What you are.
Not who you are.
“And becoming your Consort will somehow stop them from questioning that?” I asked, rubbing my temple.
“No, but it will stop them from acting without concern for the consequences,” Nyktos said. “Is your head hurting? I can have the tea made for you, if so.”
“It’s not that.” At least, I hoped the dull ache had nothing to do with the Culling. The herbal mixture that helped with the Culling’s side effects hadn’t worn off this quickly before. “Wouldn’t everything be easier if we canceled the coronation? There’s really no point in holding it.”
“In case you weren’t listening in the throne room or to anything I said before that, you will be afforded a level of protection as my Consort—”
“I was listening, and I remember everything you’ve said to me,” I snapped. Wisps of eather spilled into his irises as our eyes met. “But that doesn’t explain the point behind doing it. You know what’s going to happen in five months or less. Becoming your Consort won’t stop that. I’m not going to survive the Culling. It is what it is. So, why would we welcome such a risk with a pointless coronation?”
Nyktos’s fingers began tapping his knee. “Does the idea of your death not bother you at all?”
“Why don’t you just read my emotions and find out?” I shot back.
A tight smile appeared. “You asked me not to. And contrary to what you may believe, I respect that request as much as possible.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“It’s not whatever.” His fingers continued drumming. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you not bothered at all by the thought of your death?”
I crossed my arms, having no idea why we were even discussing this. “Dying from the Culling doesn’t sound fun at all. So, yeah, it’s bothersome.”
Nyktos didn’t even blink. “But?”
“But it is what it is,” I repeated, returning to my pacing. “It’s reality. I have to deal with it. So, I’m dealing with it. Like I’m dealing with the fact that I’ve spent my life planning to kill an innocent Primal. Just like I’m dealing with the fact that I’ve apparently lived the gods only know how many lives, all because I got scared in one of them and ran off a stupid cliff.” My skin prickled. “Like how did I run off a cliff? It’s not like it would’ve jumped out and surprised me. I had to know the edge was there, but I just kept running? What the hell?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s possible to deal with that as quickly as you’d have me believe,” he said. “And you didn’t live all the lives because you fell from a cliff—whether you knew the edge was there or not. You lived them because of Kolis’s obsession with Sotoria, and my father’s potentially problematic method of intervention.”
“Yeah, well, here I am, the end result of your father’s potentially problematic method of intervention…dealing with it,” I stated. “And no part of dealing with it has anything to do with how I feel about it.”
“We’ll have to disagree on that,” he replied. “What was…done to you then and now wasn’t and isn’t fair or right. Neither is what has been thrust upon you.”
“Unfair to me?” I nearly tripped as I stopped, staring at the shadowstone between the shelves. “What about to you? The last thing you need is knowing that…” I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. “It’s not fair to put my survival on you.”
“We’re not talking about me.”
“Well, we’re not talking about me either.” “Disagree.”
Whatever incredibly lacking restraint I had that put a tether on my temper snapped as I spun on him. “Why do you even care how I feel about any of this? You don’t trust me. You don’t really even like me. The only reason I’m still standing here is because of the embers of life inside me.”
Wisps of luminous silver began to swirl. He said nothing as his fingers finally stopped their damn thrumming upon his knee.
An ache pierced my chest, so painful and real that I almost looked down to see if a blade had been thrust there. I looked away, inhaling deeply. “Look, I get it. I do. This whole situation is messed up. You have every right to be furious with me. To hate me for what I planned. I would if I were you, so—wait. Can you even hate since you can’t love?”
“Hate and love are not two sides of the same coin. One comes from the soul, and the other from the mind,” he said. “Hate is a product of atrocities committed against someone or is birthed from what they have done to themselves and their hellish entitlements. There couldn’t be two more different emotions.”
“Oh. Okay, then,” I murmured, wondering how he knew that when he couldn’t love, but…whatever. What did I know?
“You think that’s why I’m angry?” Swirling silver eyes locked with mine. “That it stems from your plans to kill me?”
