Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
FOX
Sofia finally fell asleep sometime after the moons had disappeared beneath the horizon.
He’d convinced her to let him carry her inside when her skin had turned red from the cold and her body wouldn’t stop shaking.
He laid her as close to the fire as was safe and sat by her until she fell into a fitful sleep.
Fox spent the night sitting vigil beside her, his own chest aching and his thoughts spinning.
He had been trying his best not to think of his mother, but in the quiet, the thoughts came unbidden.
Just yesterday he would have trusted Harlow not to hurt her.
They’d been friends since she was a teenager, growing up in the military district together.
But he no longer trusted the man he had just seen.
Yes, he was fueled by his fears, but they had turned him cruel and hateful, burning away any compassion.
And there was nothing a scared man wouldn’t do.
“Pale Scales, we have visitors,” Chalia said.
The words sent ice down his spine, but she quickly sent him an image of the small white dragon with the truncated tail—Jobin—sweeping down from the sky.
His heart rate spiked when he realized Jobin wasn’t alone.
A much larger dragon, with scales the color of the midday sky glided behind him—Aurelia—Chalia’s mother.
He stood on shaky legs. Sofia went rigid beside him, her body poised for a fight.
“Chalia’s mother is here,” he said, voice soft.
He was unsure he wanted everyone else to know the apparent leader of the dragons was approaching their cave.
The rage simmered in Sofia’s eyes as she registered his words.
She nodded and pushed herself up. She was as unsteady as he was, despite her sleep.
He had no doubt her mind hadn’t let her truly rest, conjuring up horrific images of the last day.
“What’s going on?” Javi asked as Sofia and Fox made their way over.
Micael stood next to him, face twisted into his usual untrusting scowl.
“We have visitors,” Fox said, moving past him.
The snow outside was blinding in the late morning light. The wind had settled down, and it was a strange sensation to feel the heat of the sun despite the ice glittering in the air.
They didn’t need to walk around the outcrop of rocks north of them to see Aurelia’s deep blue tail rising into the sky. There was a silent animosity in the air as they rounded the corner, Chalia’s mother imperiously leaning over her as she stared back defiantly.
“What are you doing here?” Sofia said as the two dragons came into view, her voice a low growl. “You have already made your choices known. And now you come here? For what?”
Fox was tempted to reach out, to grab her, but who was he to temper her anger? Javi appeared to have the same thought as he stepped forward and then immediately stopped himself. The two made eye contact, some mutual understanding passing between them as Sofia continued her justified rage.
“I have come,” the dragon said, voice piercing, “after hearing troubling information from another source.”
“Because your daughter wasn’t enough?” Sofia snapped, arm raised high above her head, poking a finger into the blue scales of Aurelia’s lower chest as if she were berating a child. “Because her truth was easier to ignore?”
“I did not trust the words placed in her mouth by humans. You spoke of the impossible.” Her voice shifted, something like contrition in her tone. “I have sent scouts out to confirm Jobin’s and Chalia’s reports. I am here to parley with you.”
It was clear the idea of apologizing or admitting she was wrong—especially to a group of humans—wasn’t in her vocabulary. Her feathers were rigid as she spoke, her wings moving in small, aborted beats, as if her body were begging to flee.
“You want to parley?” Sofia said, stepping back to better glare up at her. “It’s too late. You’re too late. You refused to talk with us. We could have told you everything. We tried to tell you everything.”
Her voice rose as she spoke, the tone sending Fox’s chest aching. But Chalia—Chalia shook with each word, her feathers going rigid and her wings stretching back. She wasn’t just angry. There was something more. There was a pain in the ridge of her brow, her lips pulled back in a snarl.
Aurelia’s claw hit the ground, talons digging into the snow as her head whipped down to look Sofia in the eye. “You are hurting my daughter. Stop it!”
“I’m not hurting anyone,” Sofia said, defiant and unforgiving. “I’m not the one who didn’t listen. I’m not the reason she’s dead!” The last words bled from her as she fell to her knees.
Chalia let out a whimper, her spine bowing under the weight of some unseen anguish.
“What are you doing to her? How are you doing this?”
Chalia’s mother was right. Whatever connection there was between Sofia and Chalia, she was hurting her. Her grief was ripping through the dragon, and Fox wasn’t sure if the young creature could handle it.
He moved, careful to step around her, so she saw him coming. He was gentle as he gripped her chin, turning her to face him. Her eyes screwed shut.
“Sofia, look at me,” he said, words a whisper between them. “You need to breathe.”
She shook her head, his fingers falling from her.
“Can’t,” she gasped out. “Can’t.”
The ground shook beneath Aurelia’s claws as they pounded the ground in anger.
Fox’s panic rose as Micael let out a growl of frustration. All the while, Sofia’s breathing was becoming more erratic.
He pressed his hand to her chest, feeling the shallow rise and fall of her chest. He exhaled, the rest of the mountain falling away until it was just Sofia and him crouching together.
“Shh,” he said. “Breathe. Follow me.”
He stepped closer, pressing a kiss against her forehead, speaking his words against her skin. “Slowly.”
Her chest was warm beneath his palm, and he felt her breathing begin to slow, even as hot tears fell against his neck where her face was pressed.
