Page 44 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
The feel of her hand gently pressing against mine lured me back to the present.
I forced a smile to my lips and twitched away. “Congratulations.” That word was like ash in my mouth, but I said it anyway. “This is… such happy news.”
Her eyes searched my face in the darkness, a frown tugging at her own mouth. “You are not upset?”
I turned my back to her and paced deeper into the forest by several steps.
“Naei,” I lied as I walked, struggling to control my breathing.
But my inner dragon roared, rejecting everything she had just said. Engaged to another? How could she be? She was mydrakira. MyTherya’kai. My fingers twitched, eager for the change. Eager for sharp claws over fingernails. I could find this Lord Harcourt. I could make sure he knew the grave mistake he had made in daring to propose—
Naei. I needed to get a hold of myself. Aurelia and I were just friends. We had only ever beenjustfriends.
In this moment, the prophecy didn’t matter. My feelings didn’t matter.Nothingmattered save for the fact that she now finally had a chance to be safe. To be happy. To be taken care of.
Forever.
No matter whether I broke the curse or not.
Drawing in a deep breath, I clasped my hands behind my back and swiveled around to face her again. “Why would I be?” I asked, smiling all the more brightly. “I’m so happy for you. A lord? Truly? What a… smart match.”
I vaguely recalled that strange phrase from the scant bits of time I had spent at the human court in Spindleton. But clearly, I had used it correctly, given the way Aurelia’s smile softened.
“It is a smart match, is it not?” She phrased it like a question, as if she weren’t quite sure herself.
Silence fell between us again.
After a prolonged moment, Aurelia took a tentative step closer. “Did you… not have something you wanted to tell me, too?”
My thoughts careened over one another. I racked my mind for what to say. I couldn’t possibly tell her everything now—not now that she was engaged. Not now that she had a chance at anormalexistence.
She never had to know the death warrant looming over her head. She never had to know that her destiny as Queen of Drakara had been stolen from her by my scheming uncle when we were only three days old.
She could simply be… Lady Thomas Harcourt.
“Vaei, of course.” My fingers scrabbled at the latch holding my satchel closed. From its interior, I retrieved a heavy leather tome, ancient and priceless. “I fear I must inform you that I stole this.”
Aurelia’s eyes flew wide. “What?” she gasped.
“It is true. I stole this from the royal library.” Carefully, I closed the distance between us again and held the heavy book out to her. “I hope you’re not cross with me for breaking the law on your behalf, but you always seem so interested in Drakara’s history; I thought you might like a history book of your very own.”
I forced another smile to my lips, doing my best to pretend to be happy.
No, I wanted to actuallybehappy. Engagement or no, this was still Aurelia.
It was still our birthday.
This was stillourtime together.
“Happy birthday,” I whispered as she finally took the ancient tome from me. She handled it as if it might fall apart at any moment.
But it wouldn’t. Not with Auntie Glorana’s threads of Earth carefully binding it together.
“Bene,” she breathed, her eyes twinkling with unbridled delight. “This is so wonderful.” But then her lips pursed as she considered me anew. “Can the Crown Prince of Drakaratrulysteal a book from the royal library, though?”
“Oh, absolutely,” I hastily reassured her. “Auntie Glorana will murder me if she realizes what I have done.”
Aurelia’s soft laughter was like a balm to my ears, my soul. This was what I lived for—her happiness. How she cherished all the small things. But despite my best efforts to simply… be happy for her, to rejoice like a proper friend at the news of her engagement, I couldn’t stop myself.
