Page 56 of Of Blood and Banes
Suppose I’ll add it to the list of things I need to practice.
“There was one other thing I wanted to show you…” Sethan stands, offering a hand to help me to my feet. “Follow me.”
I ignore his offer, standing on my own, and he leads me out of the community hall back into the rain and to another building a few blocks over. Swinging open the door for me, he ushers me inside. After a few blinks, my eyesight adjusts to the dim, cloudy light creeping through the windows. Boxes and heaps of items occupy the room in tidy, well-maintained lines.
“Storage,” Sethan answers before I ask, and strides over to the back corner.
I follow him, glancing at the items around us as I pass them: black leathers, swords, daggers, maces, and axes. Crates of what looks like fruit. Stacks of folded blankets and pillows.
“Here,” Sethan calls, tracing a hand over a black-as-midnight item resting on a table tucked back against the farthest wall. As I approach, I make out the curves, lines, and pair of horns at the top of it. Two straps hang down from the item, the bottoms ending in loops.A saddle?I brush one of the horns, the leather cracked and worn, yet smooth.
Sethan mumbles, “Cole requested a saddle for you, but don’t tell him I told you. He asked me not to mention his name.”
I flick my gaze to him.Cole?
Sethan turns his attention back to the saddle. “Funny enough, we kept this one for years. I wasn’t sure why the elders demanded we keep it. But by the stars—this saddle was meant for you. Because it was Cyrus’s.”
I’m speechless. Unsure what to say. “He…was a dragon rider, as well?”
“No. While he seemed naturally drawn to the dragons, he never bonded one. This was a horse saddle, but we reconfigured it to fit your dragon. Though, I imagine we may need to adjust it as she grows. There’s no telling how big she’ll get, considering how large she already is for her age.” He pats the saddle as if it’s an old-time friend. “It’ll make the journey much more comfortable. You’re one of us, now.”
Sethan and I return to the community hall, and I scan the crowd for Cole but fail to find him. I head straight to Archie, who usesa knife to expertly carve into an apple. When I stop a few feet behind him, I smile. He’s carving a rose into the apple of all things.
“Hey, do you have a moment?” I ask, resting a hand on his shoulder.
He turns, his brown eyes bright with joy and teeth flashing. “Absolutely.”
He flicks his attention over to Melaina a few seats down deep in conversation, whistles at her, and tosses her the apple. She catches it, and glances down at it in confusion as Archie pushes up from his chair and walks away from the table with me. A wide smile warms her cheeks.
As soon as we are out of earshot, I turn to Archie. “Have you seen Cole?”
Archie tilts his head, recognizing the worry in my voice, before answering easily, “He’s probably off in the forest somewhere near the river.”
“Doing…?”
Archie blinks and shrugs. “I don’t know what he usually does out there. In Arterias, he would always slip off when it was raining and be gone for a few hours. I followed him one time, and he just sat at the river. Staring…” He frowns. “You know, I don’t know what his fascination with the rain is. Did you not get much rain in Padmoor?”
“Umm…yes? During the winter and spring seasons but…”
I can’t put my finger on it—Cole hates the rain. He detests the way his hair clings to his skin when it’s wet. Loathes how his clothes would rub him raw, and despises how a drizzle can fog over an otherwise perfectly sunny day. Hehatesrain.
“I’m going to go check on him,” I excuse myself.
Archie shakes his head. “No need. He always asks to not be bothered.”
“Well, I’m his sister. So, I’ll be bothering him.”
Before Archie can argue, I slip out of the hall into the rain-slicked town and head into the forest toward the river. The deeper I go, the more the hazy drizzle washes out the environment, to the point I can’t see more than fifteen feet in front of me. I follow the sound of the river until it grows louder, and I spot Cole. He sits with his back facing me, his head low. As I draw closer, his legs are bent up, head resting in his arms crossed over his knees. His face hidden from view.
“Careful,”Daeja warns, and I glance around the forest, expecting to see her but not finding her.“I checked on him earlier. He asked to not be bothered.”
“You didn’t tell me he was out here alone?”
She grumbles, trying to form a response, before finally saying,“I was keeping a close eye on him from afar. I didn’t want to be in the middle.”
I pause, frozen a few footsteps away from Cole.How is he not freezing his ass off out here?Something about this feels personal and vulnerable. Something I’m not supposed to see. But the thought of leaving him out here, alone in the freezing rain…
I rest my fingertips on his shoulder. “Cole?”
