Page 24

T he pounding terror that threatened to eat my internal organs finally subsided when I caught Callista and cradled her against my chest. I had known pain, misery, and guilt. I had known trauma and loss. But never had I known fear until her stark panic, followed by pain, had surged through our bond.

She slipped into unconsciousness, and I shifted her body so I could fly more easily. My drekkan vision had seen her charred and tattered dress before she ever jumped—

“Oh, Callista,” I muttered. “You jumped.” You looked at one terrifying thing—death by flame—and leaped into another. I knew how scared she had been—I had felt it. I tightened my hold on her. The amount of trust she gave me melted my heart.

She had risked certain death if I’d failed her. The more that thought sank into my mind, the more I determined to never fail her. Not when her life was on the line, but also not in the little things. I wanted to spare her from loneliness and sorrow and—

Her arm twitched, and I shifted it so she couldn’t thrash. I needed to let her rest somewhere safe, but I also wanted to rage back to the castle and find out why she had been pushed out of the tower by fire.

I laid her on a knoll covered with soft, spring grass and loose soil that I dried and warmed with magic. Ash covered her face and arms, but I knew she had burns under the black.

As I let her roll onto the ground, her leg thrashed and her eyes opened with an anxious look. I draped a clawed finger over her arm, wishing for my real hands more than I ever had before. “Callista. You are safe.”

“Aedan?” She wrapped her arm around my finger and murmured, “Don’t leave me.”

“Of course not.” I tried to whisper, but the cursed drekkan’s voice didn’t have a soft level. “Can I heal your burns?”

“Please,” she whispered as she slipped back into sleep.

I threaded my magic into her arm and used it to encourage her body to grow new skin and knit it into the old. I cleared the ashes out of her lungs and throat, and I breathed easier as fresh air flowed unimpeded through her body. I wasn’t sure if I could give her strength through the mistek bond, but I tried.

She looked so calm and relaxed that I could not bring myself to pull my finger out from under her arm. Instead, I sat next to her, crouched so she could wrap her arm around my finger.

An hour passed. Then two. I did not want to wake her, but I needed to return to the castle soon. A callida flew up to us and started chirping a warbly song.

“Your kind usually avoids me,” I rumbled at it.

The bright yellow thing stopped singing long enough to make a chortly laugh, and Callista stirred.

She woke up slowly, stretching and blinking until her eyes focused on my face. Her brows lifted. “Did you know you’re big enough to eat me?”

I rolled my eyes, glad that she was well enough to make such a light-hearted comment. “A wild drekkan would not think twice about making you dinner, but I’ve retained my elven sensitivities despite this form.”

She hugged my finger and sat up. I retrieved my hand, but I missed her touch. It had been a light thing, but a very real sign of her trust and comfort with me, even while I was a monster. Would she touch me again? Or was it only the result of her terrified state earlier?

She bent her knees and attempted to dust ashes and char off her dress. Her toes poked out of the damaged layers of fabric, and then they wiggled into the loose dirt. She lifted them up enough so the late-afternoon sunshine landed on them. A wide grin spread across her face as she hugged her knees. “Are we here for a cultural experience ?”

I dug a man-sized hole into the ground with my toes and then lifted the soil-covered appendages into the sunshine. They just felt dirty. “Perhaps I would appreciate it more if I had elf toes.”

Callista pressed her chin into her knees. “What exactly did my mother curse you with?”

I shifted my weight into a more comfortable position. “That is an unexpected question.”

“I’ve just realized I never asked you. All this time you’ve wanted to learn about fae and curses, but maybe she gave you the answer.” She shrugged. “I never actually saw my mother curse anyone, so I’m doubly curious.”

I blew out an uncomfortable breath. “I confess that the events of the day have distorted my memories. Robin, my cousin, was with me, though, and he said that she turned the power of the lies we told her around on us to make us suffer our own magic. I was to feel the effects of my own monsters and the protective barrier that I’d wanted to reinforce would become impenetrable.”

Callista tipped her head. “That’s less of a curse and more of a reversal of magic… at least the part about suffering your own monsters.”

She shifted so her elbows rested on her knees and her head landed in her hands. “She didn’t say anything about how long it would last? With wording like that, I’d expect it to go away as you became less monstrous.”

I snorted. “Less monstrous? Whatever is that supposed to mean?”

She stood up and set a hand on my folded wing. “You might not realize this, but you were far more horrible when we first met than you are now. I’ve… I’ve never felt safer with anyone.”

Her hands shifted to her hips. “Did she tell you when it would end? You said you deceived her. Was there a condition or two that you must meet? Maybe related to lying?”

I looked away from her as her mother’s words played in my mind. You will suffer the effects of your own monsters until you beg for the kindness you refused me and feel the pain of love you do not deserve. I could not say the words out loud. I had already begged Callista for the kindness of a punishment I deserved, and she had refused me. I felt the pains of loving her when she could never want me—someone she had already labeled monstrous.

And I refused to make her feel any responsibility for finding a way to release me from the conditions her mother had made. “She listed conditions, but they are impossible. That is why I’ve scoured the library for more information. Other options.” I turned back to look at her. “But reading my family’s book is more important to me than breaking the curse, and I am grateful for every moment you spend with me doing that.”

She patted my wing again. “See that, right there? Those words would never have come from the drekkan’s mouth I first met.”

I shook my head. “The sun is close to the horizon. We need to get back to the castle before I shift out here and we get stuck in the forest for the night.”

She looked over her shoulder, as if she could see the castle, but it was the wrong direction. I lifted a wing and pointed. “It’s that way.”

Her lower lip slipped under her teeth before tilting into tiny smile. I’d never seen her bite her lip before. “Would you believe that I’d rather get stuck out here in the forest with you than go back to the castle and face… whoever tried to kill me?”

My brows lowered into a scowl, and I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to. “Who did it?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Mylo got called away, and then the edges of my entire room went up in flames.”

“What happened after that?”

She choked her way through a quick summary and looked at me with a hopeful expression that I didn’t know what to do with—but I didn’t want to make it go away. “Perhaps you’re right,” I grumbled in the drekkan’s lowest tones. “We can stay in the forest tonight.”

She burst out laughing and slapped my wing playfully. “We cannot. But I love hearing you say that.”

A feral smile took over my face. It probably looked terrifying as it displayed my teeth and curled my lips, but it was a real, genuine smile. “I will say anything you like if it makes you that happy.”

Her smile shrank, but it didn’t disappear. “We need to go back. There will be some people worried, especially if nobody saw us fly away.” Now her smile vanished. “And someone will be wondering if they succeeded.”

“Someone who wants to die.”

She turned to look at me, her bright blue eyes wide. “If we figure out who it is, you don’t really plan to kill them, right?”

“I most certainly do. They intended death. They will feel death.”

“But… then they won’t learn anything.”

That wild smile scrawled across my face again. “This is becoming a very familiar conversation.”

She folded her arms. “Then you should know the answer already.”

I folded my own arms. Just because I was a giant lizard didn’t mean I was wrong. “I will not leave a threat like this alive. They will try again. And I will not risk your life because you do not like violence. You do not need to watch.”

She bit her lip again. I made a good argument. Finally she sighed. “Then promise me you won’t kill them without overwhelming certainty that they are the right person. No hints or hunches or small amounts of evidence. You cannot have any doubt at all that you have the one responsible.”

“I will agree to that.” I wanted to eliminate a threat, not kill an innocent elf. “Now, can I carry you home?” I lifted a claw to pick her up.

A wry smile made her eyes twinkle. “You don’t have to use your claw. A dragon could be described as a giant, flying horse.”

I growled. “My dignity would never recover.”