Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOFIA
Sofia lay on her stomach, staring at the wall and trying her best not to move.
“Lumi’s okay?”
“They’re doing well,” Flor answered, her fingers barely brushing along Sofia’s skin as she examined the damage this battle had done.
“It looked worse than it was. In the end, they only needed a few stitches once I cleaned the blood away. They’ll heal fine, but they need to rest for a few days. It could have been much worse.”
“I should have kept Chalia closer,” Sofia said. The words felt raw in her throat. Just more blood on her hands. “It was my fault that the wolfshifters are invading the tribe’s land to begin with.”
“Lumi told me it was their idea to go hunting without Chalia. They also said this isn’t the first time the wolfshifters have tried to push the boundary and break the old truce.”
Sofia didn’t argue, but she closed her eyes, feeling hot tears ready to break free. She breathed slowly, releasing the pain until she found the rage once more. She could live off her anger. It fueled her, despite the heaviness it also placed on her shoulders.
“Well, you broke a few stitches,” Flor said, pulling at one so Sofia felt the sting and tug.
She paused, as if unsure how to say the next part.
Sofia’s stomach plummeted. She could have sworn her back had been feeling better over the past couple of days.
She thought she’d been resting. Though perhaps hunching over books for hours on end wasn’t the best for her wounds.
“Just do what you need to,” she said when Flor still hadn’t spoken.
“That’s just it,” Flor said, her voice still perplexed. “I don’t have to do much of anything. Your back is healing.”
Sofia blinked. “That’s good. That’s great.”
“It’s weird. You’re healing faster than I’d expect. Especially given how you’ve treated the wounds.”
“Perhaps my back recognizes that we have shit to do and don’t have time to sit around healing,” Sofia said, sitting up.
“There are still a few open wounds.” Flor pushed Sofia’s shoulder down harder than was probably necessary.
“I’m going to fix a few of these stitches and get more of the healing balm that Clarita helped me make.
I know she says they don’t know magic, but I swear there is something like it in that balm. ”
Despite what Flor said about Sofia’s back healing well, it was still over an hour before she finally allowed her to slip a tunic back on and join the others where they were arguing.
Sofia had passed along the information on the dragon’s home base to the others, but Flor had immediately dragged her away after seeing the blood staining her shirt.
Another waste of time.
The two groups were gathered in the main chamber of the cenote, clustered around the fire. Most were sitting with mugs of tea, and others simply watched the debate with interest. But Micael, Clarita, and Javi were standing and shouting as though they didn’t even notice they had an audience.
“We leave immediately.” The conviction in Javi’s voice surprised Sofia. The soft-spoken man rarely yelled, let alone at Micael—the leader of the resistance. “The sooner we get there, the faster this all ends.”
“Move too quickly, and we’ll spell our own demise,” Micael said. “We need to gather more information and think this through.”
“And what sort of information are you planning on gathering?” Clarita said, throwing up her hands. “At the very least, we can start making plans immediately,”
“We can’t wander into the mountains on a hunch.”
“You know it’s more than a hunch,” Javi said.
“Is it?” Micael said. To Sofia’s surprise, he was met with silence, and the man’s eyes turned to Clarita and back to Javi. “Well, is it?
“Just imagine what we can do with the dragons on our side,” Javi finally said.
Clarita turned to Javi, face turning pink. “But the dragons aren’t simply weapons or pets to be found and used. We’ll be negotiating and entreating them for help.”
“We will do nothing of the sort,” Micael cut in. “You said this isn’t your fight. You’re only here as a temporary truce.”
“I won’t stand by and let a bunch of warmongering rebels be the first to find the dragons,” Clarita said. “You’ll only push them further into hiding if you aren’t careful.”
Sofia was tempted to turn around and walk away. This wasn’t the argument she wanted to have. She wanted to talk to Chalia. She wanted to check on Lumi.
“Even if we wanted to leave now, we have almost no supplies and no access to smuggle them from the city,” Micael said, ignoring Clarita’s argument completely. Sofia empathized with her as she rolled her eyes.
“If we start making plans,” Clarita said, “I can contact another tribe I know and ask for supplies.”
“You’re not coming!” Micael snapped.
“I can confirm the location with Chalia,” Sofia said, stepping forward despite everything inside her wanting to run away.
