Page 68 of Of Blood and Banes
We meet the rest of the dragon riders near the front entrance of the tavern and find them exchanging three masked rebels with soldiers dressed in their metals. Sethan commands the Driftmond guards to escort the rebels to the northeastern most part of the continent to a city called Millton, where they’ll be interrogated before deciding their fates. Depending on the vote of the council there, they’ll either be executed by dragonfire or thrown into the prison there to live out the rest of their lives as traitors.
Once the remaining rebels are whisked away by the Driftmond guards, Sethan orders the other dragon riders to dispose of the bodies. Daeja with her round pleading eyes begs me wordlessly to participate with the rest of the fire dragons in burning the bodies. I swear her tail quivers when she almost bounces off after them behind the tavern.
Sethan and I work on cleaning up the shattered glass from the inside of the tavern with brooms from the storage room. He encourages the rest of the remaining patrons to leave, despite their willingness to help clean the place up. To me, it feels like a small way of apologizing for being the catalyst of an attack. I can’t help but glance over at the bar top, where the bartender’s body was. How those she knows and loves will have to mourn her death—all because I was too proud to warn Sethan about the rebels Daeja and I saw in the forest.
“Her family will be sent an allowance,” Sethan mumbles, not looking up from plucking a shard of glass from the floor. “Whenever someone is wrongfully killed, part of our taxes pay the family so they don’t have to worry about finances. It was a policy I installed knowing I might have put strain on Melaina and her mother when they thought I died.”
I pull my attention off the bar and continue sweeping the glass.
“If you’re going to feel guilty, use it as power. Don’t let it eat at you,” he says.
I stop from sweeping a pile of glass to look at him. “You could use more practice, if that’s your attempt at making me feel better about it.”
He shrugs and says something, but all I hear is Daeja warning,“Incoming in three…two…”
As I swing my attention to one of the busted windows where she is outside, the tavern door swings open and slams against the wall.
“What kind of shit were you trying to pull?” Cole roars, gunning straight for Sethan. “You could have fucking killed her!”
Before he can close the space between him and Sethan, I drop my broom and slide in front of him, blocking his path. “Stop. It wasn’t his fault the tavern was attacked?—”
“I’m not talking about the tavern,” he growls, eyes still burning into the man standing behind me. “I’m talking about him knocking you out of the sky.”
“How did you possibly see that?” I hiss half under my breath and shove him back. I can’t imagine his terror if he watched me free-falling from the sky. But now isnotthe time.
Sethan calls cooly, “But I didn’t kill her now, did I?”
That sends Cole into a frenzy, another crack splitting through his uncontrolled anger.
I slam my palms against his chest and push him back step by step. “Knock it off!”
His molten hot glare tugs off Sethan for a moment to meet mine. That unfiltered, raw rage burns inside his irises like fire. I flinch under the intensity, as if caught in a wild inferno that might consume me if I don’t douse it. His eyes float back up to Sethan, hooking into him.
I seize his collar in a fist and growl, “Get out. Now.”
He has to physically tug his chin away to tear his gaze off Sethan. Leading him by the shirt, I yank him out and away from the tavern, out of the town, and closer to the trees.
Once we are completely alone, I let go of him and turn to face him head on. “You need to get a grip on yourself, Cole. You can’t keep having outbursts like that. Not when we are already walking on eggshells with our own squad trying to keep them here in the Dragon Lands!”
“He put your life in danger.”
I rub a hand over my face, exhaustion wearing on me. “It’s not your place to defend me like that all the time.”
“I will defend you until my last breath, Kat. Stop faulting me for it!”
“I am not some simple, fragile little girl anymore!” My blood rushes in my ears, nearly drowning out any voices of reason in my head. “When are you going to learn I don’t need your protection?”
“When I feel like you’re able to defend yourself!”
I freeze, stunned at the confession. Though the truth of it has always lingered in the back of my mind that he doesn’t trust I can take care of myself.
His voice dips dangerously low. “The truth is, if I hadn’t protected you all those years ago, you might not have survived.”
I crinkle my nose. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means before you actually let me help you rebuild your fishing trap years ago,Iwas the one who snuck over to the river in the early mornings before the sun was up to put fish in the trap?—”
“What are you talking about? That wasyearsbefore?—”
