Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SOFIA
“Do you know what you’re going to do?” Flor asked.
She and Sofia were sitting at the top rim of the cenote.
Water dripped in a steady rhythm from the vines and trees, the continuous rain from Chalia’s presence transforming the forest. The rim of the cenote had become overgrown with plant life, sending a steady stream of water flowing down into the lake below like small waterfalls.
They should have headed into the cenote where the others huddled around the fire, hiding from the ever-creeping frost of the cold season.
But Sofia didn’t want warmth. Her body already boiled with hot rage and churning guilt, the icy air doing its part to cool her thoughts.
“I can’t leave the Dragonborn to keep dying. Not if I have a chance to stop it.”
“You’re not prepared to kill Harlow.”
“I’m not,” Sofia acknowledged, nudging a pebble over the edge of the cenote with her finger and watching it fall. “But I need to know who’s alive—what’s happening.”
Sofia’s screams had woken the rest of the cenote, and Lumi had explained to the others about the bombing. In the end, Micael had decided they should still head to the dragons, but he’d told Sofia it was up to her what she chose to do. She hated having to make that decision.
“I can go and find that information without you.”
Sofia looked over at Flor, her face in shadows. “I won’t make you clean up my mess.”
Flor turned, warm brown eyes catching the light of the moons above. “This isn’t your mess.”
“Harlow literally said—”
“Harlow murdered people to bring you back to the city out of guilt. It’s a trap because he knows you care. That’s not your fault.”
“If I hadn’t—”
“Hadn’t what?” Flor said, her voice sharp and eyes hard. “Hadn’t had your life torn from you by him? Hadn’t joined the resistance to try to make things better?”
Sofia’s mouth snapped shut, because what could she truly say to any of that? Perhaps Flor was right. She couldn’t be blamed for Harlow’s actions, but it didn’t mean she could stand by knowing she had a chance of making a difference.
“I’m not going to walk into a trap,” she said. “But I’m not leaving everyone without knowing what’s happening.”
She couldn’t simply run off to the mountains, even though she’d been dreaming of finding the dragons since she was young. She couldn’t abandon her people over her childish dream.
“I go where you go,” Chalia said in her mind. It didn’t even startle Sofia. She felt the dragon in her mind as a constant presence now. It was a soft comfort not to be alone with her thoughts.
“We’ll leave once we come up with a plan,” Flor said, intertwining Sofia’s fingers with her own.
“You don’t have to,” Sofia said, throat going tight.
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
“I’m coming, too.” Lumi’s human form twisted into existence beside them, skin luminous in the moonlight. Flor stared for a beat too long before she turned, cheeks going red.
“I thought you didn’t want to get involved,” Flor said, turning to stare back down into the cenote.
Lumi’s lips were thin, pulled tight into a line. “You didn’t see the bodies. There were so many Dragonborn lying among the rubble, still wearing their bedclothes. I saw one woman clutching her baby even in death. This isn’t about your king anymore. This is about people.”
“And if we need to fight? You’re just going to get in the way.”
Lumi’s eyes narrowed. “I know how to fight,” they said, voice a low hiss. “I just choose not to. I will fight if we need, but I believe the plan is to sneak in and not be seen.”
Sofia placed a firm hand on Flor’s leg. “We don’t have a good plan to get into the city yet.”
“I have an idea,” Lumi said, their eyes almost hopeful.
Sofia waited, her breath held as she watched the war play out across Flor’s face. They would need to work together.
“Fine,” Flor said, standing and pushing past the shapeshifter. “Be ready to leave at sunset and be dressed. They don’t take kindly to naked bodies running around the city.”
“I know how to dress,” Lumi bit out, but Flor was already gone. Lumi followed her, muttering words in dragon-tongue that Sofia couldn’t quite make out.
“You should rest and prepare,” Chalia said in Sofia’s mind, the unspoken message not lost on her. Go eat. Get warm. Stop punishing yourself.
She heeded the dragon, but not before she sent a prayer up to Quelia that her parents and all those killed in the bomb would be protected.
She would leave an offering on the altars tomorrow before they left.
Tonight she needed to tell Micael and the others she’d made the decision to go into the city.
The rest of the resistance and shapeshifters would start the journey to the mountains, and the three of them would meet them there afterward. After Sofia had a chance to see the devastation she’d unintentionally brought to the city.
