Page 74 of House of Embers
“She is kin of Thiery. We have different fathers.”
“Just so you know, I don’t have any other siblings.”
Tieran’s golden eye narrowed.“This is not a joking matter.”
“Look, use the connection between us and find me. Then we can locate your sister—whose name is?”
“Amita.”
“Beautiful.”
Tieran shot her another irritated look. His wings fluttered out and his neck twisted. He was anxious. Not just upset with her but flustered and scared.
“Hey. We’ll get through this together, okay? Like we always have.”
“I did not want to kill Dalrig. He was an honorable dragon.”
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “I know what that’s like.”
“And now you are in danger because of me, as is Amita, and she is just a hatchling. We have not even made a family bond.”
“You’re in danger because of me all the time. It’s only fitting that it’s now my turn. But look, we can get to Amita together. Just find me first. I’ll stay on the plane so we can navigate this. Okay?”
Tieran straightened as if her presence brought him back to himself.“Understood.”
He flashed and then was gone from the plane, but their connection remained strong here. She settled onto the ground and let her mind reach out while her spirit stayed tethered. They could do this together. She believed in them.
The silence was almost a comfort as she sat on the plane, in control once more of her secure place. Tieran was drawing nearer. He was still miles away from her current location, but she could feel him now. It wouldn’t be that long. She had no sense of time passing. They wouldhave to have enough to locate Amita too. It was supposed to be an either-or, but would Thiery let her hatchling perish? It was possible, since she’d sent Tieran to the tournament against his will. Dragons were without mercy was what Kerrigan kept hearing. Only that wasn’t her experience. Not with Tieran. Not with Gelryn. Not with Tavry, rest his soul. Or so many others. They weren’t a monolith, and she had to think that Thiery wasn’t all she pretended she was either.
Kerrigan was so deep in her mind that it felt like she blinked and Tieran charged through the door.
“How long?”
“Hours,”he said.
Hours.It had felt like seconds. Gods, the spirit plane was a devious mistress.
“I do need help with these,” she said, holding her chained hands out.
Tieran brought a claw forward and snapped them in half.“Ready?”
She rose to her feet. “Amita?”
“I have an idea,”he told her. His head tilted.“Are you well?”
“Yeah,” she said, shaking away the feeling of lost time.
She cumbersomely climbed onto his back and secured herself behind his long neck. She rested for a moment, that slow chill creeping through her. The plane was dangerous. She had known that, but she had been using it for her own means for so long, she had ceased seeing it as such. Today was a sharp reminder of what could happen.
She put the horrid sensation behind her and straightened in her seat. “Where are we headed?”
“I had much time to think,”he began as they left the confines of her chamber.“The tests are supposed to be able to be completed. If Dalrig was a test of my body and this is a test of my mind, then there must be a clue to how I can succeed. The chamber I found you in was my hatchling home for many years.”
“It was somewhere you were familiar with.”
“Yes,”he agreed.“It was how I continued forward once you disappeared. I had the vague sense of direction for where you were, and then I suddenly knew where they had put you. It was where I first met Risa.”
Kerrigan was silent a moment. Gelryn had suggested that all this was an elaborate test of his fortitude without his mate, that it all came down to Risa. It always came back to Risa. And while she knew that dragons were not merciful, it felt especially cruel to make him choose.
