Page 41 of A Kingdom of Shadows

"Hm, your dragon markings," Dusan says, "You do not have them."

I chew my lower lip, realizing that's also something I'd wondered back in Emberwell. He'd never given me a direct answer at the Noctura ball, and considering he was not wearing gloves like the first few times we'd seen each other; it was easier to have someone else notice.

Lounging in his seat, Darius taps his fingers along the oak table. His gaze stays on his hand as he says, "I had them removed."

"By twin witches, I am assuming." Arlayna includes herself in the conversation.

Darius nods again, but he looks uncomfortable. His jaw is set like that part of his life isn't something he will easily share. Even if so far, he has confided in me the most. "So." He clears his throat, looking at Dusan. "Is there anything we need to know for the tasks you've set upon us?"

"Well, each stone is stored in a way that makes it hard for one to just—" He makes a fist with his hand "—take it. And seeing as though Renward was stupid enough to keep it at hand, I am certain that won't be the case for the rest."

Perhaps Renward had become comfortable with the idea that one would not take them, though he'd gifted it to me, thinking I'd be dead sooner or later.

"The first task is in the mountain caves of Melwraith." Dusan finely cuts his meat. "As you have a dragon that can fly you there, I'm sure—"

"I can't fly," Darius says immediately, shifting his eyes to mine with a look I believe is disappointment within himself.

He shouldn't have to be.

It was never his fault, if not the venators.

"A flightless dragon?" Faye croons from her seat. "How scandalous."

"We can heal you," Arlayna says in almost a whisper, her eyes staring down at her gold plate. "Right, uncle?"

Dusan's running a hand across his chin, thinking, wondering. He's likely thinking of what I thought the first time Lorcan mentioned Darius couldn't fly. "High Elves in Olcar are healers, yes," he considers. "We were lucky enough to be gifted with such power alongside a few others."

A drop of hope blossoms inside of me. "What else can you heal?"

"We can heal even the most broken of things unless it deals with death," he says, glancing at Darius. "Of course, that is only if you want your wing to be healed."

Another moment of silence lingers in the dining room. Everyone's heads are turned to Darius anticipating his answer. He's still lounging in his chair, contemplating the idea of it, when at last, he sighs, looks at me, and says, "I do."

"Excellent—" Dusan starts, but I drown the rest of his conversation out, my eyes fixed on Darius and his on mine before he turns his head away without a word.

Chapter Eighteen

I finish my letter before tying it around the foot of a pigeon and watching it flap its wings as it flies away. Leaning against the window, I smile, softly sighing, hoping it reaches my brothers and alerts them that we've made it safely through the forest.

My eyes catch Darius and Tibith out in the castle garden playfighting each other by a maple tree. It makes my smile grow as the sun hides behind clouds in Terranos and forgets me not flowers sway to the gentle breeze.

"What are you staring at?"

I swing around as if someone's caught me stealing and huff a laugh when I see Aias standing at the threshold of the white-marbled hall. "Have you been here the whole time?" I quirk a brow, and he walks in with a new cedar-colored tunic.

He shakes his head. "I was with the king."

That perks me up a little. I haven't spoken to the king since dinner last night. "All good things, I hope?"

"He does not plan to banish me this time if that is what you are wondering."

"I wouldn't let him."

He smiles and looks ahead. A pensive thought enters his mind. "He said he knew my mother."

Oh.

"It was before the woodland Elves were banished," he says. A sad note in his voice. "He knew her longer than I did."

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