Page 96 of The Iron Flower

I slump down and breathe out a long, shuddering sigh, deeply troubled. I glance over at Yvan, suddenly of a mind to be honest. About everything.

“You know,” I tell him, “I didn’t speak to her for a long time...after she told you...about my dreams.” My cheeks flush as I say it, but I don’t care. Tears prick at my eyes. “I should have let it go. I shouldn’t have shut her out. I was just...so upset.”

He leans forward to consider this.

“She’s going to make it, Elloren,” he tells me, his voice low and assured. “You’ll have a chance to make amends.”

I nod stiffly, tears sliding down my face.

“And you’re not the only one who has vivid dreams,” he says, almost in a whisper. “You just have the unfortunate habit of talking in your sleep.” He turns to look at me, his eyes searing. “I’ve dreamt about you.”

Warmth jettisons through me, quickly followed by despair. “We shouldn’t talk of these things,” I whisper. “It only makes it all worse.”

“I’m sorry.” His jaw tightens and he looks away. “Of course, you’re right.”

We’re both silent for a moment.

“Yvan,” I venture, “what did Naga say about Ariel and the nilantyr?”

He eyes me evasively, his lips pressing into a tight line.

“You must have found out what happened from Naga,” I gently persist. “There’s no other way you could have known. You went to check on Naga during the snowstorm, didn’t you? To make sure she was all right.”

“Yes,” he admits tightly.

“What did she say?”

Again, silence.

“I know you can talk to her,” I press. “Just like I know you’re abnormally strong...and fast. And that you can heal people and scale mountains like gravity doesn’t exist. You can be honest with me, Yvan. What did she tell you?”

His whole body tenses, both his eyes and his fire reflecting the strong emotions and conflicting thoughts raging inside him. Finally, he takes a deep breath and looks straight at me.

“Naga said...that the nilantyr would destroy Ariel. So, she decided to destroy it first. She said it’s stolen Ariel’s strength, that it’s rendered her wings useless and robbed her of her fire. She said that soon, it would also rob Ariel of her very soul, and that she’d be like the broken dragons who started out fierce and beautiful but have been destroyed.” Yvan pauses, taking a haggard breath. “She said the Gardnerians started Ariel down the path of destruction, but if she keeps taking the poison, it will be the same as digging her own grave. And then they’d win. She said that Ariel gave her back her own wings, and that this was her only chance to give Ariel back hers, as well.”

A pained look crosses his face. “And then she left.”

Shock spears through me. “Sheleft?”

Yvan nods. “She can hunt now that she has her fire back. She’ll be able to fly soon, and cold isn’t an issue for dragonkind. So, she left.”

“Oh, Yvan...”

“She’ll be back,” he assures me. “She’ll never know whether she can fly again if she doesn’t go off and test her wings. But she told me she’d be back to help us.”

I consider all this for a long moment as Yvan searches my face. “Naga was wrong to force Ariel off the nilantyr so quickly,” I finally say with grave certainty. “She could have died.”

Yvan nods. “It’s different for dragons. I think she underestimated how weak the human side of Ariel is.”

“Naga’s right about everything she said, though,” I grimly concede. “The nilantyrwasslowly destroying Ariel. I’ve watched her grow weaker and weaker over the past months. She can’t even cast fire anymore. And her wings...they’ve grown thinner, frailer.”

I pause for a moment as shame washes over me. “At first, when she’d take the nilantyr, it was almost a relief. She’d stop cursing at me. When she took it, she just didn’t care about anything, and she wasn’t so viciously angry all the time. But after finding out what she’s been through... I feel like she has good reason to be angry. Sheshouldbe angry.” Outrage wells inside me. “The Gardnerians had no right to force this poison on her. And they had no right to try and take away her anger.”

Yvan’s intense gaze, which used to unnerve me so, does the opposite now. In it, I can see he understands in a fierce, true way. And it feels good to be understood, especially about this.

I ponder how he can talk to Naga as I also consider how absurdly handsome his face is. I’ve scoured books about the Fae, trying to find out what he might be, and my exhausted mind remembers a detail—Lasair Fae are supposed to be wildly good-looking, their faces perfectly symmetrical.

Like his.

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