Page 147 of House of Embers
His hand slipped to her hip. “If you insist.”
Aclicksounded in her chest.
She sat up abruptly. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Dozan asked, a faint crease in his brow. “Everything all right, love?”
She shook her head. She could still feel it. Theclickhad latched on to her. Like it was hooked into her magic.
“Something’s wrong,” she said at once, throwing the covers off her and shimmying into a dress.
Dozan didn’t ask questions. He’d been in this profession long enough to know when to talk and when to move.
She was halfway to the door when theclicksnapped through her again. She fell to her knees, gasping.
“Dyta!” she cried.
Dozan was at her side at once. “What happened? Are we under attack?”
“She’s gone,” Wynter gasped. Tears fell from her eyes. “She’s not here anymore.”
“She can’t be, love. You’re bound. If something happened to her, you wouldn’t still be standing.”
Wynter clutched her chest. He was right, but he was wrong too. Her bond, that inherent knowledge of her dragon like nothing she had ever felt in her whole life.
It was gone.
***
Roake crept through the Bryonican woods at night. He was still furious that Kerrigan and Fordham had tied him up and left him there to rot. Luckily, he’d used his magic to slip free of the restraints before anyone but Isa had seen his predicament. He’d thought for a time that Isa was going to tell Bastian what had happened. That he’d be just as dead as Gerrond in those dungeons.
But things had gone as they were.
Save for the furious preparations for the Society forum and Bastian’s insistence on pushing forward with their plans.
Bastian wasn’t worried about Kerrigan though. So Roake wouldn’t worry about Kerrigan either. The Society was superior. Had been for generations. No upstart could take them down.
The only thing he needed to guarantee in all this was Audria’s safety. She was what mattered. She’d come around. He was sure of it.
“Don’t take another step,” a voice rang out from his left as he stepped into a clearing.
And there his beautiful love stood, wreathed in moonlight, her golden hair tucked up tight. She was out of her typical fancy dresses and in flying leathers. Her dragon must have been near to leave her here alone.
“Hello, love,” Roake said, taking that final step.
Audria raised her hands as if prepared to fight. “Roake, I’m warning you.”
“You showed up.”
“I shouldn’t have,” she said, pursing her lips.
“Are we truly on opposite sides of this battle?”
“We don’t have to be. You could come back with me and—”
“Be imprisoned,” he said. “Kerrigan and Fordham tied me up. They don’t trust me.”
“They’d listen to me.”
