Chapter One Hundred Myla
I breathe easier as I walk through the forest towards the dragon fields, the trees having shed most of their leaves in preparation for the impending winter.
They crunch beneath my boots despite the lighter steps I take as I reach the edge of the treeline, and the expanse of the mountain base and the field next to it come into view.
I had taken my time in the basement of my warehouse, finally releasing that invisible weight that had been slowly crushing me the past few weeks.
Despite the cocky way in which he promised he knew nothing, I had learned something new from the guard.
There is to be a celebration in the coming weeks that will call some of the guards out of Khargis and back to the palace.
He didn’t know why or what the celebration was in name of, and unless my father created a new holiday, I can’t think of anything before the winter solstice that would merit both festivity and an increased guard presence.
Then again, perhaps that wasn’t so out of the ordinary.
I had recently learned that not only was my father kidnapping mages, he was trying to repair broken bonds with dragons.
Or form new ones with Bali and likely Sunis.
He had increased patrols of our borders in what Navin and I could only assume was a desperate attempt to find more mages.
Walking across the loose gravel that leads to Sunis and Bali’s cave, my gaze skims over the dragon fields.
They are dark, the mist hanging lower than usual as it partially obscures my view.
But even with what I can see, something notable is missing from the grassy area: burning remains.
It isn’t until I’ve reached the mouth of the cave that I realize there is also an unnatural stillness in the air, making the hair at the back of my neck lift.
Palming my dagger, I prowl closer, narrowing my eyes to help them adjust to the darkness as I peer inside.
“Bali!” I shout, my voice bouncing off the cave walls in a way that sends my heart galloping in my chest.
No resounding growl or adjusting of leathery wings answers, just more of that unnerving silence.
It isn’t completely unusual that they are both gone, as occasionally they’ve gone out together to hunt or simply stretch their wings.
But there’s a sinking feeling in my gut that I can’t explain, one that propels me away from the cave and onto the dragon fields.
I don’t have to walk far before the scent of rotting meat hits my nose.
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my small flame gem from its pouch, its light dimmer than usual but enough to see about a foot ahead of me, where the scattered and half-charred bodies of goats and sheep lay.
“Shit,” I whisper, inching closer and looking for any sign of the belladragis.
My stomach reacts, attempting to purge itself at the rotten smell of the meat, but I get close and sniff the air anyway, searching for that pungent floral, acrid scent among the decay.
Squatting lower in front of one of the goats, I close my eyes and focus on my next inhale, and there, layered between the ever-present brimstone scent and that of putrefaction, is just a hint of the belladragis.
I look at the carcasses that dot the darkened field, my stomach sinking.
It can’t be coincidence that there are no burning remains mixed among the tainted meat.
Standing I pocket my flame gem, anger forcing my nails to bite into my palms. My father had taken them. Was likely trying to bond them, and I have no fucking clue where they could—
Spinning on my heel, I run back towards the forest, fury pushing my legs faster. I may not know where the dragons have been taken, but I am sure there is someone who does.
“Let me get this straight,” my brother says as he paces blindly in front of the couch in our sitting room, his hands pressed over his eyes. “You think that Bali and Sunis were taken by our father to the same place they are doing the experiments with the mages—”
“That is what I said.”
“Don’t interrupt,” he growls, still pacing. Still covering his face. “And you want to sneak into where they are doing said experiments to try and rescue Sunis because even though you haven’t bonded, you consider her to be your dragon?”
“She is my dragon,” I say sharply, looking up at him from where I’m sitting on the couch.
Navin drops the hands over his eyes, letting his arms turn into dead weight as they hit his sides and he turns to face me.
Not wearing a tunic, I can see the scars he’s collected over the many decades breaking up the colorful tattoos that otherwise cover his upper body.
The two most prominent are that of a blue dragon, its wingspan wide over one half of his chest as if mid-flight while the tail trails down and wraps around his torso, and the goddess Solana over the other half, her hands outstretched much like they had been on the statue depicting her in the temple.
I have given up asking him to explain why, of all things he wanted permanently inked on his skin, he would choose one of the deities Father Yamin weaponized against us.
Against me. Navin had never given me a straight answer, and I suppose for all the secrets I both asked him to keep and kept from him, I shouldn’t be annoyed that he would have one of his own.
Beneath the goddess, however, is something new. Not a tattoo, but a wound. White gauze starts on the front of his stomach and wraps around his side, the large piece held in place by tape that winds around the width of his torso. “What happened?” I ask, jutting my chin out towards it.
He looks down, long raven locks spilling past his shoulder as he does.
Shaking his head, he mumbles, “Training,” and then strides to the armchair where a dark top is laid across the back.
I don’t miss the way he grimaces as he tugs it on, and though I know my brother can handle himself, my teeth still grit together in anger.
“Myla, you aren’t asking me to help you traipse into a secret room in the palace. This is different.”
“Technically, I’m not asking you to help me at all.”
“Yeah,” he huffs, folding his arms over his chest. “You’re just asking me to tell you where the dragons are and then to pretend I don’t know you are going to rush there and get yourself killed.”
