Page 7 of Shards of Desire (Dragons of Sin)

Chapter Six

SIYANA

“If I let you off to ride your own horse, will you be a good little princess and stay in the saddle? We need to move faster, and my horse needs a break from our combined weight.”

He spoke quietly, and it was criminal the way the timber of his voice rumbled at this level.

I may despise him and everything he represented as a drackya, or dragon–whatever he wanted to be called–and he was at least half of the reason I was being forced from my home, but I was still a woman with needs and desires. While sitting behind his very human body in silence for so long as I concentrated on attempting to keep warmth flowing throughout my body, it was easy to forget those things when he spoke out of nowhere.

My silence seemed to perturb him and he goaded me, “Don’t tell me you’ve already lost your bite, wench? That was far too easy. I like my prey to put up a bit longer of a fight.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I wouldn’t tolerate his condescending tone, but as he pulled the reins to slow his horse to a walk, my tailbone pulsed with pain. I’d give just about anything to be in my own saddle if it meant getting to our destination quicker.

I glanced back to try to see my horse through the small blizzard that had descended the closer we got to the peak of the northern mountains. The few rays of moonlight fighting through the gale glistened off her, confirming she was still with us. I couldn’t help but marvel over how well trained these horses were, considering how she’d continued to trail behind without me leading her through the weather.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I grumbled against his back, accepting the offer, but simultaneously soaking up the final moments of being pressed against such warmth. Considering his affinity for ice, I'd, for some reason, assumed he didn't have access to the fire you'd think of a dragon breathing, but the longer I was pressed against him, the more I pictured a literal belly of fire within him, stoking his internal temperature.

I hated to admit it, but being pressed against him had probably been the only thing keeping my body from giving into shock with the snow melting into me. It felt like my feet and nose were going to break off from the frigid wind, and the only thing that had saved my hands was being able to keep them under his coat.

As the horse came to a stop and the wind tossed my hair around, obscuring what little I could see, he had the audacity to laugh. “I thought you’d at least be on your knees thanking me for the chance to be away from me now.”

Once again, I couldn’t find the energy to snap back at him, focused entirely on how it felt like all of my joints had frozen in place. As the rope was released from around us, he glanced over his shoulder at me, the sliver of his dragon eye shone brightly in the dark. “Off you go, wench. I know you know how to do that after your blatant display earlier.”

With a heavy sigh I prepared to swing my leg around the back, bracing my hand on the back of the saddle, but the second I sat completely straight for the first time since being tied to him, shooting pain ran up my spine and I swore my hips creaked.

“Fuck,” I hissed, completely caught off guard by the pain. I guess at some point on the journey, everything had gone numb, being stuck in that spot for so long. “I might actually need help dismounting.” The words felt like glue in my mouth, a sense of repulsion coming over me for even having to ask him for help.

His head turned forward and he laughed. “I’m not falling for that, wench. Come on, get off.”

My eyes rolled at that, because of course my own bratty plan continued to backfire on me. I attempted once more to move, managing to get my left leg over the horse's hind leg, but as soon as I rotated it over its tail, my back seized up. The ground came rushing up to meet me as I fell from the horse, having just enough time and foresight to bring my arm up to break my heads’ fall.

My breath rushed out of me on impact, and my head swam from the recoil against my hands. The bite of cold from the ground began to seep through my dress in mere seconds.

"Oh, you were being serious," he surmised, still sitting atop his horse, not moving an inch to assist me.

His nonchalant tone and lack of help, even now, sparked my own fire once more.

"Yeah, I was!" I yelled back through the howling wind as I attempted to push myself up to sit. Blinding rage flashed through my mind as he continued to simply stare. "You refused to let me prepare for this trip and had no supplies to help me during it! I'm freezing to fucking death over here and you still refuse to help me! What a generous king you are. Your people are so lucky to have you."

I practically spat that last part at him, feeling venomous in mood.

Rolling onto my knees, I pushed from my hunching position, placing one foot on the ground at a time as I attempted to find my balance. My body shook, and I wasn't sure if it was from the fall or the hypothermia likely setting in.

"I never claimed to be your knight in shining armor," he seethed, and it was clear I'd struck a nerve. "You are here to fill a role, and that is all. I don't need you or my people to like me, I just need you to obey."

We just needed to obey.

That statement told me everything I needed to know about King Takkar. His people didn’t like him. I wasn’t shocked, considering all I’d seen and heard today, but as a royal member of my own land, I couldn’t imagine being so hateful to my people. Why was it so hard for him to show compassion or empathy?

The gentle brush of my horses' nose against my back comforted me as tears began to well in my eyes. I was thankful he couldn't see them in the dark, because I'd be damned if he saw how empty I felt right now.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, warming the skin they passed over on their way to my jaw, before the wind chilled it again. "You're a horrible person," I murmured, letting the wind carry my words away before turning to my horse and limping over to her side.

