Chapter Thirty-One
Safe Haven
MAGNOLIA
Hael didn’t come into my room until night was in full bloom. I tried not to think about what I was doing. That I was only pretending to go with him so I could exploit his safe haven. Every time I thought about it, guilt wrecked me.
As soon as Dahes left my mind, my head stopped throbbing, and I could finally think again.
I wish I hadn’t. I didn’t want to think, didn’t want to process what I was doing…
“Are you ready?” He looked me up and down, his gaze scrutinizing as it lingered.
“Yes.” I didn’t own anything here, so it wasn’t like I had a bag to pack.
I bathed and threw on a simple black dress with a coat over it before he showed up.
The material was soft, making it easy to move in, and I figured the dark colors would be best for wherever we were going.
I tilted my chin up to meet his gaze. “Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t answer, instead he said, “I need you to trust me.”
He held out his hand, holding my gaze. I glanced down at his upturned palm and debated if this was really what I wanted. Not that it mattered. I didn’t have a choice in anything I was doing. Dahes now knew, and I couldn’t take it back.
I inhaled, wrapping my fingers around his.
Fifteen minutes later, we were standing on the original landing pad he brought me to when I first came to Viven. It was halfway between the castle and the Dome, expanding over the thousands of steps before they continued into the downward spiral.
Hael had used his Vinculum powers to keep us invisible, which made sneaking out of King Elion’s castle relatively easy. It was another reason to add to my ever growing list of why I was envious my Token was transparency instead of invisibility or literally anything else.
Transparency felt too tied to my body, too tied to what Dahes tried to do to it. I couldn’t get past it, and in turn, couldn’t control it.
I turned in a circle, the moons were already high in the sky when I heard the soft rattle. Hael dropped the invisibility over us as soon as we stepped outside. No one else was out here, and the air felt eerily quiet.
“We’re flying?” I asked, my eyes widening in shock as the rattling grew louder—which, I was standing on the landing pad for crying out loud. Why I didn’t make the connection earlier was stupid.
Hael’s gaze was assessing like he saw through me, despite being tangible at the moment. Did he know what I was trying to do?
He nodded after a second. “It’ll take too long by foot.”
“How long will it take?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. This wasn’t what I had in mind.
“Two hours.”
“No. I want to walk.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’ll take a fortnight.”
“So…”
“Nollie. I don’t have time. The king will notice I’m gone.”
I nodded, storing the information that he was leaving as soon as we got there. Not that I expected him to stay. He had no reason to leave the castle, but still…
This wasn’t good. I thought that traveling with Hael meant I’d have days of getting to know him, not hours.
I thought we’d have to camp out at night, and I’d be able to use the time to figure out his weaknesses.
But now I was going to be dangling from his dragon’s claw…
kinda hard to have a conversation that way, and I was running out of time.
Having Dahes inside my head today put fear back into me. I needed to do this…
“You spend hours dangling from a claw and then tell me you wouldn’t protest,” I snapped, hoping I could change his mind.
He rolled his eyes. “You aren’t going in her claw.”
“What? But you said—”
He cut me off. “You’re riding with me.”
My brows furrowed, still not understanding.
“On her back.”
Aside from the beat of wings and a soft rattle, silence stretched out before us. I had to have heard him wrong.
The rattle grew louder and the next second his dragon landed on the pad, immediately crouching as Hael made his way toward her.
I backed up a step without meaning to. The pad was massive, easily able to fit three or four dragons, but I still couldn’t get over how monstrous they were.
Her scales looked more pearl than white under the glow of the moons, and each long white talon was half the size of me. I kept staring at them, at her claws—
“Nollie.” Hael held his hand out, ready to mount.
I shook my head.
“You’re riding with me,” he said again.
“What happened to dragons burning anyone that’s not a drakin that tries to ride them?”
“She won’t burn you.”
I backed up another step. Then another.
He frowned, stepping away from his dragon and started walking toward me. “Nollie, I wouldn’t work so hard on convincing you to leave Elion’s castle only for you to get killed now.”
He took another step toward me while I was simultaneously backing away, but his strides were longer, faster.
“You can either ride on her back with me or in her claw. The choice is yours, but we are flying.”
