Dragons had only recently gathered into one place—well, recent relative to the life span of a dragon—and the nationalities of the Wingless seemed more or less representative of the numbers of each clan Rhys had here in Eryri. The majority were Asian or Pacific Islander and sworn to the members of the Lung, Naga or Mo’o clans. Aside from Kai and Juli and Athena, the rest of the Wingless from North America were from pre-Colonial Native American nations.
Most of the Wingless were youngish, as well, the bump in numbers seeming to coincide with the human population boom of a couple of hundred years ago. Even more, it seemed, had been sworn in the past fifty years. Perhaps, with humans so numerous in the past few decades, it was harder and harder for the dragons to avoid coming into contact with them.
After a few hours, Kai yawned, and Henry offered to take her back up. He chatted at her as they climbed, and Kai let his words wash over her. When they reached the top, Henry paused outside her door. It felt bizarrely like a date. Even more so when he leaned down to kiss her.
Kai put a hand on Henry’s chest and gave him a quelling look. “Do you know what Rhys did to the last man I kissed who wasn’t him?”
“You aren’t sworn—he won’t know.” Henry slurred a little. Kai hadn’t even realized he’d been drinking.
Kai pushed him gently away. “You’re funny and smart, and I’m pretty sure you’re nice, but if you try to kiss me again, I’ll set your hair on fire.”
“Damn it. I’m sorry. I just hate Nerys so much.” His face was so comically dejected that Kai had to press a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
Shaking her head, Kai pressed her palm to the door, unlocking it, then slipped inside and smiled at him. What had Deryn said about Nerys and Harrow? I think they have a lot of hate sex.
Kai sighed. “Go home, Harrow. You’re drunk. Thanks for taking me to the meeting.”
He sighed morosely and headed down the stairs.
Rhys came out of the kitchen, as if he’d been waiting for her. He was barefoot, his shirt untucked and his hair mussed.
He was perfect.
“How was it?” he asked.
“Good. I like Sarangerel.” Kai wrapped her arms around his waist. He put his around her shoulders, and they stood like that for a long time.
Finally, he spoke. “Are you hungry? It’s late, but I made something.”
She tipped her head back and smiled at him. His face had become so familiar, but she never got tired of studying it. Contentment settled over her. A long-haul kind of feeling, like she could hold him forever and never get bored.
“Yeah. I’d like that.” Maybe that’s what love was. On top of all the work and drama and try/fail. Not the flash and burn of lust or the heady feeling of being romanced. Just contentment.
From the way he was looking at her, Kai thought Rhys probably felt the same, which made everything that much sweeter.
Chapter Twenty-five
Tangle of Thorns
Kavar knew Juli and Ashem were keeping something from him. Now that he was connected to both of them like they were some sort of malignant triangle, he sensed the moment Ashem told Juli something they were both trying to conceal.
He’d been stuck in this cell with her. He’d kept Owain from hurting her—mostly. His own people had put chains and a collar on him. He had lost everything.
They were still keeping secrets.
Sunder that.
After a few days, Owain came and took him from the cell, leaving Juli behind.
“Where’s Jiang?” Kavar asked as he sat in a hard chair in Owain’s office. “She keeps coming by to gloat. She’s missing an opportunity.”
Owain grimaced. “She’s organizing the army’s departure. She doesn’t need to be here for this.”
“I see.” The journey to Eryri was long. Owain had begun sending vees a week ago, just before he’d imprisoned Kavar. Each traveling a slightly different route, never gathering in one place. Doing everything they could to avoid human attention. After all, if the humans found out about them too early, it would ruin the surprise.
Ashem and Juli weren’t the only ones with secrets.
Kavar wouldn’t know, himself, if one or two of the remaining loyal members of his vee hadn’t slipped him information when they brought food. In fact, Kavar suspected that some of what he’d learned was part of what had set Owain off that day. He’d found out that Rhys had not only destroyed most of his cordial cache, he’d taken the last of it for himself.
That had been the scale that tipped the balance. That, and finding out from their source in Eryri that both the Wonambi and the Lung intended to break off from Rhys entirely.
Owain braced his chin on his folded hands, elbows resting on his ebony desk. “I don’t know what to do with you, Kavar. I can’t trust you now. I know what it’s like to be sworn. You do things you would never consider, were you in your right mind.” His voice had gone dry.
Kavar folded his arms, ignoring the way his stomach dropped. He had been with Owain for a thousand years. Ancients, he’d tried to kill Ashem—his own brother and the last remaining member of his clan. And he’d almost succeeded more than once.
Betrayal bitter on his tongue, Kavar spat, “In a thousand years, have I never adequately proven myself?”
You were my family. You were my brother. I told you the truth when I could have lied.
Stars, does no one trust me?
Owain’s lips thinned. “I can’t take any risks.”
“Let me prove it to you.” The words came up like bile. He should have been beyond this. He was beyond this. He had commanded Owain’s most elite soldiers for years. Would have laid down his life for his king.
He supposed he’d been an idiot to think that made him more important than the cause. But if he didn’t have Owain, he had no one.
Ashem. Juli.
No, he didn’t have them. They had each other.
