Page 33 of Court of Secrets and Flames (Dragons of Tirene #2)

Chapter Thirty-Three

I’m alone in my room, sipping warm broth in bed, when shouting outside causes me to spill. Cursing, I set aside the bowl of thinned porridge and straighten up against the headboard, nerves firing as my attention glues to the door.

A moment later, it bursts open and Sterling sweeps in.

He stalks over to the bedside. One glance at his face and the greeting freezes on my tongue. I’ve seen him angry more than once, but his dark expression goes beyond livid. He appears a second away from murdering someone.

Alarm races over my skin. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

His fiery gaze scans me from head to toe. Once he finishes the inspection, his expression shuts down into that awful blank visage, the spark in his eyes extinguished.

Not that it’s easy to tell, since he can’t even force himself to look me in the eye.

I twist my hands in the blanket as pressure builds in my chest. The last time we were together, we spent a wonderful afternoon in each other’s arms, and then I ran away from him. Without explanation.

I can’t really blame him for getting upset. Even so, I don’t like leaving things like this. “Please don’t be mad.”

His head jerks up. “Don’t be mad?” The lethal softness of the question roots me in place. An instinct urges me to move to safety, but my muscles refuse to comply. “You’re telling me not to be mad?”

I lick my dry lips. “Yes. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

His entire body flinches as if I pulled back my fist and sucker punched him in the gut. A harsh, jagged breath scrapes free of his mouth, and he squeezes his eyes shut.

When he opens them again, he shocks me by falling to his knees and dropping his forehead onto my thigh.

Several heartbeats pass with me staring at the top of his head before I stroke a hesitant hand through his hair. “Are you…are you okay?” He shudders, and my stomach clenches. “You’re really starting to freak me out.”

He raises his head, and I swallow a gasp. The fire has returned to his eyes. “The king…my brother…threw you in a dungeon, and you’re asking me if I’m mad? You almost died, and you’re asking me if I’m okay? The answer to both of those is no. I’m not fucking okay, and I’m really fucking pissed. But not at you.”

“I’m starting to figure that out,” I murmur.

I pull my hand from his head, and he grabs it and clutches it with his own. “You could have died. You could have died in a squalid cell while Jasper sent me off on some bullshit mission. I would have returned and never gotten to see you again. And it would have been my fault, because I’m the one who brought you here in the first place.”

The anguish in his voice, in his eyes, guts me. “That didn’t happen. It’s okay.”

His fingers tighten on mine. “It’s many things, but okay isn’t one of them.”

“Okay,” I repeat with a wince.

He releases my hand and lurches to his feet. “I’ll fetch your maid. She can help you rise and dress.”

Before I can protest, he leaves the room. The door doesn’t even close before a maid enters. With her help, I dress in riding trousers and a tunic, my mind still awash with Sterling’s reaction.

As I enter the corridor, Sterling straightens from the wall and offers his arm.

Taking small, careful steps at first, we start our walk. With each stride, I can feel my body strengthening as the blood begins flowing.

I gather my courage. “Back in my room…are you?—”

“Don’t.” His arm tenses. “I can’t think about that right now.”

I hesitate before nodding. “We don’t have to talk about it now.”

His relief is palpable. “Shall we visit the fire paddock? Dame might be inclined for a flight, and the fresh air will do you good.”

The mere thought of soaring through the skies quickens my pulse.

My excitement extinguishes in the next breath. “A flight? Are you sure…will the king allow it?”

“He will if he knows what’s good for him.”

His fist clenches, drawing my attention to his knuckles. Oh shit. I missed it back in the room, but the skin is all raw and red. As if, say, he’d punched someone.

I grab his hand for a closer inspection of the wounds. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

He glances at the object of my focus. “I didn’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“You told me to say I didn’t, not that I couldn’t lie.” He shrugs and pats my hand. “Don’t worry about it, Duchess.”

Don’t worry about it. Right. I’ll just shove the fact that my lover attacked the king of Tirene over me out of my head. Not like it’s treasonous or anything.

Despite his asinine comment, though, I do just that and quit thinking about the king or where we stand after his accurate accusation that Sterling and I are having relations. The trip isn’t far, yet by the time the walls come into view, I am nearly back to my usual gate.

Before we arrive, I already know what we’ll find. The sand and crushed-stone filled paddock is devoid of its usual fiery occupants. Even the carts used to haul their leftovers to the dog kennels are empty and waiting, meaning they weren’t here to break their fast.

