Page 71 of Fae Exile

“Excellent.”

Prepared to convince the she-dragon to follow Azariah out of the palace, I turned back to her.

She lunged forward so quickly I only managed to emit a rush of stunned breath?—

For Rush to begin to angle his body in front of mine?—

When the dragon lowered her head ... and pressed her forehead to mine.

24.WE FIGHT AS ONE IN THE DARKNESS TOO

~ ELOWYN ~

The many concerns that had been squawking in my mind like a flock of threatened, wayward birds, stilled from one instant to the next. The chaos of my sudden and unexpected new surroundings vanished. Rush’s and Saffron’s panicked grips on me disappeared as if they weren’t touching me at all. Even the alarmed cries of the others were swallowed by a consuming silence.

There was nothing beyond endless pools of darkness as the blue-scaled she-dragon stared into my eyes. She seemed to touch my very essence, cradling it to examine it, turning it this way and that, tilting it toward the light to scan for defects.

To determine whether or not I was worthy.

Of what, I wasn’t at all sure, but I was certain this felt like some kind of test. So much more so than any of the queen’s absurdly barbaric Fae Heir Trials, of which I was apparently still not free.

A zing shocked my skin with a painful tingle before she drew back just far enough for me to stare into her gaze. While I felt bared to her, like there was no secret or vulnerability I might hide, I couldn’t discern anything in her eyes beyond an impression that she was infinite. Yes, she might eventually diein the body she now wore—especially if the queen had anything to do with it. But the essence within would go on forever, would still be soaring through the skies after the mirror world and Faerie had long faded from existence.

After all the time I’d spent caring for the creatures in Nightguard, and how much I’d admired them even then, it had never occurred to me that they might actually be this level ofmagical, more magnificent than anything else I’d ever considered, their experience of life so entirely different from my own.

Where I looked from one day to the next to survive, I sensed the dragons contemplated existence in terms of ages and eons. The trivial happenings of the here and now were little more than blips on a stretching timeline.

A shudder raced from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, leaving behind a pulsing heat.

I blinked. The dragon didn’t.

My eyes snapped wide as the deep, powerful voice boomed through my mind. The dragon’s mouth hadn’t moved, but it was definitely her.

Was I supposed to answer? She hadn’t asked a question. Would she even hear me if I responded through my thoughts? Some of the dragon protectors could speak telepathically with the dragons, but as she’d pointed out, I wasn’t one of them.

Whatever heat had continued to sweep across my body fled, replaced by a chilling anticipation.

I asked as if I were ruminating on the question myself, unsure whether she’d hear me.

Her voice was slow and so deep it seemed to imprint itself on my very skeleton.

Finally, something sparked across her eyes.

I retorted without thinking it through.

She hummed.

—whatever that meant—

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