I shook my head, drinking more wine. “But how does Vaeris understand them?”
“Dragons can communicate with fae, but they hate it. They consider it degrading,” Lioren said. “They don’t use words. You perceive it the same way you feel heat from a fire. But it isn’t speech.”
Uther nodded grimly. “More like getting shoved in the skull with an idea.”
“Only Speakers ever heard real language,” Lioren continued. “Vaeris receives fragments. Images. If they spoke to Vaeris at all, it would be in the simplest terms.”
The room felt suddenly too small.
A chill slid down my spine. Tazureldefinitelyhadn’t communicated like a creature lowering himself to talk to me, he’d spoken like a god reclaiming what was his.
“If I can understand them and Vaeris can’t, then he’s guessing at what they want.”
Lioren nodded. “That’s why they’ll want you alive. A Speaker who hears the nuance, the depth of their thoughts…is invaluable to them. Especially after two thousand years of trying to be heard.”
Invaluable.
That hung around my neck like a noose. I needed to tell them the rest. But saying it meant admitting something I didn’t want Kairos to hear.
“There’s more.” My hands twisted together. “He…he gave me a command. Told me where to go.”
“Where?” Elwen asked.
I forced the words out. “To the shadow-wielder.”
Kairos’s dark gaze found mine. “Anything else?”
“He wants me to destroy the other seal. Or…or I’ll feel his wrath again.”
Lioren crossed his arms, glaring at me.
“I won’t do it. He can threaten me all he likes, but I’m not helping him.”
Uther shot Kairos a look. “Why would Vaeris risk everything to free them?”
“It makes sense,” Kairos deadpanned. “He’s too human for the fae courts, too fae for human society. Now he’s king, but it’s not enough. They still hate him.”
“He’d unleash these dragons out of spite?” I asked.
Kairos’s eyes darkened. “No. Desperation.”
Of course.
I pictured the evenings that Vaeris stormed into a room, raging about what happened at court, his shadows crawling up the walls and ceiling.I’m their prince, and they openly despise me, he’d said, his voice drenched with bitterness.
I’d pitied him once. Thought we understood each other, both of us caught between worlds that didn’t want us. And he’d discovered beings who could help him crush everyone who’d mistreated him.
Yes. He’d absolutely burn the world down for that.
“Back to the immediate problem.” Uther glanced at me. “The deal. Can it be broken?”
“I tried,” I muttered. “But…it fought back hard. I don’t think I’d survive breaking it.”
“Then we kill him,” Uther said.
“Which requires finding him first,” Kairos replied.
“I can do that.” I pressed my hand to my abdomen. “I can feel that I’m supposed to go north.”
