Page 60 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

LIS FOARTH GASH DINNEN

W e spend one more night in Mossmead. After dinner, I practice sparring with Darian in my room, becoming more and more confident with using my left hand for sword fighting.

Darian was right—there’s a certain natural ease to using my left hand.

I also manage to improve my resistance in keeping myself from tipping into his seduction again—thanks to Sethan’s lingering warning.

After sleeping for a few hours, I slip out with Marge and spend another two hours channeling the ley lines. The goal is to pull the small blue wisps up from the ground and form them into a sphere. I get them maybe two inches off the ground before they slip and fade.

As encouragement, Marge reminds me the ley lines are the hardest to pull from with how deep they’re buried in the earth. What I’ve done with the ripples, the fire back in Vathstone, and the poison that killed Corvin is easier. I only need to keep training.

Days after Corvin’s death, we arrive at the base of the massive Serahaven mountains.

“Is…there supposed to be a castle here?” Archie asks beside me, leaning heavily from one side to the next like he might be able to peek around the mountainous terrain in front of us.

“It’s on the other side of these mountains,” Sethan grumbles.

Melaina tosses Sethan a look, warning him to mind his attitude.

Archie nods. “Right…right.”

“Considering the majority of us haven’t seen a map, I think it’s a fair question,” Cole levels at Sethan. He’s been spending a lot of time with Archie as of late, especially during the travel days. It warms my heart to know they get along so well. How Cole always looks after him.

Sethan ignores Cole’s stern look. “Us dragon riders will scout the perimeters, just to make sure there are no rebels and the castle grounds are clear.” He looks at me. “You and Daeja will stay in the middle of the formation, just in case.”

I nod, and as the rest of the group moves to mount their dragons, I turn to Daeja.

A set of footsteps behind me catches my attention as I braid my hair back for the flight.

Cole strolls toward me. His auburn hair swept back from his rugged, handsome face.

As soon as our eyes collide, my heart skips a beat.

I’ve been so wrapped up in training and my own guilt, I can’t recall more than a few words exchanged between us.

The only times I’ve seen him have been in passing, at dinners from across the tables, or the times he checks all my buckles and hooks to make sure it’s safe before I take off.

Except normally I’m already in the seat.

Buckled in and ready. Where we only take it as far as a casual nod and ‘thank you.’

How heavy it hits me, knowing it’s easily something out of the norm we’ve created between us over the last several years. The distance just…doesn’t feel right.

He stops a few steps away from me. His fingers twitch nervously at his sides. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I breathe. I motion up to the saddle. “I can…umm…get up there, first. If?—”

“I wanted to see you.”

My hand drops to my side, my jaw relaxing as I glance back at him. Daeja takes a few steps to turn her body to block Cole and me from the rest of the groups.

He tilts his head partly to the side. “I...I wanted to come check in on you after the Forbidden Forest. I just wasn’t sure if I’d be the one you wanted to see. I wanted to give you space, if you needed it from me.”

I swallow. Stuck in his gaze. Unsure if the space between us feels uncomfortable because it’s new and something I have to get used to or if it’s because it’s unnatural.

Like trying to drift upstream. And I can’t tell if I’m doing it as a defense mechanism, or if I actually, truly want it like this between us.

“Are you alright?” he whispers.

“I mean…alright as I’ll ever be, I suppose…”

“I miss you…” he breathes. So softly, I almost wonder if I hallucinated it. So genuine, it breaks my heart when it drifts off into the void between us.

Gods, I miss him, too.

Before I can respond, he shakes his head and says louder, “Can I, umm…show you something?”

After I nod, we both stroll over to Daeja. He rests a hand on her scales near the strap wrapped around her ribs. He inches his fingers to try and slide them underneath the belt, but it won’t budge.

“I need to loosen these,” he says quietly.

“Loosen?” Daeja turns her head to puff at him.

He wraps his hand over the back of mine and traces it up the strap. My finger dips with each hole we pass. Until we get to the metal prong slipped through the second to last one. He gives me a quiet look.

She’s getting bigger. And fast.

He drops my hand to loosen the strap and slide it to the last hole, tossing me a glance.

I nod. She’s about to outgrow this saddle, and who knows how and when I’ll be able to get a bigger one. But we can’t stop our journey to Vitalis now. Not when we’re so close.

Daeja turns her head to snort at us. “What? Why are you two so quiet?”

