Page 139 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
I trail a glance between my two godmothers, fighting to hide my smile.
Glorana is silent for a time, as if trying to puzzle out a difficult equation. Finally, with a flit of her wings, she concludes, “I do believe Brisa is suggesting you two need some privacy.”
“That does seem to be the case,” I solemnly agree. “And it would be greatly appreciated.”
I look back at Aurelia to find her watching me with a faint flush on her cheeks again.
This time, I smile freely as I duck my head and press a gentle kiss to her brow. “My queen and I have many things to discuss,” I whisper againstNa’therya’s luminous skin.
Her glow thrums all the brighter in response to my words.
“You can count on us!” Brisa promises, already fluttering away in a flash of sapphire sparkles.
“Brisa!” Glorana calls, hurrying to catch up. “We don’t even know where we’re going!”
“Cindralune!” Aurelia and I shout in unison in the moment before Brisa’s Water weave beneath the giant leaf bearing us fails, sending us splashing down into the warm embrace of the Living Waters.
Threads of Water and Air are already springing to my fingers as I laugh and wrap my arms around my queen’s waist, holding her secure. She’s never in any danger of falling beneath the surface of the water.
But still, she shrieks and clings to me, her legs frantically kicking beneath the lake. In her panic, she has clearly forgotten that she is perfectly capable of weaving to keep herself afloat as well.
“This is not funny, Bene!” she scolds me, scowling like Brisa.
When I chuckle again, she splashes me in the face.
“I have you!” I promise, doing my best not to laugh further at her expense. Instead, I pepper the top of her head with more kisses while gently encasing her body in my weave so that she continues to bob within the water through no effort of her own. “And I will be happy to teach you to swim later, if you’d like. But for now…”
I meet her eyes and implore, “Tell me all that’s happened while I was asleep?”
Without my aunties around to take offense at our mental communication, it’s much easier for Aurelia to relay everything to me as adrakira—through our bond. Visions flash through my mind, revealing her frantic flight across Drakara. Her worry when my heart seemed to stop during the course of our journey.
Her relief when we finally reached the Living Waters and she knew we were safe.
Shock fills me when I learn that we have been here a week already. But my wounds were extensive. And Glorana was right.
We all needed the rest.
She reveals to me some other little things—all the people who have come to visit while I have been healing. My councilors from the Aerie—Lord Justice, Lady Prudence, and Lord Mercy. Her father, though he has apparently been spending most of his time either at the Aerie serving as her ambassador or at the encampment of the goblin-fae making the long pilgrimage here to the Waters.
I toy with the ends of her hair where they float atop the surface of the lake while she shows me all these things.
But I stop immediately when she prompts me with a soft, “Bene?”
My eyes lift back to hers and hook there, seeking to drown in their depths. “Yes,Na’therya?”
“Do you truly love me?”
The question catches me off guard; I freeze in place to keep from flinching and potentially offending my queen. I feel her uncertainty across the bond. Her fear of offending me.
But both are outweighed by her need to know.
“With all my heart,” I whisper, speaking it like the vow it is.
“Even now?” she presses, unable to meet my gaze. She looks elsewhere—at the glittering surface of the Living Waters rather than at me. Within my hold, she trembles.
A new sort of fear bubbles to life inside mydrakira. A fear of rejection.
A fear that she is truly as undesirable as she has always thought herself to be.
