Page 34 of Courting the Dragon Prince

The blue crosses weren’t close to their current location, unless Luther had really fucked up reading the map. But the blue crosses covered a huge section of the map, and he’d never seen them before.

“It’s the ocean!” Onyx leaned forward. “I thought you said you knew how to read a map!”

“I do! And blue crosses don’t mean an ocean. The dark-blue circles do!” Luther tapped the dark-blue circles that had been drawn right next to the light-blue crosses.

Onyx didn’t speak for several moments. “Those dark-blue circles mean the ocean?”

“Of course they do!” Luther turned towards him. “I thoughtyousaid you knew how to read a map,” he mocked.

But Onyx grabbed the map, not tugging it from Luther’s hands but holding it so he could see it. He leaned in close. “And what does this blue mean?”

“It’s a river!”

Onyx closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. Then he opened his eyes and pointed at a red criss-cross pattern. “And these?”

“Farmland! What sort of foolish test is this?” The paper crinkled beneath Luther’s tightening grip, threatening to tear.

Onyx sighed. “Those are some of the symbolsIdon’t understand. In the Grey Mountains, we use squiggly green lines to indicate a river, light-blue crosses for the ocean, and yellow shading for farmland on maps. It seems you don’t.”

“No.” Luther frowned. “No. We don’t.”

He stared at the map, at the blue shading that stopped next to the squiggly green lines. He looked up at the river gurgling in front of them. “So we use blue shading,andyou use squiggly green lines to symbolise a river,” he said, voice flat. “And this map uses both those symbols to indicate the river.”

With a sinking feeling in his gut, the map suddenly made sense.

Onyx groaned. “They drew this map specifically for this quest. For us. They are using the symbols that we would use in our maps in the Grey Mountains maps mixed with the symbols you’d use in Draconia.”

Luther shook his head. “They’ve been using the symbols interchangeably, which is why we have both been so confused.”

The silence stretched between them. It was so fucking simple. So fucking simple, and they were both fucking fools.

“If we’d worked together from the start, we’d have realised that straight away.” Onyx didn’t look at Luther.

Luther didn’t look at him.

They both just stared at the map.

Luther wanted to be angry. He wanted to blame Onyx and say it had all been the earth elemental’s fault.

But they both knew the truth. They’d both been a part of this issue. Their stubbornness and inability to talk to each other to discuss the quest, specifically the map, had meant they’d spent hours lost in the forest, shackled together, without their magic.

“Well, let’s follow this river.” Onyx knocked the map with the back of his hand. “It should lead us right to the key.”

Luther nodded.

They walked alongside the river. Luther held the map so both could see.

As they continued, Luther wondered if Onyx felt as embarrassed and annoyed with himself as Luther did.

ChapterSixteen

Onyx’s gaze swept over the fields of wheat. A gust of wind blew, and the golden stalks bowed. The sun had begun its descent. No sign of the storm clouds remained in the clear sky.

His wet, muddy clothes squelched and clung to his body as he walked.

Onyx could see no farmers. No people. Just rows and rows of wheat. In some places, weird paths wound haphazardly through the rows.

A village lay to the west, represented on the map by small red squares, which they used in Draconia, not the Grey Mountains.