Chapter 57
Chapter
Fifty-Seven
HAVEN
We’d been riding for hours, and the creak of hard-packed snow beneath the horses’ hooves was grating on my nerves. I urged Buttercup to a trot until we came even with Zane.
He turned his head toward me, and his eyes lit up. “Haven.”
“We need to talk.”
“About?” The gravel in his voice rumbled through me, leaving heat in its wake.
I swallowed unwelcome nerves and whispered, “Dragons.”
He gave a resigned nod as if he’d been expecting this. “What would you like to know?”
I glanced behind us. No one seemed to be paying attention. “Did you hatch from an egg?”
He laughed, loud enough to draw the curious gazes of the other men. But when he answered me, his voice was low. “No. When a dragoness is pregnant, she remains in her human form until her child is born. It makes her vulnerable, which drives the father to distraction. Or destruction.”
“Are your parents still alive?”
“Yes, they’ll love you.”
“Even though I’m not a dragon.”
He smirked as if he knew something I didn’t. “Yes.”
“Do you have a treasure hoard?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?”
“Interested in treasure?”
More like I was interested in him—what made up his hoard? Mounds of jewels and gold coins? Priceless weapons? Ancient scrolls holding the wisdom of the ages? What did Zane value? It seemed too personal to ask. “Are there many dragons in Rymar?”
He frowned, jaw tensing as sadness briefly crossed his handsome face. “No.” The single word carried weight, as if there was a story behind it he wasn’t ready to share.
I hesitated, then pressed on. “Did you know the dragon that attacked me?” The dragon he’d killed to save me.
His hooded eyes turned vicious. “I did not.” The words came out clipped, final, but I could hear the barely restrained fury beneath them.
“Where did it come from?”
Zane seemed to stiffen in his saddle. “A question I can’t answer.” His tone revealed his frustration, like the unknown bothered him as much as it did me.
“I wonder why it attacked me.” I glanced skyward. A canopy of bare branches creaked in the wind, their skeletal fingers reaching toward a gray sky that promised more snow. The threat of another dragon diving at us made my pulse quicken.
Zane followed my gaze upward, then looked back at me with something like reverence in his golden eyes. “There are prophecies about a woman who will fell a king, unite the continent, and change the world. I believe you are that woman.”
My breath caught in my throat, and I whispered, “Destiny’s champion.”
“Exactly.” He nodded his approval. “You’ve read the prophecies.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my saddle, glancing back toward where the Legacian guards rode behind us. “So to speak.” I couldn’t explain Gladys here, not with Teal and the others close enough to overhear. The thought of them learning about my visions made my skin heat with embarrassment.
Zane waited, as if sensing there was more I wasn’t saying.
I turned back to face the road ahead, my voice dropping. “Don’t forget all the pain, suffering, and death that goes with that.” The weight of the future pressed down on me, more than one woman could handle. At least this one woman.
“Why do you think the gods gifted you with so many men?” Zane’s words came out in visible clouds, his breath fogging in the icy air.
“To vex me.”
His laughter boomed, clear and sharp as a winter morning. “I vex you?”
The cold had turned my cheeks numb, but his laughter warmed something inside me. “Less than the others,” I allowed.
“But I still vex you?” he insisted.
“I’ll never know if any of you would have chosen me.” I was absolutely certain Grayson wouldn’t choose me, not if his life depended on it. “The fates decided for us. That is supremely vexing.”
“I don’t know if you give them too much credit or not enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw you in a vision.” Pink touched the harsh planes of his cheeks. “Lots of visions. You are brave, and resourceful, and passionate. Never doubt my regard. I would choose you without the fates’ interference.”
My glimpses of Zane had been less edifying and more lascivious.
His horse tossed its head, and Zane patted its neck. “Perhaps the fates chose us because they knew we’d be perfect together.”
I glanced back at Grayson. I could almost see the dark storm cloud trailing behind him. The two of us were the opposite of perfect.
Zane turned in his saddle, followed my gaze, and shook his head. “We’ll figure it out. Look how far you and Remy have come.”
Remy’s initial asshattery had been due to reticence and distrust (which I well understood), not because he believed women were inferior to men. “Remy is a good man. He cares about his people. And … he’s kind.”
That earned another laugh. “Not a word usually used to describe him.”
“You saw him with Grace,” I insisted. “With Clive and Mary. He took the time to chat with everyone in William’s bar, and he treated each person with warmth and goodwill. I can respect a man like that. The Legacians are different.”
“They’re powerful.”
I felt his gaze on my cheek. “It’s gone to their heads.”
“They’re obsessed with you.”
I scoffed. “Flynn is obsessed with getting me into his bed, and Grayson wants to control me.”
“And the other two?”
“I don’t know what they want.”
“I do. They want you.”
“I have no reason to trust them, and every reason not to.” I glanced up at the canopy of dark branches. “How far are we from Talin?”
“Less than three days.”
That meant at least two more days of avoiding conversation with the Legacians. I sighed.
“You’ll have to talk to them sometime.”
“Can you read my mind?”
“Just your gorgeous face.”
I turned my definitely-not-gorgeous face away to hide my blush. “The things they’ve done. I can’t—”
“What did they do?” Zane’s warm growl turned cold. Deadly.
Telling him wouldn’t change things. It would only cause problems. I offered him a weak smile. “Don’t ask vexing questions.”
His brows rose. “We’re back to vexing?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “We never left.”