Page 45 of The Court of Thorns and Wings

Some of the heaviness lifted from my shoulders. Here Tavish was, injured and chained, with Finnian severely injured, yet he was comforting me. I’d never imagined that we would be like this together. And I wouldn’t change a thing—except for him being a prisoner.I love you, yet those words don’t come close to conveying what I feel for you.

You’re the water that nourishes me. Something I can’t and won’t live without.

A tear rolled down my cheek, and I smiled.

Get some sleep. The first opportunity we have to escape, we need to take it, especially now that the dragons know you’re back. We need to return to my people to ensure Eldrin has been caught and there isn’t an uprising. With my magic bound, they’ll believe that I died.

He was right. His magic was tamped down, and his people had seen him wounded. Even my parents’ guards had believed that Tavish had died and were surprised when he arrived here.I’ll figure out a way tomorrow.I just needed to make sure I spoke with Eiric first. I couldn’t leave with our relationship broken like this.

I crawled into bed, hating the way my body relaxed and sank into it. The fact that I lay comfortably in bed while Tavish and Finnian were chained to the floor and Eiric was hurt should have been a crime. Still, there wasn’t anything I could do about it tonight.

Turning toward the window, I noticed thick clouds in the sky. No wonder the room had been so dark. A cloud moved over the full moon, blocking its light.

At least Eiric hadn’t been able to determine the exact location I’d come from, though if my parents heard about it, they’d know without a doubt.

I could only hope that Eiric wouldn’t tell, as she’d vowed.

My eyes closed, and I sighed, fatigued from the day’s adventures. At least Eiric and I had spent time together before our falling out. I clung to my connection with Tavish as I slipped into darkness.

The next morning, I woke up not wanting to attend breakfast. I wasn’t up for another round of criticism from my parents. I wasn’t the little girl they remembered anymore.

Instead, I opted to fly around the castle and the land to get more familiar with the area through adult eyes and not the memories of a child. The castle was ginormous, even bigger than the Unseelie one, and about halfway around the castle, I stumbled upon a garden that opened up to the cliff overlooking a village below.

The garden itself was half the size of the castle, with the most gorgeous flowers. The grounds were covered in whisperweeds, which resembled grass back on Earth, with clusters of pink petals reminding me of the radiant pink of sunrise. The flowersranged from dawnblossoms, to mystveil irises with deep-purple petals that seemed almost black, to the bright orange and yellow petals of the sunspark tulips, to the delicate, feather-like leaves of the fayleaves, which tinkled like tiny bells.

Between the flowers stood silathair trees that could easily pass for cherry blossom on Earth. The silvery bark and leaves of the starwood trees sparkled under the sun with their long, elegant branches. Deep, emerald-green leaves of the whispering willows swayed even without wind, and the tall, imposing trunks and branches of the ironbark sentinels, which appeared to be made of metal, with rich, rust-colored leaves.

The garden called to me. It was a place I’d enjoyed frequenting as a child, so I flew down and landed gently, settling underneath one of the silathair trees. I hadn’t noticed that the dress I wore matched the silver of the starwood trees, and even better, today, I hadn’t been forced to hide the fated-mate markings that connected me with Tavish.

I closed my eyes to center myself while hiding from my parents.

The scents of the gardens soothed my anxiety as the sun warmed my face. My wings stretched out behind me, allowing my back to sink more into the trunk, making me feel completely alone.

“They said I might find you here when you didn’t show up for breakfast.” Prince Pyralis’s voice came from right behind the tree.

My stomach clenched. He wasn’t supposed to be here. How had I not heard him arrive?

Eyes popping open, I saw the dragon prince step around the trunk. His gaze landed on me, and he froze midstep, his pupils slanting as he took in the fated-mate marks across my chest and down both arms.

He flushed, the ruddy color the same as a human’s blush, indicating his blood was red, but then faint scales patched over his skin. “Did you glamour those markings on you? They weren’t there yesterday.”

I might have allowed Gaelle to hide them yesterday to prevent the dragon prince from noticing, but I refused to deny that I had a fated mate and had completed the bond. After all, no one owned me, and I wanted to make my own damn choices. “The maid hid them from you yesterday. These aren’t glamoured. They’re real.”

Smoke trickled from his nose as he towered over me.

That didn’t sit well with me, so I fluttered my wings and stood, though he still had almost three feet on me.

“Another thing your parents failed to inform me about.” Prince Pyralis’s jaw clenched. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest.

Lira, are you in danger?Tavish linked.

My heart hammered, and I tried to push him away, unable to focus on answering my mate.

Pyralis lifted me up and slung me over his shoulder, throwing a heavy arm around my waist.

Ohhellno. This wasn’t happening.

Unsure what else I could do, I pressed my face into his back, ignoring the roughness of his golden shirt, opened my mouth wide, and bit into a chunk of his skin. He groaned and dragged me down his front, and I elbowed him in his ear. Hard.

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