Chapter 25
Veyyr and I stood at the top of the cliffs, the wind and now, lucky us, snow curling around us making it look like there was no cliff edge to my right. I didn’t think we’d gone that far north, but here we were, first snowfall of the season.
Sorrow clutched my shoulder, unwilling to be left behind, his head tucked low as if he could get his wings up around his ears.
We’d tucked Harrison, Lucky, and Rana into an old shelter that Sorrow had found after sweeping the area. With enough food for a week, they would wait that long and then assume the worst and leave.
I did not want to think that they’d be leaving without either of us.
Rana had cried as she’d hugged us both goodbye, and I suspect she had a bit of a crush on Veyyr with how she’d clung to him and begged him to be safe, hiccupping back her sniffles.
Lucky had smacked me in the middle of my back, and I hadn’t stumbled which made him grin. “Ah, you two fuckers will be fine.” Another big wink.
I turned away before he could see me blush. As if there would be time for that in between fighting for our lives.
Harrison just nodded at his brother, and to me, I’d gotten the hug. “Please look after him,” he’d whispered, his own voice choking up at the end, no different than Rana. She’d tried to take his hand, but he stepped away from her, ignoring her crestfallen face.
Which had me wondering if she was crushing on both the brothers.
“This is a crazy fucking idea,” Veyyr said as we stared out across the top of the cliff edge, his voice pulling me from my musing. “Dragons. Seriously?”
“What can I say, I’m full of crazy fucking ideas.” I leaned into the wind and kept moving. Because of course the top of the cliffs wasn’t where the dragons roosted.
No, they had embedded themselves into the sheer cliff face, burrowed into the rock in such a way that they were easily defensible. It made good sense for them, but it was going to make having a conversation with one of them much more difficult.
Or impossible.
I’d hoped that we’d be able to get to the top and beg a conversation, without getting eaten. But there were no dragons in the sky with this weather, the clouds and horizon darkening with each passing minute. The dragons were smarter than us with choosing not to fly in the oncoming storm.
I could barely see ten feet in front of me, the increasing snow making the view murky at best. But even with the missing dragons, it made sense for us to cross now if we could make it happen.
Because everything would be hunkered down in this storm, maybe even the monsters.
Veyyr caught up to me.
“You do know I didn’t say that as a compliment?”
“I know. But it’s also our best shot. You want the water from the heart of the palm tree or whatever, this is how we’re going to get it.”
“That’s not what we’re looking for…never mind.”
Sorrow’s talons dug hard over my shoulder, but he wasn’t getting blown away like I was with each gust.
I took the lead since it was my ‘crazy fucking idea’, the wind pushing me back and forth—sometimes toward the cliff edge, sometimes away.
A big gust hit me, knocked me off my feet and I skidded toward the edge until Veyyr’s hand locked onto my wrist and he pulled me to my feet. The wind didn’t touch him.
“Perks of the bloodline.” He shouted and didn’t let go of me.
Maybe I didn’t mind as much as I should have, our fingers tangling tightly around one another.
We made our way to where we’d seen the last dragon swooping across the cliff tops—black with silver markings and a wingspan that told me he was large enough to carry us both.
When we got to the spot I’d last seen the black and silver dragon, I dropped to my belly and crawled forward to peer over the edge of the cliff.
Veyyr still held my hand, keeping the wind from throwing me right off the edge.
I half wondered if there were more Sylph’s here but let that thought go.
They would have already come after him if we’d had elementals working this weather.
Bad enough that the magic driven storm was trying to kill us, I didn’t need to welcome more trouble.
Peering over the edge, I could just see the opening of a cave mouth, about thirty feet down.
From what I could remember about dragons, they were particular, and could be grumpy, but they also wouldn’t necessarily strike first. Unlike some of the other big beasts (taking into account the giants we’d come across) that would indeed kill first, never ask questions later, dragons were on the more reasonable side.
I drew in a breath to bellow a greeting when Veyyr yanked me backward. I grunted as we were separated, and I was flipped through the air, the wind smashing into me once more, like a closed fist.
My vision danced in and out of shadows and light, and with the air smacked out of me I didn’t realize at first that I was being shoved toward the cliff edge.
Sorrow tugged on my arm, screeching as he flapped and fought in vain against the power of the wind. I blinked as my legs slid over the edge, scrambling for purchase with my hands.
