Page 136 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Of all life.

Freezingrain sank down her neck, deep inside her leathers.

Not long after Garrik’s darkness receded from the skies, a storm had unfolded. Thalon was lucky. He missed the storm, having gone after her High Prince moments after he dawned. She couldn’t say the same for Aiden. He leaned against stone, stark still, watching her while twisting a scaled ring on his finger and resembling a drowned rodent shivering under dripping wet hair.

The prince’s feet were near-silent as he approached her overlooking the valleys on the edge of that cliff. Only his warm presence beside her gave him away. Cool and damp, she didn’t turn, just remained silent, remembering Garrik’s eyes. Throwing her mind—herself—her warmth—along the swift breeze to the castle, hoping he could feel her like a hand extended and waiting. Offering her presence in the silence.

“I … I didn’t know.” Ezander was shaking his head when she turned to him. His eyes appeared haunted as he stared at the castle peeking through the mountain and evergreens. His throat worked. All the light she’d seen earlier had been entirely snuffed out in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, but instead of words, his lips trembled, too stunned to speak.

Alora knew the feeling.

She offered him a little smile but said nothing. Afraid if Garrik could hear her … that speaking would be too much for him.

Silence. He needed silence.

Ezander mindlessly smudged mud off his pommel, lingering for a moment. Nothing but the ring of metal and boots sliding on the slick beams of platforms and bridges behind them. Scanning the rain, he mentioned, “The darkness.” And paused. A muscle flexed in his cheek. “His eyes… His face… He didn’t have powers like that when I knew him.”

Alora furrowed her brows. Still, she said nothing.

When she first met Garrik, she had assumed he was born with Smokeshadows. Not until that first annulus when he described he didn’t know what they were or where they manifested from. Didn’t know theyfound himuntil she was pulled into his nightmares.

“Are you not speaking to me because you heard what was said between us?”

Alora considered a moment and drew her attention to Aiden, who still watched her.I’m fine, she mouthed with a smile. He didn’t smile back. Didn’t move at all.

The stones beneath their feet trembled as if thunder had cracked above them and echoed around the cliff, yet there was no noise. A quick scan of the training ground showed Jade scowling at the blood-eyed spymaster, Silas, beside her in strained conversation.

Countless Dragons had disappeared, but Draven and Deimon remained.

Alora heavily breathed in the earthy aroma of wet dirt and leaves and decided to answer, “No.” She didn’t feel pain or discomfort stirring along the silver tether. So she went on, “I don’t know you. I only know what my High Prince says. But I will listen as I do for others.”

“So you can orchestrate a report of me?”

“So you can get out whatever it is haunting you,” she confessed, meaning every word. Not all monsters were born cruel and depraved. Somehow, she felt that maybe Ezanderwasn’t all they coined him to be. Like stories of her gray-haired demon, Elysian was vicious with rumors. But even so, she wouldn’t be recklessly credulous. Ezander still couldn’t be trusted, but she would allow him to speak.

Another tremble underneath their feet.

Ezander arched a brow. “That’s … unlike you.”

Alora scoffed and angled her head. Using his own words, “You don’t even know me.”

The sound of whirring and beating wings disturbed the cold air between them. Some of the Wingborne were sky bound to trade with those waiting in camp. Alora wiped raindrops from her cheek as another quake rattled the ground. This one much larger, a little more brutal than before.

Thunder.There should’ve been thunder.

“I’m not your enemy.” Instinctively, she dropped her hand to her hilt. Ezander noticed.

Rumbling—more rumbling. “You’re our High Prince’s enemy.”

Ezander’s jaw tightened. “So that automatically pitsusagainst one another? Does he not allow you to have your own opinions? Your own decisions? Or are you a female controlled and bound, a mere puppet?—”

“You’re crossing a thin line, Ezander.” She was willing to stand there with him before, but now?—

A crack tore through the training course, across the arena, splitting the cliff between their feet.

Kadamar’s prince snapped his gaze to their boots, then to her. A silent question on his face. He’d stopped smiling. Stopped smiling because it felt like two mountains had crashed together.

---