Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
W e made camp a mile from the falls. The night was humid and the air stifling.
I preferred the dry gusts of the desert to this thick heat beneath the trees any day.
But after travelling through the Lyrian, neither Drake nor I were prepared to take on that journey again before a night's rest. We also had the pressing issue of the dragon we owed a debt to.
I pulled Drake aside as Kyra moved about the camp, creating a bright blue fire at the heart of a clearing in the trees.
I watched it with unease as she tried out different colours on the flames, muttering curses as she worked.
Her magic kept me on edge at all times, especially because Drake was now the master of it.
It wasn’t natural, only meant for the lost gods and not to be abused by reckless thieves for selfish gain.
“Perhaps you could ask the creature to create some treasure for Azurea,” I suggested.
“Hmm, nah,” he said dismissively, clearly not taking the threat to our lives seriously enough.
“The dragon will hunt us to the four corners of the world to ensure our debt is paid. And she will take it in blood,” I hissed. “The answer is right here in front of us.”
“Seems to me like the dragon specifically wanted that cursed treasure which we can’t take out of that cave without ending up with our skin peeled from our bodies and turned inside out,” he countered.
“So giving her some imposter treasure in its place seems worse than just not giving her any at all.”
“Then what do you suggest we do to appease the deal we made with her?” I asked darkly, seriously disturbed about going back on our word to that legendary creature.
Drake scored a thumb along his jaw for a moment before his eyes sparked with what I was certain would be a terrible idea. “Hey Kyra, can you make me unfindable to dragons?”
“Done!” she cried and Drake smirked at me, patting my arm with false sympathy.
“Seems like a you issue now, mate,” he said and I glowered.
“Well good luck winning the pageant without my assistance. I’m sure Egos will make a nice coat out of your flesh when he’s done torturing you.” I turned my head away from him and he sighed wearily.
“Fine. Kyra, make Cassius unfindable to dragons too.”
“Do you agree?” she asked me and I confirmed it, feeling like it would make far more sense to just conjure some treasure to appease her than this. I didn’t want to scorn an ancient creature of the gods, but it seemed Drake wasn’t feeling generous. As per usual.
A trickle of magic washed over me and I stiffened against it, the feeling unsettling, but it washed away just as quickly and Kyra went back to playing with the fire she’d built.
I inspected my skin, expecting to find some mark of it, but there was nothing there, not even the lasting tingle of it in my flesh.
But still, my heart rate wouldn’t settle.
She started talking to herself again and anxiety warred through me about how unstable she was. “Not blue… Well, what is it then? Oh yes you're right, it's pink.”
I frowned, observing her intently as I tried to assess how much of a threat she was.
It truly did seem that she was under Drake’s control through that coin, but she was still a weapon, and the fact that she was casually casting magic right in front of me now told me she could use it when she chose to.
And as she didn't seem to be particularly familiar with how the world worked that made her potentially dangerous.
When she’d started setting up the camp and getting things wrong, she’d apologised profusely to Drake, her eyes flashing with fear as she told him she had forgotten a lot while she was stuck in the coin but he’d just laughed, seeming to find her amusing while accepting all of the things she created for him whether they were a bit off or not.
Like the luxurious tent she had made for us to sleep in which smelled oddly like bananas, or the pool of heated water she had conjured for him to bathe in which had been filled with oil at first, before she remembered which liquid she should have created.
I'm going to walk a magical monster into the palace...and then what?
Had I made a poor choice here? Should I have been working harder to get my hands on that coin?
Marching a common thief into the pageant still didn't sit entirely right with me.
But the kingdom was at risk and I didn't see another way to take on Magdor. Even if I did destroy the coin, that wouldn’t stop her from controlling my emperor for the rest of his reign.
So maybe this was the better option. And if I failed at gaining the evidence I needed to destroy her, I’d just take my chances at executing her myself. It might cost me my life but at least I would die knowing our kingdom was safe once more. That Austyn and her father would be free.
Drake was sitting cross-legged in front of a mountain of gold coins, counting every piece of the treasure Kyra had summoned onto the backs of our camels with a greedy glint in his eyes that made him look like some sort of demon.
The beasts were currently settled down in the grass, their bellies full of the food Kyra had conjured for them and every now and then I heard their inner thoughts of contentment.
“I'm so rich…so fucking rich,” Drake breathed for the millionth time, a laugh escaping him as he swigged on a bottle of wine which Kyra had created for him.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, rising from the log I'd been perched on and approaching him. As my shadow blotted out the light of the fire and stopped him from counting, he glanced up at me with a scowl.
“Care to move out of the way, mate?”
“Rich people don't act like they've never seen a pile of gold before,” I said evenly. How was I going to train this lout up to be fit to meet the emperor and his daughter? Fuck it, he’s never going to be fit for that, but I can make it seem like he is.
“I'm not at the palace right now, so who cares?” Drake demanded.
I kicked his pile of carefully stacked coins and he scrambled around after them with a growl of anger.
I shook my head at the pathetic act. “Noblemen don't care if they lose a coin or two.”
Drake ignored me, gathering each and every kuru up from the grass as fast as he could, muttering under his breath and I was pretty sure I caught the words ‘turd-baked cunt’ tossed in my direction.
Kyra was still having a conversation with herself about what colour a fire should be and my patience with my current company was starting to wear thin.
“Wow, look at all my money,” Drake said under his breath as he finally got his coins back in order, but then his smile fell away. “I bet I could be richer. I should wish for more. Yeah, I’m gonna wish for more.”
“Oh yes, now I remember, it’s purple like our hair,” Kyra said excitedly as she turned the fire blazingly purple then she scowled.
“No, it’s not purple, breasts are purple, see?
” She yanked down her pale pink dress, exposing her pert breasts which were in fact a faint shade of lilac now and I cursed as Drake’s head snapped up to look.
“Well maybe I am a whore, did you ever think of that?” Kyra growled at herself, pulling her dress back up.
“We don’t remember, so anything is possible – fuck it, it’s blue.
” She changed the colour of the fire. “Like an arse,” she said under breath with a decisive nod.
“Wait…no, an arse isn’t blue, is it?” she snapped at herself, taking hold of the hem of her dress and I rounded on her before this got out of hand.
“Red. Orange. Gold.” I pointed at the fire.
Her eyes widened then a smile split across her face like a sunrise. “Oh thank you, sullen man,” she gushed like I'd just made all of her dreams come true.
“I’m not sullen,” I murmured, though I knew I should have just ignored the remark.
“Surly, then,” she corrected, and my brow furrowed as Drake snorted a laugh at my expense.
“I am not surly,” I said through my teeth, and she bit her lip, looking like she was thinking.
“Oh, I’ve got it this time! You’re crabby. Like a crab, see?” she turned her hands into crab pincers with a flash of magic and snapped them at me.
“Yeah, that sounds right. Crabby old Cassius,” Drake agreed and I ground my jaw, my hands curling into fists at my sides.
“I am not old, I am only thirty. And I am not cr-” I cut myself off, taking a breath and deciding to let it go.
Kyra giggled as she returned her hands to their usual form then made the fire a normal shade with perhaps a little too much gold in it.
I nodded my approval and Kyra leapt to her feet as she began to dance around it in glee.
It was hard not to stare at her with the way her skin began to continually cycle through every colour of the rainbow, as she started moving her body to a beat no one but she could hear with seductive movements I had never seen attempted in the royal court.
I was starting to wonder if there was any hope at all of her passing herself off as Fae once we returned to Osaria. Frankly, she may well have to go back inside the coin, or we’d give ourselves away the moment we arrived.