Veyyr stood with his back to me, cloak snapping around him like a ship’s flag, his hands outstretched as if welcoming someone.
“Veyyr!” I screamed his name, but the storm stole it away. I reached for the bond and yanked hard on it, spinning him around.
His eyes widened as I lost purchase.
Sorrow shot into the air, his wings tight to his body as I began a slow, torturous slip over the edge.
You must survive.
I could either push off the cliff with both feet, throwing myself away from the fractured stone edge to give myself a chance of landing in water deep enough to not die on impact.
Or I could stay close to the cliff face and try to stop my fall.
I didn’t trust that I could kick far enough off, and I really didn’t want to chance the water that I knew was full of monsters.
Cliff face it was.
The decision happened in a split second.
There was a crack of lightning above and then I was falling.
I grabbed one dagger and jammed it into the stone, the bite of it screeching as the metal tore through the rock. Shadowsteel wasn’t typically used to cut stone, but it was sharp enough.
Still falling, only slower now. I grabbed for the other dagger in my boot, fighting to get my foot up high enough without losing my grip on the dagger that was currently keeping me from a free fall. “Come on!” I snapped at myself.
I drove my left knee up, found a small purchase with the toe of my boot and grabbed the other dagger.
Using the two blades I pinned myself to the face of the cliff and stared up. I hadn’t fallen that far, but there was no one staring back at me. No Sorrow. No Veyyr. Nothing.
But the wind wasn’t slamming into me either, not even to tear me from the cliff face. Carefully I looked down and to my left.
The opening was not that far away. And probably easier to go down than to go up.
Assuming the dragon doesn’t take issue with you just showing up.
There was that. But I didn’t see Sorrow or Veyyr which meant they were dealing with something else up on their end of things.
Dragon cave it was.
“Hello?” I called out as I began to make my way down and to the left, thinking I should probably treat them not unlike how I’d treated Euryale. Good manners and all that…but it was not to be.
My hand slipped and I swung from one dagger, my remaining hand spasming.
“MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKER!”
I fought for purchase with my fingers, managed to pin myself back to the wall, sweat rolling now despite the cold.
The stone rumbled and the dagger just above me loosened and fell. I grabbed it mid-air and smacked it deep into the stone.
“That…was quite the hello.”
Deep, the voice was deep and the echo of it reverberated in my sternum like a tuning fork. I blinked. Only I wasn’t hearing it with my ears, but inside my head.
“Sorry about that, my hand slipped.”
“Hmm. Do you want a little help?”
I didn’t dare glance down again. “As long as you aren’t going to throw me off the cliff, and instead are going to help me get back to the top, sure.”
A huff of steam rolled up around me. “You make an assumption, youngling, that I would try and trick you.”
I couldn’t shrug, I settled for tipping my head to one side. “You have to admit, there are a lot of types that would trick me, just to watch me die.”
“And they’d probably laugh while you fell.” Another roll of steam billowed, warming my muscles and easing the cramping I didn’t even realize was there.
“Thanks. That’s helping.”
A scrape of scales on stone, and then the dragon was climbing over top of me.
Black and silver only the black…wasn’t black.
It was the darkest purple I’d ever seen.
At a distance you’d never see the distinction.
“Grab my tail if you wish, it seems I have an intruder to deal with, and I’d just as soon bring you up since I suspect she was the one who tossed you. ”
She.
My guts felt like they were being threaded through a needle. “Her? Thorn?”
“Gods, I hope it’s not that psycho.” He grumped. I blinked and his tail was sliding by me, the tip shaped like a large triangular dagger. I grabbed above the ‘hilt’ of his dagger tipped tail, wrapped my arms around it and let him carry me.
“Why would it be Thorn? She has not been out this way in years.”
“Funny thing, she’s hunting me.”
He grunted. “Funny for who? Not so much for you.”
I managed to tuck my two daggers away. “Figure of speech. Could also be a Sylph, I came with a half breed. Veyyr? Do you know him?”
“Gods. Travelling with Veyyr? Pursued by that witch? You truly have the luck of a….” We were almost to the top when he whipped his head around to get a much, much closer look at me. The dragon had the most beautiful eyes.
They were purple, true purple, ringed twice, once by gold, once by silver. He blinked at me, long lashes that any woman would envy.
“You have pretty eyes.” I blurted because I was not sure what else to say.