28. Chapter 28
28
Zara
A s soon as my hand touched the cool metal knob of the heir’s private quarters, a wave of nerves raced up my arm, lifting every hair and tickling the back of my neck. I was still full of adrenaline from finding Ariana, that was all. I took a deep breath and glanced down at the stone in my hand one more time. He healed mortals. He’d given me the stone. He would help. He would . I had to trust that he could heal Ariana.
Before I even knocked, the door cracked open, and Cas peeked out at me. His brows lifted and he propped one elbow up on the doorframe, waiting for me to explain myself.
“I found her. She’s not dead, but she’s unconscious.”
His arm lowered and he pushed the door open wider. “Whoa, slow down, little spark.”
“Ariana. She’s been trapped in there for two weeks. I don’t know how she’s not dead, but we can’t waste any more time.”
Cas tilted his head. “You said trapped.”
“Yes, in a secret passage.”
“Which one?”
“It’s outside the library.”
He rubbed his chin, where dark stubble was growing. “The dragon’s lair.”
“The what?”
He stepped into the hall and closed his door. “You said she’s in there?”
I nodded. “She disappeared in there two weeks ago—that’s when they said she fell ill. It took me that long to figure out how to open it. It’s all my fault.”
Cas shook his head. “She can’t be in the dragon’s lair. Nor in the tunnels that lead to it. I’ve had people in and out of there this week, in preparation for—never mind. Take me to her.”
We hurried down the hall, then down three flights of stairs, and finally arrived at the library’s entrance. Ariana lay where I’d left her, still and pale as death. Her freckled skin had a blueish hue that made my stomach roil.
Cas dropped to his knees and carefully scooped her into his arms.
I reached forward to support her head as he adjusted her weight. Her neck was so limp.
Cas met my gaze. “She’s in a suspended state. It is a poison.”
“Do—do you have the antidote?”
“I do.”
He moved up the steps as easily as if he carried a stack of papers rather than a limp woman. I was breathing harder than he was by the time we returned to his quarters.
My eyes lingered on Ariana as he set her gently on the floor, though I recalled having come through here after my attempted escape.
Cas stepped over Ariana and sat down at the desk, pulling a book onto his lap and resting his chin in two fingers as he pored over the contents.
I opened my mouth. “Is she…going to die?” That was the only thing that mattered right now.
He tilted his head back and forth as if considering how to answer. “Not if I administer the right antidote,” he said.
“Then help her!” I shouted, pointing forcefully at Ariana.
“I need to check the quantity,” he replied. “Magical antidotes can kill as easily as poisons if administered incorrectly.” He dropped his fist and the book on his desk. “I’ve personally never seen this poison employed, as it is useless on fae. But the remedy will be in here.” He pulled the book back onto his lap.
My brow pinched. “If it’s useless on the fae, why did they use it? I thought the poisoner was trying to uncover what you couldn’t heal.”
He shot me a sideways glance then returned to flipping through his book. “Why, indeed. It seems this time, the poison was meant to keep this woman out of the way. Had she spoken to you about anyone involved?”
I shook my head, though Cas wasn’t looking at me. “No. She showed me the secret passage, and that was all. Or at least, she showed me where it was, but it took me a while to work out how to open it.”
Cas tapped the page before him, then stood and strode to his shelf. “So, whoever did this assumed she was about to reveal a secret.”
“Why not just kill her then?” I said, staring down at Ariana’s lifeless face.
“Good question. Humans who betray fae do usually end up dead.” He pulled a vial from the top shelf and calmly moved to kneel once more beside Ariana.
I dropped to my knees on the other side of her. “They wanted me to find her,” I said. When Cas flicked his eyes at me, I continued. “They knew she’d led me to the door, they likely knew I was trying to open it, and for some reason, they wanted me to find her like this.”
Cas ran his hand down Ariana’s front and side.
“What are you doing?”
