Chapter 16 Faolan
SIXTEEN
FAOLAN
She haunted me.
I woke up in a cold sweat long before we were due to leave the next morning.
The sun hadn’t even thought of coming up yet, but I couldn’t sleep.
I wanted to fly, but nothing was safe, and I couldn’t risk drawing more attention to the palace.
Surely everyone and their grandmother were looking for dragons leaving the Light Kingdom.
And any word getting back to whoever controlled the undead would have them on our tail.
So I lay in bed drenched in my own sweat, replaying the interaction with Caly over and over.
Her eyes locked on mine, like windows into a sunrise.
Colors that shouldn’t exist outside of nature trapped in her gaze, and the promise of magic beyond her lips.
I was damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
Romanticizing freedom while fighting the ropes that tied me to my death.
If I wasn’t dreaming of her, I’d be back to the images of sinking ships that had haunted me for months.
And I couldn’t help but think that the two were tied. That the Goddess kept warning me I was playing with fire by staying too close to the Twelve Kingdoms and their politics, telling me I’d sink with the First Kingdom if I stayed.
I could fucking see it playing out every time I flashed back to the moment her hand was held out between us. But my breath still caught when I didn’t take it.
She’d fucking know if we touched.
She’d know, and eventually, her future husband the heir would know, and I’d be a dead fae. I could only imagine the bounty that would go on my head for being the soul-tied of the one belonging to the future king. No way he’d let me live.
Hell, in his shoes, I wouldn’t let me live!
A King can’t have his queen bonded to another male. It spits in the face of his very power. If a King doesn’t get his way, what faith would any normal fae have in him?
It would prove the Goddess was against him and thus the kingdom. Fae are a superstitious bunch, only outdone by how superstitious dragons were.
It wouldn’t work.
I shoved out of bed, finding the water basin in the corner to wash my face.
“Where are you going?” Nyx’s voice came from the balcony, startling me.
“Goddess. You’re going to send me to an early grave. How long have you been out there?”
“We’ve taken turns.” Nyx rose from the shadows, and it clicked. He’d used his magic to mask his presence, which was why I didn’t hear or see him.
“I’m not going to leave,” I told him, realizing I was now the one being guarded. A literal flight risk.
“Are you sure?” He sounded unconvinced
“Will you lay the fuck off him?” Kol said from somewhere out there with him.
“What are you doing out here?” Nyx said through his teeth.
“I’m nosy.” Kol landed on the balcony next to Nyx, and if I didn’t already know I had an issue, that would add to it. I needed to pay better attention to my surroundings.
“Alaric,” Nyx growled, snapping his head to the balcony next door, before I could get a word in or even try to extract myself from the whole thing.
“What?” Alaric’s voice came from the darkness. “Everyone else was out here listening… Why can’t I be? I wanted to know what the big deal was.” He leaned over from his balcony, and I waved because what else could I do?
“Now that you are all sure I won’t be leaving, can I finish bathing before I’m trapped in a ship’s hold for an unknown length of time?”
“Wait, did I miss something? Why do we think Faolan is leaving?” the prince asked.
“Has no one told him?” I looked between the brothers.
Kol shrugged. “Wasn’t my place.”
Nyx looked more annoyed. “It’s not a big deal, so I didn’t think to bring it up.”
“No? Not a big deal? It seems like you would have told him if it wasn’t.” Kol smirked.
Nyx growled again.
“Told me what?” Alaric asked again.
“Shall I ask him and find out how he thinks his brother will react?” I might as fucking well with how this was playing out.
“No,” Nyx snapped, while Alaric said, “Tell me,” and Kol laughed all at the same time.
“I think Caly is my ryder.”
Alaric coughed. “What?”
I sighed, but I wasn’t repeating myself. Saying it just made it more real.
“So wait. You think my brother’s bride, the future Queen of the Twelve Kingdoms, is bonded to you?”
“Don’t say it that way,” I groaned.
Alaric scoffed. “Which way, the true way?”
“It isn’t his fault,” Kol offered.
Alaric laughed. “I didn’t say it was, but that doesn’t make him any less fucked.”
“It will be fine. Your brother will understand,” Nyx said, but I didn’t buy it.
Alaric kept laughing.
I gestured at the prince. “I told you.”
“He will have to accept it. His father will make him.” Nyx sounded so sure of himself, but Alaric’s face told me all I needed to know.
“He won’t.”
“Your father is the King, and he needs dragons and their ryders,” Nyx persisted.
“My father gives in to Arkyn’s whims easily. He will not mourn the loss of one dragon.”
“The loss?” Nyx stared at the prince. “Surely your brother will see reason. It’s just a ryder pairing, not a mating.”
I swallowed hard avoiding everyone’s eyes. Thankfully they didn’t notice.
“It won’t matter.”
“So it’s not going to go down well is what you’re saying?” Nyx clarified. As if any of us were in any doubt.
“Uh, no. It’s going down like a dragon without wings,” Alaric said with more mirth than I thought was necessary. Then, just to add insult to injury, he held his hand up in the air and whistled as it plummeted to the metaphorical ground.