Chapter 9
Ever
“SEE ANYTHING?”
The question snaps me out of my wandering awe, and I drop my gaze from the blanket of stars above me to the shadowy sand dunes all around.
“Shit, sorry,” I murmur. “I got distracted.”
“Get your head out of the clouds; you’ll be up there soon enough,” she teases, but then she tilts her head back and offers her own appreciation of the breathtaking view. “I’ll miss this when we leave.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think there’d be much I’d miss about this place when we put it behind us once and for all, but I thought about this view a lot while I was away.” I let myself marvel for a minute longer, admiring the celestial sparks as they dance in their own pockets of space.
Enslee exhales a melodious sigh. “It doesn’t feel real. We’ve been planning for so long, and yet I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that it’s actually happening.”
I nod, knowing exactly what she means. “I don’t know how it all worked out, but it did. Maybe they’re looking out for us after all,” I note, gesturing up at the stars.
Enslee tightens her ponytail, and then she rescans the dunes around us, getting back to the task at hand. “Okay, we haven’t seen any patrols out here for days, but knowing our luck?.?.?.”
She doesn’t have to finish that thought before I stop letting myself get distracted and start scanning the night sky for any dragon-shaped dark patches doing Mach 2 in our direction.
“We’re clear,” Enslee declares a couple minutes later. “Ready?”
“Ready,” I chirp.
“Go!”
We shove through the wards protecting Syphon Central and sprint toward the base of the closest mountainous dune. The dark sand glitters under the speckled sky, and for a moment, it looks like we’re running on water instead of carving a path through the sand.
“There.” Enslee points, and we both start digging at the marked base of the dune like we’re looking for buried treasure.
It doesn’t take long to uncover the tunnel entrance and then dig it all the way out. Enslee muscles the door open, and I study the sky for anything that could’ve caught sight of us.
“We’re good,” I confirm, and with a few flicks of a lighter, Enslee ignites her lantern and then slips into the dark passage.
My lantern sputters to life with a choked hiss, and then I follow my sister, brushing off sand from my hands and arms as we start to make our way deeper through the tunnel.
“So if Kathal Noctis isn’t behind the coup, who is?” Enslee asks, the question echoing off the walls as though the fates themselves are demanding answers too.
She says his name like it’s something disgusting she doesn’t want to keep in her mouth longer than she has to. I can’t blame her. Not too long ago, I felt exactly the same way, and all things considered, she’s handling the information better than I thought she would.
“I don’t know,” I confess and hate it. “I didn’t get much time to dig into things while I was there.
The Noctises were monitoring the nobility at my Naming, but Aeson wasn’t interested in sharing notes about who they suspected or if they’d unearthed any leads.
Aside from the Tainted, they didn’t ask me much or seem all that interested in keeping me in the loop of whatever they were doing. ”
“Figures,” Enslee scoffs, and I hum my agreement. “Do you think we could access their previous investigations, compare what we know with what they know?”
“It’d have to be in person. Even if we could hack into their system, which we can’t, they’re more than likely monitoring everything related to Syphons and the rebellion since I popped into the picture.”
“True,” Enslee concedes absently, and I realize she’s counting the concrete pillars we’re passing to help keep track of where we are.
It’s been a long time since any of us have been down here.
“We’ll worry about the records later. Right now we need to focus on finding your Flight and figuring out why the rest of us can’t reveal.
We should still evacuate the designated survivors first thing, but the rest of us can’t move forward with phase two until we figure out what went wro— Oh, fuck!
” she squeals as a sand rat skitters past us.
Enslee leaps back and slams into me, and I go stumbling into the hard wall at my back. The light from our lanterns bobs across the tunnel, making our shadows swell and shrink as Enslee curses the rodent and kicks sand at its fleeing shadow.
“Ughhh, I forgot how much I hate it down here,” she grumbles, holding her lantern higher as though it will chase away the other pests that call this place home.
“You should have listened and stayed back,” I remind her, pushing her off me so I can separate myself from the wall and whatever’s growing on it or?.?.?. living in it.
“Oh, please,” she contends indignantly. “I wouldn’t miss your first reveal for anything, including those jumpy little rat fuckers. Stop trying to convince me otherwise. I know what you’re doing, but it’s unnecessary. I’m fine.”
