A dizzy, disoriented part of me screamed that I was about to fucking fly on a fucking dragon, but then huge wings were flapping and everything lurched beneath me. My fingers scrabbled for a handhold on the pommel of the saddle. I gripped with every bit of strength I had left, which frankly wasn’t much by that point.
“Don’t let me fall,” I squeaked, hating the way my voice sounded as my longstanding fear of heights reared its head.
The arm around me tightened, muscle and corded sinew as hard as an iron band steadying me as we rose on Cheen’s powerful wings. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the dizzying sight of the flames below and the stars above, partially obscured by smoke. In the dark, with Rayth’s arm anchoring me, I could just about convince myself that I was on a sailing ship during rough seas, rather than sailing through the air, far above the earth.
I held tight to that fantasy, trying to imagine that the wind buffeting me was merely a storm squall, and the rhythmic pitching of our bodies caused by waves, not wings. The taint of smoke disappeared, replaced by air that felt colder than I’d come to expect in Utrea. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when we began to descend, but I was confident it hadn’t been anything close to enough time for us to have reached the secluded mountain valley we’d called home.
Rayth leaned back, his arm around me holding my upper body against his. A heavy double impact jarred me, reminding me of riding a bucking horse. Every injury in my body screamed a protest, jarring a gasp from my lungs. Then, we were stationary, although my stomach tried to dispute that fact rather vehemently.
Starlight and a thin crescent moon barely illuminated trees surrounding an upland glade. I could hear water rushing in the distance… possibly the river that I’d traversed with Nyx, Eldris, and Aristede when they’d first smuggled me out of Safaad.
Cheen lowered herself to the ground and settled onto her stomach. Rayth dismounted. I made no move to do so, being reasonably certain that my legs wouldn’t hold me if I tried.
“Where—?” I asked, my voice emerging as a croak.
“Just a random clearing,” Rayth said. “We’re far enough from the city to be safe.”
“The others?” I whispered.
“We’ll meet them in the valley, but it will take several hours’ flying to get there. How badly are you hurt?”
I didn’t exactly know how to answer that. I’d been beaten, though inexpertly. I’d been whipped, much more expertly. Lesimba had carved a fucking triskelion on my fucking chest. Somehow, out of everything, that was the thing I was most upset about.
“I’ll live,” was what I decided on. Followed immediately afterward by, “You came. You came for me.”
Rayth’s dark eyes were barely visible in the starlight, but they were looking right at me. I could just make out the way his swept brows drew together.
“Of course we came for you, hellion,” he said. “Did you think we wouldn’t?”
The question held an air of mild bewilderment, and I had no idea why the words prompted me to do what I did next. My hand darted out, wrapping in his loose tunic. With Cheen lying down, Rayth and I were almost level, so it was easy to lean over and drag him toward me until our lips met. Rayth froze, not even breathing. If not for the thundering of his heart beneath the grip I held on his shirt, he might’ve been made of ice.
Then, the ice shattered and he was devouring me like a starving man, his hands coming up to twist in my hair and hold me in place for his lips and tongue to ravish. A noise rumbled up from his chest that I’d never heard another person make before—pain or ecstasy, or some combination of both at once. I swallowed it, an answering groan slipping free of my throat.
When we finally parted, I couldn’t breathe and blackness was rolling in from the edges of my vision, obscuring the starlight. I swallowed, no longer able to feel the cloth of his tunic tangled in my hand.
“Sorry…” I could barely find enough air to get the words out. “But… I think I might be about to pass out on you.”
The callused hands that had been buried in my hair slid down to grasp my shoulders, keeping me from pitching out of the saddle as the last vestiges of my awareness fled into the night.
Chapter 13: Reunited
Frella
WHEN I WOKE UP, my first thought was that I’d been lying on my shoulder for too long, because it was sore. Somehow, a bunch of rolled-up blankets had gotten lodged in front of me and behind me, trapping me on my side as I slept. Irritated, I kicked and shoved at them until I could roll onto my back.