As I lifted my foot into the stirrup, his soft response had me stilling, the brokenness in his words shocking me more than the weather ever could.

"Yeah, maybe I am, but no one stops to wonder what made me this way."

The snap of his reins sounded and his horse took off, making me jolt out of my momentary stupor. Climbing into the saddle to the best of my ability, my horse pranced beneath me, clearly wanting to rush after them. Once settled, she took off with no command from me, allowing me to do nothing but focus on staying in my seat.

I squinted through the snow, glad it seemed my horse knew exactly where to go as we settled into a gallop, because I would have absolutely steered us in the wrong direction in this white-out.

Time passed by and I felt myself lulled into a pondering state of mind to try to distract myself from the harsh conditions around us. I couldn’t allow myself to consider the way my teeth chattered so hard I felt like I was going to chip them.

Was there any excuse for the person he was?

Did it matter what was in his past that could have made him this way?

I wasn’t sure how long I ruminated on those two questions, but eventually, my mind grew empty. My horse slowed suddenly as we exited the forest, and I slumped forward onto her neck at the sudden change in pace and inability to control my pain-filled body well. The only sound I could hear, alerting me to a stream or river closer by.

Water.

Wrapping my arms around her neck to keep me in the saddle, I turned my cheek to rest against her, finding some comfort in her warmth. What I saw would have taken my breath away if there wasn’t already a rattle in my chest as I felt my lungs struggling to expand and fill with air.

A glistening castle came into view just beyond a stretch of snow-covered ground before us. It stood tall, its stone walls blending into the white mountainside. The soft glow of moonlight reflected off the white walls and silver-framed windows, creating an ethereal ambiance. Each tower I could see jutting high through the air had some kind of large platform attached to it. After a too-long moment, it clicked.

So dragons could land there,

The whole scene had a dreamlike quality to it, like it was a moment frozen in time, serene and magical, as if the castle and the mountains were the only things in the world.

That’s when I began to realize I was in truly bad shape—my vision starting to go dark and fuzzy at the edges.

“Please hurry,” I whispered to my horse, but from the way her own ribs were expanding and collapsing rapidly beneath my legs, I could surmise that she was completely spent from the rough ride and weather as well.

Regret flowed through me as I realized it was my fault we’d been stuck out in these conditions longer than necessary.

My eyes fluttered shut as my fingers ran through her mane slowly. “I’m sorry.”

Everything began to dull around me. The wind’s howling quieted, the biting cold turned to blissful numbness, and my breathing slowed. My body began to tilt and I didn’t have it in me to grasp onto anything to keep me straight. Gravity took me into its grasp, and this time when I fell, there was no pain, just mounds of soft snow to cradle me. I swore I saw flickering lights in the distance, but perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

Just as I felt my consciousness slipping away, something large clasped around my body, lifting me from the ground. My head fell back as my limbs dangled, and it took every ounce of energy I could muster to force my eyes open.

I had to be unconscious and dreaming, because there was no way a large, glistening, silver dragon claw was wrapped around me and carrying me through the sky toward the castle.

Right?

It turned out I also didn’t imagine the lights, as we passed over a small town that was eerily quiet. Where was the music? The laughs from people sharing a drink with a friend?

It seemed as lifeless as I felt.

Unable to keep them open any longer, my eyes fluttered shut and I went entirely limp, giving up on caring about what was happening. It seemed I wasn’t meant for this world much longer as the thudding of my heart in my ears began to slow.

My only regret was that I’d not been able to make a difference for my people. There were no other heirs to marry off. If I died now, the treaty would be broken, and war would likely ensue.

What a shame that no amount of training could have prepared me for my life to go in this direction. This morning, I’d been full of hope in meeting another woman who shared my desire to train with a sword, surrounded by protective love from Tillie, and filled with pride in how far my skill had come in sparring with Brenson.

Now? None of it mattered.

“Theo—you had one job after signing the treaty!” a man yelled, jolting my mind to try and hold my consciousness to listen. “Keep your new queen alive. Is that seriously too hard a task for you?”

If I could have forced my lips to move, I’d have smirked. The feeling of solid ground pressed against my body once more.

“I forget how fragile humans are,” a familiar, deep voice rumbled.

So, Theo was the name of my husband and captor.

There was a scuffle of feet in my direction, but they halted when a yelp sounded.

“I was just going to carry her to her chambers, Theo! She needs to be warmed—now.”

My body felt like it was vibrating as a deep rumble spread through the ground and into me.

“I can carry my own wife,” he snapped, “and she will be staying in my chambers.”

Yeah, there was no way I wasn’t actually dreaming already. It seemed my consciousness was playing tricks on me, lulling me into an alternate reality where someone actually cared about my well-being, and that someone was my new husband.

As if.