Only when she was breathing with him, her chest rising and falling in the rhythm of his own breaths did he take a step away. He turned to look over his shoulder at the others.
Aurelia had fallen still. Chalia was quiet again, though Fox saw her wing twitch.
“Are we done here?” he asked, his voice cold.
He thought for just a moment that Aurelia looked guilty, her brow low over her eyes.
“We are inviting you to camp outside of the nesting grounds so we can discuss the next steps—if you are able to control your emotional outbursts.”
Fox, Sofia still wrapped in his arms, glared at the dragon. “Emotional outbursts? Perhaps gods feel no grief, but humans do. If you want to work with us now, you’ll have to accept our emotions.”
“You hurt my daughter,” the dragon said, an icy snort expelling from her nose as she stretched her neck up, towering over where Fox stood. “I will not tolerate that again.”
A spike of fear shot through Fox, but he straightened his shoulders, refusing to back down.
“I don’t know what happened with Chalia,” he said, “but that’s not her fault. Sofia would never hurt Chalia on purpose. And you will not threaten her.”
No one moved, the air seeming to hold its breath as Fox stared the dragon down—as if he had any chance against the creature. As if his hand weren’t shaking where it was tucked at his side. But he would go to war with the gods to protect Sofia.
At last, Chalia’s mother bent her head in some semblance of a bow. “Very well. Be ready to leave in seven flaps, as the dragon flies.”
Fox blinked, not quite sure what that meant. But before he could ask, Aurelia stretched her wings, talons scraping into the snow as she launched into the air and streaked north. Jobin and Chalia remained.
“So—” Fox asked Chalia.
“She’ll be back before the sun reaches its zenith.”
“Right,” he said, looking at where the sun was in the sky. It was already fairly high up, and he wasn’t sure how long it would be until it was at its highest. “We should tell the others to pack.”
By the time the dragons returned, the snow along the edge of the cave was melting, leaving them all a little wet as they moved their things outside to wait.
Sofia had calmed. Fox wouldn’t say she was doing well, but Chalia was able to maneuver over to where she was standing, rubbing her head against Sofia until she reached over and wrapped Chalia’s nose in a hug.
Fox knew it couldn’t be possible, but he could have sworn the dragon was looking bigger than she had a few weeks ago when he’d first seen her flying up and out of the canyon.
It was a reminder that, despite her size, Chalia was still a growing child.
The towering figure of her mother foretold just how large she might get.
Aurelia showed up with Chalia’s father, along with another dragon Fox thought he recognized from their initial meeting, though he wasn’t sure.
There were more dragons than they needed to move the two dozen of the party, but Fox was sure that Chalia’s mother didn’t want to carry any of them.
Whether this was out of pride or a lack of trust, he wasn’t sure.
Fox followed Sofia onto Chalia’s back without asking, and she allowed him to wrap his hands around her waist, though she didn’t lean back into him.
He bit his tongue and tried not to read into it.
Javi followed, climbing up in front of Sofia—Fox could only assume that he didn’t want to sit next to Fox, though the looks he threw his way had softened over the last day.
The rest of them spread out between the other three dragons, holding their bags and supplies tightly to their chests as they rose over the snow and shot north.
The flight to the nesting grounds seemed shorter than it had the first time.
Chalia took the lead when they came closer, flying low over the pass and then slowing down before the illusion that hid the nesting grounds broke.
But he thought he saw a shimmer along the horizon, a ripple in the air that showed something wasn’t right just down the slope.
“There’s a cave system here,” Chalia said as she landed in the snow. “It’s similar to the one you were just staying in, with hot springs within the mountain keeping it warm.”
“And how far of a walk is it to the nesting grounds from here?” Micael asked from where he was sitting on Jobin’s back.
“That is none of your—” Chalia’s mother started, but she stopped suddenly as Chalia’s father snapped at her, his jaws biting at the air with a soft huff.
“It is walkable,” her father said, “but my mate would prefer you wait for us to come get you before entering the grounds. We have many dragons who are still hesitant to trust, and we would like to allow them to choose where they are when you come to speak with us. Chalia will remain out here with you if she wishes. She will contact us if you need anything.”
With that, they flew off, leaving them at the mouth of the cave.
The front cavern was larger than the one they’d just left, and not as warm, due to the massive opening, but there were three caverns directly connected to it, each one warmer than the last. As Fox explored deeper, he smelled the deep sulfur of a hot spring, though he couldn’t find its source.
When he returned to the rest of the party, Sofia had laid out their bedrolls and furs beside each other, and she was already lying down, curled in a ball.
The way her shoulders shook, he could tell that she was crying, despite the silence.
He didn’t wonder how she’d gotten so good at silencing her pain.
He toed off his boots and lay down beside her, wondering if she wanted him there.
But she quietly pressed her back into him, letting him wrap his arms around her.
He tried not to think about the dragons down the mountain. He tried not to think about the army on the other side of the pass—about his mother, or Ian, or Harlow, or his father.
Yet the tears came unbidden, and he pressed his face into her curls until all he could think about was the smell of her.
They fell asleep curled together, yet alone in their grief.