At which point I yelped in pain, shot up into a sitting position, and yelped again as my stomach protested the exertion in no uncertain terms. The last few days filtered into my mind, the memories settling into place from back to front.
Rayth rescuing me from Oblisii’s clutches on dragon-back.
The dungeon cell. The man with the whip. Lesimba.
Being captured by the scouts and dragged to the palace.
Nyx, lying unmoving on the trail.
“Nyx!” I gasped, looking around at my surroundings with eyes that didn’t want to focus. A scuffle of sound drew my fractured attention to a blurry form levering itself upright next to me.
“Frella?”
Nyx’s voice was weak, but unmistakable, and a sob of relief tried to claw its way up my throat. I would have thrown myself at him, but every movement hurt. Instead, I blinked rapidly, using the burn of tears to clear the grit from beneath my eyelids until I could finally focus in the dim light.
“Nyx. Oh my gods… are you really all right?”
He gave me a wan smile and a half-shrug as I took in the linen bandages tied around his head and crisscrossing his bare chest. Before he could draw breath to reply, though, a new voice intruded.
“He was well enough to help me throw an entire barracks full of soldiers into disarray from the skies,” Aristede said, his warm voice approaching from behind me.
Reality settled into place on my shoulders, grounding me. I was in the cave. We’d made it. We were safe… for the moment, at least. Aristede lowered into a crouch next to me, and I let my eyes fall shut for a long moment before opening them again. Both of the men were watching me intently.
I reached a hand out to cup Nyx’s cheek and stretched forward to kiss him, gentle and close-mouthed. Then I turned and repeated the gesture with Aristede, feeling the line of his shoulders soften as our lips brushed.
“I’m so glad you’re all right,” I breathed. “Where are the others?”
I knew with utter certainty that Eldris and Rayth were fine. I would have been able to read it in Aristede’s expression if they hadn’t been. Even so, something inside me needed to see them. Needed it, like I wouldn’t be complete until I’d confirmed for myself that we were all alive and together.
He smiled at me. “Eldris is making an evening pass over the southern slopes with Iyabo, just to make sure no one’s approaching the valley. Rayth went to check on the horses. They’ll both be back soon. How are you feeling?”
His knuckles brushed the left side of my face, where the bruise from when I’d been hit by one of the scouts who’d captured me still made my skin feel too tight. My eyes slid closed at the gentle contact.
“Honestly? I feel like I’ve been thumped on the head, thrown over the back of a horse for days, beaten, whipped, and carved up like a hunk of roast,” I said in a tired voice. “Why? How do I look?”
“Like you’ve been thumped on the head, thrown over the back of a horse, beaten, whipped, and carved up like a hunk of roast,” Aristede confirmed. “Can you eat something? We’ve been waking you every couple of hours for water and broth, but you seemed pretty out of it before now.”
At the mention of food, my stomach roared to life like a hungry lion. “Um… yeah. I could eat. First, though, I want you to tell me if Nyx is really all right, since I don’t trust him to be honest about it.”
Nyx snorted in quiet derision, only to wince immediately afterward.
“Cracked ribs
and a nasty knot on the back of his skull the size of a goose egg,” Aristede said evenly. “Honestly, if everyone could avoid getting knocked over the head for the foreseeable future, that would be… good. For my nerves, if nothing else.”
“I’ll be fine, Frella,” Nyx murmured. “I mean, I’m a bit sore and worn out after flying last night. But it’s not a big deal.”
“Last night,” I echoed. “Wait, what time is it? And what’s been going on since I passed out?”
“We returned from Safaad shortly before dawn, and it’s almost dusk now.” Aristede rose from his place beside me and went to rustle up some food as he filled me in. “We have a window of a week or so before anything else is likely to happen… though when it eventually does, it won’t be anything we want to be around for.”
