Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
There was a light tap on the door, and though Rhylan didn’t move, I instinctively flinched back from the kiss.
Kirana pushed it open, cradling jars and clutching pristine white linens. Her gaze flicked between us, but she set her jaw and came in.
“We need to clean it,” she said softly, sitting beside me. Rhylan made room for her, but he didn’t release my hands. “At least it’ll heal fast, with so much of the nutrient tonic in you, but I don’t want to risk scarring. You really should’ve cleaned this up before letting it sit for so long.”
She uncorked a jar and dipped in a handkerchief-sized linen, and began gently wiping the crusted blood off my cheek. Rhylan stroked his thumb over my wrists as she worked, his grip tightening ever so slightly whenever I winced at the sting of it.
Tears stung the back of my eyes by the time she began the application of a balm she assured me would prevent scarring, and only when she was done did I give voice to the thoughts I’d been stewing over the entire time.
“Rhylan…Kirana…if this is all over…” The words wanted to stick in my throat, sickening as they were to say. “You’ll never have justice for Loralei now.”
Rhylan climbed onto the bed next to me. His jaw was set, eyes flickering. “It’s not over. Not until I’ve killed Tidas. Not until I see you on the throne.”
I glanced at him, unable to hide my disbelief. “She knows we’re breaking the Law.”
“Does she?” he asked, his voice flat. “Did she say that?”
“Not in those exact words, but—”
“Then it’s not over.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. He stared down at the fingers curled in his lap. “I can come up with a thousand excuses why we put the safety straps on there. She can’t prove we aren’t mate bonded.”
Kirana cleared her throat. “She technically could, Rhylan. It’s easy enough to separate you two, ask you questions, see if you can answer from a distance…and if you can’t, when you can’t, the game is over.”
That muscle twitched again, and he turned his burning gaze on his sister. “We’re not going to give her the opportunity to try that.”
“Rhylan…I want him to answer for Loralei, too,” she said quietly. “But this has gone from a workable plan to complete madness.”
He closed his eyes. I slipped my hand over his, lacing our fingers together, and he squeezed them tightly.
“Maybe it is madness,” he admitted. “But I’m not giving up. Not yet. As long as Sera is with me, we keep going. We’ve already gone too far, Kirana. There’s nothing to be gained by backing down now.”
“Our lives.” Her jaw jutted stubbornly as she spoke, another expression that seemed to run in the Obsidian Flame family. “We get to live.”
“We knew we were risking death going in, and everyone agreed to it,” he growled. “Maybe you can find peace. I truly hope you do. But as long as he lives, I can’t.”
“Sera?” Kirana turned her gaze on me, and I wanted to shrink away. I didn’t want to be responsible for the lives of everyone in their House, but…Rhylan was right.
There was no way to stand back, to pretend this had never happened. Even if we were to withdraw at the Second Claim, we would still be forced into the position of backing the Shadowed Stars…and there would still be a war. Yura would never bow to them.
And as long as there was going to be war, I wanted to be at the head of the front lines.
“I’m with Rhylan,” I said, forcing myself not to look away from her. If I was going to disappoint her with my vote, Kirana deserved to be looked directly in the eyes. “No matter what happens, we’ve already gone too far. It’s better to see this through, and keep pretending, or we will always be in the palm of Chantrelle’s hand.”
I had calmed enough to realize that all was not lost. Maybe it was Rhylan’s presence at my side, the heat of a dragon soothing me from the cold, but tucked up here against him, it felt like being in a protective shield.
He shielded me enough to let the hope grow again.
“All she claimed was that I was a liar…” I said. “But she didn’t outright accuse me of faking the mate bond with him. Maybe an excuse will be enough…the gods know I was in rough shape when you brought me home. Perhaps I was too weak to ride properly until now. Who wouldn’t believe it? But…I think we should get rid of the safety straps. Give no one a reason to believe anything is out of place.”
“Sera, that’s an awful idea.” Kirana reared back. “They’re on the saddle for a reason.”
