Page 23 of The Storm of the Empire (Flyers Of The First Kingdom #3)

TWENTY-TWO

LUKA

I grabbed her around the middle and dragged her back as she reached for her dagger. We stumbled back, both too far gone with drink to pick a battle with that many…things. Whatever those things were. This wasn’t the time to be messing with them. I’d seen them in action, and we’d be destroyed. I couldn’t let any harm come to Hazel. I’d never let anything happen to her.

I swore it to myself then and there. No harm would come to her as long as I could prevent it.

She stopped fighting me, turning on me as I pulled her back through the door, closing it quietly.

“You saw what I saw. What are you doing?” she hissed under her breath. “We need to do something!”

“While you’re half drunk? What are you going to do against a hundred or more of—” I couldn’t bring myself to say undead. I’d seen those things when I’d been in the Sea Kingdom, and they’d raised the hairs on the back of my neck then. They couldn’t be here. My brain didn’t want to believe it.

“I could take out that many with my eyes closed. They are dead. I am part of the Archeiai. A thousand undead could not kill me.” Her face was in my face, practically spitting the vitriol she felt. I had to talk sense into her.

“I don’t doubt that. I’ve seen you fight. But for what? To be killed? To have this entire base turn against you?”

“So? I could end them all.” Her confidence was misplaced. Even in dragon form, there was just no way of knowing what these things were capable of. And the Dragon’s Bane stores they used could be here, too. I had to get her out.

“And then what? Do you want to die here in silence? What good would that sacrifice do?” That seemed to sober her.

“What would you have me do?” She searched my face, tears welling in her eyes.

The flip caught me off guard. “Keep yourself alive. We can’t do anything dead.” I urged her back up the stairs, and we started back down the long tunnel to the outside.

“If this is just to save your own skin,” she said, fisting a hand in my tunic as we spilled back out to the small dock area.

I grabbed her wrist. “I can’t believe you still don’t trust me. I’ve put my life and reputation at risk for this. To bring you with me. To track down dragon eggs—and I’m not even a dragon.” I didn’t know where I was going or even what this would prove to her.

Her hold on me twisted, and she plunged us into an ancient alcove in the rock. I opened my mouth to object and then she kissed me, making my brain short circuit.

How did we go from practically yelling at each other to kissing? My lips moved with hers, parting to taste the spirit on her tongue. I slid my hand around the back of her neck, pressing her into the stone, then voices reached my ears, and I understood what this was.

As soon as they passed, we broke apart.

Fucking dragon hearing.

I needed to stop thinking this was anything more than convenience for her. That I would ever be more than convenience.

Her hand slid up my chest, fingers curling around the chain of my pendant. “Take this off,” she said, and I reeled from the change in direction.

“That has nothing to do with any of this,” I snapped.

“Why don’t you trust me?” she threw back in my face.

“I do. But again, it has nothing to do with any of this.” I put my hand over hers. “I feel like it’s you who doesn’t trust me.”

She took a few breaths and looked out over the dock to the ship.

“We have to go tell Nyx what we’ve seen. It’s too much now. He needs to know,” she said slowly. At least she’d calmed down and was thinking rationally.

I thought through her words and all the implications they would have. “It will blow our cover with this supply chain if we just leave and bring back an army. We need to keep going, get to the center of this thing so we know who to point the finger at.”

“No, he needs to know about this now. This is different than undead on the fridges of the Second Kingdom. This is in our backyard. This island is First Kingdom territory.” She released my pendant, and it felt final.

“We don’t even know for sure what we saw.” I felt bad the second I said it.

“I know what I saw.” Fire burned in her rose-colored eyes. “So do you.”

“If we leave now, we can’t come back, and we may never find Alora’s egg.” I was using the thing that was most important to her to try and sway her to my will. It felt nasty, and I hated it, but what choice did I have? I was in this, trying to find out where this trail of wrong led. I had to do all I could to stay on track and get to the bottom of it.

“This is bigger than Alora’s egg. The entire kingdom could be at risk.” She paled, and I could see the light had gone out of her. It deflated me.

“I know. Which is why we can’t both vanish from a secret base.”

“The King’s Army has flights ready to go.”

We had reached a divide between us. I didn’t want that, but how could I fix the cavern growing between us and make her see reason? “For the love of the Goddess, we don’t even know what resources they have. If they get spooked, we could lose their trace forever.”

“Then stay. I’ll go,” she said.

“What do I say? That you disappeared from a secret base? That you swam to shore?” She wasn’t thinking.

“Faolan will know. He knows what I am.”

“What?”

“We can smell it on each other.”

What the fuck was she saying? I tried to wrap my head around it, but the pieces weren’t adding up.

“What exactly are you saying?” I needed her to spell it out for me.

“He’s a dragon, Luka.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this to me?”

“You seemed to know him well. I figured you knew.”

“You figured I knew?” I found myself yelling, which we didn’t need. Anyone could walk by. I dropped my voice, getting ahold of myself. “How would I know that?”

“You knew him. You’ve sailed with the captain before, too. It’s not a stretch.”

“How is this even possible? Wouldn’t you know him? Don’t all of you have to go to Amaya for school and such?”

But then it clicked. Jaxus was unknown. Could Faolan have come from elsewhere like him? I searched her face for the same realization, but it didn’t come because she didn’t know. While she knew Jaxus existed, she didn’t know where he came from. She thought he was a one off.

“Will you be back?” I asked, trying to keep the plea from my voice.

“I doubt they’ll let me fly with the army even if I found this place. I don’t have a ryder, remember?”

“So that’s a no?”

She shook her head, not meeting my eyes. “I don’t think so.”

We stood in silence.

“How long are you staying?” she asked at length.

“Until I figure this out.”

“Fine.” There was a bite to her tone, but I wasn’t entirely sure why she was angry with me. It could be a myriad of reasons.

“I’m sorry,” I offered.

“No you’re not.”

Then she turned, not giving me a chance to argue and threw herself off the dock.