Chapter 17
The rest of the day was spent in the city. The members of the court mingled with their people, helping any who needed it, talking with the mages and allowing them the chance to get to know the people who lived in Claret Hall.
Arla couldn’t help the knot of emotion that stuck at the base of her throat.
‘Because they are yours, Dragonhart.’
They weren’t hers to rule, but they were hers to protect. Hers to lay her life down for. It was a strange sensation – the tugging in her core that drew her to the mages – but she supposed this new life was going to be filled with new things – the bond with Thara, for one.
A whisper of air at her side was the only indication Kase gave as she sat beside Arla on the snow-packed hill where Arla had come to rest.
‘It’s a good view,’ Kase said softly.
It was. Below them, the people still laughed and congregated in the streets around the men, Jack seemingly becoming the expert on livestock and growing crops.
Jaz had disappeared into the schools to come up with a plan for what the children should be learning, and Seb was on the roof of a pretty cottage helping the mages construct a roof that looked as if it could take a thousand storms. She ignored the fact that the people still weren’t using magic, guessing it would come in time, just as it had for the men in the forests.
And then there was Hark. He had spotted her on the hill a short while back, and even from this distance, Arla’s heart had clenched when she saw the brilliant smile split his face.
People tugged at his sleeves, and he listened to them each in turn, that steady smile never faltering, not even for a second.
This was what he had been born to do. And though he could no longer claim Kastonia’s throne, he had Flambriar.
‘About time he stepped up, don’t you think,’ Kase said.
Arla turned her head slightly to face the girl – they weren’t friends yet, still too many sharp edges to soften first – and found Kase’s steely eyes staring back.
There was a softness in the corners of her lips and the angle of her jaw, one that had been missing for some time – or perhaps hadn’t ever been there at all.
Arla had felt it too, the slow unravelling of that coiled, wicked thing inside her.
Was this what safety felt like? Did it mean she could allow herself to relax and not sleep with a blade under her pillow every night?
She cleared her throat slightly. ‘I don’t know why he fears ruling like his father when he is everything that bastard isn’t.’
Kase let out a low laugh, though no amusement lingered there. ‘His father is the worst man alive. There is no scenario in this world in which Hark would ever become like him. I don’t think the fates would allow it.’
Something twisted in Arla’s stomach. She had never heard Kase talk of the fates before, of those whose wishes swayed even the gods and their plans.
And something about the way she spoke about Hark?
It wasn’t jealousy that bloomed in Arla’s chest, but there was something she didn’t like.
Something she felt she was missing and was being shielded from.
She could take a guess at what it was, but really, did she want to ruin what had been a perfect day?
‘First we deal with kingdoms, and then we deal with the heart.’
‘When did you become so wise?’ Arla threw back to Thara.
‘Since I had to listen to your endless, ridiculous human thoughts all day.’
‘What do you plan to do next?’ Kase asked, drawing Arla’s attention away from the dragon in the back of her consciousness.
‘What do you mean?’
Kase leant back on her elbows, the ice crunching beneath her weight before she spoke again. ‘You’re restless already, and you haven’t heard from your friend. So what’s next, Reinhart? I’m not as stupid as you might think.’
Her heart clenched at the mention of Halos. Her first ever friend. One she had worried over constantly. One she had thought of as a sister.
One who hadn’t replied to a single one of Arla’s letters.
‘Nothing. For now,’ Arla whispered. It was barely a breath and yet she knew Kase had heard her, and she didn’t try to decipher what the quick nod of Kase’s head meant.
She could see so much of herself in Kase and it made her nervous.
Not that the girl would betray her, no. But that she would be an accomplice in whatever Arla had planned, regardless of whether it endangered the kingdom and irrespective of the fact that they couldn’t stand each other half the time.
She wondered if that was friendship.
‘Tired, ladies?’ Sebastian called to them. Arla and Kase clambered to their feet, both women already smiling. It was beginning to feel more like a family each day she spent in their company and Arla couldn’t help but begin to love them as they began the trek up the mountain to the hall.
