Page 195 of Flame and Sparrow

I didn’t know how to reply.

I’d heard little of what he said after those first words—I felt you among the chaos.

He turned back to me, cupping a hand against the side of my face. “I felt you reach for me,” he said, “and it seems as though something inside of me couldn’t help but reach back.”

I placed my hand over his, pressing it more firmly against my cheek. He leaned his forehead into mine, and all the world outside of the two of us was reduced to nothing but blurs of meaningless sound and color.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” He whispered the words, his voice slightly unsteady. “After what happened, after what I said…I didn’t think you would ever dare set foot here again.”

“Wildfires can be unpredictable,” I reminded him, my voice mirroring his hushed tone.

He smiled a bit at this, pushing his hand through the waves of my hair. He started to pull me into a kiss before catching himself, taking a step back and shaking his head. “It’s not safe for you here.”

“It’s not safe for me anywhere. Send me away afterwards if you like, I don’t care, but I needed to see you again. I had to warn you, and to make things right between us because I…I…”

Somewhere in the rush of emotions and adrenaline tumbling through me, I lost the words I’d been trying to say.

Then his gaze took mine, and I remembered them just as quickly—they struck me like a blow to the back, knocking the breath from my lungs.

Because I’m falling in love with you.

That was why I had come back in spite of the danger, the questions, the confusion. Why I had jumped off that cliff, even though I hadn’t been able to see the bottom.

But before I managed to tell him this, several things happened all at once.

A violentcracksounded through the air, Zell let out a high-pitched cry and bolted, and the air began to sizzle and spark.

Dravyn pulled me against his chest, wings of fire flaring out wide before folding protectively around us and burning away the shower of electricity raining down from above.

Anothercrackechoed around us.

Dravyn looked to the sky, calculating, his grip on me tightening. “Brace yourself,” he said, drawing me closer, “and don’t let go of me.”

Chapter51

We returnedto his palace in a flourish of smoke and fire, and my knees promptly buckled and gave out. Dravyn caught me as I fell, cradling me in his arms as he frowned down at me.

“I’m okay,” I mumbled.

“The energies around the Edgelands are more unsettled than ever,” he said. “I’m sorry; I tried to smooth the passage through them as best I could.”

“It would have been fine, if not for all the other, um,roughtrips I’ve already taken lately.”

His eyes fixed more fully on me, concern shining in their silver depths, but now didn’t feel like the time to recount my harrowing escape from my old home.

“The battle in the Edgelands wasn’t over,” I reminded him. “Valas is still back there, and Moth too, I don’t know where he went—”

“I’m going back for them,” Dravyn said, setting me on my feet. “You’re staying here for the moment.” He lifted a palm toward the palace. A look of concentration briefly crossed his face, and two things happened in quick succession—first, the forgelight above us glowed to life, illuminating the grounds that had, until this point, been the darkest I’d ever seen them.

Then I saw a series of strange, fiery symbols flash in the air all around the palace. They were gone in the blink of an eye, but the air still teemed with new warmth and a threat of power—spells that would be triggered by anyone trying to trespass, I suspected.

Light and protection for me; but what about him?

“Inside,” he said, nodding toward the nearest door. “And don’t come out until I get back.”

I didn’t want to separate from him again so soon, but I couldn’t argue that I’d be an asset on the battlefield he was returning to. I didn’t want to slow down his return to it, either; I was worried about Valas and Moth.

He was gone again before I could speak, anyway.

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