Chapter Forty
Ember
“It shouldn’t take this long,” I said, grunting as I lifted the giant stone back into a vertical position and held it against the wall. “They’ve been gone too long.”
Ari rolled her eyes and stepped up next to me, holding several smaller rocks in each hand. “I’m sure it’s fine. Maybe she wasn’t at home right away.”
I glanced at her. “Why wouldn’t she be at home? Where would she be?”
“Who knows what humans do, Ember. Maybe she was at the grocery store. Or a friend’s house. Maybe she went to go get drunk or to the movies. Now shut up, and let me work.”
I fell silent, holding the rock in place. Ari’s hands began to glow, and soon, heatwaves were rippling from the stones in her hands. She pressed them to the cracks in the wall around my stone and started working the rock into the crevices like loose playdough.
It was a tricky process because if the stones got too hot, they would damage her hands, even with the protection of being a dragon.
Our own fire would never harm us, and even the flames from other fire dragons would have reduced impact.
The same strike I might use against Albright would wound him, perhaps fry some skin, while it would char and mutilate a storm or tidal dragon, for example. We had a natural resistance.
So Ari had to walk the line of that resistance, getting the stone hot enough to make it pliable while also not hurting herself beyond healing.
She walked the tightrope better than most and certainly far better than I ever could.
I was the blunt instrument with a power she could never match, while she had a control I often envied.
That was part of why I’d ordered her to help me with the repairs.
The other was so that I could keep an eye on her. Ensure she didn’t do anything to give Albright another chance.
“What if something happened to them?” I asked as Ari stepped away from the wall to admire her handiwork. “I should be the one to go get her, damn it!”
“You know why you can’t,” Ari said. “You’re next in line for the throne, Ember. You can’t give Albright another chance.”
“I know,” I snarled, angry at myself, not her. “But I should have found a way. She’s my mate. I need to be able to protect her. If anything has happened to her … I don’t know if I’ll forgive myself.”
Ari sighed and ignored me, walking down to the next broken section of the royal tower’s exterior wall, gesturing for me to pick up the biggest piece of stone from the pile.
I glared at her but did it anyway. The repairs were important, not just for defenses but for appearances as well.
I had to look strong. Albright had to look weak in comparison.
“Pyre will bring her back,” Ari said as I lifted the rock into place, holding it flat while she worked chunk after chunk of smaller rock into a gooey substance and shoved it into the cracks, filling them in one by one until the rock cooled and it all became one piece again.
True repair crews would come along and ensure that every dent, divot, and scratch was properly fixed and smoothed out, but in the meantime, we could do the heavy lifting and get much of the repairs done. Elsewhere around Fire Castle, other crews were doing the same.
“I know he will,” I said, trying to contain myself. “But he’s taking too long. I need her here, Ari. I should have my mate at my side.”
Ari turned to look at me, her expression thoughtful but somewhat closed off, hiding her true feelings. “She’s human, Ember. You might care for her, but your mate?”
“I know how it sounds,” I said, my jaw clenched defiantly. “Trust me, I do. But this woman … Ari, she makes me feel things like no other. The way my body responds to her, the heat she awakens in me, it’s more intense than any dragon woman.”
“Ouch,” Ari said a little hotly.
I shrugged. “You know there has never been a real connection between us. You wanted to be my mate for power purposes. Not because you actually cared about me. So don’t pretend to be offended. We can both see through the bullshit.”
Ari shrugged, moving on as easily as I knew she would. “Whatever. Lots of others will be offended. The other nobles, they’ll say you’re insane. That no human would ever be worthy of being mated to a dragon.”
“I know they will,” I growled, resting a hand on my sternum, feeling the piece of metal hanging there below my uniform. “But there’s one way they’ll be convinced. A way that will show them it truly is meant to be.”
“You’re going to put her through the Test?” Ari asked, aghast at my obvious intention.
I nodded.
“She’ll never survive it!”
“How do you know?” I challenged. “You’ve never taken it. Neither have I. We have no idea of what it entails. Besides, I’ve been thinking about the one unanswered question in all this.”
“What’s that?”
“How did she get here?” I said slowly. “The very first time, something pulled her through the Watching Mirror. She didn’t step through. I didn’t do anything. Something else did.”
Ari’s eyes stayed focused on me before slowly sliding past to the southeast. “You think he brought her here?”
