Chapter 31
After pretending to sleep, Carwyn spent hours seated on her bedding, hugging her knees and glaring at the entryway.
She was beyond livid.
Hurt.
Confused.
I don’t understand. So he desires me but doesn’t trust me enough to let me go free? Considering he was so ashamed of their relationship that he obviously didn’t want his own sister learning of it, what point was there in keeping her?
I’m glad Selene stopped me from talking to him about it.
Carwyn would’ve been irrational and emotional and not clear-minded to speak properly.
Now that she’d had some time to digest it, she felt unequivocally betrayed.
Yet... she was also trying to understand and to see if there was something justified about his lies.
In the end, she couldn’t find a good reason, and instead deciphered her thoughts, her heart, and attempted to come up with her next plan of action.
Is there a way for me to climb the mountain without falling to my death?
She hugged her knees tighter. I’m glad I didn’t let our skin touch. She was so thankful that she didn’t have to experience any of his emotions, and how conflicting they may have been.
The truth she would’ve had no context for.
I guess somewhere in my heart I knew I couldn’t trust him.
“Good, you’re still awake,” Selene stated.
Carwyn flinched – she hadn’t heard the large, heavy dragoness coming – and looked up. Then beyond her.
“What about Kier?”
Selene rolled her eyes as she entered Carwyn’s private space without permission and sat. “I’m called the ShadowStalker for a reason, witch. He senses my tangible shadow near, and I’m able to move silently – much like him.”
“Why did you want me to overhear?” Carwyn asked, pouting. “If you’ve been able to talk to me privately this entire time, why not do so beforehand?”
“I didn’t think you’d believe me unless you heard it yourself that he intends to imprison you here.”
Carwyn’s hands curled into fists. “I’ve already been questioning him about it, but he said it was better for you if we waited.”
“Quite kind of you to be so patient on my behalf.”
“Perhaps too kind.” Anger warmed her cheeks at how stupid and na?ve she’d been as she turned her head to the side. “Thank you for letting me know the truth.”
It means I’ll never let him touch me again.
She wouldn’t fall prey to his lies now that she knew all this.
“Dream walkers are a unique anomaly, even among dragonkind,” Selene started, tilting her head. “Quite fearsome beings. You can make a person believe all manner of things, twist their memories, make them forget things. Did you tamper with my mind?”
“No,” she answered truthfully. “I swear it.”
“So, you do know how to do it.”
Shame crested over her shoulders. “Yes. I’ve done it by accident to one of my sisters.”
“I will offer you a deal then, little female. After everything you have learned tonight, do you still wish to stay? Even though he has lied to you, tricked you?”
“Pardon?” she asked, frowning as she brought her gaze back to the black dragoness. “Are you saying you’ll take me from here?”
Selene’s cherry eyes were cold as she stared down at Carwyn. “Yes. Tonight.”
Her lips parted in disbelief. “Really? But what about Kier? Won’t he come for me?”
Selene rolled her eyes as if Carwyn had stated something ridiculous. “You are merely entertainment, witch, and nothing more. The moment I take you from his possession, he will lose interest, as is the way with all male dragons.”
Her words stung so badly that they nestled into her heart like the tip of a dagger being twisted in. She bit her lip, wishing it wasn’t true.
The dragoness scoffed. “Come now. You didn’t think he had any true care for you, did you? Whatever has transpired between you was meaningless. The moment you leave on your own, he will deem you too difficult and grow bored.”
“You don’t know that,” Carwyn whispered defiantly, that strange flare of hope rearing its foolish head.
“You are seated in his hoard, and he sees you as part of it. He gives it to you freely because he doesn’t believe it’ll leave his possession.
The dresses, the jewellery, they belong to him, and he’d never relinquish them willingly, especially not to a witch.
Not something that shares the blood of all those who have murdered our family. No dragon would do such a thing.”
Carwyn gave a deadened laugh. “And the WitchSlayer?”
“He and his brother are outliers. We mock them.”
Carwyn found that impossible to argue with, especially as she’d been witness to it. He thought it despicable.
“What point is there to your staying when it serves no purpose? I’ll only offer this once, and if you reject it, then I will leave you to suffer under his whims until you are a broken shell of yourself, trapped here until he finds his chosen dragon mate and discards you.”
“I never said I wanted to stay,” Carwyn bit out, leveling a sneer at the dragoness while wishing her eyes didn’t tear up.
Selene cocked a brow at that. “So we have a deal?”