The flight back to the city felt shorter than it had on the way out.
But Sofia had been half in a daze. As the gas lamps running along the wall came into view on the horizon, they shifted to the west until they met the sea.
Chalia flew slowly and swept down until they were skimming just above the water, just another undulation of the waves along the surface.
Lumi had spent time surveying the city they’d first flown to speak with Ian, and they knew where the guards were and where they weren’t. There was no going over the wall unseen. Instead, they were going to sneak into the city by climbing up the cliffs.
Chalia would get them as high up as she could without being spotted by prying eyes from the houses along the edge.
Though this approach didn’t solve all of their problems.
“This is good,” Sofia said, eyes staring up at the cliffs towering above them.
Chalia carefully perched along the thin rocky beach that separated the cliffs from the sea.
They were tucked in a small alcove made by the curvature of the cliffs, hidden from both the shrinking mangroves to the west and the drowned quarter port to the east.
Still balanced on Chalia’s back, Lumi removed their tunic and pants without preamble, their skin barely lit by the moons above.
Sofia took their clothes, stuffing them in her own pack.
They needed to solve problem two before climbing up into the city.
The three of them needed tokens to explain why they were in the upper city after dark.
The tokens wouldn’t help them if they were asked for their full papers, but it was the best they could do.
Once Lumi’s clothes were packed, they twisted into the air, disappearing in a streak of feathers as they arched into the sky and up over the cliff above.
“I guess we should be glad they came,” Sofia said, eyes still on the horizon, as if the shapeshifter might come back immediately with the supplies they needed.
Flor gave a small grunt. “We’ll see if they can actually get the tokens.”
“They’ve been nothing but helpful so far.” Sofia kept her face toward the sky, but she eyed Flor’s face as she spoke. The other woman’s face was firmly set in a blank expression, but a soft blush rose in her cheeks. “They’re kind of cute, too.”
Flor’s eyes snapped to Sofia, catching her gaze.
“I thought you were madly in love with the major. Now you’re chasing after shapeshifters?”
Sofia’s own cheeks went hot, and she turned to Flor with narrowed eyes. “I’m not madly in love with anyone. And I don’t have any interest in Lumi. I was just pointing out facts.”
“So, you’re not looking forward to seeing Fox again if we pull this off?”
“I’m excited to see Pale Scales,” Chalia said.
Sofia ignored the dragon. Just like she ignored the tightness in her chest every time she thought of Fox.
What would she do when she saw him again?
She squeezed her hand into a fist at the sudden urge to touch her lips.
She swallowed. “I’m looking forward to hearing directly from him what’s happening with the chief commander and why he didn’t warn us about the bomb. ”
“Just make sure to ask him before he sticks his tongue down your throat,” Flor said.
Sofia’s mind flashed with the taste of his lips, and she bit her tongue to push the memory away. Chalia gave a small chuckle in the back of her mind.
“Don’t,” she said to the dragon. She turned to Flor. “Chalia speaks to you, right?”
Flor gave her a flat stare. “Nice change of subject. But yeah, obviously.”
“But do you feel her in your mind? Even when she isn’t talking?”
She raised an eyebrow. “No—it’s just her speaking when she needs to. Do you feel her in your mind—like all the time?”
Sofia opened her mouth to reply, but a rustle of feathers interrupted her thoughts. Lumi was suddenly between them, naked and spitting out a small pile of coins from their mouth.
“I got three tokens.”
“You found the people coming out of the Garcia and Hill households?” Sofia said, guilt heavy in her chest. She was trying not to get people in trouble on her own behalf anymore.
She’d directed Lumi to some households that she knew treated their workers the best—households that would hopefully not punish them for losing their tokens.
“They were from three maids entering the green stone house on the canal. These tokens expire at dawn, though, so we need to hurry.”
Sofia handed Lumi their clothes, and they dressed quickly, balanced precariously on Chalia’s back.
Once they were dressed, Sofia patted Chalia’s head. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she said, wings shuddering in preparation. “Just hold on. I’ve never flown like this before.”
Sofia passed on the warning to the others, and then they were rising, awkwardly, Chalia’s wings unintentionally batting against the cliffs twice, sending stones tumbling down into the sea below.
Thankfully, the squalls obscured the splashes, and the low positioning of the moons left the dragon’s form in shadows.
Sofia could only hope it would take a keen eye to notice them along the dark cliffs.