Page 26

CHAPTER 26

BOWEN

T he entire walk back to Deadwood, Auria had insisted she was fine, but I wasn’t risking it. Not only had rocks fallen all around us, one or two surely hitting her in the chaos, but the bones dragon had sprayed its toxic gas directly in front of her. She hadn’t seemed affected in the cave, but it could still be dormant in her lungs, slowly poisoning her blood if she breathed enough in.

“So it just hit a wall you couldn’t see?” Siara asked, reiterating what I’d told her, Flynt, and Raiden multiple times now. We were in the corner of the infirmary, far from any listening ears. I hadn’t wanted to leave Auria alone while she was checked out by Doctor Quinn. The citizens of Deadwood listened to me, but I didn’t trust they wouldn’t try anything with her. She was the daughter of a loathed king, and the people in this town had a liking for vengeance.

I nodded, peeling my gaze away from where Auria sat perched on the edge of a table. Quinn had a finger on her wrist, checking her vitals. She’d already examined her eyes, along with her balance—which was presumably bad due to her already injured ankle—and I assumed her lungs were next. There were two rows of twelve tables each, only a few occupied with patients that had gotten into fights at the saloon or those that had gone out in the dust storm without a face covering and were now suffering the consequences.

“It was chasing us one second, and bashing its skull against some sort of invisible wall the next,” I said. My hands were fisted, my palms burning with the memory of Auria in my arms. I hadn’t meant to touch her so many times in that cave, but I’d had no choice.

Flynt bit the inside of his cheek in thought. “Do you think the earthquake had anything to do with it being unable to go further? It was a pretty strong one. We felt the aftershock of it down here.”

I shook my head, adjusting my arms across my chest. “I don’t think so.”

“It had to have been there for a while, right? I’ve never seen a dragon like what you described,” Siara said.

“I have,” Raiden piped in. “In the mines.” Before Raiden had taken residence in Deadwood and become my commander, he had been enslaved in the mines of a kingdom on another continent. He’d tried to kill a guard in order to escape, but had been caught and sentenced to be hung. I was lucky I had found him in his cell when I was over there for a meeting and was able to sneak him out. The way in which he held himself gave me all I needed to know that he wasn’t a man who deserved to die for trying to escape cruel conditions. Ever since, we’d looked out for each other. “Dragons decay, but don’t die unless by some other force.”

It was no secret that dragons couldn’t die of old age. They simply kept living until they were killed in battle, ate something poisonous, or some other unfortunate element took them out. Not many lived to see the day their scales wilted off their bones, though.

“You think it’s been trapped down there for years, then?” Flynt asked.

I nodded. “To be in that state, decades, at least. If not well over a century.”

Flynt’s brows pulled together. “And there’s no way to get it out?”

“I’m not too sure that it wants out,” I said, moving my gaze back to Auria across the room. Quinn seemed to be done with her and was heading my way as Auria spiked up a conversation with the patient she’d been seated beside.

“Bowen,” the doctor said, giving a small dip of her chin before stopping a few feet from me. She was tall, freckles dotting the entirety of her pale skin, with bright red hair that fell to her shoulders.

“Doctor Quinn,” I greeted. “How is she?”

My friends’ attention was focused raptly on her as they waited for her response. I wondered if they hoped for good news as much as I did. Siara grew attached to things—and people—rather quickly, which was what I didn’t want. She was far too emotional at times, which would only hurt her more when Auria had to leave. Flynt, on the other hand, didn’t want to see harm come to those who didn’t deserve it, and Raiden was simply curious. He was never too concerned unless it came to one of the three of us. We were the closest thing he had to a family. So his interest in Auria’s health was…suspicious.

Doctor Quinn laced her fingers together in front of her. “She’s going to be fine. Her vitals are okay, but she does have a slight wheeze when she breathes, likely due to the gas. I don’t believe she inhaled enough for it to affect her much worse than that. Some warm tea and staying indoors until the storm is over will be her best route to a quick recovery.”

“Thank you.” That was all good. She was going to be fine. Now I could stop worrying about the woman and return to my duties.

She pressed her lips together, eyeing the others before explaining. “She does have the slightest fever, but nothing major. From the adrenaline, possibly. I wouldn’t be worried. And her ankle.” She pinned her gaze on me. “I gave her a healing vial for the sprain.”

I tried not to give a reaction, but I knew she expected me to explain why I hadn’t done the same in the first place. Truth was, I didn’t know why. I didn’t want anyone to suffer, but if I’d given her a healing vial when she had arrived, I’d have had to provide them to her entire group. And the sooner they recovered, the sooner they’d be gone. I’d wanted that, and yet?—

I gave a curt nod. “Thank you for taking a look at her.”

