Page 4 of The Dragon Queen

He gave a slight flinch at my touch, a little twitch of his arm muscles, as if he’d forgotten I was there. He gave no outward reaction, his stare still on the opposite side of the small cabin.

“You alright?” I whispered.

“Yes, just dozed off for a second.”

“But your eyes were open.”

He gave no outward reaction to what I said, but he pulled his arm away and crossed his arms over his chest.

Our minds and hearts had been locked together just minutes ago, but now he was further away than the homeland we’d left a week ago.

He grabbed the sheets then draped them over my body, covering me up like I was cold.

I pushed them away. “I’m still warm.”

He ignored what I said and tossed them on my body again.

I didn’t take them off this time, not when I felt the unease in the room. Talon’s hostility was silent, but I could still feel it, feel a change in the room that was so profound I couldn’t deny it. I followed his gaze back across the room, and for a reason I couldn’t explain, I expected someone to be staring back at us.

But there was no such person.

We stayed that way for a long time, the tension so tight between us it seemed like we’d fought rather than made love. But I knew it had passed when Talon left the bed and grabbed a bottle of water from one of the bins. He uncorked it then poured two glasses before he returned and handed me one.

I eyed the glass for a moment before I took it, wanting to ask what had just happened but afraid I would get no answer.

He sat against the headboard and downed the glass before he set it on the nightstand.

I held my glass but didn’t take a drink. My eyes were locked on the side of his face.

He seemed to be avoiding my stare…or he didn’t notice it.

“Talon?”

“Hmm?”

“What just happened?”

He stilled before he slowly turned to look at me. “I don’t understand your meaning.”

“I think you do.”

He was stiller than a statue, his dark eyes locked on mine with unusual calm…like it was fake.

“I saw nothing and heard nothing, but I felt something. It was like someone else was in the room and made you behave differently.”

He didn’t blink as he held my gaze. Gave no reaction. Stared with such intensity it was as if he was mesmerized by my words. “I’m haunted by many ghosts, Calista.” He spoke with sadness, the kind that was quiet but profound.

My eyes shifted back and forth across his face, unsure what to make of that response. “You—you see the dead?” He had the power to raise the dead from their graves. He could transport hislikeness into the forest without crossing the border. Perhaps he could see the dead too, see past the barrier between the realms.

He looked away and crossed his arms over his chest again. He took a small breath and let it out slowly. “Something like that…”

Talon wasn’t himself the following morning. Whatever had haunted him had left a mark deep under the skin, a permanent pain behind his eyes. He greeted me with a kiss on the shoulder and squeezed me hard into his chest, but he didn’t make love to me like he usually would.

Once we were dressed, we left the cabin and stepped onto the deck, finding Queen Eldinar at the bow of the ship as she looked at the fleet of ships that accompanied ours and the open ocean beyond. Flowers were no longer in her hair because there were none to be found in the desert of water that surrounded us.

My uncle stepped aside when Talon approached, letting the monarchs speak to each other. Their conversations were always cordial, but the affection that burned underneath was impossible to miss.

Talon stood beside her and stared at the ocean ahead. “With this wind speed, we should arrive within a week.”

---