“They’re gone.” Smoldering embers and earth fill my senses, but the familiar and welcoming aromas do nothing to combat my rising uneasiness. “Is it normal, for them to all leave at the same time like this?”

Sterling’s gaze follows the horizon, searching for signs of our winged companions. “No, but I’m sure they’ll return. Meanwhile, we have the sky to ourselves, should you feel up to it.”

I consider his words and unfurl my wings, relishing the stretch of muscles too long confined to sickbed idleness.

Sterling watches, an unreadable expression carved into his features.

We launch ourselves skyward, the ground surrendering its hold on us with a reluctance Sterling has to help me overcome at first. He stays by my side, close enough to intervene should my strength waver.

Below, the training field comes into view, marked with the scars of battle drills, the ordered chaos of Sterling’s design.

“Is this helping?” His hands hover near me while his eyes rove, drinking in every bit of my appearance.

How bad must I appear that he’s so worried?

I can only nod, not strong enough yet to speak and fly at the same time. Still, flying is easier on my stomach, especially when I lean forward and enjoy the fresh air cleansing my face. After a tumultuous last few days, I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.

No. That’s not right. The me I was before is gone now. She would have withered away at the mere thought of being poisoned. She couldn’t even stand up to Mother.

The old Lark, the girl who skulked in shadows, who clung to fear as if it were her only ally, is no longer here. In her place stands someone…new. A woman still obscure to me but emerging like dawn’s first light. She is sculpted by betrayal, cast in resilience, and draped in the quiet resolve of someone who’s gazed into death’s eyes and chosen life.

My rebirth has not finished. I sense a transformation within, a metamorphosis not yet complete but inexorably underway.

Dawn filters through the gauzy curtains, casting a hesitant light upon The Chronicles of the Mother Wurm lying abandoned beside me.

I’ve relinquished its pages only to the hold of the morning, my fingers still stiff from their hours-long clasp. The revelations within the pages have carved grooves into the night, etching shadows beneath my eyes.

With each blink, remnants of the tales flutter across my vision. How the creatures of shadows were abominations, spawned from plants fed a mixture of magic and dragons’ blood.

I recall a passage that had snared my attention and jerked me from the brink of sleep.

Sentience without a soul. Horrors born from horrors.

The way the author combines real life with horror and fantasy captivates me. And is the reason I stayed up all night reading instead of sleeping.

My limbs ache for rest, but my mind races with the imagery of the creatures of shadows. It’s as if the words have woven themselves into the very fabric of my thoughts, relentless in their haunting cadence. Such a vile creature that feasted not on flesh but on the very fear it conjured within its victims. An entity born from the darkest of magics, thriving on the terror it sowed, growing ever stronger with each life force it engulfed.

Controlled then consumed.

The room feels smaller, closing in with the weight of unspoken fears. I rise, pushing the blankets away in a deliberate attempt to distance myself from the lingering dread. The pages of the book flutter as the bed shifts under my weight. A shiver sprints down my spine as I push it aside.

The book sits there, innocuous in the daylight, but I know better. Its fables are more than mere ink and imagination. They are warnings wrapped in allegory.

In the tale, Mother Wurm battles to save her realm yet faces scorn from those she protects. Her nobles accuse her of inviting doom with her own spells. I try to laugh off the absurdity. It’s fiction, after all. Still, the notion of something that kills with fear alone clings to me like a second shadow, and with each page I read, my sense of urgency mounts.

To do what, I’m unsure. I only know that I can’t rid myself of this terrible foreboding. Or the sense that time is running out.

A knock on the door makes me jump. Before I have a chance to call out, the door swings open to reveal Sterling. He ducks his head to peer inside, his black hair grown out enough to brush his shoulders. “You’re awake?”

“I could hardly sleep.” I slide out of bed. “After sleeping for so long, I think I am more than caught up now.”

“Then perhaps you would care to take another walk with me? Or another small flight? The healer recommended taking it easy but getting some gentle exercise in.” Sterling is still standing by the doorway, and I am certain from his posture that someone else is there with him.

I acquiesce with a nod, welcoming the diversion. He steps back, revealing a maid with another glass of tea and a tiny portion of plain bread.

Solid food! I’m moving up in the world.

Once he has let her in my room, he retreats, allowing the maid to help me get cleaned and dressed.

