Then finally,I cannot trust you, knowing what sleeps in your blood.
My heart fractured.
So that’s it?I whispered.You’ll just leave me to die?
The connection shuddered as she cut contact. It wasn’t broken but it was as flimsy as a spider’s web.
She left me.
Truly, fully,leftme.
I didn’t feel betrayed by my dragon.
I felt abandoned by my only hope.
A single tear slipped down my cheek, trailing through the grime and sweat like a crack in the mask I’d tried so hard to keep together. My fists dug into the forest floor, knuckles white, nails biting into my palms, but it didn’t stop the ache swelling behind my ribs.
Kaelith had left me.
Not in anger. Not in silence.
In judgment.
And then, like a warm breeze against cold skin, another presence stirred, familiar, steady, threaded with quiet strength.
Siergen.
You don’t understand, his voice drifted through my mind, smoother than smoke,and that’s not your fault. Seraveth only told you what she wanted, just enough to sway you, to make you doubt. She gave you the parts of the truth that served her.
My throat tightened.
But Kaelith knew, I whispered.She knew something. And she didn’t tell me.
Because she’s afraid, Siergen said gently.Not of you. Of what trusting you could cost her. Dragons don’t bond lightly, and they don’t risk easily. Not when the last time they trusted a bloodline like yours, entire skies burned.
My heart cracked again.
Tell me the truth, I begged.The whole truth. Please.
There was a pause.
Then,It’s not my story to tell.
I sucked in a breath, hating how the silence between me and Kaelith felt like suffocating.
Will she ever tell me?
Give Kaelith time, Siergen said.You are not what Seraveth says. Not to those of us who see you as you truly are.
I closed my eyes. The words fell from me before I could stop them.
I wish you were mine.
There was a beat. And then his voice, softer than I’d ever heard it?—
I wish I could shoulder this burden for Kaelith.
I’m a burden?
