Chapter 30
NARYA
Ithought Osiliath would be a horse.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Osiliath was a fully grown, slightly temperamental dragon, and apparently I was to ride her.
“He can’t be serious?” I stared at Thràena in disbelief. “I thought dragons were extinct.”
Thràena held out the black riding cloak specifically designed for dragon riding. The slits at the arms and legs made it easy to move, and the outer texture felt coarse, built to withstand the heat of a dragon’s hide. Friction would be the least of my worries.
“Dragons were extinct, for a time,” she said. “His Majesty managed to bring them back. You will be safe with him. He’s the greatest rider in the realm.” Once more, she gestured for me to put on the cloak. “Please, my lady, we must get ready to leave. His Majesty is waiting.”
Waiting—with his dragon.
A dragon I was supposed to ride with him to the Carnelian Mountains.
I glanced at Thràena’s wide, pleading eyes.
Her own cloak lay draped around her shoulders.
It was distinctly different from mine. There was really no getting out of this.
I could protest all I wanted, but nothing would change the king’s mind.
He was set on travelling to the mountains, and I had every faith in him dragging me from this room if I refused to go.
I nodded and turned around. Thràena released a breath behind me.
Carefully, she placed the heavy-looking cloak over my shoulders.
While she fastened the red, fur-lined collar at my neck, I noted how surprisingly light the material was.
In fact, the whole outfit was deceptively light.
My tight leather bodysuit and knee-length riding boots fit perfectly, each seam forged with the same fire-resistant weave. I made sure of that.
“Almost ready.” Thràena adjusted the metal clips dangling by my hips. “These attach to the harness and will keep you from falling off Osiliath’s saddle.”
The thick red straps crossed over my chest and waist. She tugged one tighter. “There. You are ready.”
She stepped back from me to assess one last time, fingers tucked under her chin.
I glanced at the mirror standing in front of me. I almost didn’t recognise the reflection. My plaited hair, twisted into a bun at my crown, had never looked brighter. The silver shimmer of it against all the black and red made me look otherworldly. Powerful. I’d never felt powerful before.
But in that mirror, I felt capable of anything. Maybe even riding a dragon.
“Well...” I pursed my red-painted lips, tasting the sweetness from the balm. “I suppose there’s no escaping this.”
Thràena beamed. “The ride will be worth it. Sol’vaneth is my favourite time of year.”
“What is Sol’vaneth?”
“Only the oldest celebration in the Bloodstone calendar,” she replied excitedly. “A night of dancing and merriment, of flame and choosing.”
My heart skipped. “Choosing?”
“There’s always a choice,” she murmured. “Sol’vaneth is when the court stops pretending. When masks are shed, bonds are tested. It’s the night we honour the fall of the Sun Sister, and the god who caught her.”
A chill swept down my spine.
Adjusting her riding cloak, she hurried over to the door and opened it. “We should really get going now.”
The captain waited outside in the hallway, his gloved hands clasped behind his back. As usual, he did not look pleased to see me. I smiled at him anyway.
He escorted us to the palace courtyard. The air thrummed with anticipation; horses snorted into the frost-bitten air. The king’s guard had gathered in ranks of black and red. Cloaks rippled behind them, and even the horses wore crimson barding chased with iron.
It was an impressive assembly, but it wasn’t what caught my breath.
It was him.
Daigen stood at the top of the steps, waiting for me. Dark eyes found mine the instant the doors opened. I took a steady breath and walked towards him. His gaze dragged over me slowly, and the smirk that curved his lips made my pulse stumble.
He nodded, clearly satisfied. I blushed under his scrutiny. His tattooed arms were bare, the dark red markings glinting as the wind brushed against his skin. The straps of his harness bit across his chest; even the buckles were black.
Strangely, he wore no cloak.
“Won’t you get cold?” I asked, once I’d stopped beside him.
His teasing smirk widened. “I’m counting on it.”
I rolled my eyes, cheeks burning, and he laughed.
But his fingers flexed at his side, like he needed to hold on to something.
He felt it too: the fear curling beneath my skin.
Three days. That was all the time the Moonstone King had given for his First Mating Right demand to be answered. Despite Daigen’s vow that he’d never let me go, I knew he wouldn’t risk the lives of his people for me, and I didn’t want him to.