“I think I know why someone left her like this.” His hand paused at Ariana’s right hip. He felt through the folds of her skirt at her waist, but before I could shout at him to get his hands off her, he withdrew a small yellow gemstone, cloudy and uncut. He held it up. “Someone is stealing from the dragons. This stone was hidden by a masterful concealment spell, which only a few fae can detect. Even my own magic didn’t sense it, but I suspected a stone would be on her somewhere. Whoever left her like this wanted this stone to be found by a human , and they wanted Ariana to still be alive when it was discovered.”
“Why? Why not just put the stone somewhere easy to find?”
“Because then anyone could find it, and I believe whoever did this wanted you to find it.” He popped the cork off the vial with his teeth.
I clumsily lifted Ariana’s head with one hand and tipped her chin up to open her mouth.
As Cas brought the vial to her mouth, he said, “No one here but you would care enough about this woman to hunt her down after a disappearance, even one so sloppily masked by a feigned illness. Fae can’t lie about what happened to her, so by administering this particular poison, she was technically only made ill. And only a few fae know you well enough to know you would do this.”
He poured the antidote into her mouth, his hand slipping into her matted hair, as if he’d performed this same motion many times. I pressed her jaw closed with my free hand and held my breath. I wiped a stray drop of elixir from the side of her face.
“She will live,” he said, setting the vial on the floor and easing the servant’s head back to the rug beneath her.
Only when we made eye contact over her quietly breathing form did I realize Casimiro’s fingers were overlapping mine in the tangle of Ariana’s hair.
I slid my hand out quickly, looking for somewhere to wipe the amber liquid.
Cas stood and offered me a cloth that I took without question. But as I rubbed away the yellow droplet, I noted the buttons and sleeves on the cloth he’d handed me. It was one of his wrinkled white shirts.
I tossed it back at him. He caught it against his chest, and for a moment neither of us spoke.
My heart was pounding, the only sound in the quiet room. I told myself the presence of the unconscious woman was making my pulse race, not the man staring at me.
“No one steals from the dragons without paying the price,” he said, tossing the shirt onto his chair. “They are miserly creatures, and they hold grudges. They can also smell magic, which is why my courtiers employ mortals to steal the stones from the dragon hoard. Whoever employed Ariana to steal this stone wanted you to find her—and the stone—and knew they would be asked directly about Ariana’s whereabouts during her absence.” He stroked his chin as he set the vial on his messy desk.
“But who would want that? Why keep Ariana silent, and why now, and why would they want me to discover her?” I pressed my hands to my tired eyes. Tomorrow was the next trial, and the reality weighed on my shoulders, my only comfort the small ruby in my pocket.
Cas sighed and propped himself on the edge of his desk. For the first time that I’d ever witnessed, his posture slumped ever so slightly. “Dragons never forget a thief’s scent, and in the same way they can smell our magic, they will now smell Ariana on you. I would have said this isn’t much of a problem, but…” His words trailed off and he ran a hand through his hair not once but twice. “But your next trial involves dragons.” His dark eyes met mine across the room, Ariana’s body a silent barrier between us. The reminder that death lurked everywhere here.
“Are you saying someone framed me as a dragon thief right before a trial where I have to face dragons?”
Cas stood up. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Zara. Someone who knows how I—someone who wants you dead.”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t you all?” He’d left something unsaid, but I didn’t dare press him.
“Not all of us,” he said, pinning me with his gaze.
My cheeks flamed, and I looked down at Ariana. I needed to remember who he was, and where I was. Staring at the pale woman on the floor cooled the rising heat in my blood. “Can’t I just give the dragons their stone back?”
Cas shook his head, tossing a few long strands of hair into his face. “No, that stone has been depleted of its magic. Likely by whoever poisoned your servant.” At my confused scowl, he sighed and continued. “All gems have magic in them—natural magic—the kind infused into the worlds when they were first made. It has leeched out of most substances by now, but jewels can hold on to magic much longer than other natural objects. It is for this reason, not their beauty, that dragons hoard them.”
“Oh,” I said, utterly unschooled on the subject of dragons and their hoards.
