“I remember,” I say dryly. “I called him out then as well.”
“And tonight.” Darian’s voice is quiet, but there’s something almost amused underneath it. “During… us. He was at the cave entrance.”
Every head turns toward Kieran.
He remains utterly still. Ancient. Dignified.
“I was standing guard.”
“You werewatching,” Finn repeats gleefully. “You’re always watching. At this point it’s basically a hobby.”
“A very dedicated hobby,” Aspen adds, and even he’s smiling now.
“Centuries of discipline,” Torric says, “and you still can’t look away.”
Kieran’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. “I take my responsibilities seriously.”
“Uh-huh.” Finn leans back, utterly delighted. “And which responsibility requires you to watch Kaia get railed, exactly? Is that in the ancient dragon handbook?”
“Finn,” I warn, but I’m fighting a smile.
“What? I’m genuinely asking. Is it a protective instinct? A mating thing? Do dragons just… like to observe?”
Kieran’s gold eyes finally shift to Finn. There’s something dangerous in them — but also, beneath it, the faintest flicker of embarrassment.
“I will end you,” he says calmly.
“You won’t.” Finn’s grin is incandescent. “Because then Kaia would be sad. And you’d rather die than make her sad. So I get to mock you forever.”
The laughter that follows is real. Warm. The kind of sound I didn’t know I needed until I heard it.
Even Kieran’s mouth twitches.
We sit in it for a while. Letting the fire burn low. Letting the tension drain out of muscles that have been clenched for days.
Then Kieran speaks again.
“Something in the air changed.”
The warmth doesn’t vanish, but it… shifts. Sharpens.
“When?” I ask.
“A few days ago. Halfway up the ridge.” His eyes are distant. “I thought it was just the mountain at first. The corruption. But it’s not.”
I frown. He’s right — I’ve felt it too. That wrongness that started pressing harder three days back. I assumed it was exhaustion. Stress. The bonds straining under everything we’ve been through.
But now that he says it…
“I noticed it too,” I admit. “Thought it was my imagination.”
“Same,” Torric says. “Figured it was the elevation.”
Darian is quiet for a moment. Then: “It feels like Absentia. But wrong. Like the magic is… curdling.”
“Curdling,” Finn repeats. “Great. Love that. Very comforting.”
Aspen’s frost crackles unconsciously. “Whatever’s at the top of this mountain — it knows we’re coming.”
