Page 90 of The Princesses of Ruin
She grabs my numb arm and tugs me back to her. “You’re hurting yourself!”
“I can’t,” I say, terror muddling my thoughts.
“It’s the runes, my love! They’re malfunctioning. Please, stop pulling!” She grabs my other hand and pulls it to her chest.
“Just breathe with me,” she says.
My gaze locks on her eyes and my hand feels her heart. I focus on the breath passing through her lungs, swirling inside her, coming out warm and wet. I breathe with her. She pulls my hand lower until it’s resting on the little lump that is our child. My heartbeat syncs with Alyse’s, and my mind returns to me.
“You’re all right. When we get home, Adrik can help you remove it,” she says.
I’ve always been able to sense the urictsa in the mask, the quiet voice of the sentient object coming to life with all my magic poured through it…now it’s more than a whisper. I sense the mask’s desire to be part of me and never leave.
“What if he can’t?” I say, my voice shaking.
She cradles my mask…my face. “You’re my heart and soul, mask or no mask, voice or no voice.”
I swallow the emotion building in my throat as I remember the audience behind us. They’ve stopped speaking their draconic clicks and groans. I half turn with Alyse still in my arms.
“I will accept your offer with additional terms,” the blue dragon says.
“What are those?” Alyse asks before I can spout vitriol at the creature.
The green dragon speaks. “The child and I will not be hunted. We will be provided with roosts in your kingdom. We will be given offerings of meat every dark moon for the rest of our lives. If we are hunted, you and your lineage will defend us. If your defense fails, we have the right to defend ourselves to whatever end is necessary.”
Gold swirls in Alyse’s eyes, and I can tell she’s reaching out for her sisters. She stays immobile, reaching, for a long moment. The silence that surrounds us is tense. It makes me want to scream.
Finally, she rouses from her trance with a gasp. “My sisters are otherwise occupied, but I will make this promise.”
“One last thing,” the blue says, and the green dragon snorts at him in frustration. He transforms into his boy shape once more. “I will be allowed to meet her first. The day before all other suitors will be mine.”
“The hour before will be yours, unless she refuses you sooner,” Alyse counters.
The boy growls, his jaw working. “She will not.”
I palm Alyse’s stomach. “That is forherto decide.”
“Fine.” The boy holds out his right hand. It crackles with white-blue lightning. “Agreed.”
Alyse reaches out, her gold magic spiraling down her arm and collecting in her palm. They shake hands, and a tattoo-like lightning band appears around her wrist, and his.
“You as well,” the elder dragon says, looking at me.
I scoff. “I don’t see how—”
“You will betray me otherwise,” the boy snaps.
He’s not wrong, though it’s not what I was going to say. “I’m not a high-blood magus. I cannot make a pact like this. My magic isn’t strong enough.”
“Mine is,” Alyse says, her hand still grasping the boy’s. “Place your palm on top.”
I give her a pleading look.
She shakes her head.
Fuck.
“It will be my daughter’s choice. Anything less and I will kill every dragon in the realm. That is my promise.”
