Chapter 16 #2
Speaking while his chest threatened to squeeze his heart into a thousand pieces was impossible. Blaze put one hand on the railing and leaned heavily against it. His legs were giving out. He had to sit down.
Immediately, Durae knelt beside him. “Blaze?”
“I’m sorry,” Blaze panted. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. When had that started? “Gods, everything’s a mess. You deserved for this to be better. To be about you. Not under the cloud of … not with me struggling to breathe.”
Durae tried to put the ring in Blaze’s hand. “Then you don’t have to explain.”
Blaze closed Durae’s hand around the ring and put both of his around Durae’s.
“No. It … it might not be how I envisioned it, but I don’t want to hold this in.
I decided to lay an enchantment on the ship so that it couldn’t be flown without a special ring.
I made one for me and one for you. I want us to have a life together.
I know I said I’d wait for you to choose me, but—”
Durae smiled, and the sweetness of his dimples eased the binding coursing through Blaze’s lungs. With his free hand, he pulled a box out of his pocket. “If you had made it to the dance, I was going to give you this.”
Slowly, Blaze took the box and opened it. Inside was a compass set into a brass heart with a long pocket chain.
“I thought it would be useful and a symbol of giving you my heart since you said you’d gladly give me yours,” Durae murmured. “Doesn’t seem anywhere near as special as having the ability to fly your ship.”
The smoothness of the metal was interrupted, so Blaze flipped it over. Durae had had “BL + DN” inscribed into it. Laughing softly, Blaze kissed him. “It’s wonderful. Thank you.”
Durae sat beside him and leaned his head against Blaze’s shoulder. Blaze tilted his head to rest against him in return. “You’re right. This isn’t how I pictured this evening going.”
“Me either.”
“I think it’s better, though. It’s real.”
“Part of it feels like a nightmare.”
Durae flinched. “Of course. Gods, Blaze. It looked like your drawings.”
“We don’t know if it’s an exact copy.”
“The engine is out on the deck. I saw too many similarities for it to be a coincidence, even at a distance.” Durae wrapped his arms around one of Blaze’s, cuddling into him. “You’re both from Manabelt, but have you even run into each other?”
“I tried to get him to support my prototype,” Blaze said. “I had a meeting with him. He said … he said I needed more time. Needed to work in his workshops and hone my craft. But he managed to throw enough gold at his own to beat me to it.”
“Not his own,” Durae said defiantly. “It is the bigger version of yours. Did you show him the designs? He might have had a charm to increase his memory so he could write them down?”
“The table,” Blaze said. “He made certain to spread them out on a table in his office. He must have used it to copy them.”
“The bastard!”
A painful realization struck, and Blaze closed his eyes tightly. The world was darkness behind his eyelids, but perhaps it would be safer to retreat there for the next week than to face anything else. “I’m ruined.”
“You are not,” Durae replied.
“I am!”
“Blaze—”
Anger suddenly surging in to fill the hole left by grief and disappointment, Blaze shot to his feet.
“I had my engine half completed before I left Manabelt, and I still have a piece to place. If he’s accomplished the complete construction, then he hasn’t done it alone, which means he has told others that it is his design.
We don’t know how many people he’s had working on it or how many others he’s been pursuing.
And added to that is that his is of an impressive size!
Look at this ship! Even if anyone believed me, no one would care! ”
“You haven’t placed the piece,” Durae said slowly. His eyes widened.
“I knew the dance was special to you, and I wanted to make an appearance,” Blaze said. “As important as my ship is, I was willing to risk the time. I figured a magical night was worth a sleepless one.”
Durae hurried to his feet. “That’s not what I was talking about—though, for the record, I am incredibly moved by that and find it endearingly romantic. He stole your design, Blaze.”
“I know!”
“You haven’t replaced the steel mechanism,” Durae said.
“And the celestial diamond that Gustus has is twice the size of yours. It took my mother, an accomplished scholar in cosmomancy who has a high familiarity with enchanted conveyances, to find the flaw! She’s one of the top ten scholars in the field.
What are the chances that Gustus consulted someone who knows as much as her?
He plans on having a full ship when he shows it off at the competition.
We have to tell people! Lives are at stake! ”
“But what if no one believes us?” Blaze asked.
“Then we keep trying,” Durae replied.
And if Blaze had not already made room for Durae to conquer his heart, he would have done so again upon seeing his fierce determination. He was a force of nature. Blaze clutched the heart compass in his hand.
Perhaps, together, they could accomplish the impossible.