“You have yet to tell me what you want in return before I agree.”
It didn’t matter if Selene was lying or not; Carwyn had made her mind up a long time ago. This just... hurt far more than she wanted it to.
At least it’ll make it easier to forget him.
“You’re to remove the memories of what your kind did to me,” Selene said, her features pinching into an agonised wince. “I cannot stand them. I no longer wish to picture them. You will unburden me so that I no longer feel twisted inside. That is our deal.”
Her hands unfurled at Selene’s honesty, only for cold, aching pity to lash against her sternum.
Carwyn looked away, unable to bear her expression.
That means she’ll have to turn human... and I’ll have to experience all her pain. And witness every moment of her suffering in order to erase it all.
What a cruel request.
Kier woke to find Selene curled beside him, the base of her tail pressed against his own. Even after their disagreement, she desired his nearness, and he offered his sister his silent support.
He’d been waiting for her to gain the courage to finally talk about it or bury it so deep it no longer existed to her. Her haunted, faraway stares were difficult to bear in the meantime, but he was doing it.
Even though he was still annoyed with her.
He slipped away, expecting her to awaken as she did every time he got up. He spread his wings and glided down from the ridge above his treasure to the other side without flapping. His landing was soft, but he winced when his tail tip accidentally knocked a stray coin that flicked into the pile.
A small landslide began a shaa of trickling gold, silver, and bronze coins as gems and jewellery clinked and clacked. His wince deepened with every second, waiting for Selene to inevitably perk her head up.
But she never did, and once it ended, Kier bolted before he made any more noise.
I wish to spend time with Carwyn. Freely, and without his sister lingering like a foul stench.
He didn’t care if it was only five minutes.
He walked to her alcove to find it empty of the spellbinding female. He wandered up the tunnel and checked the cooking area to find it vacant as well. Wondering if she was seated at the entrance to overlook the ocean, he headed that way. She wasn’t there.
Did I pass her? His brows came together as he looked back into his tunnels. Is she amongst my book hoard again? It was difficult to scent her inside it.
Or in the bath.
So he checked both locations.
Panic set in when neither contained her, and he started sticking his head inside each alcove in case she’d decided, for whatever reason, to go digging.
He didn’t think he’d mind that. Not anymore.
The moment he made his way back to the entrance, a growl bubbled up his throat.
“Selene!” he roared, spinning around to confront his sister when he sensed her nearness.
She stood on the other side of the vast area, peering down haughtily at the claws of one raised paw. “She’s gone, brother.”
“Yes, I can very well see that!” he yelled, stomping over to her. “Where did you take her?”
“I don’t feel very inclined to tell you.”
Kier reached out and gripped her by the head spikes. “Where?” he snapped as he brought them eye to eye.
“She wanted to leave, Kier. I gave her an offer, and she took it.”
“And?”
She shoved him off her and stepped to the side with a sneer. “What do you mean and? She wanted to leave!”
“She was to remain here until I decided it!”
“And now she is gone, all of her own volition. I didn’t take her, Kier. I fulfilled a request.”
“I don’t care!”
“Neither did she!” his sister shrieked, stamping a forepaw. “Whatever feelings you harbour or whatever happened between you meant so little that it was easy to convince her.”
“You’re lying,” he bit, slitting his eyes at her so deeply that even his pupils pulled in tight with aggression.
The corners of her maw lifted. “Actually, you did all the convincing for me.”
He knew that expression on her. It was cruel and arrogant. Callous and maliciously triumphant.
“What did you do?” he snarled.
She laughed, her eyes glinting with glee. “It’s more what you said.”
“What the hell are you–” His words cut off, just as his wings drooped. “You didn’t.”
“I did. You aren’t the only one who can trick, Nightmare.”
“Why, Selene?” Kier shook his head, baffled by her actions. What did it matter to her that he kept Carwyn here?
Why get in his way like this?
Now Carwyn will never trust me. She’d think he lied, which he may have... a little. But only recently, since his intentions in the beginning had been true.
He’d just had a change of heart regarding her freedom.
Selene’s gaze flicked over him, taking in his obvious distress.
Did the little witch really leave so easily? Yet, the fact that she was gone at all spoke enough for him. She left...
And he was both so hurt and fucking enraged over it that he wanted to roar. And smash. And heavens knew what else. Probably chase after her and drag her back here.
His snout bunched as another snarl tore its way up his throat, and he shot Selene a lethal glower.