Page 103 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Chapter 31
Benevolence
“Where is she?” I growl, pacing endlessly around the garden. “She should have been here by now.”
Should she not? I have no sense of time here. The days are endless. The night is nonexistent. The sky remains the same no matter the hour—blanketed by sickly green clouds with flashes of lightning crackling within. The garden remains the same—wilted and rotting.
The only time there has been a single moment of difference in my days trapped within this prison was whenshearrived. And now she is gone. My inner dragon snarls, desperate to protect his mate.
Something must have happened. She should have returned.
Shewouldhave returned.
Brisa and Glorana watch me from where they laze beneath the apple tree, now too tired to flit about.
Brisa yawns. “It could have been a fluke.”
Glorana suggests, “Perhaps she cannot repeat the results from her earlier experiment?”
Brisa shoots her sister a sidelong glance. “Noteveryoneconducts experiments, Glorana.”
Glorana sniffs. “Well, they should.”
I sigh and swivel on my heel, about to pace the perimeter again.
I draw myself up short when I nearly walk headlong into my uncle.
He offers me a tight smile. “Restless, Nephew? I imagine you must be bored out of your mind here, what with nothing to do.” He slants my aunties an unimpressed look. “And no one to talk to.”
Brisa makes some sort of disgruntled sound but otherwise makes no attempt to move. I do not blame her. There is no point in letting him bait us further.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, getting right to the point, wanting to hurry him along. I don’t dare let him linger.
What if he’s here when Aurelia arrives?
“I merely came to provide you with a bit of entertainment,” he coos. With a wave of his hand, he opens what seems to be a window within the thorns bordering my cage. A window looking out upon the waking world.
At Aurelia.
My chest tightens at the sight of her trudging down a stone corridor with a goblin escort. She looks every inch a queen, if a queen under duress. Dark circles beneath her eyes. A yawn covered by her hand. The deep blue gown she wears merely highlights how pale she has become since I last saw her. She looks so fragile. Weak.
Steeling my heart, I remind myself that she is stronger than any of us know.
“Where are you taking her?” I ask through gritted teeth.
Malice smiles. “Oh, you misunderstand. She is comingtome. To watch our troops march for the Aerie.”
I should react to his words. That is why he is here—to taunt me. To remind me that I have failed my people as well as my queen.
But my attention is wholly fixed on the heavy chainsNa’theryadrags behind her.
I bare my teeth in a snarl. “You have her bound like a human criminal.”
“I have her bound like a misbehavingdrakira,” he counters, stopping my heart.
I stare at him and force my breathing to remain steady, my pulse calm. I force myself to remember the pledge I made to myself and to the Great Weaver—to be the man and the king Aurelia needs me to be.
“A dragon would never disrespect hisdrakirain this way,” I carefully voice, enunciating each word. “And Aurelia would never agree to be yourdrakirain the first place.”