“Is that a serious question?” I asked. “Uh. Yes.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Learning that you planned to seduce and kill me was annoying.”
“Annoying?” I repeated, my brows lifting. “I would use a much more descriptive emotion than that, but okay.”
Nyktos seemed to take a deep breath, and I supposed I should be grateful that patience didn’t stem from the kardia. “What you plotted to do isn’t something one easily forgets. But what enraged me is that you had to know what would’ve happened to you even if there had been a small chance you’d succeed. If one of my guards didn’t get to you, Nektas would have. Your act would’ve meant your death—the final kind.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “I…I know that. I’ve always known that. Even before I learned that the draken were bonded to you.”
Nyktos tilted his head, and a lock of reddish-brown hair glided over his temple. “That is what infuriates me. From the first moment I saw you, you’ve behaved as if your life holds no value for you.”
The back of my neck tightened. “Those shit, now super-dead gods killed a babe. If striking out at them had resulted in my death, then it would’ve been worth it.”
“I’m not talking about that,” he snapped, leaving me confused. The only time he’d seen me before was when he refused to take me as his
Consort. I’d been quite well-behaved then. “You should value your life as much as you do the lives of others, Sera.”
Heat crept to the front of my neck. “I do value my life.”
Nyktos laughed, turning away. “That is a lie, and you know it.”
Anger rose quickly. “Are your super special abilities some sort of lie detection?”
“Life would be so much easier if that were the case. But, no. Emotions can be faked, especially if someone is determined to hide their motives and how they truly feel.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that nothing I had felt around him had been a farce. How much his words and his touch had…pleased me, and that what I’d felt then was real. I had finally felt real. But he wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t expect him to. He knew I had been groomed from a young age to carry out my duty. And I had been determined to do so…until I hadn’t. But if I were in his place, I wouldn’t believe a word I said either.
I looked down at the scuffed toes of my boots. “Then you can’t possibly know what you claim to.”
“Except all of your actions tell me what I need to know,” he said. Several moments passed. “I mean no offense when I say that you don’t value your life. I didn’t mean it as an insult.”
I snorted. “Sure sounded like one.”
“I apologize if that was how it came across.”
My head jerked. “You’re seriously apologizing to me? Don’t answer. It doesn’t matter. Half of this conversation doesn’t matter. What I was trying to say is that there is no reason to go through with this coronation. Whatever protection being crowned as your Consort offers cannot be worth it.”
He slowly leaned forward. “Your safety is worth everything.” “Even the Shadowlands?”
His now-swirling eyes had never left mine, but, somehow, he’d moved without me even realizing, crossing the space between us. “Yes.”
The breath I inhaled rattled through me, full of his citrusy scent. “You can’t mean that.”
“I mean it with every part of my being, Sera.”
Sera. Not liessa. He hadn’t called me that since I’d been in his bed, after I’d given him my blood. That had been a slip of the tongue then, something done in a moment of pleasure.
Nyktos loomed, a good head or two taller than I was. “You are…” His jaw flexed, nostrils flaring. “What you carry inside you is far too important. They have to be part of the key to ending what Kolis has done. You may value those embers as little as you do your life, but I do not.”
What I carried inside me. The embers were important. Not me. Never
me.
I backed off, taking several steps. Did I expect him to say something
else? That I mattered? To him? And that he cared for me, even though he couldn’t love? After what I’d plotted? I didn’t.
I just wanted it to be different.
Nyktos’s chest rose sharply. “Sera—” A knock on the door interrupted us. His head cut in the direction of the sound. “What?” he barked.
My gaze flew to the entryway. I wouldn’t have been surprised if whoever was there had simply backed away.
The doors opened to reveal Rhahar, his skin a warm, deep brown in the soft glow of the lamplight. Though nothing about his expression was warm as his gaze flickered over me. “There’s a problem at the Pillars.”
