Chapter 37
Yalina
I try to look, but I only catch a glimpse of Kaelun standing in the middle of the wide-open space, holding Jah’ruud’s lamp before a cruel hand forces my head down again, pulling my hair until my eyes water.
“How did you get free?” Tharael growls.
Kaelun laughs. “You think a few guards and a cage is going to hold me? This is not my first time being arrested.”
“What kind of prince are you?”
He laughs. “Not a prince at all. Just a lowly street thief. But I guess that’s exactly who she needs.”
There’s pause, and I wish I could see what was happening. Is he going to fight Tharael? I grow chill just thinking about what might happen.
Then Kaelun calls, “Jah’ruud?”
Jah’ruud’s reply would make me laugh under other circumstances. “Would you stop fooling around and wish?”
“You always know how to spoil a climax. Fine, then. I wish for you to be free.”
“About fucking time!” There’s a roar of wind and all the windows shatter at once with a great crash.
Tharael yanks me to my feet and presses a sharp claw to my throat. “Make one wrong move and she dies.”
Everything freezes. Thousands of tiny shards of glass clatter to the floor with a tinkle. I can finally see Kaelun and Jah’ruud, both in the process of attacking surrounding guards.
Tharael’s claw presses against my throat, cutting off my air. His other hand is so tight in my hair my scalp stings.
There’s a ferocious snarl behind us. Then, suddenly, the hand around my throat is gone and I can breathe.
“Do not touch my mate. Any of them.” Aurelion’s voice is colder and deadlier than I’ve ever heard it.
He clings tight to Tharael’s back, rendering the king’s wings useless.
Tharael scrabbles at his brother’s hold, but I know that determined look in Aurelion’s eyes.
Then Aurelion jabs a claw through the thin membrane on the king’s wing and tears. There’s an awful roar.
Chaos breaks out again in the rest of the room. Shouts and the whoosh of wind and smashing furniture. Something flies past my head and I duck, covering myself with my arms as best I can.
Kaelun appears beside me and gathers me against his side. “Let’s get you out of danger.”
I’m about to ask him how, but he simply sidesteps a swinging tail, dragging me out of the way of a flying chair. Then instantly we’re six feet in front without feeling like we moved at all.
A guard howls as he crashes against the wall and falls to the floor, still and silent. Behind us Aurelion and Tharael wrestle desperately, but I cannot watch. Kaelun just keeps moving us through the destruction, somehow narrowly avoiding being hit with anything.
We make it across the room to Jah’ruud’s side. With a sweep of Jah’ruud’s hand, the rest of the guards are cast aside. The walls tremble.
At that very moment, Aurelion grips Tharael’s head with both his hands, clawed feet digging into his brother’s shoulders.
Then he sinks his teeth into the flesh there, tossing his head until the king lets out a choked cry.
Aurelion clings on until the king’s arms stop flailing and he shudders.
Then he spreads his wings and leaps away, letting his brother’s body drop to the floor.
Another two guards come charging into the throne room. Jah’ruud lifts a hand and they drop to their knees, clutching at their throats. A moment later they join the other bodies littering the floor.
I stare around us at the destruction. The throne is smashed in pieces. None of the window glass remains. One of the walls is a crumbling mess.
I feel nothing, only a slight chill at the ends of my fingers.
Jah’ruud’s strong hands grip my arms lightly. “You are safe, precious one.”
I turn to him, trying to shut the image of the king’s death and the feel of his claws on my skin from my mind. “And you are free.”
His smile is slow and fierce. “I am free to give myself to you properly.”
I look up at him with the best smile I can muster. “I will cherish your vows on another day less tainted.”
Aurelion strides over, running his hands over my body. “Are you hurt, rhkash? I am sorry I let him touch you at all.”
“I am fine.” I pat the hand that caresses my face, but the room spins, and I suddenly feel weary right down to my bones.
“I just need to rest a while.” I look around but there is nowhere to sit down.
None of the furniture survived. One of the marble columns is cracked through the center, and there is glass everywhere.
“Where is a bed?” Jah’ruud asks gruffly.
A moment later I’m scooped up into arms I belatedly realize are Aurelion’s red scaly ones. He holds me close to his chest. “Follow me.”
I’m carried out of the chaos we made of the throne room into a dark corridor and down a set of steps into a cool white room with a shallow pool at the center and a daybed below a mural of the sea.
Aurelion lays me down, and they all hover next to me as if I’m an invalid.
“Some water. A wet cloth for her face. She is too hot.”
With a flick of his hand, Jah’ruud summons a breeze full of cool water droplets that kisses my cheeks and forehead.
Kaelun fusses with my dress, pulling the strip that Tharael tore up so I am covered.
I do not know what became of Vahn’s body or why I think of it just now.
I wonder if I should have it brought home.
I do not ask them about it. I do not think I can deal with that right now.
“There are more guards and soldiers outside the palace,” says Aurelion quietly.