“Gemstones are one of only a few items we fae can infuse with our magic, which is what makes them valuable to us, but it is their inherent power that is most valuable, for that is a kind of magic we cannot reproduce. That stone’s magic is gone now. The dragons won’t want it.” The heir shrugged. “You’ll have to give them another one.”
“I only have this one.” I withdrew the small ruby Cas had given me.
His lips turned down. “Not that one. They hate fae magic. They’ll only want one with inherent magic, and”—he ran a hand over his mouth—“we’ve mined all the gems from this mountain. There are none left here.” Cas stared at me with unblinking eyes long enough that I felt a burning desire to fidget.
Finally, I could stand his heavy gaze no longer. “What do the dragons do with the magic in the stones?” I asked, trying not to worry about the fact that in a matter of hours I’d be facing the very dragons that thought I’d stolen from them.
He let out a low chuckle. “They don’t do anything with it. They just keep the magic from everyone else. Dragons are not sentient in the way we are, but they are some of the smartest creatures that exist. To them, a jewel full of magic is to be protected from those they do not trust. Over the millennia, dragons have learned not to trust any creatures but themselves.”
“Have you really never tried to earn their trust?”
Cas laughed again and looked up, giving me ample opportunity to stare at his stubbly jaw. “When they torch anyone who smells of fae magic, it’s rather hard to do that.”
“Don’t some of you ride dragons?” I’d seen the fae flying from the mountain on the backs of the beasts.
Cas nodded. “The ones we steal as eggs, we cut the nerve that serves their fire ducts. They can’t breathe fire at all.”
“Oh,” I said, grimacing at the thought.
“My kind likes power,” he said with a small shrug. “We don’t like knowing they have the ability to kill us.”
“Then why live here, in the dragons’ mountain?”
Cas stroked his chin as he answered. “My ancestors built the palace on top of this mountain long before this became our permanent home. Back then, all the worlds were still full of magic, and the dragons didn’t hoard jewels the way they do now. We shared the space peacefully for centuries. It wasn’t until the war between Shadow and Sun, the war that depleted much of the world’s inherent magic and forced my ancestors into endless darkness, that we moved inside the mountain and the dragons began stockpiling gems. We needed darkness, which the mountain provided, and the dragons wouldn’t abandon their home, stubborn creatures that they are. For a time, the shadow fae stole from the dragons, but if there’s one thing that can kill an immortal fae easier than a poison, it is dragon fire when it is infused with the magic of untapped stones.” Cas smirked at my look of shock. “When a dragon really wants to inflict harm, it will swallow a stone still full of inherent magic, and you don’t want to be around for the fire that results. Flames like that can burn through rock and bone.”
I tapped my fingers against my lips. “So you live incredibly close to the one thing most dangerous to you. Sounds a little reckless.”
Cas’s eyes flashed wide, and for a heartbeat I was afraid I’d offended him. Then he stepped over Ariana toward me. I walked backward until the door was close enough to touch.
“Reckless is what I’m thinking right now.” He reached forward, and for a single panicked breath, I thought he might try to kiss me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and for some unearthly reason didn’t try to stop him.
Then I peeked one eye open. He was standing right beside my shoulder, his arm extended to the now open door. Black lines stretched up his wrists toward his elbow and pain stood out in his clenched jaw.
“What is that?” I whispered, nearly touching his arm, before I caught myself and clasped my hands behind my back.
“My recklessness,” he answered, his tone gruffer than it had been a moment ago. “I need you to leave now.” His face was close, and his breath hit my neck in a way that made me almost forget I was supposed to hate this man.
I took a step backward, through the open door. “What am I supposed to do about the dragons?”
He lifted his arm, where the veins stood out like dark ropes against his skin. “This trial was meant to be simple. You’ll be given weapons to defend yourselves, and your skill is enough that most dragons wouldn’t bother you—they prefer easier game that doesn’t fight back. But I chose that before I knew the dragons would be angry. And like I said, they hold grudges.” His face tipped forward, and he stared at the ground. “You cannot let yourself get burned. I will find you a stone to repay them. Now leave. We are short on time.”
Then he shut the door and left me standing in the dim hallway, the only sound my slow exhale.