Nyx took up the thread. “Now that he knows we’re up here, Oblisii won’t waste any time sending troops for us. Still, it takes three days for even a small party to ride the long way around from Safaad. Organizing a large group with supplies and unwieldy ranged weapons will take more than twice that time. But when they do arrive, they’ll have dragon harpoons with them… along with enough soldiers to overpower us by force of numbers.”
“In other words, we need to be long gone before they show up,” Aristede concluded. He returned to sit beside me with a waterskin and a bowl of something bland looking.
I took the food gratefully and started shoveling it into my mouth—some sort of mashed ground tubers with bits of reconstituted dried meat mixed into it, I was pretty sure. It wasn’t until the bowl was empty and my thirst sated with cool spring water that something… kind of important occurred to me.
“Hang on a minute, Aristede. You and Nyx attacked the city guardsmen’s barracks? On dragonback? Does that mean—?”
He gave me a crooked half-smile, and ruby flames flared behind his eyes.
“You bonded,” I whispered.
Good gods… I was the only one left. All of the others were soul-bound to their dragons now. My heart skipped and stuttered before settling into a faster rhythm.
Aristede tipped his head in acknowledgement. “I had a small revelation after speaking to the others about their experiences. I believe I finally understand the key to the soul-bond.”
I had to swallow a couple of times before I could speak. “What is it?”
He reached out to hook a wayward strand of my tangled hair over my ear. I glanced at Nyx on my other side, to find him observing us without the air of disquiet that he so often exhibited around Aristede. He only watched the exchange intently, one arm bracing his bound ribs.
Aristede’s eyes settled back to their normal clear gray. “Apparently, the beasts will only bond with a human who has proven a willingness to give his or her life in protection of dragons. Nyx risked discovery by Rayth to stay and rescue Lisha when she was trapped by the rock fall. Eldris and Rayth were ready to die in defense of Lisha and the other dragons when the bandits attacked.”
A sinking feeling settled in my gut. “But you and I…”
He nodded. “We were more focused on dying to protect Eldris after he fell in battle than dying for the dragons’ cause.”
Holy gods.
“But now you’ve bonded with the red dragon.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “The situation has changed since then—and for me, that was the key. Giving my life in defense of the people I love now includes giving it in defense of the dragons they’re bonded to. Do you see? Their lives are now hopelessly intertwined.”
I was quiet for a long moment, taking that in. “I… think I do, yes.” My lips felt terribly dry all of the sudden. I licked them, trying to fit these new pieces into place within my mind. “I know it’s all down to me now. I get that. I just need time to… get my emotions to catch up, I suppose you could say.”
Nyx rested a hand on my shoulder, surprising me from my introspection.
“We still have time, Frella,” he said in his quiet voice.
“Indeed,” Aristede agreed. “However, we also have another decision to make. We need to figure out where we’ll actually be going when we flee the valley.”
A new voice came from the cave mouth, booming and so very, very welcome.
“We do. Personally, I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to see where our northern goddess hails from,” Eldris said, dropping his saddle inside the entrance and crossing to me with long strides. “Good to see you awake, Trouble. You had me worried, you did.”
I reached for him with a wordless noise as he knelt in front of me, and in an instant he was cupping my shoulders in his large hands, kissing my lips and face.
“I’m all right,” I said in a tiny voice that didn’t sound particularly convincing, even to me.
“You’re not,” he replied calmly. “But since Rayth says the people who marked your skin are already dead, we’ll just worry about getting you healed up as best we can, and then getting our asses out of here.”
Rayth joined us, folding himself into a seated position on the far side of the fire pit. I frowned, still trying to pummel my wits into full faculty. Amongst all the various flotsam and jetsam of recollections that made up the last few days, I had one very distinct memory of the two of us trying to shove our tongues down each other’s throats after Rayth had rescued me from his traitorous brother’s clutches.
Okay.
That was certainly a bit of a complication. How much of a complication it would be depended entirely on how Rayth intended to play things, now that the immediate crisis was over. I met his dark eyes across the space separating us, and could read nothing from them.
