Chapter 46
ISI
The moment Trew had left the ballroom, I raced over to Lexie. “We need to go.” Before she could speak, I latched onto her arm and dragged her across the room, Derren protesting behind us. Until he saw my face. Then he quietly followed. Kerralyn wasn’t far behind.
I didn’t stop until I reached my room, where I hustled my friends inside. After locking the door, I leaned against it and scanned their faces.
“We’ve got trouble,” I said, and I wasn’t referring to what happened between me and Trew in his private garden. That, I wanted to savor. But I didn’t have time for something like that.
His taste still clung to my lips, a reminder that some hungers were more dangerous than any Skathe.
“While I was with Trew,” I said, “Kira came storming over.”
“Let me guess. She tried to steal him away,” Lexie said with a sneer.
“No, well, I’m sure she’d like to.” Though I suspected there was no ploy she could use that would work, and wasn’t that amazing? “She said Skathes were attacking one of the villages.”
Their eyes widened. Kerralyn sank down on my bed, her journal slipping from her hands to thunk on the floor by her feet. The fact that she didn’t pick it up told me how horrified she must feel.
“Where?” Lexie asked.
I frowned, trying to remember. “Greenhaven.”
“On the southwestern border,” Derren said.
I spun, presenting my back. “Unlace me. I’m going to follow him.” Help if I could. People were dying. I couldn’t stay here while Trew and his team defended us all.
Lexie’s fingers worked the same laces Trew’s hands had whispered across hours ago. Where his touch had set me on fire, hers only reminded me of what I was leaving behind.
“I’m not sure following the king is a good idea,” Kerralyn said, standing and scooping up her book, tucking it under her arm.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Derren said, a sly grin blooming on his handsome face. “Which is why we’re doing it.”
“Exactly.”
I hurried over and yanked open my wardrobe. My hands shook as I grabbed a clean set of leathers. In the bathing area, I stripped, tossing the pretty gown over the side of the tub and dragging on the leather outfit.
I couldn’t believe I was considering following, but there was no choice. Trew needed me, and I was going to him. I fastened the straps with more speed than skill.
A primal force clawed at my skin, a need that went bone deep. Inside, magic thrummed restlessly as if it knew he was flying toward danger.
My soul knew its match. My mind just hadn’t quite caught up to that fact.
Back in my room, I found they’d changed into their own fighting gear and returned.
“Provisions.” Kerralyn held up a leather bag.
Lexie grinned ferally and tapped the hilt of the sword strapped to her spine. “I, um, borrowed it from the armory. My father taught me how to use a very similar blade.”
“She’s deadly,” Derren said with the same grin. He stroked the hilt of the shorter blade on his hip. “As I am with this.”
Another weapon “borrowed” from the armory?
We left my room and slipped through the castle, cutting through hallways and stepping out the back door and into the crisp night air.
“Where is the aerie?” I asked. I should’ve stopped in the kitchen and begged the cooks to tell me.
“This way.” Kerralyn pointed. “I haven’t been there myself.” A shiver tracked through her. “But a friend works there and told me once where they were.”
“Which friend?” Lexie asked as we raced across the open grassy area.
Kerralyn shrugged. “I’m not sure he’s a friend any longer.”
We shared long looks before following her down a path winding through the woods.
When something landed lightly on my shoulder, it was all I could do not to shriek. I reeled my head to the side, meeting Pherin’s gaze.
Left me, she more or less said. She couldn’t speak, but that was the impression she gave me. Need me.
I’m sure I do, I sent back, though since I used words in my mind, I wasn’t sure she’d understand.
When she preened, I knew she had.
Just…try not to get into trouble, I sent to the minxpip.
She huffed.
“I should’ve brought my companion,” Derren said.
“Same,” Lexie grunted. “Too late to go back now.”
We crept through the woods, trying to keep our footsteps light, but sticks kept snapping beneath our boots. I was sure whoever worked at the aerie would hear us coming from cliks away.
At the edge of the woods, we stopped, milling around, studying the moonlit open area we’d have to cross to reach the entrance of the enormous stone aerie.
The dragon nest had been built on the crest of the cliffs so that dragons could fly out of their stalls and into the valley beyond.
The mountains loomed darkly around us, and a brisk gust of wind from the valley nearly knocked me off my feet.
Moonlight painted everything silver-soft, the kind of light that made ordinary moments feel like magic.
“Have any of you ever ridden a dragon?” Kerralyn asked softly.
“It’s like riding a horse, only with wings, right?” Derren asked, frowning at Lexie.
She nodded. “That’s right. A big horse with scales and wings. They’re placid creatures, right, Isi?”
I shrugged. My father didn’t keep dragons, and neither did other courts in my part of the realm. I’d heard of them, of course, and even seen one or two fly overhead, but I’d never been near one myself.
“Other than in the southwestern part of the court, does anyone know where Greenhaven is?” I asked softly.
Maybe this was a foolish mission on my part, but I couldn’t placidly go to bed without making sure Trew was alright. It wasn’t about his magical tongue or fingers. It was about him as a person.
I really was falling…
“I know where it is,” Kerralyn said. “And I’ve also ridden on a dragon—with my friend. So follow my lead.”
We nodded, relief touching all of our faces.
As we slipped inside the dark aerie, the low rumble of restless dragons housed in stalls on the right side of the long hall made my pulse spike. Their growls vibrated through my bones, a bass note that harmonized with the wild beating of my heart.