“She refused to hand over information, but perhaps now that I know it, she’ll at least confirm if it’s true.
And as for supplies, I think Clarita is right.
The mountains won’t be easy to navigate with what we have now.
” She turned to Micael. “And everyone who wants to come comes. We can’t ignore any ally we have. ”
“You don’t get to make that call,” Micael said, though he looked exhausted even saying it.
Sofia shook her head. “You’re right. Chalia will make the call on who gets to come.”
She felt a spike of contentment and pride rise inside her, and she knew Chalia had been listening. The dragon hadn’t spoken to her since they’d returned. She knew she was angry.
“Yes,” Chalia said, voice like a light smack to her mind.
She was fascinated by how the dragon could transfer emotions so viscerally through her speech.
There were probably books somewhere that would explain how the dragons’ ability to speak and show emotions through the mental links worked.
Or perhaps such knowledge had been lost. She’d mentioned as much to Flor but had only received a blank stare in response.
Flor was never one for philosophical debates and pondering when there were wars to fight.
“I’m going to speak to Chalia,” she said, not waiting for confirmation. “Clarita, if you could contact your friends, we need furs, blankets, cloaks, and boots, at the very least.”
Sofia could use a fresh shirt that wasn’t stained with three layers of blood and torn to near scraps.
She knew she’d hear plenty from Micael later regarding her behavior, but she didn’t have the energy to care.
She’d been better at listening to him and working with the others, but that also meant that Micael needed to recognize that she had power no one else did.
Like it or not, she had important things to say.
Flor squeezed her hand before she turned, and she was happy she didn’t need to explain to her friend why she needed to be alone right now.
Chalia was easy to find. She was resting at the top of the cenote, nose peeking just over the edge as if she’d been listening in on the debate. Which she probably had been.
“I’m assuming you’ve heard everything by now.
” Sofia made it to the top of the cenote, not quite approaching Chalia where she was lying.
The dragon was curled into a tight ball along the side of the clearing.
She couldn’t lie directly on top of the cenote without cracking the ceiling below.
They’d learned that one early in their stay.
Chalia blinked at her, unmoving and silent.
“I’m sorry,” Sofia said, trying not to roll her eyes at the pouting creature before her. “I should have listened to you and not wandered too far.”
Chalia let out a breath so hard that Sofia had to step back.
“I forgive you,” Chalia said at last.
Sofia’s shoulders relaxed. “But there will be times when you’re not there,” she said. “When I’ll have to be on my own. It won’t be your fault if something happens. You know that, right?”
“I can protect you.” Chalia pressed forward, her nose hot against Sofia’s hand as she nudged her.
“You don’t have to. It wasn’t your fault those shifters attacked, and it definitely wasn’t your responsibility to save me from them.”
She heard the hypocrisy in her own words and pushed it aside.
“But I did,” Chalia said. Sofia’s hair blew back in the cold wind of her breath, and she let out an angry huff.
“You did,” she said, pressing her palm against the top of Chalia’s head. “And I can’t thank you enough.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss between her eyes. “You saved our lives.”
Sofia shifted, leaning back against Chalia, to look up at the sky above. The heat of the sun suffused her skin. The healing cuts that had been itching for the past week lessened at the cool touch of Chalia’s scales, and she closed her eyes, breathing in the forest.
“You still haven’t asked me to confirm where the other dragons are,” Chalia said.
“No, I didn’t,” Sofia acknowledged. “I know you don’t want to betray your family and the others.”
The dragon was silent for a while, and Sofia let the sounds of the forest embrace her. It had been too long since she’d felt at peace—or some semblance of it. Her body had been running on adrenaline since the day she’d captured Fox, and she wasn’t sure it had ever stopped.
“I don’t see it as betrayal,” Chalia said. It took a second for Sofia to remember the conversation. “I didn’t tell you where we lived. You discovered that on your own.”
Sofia nodded. It wasn’t a direct answer, but it was confirmation enough.
And then Chalia sent her the image of the twin peaks, curved in to embrace the valley below.
And there were dragons there—in the vision.
Dozens of them, of every size imaginable—shades of blues, blacks, grays, whites, and silvers. The vision evaporated.
