Page 42 of A Promise of Peridot
“I am going to stay in Citrine with Eryx and Amelia for the time being and strategize on the battle that lies ahead. Back in the Fae Realm of Lumera, wartime strategy was part of my job as the head of Kane’s guard.”
“And you and Kane were always close?”
Dagan smiled mildly as we took a few shallow steps down to a courtyard of shocking green. It wasn’t as private as our glade back in Shadowhold, but the grassy annex was still slightly off the palace’s beaten path. “He is my king first, and my friend second.”
“So your king asked you to convince me to join them in Peridot because he was too cowardly to ask me himself?”
I knew I sounded sour. The sun was bright and hurt my eyes. I wanted to go back to bed.
“I requested to discuss the matter with you.”
I squinted up at him. “Why?”
“If you stay, it will give us plenty of time to work on your skills, both sword and lighte.” He gave me the closest thing he could to a comforting look. “But I fear training isn’t the reason you would avoid the voyage.”
“I don’t want to talk about him—it. I don’t want to talk aboutit.”
“You know I am glad to avoid that specific subject matter.” Hisface contorted with a grimace. “That relationship isn’t my utmost concern.”
“I really don’t need to go with them, though,” I argued, clinging to something, though I wasn’t sure what. “I’ll just wait out the rest of my days here, in the sun and the sand, and Kane can call for me when they’ve found the blade, the battle plans are ready, and it’s time for me to do the honors.” I mimed a stabbing motion, and then a suffering-a-terrible-fate-and-dying motion. Neither provoked even a smirk in Dagan.
Stones, I had missed him.
“The blade will beckon you to find it. Like a pig searching for truffles.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“They need you.”
“And I need to stay with Leigh and Ryder. We’ve only just found each other again.”
A palace maid walked through the grassy corridor with a high stack of linens, passing under the pearl arch behind us. Dagan examined my face, waiting for me to continue, somehow knowing there was more.
“And they’ve lost so much.”
I refused to conjure her face. Her auburn hair. Her dresses that smelled of sage and ginger—
“Let’s harness your lighte. We can discuss Peridot after, if you want.” Dagan unstrapped the swords from his leather holsters and leaned them up against a tan stone pillar. Then he sat on the grass beneath us and folded his legs.
I shifted on my feet. “Don’t you think that’s a little pointless?”
“Pointless?” He craned his neck to look up at me, squinting oneeye against the sun. “The more you use your lighte, the stronger you will be, and the faster it will regenerate.”
“Even still, all I really need to do is to drive one blade through Lazarus’s heart. I’m not sure healing or... whatever it was I did that day on the ship... is going to help me.”
“You think harnessing the essence of the air and sun and wielding them in your favor will be useless in your effort to slay the mightiest Fae in existence?”
Well, when he put it that way.
“Point taken.” I sat down gingerly in front of him, blades of soft grass cushioning my ankles. “Where should we start?”
Dagan considered me, curiosity and maybe... sympathy in his eyes. Then, as if a light had gone on inside his mind, he drew in a breath that lifted his brows.
“What?” I asked, more edge creeping into my voice than I intended.
“You’ve given up.”
And with that, he stood, returned his swords to his back, and began to walk away.