Rhylan gazed at me thoughtfully. “After all the mistakes we’ve made, though…”
I pressed a finger to my cheek, feeling greasy salve over the sting. Clarity had returned to me after the hours of mindless panic. “Sure, we’ve made mistakes. And we’ve learned from them. Just promise me you won’t roll over in the sky and we’ll be fine. If we get rid of them, then at the Second Claim, if Chantrelle pulls out that strap as proof and they find nothing similar on us…” I shrugged. “Chantrelle looks like a fool and a liar. We turn it right back around on her.”
“And everyone would be expecting her to lie, anyway,” Rhylan said, a touch of glee entering his voice. “As long as you’re comfortable with flying without them…”
I nodded. “I’ll do it to finish this. I won’t let Chantrelle be the reason we give up.”
Kirana stood up with a sigh, brushing her hands off on her thighs like she was washing her hands of the entire plan. “All right. If you two insist on being suicidal, by all means, go ahead and suit yourselves. I’m going to go get ready for my flight, or Viros will be upset I missed it and I’ll have to go amend that godsforsaken logbook.”
She stalked out of the room like an offended cat, clutching her jars and muttering darkly to herself.
Before I could speak, Rhylan grabbed me, pulling me to his chest.
“Thank you,” he said, brushing his lips over my forehead. “You don’t have to do this, I don’t want you to feel like you’re playing with your life, but—”
I pushed away just enough to tilt my head back and look up at him. “I am playing with my life. Without the mind-speech, it’s all one massive risk. The straps could fail at any moment, and you would have no idea. But if I’m going to do this…then I’m going to see it all the way through. If I have to take risks to ensure your family receives justice, then I’m taking the risks. I refuse to give in to Chantrelle when so much more is at stake.”
“I know.” He leaned against me, and I felt his lips moving against my hair. “I wish I didn’t have to ask you to ride blind.”
I closed my eyes, breathing in his smoky, spicy scent, and wondered…if the mate bond hadn’t happened after last night, it would probably never happen. I had wanted Rhylan for so long that if given the opportunity to manifest, the bond should’ve settled into our souls within three seconds of our lips touching.
Perhaps his desire for that other draga, the mysterious, unnamed siren who haunted my nightmares, was the reason for it. He could have his entertainment and never worry about the bond, because that part of him had already been given away.
I pushed the disappointment aside. I had wanted to end this alone and free; it looked like I would get my wish.
But I was willing to do this because, despite my unrequited longing, I thought that now, maybe, we could call ourselves friends.
He was, truly, my first real friend.
“Whatever it takes,” I told him coolly, standing up and escaping the warmth of his arms. He might have given me peace and clarity, but remembering that draga made me want to put him back at a distance. “We’ll have Viros remove all the safety measures. We’ll leave nothing that might give Chantrelle’s claims a solid basis. Even if we need an entirely new saddle—I don’t want a single stitch left behind as proof.”
As I’d moved, he’d reached out for me as though to draw me back, his hand hanging in midair—but he slowly pulled it back.
“Sera…fine. I’ll talk to Viros now. He’s going to have a heart seizure when I tell him we need to have everything changed again.” He smiled up at me, the twist of his mouth wry. “I don’t deserve you.”
I blinked in surprise. What? No. He had it all wrong.
I would never forget that my life had been ripped away because of him…but he hadn’t meant to do that to me. He had brought me back. He had done everything he could to ensure that our plan met my expectations, to help me become my old self again.
I did not deserve him, nor his faith in me. But I would do my best to see his vengeance through.
“Maybe I don’t deserve you,” I said quietly. “I’ll see Kirana off. Everything will be all right.”
I left his room and shut the door behind me, making my way down to the wyvern roost.
There was no sign of Alriss, but Kirana was already there. Garnet had been harnessed; with the saddle and elaborate straps on the wyvern’s back, I could easily see where the inspiration had been pulled from to create the harness that had nearly been our undoing.
Kirana buckled her saddlebags onto the wyvern’s harness, and fed Garnet a long strip of dried meat as the wyvern’s head cocked towards me, her amber eyes brightening.
“I hoped you would come,” Kirana said, her back to me. She stroked the wyvern’s beaded snout. “I have something I want to say to you without Rhylan around. And I don’t want you to interrupt me.”