“We’re going there, aren’t we?” Chalia said, suddenly sullen again.
“We need to ask for help. You’ve seen what we’re dealing with.”
“Do you plan on saving Eha and Zuni?”
The dragons that the chief commander had. The one Fox had confirmed he was experimenting on.
“Yes,” she said firmly, though she didn’t know how.
Chalia rumbled at the statement. “My parents are going to hate me,” she said after a lengthy pause.
“Why? You said yourself you didn’t help me find them.”
“I flew away,” she said.
Sofia waited for her to expand. She could feel the dragon’s anxiety.
“I wasn’t supposed to come help you. My father was the one who heard the call.
It was his feather you prayed to. When he brought it to my mother, they decided to ignore it.
My mother said that the humans had murdered us and proven themselves unworthy. They didn’t deserve our consideration.”
“But you came anyway?” Sofia asked, understanding for perhaps the first time everything Chalia had truly done for her. She hadn’t just saved her, but she’d come after centuries of silence. She’d answered her prayers.
“My mother chased after me, but I flew through a canyon I knew she couldn’t follow down. I don’t know if she’ll forgive me.”
Sofia turned, pressing her cheek against Chalia’s side in an attempt at a hug, given the dragon’s size. “I’m sure she still loves you.”
“I hurt her.”
“I don’t know a lot about parents. But I think they love unconditionally. That’s kind of the point of them, isn’t it?”
“I hope so.”
Three days later, Lumi had healed enough to fly back to the city.
Sofia needed Ian and Fox to know where they were headed and why.
It also gave enough time for Eloy, the foxshifter, to return with news from another local tribe that they’d provide supplies in exchange for hunting rights on their land.
Sofia watched Lumi fly off, a pit in her stomach. That night, she couldn’t sleep.
She wandered out into the main cenote, empty and cold, and sat on the edge of the lake.
The stars were dim in the sky, the moons just beneath the horizon, threatening to outshine them at any moment.
Sofia could just make out the stars reflected in the lake.
It was never perfectly still, a current running somewhere underneath the surface where the water flowed in an underground river.
But it was as still as it ever was. The air was quiet and bitter cold.
She purposefully kept her eyes averted from the spot just a few yards away where she and Fox had first curled beneath his cloak, bodies warm against each other.
She hated that she missed something she’d never even had.
Not really. What time they’d spent out here in the forest had been a fluke—a bubble they knew would burst at the slightest quiver.
Yet still, she wished she were pressed against him now, smelling the forest on his skin and the warm beat of his heart against his chest.
If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine him next to her. Then again, he’d so rarely sat in silence. The illusion only worked so long.
Sofia shook herself, reaching forward and plunging her hand into the icy lake, pushing away the thoughts of Fox.
A screech from above had her standing, eyes searching the dark sky.
A shadow darted down, through the canopy and into the cenote until Lumi shifted, still a yard above the ground.
They fell on their knees, panting for breath, and Sofia felt dread welling in her stomach.
Chalia, who’d been sleeping lightly somewhere above, stirred and she felt the dragon’s mind touching her own, asking what was wrong.
“Lumi,” Sofia said, crouching down and trying to get the shapeshifter’s attention. “What’s going on? What happened?”
After another set of deep breaths, Lumi looked up, eyes brimming with tears that made Sofia’s breath catch.
“A bomb,” they said. “Near the wall. It destroyed at least three blocks. Two days ago already, but there were so many bodies. There were so many bodies left rotting.”
Their voice shook as they spoke, and Sofia struggled to understand.
“A bomb? Who? How?”
“So many people.” Lumi’s eyes had gone distant again, and Sofia shook them, trying to get them to focus.
“Who bombed?”
Lumi looked up. “You did.”
“What?”
“I only spoke to Ian briefly. The chief commander sent out a message. He said that the resistance had bombed the city, and they’d continue to bomb until you were brought out from the shadows.” Lumi glared at her, eyes narrowed. “He called you out by name.”
Sofia’s stomach dropped. The resistance hadn’t bombed the city—she knew that, and she knew Harlow did, too. This hadn’t been a call for her to surrender. It had been a threat—direct and bloody. Surrender, or he’d continue to bomb his own people.
More blood. So much blood.
Sofia screamed until her throat turned raw.