Page 59 of Court of Embers (Dragonesse #2)

I let my wings spread free, and leapt from Rhylan’s back, soaring at his side as we approached Varyamar.

I wheeled beneath him, taking in the lights and sounds below. Varyamar was waking up, and I would live to at least see a legacy take root, if not blossom.

We caught a gust of warm wind, sweeping upwards to the eyrie’s dragon terrace. I landed lightly in a patch of brambles, crushing jasmine underfoot and breathing deeply.

And it all hit me. “It’s over.” I turned to stare at Rhylan. “It’s all over. We’re home. It’s done.”

Well, sort of done . He spread his scaly lips in another wide grin, sweeping away brambles with his tail. We still have to get this continent back in order.

I would empty Varyamar’s treasury to deal with nothing but rebuilding plans for the rest of my life , I said fervently. No parasites. No vengeful undead gods. Nothing but nice, tidy paperwork without unseen horrors.

Paperwork is its own form of horror . Rhylan shifted, taking my hands. Come on. Let’s go inside.

I let him pull me through the pale ash doors, and found the place already swept and scrubbed from top to bottom. What had felt like an empty, haunted bubble in time before was now fresh and bright.

Mykah came tumbling out of a door across from my old room. “I claimed this one,” she announced.

She’d already hung vibrant purple curtains around her bed, and the floor was piled with a mountain of pillows.

Rhylan leaned against the door. “I see you wasted no time.”

Mykah gave him a long-suffering look. “I’m going to the Training Grounds. I’ve got to enjoy this while I can.”

He snorted. “You’ll live above the Training Grounds. Just fly out of your window.”

Mykah stared at him, brow furrowed. “But that wouldn’t be part of the school experience.”

Rhylan and I glanced at each other. Our ‘school experience’ had mostly been its own form of hell.

But I couldn’t blame her. It was an opportunity she never would’ve had as Pyrae and Tashan’s ward, and Mykah didn’t shy away from experiences over a little pain.

I idly wondered if her crush on Hunter would survive the Training Grounds, or if I’d be on the hook for a bonding ceremony in the Wildlands ten years from now.

“I’ll be going through the library here,” I said, sitting on the edge of her bed. “I’ve got Treza on it as well in his spare time. But I was wondering…if you were planning to do a little searching of your own anytime soon.”

Mykah stopped in her organization of the pillows, meeting my eyes. There was a mix of emotions there: longing, resignation, excitement.

If it could be said that one good thing had come of Ustrael’s occupation of a body, it was that she’d given Mykah the answer she’d been looking for.

Evarien .

But there were no Ascendants by the name of Evarien listed in the Akallan records.

Treza had told me that once, Akalla had held thousands of eyries, and many had died out in the brutal Interregnums of the past. Sometimes, a name was mentioned no more than once, in a tome in some deep, dusty corner undiscovered for centuries.

We were searching, but I had half expected Mykah to take the name and run with it on her quest.

“I’m staying here,” she said quietly, laying a pillow down.

“I want to search, but first…I want to do the things I couldn’t have before.

I want to go to the Training Grounds and make friends, and visit the Wildlands.

I want to have a family around me. I’ll keep my eyes open for any sign, and one day, I’ll know when it’s time to go. ”

I didn’t let her see the massive relief flooding me. I hadn’t wanted Mykah, young as she was, to take off into the wilderness alone yet. I smiled at her. “I’m glad you’re staying. We’ll help you, however we can, but for as long as you want it, this is your home.”

Mykah came over and put her arms around me, and I hugged her tight, resting my cheek on her head.

One day she would leave, chasing those whispers and hints, but for now she remained ours.

That night, Rhylan met me on the peak of the eyrie. I’d climbed up the dragon door, picking my way over sculpted stone to the highest, water-smoothed peak of karst, and there I sat, my knees drawn up and my arms wrapped around my legs.

The stars were flung across the sky by the handful. Aurae’s Tears reflected them, a pool of starlight. I had missed this so deeply, and finally the homesickness faded.

We were home.

He sat next to me, slipping an arm around me and pulling me close.

He didn’t have to say anything. In the comfortable silence, I felt the bond between us, unbreakable and enduring.

I glanced at him, smiling. I’m so glad I didn’t push you off that eyrie on Mistward.

He laughed out loud, and in this time and space, it sounded like music to me.

I’m so glad you took a bath , he teased, and these days, I could laugh about that, too.

Because I’d seen inside his mind. I’d felt what he had felt. The gnawing guilt, the horror of what his words had wrought, and his only defense was to snap, to try to create some distance from what he’d perceived as his fault.

And he’d seen inside mine, and knew I didn’t blame him. Everything that had befallen us was the work of others, and we had made it through alive and unbroken.

I snuggled under his arm, raising my face for a soft kiss. His eyes burned with blue fire, warming me from the inside.

The bond flowed, and I let him see everything I’d felt, all the yearning I’d thought would go unanswered.

All the times I’d watched him in the Training Grounds, already thinking of him as mine.

The sudden rush of hope under the anger when I first laid eyes on him on Mistward, and that same hope growing until it filled every inch of my skin afterwards.

In return, he let me feel him. The same possessive want and need, the knowledge that I was his, and no arranged bond could supplant that. The need under the guilt. And his own hope, winning out against hopelessness.

It’s the first day of the rest of our lives . He kissed a trail over my cheek and jaw. And I will never see another day without you. Every wish I had came true.

You’re all I wished for . I wove my fingers through his. From ashes to embers to flames, and we’ll return to ashes together.

Together , he agreed, and we looked out at the stars, all the light we could see.

Like our dreams, our shared hopes, they too burned eternal.

THE END