Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
I don’t accept this horrible plan. I’ll destroy it all. I’ll rain fire down on everyone until Izabel is safe.
It was hard enough to keep his beast under control when they disagreed. Right now, Luka agreed almost entirely.
Images of unleashing a torrent of fire flashed through his mind, and he had to breathe slowly and force himself to loosen his tight grip on her hand. He didn’t let her go. He had no intention of releasing her, but he didn’t want to crush her fingers either.
He could hardly remember leaving the queen’s rooms. After Izabel offered to continue Rayan’s investigation—after she tried to sacrifice herself again—the world had gone a little blurry.
Gods, the pain when she’d told him she would go back to her shop as soon as she could still coiled through him.
He’d known she would leave all along, so why did it hurt so much?
He rubbed at his aching chest. This was why he had to protect himself.
If he truly opened himself to her, if he made himself more vulnerable than he already had, and then lost her forever… he wouldn’t survive.
His beast muttered something, but he ignored it to focus on Izzy. She strode down the castle corridors beside him, chin up and shoulders straight. God of Chaos. She was determined to put herself in danger. Had she always—
He slammed to a stop, tugging her to face him, as a new and horrendous thought occurred to him. “The Firebreather you were working on… where exactly did you get it from?”
Izzy bit her lip, her gaze was as direct as always but suddenly more wary.
“Where did you get it?” he asked again.
She sighed. “There’s a tavern near the Nabaspath. I heard from a patient about a friend of his who drank there. He had some that he was… ah, persuaded to sell me.”
A tavern near the Nabaspath. Luka shook his head. There was only…. Fuck. “Are you talking about the Spiral Ward?”
“Yes.”
His beast rumbled. Luka knew that tavern. It was so deeply embedded in the shadows and gloom of that side of the mountain that it never saw sunlight. Moss dripped from its rafters, mold grew on its warped wooden walls, and its patrons carried more weapons than half the guard put together.
“Where could you possibly have met this patient?” The clients of the Spiral Ward were extremely unlikely to have either the money or the inclination to visit a reputable clinic.
They far preferred to avoid the guards, records, and well-meaning healers who might notice things they weren’t supposed to.
“I work at a clinic in Naos two mornings a week.”
“At the Healers Center between the market and the docks?” he asked dubiously. The clean, well-equipped infirmary didn’t seem like the kind of place a patron of the Spiral Ward would go.
“Not exactly….” She paused, as if waiting for him to say something. When he stayed silent, she said, “I work at the infirmary in the Temple of the Twins.”
The Temple of the Twins was deep in the shadow of the mountain, close to the Nabaspath, in the very worst part of the city. Maybe even the country. It called itself the Temple of the Twins, but the truth was that only one of the Twins was worshipped there: Chaos.
His beast flicked its tail. We should have flown her away years ago. We should have stayed with her. She could have died in there!
She must’ve seen the horror threading through him, because she immediately tried to reassure him. “Other physiks work there, too. Both Sarwin and Nolan spend some time there every week.”
“At the same time as you?”
“No, but it’s fine. Everyone is very grateful for the help.”
Luka concentrated on breathing evenly and not letting anything spill out of his mouth that he would regret. Finally, when he was sure his tone was under control, he asked the next question he was afraid he already knew the answer to. “But you took a guard with you to the tavern, of course?”
Izzy laughed roughly. “No one would have spoken to me if I took a guard, and anyway, a lot of the patrons know me. They weren’t going to hurt me.”
Heat climbed through his belly as his beast reached for his skin.
The drake drove him to throw her over his shoulder and drag her off to the furthest, safest, most isolated place he could think of, and if he gave it an inch, it would take his skin and do it.
But he couldn’t forget that she wanted to go back to her shop.
“Izabel,” he rasped, voice almost entirely beast. He took a breath and tried again. “Next time you need to go somewhere dangerous, could you tell me? Could you let me help?”
She stared at him, blinking, as if confused by his words.
Her hair was still loose, and he threaded his fingers between the silvery strands.
“Please, Izzy. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.” He tucked the soft locks behind her ear and then untucked them again, liking how they lay against her skin.
He didn’t know the right words to explain how he felt. Perhaps there were none.
Or perhaps she heard them anyway. “Luka,” she replied softly, “do you remember promising to fly me away?”
Of course he remembered. He was trying not to say fuck it all and fly her away right now. His beast uncoiled as Luka nodded slowly. Izzy would never run from the promise she’d made, and he had no idea where she was going with this.
“We have to be back in the morning,” Izzy said, “but do you think you could fly us somewhere, just for tonight?”
Gods. Just for tonight. He could have everything he wanted… and then it would be over. It was more than he’d dreamed was possible, and it was terrifying.
Rayan had died, and Luka had lost everyone he loved once before. He didn’t want to do that again. He couldn’t do it again. And yet… she looked up at him, green eyes full of trust, her skin so soft under his rough hand. “Just for tonight?” he rasped. “And then we’ll come back?”
“Yes. We have to be back early.”