I clear my throat, looking for the next thing to divert attention. “Sethan isn’t the only one who knows about our past now. I told Melaina and Archie. And Marge has known for some time, too.”

“Yeah, I know Marge knows.” He nearly blushes, a shy grin lifts his face. “She and I have had plenty of conversations about it. Or…I suppose it’s been more her scolding me.”

“She scolds me all the time. I’d venture to say it’s part of her love language now.”

Both of us chuckle and look at the floor. Daeja grumbles a reminder the others are waiting for us.

“Anyway…let me help you up.” He jerks his bearded chin toward the saddle.

I open my mouth to decline it, as I’ve done it on my own countless times before. Granted, Daeja normally has to crouch down and I half-climb, half-scramble up. But I surprise myself when I nod with a small smile. We walk to Daeja’s side, and he laces his fingers together into a makeshift foothold.

I slide my arm around his brawny shoulder until I’ve wrapped it around the back of his neck for security.

Stepping into his hands, he lifts me up until I grab the stirrup and pull myself up and over into the seat.

I strap on the waist belt. He checks the straps as he always does.

And once I’m hooked into the belt, I look his way.

“I’m always here for you. You know that, right?” he whispers.

I smile and nod. Without another word, he pats Daeja’s shoulder and stalks off to join the rest of the group.

Daeja turns her head to side eye me. “Ready now?”

With a sigh, I lean forward, settling my weight back into my hips. “What do A’nala and Sethan say? ‘To the skies?’”

“‘And the stars,’” she snickers, leaping into the air with hearty flaps, lifting us higher and higher.

Our squad below us, all gathered in wagons or walking, turn into tiny specks as we rise. The air is crisp with a winter bite, numbing my hands and face.

Sethan, A’nala, and the rest of the dragons and riders take their normal positions in a V formation, and Daeja takes a spot directly behind A’nala. We find a steady flap-flap-glide, the air slicing under Daeja’s wings and cut in half by A’nala’s figure blocking the wind in front of us.

“I’m surprised Sethan and A’nala haven’t complained about us taking a few extra minutes to get to the skies.”

“Oh, they have. But I think Sethan’s a little more understanding. Or…approving of you talking with Cole rather than Darian.”

Of course he is. “And what do you think?”

She snorts in my head. “You’re asking me like who you do or don’t love should be at my discretion?”

“Hold on. I do not love Darian. I simply mean…talking.”

“Riiight. But you do love Cole?”

I swallow. “I don’t know...”

“I think you do. I think you just don’t want to admit it to yourself because it hurts.”

“And since when do you have any idea what love does or doesn’t feel like?”

“Since you just asked for my opinion?”

“...Fair.”

“And sometimes loving you is a pain in my scales.”

I laugh and pat her neck. “Do you always have to be so discerning?”

“Do you prefer me to lie?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so. And one day when I have a mate of my own, you can have these little pep talks with me, just as I do with you.”

“Considering you should still just be a hatchling, I think that conversation is so far in the future we don’t even need to consider it.”

“Hatchling?” she grumbles underneath the seat. “Mind you, I am far bigger and more advanced than any hatchling. I might have only been in this realm for half a year, but I have lived for centuries, several times over. Maybe you should start taking notes from me.”

“Quite the arrogance.” I chuckle. “Do you…remember anything from your previous lives?”

“No. Only that this one with you has easily become my favorite.”

My heart fills to the brim. A giddy smile on my cheeks. “I love you, too.”

We pass over the front of the Serahaven mountains, soaring over snow-dusted peaks, and find the other side is even more breathtaking.

A masterfully designed stone castle sits in the rocky face of a gargantuan mountainside, lush with greenery.

Waterfalls pour from the tops of the mountains, snaking down the slopes behind the castle and pooling in a massive lake between us and the fortress.

And from that lake, several rivers branch off and meander their way through the mountain ridge.

Bridges span out from the grand citadel, stretching long over the lake until they touch land.

A thunderous hum rises from the earth, vibrating the blood in my veins as we fly closer.

“There’s magic here…” I murmur to Daeja. “A lot of it.”

“A’nala says we’ll land on the outskirts. There’s a magical barrier at the end of the bridges nearest the castle. That’s probably what you’re sensing.”

“Can you sense it, too?”

“Yes…it feels like I’ve been here before. It feels like…”

“Home,” I finish for her, and warmth spreads the bond between us.