She dipped her chin. “Of course. Wouldn’t want to see her in pain longer than she needs to be, regardless of where she came from.” With one last suspicious look at me, she moved back across the room to one of her patients—a brawny man I recognized from the gambling hall. He visited often, and fought even more.

I knew people expected me to treat Auria cruelly due to the past, but it wasn’t that. If she had been healed and able to travel, they would have left first thing, taking her back to that castle to be locked away, not to see Serpentine ever again. Her injury was her key to freedom. I was just helping lead her to the lock so the door never shut.

A burst of wind whipped into the room as the door to the infirmary slammed open, then was shoved shut. One of Deadwood’s guards rushed over, eyes wide as they landed on me.

“Bowen,” Hanklie panted, attempting to catch his breath as he pulled his mask down. “The bridge.” He swallowed roughly. “It collapsed.”

Raiden went rigid beside me as Siara and Flynt leaned closer, like they might’ve heard him wrong.

“What do you mean it collapsed ?” I asked, my voice taking on its authoritative tone flawlessly.

“The bridge to Amosite?” Siara clarified.

Flynt shot her a look. “What other bridge, Siara?”

She glared at him in response.

“Meritum told me. It fell when the earthquake rolled through,” Hanklie explained. Meritum was Hanklie’s desert dragon.

“The entirety of the bridge?” I asked. That couldn’t be possible. The bridge had been standing for centuries, and one earthquake had managed to take it out?

Hanklie nodded. His eyes were red-rimmed from the debris in the air outside. “All of it, sir. Meritum was flying near the chasm when the earthquake hit. He watched it fall.”

“Watched what fall?” Auria asked, coming up behind Hanklie.

“The bridge, my lady,” Hanklie quickly answered, stepping to the side to give Auria some space to join us.

I inwardly cursed. That was her only way home.

Her eyes went wide, moving from Hanklie to me. “The bridge is gone?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions here,” I said hesitantly. “I’ll send Vulcan that way to check it out. I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding.”

Hanklie shook his head. “All due respect, sir, but Meritum showed me.”

“Showed you?” Auria repeated.

Hanklie nodded frantically, his hair sticking up every which way from the wind. “Flew me right near it. On the desert side, of course.”

“You can ride dragons?” Auria exclaimed. She looked pale, whether from the information or the chaos of the caves, I wasn’t sure. But this wasn’t helping her recovery.

“Hanklie,” I cut in, giving no room for argument in my tone. “Thank you for reporting this to me, but I can take it from here.”

He nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll be on patrol if you need any more information.” He headed back out the way he had come, leaving Auria gawking at me.

Everything was crashing around her all at once. Today was too much, and I could see it in the bags under her eyes and the way she looked like she was trying her damndest to process everything.

“Bowen,” Siara started, coming closer to me.

“Not now, Siara,” I snapped, and she backed off.

Auria looked like she’d been struck by lightning, her mind practically spinning in her eyes.

“Would you like me to walk you home?” I asked, ignoring the others as Siara, Flynt, and Raiden started mumbling about what the bridge being down meant.

She blinked a few times, and in the flickering lantern light, her skin looked like it had a sheen to it. With a small fever, she shouldn’t get worked up. It’d only make it worse. If she wanted to stay and discuss it, that’d be her choice, but I wanted to give her the option.

Auria gave a small nod in response, the green around her pupils looking brighter than before. Without thinking, I reached for her face covering and pulled it up over her nose, then did the same with mine.

I didn’t have to say the words to the others for them to know we’d talk more about this later. Doing it in the infirmary wasn’t the most ideal place, and while the bridge falling caused problems for all of us, it could wait.

I held the door open for Auria, letting her pass through. As soon as the wind hit her, the hairs that had come free from her braid whipped around her face. She was wearing a dress that left much more of her skin showing than I’d seen before, which had been a surprise at dinner. As King Tenere’s daughter, I would have thought she’d prefer to stay as covered as possible. It seemed the princess was more daring than I’d originally thought.

We walked in silence. It was no use to try to speak over the howling storm. Dust kicked up everywhere, bits of magic caught in the mess whizzing past our ears like whistles on the wind. Magic took its form in many different ways. It flowed through rock like a stream or was hard like stone itself. Some of it gathered in big chunks or large rivulets, and others were so small, the common eye could hardly see it. Sometimes it hummed or had a melody much like a flute, or it was quiet, stagnant. It was like a living creature in that way—taking on different personalities. Even magic of the same type behaved differently, depending where it was found. Most of it varied based on the region it originated, like fire magic from the underground mines near Devil’s Peak or healing magic from the Hollows. Most was found in mountains, caves, or underground, or where it would sometimes form near bodies of water. It found its home and where it wanted to grow, and it was respected. At least, it had been, until humans used it for the wrong reasons. There was no mistaking the inky black current of dark magic, the substance itself looking as if it was on a search to destroy, weaken.

