Page 5 of Of Blood and Banes
I close the gap between us and stretch out a hand toward her snout.“I wanted to come see you.”
Her nostrils flare, likely sensing Marge’s scent on my leather gloves, but she doesn’t move away from me as I stroke the ridge of her nose. Instead, she closes her eyes and tilts her muzzle into my hand like an affectionate, needy house cat. I slide my hand underneath her chin and caress that favorite spot of hers.
A thick purr drums within her broad chest, and she turns her head sideways to lead the rest of her body to flop onto her back. With her size, the ground rumbles underneath her lazy fall.“Shouldn’t you be…I don’t know…sleeping?”
I crouch with a small smile and rub her long column of a throat.“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
“I don’t find that statement funny in the slightest. And as much as I’m enjoying this…”Her purr still rumbles like an accordion of thunder in her chest with every stroke of my hand on her black scales, her eyes still closed.“You shouldn’t be out of bed until you’ve healed enough to not ache.”
“If you thought a little soreness would be enough to keep me from you, then I’ve sadly misled your perception of what you mean to me.”
Her eyes flash open, and she rolls away from me to lie on her belly. Stretching her wings out to the side with a gentle wobble, she pulls them back in and folds them into her sides. Her gaze is soft and serious.“I’ve never doubted your affections for me. I only want you to recover. And not just because there is no me without you.”
A slow smile spreads across my lips. I drop down to my knees and sit back on my feet as I gaze upon the truest companion I’ve come to know. This magnificent, fearsome creature who’s so much more than others assumed she’d be.
My gaze settles on her wing where a spear punctured her during the battle in Arterias. The wound has quickly healed over, leaving a gaping hole in the webbing. If it weren’t for her, I would have likely been six feet under by now. She’d saved me. More than once. And now, she has the scar to prove it.
“You risked your life…for me.”
She stretches her neck forward so her nose touches mine, lightly.“Because I can’t bear the thought of being in a world longer than one second without you.”
A surge of warmth and light swells within my chest, and I bite down on my bottom lip to contain it. As I’m locked into her colorless eyes, a current of memories flash across my vision, all from her perspective. Me teaching her how to fly. Me holding her as a hatchling to my chest at night to keep her warm. Me slipping her pieces of chicken as she hid in the cover of my hooded cloak.
When she breaks our contact, the memories stop. She nuzzles my shoulder with an insistent prod.“Now, go. You can come tomorrow if you’d like, but get your sleep. I’m not going anywhere.”
Too touched to argue, I nod and rise to my feet. After kissing the tip of her nose, I turn back toward the town the rebel woman I saved back in Arterias—Tawny—calls Midkeep.
Tawny became the leader of Midkeep several years ago. The proximity to the border with Arterias classified this town as a sort of military one. Each of the buildings are fortified in stone and brick, and the roofs are constructed with thick wooden beams. Cobblestone streets wind through the town, and all the soldiers I’ve seen so far have been adorned in metal suits.
As I near Midkeep, the thrum of approaching footsteps catches my attention, and I whip toward the sound. Long, stretching shadows approach from around a building down a street.
Shit. Guards.
We aren’t supposed to be out without supervision, especially this late at night. I can only imagine how suspicious I look. I quickly scan my surroundings. To my left is a stone building on the southern outskirts of the town. The footsteps close in, and the louder the sound of boots on the cobblestones, the harder my pulse works. Holding my breath, I dash toward the building and reach for the door handle. My breath slips from my lips when the handle turns, allowing me entrance. Pulling the door closed once I’m inside, I wait in darkness. The footsteps come…andthen they fade. I push the door open slightly and peer out as four guards round the corner of a building out of sight.
Smack!The sound reverberates from behind and below me, and I flinch forward, nearly tumbling out the door.
I turn to find a stone staircase winding down into the ground behind me. The steps are illuminated by a dim flicker of flame from somewhere at the bottom of the stairs, away from my view. A miserable groan rises from its depths, and a chill races down my spine. Part of me whispers to not venture past the top step as I stare down the staircase.
But the other part is louder.
After ensuring the door is closed, I inch down the stairs and quiet my breath by breathing through my nose. As I descend, the light glows brighter, washing the stone walls arching above me in orange.
Another slap echoes in the walls. I turn a corner, pause when I realize the staircase ends, and quickly backstep. Dropping back behind the cover of the curved wall, I press myself against the cold, wet stone. Panic floods my skin with heat.Did someone see me?
I wait. Holding out for a calling or footsteps to approach. But when another smack sounds, I finally peer around the wall’s edge.
The staircase opens out into a room encased in stone walls and floors. Torches fastened to the wall bookend the room, casting long shadows across the ground. Two men clad in black face away from me, one of which I recognize is the rebel’s leader—Sethan. His ash-gray hair is stark against his dark brown skin.
The other man flicks his wrist. Liquid flies from his drenched fingers and splatters onto the ground. As he takes a few steps back closer to Sethan, he reveals a man crumpled on his knees before them. The man kneeling on the ground has a stringof crimson drool dripping from his mouth, blood matting his brown hair.
My stomach drops.
Darian.
CHAPTER 2
THEY’VE MADE A MISTAKE
