But I don’t care. I will gladly pay it.
Dover slumps down at Mar’s side, sprawling out on the sand. “How bad are your injuries?”
“Already patching myself up,” he huffs, resting his eyes.
“I know you.” Serena’s stare cuts toward Ilayna, wrapping the slice on Zadyn’s arm. “Who are you?”
The courtesan freezes, letting her hand fall. “I’m Ilayna,” she murmurs, shrinking from Serena’s intense gaze.
Zadyn glances between them. “She helped get us inside the castle.”
Serena crawls through the sand to sit beside her familiar, his mouth still covered in the blood of the men he ripped apart. She reaches out to clean it away with her hand.
“Are you okay?” she asks quietly.
His eyes are cold and distant. “I’m fine.”
Another swell of envy flares up in me. He’s a good male. The kind that understands the worth of every life he takes, even if he takes them for good reason.
It makes me hate him all the more.
“We need to find a way to get these off.” Serena holds up her shackled wrists. “I need to heal my dragon.”
The silky fabric of her dress is now torn, revealing a ridiculous amount of leg. I can also tell she’s not wearing anything underneath from the way the material flows over her curves and dips low on her chest, leaving her breasts nearly exposed.
I don’t like that. Not at all.
“Blood ore is spelled shut,” I grind out.
“I need to heal my dragon,” she insists, and I swear I see a flash of Prophyria’s blue fire explode through her blown-out pupils.
It’s a little unsettling.
“We’ll figure it out,” Zadyn says. Her eyes snap to him like two sharpened daggers. She blinks, and they slowly soften, her pupils reverting back to normal.
“Jace is right. We shouldn’t linger,” Mar adds. “There’s no hiding a dragon. Kai is stable for now. Let me take a quick look at Furi and see if there’s anything I can do.”
As Mar follows Serena down the beach to her dragon, I take a breath for the first time since entering the castle.
We’re safe. For now.
21
SERENA
Every little noise, every breeze rustling the palms has me looking over my shoulder.
I’m wary of everything. Unused to conversation. Unused to the sun’s unfettered beams on my pale skin. The influx of fresh air, the humidity of the sea—it all seems too extreme to handle.
I know I haven’t seen the last of Kylian. He won’t let me go. Not without a fight.
Jace placed a shield around our camp so we should at least be safe for the night. But it’s only a matter of time before we meet to finish what we started.
Once the fire dwindles, Mar and Dover retreat into one tent, Ilayna into another. Mar was able to take away some of Furi’s pain, but until I have my own magic back along with a direct link to her thoughts, I won’t know the extent of her injuries. I feel useless. I wait until she’s asleep, snoring lightly, her tail curled around our camp like a protective watchdog before I slip inside the tent that houses a sleeping Kai, still unconsciously fighting for his life.
I shift his head into my lap and stroke his hair, listening to his even breaths. Thank god he’s not awake to feel the pain anymore.
Zadyn joins me a moment later, stretching out on his side.