Most souls faced judgment at the Pillars of Asphodel. They were either rewarded with the Vale or sentenced to the Abyss. The Pillars couldn’t judge some; their lives were far too complicated, and it required Nyktos’s presence.
“How urgent?” Nyktos demanded as Rhahar’s cousin drifted in behind him.
“Urgent enough to risk interrupting you,” Saion replied blandly, a hand resting on the hilt of the sword strapped to his hip.
Nyktos cursed, shoving a hand over his head as he stalked to the credenza.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as Nyktos reached the cupboard.
Rhahar didn’t look in my direction as he nodded, not elaborating. Pressure clamped down on my chest, even though his reaction didn’t come as a surprise. My betrayal of Nyktos was a betrayal to all of them.
Breathing through the tightness in my chest, I turned to Nyktos as he grabbed the back collar of his shirt, then pulled it up and over his head. My eyes nearly fell out of my face as the lean muscles running down the length of his spine appeared, along with the swirling drops of blood inked into his skin—drops that represented all the lost lives Nyktos believed he was responsible for.
Proof that he cared deeply for more than one.
Muscles bunched along his broad shoulders and biceps as he tossed the shirt aside and pulled out a gray tunic from a lower cabinet in the credenza. His body was a masterpiece, proof of years spent fighting with heavy swords instead of using the eather inside him.
I knew I shouldn’t stare as he tugged the tunic on. It didn’t feel like I had a right to do that now, nor did it seem like something I should be doing at the moment. But he was…well, really nice to look at. And I really liked looking at him.
“I clearly remember someone saying that it was inappropriate to stare,” Nyktos’s low voice interrupted. “Especially when it’s clearly intentional.”
My gaze flew to his as warmth blossomed in my chest. The wisps of eather were churning again. “It wasn’t intentional.”
He smirked. “You lie so prettily.”
I had totally lied. The apples of my cheeks burned as he donned the tunic with an iron-hued brocade around the raised collar and across the chest in a diagonal line. But the warmth cooled rapidly. I was sure there was a coded dig there, except all I could think about was when he’d said that to me before. He’d been teasing then.
Rhahar cleared his throat, reminding me that we weren’t alone.
“Saion, escort Sera to her chambers,” Nyktos said, and the god looked less than pleased with the orders as Nyktos’s cool gray eyes met mine. “We’ll finish this conversation when I return.”
“Looking forward to it,” I muttered.
“I’m sure you are.” Nyktos started for the doors, then stopped. A heartbeat passed. “Try to get some rest.” Then he left, disappearing into the hall with Rhahar.
Saion gestured at the doors. “Let’s go.”
Resisting the urge to plant my ass on the floor for no reason other than the fact that I hated being told what to do, I went to the settee and grabbed my dagger.
“Should I be worried right now?” Saion asked, falling into step beside me as we walked out and down the hall. He eyed the dagger clenched tightly in my hand.
“Not unless you give me a reason to use it against you.”
A smile softened the handsome lines of his face, bringing warmth to his deep black skin. “I have no plans to do such a thing.”
“Really?” I pushed open the door. “You don’t want revenge for what I planned to do to Nyktos?”
“What I want doesn’t matter.” His dark eyes met mine as he caught the door. “What does is the fact that if I thought you were a real threat to Nyktos, I’d snap your neck myself. As would any of us loyal to him.”
My skin chilled as I climbed the dark, dimly lit steps. No part of me doubted what he claimed.
“And, yeah, I know he’d kill me for it. That wouldn’t stop me. That wouldn’t stop any of us.” Saion stayed a step behind me. “But you’re not a real threat to him, are you? He may be attracted to you, but that’s about as deep as that shit can ever go.”
I flinched, grateful that he couldn’t see how much the truth stung. Because even if Nyktos could love, he would never love me. Breathe in. I rounded the landing of the third floor. Hold. I shut off the flood of guilt, regret, and, more importantly, the bitter want—the almost keen desperation for that shit to run deeper. I searched for the veil of emptiness, and it took longer than it should have for it to seep into me. But when it did, I welcomed the hollowness. I became nothing, and only then did I exhale as I reached the final landing. “You’re wrong, though.”
