Chapter Eighty-Eight #4
“She’s going to be okay,” Minea claims, and for some reason his choice of wording stops me in my tracks, and I glare up at him.
“If you think indicating she may not be okay now—”
“I think we both know it would be impossible for her to feel relief until you arrive alive,” Minea retorts and proceeds to lower his stomach to the ground while retracting his back scales.
I toss the pad over him, then the harness, and work on securing the buckles before pulling myself up and working my legs into the straps.
“Beat you there!” Lars calls from Dranea’s back, wearing the black leather pack Imperial Dragon Master Sonya procured.
I shake my head, still mystified by how she accomplished such a feat, having packed us spare sets of clothing and provisions in the time she saw the ceiling cave in.
Dranea launches into the sky, and my heart stalls when Lucrea canters past with Malin wearing his own pack—feeling weighed down by guilt because how were they so much faster than I am at getting secured into their harnesses?
“Lars’ speed,” Minea says, and I release a sigh as I finish securing the belt around myself, then force my arms through the leather loop and press down on the horn with my forehead.
Sutrea’s deep purple scales reflect the moonlight as she strides toward the center of the clearing with two leather packs strapped to her harness—one each for Fray and Tasch. The ground shakes as she runs, kicking up stalks of dead grass when she launches herself skyward.
“She will know you are safe soon enough,” Minea claims.
The straps tighten around each of my limbs as I grip the handlebars and click my tongue to communicate my status.
“Be gentle with your ankle when pressing into Minea’s back,” Cirrin warns, and I nod, heart beating rapidly as he and Brea take off next.
I hazard one last glance at the mountain to ensure we are the only ones who thought to come to the Dragon dens, though I can’t shake the feeling that something—or someone—is watching from the trees.
“Varic.” Imperial Dragon Master Sonya’s voice rips me from my paranoia. “You will keep her safe and take care of her, as you have promised.” I stare down at her blankly, as words fail me. “Keep the book close.” She tips her chin in a modified bow. “I will see you soon.”
I open my mouth to ask what she means when Minea spins in the opposite direction. My body jostles atop his back as he trots forward, and I brace as he gains speed, then his powerful legs launch us off the earth just before the line of trees no longer guarded by the Imperial Army.
I should have worked faster. Minea can’t fly as quickly as the others. She’s worried about me. The least I could do would be to ensure I am the first Guard she sees.
She’s trapped there, relying on us to arrive as fast as we can and protect her. The only power Fray knows how to use is flight. She needs all of us to take her where she can no longer be controlled by this tyrant. Where she will have the freedom to live a life of her choosing.
Fear manifests as a blade, and I fight the urge to rip its figurative hilt from where it sticks in my ribs, stabbing at the center of my chest with the realization of how she may not have cared for me were she ever given such freedom.
How she may not have had any interest in getting to know me had we met on the street.
How her love may even stem from my relentlessness in making my own feelings known.
She may feel beholden due to my inability to hide all I feel for her, while she regards me with what I can only hope is a feigned icy demeanor.
A farce she has had to uphold for both of our safety.
It’s all my mind seems to latch onto now that this doubt has made itself known.
And once we have our freedom—once she has the opportunity to meet other beings—it’s possible she might feel differently. That someone else might prove to be who and what she needs. Better than I ever could—
“Stop,” Minea commands in my mind.
“What?” I hold in my thoughts.
“Stop tormenting yourself. Wait to see how she reacts once you arrive. I’d tell you what I predict will happen, but that would just spoil the fun, because we both know I’ll be correct.”
“Being happy to see I am safe is not the same as loving me regardless of the fact she has never been given the freedom to meet anybody else.”
“You would certainly be a worthy opponent if we were to ever compare our level of stubbornness.”
Wind displaces my hair faster as we drop down, and treetops blur as we near a thick layer of fog obscuring everything below the peaks of the tallest pines.
“How can you navigate in these conditions?” I think, pressing on our link.
“You can create a shield with your mind, yet you admire my ability to recognize the difference in topography,” Minea retorts, jostling me as his chest rumbles beneath me.
I pull in a breath of frigid air and try to take Minea’s words along with the message Imperial Dragon Master Sonya left and do my best to draw from their confidence in our plan—and my abilities.
Because Tasch is my world.
My reason. My purpose.
And I will not fail her.
I will not allow it.