The draga turned, pinning me to the spot with her hazel eyes.
I nodded. After all she’d done for me, she deserved to say her piece.
Kirana took a deep breath, blinking hard, and looked up at the ceiling as though she could see the sky beyond the mountain overhead. “I want Tidas to answer for Loralei’s death as much as Rhylan does. I really do. It…it shattered us, what happened. I lost my mother, my father, my little sister…even the dragon I loved, all within two years. I thought we’d never come back from that.” She looked back at me, her eyes glittering with unshed tears.
“But we did. I did.” She thumped her fist over her heart. “I found my calling. I made a name for myself outside of my bloodline’s expectations. I’ll never have my family back, but I rebuilt a lot of what I’d lost. And now I’m afraid I’m going to lose my brother, too.
“He’s obsessed, Sera. He will do anything to kill Tidas, even if it means his death. Even if it means your death. There is nothing he would not do if it meant he dragged Tidas to the Nine Hells with him. And as much as I want vengeance for what Tidas did to my family…I don’t know if I want it if it means losing Rhylan, too. Not anymore. I rebuilt myself, but I don’t think I could survive losing everyone.”
It was an effort not to drop my gaze to the floor, to hide from what she was saying. Because I understood her entirely…and yet I knew I would not listen.
Kirana wiped her eyes hurriedly, setting her jaw. “I don’t want you to say anything, or to tell me that you’re here for your own vengeance. I already know. I just want you to think about it, because he won’t listen to me. I think…I think maybe he’d listen to you, though. But it won’t work if you encourage him, if you let him drag you into these situations. No sane draga would ride a dragon without a mate bond. You’re risking your life for this, and he’s going to happily let you throw it away for…for a sister who is already dead. She’s never coming back. None of this changes the past. But we can still change the future. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself on the altar of Rhylan’s hatred.”
I said nothing. I understood her, and what she meant, but…my loyalty was to Rhylan first.
“Just think about it. That’s all I ask.” She turned and mounted Garnet, murmuring a few nonsense words to the wyvern as she began to buckle the straps around her legs and waist.
“I will,” I said honestly, knowing that I would consider her thoughts…and then I would discard them.
I was glad she had rebuilt her life, that she was willing to move on with some measure of peace. She did not have the fires of retribution in her soul, licking at her veins and threatening to scorch her entire being to ash.
But Rhylan and I did.
“If I could have revenge in any other way, I would take it in a heartbeat. I just don’t want to lose everything I love for it. And Sera…I’ve left you two bottles of the nutrient tonic. By now, you’ll be feeling the effects of going without dragon’s blood.” She tapped Garnet’s shoulder with a leather crop, and the wyvern mantled her wings, striding towards the roost’s open ceiling. Kirana gave me a sharp look as her mount circled me. “Nilsa is under instruction to bring you my headache cure, which you will likely need. But I’m cutting you off. I’m not going to watch both of you kill yourselves for this.”
“We’re not killing ourselves—” I started to hiss, my fists clenched, and Kirana’s lips curled in a knowing smile.
“You are. You just don’t realize it yet. Goodbye for now, Sera. I’ll do my best with Undying Light and the Hordes. If I don’t return within two weeks, Viros has contingency plans.”
My anger faded as quickly as it’d come. Shame rushed through me in a hot flood for snapping at Kirana like that, when all she wanted was so simple. Just for her family to make it through this alive…and to not turn me into a Naga.
It really wasn’t that much to ask for.
“Larivor guide you. Naimah light your way. Be safe, Kirana.”
She reached to take my outstretched hand, squeezing my fingers. “You, too. Remember to think about what I said. I’ll see you soon.”
I stood back, allowing Garnet to surge forward and take flight through the roost’s opening. I watched the sliver of sky until the red speck of the wyvern faded into the twilight, and then walked up the spiral staircase slowly, doing as Kirana had asked and thinking on what she’d said.
I did believe her, truly. Rhylan hid it well enough, but if he thought for a second that he could drag Tidas into a volcano’s mouth along with him…I believed he might do it.
But nor could I pull back. Not now.
Not while my own revenge was so close I could almost grasp it with both hands, so close I could almost taste it.