“About what?”
I started to open the door. “About me not being a threat to him.” Saion’s hand slapped down on the door, closing it. “Is that so?”
I inched back, creating some space between us as my hand tightened around the hilt of my dagger. Saion had gone still in the way only gods and Primals did, right before an explosive display of violence. It would’ve been wise of me to show some fear.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t wise often enough.
“The dakkais attacked the Black Bay because of what I did. Kolis doesn’t strike me as a one-and-done type. He’s not going to stop searching for that source of power. I’m a danger to everyone here, including Nyktos, whether that shit runs deep or not.”
The glow of eather pulsed in the center of Saion’s eyes. “So should I just go ahead and snap your neck then?”
“If you want to try, then all I ask is that you not be a coward about it and wait until my back is turned.” I widened my stance in case he did attack. “Just know that I won’t make it easy.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to.”
I gave him a close-lipped smile. “So, what’s it going to be? You want to do this or not?”
Something akin to respect flickered across Saion’s features. “As I said,
Consort, I have no intention of signing my death note.” “I’m not the Consort.”
“In a matter of days, you will be.”
“But will I really be your Consort?” I asked.
Saion didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. We both knew the answer. He opened the door. “After you.”
Brushing past him, I stepped out into the hall and came to a complete stop. A tall woman with long, dark hair was stationed outside the door to my bedchamber, her head bowed as she read from a book. I’d never seen the pale-skinned female before. “Who is that?”
Saion closed the door behind me. “Orphine.”
I attempted to reconcile this very mortal-looking woman with the rather large, midnight-scaled draken I’d seen battle in the sky over the Black Bay. She’d been injured in the fight but appeared fine now.
Then I realized why she was here. “She’s here to make sure I stay in my bedchamber?”
The corners of Saion’s lips turned down. “She is here to make sure you
are safe in your rooms.”
“I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive,” I muttered, wondering exactly how Nyktos had managed to send her to my bedchamber on such short notice.
“You’re right.” Saion shrugged. “Did you expect it to be different?” “No,” I admitted.
“But I don’t think those two things are weighed equally,” Saion continued after a moment. “Protection more than punishment.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Orphine repeated from down the hall. My gaze snapped back to her. She turned a page in her book. “I could hear your entire conversation.”
“Oh,” I murmured as we started down the hall. Orphine knew what I had done with the embers of life, but I didn’t know if she was aware of what I had planned.
She looked up then. Now that I was closer, I saw her crimson eyes and the vertical slits of her pupils behind thick lashes. The draken appeared as a
mortal in her second or so decade of life. “If Nyktos was more concerned about making sure you stayed put and out of relative trouble, he wouldn’t have given me permission to burn to ash anyone who comes to your doors.”
“Anyone?”
“Anyone who poses a threat.” Orphine smiled tightly, and there was nothing warm about that smile. “To you. Not him, which is unfortunate.”
Saion smirked.
Well, I supposed I didn’t have to wonder any longer if Orphine knew what I’d planned. “You’d rather burn me to ash instead?”
“For even thinking about killing Nyktos? Yes.” Orphine snapped the book shut with one hand and pushed off the wall. She took a step toward me, and Saion tensed, his hand going to the sword at his hip. I fought the instinct screaming at me to back up. The draken was about my height, and the sleeveless tunic she wore clung to rounded hips. She looked soft. But so did I. “Nyktos is…special to us.”
Ice crept up the back of my neck as I held her stare.
“But so are you.” A lock of hair fell against her arched cheek. “You are life.” Her voice lowered…and I swore faint wisps of smoke wafted from her nostrils. “And that is the only reason you still breathe.”
 |
I’d gone into my bedchamber without saying much, because how could I respond to what Orphine had said? Thanks for recognizing the value of the embers and not burning me alive?