I give him a deadpan stare. “Tell me where they are.”
“No. No, I’m not going to.”
Standing from the couch, I prowl towards him, my lips in a grim line.
“Is that supposed to intimidate me, Little Sister?” he asks, though I don’t miss the way he adjusts his stance closer to where his weapons are on the table to his right. “Don’t forget, I trained you.”
“I’m a hundred years old. Calling me ‘little sister’ is an insult to us both.
And you may have trained me, but it’s been a long time since you’ve seen me fight.
” I stop a foot in front of him, fingers tapping along the hilt of my dagger.
The one I stole from our father. Navin’s gaze drops to it, and despite the seriousness of our discussion, the left side of his mouth curves up.
“You don’t outgrow being a little sister—”
“Navin.” He doesn’t shrink from me, he never has, but he hardens his own shields.
While I may have taunted him with my dagger, he knows my tongue can cut sharper than any blade.
Guilt and shame slam into me, reminding me that I’ve made the only person who has ever cared about me enough to risk his life build a shield to protect himself from my ire.
But I’ve already accepted the fact that I’m a lost cause when it comes to being decent.
Navin deserves better, and the only way I can pay him back for all he’s done for me is to give him the freedom I know he wants.
And I need my fucking dragon to do that.
“Glare at me all you want. Curse me out and tell me you wish I were dead. It’s not going to matter.
” His chest heaves, and my withered heart clenches at the way his face contorts into something tortured.
“You may have a death wish, but I care about your life enough for the both of us. So you can fuck right off.”
I blink at his brashness, momentarily stunned as I watch him run a hand through his hair.
“Was that too much?” he finally asks, breaking the stilted silence.
“No,” I answer, tilting my head back as I blow out a breath. “Though I appreciate what you’ve said, Navin, I have to go.”
“Why?” It’s a question that comes out as a plea. “Why can’t you let this go?”
Maybe it’s the exhaustion that lingers over me like the faint mists that coat our kingdom, but I don’t want to have this fight. Not when each second that ticks by could be Sunis’s last as an unbonded dragon. Leveling my gaze again with his, I drop my own shields.
“Not everyone has someone like you to rescue them,” I begin.
Navin’s eyes widen, his body stilling as he doesn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.
“For most in Khargis, there is no one to help them. No one to force them to greet each day with a new sense of purpose after they were sure there was nothing left to live for. When Daiya—” I trip over my own words, my brain used to shutting all thoughts of her down.
But I force them out. For Navin’s sake. For Sunis’s.
“When she lied about us being in love after we were caught—when she so easily convinced everyone that I forced her to be with me—it began a chain of events that would leave me angry that I woke up each morning to face an existence where I was so sure no one wanted me. I felt ashamed. Unworthy. Unclean in my own body. In my own head. If you had not recognized that I was sinking beneath the surface, I would have drowned. In Khargis, so many get put through horrific things, and they have no one else to help them but the Shadow.”
“What you see as me running towards my death is actually me saving myself from it. This is my purpose, and without it, I have nothing. But I can enact more change if I become the true heir. If I bond a dragon, the first female ever to do so, and show our father the impossible. After all, his precious gods surely wouldn’t allow a bond to happen unless it was supposed to.
” The last statement is given with sarcastic flair, and Navin smiles.
“And I get to free you from being trapped in a position you did not ask for.”
His gaze softens as he reaches out a hand to awkwardly pat my shoulder. “You don’t have to do anything for me. I’m happy to be in this role if it helps keep you safe.”
I lay my hand over his, squeezing it once before letting it go. “But this isn’t just about me, Navin. Or you. It’s so much bigger than that.”
He nods, bringing his hand to his face as he covers his mouth in contemplation. “Well, fuck,” he curses, shaking his head. “I suppose I can’t argue with any of that.”
For the first time since my last meeting with Aria, the corner of my mouth quirks. Navin eyes it, a victorious look settling over him. Idiot.
“I’m not going to tell you where it is.” Anger immediately floods my veins, and I lift my upper lip in a snarl as I take a step towards him, my fist raised. “Because,” he drawls, walking over to the desk in the corner and sliding a piece of paper and pen over. “I’m going to show you.”
I open my mouth in protest, but it snaps shut at the serious look he sends me.
“I’m going with you. That’s the deal. We do this together.
” Seeing the conflict in my eyes, he amends his statement.
“We do just this together. I’m not asking to interfere with your vigilante enterprise.
But you are my little sister, and regardless of how fearsome I know you are, I’m using my leverage as your brother to bully you into this. ”
I grit my teeth but relent, giving him a curt nod. “Fine. How do you even know about where he is keeping them?”
Navin shrugs, far too casually. “When I found out about the mages, he offered to show me where it was happening.” Something bitter rises up my throat before I can stop it at the notion that Navin didn’t even need to ask for information.
That our father viewed him as valuable enough to tell him outright.
He claps his hands together once before waving me over as he begins to draw a map.
“Now, let’s discuss how to break into one of our kingdom’s best kept secrets. ”