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I flick my gaze to Cole, and he’s already staring at me.

I push up to my feet. “Great. I’ll meet you in the morning then. I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to turn in early.”

Celeste and Archie both groan in detest.

Archie pulls at my sleeve, pleading. “But you just got here!”

I offer him an encouraging smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Tomorrow, I’ll have to put on my best show yet, pretending to be Cole’s sister.

Pretending to be someone I’m not.

thirty-four

TEA AND PASTRIES

Each time I close my eyes and drift to sleep, my dreams are wrapped in fire. Cole, Darian, and Celeste flash behind my eyes. I fight against my drowsiness, sitting up and eventually slipping out toward the forest to see Daeja. The thought of being in another town without her settles like a stone in my gut.

“Hi,”she chuffs in greeting and snakes her way over to me. She stretches forward, inching closer until we are nose to nose, her scales startlingly cool against my skin.“You’re stressed.”

There’s no hiding from her. She’s in my head, my heart, and every fiber of my soul. As if we’re the same being.

She turns away from me and walks over to a tree. The wood groans and snaps as she rips the small tree from the ground. She swings her head back toward me with the tree in her mouth, nearly the full length of her.

I duck before I’m sideswiped. “What are you doing?”

Her lip pulls up to reveal a glimmer of her daggered teeth clenched around the wooden trunk.“You know what we haven’t played in a while?”

I snicker, thinking of the first night I met her, and how I threatened her with a stick. Which then turned into an unintended game of fetch. “Daeja, I can’t play.”

“And why not?”

“Because I can’t pick up that tree on my own, even if I tried!”I laugh and pat her cheek.

If dragons could chuckle—I’m sure she would be.“Fine.”

She flings the tree off toward the lake. I flinch as it crashes into the water, swallowed down to its depths. Daeja runs her black tongue over her teeth repeatedly.

She jolts back as her eyes narrow, whipping her head back and forth. “Something is in my teeth.”

“Let me see.”

She lowers her head for me and curls her lips to bare her teeth. If anyone else saw us, they might be frightened for me. Likely petrified. But I hook a thumb under her upper lip and examine her serrated teeth. I pluck a splinter the size of my finger out from her gums and toss it off into a bush.

“I have to go to Windmere in the morning. It’s a town northeast of here, and I should be back by nightfall. I’ll come see you as soon as I’m back. I need you to stay here by the lake while I’m gone.”

Her billowed breath warms my face, a clear sign of her disappointment. But she must sense the shift of worry in me because she pushes her head into my chest.“I’ll be fine. I do that every day, anyhow.And if you need me, I’ll only be a flight away.”

I smile, resting my head on hers for a few seconds more, before we say our goodbyes, and I head back to the outpost.

After I’ve cleared the stone wall surrounding the camp, I near my room and pause when I pick up the sound of a soft knock. Dashing to the shadows, I press myself up against the back wall of my room and wait, my heart thundering in my chest.

The knock sounds again, and I peek around the corner toward the sound. A dark silhouette of a woman stands at Darian’s door, the long sweep of her gown melting into the ground.

Celeste.

She stands, hand still balled into an upheld fist, waiting for the door to open. A few more long seconds tick by, and she raps her knuckles against the wood a third time.