She hung back, sliding her hand into Hark’s as the pair of them trailed behind the rest of their court.
The sky was dimming to a soft lavender, the deeper shades of night already pushing the boundaries of daylight as they strolled hand in hand.
His calluses rubbed against her own and it felt like a reminder of who they were.
Of what they had gone through. They were more a comfort than anything.
‘You did it,’ she said, failing to keep the grin from parting her lips. Hark looked down at her, and … gods, she often forgot how tall he was. How he towered over her like this. Perhaps she had become so used to him she no longer saw the differences between them at all.
‘We did it,’ he said. And that we … it was a promise they had made to each other. That they would lead together. ‘You know, I think you rather enjoyed scaring them all half to death with that dragon of yours.’
She laughed, a proper laugh. ‘I think you enjoyed the looks the women were giving you – some of the men, too.’
It was Hark’s turn to laugh then, and if she could capture the brilliance of the sun, she thought his laugh might be close to it. He did it so rarely, and when he did … gods, when he did it was like a ray of light in darkest night. How had she never noticed it before?
‘I enjoy the looks you give me more,’ he purred in her ear, eliciting a sinful number of goosebumps across her skin.
‘Well,’ she said, jutting her chin out and revelling in the slight shake of his head he tried to hide, ‘perhaps if you come back to my side of the hall tonight you can learn just how many of those looks I have.’
He pulled her to him, and he smelled like leather and woodsmoke. ‘You’re going to be the death of me, Arla Dragonhart.’
‘I do try my best.’
His lips brushed hers gently in the fading light. ‘You do, you wicked, violent little whirlwind.’
Oh gods! She thought she might melt right there on the ice.
‘But there won’t be time for that.’
Her breaths came quickly. He was standing far too close for her not to take advantage right on top of this mountain where the entirety of Flambriar could see them—
‘I think the sound of goats dying would be preferable to your adolescent pining.’
Fucking dragons.
‘I told Marianne we would all visit her restaurant tonight. She’s been open a few weeks now and I think it would be good for us to visit, no?’ Hark said.
Right, of course.
The people. Mages.
Flambriar.
She cleared her throat, turning away from him if only to hide the flush she was certain was creeping over her cheeks.
‘That sounds great, really great.’
There were cool fingers caressing her cheek, and then he was turning her chin gently to face him.
‘If there’s one thing I can’t stand more than you being hurt,’ he whispered, ‘it’s you thinking you have to hide from me.
I want to see every blush, every smile, every gods-damned tear.
And just because I said we don’t have time to go to your rooms before dinner doesn’t mean we won’t have time after, does it? ’
Gods, she really was falling in love with him.
‘Well, that sounds like a plan,’ she managed to say, and when he smiled at her she thought the world would never be more perfect.
He walked all the way to her rooms with her and promised that he would find her after dinner, and he would see that blush spread across her cheeks like ink blotting silk.
Her reply had been positively scandalous, and as she bathed and brushed her hair and asked Lilith to braid it into something regal, those words Hark had teased her with played on a loop in her brain.
There was no way in this gods-damned kingdom she’d be able to concentrate on anything other than him over dinner.
They emerged from their own rooms bedecked in the finest garments and jewels their kingdom had to offer.
Arla was aware she had managed to amass far more exquisite diamonds and jewels than the rest of her court and from the narrowed eyes Kase sent her way and the small shake of the head Jaz tried to hide, they knew it too.
All of her belongings were beautiful but this dress … if she had been born into a different life, one where she was a queen, this was the dress she would have picked. It floated around her as though she controlled it with her mind.
‘That’s going to get ruined the second you get on a horse,’ Kase said bitterly.
Arla smirked, running her tongue over her teeth before she split off from the court and made for the gates across the courtyard. ‘Who said I was travelling by horse?’
Thara chuckled through the bond, and it seemed the dragon even approved of the exaggerated beauty of Arla’s outfit, lowering herself as close to the ground as she could to aid Arla in mounting.
‘The boy looked a heartbeat away from fainting, Dragonhart.’