And it was the taste of iron and blood on my tongue.
Rhylan and I understood each other, on some deep, unspoken level: that we would go down together if it meant Yura and Tidas died, too.
Because that would mean we’d won. I could live without sitting on the throne, so long as Yura never touched it, either.
I went to my room and washed, locking my door against Nilsa and enjoying the quiet. Even Myst was conspicuously absent, though I’d expected her to appear and harangue me about mate bonds.
But now I could tell her I’d done the deed. I’d lost my virginity to a dragon I respected deeply, considered a true friend. I’d made myself completely vulnerable.
But the mate bond hadn’t settled on us. It wasn’t for us.
I had no right to be disappointed. Not after years of hating Rhylan for what he’d done. Not after weeks of telling myself I wanted to be able to walk away.
I paused in the middle of scrubbing my legs, scowling at the soap.
How had everything gone so wrong? If I’d just been braver, bolder, more assertive when I was in the Training Grounds, my life could have taken a completely different trajectory. Maybe Rhylan would never have met this draga he was so attached to that he couldn’t form a bond with me.
Maybe I could have talked my mother into reneging on her agreement with the Razored Cinders, and entering into a new one with Obsidian Flame…
But now, as things stood, the ghosts of our parents would always stand between us.
“You’re being idiotic,” I grumbled to myself, resuming the scrubbing. “You didn’t want a mate bond, anyway.”
I washed my hair with unnecessary violence and got out of the bath, dripping and angry, and yanked on a little black silk-and-lace night dress that looked like something that should be worn for a mate.
Not that I wanted one.
I sat on my bed. Saw the open windows, the doors, every opening I could be attacked from.
With a growl, I crept onto the floor and under the bed, curling up in my nest. My chest was already squeezing tight, threatening to expel all my air and lock up like a cage.
I counted to ten, pushing away all conscious thought, focusing on nothing but dragging air back into my lungs before they collapsed.
And when I’d refilled them for the third time, fighting the pain under my ribs, something wrapped around my ankle.
I expelled all my hard-won air with a shriek as the thing yanked me out from under the bed, raising my fingers to claw at the intruder—
Rhylan grabbed my hand before I could slash, folding my fingers down. He scooped me up, eyes flashing with irritation. “You’re not sleeping under there again.”
He bounced me up and down until I put my arms around his neck. “You want me to sleep in your bed?”
“Obviously. Where else should you be sleeping?”
“My own room,” I said. “Because we don’t have to pretend while we’re here.”
His jaw tightened as he kicked his own door open and carried me through. “You’d really rather sleep under a bed than in here with me? Is it the snoring that bothers you? The cuddling? Or is it that you have to be emotionally vulnerable for longer than five minutes?”
“What makes you think my emotions are vulnerable just because we’re cuddling?” I asked, in the haughtiest tone of voice I could muster.
“Ugh.” He threw me on his bed. “You just have to be like that, don’t you? Well, here’s how it’s going to be: you’re going to cuddle. You’re going to be emotionally vulnerable. You’re going to get eaten alive, and you’re going to scream for me and love every second of it. Understand?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, rolling away and grabbing a pillow to shield myself with.
He plucked it out of my hands and threw it, then grabbed my ankle and pulled me closer. “Yes or no, Sera.”
Rhylan’s eyes gleamed with banked inner flames. It was the sight of him arched over me, muscles taut, keeping my ankles pinned so I couldn’t roll away, that decided me.
“Yes. But…I get to do…what you did. I want to do it for you.”
The banked flames flickered, and a slow, sensuous smile spread across his mouth. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.” I licked my lips, wracked with both anxiety and anticipation, and slid forward. Rhylan didn’t stop me as I reached for his waistband, the bulge of his cock already visible and limned against the dark material of his pants.
He sucked in a slight breath as I pulled them down, letting my fingertips glide over silky skin and smooth scales. His cock sprang free, already stiff, a deep shade of golden-pink and smooth as satin.
I traced the scales on his muscular thighs, letting my fingers trail upwards until his cock twitched. With a slight smile, I wrapped my fingers around his shaft, more than a little astounded that I’d taken all of it into myself already. He was much bigger than many of the dragons I’d seen before.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted plaintively.
