Chapter 10 #2
I held out a firm hand to the beast until his steam flared against me, dampening my cheeks and my already slick hand. My heart thundered like a war drum as I pressed on, until I laid it against his lengthy nose.
But the steam shifted from a chimney to an angry boil and scalded my skin. A roar burst from his chest that shook the very foundation.
He snapped. Aelen tightened his grip and threw me back onto a broken bale, the straw crumbling around my shoulders.
Aelen rushed to my side, brushing the straw from my face and tending to a small nick on my forearm.
The dragon had made it through the leather, which hung in tatters with the hint of crimson weeping beneath.
A sapphire light slid from Aelen’s finger as it raked along the wound, knitting my skin back together.
“You idiot.”
He frowned and continued to pull straw from my braided hair. “I never should have brought you here.” While he inspected my arm and continued to mutter curses beneath his breath, one thing reverberated through my mind.
He saved my life.
Aelen had clenched the lantern until his knuckles went white as the surrounding snowbanks on the trek back to the cottage. He’d never ceased repeating that he’d never take me back to train again.
But the next morning brought the usual stomach woes, my guts churning painfully upon waking. All the while, my mind kept circling back to the invisible pact. Every day I inched closer to my agonizing end. I needed to know more about the beast, and I needed to know now.
But when Aelen reappeared at first light to drag me out, I refused to go back to the stables to bide my time. Not without answers.
“What made the dragon stop growing?”
“Ancient pains mark his soul,” he said, and waved away the nuisance of falling flakes. “It’s the best guess I can muster. But it doesn’t matter, you’re not returning to train. You can mind yourself quietly.”
“No. I won’t leave until you tell me. Something changed, I know you saw that too. There was something there with him. We—”
“You two have not bonded. Had you, he wouldn’t have dared lay a tooth on you. You are putting yourself into an increasingly dangerous situation every day.”
“Every day I’m getting sicker, I need answers!” I yelled. “What happened to him?”
A gale blew around us, and the color slid from his face. “It’s not what happened to him, it’s what happened to us. To my people. It’s long, and I don’t think you’d care to know.”
“It’s important I know! It might be able to help me bond further. It’s the only way I can defeat my father.”
Aelen frowned. “Would you even believe it? The truth?”
“Yes!”
“Do you plan on putting on the necklace?”
My heart thundered ever faster. It wasn’t in my pocket. In fact, I’d hit it beneath the bed, hoping to never look at it again. “No.”
“Then no. I will not tell you, unless you’d like to grace the halls of our temples.” He kicked a tuft of snow and sent a chunk of ice skating into the side of the cottage. “But I don’t see that happening.”
“The I’phri gods?” I’ll go there.” I started down the path, but he stopped me with a hand on my chest. I shivered at the sudden warmth.
“No, our gods,” he said and motioned between us. “They made you just as they made me. But you can’t go, the temple is in Eltidian, our city, and today is…”
“Today is the day I’ll go.” I started forward but was once again stopped.
“No, you won’t. They’ll kill you, remember? Seems we can’t. Pity.”
I shoved his hand away and started the opposite way on the path. I’d been wondering where this went. But when he grabbed my hand to stop me, a question sank into my guts, seething.
“Why will they kill me, but you won’t? You said it was all I’phri’s duty to keep me safe because of my pact but then you insist they'll murder me. None of this makes any sense. Why are you so vested?”
He paled and ground his teeth. “My interest is none of your business.”
I twisted his wrist, but he didn’t even let out a cry. “I’d say it is my damn business, considering my life depends on it.”
He released me like I was cursed. “Fine, I’ll take you. But you’ll need a charm to get you through the city.”
Before he could march into the woods, I blocked his path. “Tell me why you care. I’m tired of this game.”
He lightly pushed me out of the way. “It tires me too.” He let out a long sigh that sent his breath misting upward. “Our leader desires your safety, as the pact is integral to him and the security of Eltide. As such, he’s instructed some I’phri to maintain your fragile, beating heart.”
“You already knew I’d be at that river, didn’t you?”
He squared his shoulders and rested his palms against the back of his skull. “You’ve gotten enough secrets out of me for one day.”
That was a yes, but in more words. I wanted to hate him for it, but found that well drier than I expected.
The paths swirled around us until we found our way to a small lean-to, closer to a rotting hovel than a cottage.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, darting into the creaking boarded door.
I walked around the edge of the building, surprised to find only one lone window, on what couldn’t be more than a single-roomed home.
Home, if that’s what you can call this decrepit shack.
Inside, only dusty, drawn curtains were visible, and as I hadn’t been invited in, I didn’t want to go traipsing about.
Though Aelen wouldn’t outright hurt me—after all, he’d just saved my life—I was too aware that I didn’t need to push his buttons further than necessary.
Just enough to get what I needed, but not enough to get a knife in my neck.
Half the time, Aelen seemed driven by his emotions, and I didn’t doubt I could push him into accidentally murdering me.
I stared out into the woods, but noticed a small speck in the distance. The ground rose, and my cottage was ever so slightly visible. The trees parted perfectly—too perfectly—to see my house from his pane.
My heart thundered, and a chill crawled down my spine and settled into my bones. It remained there until I felt ill, and Aelen returned with a bracelet in hand. I eyed it nervously, recalling the shard of death. The necklace of remember how easily I can kill you.
He shifted his weight and let it sway before me. “This isn’t a gift. You may borrow it.”
I remained uneasy, but hooked it around my wrist anyway. It shouldn’t be too difficult to swallow my pride for a few minutes, if it helped me train a dragon.
But apparently I didn’t do a very good job, because Aelen took my hand and tightened it, his fingers hooking it above my wrist so that the sleeve hid it—but didn’t drop my hand. He raised it next to my neck, observing.
“This would look lovelier as a necklace.” I shivered when his gloved hand grazed my clavicle. “Perhaps you should wear one.”
I swallowed and shook my head. “No, thank you.”
He buried his frown and tapped the bracelet.
“Keep this beneath your clothes. Other I’phri will likely recognize the stone in this charm, and consequently relieve you of your lifeblood.
” He tapped his boot against the snow. “Avoid using it to fraternize with the others, they won’t be as kind as I am.
And whatever you do, don’t visit them during the day around the dragons; they carry weapons.
Speaking of, don’t bother the dragons during the day, either. ”
“But why?”
“Many reasons. The dragons sleep during the day, and don’t like visitors. The riders have a sharp set of weapons and frequent the stables during the daylight. Did I mention they would kill you? It’s best avoided. Busy yourself, but away from the beasts.”
I spat out the words that ruminated inside. “Would you ever kill me?”
He didn’t acknowledge me with a look, straightening the chain on my wrist. “Not intentionally.”
But he could.
“Because your leader said so?”
Only then did he tug me back to the labyrinth of paths, his hand clasping mine. “No comment.”
But as we moved from his rotting shack, my sights lingered on the distant cottage. It was too far to make out any details, and certainly not to peer into the windows. It must have been a coincidence.
It must be.