”
“Curious.” I hummed. “The Oracle also called her Blue Queen.”
“You and Evie are tormenting yourselves.” Adara speared me with a bottomless, incisive gaze. “What happens if you both die, hmm? Who will lead us? That wilting flower you now call a wife?”
Adara didn’t know–and couldn’t know, at least not from me–why Kaya was the way she was. She had many qualities–but being a good leader was not one of them. “You’re too harsh on Kaya.”
“Someone has to be. You and Vexa act like she's a helpless doe.”
Kaya had been raised and forced to be one. The perfect little bride. For me. I’d known Banu and Valuta had grand plans of marrying the two of us off and finally securing a royal title in their family, but I’d never imagined it was more than hopeless wishing on their part. Kaya had always been and still was like a sister to me. Nothing more.
Caught up in my own life, I’d also thought that her refusing every single suitor was another reason her parents had been fixated on seeing us together.
How wrong I’d been.
“You and I both know that the same fire that forges the strongest weapons can also melt the steel into nothing,” I said. “Some sharpen, others bend under the strain.”
“Convenient for the weaklings, isn’t it? We all have to suffer, but the strong ones have to protect those who can’t be bothered to do something about their miserable lives except wait for someone else to fix their problems.”
“This isn’t like you, Adara.” She’d always been unflinching, but this went beyond her own rules or her loyalty to Evie. “And I don’t want to talk about Kaya.”
She didn’t back down. “Remember when you were younger, back when the hairs on your upper lip were barely showing? I offered to train you then.”
My gaze snapped toward her, caught off guard. “I do remember.”
It was one of my fondest memories. Adara marched into the royal arena as I struggled to fight one of her future lieutenants, gave me a withering look, and asked in a clipped tone if I wanted to get better at fighting or continue to embarrass myself. I’d bristled, like any thirteen-year-old whose ego had been hit. But even then I wanted to beat every opponent and protect my Clan.
So I’d agreed.
“You weren’t the only one I asked that day.” Adara raised her brows at me, just like she had on that day. “I felt sorry for Kaya. She had a cloud of sorrow clinging to her. I offered to train her as well. She said no, without even giving me a reason.”
Adara stepped closer to me. “You accepted. The Blue Queen pestered me to begin her training sooner. You two are fighters. You two are strong. But gods above and below, you’d both set yourselves on fire for people who don’t deserve it.”
Despite the harsh words, a shadow of a smile tugged at my lips.
Adara huffed. “Of course you’d smile at the mere mention of her.”
“Guilty.” And unashamed of it. I craved every morsel of information about Evie. Food, sleep, and water didn’t matter. The only need I had right now was Evie.
Adara looked at the dark sky. I stared straight ahead. Still no movement behind the curtain. Had Evie gone to bed? She usually wandered in her room this late, haunting the night the same way I did.
I truly didn’t know how much longer we’d survive this way.
Between clashes with the Sages, training with my warriors, dealing with the scribes, and my very being turning against itself with sorrow, I would exhaust myself.
Yet nobody could know. If anyone found out the fearsome Dragon and the future king of the Blood Brotherhood Clan was slowly wasting away because of the misery in the fated mates bond, they would strike.
These small moments staring at Evie’s window, with Adara judging me from the side, were the closest I got to showing my weakness. My companions from the Blood Brotherhood Elite had their own issues to deal with.
An invisible noose was tightening, and none of us knew who was squeezing the knot. The Blood Brotherhood and the Protectorate were in danger–threatening the peace on the entire continent of Malhaven.
Ryker was holding the shuddering line up North and facing his Huntress daily.
Elysia was avoiding her bastard of a Protectorate fiancé and trying to find the source of the poison which had taken so many lives at Evie’s first wedding.
Soryn was on a secret mission with Clara, two great minds trying to find more clues about who was trying to ruin us all.
And Calyx…Calyx was still recuperating from his wound. Officially, at least.
And me? The fearsome Blood Brotherhood prince? The warrior they called The Dragon?
I was truly wasting away.
I couldn’t afford to.
The Serpents were right on our border, snapping their fangs to attack my Clan and avenge their heir’s death. I had killed Fabrian on his wedding day. Then again, he’d threatened to harm Evie. We were even, as far as I was concerned.
There was no love lost between the fourteen Clans ruling the continent, each with their own brand of magic, ruling in a chaotic equilibrium. If not one, but two of the biggest Clans fell, the imbalance would lead to war. Whatever remained of our world would be carved in two by unleashed magic. Everyone, from Clans to civilians to the borderline bands who refused to pick sides, all would die fighting for the supreme throne which had been void of power since Dria Vegheara’s time.
I inhaled deeply, gaze still glued to Evie’s window.
I needed to fix this. Fix us . For our sake and the entire continent’s.
“You say you don’t want to talk about the wilting flower, but you risked a lot for her. Too much.” Adara gave me an imperious nod and turned. “This is the last time I’m giving you any information about the Blue Queen and anything she does. You broke her trust, now you mend it, Dragon.”