I hadn’t been left alone for long, though. Baines, a mortal or godling I’d met my first night here, brought in some hot water. Like all who worked in the House of Haides, he did so out of choice—because he wanted to be of service to Nyktos.
That was the kind of loyalty Nyktos inspired.
I sat on the chaise, uncomfortable with Baines’ presence even after he’d left—not because of him, but because of what his arrival had meant. Nyktos had sent him. The act would likely be considered small by most and easily overlooked, but not by me. It had been…incredibly thoughtful of
him. And I didn’t want him to be thoughtful. Or kind. I also recognized how messed-up those thoughts were.
You are his weakness.
Swallowing, I glanced down at the dagger Nyktos had given me after destroying my old one. I totally understood his reaction. I had, sort of, accidentally plunged my dagger into his heart, but I’d been furious, nonetheless. That dagger had been mine, and so few things belonged to me.
But Nyktos had more than made up for it with this gift. The first–ever
present that belonged only to me.
The dagger was truly a piece of art with its smooth, lightweight handle and the pommel of the hilt crafted into the shape of a crescent moon. The shadowstone blade itself was delicate yet fierce, shaped like a thin hourglass and deadly sharp on both sides. The bladesmith had carved a dragon into the dagger, its spiked tail following the curve of the blade and the scaled body and head carved into the hilt where it breathed fire.
Nyktos had taken it away once he learned of my betrayal. But what the god Taric had done—the feeding and the prying into my memories—had been so painful and terrifying that I hadn’t been able to hide that from Nyktos, let alone myself. He’d sensed my terror and acted upon it.
You may feel fear, but you are never afraid, he’d said and then pressed the hilt of the dagger into the palm of the one who had once sworn to use such a weapon against him.
Could losing the ability to love increase one’s capacity to be kind? I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it could.
A knot swelled in my chest as I rose and walked to the doorway of the bathing chamber. I stopped. The space was far lovelier than the stifling chamber I used in Wayfair. Clean water had rarely been brought into that chamber—let alone hot—and I’d often preferred to bathe in the lake. A pang of yearning twisted my heart. Would I ever get to see my lake again? Feel its cool water running over my skin? I didn’t think so.
Thoughts heavy, my gaze roamed over the tub. My hand went to my throat. Soaking in the steaming water would be divine, but I couldn’t even if I had time. Not when I could practically feel the sash from my robe digging into my skin and cutting off my air.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to relax in a tub again.
Forcing myself into the bathing chamber, I stripped off the ruined sweater and breeches, placing the top and my undergarments into a small
basket. Using one of the washcloths, I bathed without using the tub, cleaning away the dried blood from my fight with the gods in the throne room. I glanced at the mirror, only looking at the bite mark on my throat. The two puncture wounds were still an angry shade of red. Taric had bitten in the same spot that Nyktos had. No two bites could be more different. One had brought pleasure, the other immense pain.
Swallowing, I glanced down at my breast. The bite Nyktos had left there, just above my nipple, was a calmer reddish pink. I brushed my fingers over the shallow indentations and gasped at the sharp pulse of desire that shot through the pit of my stomach. I jerked my hand away. Thinking of his mouth on my skin, the pierce of his fangs, would do me no good at the moment.
Pulling on a slip and a dressing robe made of crushed velvet dyed black, I went to the balcony and tugged the drapes aside. The sky was a muted shade of gray now, the stars dim.
You’re his weakness.
“What am I doing?” I whispered, looking around the chamber. There was no answer. Or maybe there was one, but I just didn’t want to acknowledge it because I knew what I had to do.
Only I didn’t want to do it.
That knowledge did little to calm my racing heart. I started pacing and didn’t stop until a honey-haired draken arrived with supper. Davina silently placed the covered dish and wine on the table. She didn’t even look in my direction, and I had no idea if it was because she had learned of my betrayal or not. Davina had never been the friendliest draken.
“Has…Nyktos returned?” I asked.
