Page 24

CHAPTER 24

BOWEN

R aiden stayed back by the door to the dining hall, giving me the space I needed. If I didn’t get it, I’d likely rip the heads from every being in this town clean off.

Paxon’s ego dripped off him like dew dropped off the stalactites in the mines, and I was already at my end with it. If Auria wasn’t here, I’d have gladly urged him to leave, to attempt to cross the mountain pass in treacherous conditions. He’d wind up dead, either from exhaustion or freezing, but when the elements claimed a soul, it was simply population control. Let fate have its way with the man.

But if Paxon left, he’d force Lander and Auria along. He claimed he was keeping them safe, but he seemed to be doing quite the opposite. It was a surprise he hadn’t gotten their entire group killed—hell, he nearly had. It didn’t slip my observation of their arrival in town that every single one of them was bruised, bleeding, and injured. All aside from Paxon. His chin stayed high, right along with his ego, and he had no patience for the pain his group felt.

If I hadn’t felt off about him before, I did now. He’d been content with leaving their guards behind, and that was a problem in itself. Would he have treated Auria the same had she been too injured to make it over the pass, leaving her in the snow to freeze to death?

The possibility of it made my veins surge.

Leaves crunched under my boots as I walked out of town, the wind blowing them into the air around me. The forest bordered the opposite side of Deadwood as the desert. I wasn’t in the mood to fight off sandwalkers, so I’d opted to disappear into the woods, though the dark, no matter the biome, held danger as well. It was just easier to detect among the rustle of the forest floor.

Vibrant flowers and mushrooms sprouted up from the trunks of various trees, adding color and dimension to the two-toned forest. The rings in the sky glowed a bright silver, despite the cloud cover, but with the canopy of the leaves, only certain areas of the forest were illuminated in an almost crystal-like glimmer. In the few old paintings my ancestors were able to save generations ago, there were no rings. Instead, two giant moons sat perched in the sky. One of them still floated in our atmosphere, while the other had been obliterated into millions of pieces and disappeared forever. The two rings left in its wake shifted with the orbit of the planet, following the rise and fall of the sun.

But the universe wasn’t the only thing that had changed when the moon exploded.

Bison were on the long list of beings thought to be extinct in some kingdoms. Before the trigger of the moon rupturing one hundred and fifty years ago, humans and fae lived peacefully among each other. They all worked in unison, keeping their civilizations afloat, but then dark magic was discovered in the mines. Shortly after it was harvested, humans found it could hurt the fae, weaken their powers, making them almost equal in strength with humans.

So naturally, they took advantage of it. Corrupt leaders ordered armies to use dark magic on fae, and in the fae’s weakened state, humans committed mass murders and burned entire villages to the ground in their wake.

Every power had a price when used in abundance, though, and dark magic had triggered what no one thought was possible.

After days of humans targeting the fae, killing thousands of faekind, the moon had exploded, and beasts fell from the sky. Dragons had had no choice but to flee their home on the floating rock, coming to the next closest refuge. In the beginning, dragons had thought we were the enemy. That they had to kill us in order to have a life here, as the one they knew was destroyed. Humans had taken advantage of that, leaving the dragons to rid the land of the fae while they hid in what was now the kingdom of Amosite.

While the humans had kept themselves locked away and protected, an alliance was formed, and what they now thought was extinct wasn’t truly after all.

Cresting the top of the small hill that breached the tips of the trees, I looked out over the land, admiring the silver gleam illuminating everything the light from the rings touched. A stronger gust of wind rustled the tops of the trees around me, then the earth vibrated under my feet.

“Hello, Vulcan,” I greeted blandly, my voice slightly muffled by the bandana wrapped tightly around my head.

The dragon huffed a hot breath of air by my shoulder as he settled his wings, but I didn’t bother looking back at him. His scales were midnight black, the tips of them shimmering a bright gold. The highlights flared brighter when he was pissed—or, in this case, irritated.

You stink of stress, Vulcan chastised rather loudly in my head. They had the option to speak aloud so everyone could hear them, but I assumed he kept this private so no one that might be lurking could listen.

I shook my head. Dragons were so polite.

