Chapter 1 #2
We sit and watch the others. Many Hollowborn leave the cliffside and head into the woods.
I’m not sure why, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
My people really don’t like them on our lands.
They might have agreed to leave this cliff for our meeting, but that doesn’t mean they have free range of our lands.
“King Sevrin–”
“Just Sevrin, we’re married,” he tells me simply.
Okay. I try again. “Sevrin, you should know that the king, without ordering it, just requesting it, would like us to return alone to Elarwyn when the celebration is complete.”
“Alone?” He lifts a brow.
“He would like you to come alone to sign the peace treaty and to have our marriage ceremony.”
“Would King Stormvale really allow a bone wyrm within the walls of his city?”
“Do you… need him close to you?”
He shakes his head. “Bone wyrm are not like dragons. They’re not living, breathing things.
My magic can keep mine ‘alive,’ even from a great distance.
He will basically explore and behave like a dragon, but will return to me if I call him to me at any point.
It’s not really living, exactly, but it’s what you would expect from the undead. ”
What am I supposed to say to that?
I hesitate, then decide to just say it. “That works out well then, because the king would like you to ride on the back of Ebron with me.”
His mouth pulls into a thin line. “Everything your king asks of me puts me in a vulnerable position and gives him all the power.”
He’s not wrong. “Peace requires a certain amount of trust. Me coming here gave you all the power and put me in a vulnerable position, yet I came, because peace is bigger than you or I.”
“True,” he agrees, and there’s a flicker of something, maybe respect. “And how does Ebron feel about flying with me on his back? To my knowledge, no Hollowborn has ever flown on the back of a dragon. No time in history.”
He’s right. “I’ll ask him.”
“Ask him?” he questions.
I study the Hollowborn. “Well, how do you communicate with your bone wrym?”
“We don’t. They just… know what we want.”
Interesting.
“Well, that’s not how it works with Ebron.”
His eagle eyes watch me carefully, as if he’s trying to determine the secret behind my ability to communicate with Ebron.
It’s unsettling, but I understand it. Every story, every rumor, suggests that the Hollowborn want their own dragons more than anything else in this world.
Anything that involves Ebron will likely fascinate him.
I turn to communicate with Ebron when I see a Hollowborn get too close to Ebron.
The man looks like he wants to touch Ebron.
My dragon rears back from him, and fire leaps into the sky.
Tension sings through the clearing, and the bone wyrms’ bones clack as they shift and move around us.
The Hollowborn’s music stops, and everybody shifts into defensive positions.
Ebron is angry, ready for a fight, and I climb to my feet and come close to him. Carefully, I set my hand on his side and stroke his scales.
It’s okay. We’re okay.
Are we? Our enemies are everywhere, and we sit and drink with them.
I understand this is strange. This is strange for me too. As soon as they’re done, we’ll go. But, and this is something I should’ve thought about, we’ll have to take my new mate back with us. He’ll have to ride on you.
No.
Ebron–
I do not want another rider on my back. It feels… wrong. Unnatural.
I will still be your rider. He’ll be like the saddle. Just cargo to take with us.
No.
I release a slow breath. We’re trying to create peace between the two groups. Not just to stop the killing and war, but to bring about more male dragons. They know the secret of why none are being born. The dragon race will die out if we don’t do this.
He’s quiet for so long that I think he might never answer, when he says, I will take the Hollowborn. Him alone. And if he upsets me, I will toss him into the ocean and watch him die.
Fair enough.
Glancing back at Sevrin, I see he’s been talking to one of his men in a low voice, watching me all the while.
I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I can guess that it’s about me.
I try not to regard this suspiciously. If we’re going to make peace between our people, I need to try not to see the king as an enemy any longer, even though I can still be careful.
I come back and sit down beside Sevrin. He offers me another drink, and I shake my head.
Near us, his men have come back with skinned rabbits, and they start a fire, probably preparing a feast. It wouldn’t seem like such to my people, but I know there are few animals that are edible and tasty on his continent.
“Is Ebron okay?”
My answer tangles in my mind for a minute. “This is hard for him. He doesn’t like to be around your bone wyrm, or you. I’m not sure what he feels about this peace agreement in general, but I think he’s willing to make some sacrifices for more male dragons.”
“Poor beast.” I’m surprised by his empathy for Ebron.
“He’s a fine dragon. The largest and most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen.
He’s meant to bring forth many hatchlings into the world, and he’s built for battle if he has to.
I can’t imagine it’s an easy thing for him to disregard all his instincts when it comes to his enemies and allow them to simply exist around him. ”
He may be an enemy, but at least he sees what a fine dragon I am. So, he has eyes at least.
I grin.
“What?” Sevrin asks me.
I bite my lip. “I think Ebron was flattered by your description of him.”
Sevrin tilts his head, studying Ebron. “He should know that the Hollowborn have no ill-will toward dragon-kind. We know the bone wyrm are their natural enemies and will attack dragons when given free reign from their Hollowborn, but we use the bone wyrm to fight the Dravari, not to fight the dragons. Dragons we respect above all else, as gods of the sky.”
Ebron tosses his head. I am a god of the sky. The God of the Sky.
I try to hide my smile this time, but Sevrin surprises me by lifting my chin with one finger. “What amuses you now, wife?”
It’s strange hearing myself referred to as a wife, strange to look into his golden eyes and know he’s my husband. “He likes being called a god of the sky.”
He drops his hand. “Dragon-human relationships are fascinating. I’ve never seen one this close before.”
“Most relationships aren’t like ours.”
“How so?”
I hesitate, wondering if I’m giving away secrets I shouldn’t.