He didn’t waste time with more words. He simply turned, pulling her beside him and striding fast as he led her away from his room with its maps and plans and one lonely armchair.
She strode beside him, matching his pace, knowing the twists and turns of the castle corridors as well as he did.
She smiled at him as they walked, and he walked even faster.
They reached the base of the Tower of the Weave, and he nodded to the guards there.
“Please send a runner to Captain Ryland and let him know that I’m going out.
” Ryland would already be on duty and was more than capable of managing the castle for the night.
And if he wasn’t, if the entire castle crumbled to dust in their absence, so be it.
Luka and Izzy climbed the stairs side by side to emerge onto the ramparts that ran along the western side of the castle.
The high stone walkways, protected by battlements, merged into the steep side of the mountain, forming an impenetrable barrier from below.
On the near side of the walkway, overlooking the sprawling city, was a wide, circular platform built especially for royal drakes.
The pair of guards watching this stretch of the ramparts turned, per long tradition, one to face the city and one into the castle garden, giving the drakes on the platform a semblance of privacy.
I feel something…. His drake’s hackles rose.
Luka paused, searching the battlements. There were eyes on them, that was certain, but nothing moved. No one stepped out of their assigned place.
“What did you feel?” he muttered under his breath.
I’m not sure.
Luka lifted his face and let his beast taste the wind.
There was leather and weapon oil, the tang of spice from the market, flowers in the gardens—waterblossom and forest bride flowers were sweet and pungent in the night air—intertwined with the smoke of the torches, and through it all, the warm scent of Izabel. But nothing that raised any alarm.
It’s gone.
He hesitated briefly, torn between looking for whatever his beast had scented and flying away with Izzy.
Fly away with Izzy. Obviously.
Luka took one last look around—but saw nothing out of place—as Izzy busied herself with choosing a leather harness and soft saddle. Perhaps it was just the remnants of his fear and rage from earlier making him see danger where there was none.
Izzy picked one of the heavy wool cloaks from a peg on the wall of the small stone enclosure built into the side of the castle tower. She’d been here before with her brother many times. Never with Luka.
She stepped into the harness and adjusted the fit while he quickly turned and stripped.
He placed his armor in his personal trunk set into the wall, but he kept his boots, breeches, shirt, and several sharp daggers, packing them neatly into a large leather satchel designed especially for a drake to carry.
He strode naked into the center of the platform, scales already spreading over his spine, as his beast preened, far too aware of the flush rising on Izzy’s cheeks.
Beyond the ring of torchlight, the night seemed especially dark.
The stars were fogged by wisps of creamy cloud scudding past, and the moon had not yet risen.
The cool breeze tugged him toward the sky, while the heat and power of the mountain spread like lava through his veins.
Somewhere deep in its roots, Mount Nabas was made of fire, and it sang through him, calling him.
Luka lowered himself to his knees and prayed as he always did, offering his gratitude for this moment. Even though it was fraught with danger, even though it was doomed to end in just a few hours, he had this time with Izabel.
And then the magic found him. His beast roared. His spine arched and cracked, and power surged through him like fire through dry grass as he shifted in an agonizing rush. He spread his wings wide, and his beast threw back its head and bellowed into the night.
Izabel strode forward, smiling up at him. His beast immediately shoved his snout into her neck, scenting her. He pushed as close as he could, nuzzling her hair, purring loudly.
Izzy reached up to stroke her hands along his scaled neck before moving to fit the soft saddle to his back. He held out a foreleg to help her climb on and waited while she clipped on the harness. When he was sure she was safe, he stepped up to the ramparts, lifting his wings to test the air.
The wind was brisk, teasing at his scales. The city was laid out below him, a thriving mass of humanity spreading all the way to the sea. Beside him, always calling, was the mountain. And just for tonight, Izzy was with him.
“Ready?” he rumbled.
Izzy leaned forward, pressed against his huge back. “Always.”
His muscles bunched and stretched as he flung himself into the air, beating his wings to catch the updraft, heated through the day, now rising toward the mountain. He caught the current and used it to climb high above the castle, following the familiar ravines up the side of the Nabasberg.
Izzy was a warm weight on his back, her presence both soothing and exhilarating, as he drove them up even faster. She laughed, the sound ringing clear and joyful in the cold air, and he couldn’t have stopped the rumbling purr that filled his body even if he wanted to.
He banked steeply, loving her gasp of delight, and soared them out across the city and over the sea. He turned in the air and swooped into a steep dive, racing all the way down toward the salty swells, only to even out just above the surface.
His drake bellowed in delight, filling their mind with pictures of coming back in high summer, diving into the icy water and back out again to float with Izzy on the swells, drying in the sunshine. It couldn’t be, but it was a beautiful picture.
Luka dipped his claws into a frothy wave as Izzy shrieked with happy glee, and then he beat his wings to lift them once more and soar toward the Nabasberg.
He climbed high over the flat mesa and past the rocky ridges that led away from the city, following the hidden slopes on the distant side, taking her to his secret place.