The words tumbled from his mouth before he could think better of them. “Let me interrogate her.”
Owain lifted his brows. “You would question your own heartsworn?”
“Why not?” After all, Ashem had questioned him. His brother wasn’t the only one who could do his job.
Kavar closed off the part of him that wanted to keep Ashem’s trust, now that he had it again—sort of. Shut down the part of him that said even though he still supported Owain and his cause, what he was about to do was wrong.
Owain nodded slowly. “If that’s what you want.”
Owain and three guards marched Kavar back to the cell. He shielded his emotions from Juli, whom he could feel curled in a corner of the cold cell, dozing, banishing the memory of the past week curled up against her, both of them struggling to stay warm. He concealed his thoughts from Ashem, busy preparing for the battle in Eryri.
He hadn’t told his brother about the poisoned mead. Vaguely, Kavar wondered if he should have, but shrugged it off. After all, he’d nearly killed Rhys himself twice. Just because he’d helped Kai escape and gotten cuddly with Juli didn’t mean he had switched sides. Dragons had to retake their place as the dominant species. Ultimately, Rhys would have to die.
Kavar’s connection to Ashem would have to be severed again, in any case. There was no way he could live with Ashem in his head and still do what came next.
Owain swung the door of their cell open with a bang. Juli leaped up from her doze, coming fully awake in less than a second. She sat up and regard Owain with a wary gaze.
Then her eyes fell on him, and Kavar felt as if he’d swallowed a tangle of thorns.
Owain looked from Juli to Kavar, as if he expected some kind of trick. Kavar only shrugged and let a smile play around the corner of his mouth. Owain would expect that. He wouldn’t want to see that Kavar was uncertain, or any hint that he did not want to do w
hat he was about to do.
Wordlessly, Owain handed Kavar a bottle of cordial—twice the dose Kavar had ever taken. No fewer than three Azhdahā-blocking onyx charms were tied to his wrist. Kavar took the bottle in his manacled hands.
Owain gestured, and Demba stalked into the room. As large as he was, Demba moved like a tiger. Another member of Kavar’s vee—dragons he’d commanded for hundreds of years—came into the room, as well. Each of them was weighed down with onyx charms.
“Hold him.” Owain took a keystone from his pocket.
“What’s going on?” Juli had shrunk as far as she could into the corner, frowning at the men.
That frown covered so much fear.
Kavar closed down the connection as much as he could. He had to numb himself. Couldn’t afford to feel anything from her. Anything for her.
She struggled against him, tried to reopen the connection. Her voice rose an octave. “Kavar?”
Ashem barged into his mind. “What do you think you’re doing, barâdar?”
The word nearly stopped Kavar short. Ashem hadn’t called him brother—not like that—
in nearly ten centuries.
Kavar steeled himself. It didn’t matter. Ashem hadn’t been his family—not his true family—for just as long. Owain was his brother. Demba. The dragons of Cadarnle, who had agreed to do everything they could to wipe out the human plague staining the Earth.
Just because he didn’t hate Juliet King like he should did not mean humans deserved to live.
With a wrench, Kavar sealed shut his connection to Ashem. Staggeringly adrift and dizzy, he held up his hands to Owain. “Let’s do this and be done.”
He had to retake his place here. He had nothing else.
Owain pressed the keystone into the locks on Kavar’s manacles, then the collar around his neck.
Juli stepped forward. “I demand to know what is going on.”
Owain ignored her. “If you do this, you’re free.”
He could not look at Juli. “And the girl?”
Owain shook his head. “She’s connected to Ashem. I can’t let her live, Kavar. Not when killing her will cripple Rhys’s deadliest asset.”
Kavar swallowed convulsively. “As I’ve said, you’d cripple me, as well. Do you really want to do that before you go to war?”
Owain considered. “I want you by my side, but I don’t want to face your brother. When this is done, you go. Tomorrow morning at the latest. If you can kill Ashem before I’m ready to attack Eryri, you may keep her. In the meantime, I want her sedated and locked away.”
“You may keep her.” Convenient. Simple. Ashem dead, Juli his. His place in Cadarnle assured. Everything he wanted. “You have to move her someplace warmer.”
“Of course,” Owain said.
“What?” Juli’s brown eyes went wide, her gaze swinging from Kavar to Owain. “No. Kavar!”
Demba and the other dragon still held Kavar by the arms, like they thought he might attack. Idiots. Owain jerked his head, and another guard came in.
Juli tried to run, but the cell was small. The guard caught her and shoved her onto a low, wooden chair he’d brought.
“Please, just tell me what’s happening.” Juli’s voice trembled.
He couldn’t care. He would not.
He smiled. “You’re hiding information from me, delbar-am.”
Her white skin went even paler. Kavar hadn’t known that was possible. Instead of showing weakness, however, she clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. “Well, it isn’t good for couples to share everything, is it, darling?”
He allowed himself a small chuckle at her scathing tone, wishing desperately that Owain and the others would leave. “Tell me what Rhys told Ashem yesterday.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her voice was dead, but fear glittered in her eyes.
“You know what I mean. Rhys summoned Ashem, all in a flutter, but as soon as they started to speak Ashem shuttered our connection. I don’t think he closed down on you. I think you know exactly what Rhys told him.”