“Saddles are in here,” Kerralyn whispered, pointing to a large room on our left full of tack.
I’d just stepped inside when a voice like silk laced with steel stopped me cold.
“Going somewhere?” Kira stood in the stable entryway, her arms folded on her chest, torchlight painting sharp lines across her face. Her eyes shot to my leathers, then to my friends flanking me.
“We were going to take a few dragons for a late-night ride,” I said carefully.
“Warriors can’t ride without the king’s permission.” Kira’s voice came out reasonably enough for her. “Surely you know that.” Every syllable carried authority, the kind that made you feel simultaneously admonished and protected.
Lexie’s lip curled up at one corner. “And yet, here we are.”
“And back to the castle you’ll go, or I’ll make you.” Flint gleamed in Kira’s eyes.
Kerralyn met my gaze, as serene as ever. “I’m sure she means well.”
I didn’t believe that for one instant.
Derren’s glare shifted between us and Kira, and I could tell he was caught between loyalty to me and the fear of what might happen if we forced this.
“Alright, you caught us.” I made my voice sound even. “We want to follow Trew—”
“King Trewyn, if you please,” she clipped out.
She said his name like a caress, as if she had the right to taste it on her tongue.
A feral beast rose in my chest, and it hungered.
“He decides that, not you,” I said. “A village is under attack.”
Color flamed in her face. “The king’s handling the situation.
” She strode forward, stepping into my space.
“Your role is to remain here. Train. When you’re ready, and only your instructors can indicate that, then you’ll be sent to the front where you’ll be able to battle all the Skathes you please. ”
Her gaze slid over my leathers, lingering long enough to make the heat rise in my cheeks. “Until then,” a subtle sneer came through in her words, “you’re just another untested warrior playing dress-up in armor you haven’t earned.”
I sensed the double meaning in her words.
Some hungers were more dangerous than any Skathe. Mine urged me to wipe that smirk off her face.
“We want to help,” Lexie growled. “They need us.”
“If you want to help, work harder with your training.” Her gaze pinned me in place before sliding to Pherin, who flapped her wings and released a pitiful peep.
Kira’s lips twitched, but she didn’t mock my companion.
I was sure she was saving a comment for a time when the dart would have a better chance of hitting the center of the target.
“It wouldn’t matter even if we did need you.
All the dragons are gone except mine. There are no rides for you tonight. ”
I lifted my chin. “We’ll walk then.”
“It’s a five-hour dragon ride. You won’t show up until the battle is over.” Her scowl deepened. “Do you even know how to kill a Skathe? What they look like. Anything?”
I glanced at Kerralyn, and she shrugged. “We’ll figure that out when we get there.”
“You’re as pitiful as your companion,” she sneered. “You’ll just be in the way.”
My jaw ached from clenching it.
Lexie swore under her breath. Kerralyn shifted on her polished boots. Derren stared at Kira like he was trying to decide how much trouble he wanted to cause tonight.
We could jump her. Tie her up. Then take saddles and steal her dragon.
Kira’s feet took on a fighting stance, and her hand flexed over the hilt of the blade strapped to her side. “I would suggest—kindly—that you all return to the castle. Now.”
Her eyes locked on mine in challenge, and for one taut breath, it felt like we were the only two people in the aerie, her daring me to try, me daring myself not to.
I’d risk myself, but I could not risk my friends.
Frustrated, we strode back along the path and went inside the castle, pausing in the hall outside the kitchens.
I leaned against the wall. “Was she right about the location?”
Kerralyn nodded. “According to my research, it takes a person three hours to walk the distance a dragon can fly in an hour.”
Trew would be back at the castle before we could reach Greenhaven.
For a long moment, I stared down the dark hall as if I could somehow see through stone and follow the path Trew had taken.
My chest felt too tight, every beat of my heart counting the distance between us.
I hated that we’d had to back down from Kira.
But rushing after him now wouldn’t make a bit of difference.
“As much as I want to help the king, I’m not sure stealing dragons and following him would be the best way,” Kerralyn said.
Lexie’s eyebrows lifted. “Ideas?”
“Let’s go to the library and see what we can discover about the Skathes. They keep some books about them locked up.”
“Truly?” Derren asked, his eyebrows lifted.
She nodded.
“The library it is,” I said, bumping off the wall. “Let’s learn all we can about them, then next time…”
“I like how you think,” Lexie said with a grin, tapping the hilt of her blade.
Derren nodded. “Same.”
We strode through the halls, arriving to find the library closed for the night.
“We’ll have to come back in the morning,” Derren said.
“Let’s break in,” Kerralyn said. She lifted a small golden key. “I just so happen to have access to the library. We could—”
Lexie’s eyes went wide and sly at the same time. “Why do you have a key to the library? Did you bribe the librarian or do something more scandalous? Please tell me it’s the latter.”
Kerralyn flushed a delicate pink, her hand clenching around the key. “I, um… I have it for research purposes.” She sounded innocent yet secretive, and I wondered what liaisons had earned her privileges like that.
“How in the world do you know so many people?” I asked, the word “know” taking on a heavier meaning. “We haven’t been here long.”
“My mother visited the castle often. I know a lot of people in the area.”
That made sense.
“When we’d visit, I’d come here to study,” she said.
“Study, huh?” I echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Interesting choice of words.”
“Don’t ask.” Kerralyn’s voice held a warning, but her eyes sparkled with mischief.
She inserted the key into the lock with the reverence of someone unlocking a vault of treasures.
The subtle click rang out like a death knell.