“The men have a relationship that’s more like two people who work together.
They don’t chat with their dragons. They don’t care about their feelings in any regard.
They learn to work together, and fight together, and that’s it.
But Ebron and I– he’s my family. I love him and care for him.
I care what he thinks and what he feels. ”
“I know little of dragons, but I like your relationship with Ebron better. It seems a shame to treat an intelligent, powerful creature with as much dignity as your sword.”
“Agreed,” I say, surprised we’ve already found some common ground.
He drinks from his water skin, studying it. “And what does your dragon think of taking me to your king?”
I think my best course of action is honesty. “He doesn’t want any other rider on his back and feels that carrying you is unnatural, but he’s willing to do this for the betterment of dragon kind.”
His hand drops, and his eyes widen. “He’ll really do it?”
“Y-yes.”
He turns and stares at Ebron. “I’ve only ever dreamed of flying on a dragon. I never thought it could actually come true.”
It eases my heart a little to hear him speak about riding a dragon the way I thought about it. The dragon riders have always pretty much known they were headed for dragon riding, but it was a thing of wonder to me. I’m glad it’s a thing of wonder for him too.
The meat is finished cooking. We’re all given some.
Sevrin surprises me by feeding me some of the rabbit, and I find both his gesture and the taste of the rabbit with their foreign spices, to be unexpected.
Would the princes ever do something as simple as feed me? I doubt it. That would be below them.
Overhead, the sky grows darker, and the men soon begin to clean up, erasing all traces of themselves from this cliff top. Beside me, Sevrin stands and offers me his hand. I take it, butterflies fluttering in my stomach as I move to my feet, and he stands so close to me.
“Do you want to consummate our marriage now or when you’ve had more time to get to know me?”
My mouth drops open in surprise. I’d been so worried about being killed or having my offer rejected that I hadn’t really given much thought to what it’d actually be like to marry a Hollowborn. Of course we were going to end up having sex.
Sex with a man I barely know.
“I need more time,” I blurt out.
He nods. “Then you’ll have more time.”
His men line up in a row, and he leads me to stand in front of them, then releases my hand.
He slowly begins to walk back and forth in front of them, back straight, sword and dagger at his hip.
“Men, I leave you now in body, but not in spirit. I am a Hollowborn, blood and bones. I fight with you, my brothers, whether I am at your side or not. But today, I have a more important goal: to make peace with the Dravari. Once the papers are signed, our lives will change forever. With access to fertile lands and pastures, we will no longer starve and struggle. A new golden age will be born.”
The men cheer, and it’s strangely frightening to see so much energy from such scary-looking men.
“Until we meet again,” he says.
“Until we meet again,” they all repeat, bowing low.
Sevrin turns back toward me and takes my hand. One of his men brings him his bag, and he hefts it onto his shoulders. Then he approaches Ebron with all the caution of one predator approaching a bigger predator, and I don’t blame him. Ebron watches his every move.
“Ebron, may I touch you?” he asks.
I look at Ebron. He’s going to ride you so…
Tell the Hollowborn he may touch me.
The men grow silent once more behind me, and Sevrin takes a step forward and gently places a hand on Ebron’s side. He strokes his scales with a look of pure wonder on his face, then turns to his men. “His scales glide against my fingers like they’re pieces of glass.”
Every Hollowborn looks on with barely concealed envy.
Sevrin turns to me. “Are you ready to ride?”
I nod.
He takes my hand and helps me up into the saddle, then looks at Ebron once more. “May I ride you, God of the Sky?”
It takes him a long minute to answer. He may.
“He says you can.”
The Hollowborn shift closer, watching carefully, but I turn my attention to Sevrin.
Even for a man his size, it isn’t easy to get on a dragon as large as Ebron, but he manages to do it.
He slips into the saddle behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, so that my back is against his chest. He radiates warmth.
“I’m ready. Are you ready, my bride?”
My bride. It still doesn’t sound real. “I’m ready.”
Ebron begins to flap his massive wings while the bone wrym fidget and shift around us. We shoot into the sky, leaving the shocked Hollowborns behind, and their creepy bone wrym. Behind me, Sevrin lifts his arms in the same way I did when I first started to love flying.
Those golden eyes of his focus on my face. “This is incredible. I’m on a dragon. A real dragon.” And his beautiful accent is even stronger with his excitement.
I smile. “You never get sick of it.” We fly like that for a long moment before I ask, “Is this similar to flying on a bone wyrm?”
He shakes his head. “It’s as different as day and night.
Bone wyrm aren’t alive. They’re cold and hard beneath you, nothing but bones and flesh.
They feel like an extension of yourself, because your own magic is keeping them in an undead state.
Keeping them ‘alive.’ But riding Ebron? He’s actually alive, and warm, and magical.
I can feel his breath. I can feel the tension and the movement of his muscles. It’s… beautiful.”
His arms drop, wrapping around me and pulling me tightly against him.
I don’t even have a minute to think when his lips descend onto mine, hard and possessive, stealing the breath from my lungs.
So much like the last time he kissed me on Ebron, except this kiss is deeper.
His tongue dips inside, tangling with my own, and leaving me hot and aching.
Finally, he pulls back, studying me, eyes darkened with desire.
Behind me, I can feel the obvious evidence of his arousal.
“You, Harper, will make a fine queen, and an even better wife.” He rubs his thumb along my swollen lip. “Flying dragons is just the first of many extraordinary things to come.”
Looking in his eyes, for some reason, I believe him. This man. This king. He has a kind of charisma I’ve never seen before. It pulls you in and leaves you desperate for more.
Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into?