So far, I haven’t seen or heard from King Jasper, not since my little outing to the dungeon. Sterling seems to think he has his brother under control. So far, I’ve respected his wishes by not raising the subject again, but a part of me wonders if we’re only postponing the inevitable. And no part of me believes the king is suddenly okay with how we left things. He was far too adamant about me pledging my commitment to our betrothal to suddenly drop it without a fight.

The only thing I can think is that he’s taking time to plan out his next method of attack. Maybe he has a guilty conscience because of the poisoning, but that won’t last forever, and I need to figure out what to do once my time runs out.

Just because he hasn’t threatened to hurt me or the people I love yet doesn’t mean that he won’t. Until I ate the bad tarts, I got the impression he would have happily kept me imprisoned until I gave in, no matter how long it took. If he decides to use Leesa or my mother against me, I’m not sure what I’ll do. Or Sterling, for that matter.

I may end up needing to flee Tirene after all.

Sterling keeps his calm demeanor focused on the hall ahead of us as he offers me his arm. At the door, he unfurls his wings and I follow suit.

As we exit the palace and ascend into the warm sunshine, the oddity of the dragons’ palpable yet unreachable presence unsettles me. Their consciousnesses circle the periphery of my range. Close enough to sense but too far to connect.

I hold back the questions teeming at the edge of my thoughts. Where have they been? What were they doing? Has Dame clutched yet? There will be time enough for answers. Maybe if they see me out and about, they will return.

Sterling and I glide a short distance through the azure expanse before he leads me down to a secluded spot by a gurgling creek. When we land near the bank, I spin a slow circle and start to frown, despite the spot’s serene beauty. I enjoy the sun sparkling on the rushing water and the yellow and blue explosion of wildflowers as much as the next person, but I have no idea why we stopped here.

Reading my expression correctly, Sterling clears his throat. “I wanted to talk to you in private. That day you ran. I figured out afterward that it was at least partly because of the dragons. Was that all of it though? I know you blame me for what’s happened to your family. You’re in this predicament because of me. My only excuse is that you were in danger with King Xenon. And I knew you’d been kidnapped as child, even if you didn’t, and that the woman who raised you essentially held you hostage in your own castle. I wanted to help you free yourself. But then everything got twisted.”

His words shatter the walls I’ve built. Despite the wrongheaded way she went about it, Mother did her best to protect me from Xenon. Sterling did the same.

Have I forgiven them? Truly forgiven them?

“I started to wonder, that day, if that was what had happened. And I forgive you. I think I forgave you then and was just waiting to hear you say it.”

He shudders. “Thank the gods, because I don’t know what I’d do if you said no, apart from vowing to spend the rest of my days earning your forgiveness.”

My heart begins to race. “What are you saying?”

Closing the distance between us, Sterling ghosts his thumb along my jaw, staring into my eyes as if I’m the most important thing in the entire world. “I love you, Duchess. I love your courage, your loyalty, and the way you care for people, even those who don’t fucking deserve so much as a scrap of your affection. I love how you piss me off with that smart mouth of yours, and how you stand up to me when others are afraid to look me in the eye. I love you even though I’ve tried my best not to and refuse to live without you now, even though we both know you deserve better. The thought of anyone hurting you, be it king or commoner or mutant rabbit, infuriates me to the point that I want to set them on fire and let you bathe in their ashes. There’s only one thing in this entire world that could keep me from your side…and that’s you telling me you don’t want me anymore.”

His declaration stuns the oxygen from my lungs. My eyes burn, and a lump swells in my throat. “I can’t…”

The remaining words get stuck as a single tear slips down my cheek.

Sterling presses a kiss to the damp skin. “It’s okay if you don’t. I understand. Just, please, don’t cry. Not for me. I’m not worth a single one of your tears.”

The raw pain and disappointment in his voice shreds my heart, launching me into action. I grab his hand and squeeze. “You didn’t let me finish. What I was trying to say was, I can’t believe you admitted that you love how I piss you off. You know I’ll never let you live that down.”

The look he directs at me is cautiously hopeful. “And the rest?”

