CHAPTER 6 - BLAKE
I’d fucked up.
A small part of me was willing to admit that. But only to myself.
Say it to anyone else? Hell no.
A Drakharrow didn’t make mistakes.
So, instead, I’d made things worse. Dug myself in deeper.
My eyes were fixed on Pendragon as she stood, her red hair trailing in a living flame down her back. Her voice defiant, her posture unyielding despite the scrutiny of every Tribunal member bearing down on her.
She radiated fury and courage in equal measure.
For the first time in months, I wondered if I’d miscalculated everything. Underestimated just how stubborn she truly was.
I clenched my jaw, trying to push the thought aside. What I’d done I’d done at least partly for her. No, primarily for her. I’d saved her life, even if she didn’t know it. Would she rather be mated to my uncle? Fed from by Viktor?
Drakharrows didn’t doubt themselves. We didn’t question our actions or apologize. Apologies were for the weak, for those who lacked the resolve to see their plans through.
All summer long she’d kept me at bay. Treating me no better than some stray mutt she had to feed. What did she want, anyhow? For me to kneel? To beg? Maybe that’s what she’d expected. Maybe that’s what she thought she deserved.
I tamped down the part of myself that wondered if she was right. The idea made me itch with revulsion and discomfort.
I shifted in my seat, forcing myself to look away from her.
And my gaze landed on Tanaka.
Kage fucking Tanaka.
The other Bloodwing House Leader looked too calm, too composed by far, considering what his grandmother had just proposed. His expression gave nothing away, but my instincts flared.
He had to have been involved. There was no way Lady Avari would have proposed such a scheme otherwise. Kage probably suggested it himself.
Fury boiled low in my gut. Whatever this was between Pendragon and Tanaka, it had gone way too far.
This wasn’t jealousy. No. This was about the best interests of my house. About protecting the bond, the dragon. Not about Pendragon or whatever fucked up thing this was between us.
Her voice rang out, sharper now, and I forced myself to focus.
She was still speaking. No, not just speaking. She was fucking confessing .
“I never wanted to be betrothed to Blake Drakharrow,” she announced loudly.
I flinched.
“I wasn’t given a choice. You were all there that day. And later? Blake tricked me when he forged our bond. He manipulated me, bonding me to him against my will and then by feeding from me without my permission.”
I crossed my arms across my chest. I didn’t bother to hide the shit-eating grin from my face.
“Good luck, Pendragon,” I wanted to call out. Good luck complaining to a room full of highbloods about permission when you were a blightborn. She’d lose the crowd’s sympathy quickly. They generally didn’t like it when blightborn played the victims.
I barely resisted the urge to shout, “Grow a fucking backbone, Pendragon!” I decided it wouldn’t go over well. Especially not with Theo. I snuck a glance at my cousin. He’d shifted away from me and was looking straight ahead. Clearly, he was pissed.
I scowled. Well, fuck. If my own cousin wanted to disown me after all I’d done for him, fine. I had other friends.
Finally that idiot, Pansera, grew a pair and spoke up.
“You will sit back down at once,” Lord Pansera snapped.
“No, I certainly will not,” Pendragon snapped back.
I frowned.
Before the Arbiter could respond, Lady Avari spoke up.
“I, for one, would like to hear Miss Pendragon finish what she has to say,” the Avari matriarch said smoothly.
I growled. Dammit. This was really happening.
Lysander Orphos was nodding in agreement. The fucking traitor. I couldn’t believe what he’d dared to propose. Of course, he’d be in agreement with the Avaris.
“As would I,” he announced.
Lord Pansera hesitated, obviously fuming and afraid of what my uncle would do to him later, but relented. “Very well. Speak but speak quickly.”
Pendragon gestured to her clothing and my jaw tightened. She’d purposely scorned my house colors. I’d remember that. Yet another sign of her blatant disrespect.
Now she lied to everyone.
“I don’t feel any affiliation with any house,” she declared, turning slowly so all could see her in the First Year colors. “I chose to wear the colors of a First Year to this Tribunal not as a sign of disrespect to House Drakharrow but as a sign of my neutrality. Why should your only dragon rider serve one house and not all of you?”