He scooped up a bowl of the bland mush Aristede had fed me earlier and settled back with in his lap, his eyes running over the four of us.
“As Eldris alluded just now,” he began, “we need to determine where we can go for safe harbor. As far as I can see, our two best choices are Eburos and Kulawi. Thoughts?”
Apparently, Rayth was going with the ‘Kiss? What kiss?’ approach, and I was totally on board with that. I dragged my focus toward what was legitimately an important question.
“My kin would never turn us away if we fled to Eburos,” I said. “But Kulawi is closer, as I understand it.”
Eldris sighed heavily. “I don’t know where Eburos is, so I can’t really compare distances. But if we’d be welcome in Eburos, that’s where we should go—because I’m not welcome in Kulawi.”
My eyebrows went up, and I caught Aristede’s matching look of surprise in my peripheral vision. Silence stretched for a long beat, but Eldris didn’t elaborate. Indeed, he was giving off an aura that clearly said don’t press me on this.
Before the moment could grow hopelessly awkward, Rayth nodded and said, “Very well, then. Frella, can you sketch a map of your island in relation to the port of Adumine, so we know roughly where we’re aiming?”
I tore my eyes away from Eldris, whose expression was still carved in stone. “Yes. The southern edge of Eburos is only about fifteen leagues from the northern tip of Alyrios. There’s a landmark near the city where my brother lives that should be easily visible from the air—a stone circle. It’s also in a lightly populated area, so we won’t start a major panic when we arrive with dragons.”
And… holy shit, I was talking about flying to Eburos.
On a dragon.
That I was soul-bonded with.
A thread of panic wove through me.
“Good,” Rayth said. “It’s settled, then. We should leave as soon as possible.”
The panic grew a bit more insistent.
“Frella and Nyx are in no condition to make that sort of flight until they’ve had a few more days to rest and heal,” Aristede said, coming to my rescue. “And of course, there’s also the small matter that Frella and the white dragon aren’t bonded yet.”
“I understand that,” Rayth replied evenly. “We still have time, but only so much of it. In the interim, we’ll continue to fly out in shifts, morning and evening, to ensure that no one sneak
s up on us again.”
There were general expressions of agreement. I fidgeted uncomfortably, my breath hissing out as both my back and my chest registered their discontent with the movement. Four pairs of sharp eyes fell on me, and a flush heated my cheeks.
“Make her some of that tea that you made me,” Nyx told Aristede. “She’s in pain.”
Aristede nodded. “I will, don’t worry. Frella, if you want to eat some more mash, or use the trench outside, why don’t you do that now? The tea will help you sleep again, and resting will help you heal faster. Though I should also change the dressings on your wounds before you sleep.”
A hard edge of anger, quickly masked, slid across his elegant features as he spoke of my injuries. I could appreciate that anger. It mirrored my own, which threatened to boil over if I directed any appreciable thought toward what Lesimba and Oblisii had done to me. I forced it down, though—only for a fresh realization to hit me.
“Tea! Damn it all,” I cursed. “Aristede, would you mind making my… other tea, as well? I’ve missed several days in a row.”
Understanding slid over his expression, and he nodded. “Certainly.”
That was yet another reason to be livid over my kidnapping and imprisonment, as if one were needed. The tea I took to prevent pregnancy was supposed to be drunk every morning, or at least only missed here and there on the occasional day. Now I’d have to wait until my next moon cycle and see if I bled or not before it would be safe to have sex.
At least it was only a week or so until I was due for my cycle, but it still pissed me right the fuck off. Just when Nyx was finally coming out of his shell… just when I finally had them all back and safe…
Just when you and Rayth have apparently decided that snogging each other is more fun than sniping at each other, offered a treacherous little inner voice.
And… nope. Nope, nope, nope. Not going there right now.
I clambered inelegantly to my feet, swaying a bit before my balance steadied. “I’m going to stretch my legs, and maybe wash off some of the grime.”
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