Chapter 10
One Year and Six Months Prior
My hand is shaking, so I apologize if this is illegible. I was wrong. Their souls were not destroyed but guarded from Fate itself by the dragons. Cion fears the power she felt when she touched their child, but I cannot bring myself to care.
—Lady Anabeth, Consort to Her Majesty Cion Livii, Queen of Aren, D’anna
“You look tired.”
Across from her, leaning against a fallen tree, Morgen made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat.
The truth was, he’d looked tired for a while now.
She had been holding back the need to make a comment about it on a hunch he wouldn’t want to talk about it, which was probably true. It usually was.
“Have you been sleeping?”
He sighed. “I sleep.”
She bit her lip. “Well, I just—”She cut herself off when he leaned forward, brushing his fingertips to her mouth.
“Don’t do that,” he murmured. They were close, closer than he usually let them get, and she could see the silver-bright strands of ether pulsing in his irises. “You don’t need to worry. I’m fine.”
“Who will worry,” she whispered, “if I don’t?”
He didn’t move away like she expected; instead, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said with a sort of irritated fondness, “I have a few friends who fuss. Or at least they would call themselves my friends.”
Her brow creased. “Do you not think of them as friends?”
“I do, but…” He glanced away. “I’ve known them for too long. I would never want a friendship formed of pity.”
She understood immediately. “You knew them when you were young.”
He looked back at her. “Some of them, yes.”
“And they didn’t do anything to stop it? What your father did to you?”
His low laugh was bitter. “They would have been killed for it. Besides, even if they were not children, they were quite young.”
“I don’t think I could have done nothing,” she whispered.
He slid his palm up her cheek, cradling her face. “I know. Which is why I am very glad you were not there.”
Her breath caught when he leaned forward, but, as always, he did not kiss her. Still, with his forehead pressed against hers, it was the closest she had been to him in a while.
Varax.
Yes, Nya?
Is it just us here?
The dragon paused. Yes. Say what you need to. He will not hear.
She closed her eyes, fingers curling in the fabric of Morgen’s shirt as she felt the rise and fall of his chest. In the safety of her own mind, she whispered a truth she was sure he would never accept.
I love you.
There, in the sanctity of her thoughts, she pretended she heard him whisper it back.