I don’t say anything else, knowing she’s right and it’s pointless.
This situation isn’t easy—watching your twin reveal when you still can’t is a special kind of torture, one I’d understand her wanting to skip out on.
But I’ve given her every way out I can think of, and she’s refused.
And while I’d never admit it to her or anyone else, I’m grateful that I’m not doing this alone.
Warmth suffuses me at that, and we continue on. “Fingers crossed we’re making enough noise to scare away the snakes,” I murmur, changing the subject.
Enslee shoots me a glare, making it clear how much she appreciates me bringing that up. “Speaking of snakes,” she quips with a wag of her eyebrows. “Talk to me about Aeson Noctis and this whole Bonded Mate thing you’ve got going on. Will it be an issue?”
“No,” I answer instantly, and the tunnel fills with the sound of her disbelieving scoff.
“You didn’t think I was just going to let you speed past that little detail in your debrief, did you?” she taunts playfully.
“Hoped you might,” I chirp, knowing damn well it was never going to happen.
There was a lot to go over while we were eating. I knew we’d be circling back to several things. Looks like we’re starting with the fact that we can bond with other dragons even though we haven’t revealed. A fact neither of us knew was possible until I was neck-deep in one with Aeson.
“I still can’t believe you’re tied to one of Kathal’s prissy little scions. What are the fucking odds?”
My surprised laugh echoes loudly in the narrow shaft. It ricochets around us as though the surrounding shadows are just as tickled as I am.
“Prissy little scions?” I repeat, chortling even harder. “I’m begging you to say that to their faces when you meet them.”
“Happily,” she snorts. “Those spoiled brats wouldn’t last a day out here, and you know it. What would they do without their private chefs and their diamond-encrusted beds? They probably have people who wipe their asses after each royal shit.”
“No, their toilets do that,” I answer evenly.
Enslee rounds on me, her gaze searching mine to see if I’m serious. I nod, and then we both collapse into a fit of laughter.
“See? Prissy!” she defends between giggles while throwing her hands up in exasperation.
“I couldn’t even figure out how to turn on the shower. One of Aeson’s Wing members finally showed me when they couldn’t handle my stench any longer,” I tell her, and we both lose it again.
We hold our stomachs and wipe tears off our faces.
Snickers and snorts bounce around the shadows while we fight a losing battle to keep quiet, which just makes everything even funnier.
It’s exactly what I need after all the crying and fighting.
It’s the first moment since I escaped in Newden where I feel?.
.?. normal, like it’s possible to reclaim some of the pieces of who I used to be after everything that’s happened.
It’s cooler down here, which is nice, but the trade-off is a light dose of claustrophobia that can easily bloom into a full-blown panic attack, given the right circumstances, so I urge my sister to keep moving while we collect ourselves.
We used to train in this arena when we were younger.
It saved us from the harsh sun for a while, but time and the weight of the sand above edged the facility too close to unstable, and we stopped using it.
In all that time though, there’s never been a collapse, so Ens and I decided it would be the best option to house a reveal.
Trying to shift inside the wards is risky since we don’t know how big I’ll be, and trying to reveal outside of them is a no-go thanks to The Horde’s presence in the Scorch.
“You do know the others aren’t going to take this nearly as well,” Enslee tells me just as something else goes bounding by my head in the dark.
Whatever it was stays just out of reach of my lantern light, and I decide it’s best to pretend it didn’t happen. I do, however, pick up my pace.
“We’ve been stoking the fires of our resentment toward the Noctises for a long time. No one is going to like that you’re bonded to one,” she continues.
“Well, they’ll have to find consolation in the fact that he hates me now,” I murmur.
A forlorn feeling accompanies those words, and my heartbeat suddenly feels like an echo in the vast emptiness of my chest. “Anyway, it’s your turn to tell me everything that’s happened here while I was gone.
Are we any closer to figuring out who’s fucking us over? ”
My heart drops when my sister shakes her head and exhales a frustrated sigh. “No, and unfortunately, cracks have developed that’ve made it harder to suss out what’s what.”
“What do you mean?”
Enslee lifts her lantern even higher, and I can tell we’re almost there. Anticipation sings through me, but I quiet the excitement and focus on what she’s saying.