“You need to stay away for a few days,” I said. It was unwise to turn your back on a dragon, but Vulcan and I had been together since I was a kid. He had basically raised me, which meant attitude wasn’t unheard of between us.

He let out a snort. I do not need to hide from those humans.

I wiped my shoulder before turning to look up at him. “They won’t take kindly to dragons.”

He cocked his massive head to the side. Then they shall roast.

“You can’t kill them,” I instructed, though my word did little against him. There was no controlling a dragon. They’d only feel more inclined to do the opposite.

His gaze moved in the direction of Deadwood, his onyx eyes thankfully not the glowing red they turned when he was mad. I will spare the burned one. You need not worry.

My brows pulled together, but before I could question him further, my gaze caught on something in the distance. With narrowed eyes, I realized it wasn’t some thing , but rather some one .

Vulcan’s head swerved in an almost snake-like manner to follow my line of sight. Her .

“What about her?”

She is trouble.

“Is that supposed to be your warning to stay away?” I’d have no problem doing that. She was leaving in a few days’ time anyway, and after how I’d left her father’s castle, I highly doubted I’d be visiting again.

It is my advice to stay wise.

“I’m not sure why you believe I’m ever not,” I defended.

If a dragon could give someone the side eye, that’s exactly what he tried to do as he looked down at me.

I focused in on Auria in the distance as I said, “I’ve been smart in every single decision I’ve made.”

Befriending a dragon is where you first went wrong.

“Not like you ever gave me a choice,” I muttered.

His head swung so that his nose was directly in front of me, his eyes narrowed.

I didn’t take my focus off Auria, watching as she climbed up an old rockslide. Following where her current path might lead her, I spotted a cave in the side of the mountain and internally cursed.

Of course the princess was exploring. What else should I have expected her to do? Stay inside during a storm I’d just advised her was dangerous? Rest her injured ankle? No. Of course she had to go out in it alone and find an unstable cave, risking hurting herself further.

Vulcan followed my line of sight again, then dramatically sniffed the air. I must be off to find my hiding spot.

“Offended?” I teased.

He flared his wings wide, casting a shadow over me. If you must know, it is due to your stench.

He took off into the air, flying over the forest toward the mountains. Thankfully, he stayed far out of Auria’s path. I wasn’t sure what she’d do if she saw a dragon near Deadwood, given they couldn’t get into Amosite. If she thought bison were extinct and was surprised by that, she’d be a hell of a lot more shocked when she saw these in close proximity to where she was currently staying.

I began walking down the hill, heading in the direction of the cave. She shouldn’t be out in this storm, even if she was wearing a face covering. The caves were unpredictable, and exploring them alone was a disaster waiting to happen. Weather like this triggered other natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes, and with the chasm bordering the ocean, if a tidal wave flooded the ravine and entered the caves, she’d drown.

The caves were all connected by a system. Some said if you traveled long enough, they took you to the other side of Serpentine, but I’d never been curious enough to test out the theory. Getting lost underground was not my idea of fun.

As the wind battered against me, I couldn’t get what Vulcan had called Auria out of my head. Why would he think she was burned? Dragons could smell pain in some instances, but her ankle wasn’t scorched—it was sprained. Regardless, she had stayed hidden away in that castle her entire life. No harm could come to her, even if it wanted to. She was too precious a gem, and her father was well aware of that. It was a wonder he’d been able to keep her abilities hidden for so long, given I’d discovered their secret in just days of being in Amosite.

I hadn’t been invited to the masquerade ball, but as Deadwood was directly affected by all trade deals and negotiations, I had a right to have been involved. Though anything the kingdoms typically discussed was boring, Deadwood relied on me to keep us afloat. I wouldn’t let my people down, and that meant crashing King Tenere’s daughter’s surprise engagement party.

I made it to the old landslide and climbed the rocks with ease, the rough surfaces doing nothing to my callused hands. Auria had been much slower, and I guessed it was due to her ankle, which made me all the more curious as to why she felt the need to come out here. She was still clearly injured, and there were beasts in these woods that would tear her limb from limb if given the chance.

As I reached the top of the rocks, I stared into the black depths of the cave. Farther in, a small light flickered, causing a smirk to bloom on my mouth. She’d brought a lantern.

How cute.

But even a flame couldn’t save her from what lurked in the dark.