I stiffened as around me, the room shifted with a murmur of surprise—and then, to my shock, with ripples of agreement. I saw several heads nodding thoughtfully.
I glanced down at Viktor. His expression was impassive. But I knew my uncle too well. Beneath that stony exterior, he was seething. Pendragon had just dared to openly challenge the stacked cards of his control.
My eyes swept the room again, this time landing on Marcus. My older brother sat higher up in the gallery, beside Lunaya Oprhos of all people.
My brow furrowed as I caught the look of hatred etched on Marcus’s face as he watched Pendragon. What was Marcus even doing sitting next to Lysander’s sister in the first place? It wasn’t like him to spend time in the company of anyone from Orphos. He’d never bothered to hide his derision for their house. Yet there he was, leaning close to the Orphos girl, whispering something that made her smile sweetly.
“When the dragon awoke, he spoke to me.”
My attention snapped back to Pendragon.
“I promised myself to him in service, but he refused to accept me. Our bond is not yet complete,” she declared.
I felt my heart twist slightly with unexpected pride. My consort had spoken to a fucking dragon . No one else alive could say that.
“You see, Nyxaris doesn’t feel any obligation to any house,” Pendragon went on.
I saw Elaria Avari tilt her head thoughtfully as she heard that little revelation. Ha.
“He doesn't recognize any of your claims. But perhaps, given time, I can help him remember the loyalty that once existed between dragons and highbloods. That’s why you need me. I’m your only link to the most powerful creature in existence. Are you really going to let that slip away, by simply discarding me like Lord Mortis proposed?”
My emotions were a tangled web as I watched her. She was my source. A means to power. I’d saved her from Viktor. There was no way I’d let her be executed.
But there was more to it than that and I knew it. She stood there, commanding the attention of a room full of highbloods like no other blightborn in existence had probably ever done before. She was drawing their awe in the same way a dragon might have, simply by her sheer presence. Her sheer will.
I’d let myself start to care for her. I still couldn’t take my eyes off her.
But now? Part of me hated her all over again. For rejecting me. For rejecting my house.
Maybe most of all, for rejecting the most primal, intrinsic part of my nature.
My fangs. My bite.
“I ask you for time,” she went on. “Time to continue my studies. Time to learn, time to understand the bond between Nyxaris and I. And I ask you for freedom. To be untethered from a mating bond I never wanted. To be free to make my own choice.”
I nearly choked as the room fell into even deeper silence. I could feel my face heating from the humiliation.
Fuck this. Fuck all of this. And most of all, fuck Pendragon. She wanted to be out on her own, did she? Maybe that could be arranged. Just not in the way she might hope.
Lady Avari was the first to rise. Her face was filled with quiet sympathy as she looked down at Pendragon and I despised her for it.
“As far as anyone knows, child,” she said gently. “There is no way to dissolve such a bond.” She looked around the room. “But I agree with Miss Pendragon on all of her other points. She should be allowed to continue her studies—and be given time to bring the dragon’s fealty back where it belongs.”
I snorted—loudly.
“There is wisdom in her requests,” Elaria concluded.
In all of them, in other words. I glared at the old woman.
I watched Viktor shift in his seat, but before he could speak, Lord Mortis beat him to it.
He stood abruptly and pointed a finger at Pendragon, his voice growling in anger. “What proof do you even have that the dragon listens to you? You spoke to him, you claim? What evidence do we have of that? The dragon is gone.” He gave a mocking laugh and a ripple of agreement spread through the room.
I shook my head. For a moment they’d been on Pendragon’s side. Now Mortis had them swayed again. By the Bloodmaiden, my people were fickle.
“But no, it’s worse than that,” Lord Mortis bellowed, his deep voice echoing across the chamber. “What if she is talking to the dragon? For all we know, she’ll tell it to turn upon us. Just like the dragons of old.”
I frowned, trying to recall that little bit of history and failing, as around me the crowd burst into an uproar, glimpses of fear on many faces as Lord Mortis’s words sunk in.
Then, Pendragon’s voice cut through the clamor.
“You want proof, Lord Mortis? I’ll give it to you. To all of you. Follow me.”