“Again, you are not dead, and we do not have time.” She lowers her arm as her hands clasp in front of her, her fingers nervously flexing around each other. “When you bonded Sunis, the magic that forged that bond temporarily brought you out of Olymazi and to this place where I linger. But I am no goddess.”
Questions rapidly fire off in my mind, and as if she can hear them all, the woman in front of me flinches. Wind begins to blow, coming from both nowhere and everywhere as it weaves through my hair and brushes over my face.
“We do not have a lot of time,” she repeats softly, something aching within her tone.
“Then tell me this message of yours so I can go back home.” Despite there being a weightlessness to my body, something heavy weighs on my chest and prickles the back of my head.
The woman slowly steps closer, her feet bare beneath her dress as she walks on nothing but air. “When she tells you to take her to the one named Rhea Maxwell, do not hesitate.”
I shake my head, my vision blurring as a throaty growl rumbles around me. It isn’t from a dragon, though it rattles my bones just the same.
The female’s eyes are imploring as she repeats what she’s said, though fear colors her words when a second voice—deeper and wholly male—barks at her to stop. My stomach pitches upwards again with the sensation of falling, only this time I actually am. I thrash my hands out in front of me, reaching for anything to stop myself as I tumble head over heels. My head grows dizzy and my temples pound, my bones weighing me down in a way I worry might make them pass through my skin. The stars blur until they turn back into those streaks of white light, darkness once more blanketing me while the sound of arguing voices murmur around me.
Then, as if I’ve been cut from a tether, there is nothing.
My eyes open with a start as I gasp, the lingering words from the woman playing in my ear as I try to blink away the night that surrounds me. Sweat makes the leathers I’m wearing stick to my skin, the oppressive heat coating every inch of me prompting me to sit up faster than I should. The world spins and my vision blurs, my temple throbbing in time with my heart. I suppress the urge to groan out at the way my entire body aches, as if I’ve spent sunup to sundown engaged in battle.
Battle.
I suck in a sharp breath at the word, reaching for the blade at my thigh as I remember where I was. What I was doing.Navin. Ihad left him in the cavern, left him to the guards coming because I had bonded—
Safe.
The word comes to me unbidden, a collection of emotion that centers in my mind as if someone carved out space and plopped it there. My eyes fall closed and I go to lean back, intending to get myself under control when my hands press against a smooth surface. One thatmoves. Turning to look over my shoulder, I see nothing but black against black. And feel nothing but that overwhelming heat that scrapes against me. Remembering the flame gem in my pocket—one I still hadn’t charged—I retrieve it quickly as I shift onto my knees. When the dim light erupts from it, it reflects off of diamond-shaped scales, their onyx color shimmering iridescent. “Sunis,” I rasp.
I take in the way her body is curled around mine, her tail stretching behind her before it wraps around behind me. Following the line of her large body, I pause when I meet the gaze of her yellow eye, only one visible with how she is laying her head.Safe. The emotion pummels me, forced through the chaotic push and pull of my thoughts.Thisis the bond, I realize, and something within me snaps. A long-held chain bound around my soul finally releasing as I close my eyes, tears leaking from their corners.
Sunis makes a soft noise as she adjusts her head until I can feel the heat of her breaths pressing on me.Sad. There’s almost a question to the emotion, and I shake my head as if Sunis can understand that answer. Despite waitingyearsfor this moment, communicating with my dragon is something that I couldn’t have studied for. Preparation had been nothing more than words I happened to hear from males with loud mouths and Navin insisting that it wasn’t something explainable. That it had to befelt, and I had been so fucking frustrated by that answer that I had promptly left the conversation. Now I wish I had askedhim to explain it further. Because how could I tell Sunis that I’m not sad butrelievedthat we are now bonded.
Relieved. The word is echoed back to me, warmth suffusing my chest as if a weight has finally been lifted off of it. Is that all it takes? Justthinkingabout a feeling or a word? I open my eyes and turn until I can see most of Sunis’s face.Sunis, I think, and her head tips in my direction, yellow gaze burning bright with acknowledgement. “Stars above,” I whisper, walking forward until my hand can lay on the edge of her snout.
But as elated as I feel, asrightas this all is, it has come at a cost. I had left Navin to deal with the consequences of our infiltration.
And then there is that strange visit with the woman amongst the stars. She claimed to not be a goddess, but what other being couldexistwhere she did? Could behave as she did? The memory of my blade twirling through her makes an uncomfortable shiver work its way down my spine. Her message plays again in my ear as if carried on a phantom wind:When she tells you to take her to the one named Rhea Maxwell, do not hesitate.The name means nothing to me and is, at this moment anyway, the least of my concerns.
I tug at my mask and lift it to cover my mouth and nose, checking that my blade is actually still at my thigh and not at thatpocket between worldswhere I had thrown it. Feeling the cool press of the hilt against my palm, I look at Sunis. The last thing I want to do is leave her, but I have to return to the palace first and see if Navin is there. See if our alibi has been completely ruined with him being discovered. “I will return,” I tell her, drawing my hand over her smooth scales. “Rest until I come for you and donoteat meat you haven’t caught yourself.”
She chuffs, and I take that as acceptance of my demand. Something wraps around my heart as I turn to exit the cave, a thorny vine pulling more taut with every step I take away fromSunis.This is the bond, I tell myself as I break into a run, the night air cooling my heated skin.I have finally done it. My heartbeats quicken as I force myself to move faster, replaying the night’s events in my mind. The woman’s voice once more returns to me, but her message isn’t the only thing I hear in between each breath that fills me.
It’s what she called me, the last title she spoke as if it wasn’t some honorary appellation thrown out on a whim but an undeniable truth. One that came with a crown and subjects and beasts of flame and fury.
Dragon Queen.
Chapter One Hundred and Four: Kai
Molsiisbustlingdespitethe chill in the air, shifters filling restaurants and taverns and spilling from shops as they meander about beneath the dwindling sunset. Leaning against the stone façade at the back of an apothecary, I watch my cousin work his charm on a female running a clothing store across the street, her guard completely lowered if the blush on her cheeks is any indication. Kane’s flirting is intentional, and I can only hope it draws out the information we need without being too obvious.
Though direct attacks in Molsi have dwindled, skirmishes keep popping up in surrounding towns and with them, a single message has become abundantly clear: The rebels are still active, and someone is still leading them in Tua’s place.
When Kane laughs riotously at something she says, I snort and divert my attention elsewhere.
It’s been weeks since the night I found him in the fighting pits, and in that time, Kane has changed in subtle ways. He’s more present during meetings, more engaged in topics when he previously wasn’t. He still teases Jahlee, my sister all too eagerto taunt him back, but there is a certain kind of fondness that glimmers between their jabs at each other now. My sister and I had come to view Kane as the enemy for so many years. It isniceto simply see him as my cousin now.
A high-pitched laugh draws my attention back to Kane just as he bows and kisses the shop owner’s hand before gently dropping it and sauntering away. I push away from the wall and round its nearest corner, losing the remaining sunlight to the shadows of an alley.
“You know you’re too big of an oaf to hide properly,” Kane says when he joins me, taking a stance across from me and folding his arms over his chest. “Everyone knows it’s you just on your height alone.”
My lips flatten as I stare at him. “What did the shop owner say?”
