Page 56 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
“No.”
Her expression didn’t change. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said she was unsurprised by my response. With a slight shrug, she adjusted her grip on the door and took a step.
“If that’s the case, then good day to you?—”
“Wait!” Kaia pushed her way forward, into the foyer, but there was no way I would cross that threshold. The witch’s lips curled downward in displeasure. “There must be something else we can pay with? Anything. Please.”
Silence spread, thick and uncomfortable. Amelia folded her arms over her small chest and cocked a hip. “I suppose I could ask for something else,” she murmured. “But I’ll expect payment from you both.”
“It’s just one portal,” I started to argue. Crimson irises flicked to me, unreadable in their depths.
“And the price just went up.” She raised her brows, challenging me, but I bit my tongue. “It’s one portal I have to keep open for an undetermined length of time. Portal intra-realm are easy. I could get you there with a snap of my fingers. But realm to realm?” She shook her head. “It must be stable and have an energy source that won’t burn out after a few moments. I refuse to use my own life force, which means I need you to get me something, along with my payment. You can view it as payment from you both or simply supplying the materials. I don’t care, but I won’t do the portal without it.”
Fucking witches. I pressed my lips together. Kaia looked at me and sighed, then glanced back at Amelia.
“What is it you need?”
There was a sadistic gleam in her eye when she answered. “Dragon scales.”
Kaia choked. “Dragon? How in the nine realms do you expect us to get?—”
“I’ll do it.”
Kaia turned to me, her mouth slightly gaping. “No,you won’t.”
“Then you won’t have your portal.” Amelia shrugged. “Makes no difference to me.”
“I said, I’ll do it,” I repeated in a harsher tone. Amelia narrowed her eyes.
“Drayden.” Kaia grabbed my bicep and dragged me away from the porch. “You can’t be serious. Last time you saw Vyrexis, he nearly killed you.”
“It’s been over thirty years. Maybe he’s cooled off.”
She made another choking noise and sliced her hand through the air in the universal symbol of ‘enough’. “Unlikely. What are you going to do if he hurts you again?”
“Try not to let him.”
She slapped my arm. “This isn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t laughing,” I said in all seriousness. “I’d rather take my chances with Vyrexis than write her a blank check in the form of a favor. Right now, she’s our only option. We have to get Vareck.”
Kaia sighed, holding my gaze while she silently weighed everything happening. She knew I was right. Duty and loyalty were paramount in our positions. We had no other choice.
Amelia cleared her throat and said, “I don’t have all day. Either you accept the price, or you don’t. I won’t offer a third alternative.”
“I’ll get your dragon scales,” I said to her.
“Twelve of them,” she replied, lifting her chin a fraction.
I nodded once and looked at Kaia.
She didn’t like it, but she didn’t have to. Nearly forty years ago my familiar abandoned me. We both felt the moment the bond was extinguished with her death, leaving a thread only attached to us. Forever severed. The loss of my beloved was more than either of us could bear. He blamed me, which was fine. We were in agreement in that regard. When I tracked Vyrexis years later, he made it clear I wasn’t to return; not without her.
She was dead, and he wouldn’t forgive me for it. There was nothing I could do. I hadn’t forgiven myself either. Getting those fucking scales wasn’t going to be easy, but something told me it was still the better choice.
I listened to my gut when it came to things like this.
“As for the other means of payment,” Amelia continued, “I need you to find a compass, but not just any compass. The one I want doesn’t point north. It leads you to what you most desire, but you mustn’t use it. The magic it holds works only once.”
