Page 53 of Of Blood and Banes
“Where do the ley lines come from?”
“We don’t know too much about the nature of them. Other than sometimes they shift, sway, and surge depending on the seasons or celestial events. Or sometimes it’s completely random. Only few have seen it surface, and those that have say it looks like a blue fire?—”
“I’ve seen it,” I mutter, recalling the night in Arterias where Daeja touched it, nearly tripled in size, and we were then able to speak telepathically.
She tilts her head, eyes studying me carefully. “You’ve…seen it?”
“Back at the outpost…near the lake. Daeja and I saw it. She touched it by accident.”
“How old is your dragon?”
“Umm…” I pause, attempting to piece together the timeframe when she had first hatched. “At least four months. Probably five?”
“Interesting…she’s quite young. You shouldn’t be able to communicate with her so soon. Dragons don’t bond with humans until well into their adulthood when they’ve matured.But if she touched it…” Marge trails off, staring off into the dark forest. “That could explain how she’s so big for her age. And how you can communicate with her already. Did you touch it, too?”
“No.”
She turns her attention back to me, not masking a relieved sigh. “Good. If you see it again, you avoid it at all costs, do you understand? You touchnothinguntil you’ve mastered pulling.”
“Pulling?”
“Yes. Think of how you’d draw water out of a well. The Blood Ring is the bucket that collects the water—the magic. But you must know how deep to lower that bucket into the water, and how long to let it fill, before pulling it back up. If you fill it too much, you won’t be able to draw it out. And if you pull too quickly, you risk the chance of spilling it. On the other hand, you pull too slowly and you will drain your strength. It’s all about balance.”
She glances around the clearing. “It’s getting late, and we don’t want those guards getting suspicious we’ve been gone too long. But every night, when everyone is asleep, you’ll meet me outside your door, and we’ll train you on how to pull.”
CHAPTER 19
TRUTH AND GAGS
Marge and I make it back to Midkeep with only a lingering stare from the guards. Marge over exaggerates her limp around them, then returns to her normal gait as soon as we turn a corner out of eyesight. Clever thing. I slip back into my room and close the door silently.
Darian is sitting and leans back against the wall, an elbow resting on his bent knee as he watches me through his brown locks. “Well, you don’t smell like sex.”
I hang my cloak up, then turn my attention to unlacing my boots.
“Did you want to?” he jabs.
“You know, on second thought, I may just revoke the agreement I made with Sethan, and have you stay in that wet, freezing basement,” I say without looking in his direction and toss one boot over near my bed.
He’s back to that all-infuriating mocking tone. “Your sweet, tender heart wouldn’t do that to me.”
“Oh, really?” I finally glare over at him as I unlace the next boot. “Funny you think you know me so well. You know absolutely nothing about what I’m capable of.”
He blows out a bored breath, examining the dirt underneath his nails. “Fine. I know you didn’t strike that deal out of the kindness of your heart. You want something from me. And while that something might be a myriad of things…” He drags a heavy stare up and down my body with a grin. “I can’t help but be curious as to what youthinkyou want from me and why you wanted it so bad you decided I should be your roommate.”
I pull my boot off and toss it with the other one. After undressing myself, I stand staring at him in nothing but my undergarments, my nightgown hanging from my hand. “You won’t be my roommate for long. You’ll be traveling with us to Vitalis, in which case, if you don’t play your cards right, you may be reassigned to other sleeping arrangements. Like sleeping outside with the dragons.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Really? The good ol’ capital. What a joy.”
I begin to pull my nightgown over my head and take a few steps toward the bed.
“Since our time together is fleeting, perhaps you keep that off,” he rumbles.
“Do you ever stop talking?”
“Only if you’ll shut me up.”
I turn, pinning him with a glare as I pull the nightgown over my frame. The way he watches me…with that lazy, catlike half-interest, half-boredom.
