Page 79 of Knightfall
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t blink. Couldn’t breathe. Beside me, it seemed Avia’s body was locked just as tight.
Declan turned back to Ryan. “Tell me how he died.”
“He and his contingent were after one of the last dragons. In the mountains that border Cheryn. They’d traced a black flame creature there. But they were attacked. Some group, thought to be from Gitmore, cut them down. Hacked them to pieces with swords.”
Declan bit his lip. “And the dragon?”
Ryan shrugged. “No one knows.”
Declan turned and stared from me to Avia, and back again. “Avia knows,” he told Ryan. “Avia and the Queen.”
Ryan nodded. “Makes sense.”
Declan started to pace, glancing over at me every few seconds. “Bloss injures herself when she uses her power. Her skin slices open.”
Ryan started. “Yes. Like a sword. I thought she’d injured herself in the weapons roo—”
Declan spoke over him, tension mounting in his voice. “Bloss says she can’t control it when she’s threatened.”
Ryan inhaled sharply. “Are you thinking…”
“What happens when the threat is overwhelming? When the threat is something like a dragon? What if no one was cut down? What if they met the dragon … and Knight Lewart—”
Ryan scooped me into his arms. “She’d never do something like that.”
“Not on purpose. No. But this geas, this spell preventing her from speaking, is there for a reason.”
Ryan stroked my hair and held me closer. “I don’t want to believe it.”
“I don’t either. We can never let it get out.”
What? What can’t you let out?Quinn walked in at that moment.
Declan turned to him. “Shut the door.”
Once it was shut, Declan’s mouth became a thin line as he said, “Our princess’s power doesn’t only draw on her own blood. It can draw on those around her when she’s under duress. To the point of death.” He stared into my eyes. “If anyone ever found out, they’d know how to make our Bloss self-destruct.”
Ryan cursed. “And right now, there’s a sarding dragon somewhere on Lady Agatha’s land.”
All eyes turned to stare at me, as though I was a bomb, ready to burst.
I was. I wouldn’t be able to help it. I felt the truth of it in my bones. My magic swelled at the very thought of the monster.
All it would take would be one little spark.
From the mouth of a dragon.
Chapter Twenty
Ryan’s response surprised me more than anyone’s. He immediately swept me down to the library. He started pulling books out and flinging them at Avia, Quinn, and Declan, who’d trailed after us.
“We need to research. I don’t know sarding what—but dragons, magical locks to lock Bloss’s shitefire power—Quinn, why haven’t your people figured out who’s sending this beast yet? Sard!” He cursed and threw a book across the room. It knocked over a candelabra which, luckily, wasn’t lit.
He stomped back over and grabbed me roughly, then pulled me down to sit on his lap. He buried his face in my hair. I rubbed his neck, absently, still in shock.
Just then, Connor walked in.
“What’s going on?”
