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“So is this the plan, wife? To have your beast do your dirty work?” he called to Wren. “I didn’t take you for a coward.”

“You use your men in that capacity. It is fitting, don’t you think?” she crooned just out of sight.

“Perhaps, but you’ll never escape if you let me die. You’ll only seal your doom, and that of your people.”

It was the truth. Soren would kill her and forget any sort of peaceful settlement of the Dragon Isles. It would be a bloodbath.

The dragon snarled, causing the hair along his arms to rise.

“Leave him be, Trove!” Wren barked.

The dragon pushed its nose against Arrik’s chest, crushing him into the dirt and resolutely ignoring her.

He was going to die.

“Please,Trove.” His wife began humming a sweet melody, and the spines along the dragon’s back lowered. A low vibration rumbled through the creature. Ever so slowly, the dragon slithered off of Arrik.

He drew in his first full breath and sat up, wincing. He’d cracked at least one rib.

He registered the dragon at Wren’s side, gently nosing at her with the same sharp-toothed mouth that had meant to tear Arrik apart.

Bloody beast.

He lunged to his feet when she jumped onto its back. With one final look at him, she nudged the beast and they leapt into the air, dragon and rider one seamless creature.

Arrik could do nothing but stare in awe, and struggle to comprehend the sight of his wife escaping upon the back of a dragon.

Adragon,in Verlanti. When had there ever been dragons in Verlanti? But more than that: a dragon that had meant to kill him but Wren had called it off.

“I’m coming for you,” he whispered to the silent forest.

As if she heard, Wren glanced over her shoulder and met his gaze. He smiled and bowed to her.

This first round was hers—as he’d meant it to be.

Arrik would leave her alone for the moment, but not forever.

He was Wren’s just as much as she was his.

The Dragon Princess simply didn’t know it yet.

15

WREN

Stupid, stupid, stupid girl!

Angry tears fell from her eyes only to be snatched away by the winds.

You should have killed him.

An ugly sob broke free as Trove descended to a clearing in the forest, near the edge of a wide river she recognized as being barely an hour’s walk from the rebel camp. As Trove landed with a whoosh of air, Wren slid off his back and stumbled, barely catching her balance. Wiping her stinging face with her shirt sleeve, she released another sob. This had been the first time she’d flown through the sky since Aurora died.

SinceArrikhad torn Wren’s entire world apart.

She wrapped her arms around her body, shuddering with grief that threatened to tear her apart. She should have killed him, taken vengeance for the lives he’d destroyed.

Your father would be ashamed.