Rhylan let out a breathy laugh. “Do whatever you want.”
He had tasted me…so I wanted to taste him. I tentatively stroked his shaft, feeling it throb in my fingers, and carefully wrapped my lips around the flared crown.
Rhylan groaned, his hips jerking, and he caught a handful of my hair. I hesitated, half expecting a yank or a hard push, like I’d seen some of the dragons on Mistward do to their chosen bed-mates, but…he merely kept a hand on me, letting me do what I wanted to him.
The tension melted from my shoulders. I focused on the slight salt-and-spice taste of him, the slickness of my tongue against iron-hard rigidity overlaid with silk.
At first I felt clumsy, but as my mouth slipped further down his shaft, taking more of him into my mouth, his soft panting breaths and groans eased my fears.
I sucked, letting my teeth gently graze him, and was rewarded with the sensation of his hard flesh throbbing.
“Gods, Sera,” he whispered above me.
In and out, in and out. I curled my tongue around him, desire thrumming through me, my pulse pounding in my ears. I cupped the heavy sack between his legs, watching his thighs flex as I kneaded and stroked, my tongue never ceasing.
As I felt the crown slip further into my mouth, Rhylan hissed in a breath, his fingers tightening. He withdrew himself, cock glossy from my own saliva, and started to push me back, but I halted him with a hand to my chest.
“I get to choose today,” I commanded. “You lay down.”
He paused, clearly debating an internal struggle, but finally relented, sprawling across the bed. My core tightened, anticipating the heat of the previous night.
“Fine, but that comes off.” He hooked a claw through the ridiculous night dress. “Skin and scales.”
With a smirk, I pulled it over my head and tossed it aside, then prowled up the length of his body until I straddled him.
His cock was trapped against me, nudging at the apex of my thighs. I shifted until his thick crown was positioned against him, and lowered myself onto him with a wriggle.
He slid in an inch or so, then my body clenched up.
“Go slow,” he said, gazing up at me with heavy-lidded eyes. “Do what you want.”
What I wanted was to completely lose myself, to take all of him in a frenzy of wild heat, but…I wasn’t there yet.
So bit by bit, I worked myself onto him. When I slid to his base, watching with satisfaction as the hard ridges of his abdomen flexed, I leaned forward to kiss him.
His tongue slid over my lower lip, forcing me to open for him. My hips rolled against him, heat coursing through me in an inferno as I ground against the thick muscle of his lower stomach.
Rhylan growled, biting my lip gently, thrusting upwards to meet me. This time I was ready for the sensation of fullness, riding against him stroke for stroke.
The heat was a delicious spiral, and when he gasped, hips pumping upwards, bolts of lightning ran through my nerves, my core clenching around him.
I shivered despite the heat, so close to the edge of the liquid loss of control, the earth-shaking crescendo I chased, but I didn’t want it to be over yet.
Not when I had Rhylan beneath me, a dragon at the mercy of my pace, my desires.
I ran my claws over his chest, riding him slowly, watching his muscles tense and release in time with my motions.
Tasted him on my tongue, breathed in his spicy scent, made him a part of me.
My skin prickled all over at the sight of him straining to fill me, and I rocked against him harder, faster, wanting to watch him come undone.
My dragon…he was the fire that raced through me, chaining me to him with smoke and cinders.
His sensuous lips, full and pillowy, drew back in a snarl, eyes flashing as he thrust upwards, a groan escaping him.
That was all it took to send me over. I rode him hard, core aching, until the climax rocked me, forcing me to shudder against him and ride out each and every wave of pleasure.
When I finally came to a halt, panting, pushing my hair back over my shoulders, he lifted a hand to run a finger over my collar bone, running between my breasts and down my stomach.
“I really like that,” I whispered, ducking my head. Once more I was torn between the feeling of rightness, of being so close to completing the other half of my dragon’s circle, and embarrassment at my lack of experience. “Can we…do this again tomorrow?”
Rhylan held me in place, that lazy grin back in place.
“What makes you think we’re done now, Sera?” he asked. “You haven’t screamed for me yet.”