She arched a brow at me, said nothing, and stalked out of the room. I was alone once more. The food was delicious, but I couldn’t remember what it was as soon as I placed the lid over the dish, eyeing the door that connected my chamber to Nyktos’s.
Was it still unlocked?
I stood, taking several steps toward the door before stopping myself. Pushing out a deep breath, I returned to the chaise and tucked my legs under me. I was tired, and a seed of concern took root, despite all the many valid reasons explaining why I would be worn down: the lack of sleep. Feeding Nyktos. Taric’s bite. Learning the truth about the embers, and, well…the stress of everything else. That’s what I told myself as I closed my eyes. It
was the only way I could fall asleep—something I needed if I was going to figure out what to do. Because if I acknowledged the other reason, that it was the Culling, there would be no rest for sure. Because the Culling ended only one way.
With my death.
|
A deafening crack woke me, and it took more than a couple of moments for me to remember where I was.
Slowly sitting up, I looked around the chamber lit by a lone wall sconce by the doors. Had it been thunder? That didn’t seem right. I didn’t think it could storm in the Shadowlands.
I started to rise but stopped myself as a soft blanket slid to my waist. Frowning, I sank my fingers into the plush material and glanced at the basket it had been rolled up in—now empty. I didn’t remember getting the blanket before sitting down.
A sudden intense light flashed from outside, lighting the entire space. I jumped to my feet, my heart thumping as I went to the balcony doors. That was way too bright for lightning, but the boom of thunder followed, just as the chamber doors swung wide.
Orphine rushed inside, her crimson eyes as luminous as polished rubies. “Do not go out there.”
I took one look at the unsheathed sword she held at her side and spun around, throwing open the doors.
“Godsdamn it,” Orphine growled.
The breath I took immediately choked me. Smoke filled the air and smothered the starlight, stinging my eyes and burning my throat. Shouts echoed from the courtyard and the massive Rise surrounding the House of Haides as I rushed to the railing.
Gripping the cool stone, I leaned out and gasped. What I saw shocked me. Deep within the Red Woods, silver flames rippled and lit the night sky, burning through the crimson sea of leaves. A tree popped, exploding in a shower of silver sparks.
A sudden gust of wind tore across the balcony, whipping away the smoke in a frenzy. My head jerked up as a tan draken nearly the size of Nektas flew over the courtyard, heading straight for the Red Woods.
“Fuck,” Orphine snarled. “You’re going to get your ass back inside right now.”
The draken in the air released a funnel of silver fire, striking the woods just outside the Rise. Flames shot up high, stretching above the Rise itself, briefly highlighting the guards. The fire blew back—
I staggered into Orphine as the embers in my chest heated and throbbed, and screams of pain rippled through the night sky.
“Oh, my gods,” I whispered, rooted to my spot by horror as…things fell. My burning eyes tracked their flaming descent to the ground below. The fall took mere seconds, but it felt like an eternity as my palms heated in response to the death.
The tan draken fired on the Red Woods again, hitting the same spot as before. A crack of fiery energy hit the ground, shaking my bones. That was the sound that had woken me.
“Inside,” Orphine snarled, grabbing my arm. “Now.”
Another draken swept over the courtyard at breakneck speed, flying so fast I could barely make out the reddish-brown scales as Orphine dragged me toward the door. The draken latched onto the tan one’s back, digging talons into scales and flesh. The tan draken shrieked, twisting sharply as it tried to shake off the much smaller draken—
Orphine shoved me inside, slamming the door shut behind her. Heart thumping, I stumbled around, snared by shock and confusion. My stomach hollowed as I tried not to breathe in the bitter scent of smoke that had followed us into the bedchamber. I couldn’t process what was occurring— what I’d just seen outside.
Another thunderclap of fiery eather hit the ground and rattled the entire palace, causing the glass chandelier above me to sway violently. The realm outside the palace turned silver once more and shattered the surreal numbness.
I faced Orphine. “Is that one of Kolis’s draken?”
