Page 124 of Fate and Flame
“You are strange, little liar.” He sniffed me, his snout inches from my body.
Gaea reached slowly forward and pulled me back a few inches.
“Yes, yes. I know. Do we have a deal?”
His great claws curled, digging valleys into the tampered ground below him. His muscles coiled and he leapt into the air, roaring over his hoard until every dragon took to the air, circling and bellowing into the winter sky.
We have a deal,he hissed into my mind. The static of our magical bond rippled across my skin, and a light flashed as the deal was struck. Making a deal with a dragon was always binding. I opened my mind and felt the pluck from my memories as his name escaped me.“You will ride with me to your lands. I will grant passage for the air walker.”
“Ever wondered what it was like to ride a dragon?” I asked Gaea, who marveled at the beasts in flight above us.
She shook her head slowly. “Absolutely not.”
“You can ride back or spirit back.”
“You just want to make an entrance,” she smirked.
“I want the southerners to know their new king is not without his allies.”
“Let’s go.” She sighed as the dragon landed before us, his wing stretched low across the ground.
We soared through the sky at breakneck speed atop the back of the dragon that led the rest. Both avoiding the hard conversation. Refusing to acknowledge that our mates were likely battling Autus’ soldiers. Hoping that, for once, he hadn’t gotten the upper hand and no one would be dead as we landed.
“Can you see anything?” Gaea shifted her weight, trying to look around the serpentine head as we descended.
“Your mate is well,” the dragon said, circling and tilting so that we could see the battlegrounds below. At least three hundred bodies were spread across the blood-covered ground. But as we moved lower and the line of southerners began to cheer, I finally relaxed my shoulders.
“We won.”
I turned to Gaea, but she was already gone. Already steps from Greeve, who stood beside Fen, stoic as ever, as the great beast I rode landed then lifted his head and roared, the heat from his flames causing the crowd to move back as the other dragons joined.
Fen walked slowly to the beast, held his hand out and helped me dismount.
“They will guard the border until the end,” I whispered. “And then I will have no claim over the dragons.”
He briefly dipped his chin and raised my hand into the air. “Your future queen has secured our borders with a full hoard of dragons.”
The southerners erupted into cheers again, but as I turned my head and saw the bodies lying across the ground, suddenly it was him lying there. Me standing over his body. Broken, gone. I couldn’t celebrate. Could only manage the shadow of a smile as we walked through the crowd of our soldiers. The gaping wound from Fen’s near-death experience still raw. I turned once more, bowed to the dragon who carried me home, and walked away.
He narrowed his eyes at me only briefly and then lifted back into the sky.Until next time, little liar.
They didn’t even have a chance. We caught them by surprise.
I nodded, watching my feet take step after step, forcing myself to breathe as we walked. He didn’t die. He was safe. It was easy, he had said. Still, my mind was clouding over.
“Do you mind if I have Gaea take me home? I’m not feeling well.”
“You don’t want to ride Cal with me?”
“Another time.” I stopped.
The remnants of the battle were still fresh on his skin. Blood. Not his blood, I had to remind myself.
His concern wrapped around me as firmly as his arms. I could have crumbled right here, and he would have carried me. Would have protected me from appearing weak to the others. He leaned away enough to look into my eyes, brushing my cheek with his thumb. “Are you okay?”
“I will be. It’s just been a long day.”
He pulled me back in and kissed my brow. “I’ll see you at home?”