Releasing his hand, I reach up to cup his cheeks. “Of course, I want you…because I love you too. I loved you even when you were my grumpy flight instructor and took entirely too much joy in making me muck out stalls. I loved you even when I believed you’d betrayed me in the worst way back at Flighthaven, and even after I thought you betrayed me again by abducting me to Tirene. I love you because I know you do deserve me and that we deserve to find happiness with each other. I love how much you care about your kingdom and its people and how you love your asshole of a brother even after he sent you away. And since I don’t foresee any circumstances where I wouldn’t want you, I guess that means you’re stuck with me.”

As I speak, the disbelief on his face gradually shifts into a radiant smile, and I swear, I’ve never witnessed anything more beautiful in my entire life. “There’s no place I’d rather be than by your side.”

I return his smile and arch a brow. “Mutant rabbit?” I tease.

His cheekbones flush pink. “I was just trying to get my point across.”

“Well, you definitely succeeded.”

He laughs softly as his hand finds mine, the touch a promise that needs no words. Brown speckled with gold sparkles at me, and the tension that had built up within me relaxes at the sight. “By all the gods, I do love you. I never imagined it would turn out like this. Or that my brother would become so obsessed with you. I almost regret it.”

My heart stutters in my chest at his admission. For a fleeting moment, the stars are aligned, and everything feels right. The rest of the world fades as our lips meet.

Then, it seizes me again.

The invisible specter of dread.

A shiver vibrates through me, and my muscles tighten.

Sterling senses the shift instantly, his eyes searching mine. “Lark? What’s wrong?”

Fly! My mind screams, though no words escape my lips. Hide!

Adrenaline floods my veins in a merciless tide, urging me to flee. To escape unseen peril that claws at the edges of my consciousness. Squeezing Sterling’s hand tight, I tell myself not to do this again. I cannot hurt him again.

“Something’s wrong!”

The terror—so real I can taste it on my tongue—latches on to every shuddering breath.

But if I flee, I will see that pain in Sterling’s rich brown eyes, which should only ever sparkle because of me and never brim with heartache.

Before sense can form from chaos, a thunderous roar splits the heavens. The dragons, a tempest of scales and fire, barrel toward us in a maelstrom of primal fear. The mated pair, with talons locked in flight, swerve away mere breaths from collision. Chirean drags Dame along to fly even faster.

“Fly away!” I scream, my voice lost amid the cacophony. Desperation fuels my plea as I reach out through the bond while simultaneously tugging on Sterling’s fingers and flapping my wings to propel into the sky.

Sweat forms and trickles down my back. I don’t know which way to go or what to do, only that if we don’t flee, something terrible will happen.

The warm hand holding mine suddenly turns frigid. The abrupt temperature change pierces my terror, and I blink rapidly.

“Lark! What’s wrong?” The chill from his skin enters my body, seeping into my bloodstream and traveling to my lungs to slow my rapid breaths.

“I…don’t know.” Clutching his wrist, I twist, watching the dragons as they continue their flight to safety. “It’s happening again. I feel their emotions…and just like before, they’re terrified.”

Confusion reigns supreme as they alter course erratically, their panic an infectious rhythm that beats wildly across the skies. One moment, they surge forward. The next, they scatter like leaves before a storm, driven by an invisible menace.

“What could possibly scare them like that? You were wild with fear. Dragons in their prime don’t just panic for no reason.”

I nod, a frown etching my brow as I consider the possibilities. “Is Jasper involved? With him on the throne, who knows what schemes are brewing.”

“Jasper wouldn’t dare do anything to the dragons.” Sterling shakes his head, his fingers slowly warming up again now that he’s released his magic. It had been a brilliant tactic, using his cold to snap me out of my dragon-induced hysteria. “Should we report this?”

“No.” I slash my hand, emphasizing my answer. “He didn’t believe me about the alicorns. You think he’ll believe me about something as big as the entire flock of dragons? I think we should investigate this ourselves. You know I’m not one to lean on others, but with your status, doors open that would otherwise be barred to me.”

“Then it’s settled.” He nods like a prince ready to defy expectations for the sake of his kingdom. “We’ll find out what’s going on together.”

I glance at the sun, as if its movement might speed up at any moment. That growing sense of urgency from the last several days intensifies. “Whatever is happening, it’s building, growing like a beast in the shadows. And when it strikes…”

The very air itself feels charged, as if anticipating the upcoming explosion. Arguments break out among soldiers training in the fields, their shouts faint echoes carried aloft.

“We’ll be ready.” Sterling tries to assure me, but the uncertainty in his voice mirrors my own doubts.

It’s tough to prepare for danger against a still unknown threat.