I nodded, following her gaze. The wall blocked our view of it, but I knew what she was looking at. Mount Drakonus.
“He had to have been the one behind it, Ari,” I said. “The God-King knew that our true mates were not being born to dragon women for whatever reason. So he brought her here to show me the way.”
“That’s awfully presumptuous of you.”
“Maybe,” I agreed. “I don’t know, though I do intend to ask him when I take the Test.”
“Lots of people will have an issue with a human as Princess of Fire.”
I eyed Ari, trying to determine if that was a generic warning or if that was her way of telling me she couldn’t support it. She’d yet to outright join Albright, and according to several verbal reports I’d received, she’d fought quite hard against his supporters to protect the castle.
Still, I couldn’t help but be suspicious of her motives.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “But what would you have me do, Ari? I’m next in line, but I can’t sit on the throne if I don’t have a mate. I know she makes me feel things nobody else has. Physically, but also here.”
Ari lifted an eyebrow as I tapped over my heart.
“Once she’s here, you’ll see,” I continued. “I’ll tell her about the Test, ask her to take it with me. We’ll pass, and you’ll understand. Everyone will.”
“I doubt it,” Ari said. “But I support the law, Ember, and that says you’re next in line. If you and your human pass the Test, then I’ll respect that decree. Though I won’t understand it.”
“Her name,” I growled, “is Dela.”
Ari shrugged. “Whatever. She’s still just a human, and you know it. Get used to others thinking the same way.”
My teeth ground together, but she was right.
It would be a fight to get the entire fire clan to support Dela as my princess once we passed the test. There was no doubt in my mind we would, and once we did, I knew any other challenge would be nothing in comparison.
The others would fall in line, eventually.
“I just wish Pyre would get back here already,” I complained, looking to the southeast once more, waiting to see a figure on the horizon, wings steadily beating as they returned.
My eyes popped as I realized the image I was picturing wasn’t in my mind. It was reality.
“She’s coming!” I crowed, pointing at the dragon winging its way through the air, growing larger by the second. “At last!”
Ari came up to stand next to me, one hand over her brow to shield her eyes, even though the sun wasn’t in our way. She stared for several minutes before grunting.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s not him. But whoever it is, they’re not wasting any time.”
I stared at her, then back into the sky. She was right. The oncoming dragon had scales too bright to be Pyre. In my eagerness to see Dela and set things right between us, I’d overlooked that detail. Now that they were closer, I could see they bore no rider either.
“Come on,” I said, heading to the central tower. “Let’s meet them and see what the commotion is all about.”
We hurried across the courtyard and up the stairs. We stepped onto the roof just as the dragon landed at the main landing pad with a scrape of claws on stone. They didn’t shift back, instead remaining in their dragon form.
I didn’t recognize them, but the cocky, arrogant way in which they held themselves, including the look of disdain as they spied me, told me this wasn’t one of my loyalists. Rather, it was someone from Albright’s camp.
“Come to surrender?” I spat, crossing my arms as Ari spread out to my left, making sure the interloper couldn’t take us both out with one attack if they were so stupid as to try.
“No.”
“You failed,” I said. “The castle is mine still, and the line of succession will go on properly, despite your rogue lord’s best efforts. It’s over. Give up now, and return with minor punishment. If you continue, it will only grow more serious.”
“My lord Albright wishes to invite you to his humble home,” the dragon said, ignoring my words. “For negotiations.”
“His surrender?”
The dragon smiled wide, revealing pointy teeth. “Yours.”
I gaped at him, too dumbstruck by his arrogance to speak. Why would I ever surrender, especially after such a crushing victory? It made no sense.
“You must be joking. Me? Surrender to him? Albright just got his ass handed to him here and is in no position to make demands,” I snarled. “Tell him he can surrender unconditionally, and I’ll spare his life.”
“He thought you might say that,” the other dragon chuckled, the sound oddly melodious and flowing for something so nasty. “Which is why I was commanded to tell you that you will surrender unconditionally, my lord, to spare her life.”
My stomach roiled with sudden uncertainty. “Her?”
The dragon spread his wings and crouched. “Your human.” With a spring and a sweep of his wings, he took to the sky. “He suggests you accept his invitation … if you ever want to see her again. Alive, that is.”