“I changed my mind,” I said. “I don’t want to go.”
He laughed, his dimple poking out across his cheek as he stopped in front of me. “You can trust me, Nollie. I won’t ever do anything to harm you.”
His words shook me. I didn’t trust anyone, and even if I could, I didn’t deserve it.
He couldn’t trust me.
His gaze locked onto mine. “I promise,” he said again.
I still didn’t move. I kept envisioning getting burned to a crisp.
“Nollie,” Hael said slowly. “You already rode on her back.”
“What—no I didn’t.” I knew for certain I was in her claw when we rode back to Elion’s castle. Jaxs’ warning alone was proof of it, that we should have taken the tunnel instead.
He shook his head. “You were in her claw going back in case anyone saw us, but going into MonClem I held you on her back.”
“Why—”
“You were unconscious after the brothel.” His eyes searched mine like that was answer enough. Maybe I shouldn’t have been this scared considering I lived with Dahes. Maybe I was being irrational. “She didn’t kill you then,” he said, “and I promise she won’t now.”
“Okay,” I breathed, uncertainty still rattling me. But I didn’t have a choice.
Slowly, he guided me toward his dragon. Her neon eyes flicked to me, but they didn’t narrow and she didn’t bare her teeth, so I kept telling myself that was a good sign.
My breath was in my throat as Hael motioned for me to climb her. She was at an angle, her body twisting to make a slope, her hind leg curving into a semi-ramp.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
My hands flexed over her scales and I nearly pulled them back when I felt how smooth and warm she was. I expected her to be rough.
My fingers easily slipped between the grooves of her layered scales, allowing me enough grip to pull myself up her leg.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
We were past her hind leg now, all that was left was a straight incline before we reached the spikes down her spine, and my stupid foot slipped. Hael’s hand wrapped around my hip, bracing my fall.
“You good?”
I swallowed, nodded, then pulled myself straight again. If I fell there was a fifty percent chance my Token would manifest and I’d be transparent to brace the fall. At least that’s what I was telling myself.
I highly doubted I’d die from this height. Severely injure my leg, yeah…
I could feel Hael against my back. His breaths were slow and steady while mine were borderline ragged. His hand hadn’t moved from my hip, like he was waiting for me to move again.
Right. That was exactly what he was doing, yet I couldn’t bring myself to move my foot.
I’d been proud of myself for climbing the Senith, but now, trying and failing to scale a dragon—who wasn’t nearly a fraction of the height—any self praise I had was nonexistent.
I felt like a baby learning to crawl.
“I’m not going to let you fall,” he said from behind me, and the next second I could feel it.
Air tightened around me, pushing around my feet. He was using his Vinculum magic to steady me.
I did one more round of breaths, then forced myself to keep moving.
By the time I reached Aura’s spikes, I was panting, and despite the slight breeze, sweat was dripping down my temple.
I crouched onto my knees, holding onto one of the spikes like my life depended on it as I tried to catch my breath.
Hael stood over me. “Are you okay?”
“How do you do that so fast?” Whenever I watched him scale her before, he made it look so easy. It took seconds, not minutes, and he definitely wasn’t fighting to breathe afterward.
“Practice.” He shrugged. “And air control.” He gestured to the spikes between her neck. “We have to go higher.” They were slightly smaller than the one I was currently clutching and packed more closely together.
I nodded, shifting to face the other direction, before forcing myself to stand.
Suns and Moons, do not let me fall right now.
Hael’s hand lightly grazed the small of my back, and I tried to ignore the fact that it sent shivers through me. I kept thinking about the way it felt to have them roam everywhere…
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale—I do NOT need to be thinking about that right now.
When we finally reached her neck, I nestled between the spikes he gestured to, startled when I felt Aura breathing beneath me.
My mind raced, trying to figure out how I was going to keep from falling off before I felt Hael slide in behind me.
His thighs rested against mine and the heat of his chest scorched my back.
His breaths were calm and measured, while mine still felt ragged—her claw was sounding really enticing at the moment.
Hael’s hand reached around me, grabbing onto the spike.
We shifted, my muscles tightening to keep myself upright as his dragon rose on her hind legs to stand.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.