“Don’t kill them.” This suddenly seems very important.
His expression darkens and his wings flex. “I would kill every last one if you commanded it.”
“But she has not,” Jah’ruud cuts in. “And she will not.”
Aurelion sighs. “Forgive me. It is my fault for not seeing the extent of the danger in bringing you here. For not keeping you safe.”
I lift my hand to touch his cheek and he stills. “It is Tharael’s fault. He violated our alliance.” “And he paid the price,” returns Aurelion coldly. I wonder if he truly has no regrets for killing his own brother. But I do not judge. I never had a sibling.
“Is it safe for us to stay here tonight?” asks Kaelun.
“I will make it safe,” declares Jah’ruud.
“I will help.” Aurelion straightens.
Before I can call them back they are off, leaving me with Kaelun, who sits beside me on the daybed, tucking a light blanket over my legs.
“Lie with me?”
He does not say anything but tucks himself into the space behind me and holds me for a time.
Eventually the numb leaves my limbs and I am warm again.
“What have we done?” I whisper, thinking of all the dragons who until today had been living their lives, oblivious to the fact their king was stealing Vathiran water.
“What he would have done to your kingdom if we’d let him.”
I sigh. “Does that make it right?”
Kaelun is quiet for a while and then he speaks.
“I am not a prince. I am not educated. I do not know how to rule a kingdom, but since you asked me, yes, I think it does. I think it’s OK to stop other people doing awful things to you and yours.
Even if that means doing violence. Because I think in the end you will help make everyone’s lives better. ”
“What if I cannot?”
“You will try.”
I tuck the blanket higher, snuggling back against his warmth. “I’m not sure if that’s enough.”
“It has to be.” He kisses the back of my head, and I close my eyes, though I do not sleep.
After a very long time, Aurelion and Jah’ruud return and assure me the palace is secure and the city is subdued for now.
Aurelion marches in a line of dragon maids, their starched white uniforms standing out beautifully against their colorful scaly skin and wide delicate wings spanning out behind. “You must eat and bathe. A room will be prepared for you.”
“I am not hungry.”
Nevertheless, he leads me to a series of small chambers filled with steam or cold plunge pools or hot oiled stones.
I am stripped and steamed, oiled and massaged and bathed and oiled again until I look almost like myself.
Then a maid takes me to a grand banquet hall, and we sit down to an elaborate dinner, just the four of us, but I cannot eat a bite.
When the others have finished their meals, Kaelun leans to Aurelion. “Where did you say that room was being prepared? She needs to rest.”
“You are right.”
Once again I’m gathered up and carried like a small child to a new room without any real concept of where we are going. Palace servants scurry to and fro, bowing to us as they pass. I wonder what they are thinking. I wonder if they wish for their king back.
When Aurelion ushers us into an enormous suite, the first thing I notice is the wind that stirs my long hair and instantly cools me. I look around at Jah’ruud, but it isn’t him.
Aurelion grins. “The royal suites are built to take advantage of the sea breeze.” He shows us through the space to where a whole wall of the room is open to an expansive balcony. The balcony looks out over a long drop to the ocean which rages against the rocks below.
I feel like a falcon up here. I stand so close to the edge Aurelion winds his arm around my waist and draws me back a step. “Be careful, rhkash. Remember you cannot fly.”
“Up here I almost feel as if I could.”
He nuzzles his nose into my neck. “We shall when everything has settled. I will take you.”
“Were these your brother’s rooms?” asks Jah’ruud bluntly.
“These are my rooms.”
I look around, allowing myself to take in my surroundings now that I feel more myself.
Though the room is essentially open to the desert air, it is cool and comfortable.
Angled stone shutters keep the sun from penetrating far into the room and tiled floors help with temperature control.
The spaces between furniture are large—I suppose for Aurelion’s shifted form.
There is a large stone table with generous chairs and a sunken lounge with plentiful cushions and an enormous bed to the far right.
Light is reflected from mosaics made from thousands of shards of crystal and glass, sparkling off the walls and ceiling and making the room dance with color.
“I like it here,” I tell him.
“Good. Rest. Lie down. I will have anything you need brought to us.”
I’m not tired—not anymore, but I go to the bed and tuck myself beneath the bedspread, looking out at the ocean beyond.
The others talk in hushed voices, and though it pleases me that they are getting along so well, I am frustrated to be excluded from their conversation.
I cannot muster the energy to rise from the bed, though, so I let their words wash over me like the ocean breeze.
It grows dark, and still I cannot sleep. I lie in bed, rolling from one side to the other, unable to relax my mind.
First Aurelion and then Kaelun come to curl themselves around me, but I cannot keep still.
Once they drift to sleep, I sneak out of the bed and back to the balcony where the wind whips my hair into my face.
I sit with my legs dangling over the edge and stare out into the night sky, counting the stars, wondering what comes next.