We approached the house Auria was staying in, her dress moving wildly around her boots as she trudged up the steps. She opened the door, and I waited for her to disappear inside, but rather than closing it behind her, she faced me.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked, raising her voice over the storm.

I hesitated a moment, taken back by her offer, then nodded. I’d expected her to want to be as far away from me as possible, not to continue our time together. I stepped inside and made sure the door clicked shut before turning to find she’d barely moved away. Our chests were now mere inches from each other.

I couldn’t see the bottom half of her face due to the mask, but her eyes spoke volumes. She was perplexed by what had happened, while I was confused for an entirely different reason.

Frustrated with the fact that I could get lost in her so easily, I stepped away, pulling my bandana down. “How is your ankle?”

She untied her own, holding it in front of her with both hands. “Better with the healing vial Doctor Quinn gave me.”

“Good,” I replied.

“You said the dragons wouldn’t harm me,” she started.

“They won’t.”

“But the one in the caves, it seemed like it wanted to.”

I moved to the small living room off the foyer, taking a seat on the couch. Explaining this to her when she had not a clue about any of it was not how I had expected to spend my night, but I should’ve known she’d be curious.

Auria followed suit, taking a seat next to me.

“You’ve just found out your only way home is destroyed, and you’re more concerned about the dragon in the cave,” I stated. I wanted to give her answers but…I also wanted to distract her. See how far I could push her until that perfect mask snapped.

She gave no response. I had her figured out.

I moved my gaze to hers. “You don’t truly care about returning home.”

Her chest rose as she inhaled deeply. “Of course I do.”

The corner of my mouth pulled up in a smirk, and I set a hand on the cushion behind her, leaning into her space. “You secretly have a little rebellious side, don’t you, Princess?”

Her eyes bounced between mine, her lips parting slightly. “I’m only curious about the world.”

My gaze fell to her neck, drifting down from her collarbone to the swell of her breasts. The dress left little to the imagination. It reminded me of how soft her skin had felt under my hands in the cave, how despite the danger we had been faced with, something inside me had awakened, perking its head up in attention while my heart rate skyrocketed with our touch.

“What else are you curious about?”

Her eyes narrowed the slightest bit, her breath quickening. “What are you curious about?” she snapped back.

Fuck, what was I doing? She was a Tenere, the precious, protected daughter of Amosite, and I was…me.

“Oh, Princess,” I murmured, unknowingly shifting closer. “There are so many things I want to discover, but none of it has to do with the continent, and all of it has to do with you.”

This. This was my distraction from her peppering of questions. The less she knew here, the better. Our plan had to be kept secret, and I didn’t need her poking around.

I didn’t admit that distracting her made me feel things I shouldn’t ever dream of feeling for a woman like her. From our first interaction in Amosite to now, I couldn’t help the intrigue that lit me like a match every time she was around… The same flame that touched both me and my magic.

Our lips were inches apart now. I could smell the lilac soap wafting off her skin, and my tongue betrayed me by craving a taste of its own.

In a flash, she stood, backing away from the couch and me. “I know what you’re doing.”

Casually, I leaned back with an arm over the armrest, letting my knees fall open as I looked up at her. “What’s that?”

“You’re distracting me, just like everyone else does when I want to know more.” Her voice was thick with emotion, betrayal clinging to the end of her sentence, almost like she expected something else from me. A part of me hated myself for it. She deserved her freedom, the knowledge that everyone else was privy to, and here I was, hiding it from her just like the rest.

I sat forward, setting my elbows on my knees. “You’re right.”

She paused, taken back by my admittance. I got the feeling she wasn’t told that very often in the castle.

“You’re admitting to veering the conversation off course?”

I nodded. “Ask me one question, and I’ll answer.”

“Why did the dragon want to kill us?” she asked.

I was surprised she again brought the discussion back to that.

“Dragons that live longer than they should sometimes lose their mercy.” There was no easy way to explain it.

A crease formed between her brows. “Longer than they should?”

“That’s more than one question, Princess,” I warned.

Her lips pressed into a thin line, determination clear in her gaze.

I sighed, giving in all too easily. “They don’t die naturally,” I answered. “They have to be killed in some way. That one we saw is called a bones dragon. He seems to be stuck down there, likely awaiting his death.”

Auria’s eyes fell to the ground as she mumbled, “Death would be its freedom.”