“I don’t recognize it.” Orphine turned halfway back to the balcony doors, her chest rising and falling sharply. “It could be his or another Primal’s.”
I turned to the adjoining door, knowing without a doubt that Nyktos was out there somewhere, in the smoke and fiery nightmare.
Where I should be.
“Do you know if it’s just the draken, or are there dakkais?” I went and grabbed the shadowstone dagger from the arm of the chaise.
“I have no damn clue. The attack started less than ten minutes ago.” Her nostrils flared with anger as I started for the chamber doors. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What we should both be doing.” I glanced at the now-dark space beyond the balcony doors as an eerie wail echoed from outside. “I’m going to help.”
Orphine’s fingers opened and closed around the hilt of her sword. “Absolutely not.”
“If there are dakkais out there, you know that Nyktos won’t be able to use eather against them.”
“Nektas and the other draken will—”
“I don’t care what Nektas and the other draken do,” I cut her off.
“You should. Because that damn bastard out there isn’t burning the woods for the fun of it.” Another boom shook us. I half-expected the chandelier to come crashing down from the ceiling. “You hear that? That’s not trees exploding. That’s the ground erupting. You know what’s under that ground, right?”
My body flashed cold. “The entombed gods.”
Orphine nodded. “That draken is burning straight through the soil, the chambers, and the damn chains entombing them. If he isn’t stopped, the entire Shadowlands will be swamped by hundreds of starved, pissed-off fallen gods.”
I didn’t have to think hard to remember the ravenous gods clawing their way from the ground. That had only been a few. Hundreds? “Then we really need to help.”
“You can help by staying inside the palace, where it’s currently safe.” “I know we don’t know each other at all, but I am not the type of
person who stands back and hides when I can fight.”
“I really don’t care what type of person you are.” She started toward me. “If you don’t sit your ass down and behave, I will sit your ass down for you.”
Frustration crashed into my fury, driven by the unnecessary deaths and the knowledge that my actions were likely the cause. I squared off with the draken. “No.”
Orphine drew up short. “Excuse me?”
The embers in my chest suddenly hummed, but it was different than when Nyktos was near or when I summoned the eather to give life. The vibration was deeper and stronger and pumped through me, filling my veins until I felt as if my entire body was thrumming. “I said, no.”
“I heard you, but I don’t know why you think you’re in a position to say that.”
“I don’t know why you think you’re in a position to tell me what to do.” The humming pressed against my chest, and Orphine’s pupils suddenly stretched even thinner. “Why do you think we’re under attack? Is some Primal just that bored and decided to really piss Nyktos off? Or is it because of what I’ve done? Because I’m here?”
Orphine let out a low growl of displeasure.
“I’m going out there,” I told her. “If your duty is to protect me, then protect me out there. Or don’t. I couldn’t care less.”
A tense moment passed. I knew if the draken wanted to stop me, she could easily do so. “Fuck me,” she muttered. “Let’s do this.”
“Thank you.” Exhaling roughly, I turned to the doors and threw them open before she changed her mind. Orphine was right behind me as I hurried down the hall, the halves of the robe fluttering around my legs.
“You know,” she said as we entered the back staircase that led to the exit closest to the courtyard facing the Red Woods, “you’re not wearing shoes.”
“That is the least of my concerns.”
“Yeah, getting yourself killed should be your number one concern, but I don’t think it has even made your list of things to be worried about at this point.” She shot me a red-eyed glare. “You need to be careful so you don’t end up dead. If that happens, I’m going to kill you myself.”
“Not only does that threat seem really counterproductive”—I raced down the last of the steps—“it’s going to be really hard to do since I’d already be dead.”
“But you get my point.” Orphine slipped in front of me as we reached the main floor landing, the ridges of scales in her pale skin far more noticeable now. “Stay close to me.”
“You stay close to me.” I brushed past her.
The string of curses Orphine let out was rather impressive. “Nyktos warned me that you were hard-headed.”
“Did he?” I shoved open the exterior door and stepped out into… Chaos.
