Page 32 of Caress of Fire
Fedryc stepped down from Nyra, holding Marielle, who was still and teary eyed, against him. The dragoness cradled the shapes in her talons—impossibly large for her, but still, she took flight as was her duty.
He watched Nyra leave in the night sky of this strange planet. Shortly after, the assembly left, one by one, carried on dragons back to where they belonged.
Finally, when all the strangers were gone, Fedryc turned to look at the woman who had stood at his side all along.
“Where is Nyra taking them?” Marielle watched the empty sky, a look of wonder and incredulity on her face.
“No one knows where the dragons take the dead. Some say they fly to the Night Land, where all the dead dragons and their Draekon fly together.” Fedryc looked at Marielle’s face, at the marvel in her eyes. How he would love to be so innocent again. “But really, no one knows.”
Marielle nodded, her eyes lost in the empty sky, her expression dreamy.
“One day, this will be you and Nyra.” She spoke to the night. “And maybe one of our children’s dragons will carry you away.”
“No, little firebrand,” Fedryc corrected her gently, and was rewarded by her clear gray eyes set on him. “One day, it will be you, Nyra and me. You are my Draekarra. You and I will fly in the Night Lands together.”
Marielle’s smile was soft as she turned and looked away, toward that distant land where Nyra had gone.
“But not for a long time. Not for a very, very long time.”
He wrapped his arms around her and stared over her head. He would make sure to keep his promise.
Even if he had to reduce his entire kingdom to ashes.
Chapter 11
The door to their apartments closed and Marielle almost shuddered with relief. The Mourning ceremony had been the scariest experience of her entire life.
“It is over.” Fedryc’s voice came from behind her, soothing as only his could be. “They’re all gone.”
Marielle turned to Fedryc and was once more struck by the majesty of him. Clad in a red silk jacket to match Nyra’s scales and her own gown, with his dark hair and honey-colored skin, he was the epitome of power and male beauty. With his sharp features and silver eyes reflecting the light, he looked more alien than he ever had, there in that room, surrounded by expensive Draekon furniture and Delradon technology.
He stopped a few feet from her, his face unreadable as he looked at Marielle.
“I’m sorry,” Marielle said then, when Fedryc frowned, she added, “About your father. I never told you how sorry I am that you lost him.”
Fedryc smiled but it was sad and didn’t reach his eyes.
“I do not mourn Aymond Haal.” He spoke quietly, almost like he regretted his own words.
“You were not close to him?” She shouldn’t be surprised. The rich and powerful didn’t have time for their children, always hiring other people to do what they should have been doing.
“I did not know the man.” Fedryc shook his head, then looked up over her head and to the desert far away on the other side of the window. “He sent me away to live at the Emperor’s castle when I was five years old. Since then, I only met him a couple of times when he came to Dagmar for official business.”
Marielle watched this man who had taken care of her with so much fierce possessiveness over the last few days. They had shared mind-shattering pleasure and faced deadly threats together, but she barely knew him.
“But that’s so young.” She shook her head. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. It seemed so cold, even for the Draekons. “How did your mother agree to this?”
Fedryc’s face slackened just a fraction and his eyes became remote, unseeing.
“She died giving birth to me.” His voice was flat, emotionless. “The doctors did everything they could, but in the end, no one could save her.”
“Your father loved her.” Marielle’s hands fidgeted in front of her stomach. She wanted so much to touch him but she was afraid he would stop talking. And she needed to know him, understand him. “He never mated another woman after her?”
“Nakia was his Draekarra.” Fedryc’s voice wasn’t flat anymore, it was heavy and breathless, such a fearsome change from his usual stoic countenance. “When she died, a part of him died with her. He never forgave me for it. That is why he sent me away. Because the more I reminded him of the love he lost, the more he hated me.”
Marielle’s breath left her body and her hands clenched painfully on her arms. There was such a depth of pain in Fedryc’s eyes, imbued in his voice, she wasn’t sure what to say. If anything she could say would be enough.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her own voice shook, sobs just under the surface of her words at the cruelty of making a child grow up thinking he’d robbed his father of the love of his life. “You were her son. She would have wanted you to be loved.”