I watched her. Her expression was blank, but her eyes screamed with…pain. So silent, so hidden, that I hadn’t seen it before. But now, it flared bright, like it wanted someone to recognize it. Like it needed someone to relieve it.

Was she insinuating…?

“Princess.” The word was a quiet caress.

She shook her head, blinking away unshed tears. “It’s true.”

“Death is not freedom, but only another sort of prison. You don’t wish that.”

More had to be going on inside that castle than what met the eye. I was certain of it now.

“The bridge collapsing is not the most tragic thing.” Now she was the one deflecting.

I got to my feet, eliminating the space between us to set a finger under her chin, lifting her head so she’d look at me. I couldn’t help that my thumb ghosted over her skin. “Such a change of heart since you arrived. What will your fiancé think of this new you?”

Her lips pressed together. I’d ticked her off just like I wanted. She needed her mind out of whatever dark place it’d traveled to, and I’d gladly be the one to get her out of it while I could.

Rather than go at it with me, she changed the subject once again. “What about the barrier the bones dragon couldn’t cross?”

What a shame. I quite liked the flame that ignited in her eyes when she came alive.

I dropped my hand from her. “That, I don’t have an answer to.”

“So you don’t know everything,” she surmised.

I quirked a brow. “Careful, Princess.”

Her eyes turned curious. “What is your secret?”

I cocked my head in question.

“In the caves, you said to pretend we knew each other’s secrets. What is yours?”

“Next question.”

Her bottom lip pouted out with a frown. The look was…torture. “That’s not fair.”

My shoulder lifted in the smallest shrug. “The world was not built on a balanced scale, I’m afraid.”

She set her hands on her hips. “Fine. What does the collapsed bridge mean for my people?”

I began to take slow steps, circling where she stood in the center of the living room. “That you cannot cross.”

Her arms unconsciously fell back to her sides. “Can’t dragons get us across the chasm?”

A low chuckle came out of me. “Have you ever seen a dragon in Amosite?”

Her brows pinched together as she thought on that. “Well, no. But I assumed I hadn’t seen one because I can’t leave the castle.”

I took note of her phrasing. Her sequestering in the castle was not voluntary, it seemed. “Dragons won’t cross the chasm.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged, continuing my prowl around her. It was something we hadn’t been able to figure out for decades. “You ask any of them, and they won’t do it.”

“Perhaps the bones dragon would let us pass,” she thought aloud.

I stopped behind her, eyeing the back of her head. “Are you searching for a way to die?”

“It’d be trading one prison for another, like you said. Maybe I truly cannot be free.”

Sadness laced her tone, and it lit something inside of me I didn’t want to feel. That I couldn’t feel. Not when it came to Auria Tenere.

“Freedom will not find you if you choose to stay in that mindset. If you’re so content with trading one prison for another, why haven’t you?”

“I guess I’ve had some semblance of hope.” She shook her head, her gaze falling to the ground. “What a foolish thing.”

My hands flexed at my sides. There was always hope. She just had to keep her faith.

My voice quieted the slightest bit. “It’s quite brave, having hope. After all, when the horrors of the world are no match for the demons in our heads, the true battle is not the physical, but the mental. And you, Princess, are beating all odds.”

A burst of air blew through her nose. “I’d hardly say I’m beating it.”

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” I asked.

She nodded.

“I’d say you’ve already won, then.”

She turned in place, tilting her head up to look me in the eyes. Hers were the color of the leaves in the forest as the bands in the night sky reflected silver light off the tree canopy. They were magnificent, and I feared I’d get lost in them if I stared too long, but something about Auria made me want to keep looking.

“We’ll see about that when my father finds a way to Deadwood.”

I dipped my chin. “Ah, yes. You mentioned there was a deadline. Surely King Tenere will understand your delay with the bridge being destroyed.”

She let out a small laugh, but it was void of all emotion. “If there is one thing my father can’t do, it’s understand that something didn’t go his way.”

I folded my hands together behind my back. “He’s about to be in for a treat, then, isn’t he?”

The corners of her lips twitched, hinting at a smile, and my job here was done.

By the looks of it, Auria was conflicted between staying on her father’s side and going after what she truly wanted. It was a choice she’d have to make, but without the entire truth, I feared she might choose wrong. But it wasn’t my decision whether she could be privy to the plan at hand.

There were more forces at play here than just me and Auria, and despite my loathing of her father, I couldn’t put her at risk.

She deserved more than to be caught in the crossfire, and I’d make sure she remained unharmed while in Deadwood. But once she was back in Amosite, I couldn’t protect her.

She’d have to learn to do it herself.