Thràena said I should try to enjoy Sol’vaneth, that the king had bought us a few days of peace. I promised her I’d try. But it wasn’t easy pretending when every heartbeat reminded me that what I’d begun to care for was already slipping away.
Daigen’s hair lifted over his shoulders as the wind picked up.
The horses stirred around us as a shadow fell across the sky, blotting out the moon.
I looked up just as Osiliath descended through the clouds.
The draft from her wings tore through the courtyard, unsettling the horses.
The ground rattled and cloaks whipped as she landed, raising her large spiked head and stretching out her wings.
Her scales shimmered like wet obsidian beneath silver armour plates.
A full-moon sigil burned at her chest, pulsing with red light.
Even her claws gleamed, each talon the length of a grown man.
My breath caught from the size of her. A dragon was so much bigger than I imagined.
Dragons were thought to be the oldest species in the realm.
It was also thought they were the reason we found crystals in the first place, buried deep inside our realm’s core.
It was their talons that clawed the ground so we could use the crystals to build our cities and fuel our magic.
Until that moment, I hadn’t believed the legends.
Now I understood how it felt to stand in the presence of something whose very claws helped shape our realm. The legends said they’d been left by the gods to help guide and protect us, but greed and war destroyed them, rendering them extinct.
“We should reach the mountains by sunrise,” Daigen said, stepping close enough that his lips brushed my temple. “Are you ready?”
“To die? To fall off a dragon and plummet to my death? Sure.”
Daigen laughed as slipped his arm around me. “To fly.”
The words barely left him when he jumped, his powerful wings spreading out from his back.
I barely had time to gasp before the air screamed past us.
My arms flew around his neck on instinct as a cold wind sliced across my cheeks.
He set me down on the saddle, only long enough to secure my harness, then swung up behind me.
One arm wrapped around my waist, anchoring me to him.
“Hold here.” Daigen lifted my hand and wrapped it around the horn at the front of the saddle. “Don’t faint on me now.”
I forced an indignant puff of air. “Your faith in me is astounding.”
His breath tickled my ear in a chuckle. “Then prove me wrong.”
He gripped the reins and shouted a command, a harsh-sounding word I couldn’t understand.
There was a thunderous crack, and then the ground tilted as Osiliath leapt into the sky. Daigen laughed behind me when I screamed. He was so close that his breath touched the side of my face, warming where the bitter wind numbed.
“Relax, Narya.” His voice was steady, almost amused, though I felt the tremor running through him. He pulled me back until I was flush against his chest. “I won’t let you fall.”
All around me, the wind whipped and howled as if it were a living creature, and yet I was certain Daigen would hear my heartbeat pounding in my chest.
“What if you’re falling with me?” I breathed out.
Osiliath climbed until the courtyard melted away in a blur of black and red. I clutched the horn until my knuckles ached.
“Then I’ll catch you,” he said as my world completely vanished.
Mist from the clouds engulfed us. All around me, the wind whipped and howled as if it were a vengeful beast intent on devouring us.
And yet I was sure Daigen could hear my heartbeat pounding over its screams. I tightened my grip beneath his, all too aware of the long, gloved fingers that slid over mine, and his hardness that pressed against my back.
He laughed softly when I tried to shift away, tightening his arm around me instead. “Stay.”
I did. Stars help me, I stayed.
The roar of the wind eased as Osiliath levelled into a smooth glide.
“You didn’t faint,” he said near my ear. “Most people do when she takes off.”
A spike of jealousy pierced through the haze. Most people? Had èllia ridden with him too?
The thought poisoned the warmth in my chest.
It wasn’t the dragon I envied. It was the years. The moments she’d had that I never would.
It was only a matter of time before it all ended.
“Like I said,” I called back lightly, “your faith astounds me.”
He laughed again, and I liked the sound far more than I should have.
* * *
Arriving at the Carnelian Mountains felt like slipping through the ribs of the world.
He’d taken the long way through the northern passes, giving his court time to move ahead and prepare for his arrival. The wind had been fierce at first, sharp enough to steal my breath, but somewhere between the peaks my fear had settled, leaving only the wild, impossible beauty of flight.
Now we arrived at the mountains where three jagged peaks rose from the surface. The ridges lined with pine trees dusted in frost. A valley rested between them. Osiliath swooped down over the peaks and glided to the valley’s edge, where a huge longhall emerged from the rock.
It was nothing like the Bloodstone Palace.