Page 79 of House of Ashes

“And the implications paid off.”

A pleasant shiver ran through me at the sound of his husky voice. How had I grown to miss the sound of it so intensely in only three days?

Rhylan stood in my doorway, head to toe in black, a Drakkon-in-waiting to the Dragonesse I was meant to be.

He gave me a slow, syrupy look that made my breath catch. Rhylan was…entirely too experienced at this kind of acting. Even Jenra backed away silently as he stepped into the room, her eyes bouncing back and forth between us.

He looked like a dragon prowling towards his mate, every iota of his attention on me.

“Don’t you look gorgeous.” He glided to a halt in front of me, fingers gently lifting my chin.

“I owe it all to Jenra.” Despite his delicate touch, I scowled up at him. “Where have you been?”

Rhylan’s smile wavered, but he fixed it in place and chuckled. “Did you miss me?”

I didn’t reply. I just gazed up at him, trying to read what was hidden in those blue eyes. His smile was not natural and easy, like it usually was…there was a tension in him, his shoulders set, tiny lines in the corners of his eyes.

But he did not speak of it, and his posture didn’t invite questions. I forced myself to smile back at him, my stomach turning. “Of course I missed you. You’ve been a dragon for days.”

Rhylan touched my forehead, right where locks of icy silver grew from the rest of my inky hair. “I was preparing. Mentally and physically. Sometimes things…seem easier when you’re a dragon.”

“And you can just fly away from it all.” I leaned into his touch.

His smile faltered again. “Some things you can’t fly away from. They’re with you, no matter where you go.”

This wasn’t about the First Claim. I wasn’t sure what was eating at him, and I was afraid to ask. I had no right to ask him to spill his thoughts and fears to me, not when I’d treated him as I had.

All I could do was try to show some warmth, and hope that he knew that I meant it. That I would be here for him to lean on, as I had leaned on him.

“Why don’t you prepare with me? Have dinner with me,” I offered. “You don’t have to be alone in your head before this.”

Rhylan’s eyes were a thousand miles away, but he blinked, and the distance vanished. This time, his grin was a little more real. A little more present.

“You’re offering to share food? Are you sure you won’t claw my eyes out if I take the last pastry?”

I smirked, but the relief that Rhylan was once more with me in this room, instead of soaring over the mountains and trying to outfly whatever was in his head, filled me with a rush. “No promises on that score, but I’ll let you have the mushroom soup.”

“You’re so magnanimous,” he said, grinning wider now. “I’ll race you to the pastries.”

“Not in that dress, you won’t.” Jenra blocked the door, her hands braced on her hips.

I could do this one small thing to hold him in the present…but even as I ducked into the bathroom to slip out of the dress, I worried about him. About what could make him seem so far away, present in body but not mind.

Whatever it was…I wished I could be the one with the power to make it disappear.

I wanted to be the one who made him feel safe and whole, just as he had done for me.

But how could I help him, when I couldn’t even fix myself?

Chapter

Seventeen

Dinner did not go well.

Despite my desire to do something, anything, to bring Rhylan out of his black mood, he remained just out of reach.

He laughed, but his heart wasn’t in it. He smiled, but the expression didn’t touch his eyes.

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