Juli lifted her chin. “You can’t break me, Kavar. You aren’t strong enough.”
Even with their bond so tightly shut they were almost cut off, he sensed her meaning. He wasn’t strong enough, because Juli was potentially the most powerful magic-user alive. He wasn’t strong enough, because she didn’t think he was capable of hurting his own heartsworn.
She didn’t know him at all.
Demba loosened his grip long enough for Kavar to thumb off the lid of the cordial and lift the finger-sized vial to his mouth, downing the disgusting stuff in one quick shot.
Power surged, magic sweeping over him like a cold wind. Goose bumps rose on his flesh. He was surprised that lightning didn’t crackle over his skin. He pulled free from Demba and the other dragon, and they let him go. “Tell me what you know, Juliet King.”
“You just drank the stuff made from dead people, didn’t you?” Her lip curled. “That is disgusting.”
Clenching his teeth, Kavar sent a spear of pain through her mind. She winced, but didn’t make a sound.
Ancients, she was strong. But even Juliet King, freak Wingless, wouldn’t be enough to match him when this much power sang through his veins.
He reached into her mind, but she blocked him. He tried to find a different way in. The exercise felt good, like his magic had been confined to a little box for too long and now he could finally stretch. He was going to find the thing Juli was hiding from him, give it to Owain and be free of this sundering cell. This woman. His brother.
He’d cut Ashem cleanly from his life before. He could do it again.
Finally, he found a crack in her shield. Balling his power into a mental sledgehammer, Kavar slammed into her mind. Juli gritted her teeth. Kavar slammed into her defenses again. This time, she grunted. Through their heartsworn connection, he felt a pure, hot spear of pain lance from her brow to the back of her head.
When he broke her, it was going to hurt.
He smashed the hammer into her mental shield again and again, Juli going first pale, then gray.
Finally, the wall broke. She let out a keening shriek, and Kavar sank to his knees before her. Stars, she was in agony.
“No. Stay conscious, you.” His hands gripped her knees and his mind grappled with hers, forcing her to live the pain, forbidding her entrance into the softness of oblivion. If she had just told him, if she hadn’t fought him so hard, he wouldn’t have to do this.
Memories flashed before him. With the ease of long practice, he skimmed through them, locating the one he wanted.
Ashem. The memory was all tied up in Ashem, and he had to fight through images of his brother to find the one he wanted. Ashem smiling. Laughing. Pledging to Juli. Kavar saw the moment they became heartsworn. Saw the moment she discovered dragons lived when a black beast snatched her out if the air as Juli tried to dive into a frozen river to save Kai.
Her love for Ashem—and his brother’s for this woman—burned through him. Overwhelming. All-encompassing. Juli was nearly senseless from his invasion, but she felt Kavar falter at that love.
She gathered herself and threw more at him. Her love for Kai, and for Kai’s family. Even her growing attachment to him—not love like she had for Ashem, but affection.
That was Juli. She did things she hated herself for. Things everyone might hate her for, but her reasons always went back to love.
Kavar pulled from the sucking tide of emotion, calling on all the strength the cordial had given him to shove it away.
The memory of Ashem’s secret. It had to be here. It had to be recent. Just yesterday. He’d gone too deep, and he needed to free himself from her, back away from her.
He hauled himself to the surface of her mind. And there, though she’d t
ried to hide it, was the memory he sought. Kavar grasped it and dove in.
Ashem’s voice, tense in her mind. “Juliet, have you seen Jiang wear Rhys’s necklace? The golden one with the sun on the pendant?”
Sensing his urgency, Juli dimmed her connection to Kavar. “She never takes it off.”
“That pendant is the Sunrise Dragon.”
Juli gasped, taking the meaning of the words from Ashem’s mind, closing Kavar out even more. “What do we do?”
“Try to take it from her. At any cost.”
Her emotions whirling, Juli agreed, though she had no idea how she’d do it from a cell.
Ashem hesitated, then said, “He is treating you well?”
“He’s imprisoned with me, Ashem. We’re both snapping at each other like starving dogs on short leashes. But he’s keeping me warm.”
A grunt from his brother. Then, “What I said before, about both of us being in Eryri... Try to bring him home.”
A mental nod from Juliet. “I will.”
Kavar exited Juli’s mind so quickly that their connection snapped, stinging. Her eyes rolled back into her head. The dragon holding her in the chair let go, and she slumped to the side. Kavar caught her before she could hit the floor, then laid her on the ground and stood, turning to face Owain.
He’d done it. The worst was over.
Had Ashem been serious about bringing Kavar to Eryri? After all this time, were they ready to make peace?
No. It was a trick. Had to be.
Kavar smiled at Owain. “That necklace, the one you took from Rhys’s mate?”
“Yes?”
The smile grew. “It’s the Sunrise Dragon.”
Owain grinned and grasped Kavar by the arm, his eyes going distant. He was summoning Jiang.
His eyes refocused. “If that is true, you’re fully reinstated to your position.”
Yes. This was what he’d wanted. He had his place back.
Truth of Embers Page 26
